It didn't take us long to get back to Earth. By the time we reached the exosphere, I figured it was the time to ask.

'Do I...' But the air was too thin for talking. Mihai looked at me, confused, then made an "ah" face. He snapped his fingers, and a glowing, translucent web appeared in the air around us.

'Think of it as a...telephone line,' he said. 'The spell catches sound and transmits it clearly. I'd use a spell directly on you, but we've just seen how useful that is...'

He looked away from me, honey-blond hair fluttering as we descended. His tanned face was scrunched up in frustration or concern, and, for once, he looked his age.

'Hey,' I awkwardly tried to pat his arm. 'I told you, you did everything you could. You were just...the wrong tool for the job.'

He turned to me, brow furrowed. 'Did you just call me a tool!?'

It was like that all the way down.

We were now above the magical forcefield, which we dropped through without resistance. A thought came to me, and I shot Mihai a questioning glance.

'How could you send me to the moon with a strike and not...level the forest as a side effect?' I asked.

He looked at me with a mix of patience and exasperation. 'My shield took care of that.'

'Maybe. But how come I didn't hit anything when flying? Or mess up the weather with how fast I was going? Or-'

'You think too much,' he said firmly. 'Go. Bianca wanted to be the second, if my idea didn't work. I'm gonna do some research, in the meantime...' And, with a clap of his hands, a pair of thick, leatherbound books, each as wide as my chest, appeared in the air before him. One was a deep, earthy brown, and the other a dusty grey. Mihai made them spin around him, like planets around a star, as he flicked pages and muttered to himself. I left him to his devices.

I quickly left my mage friend behind and out of sight, hidden by the gnarled, ancient-looking trees. I knew they could only be a few decades old at most, but you wouldn't have guessed it at first sight.

You know how a few centuries ago rich people liked raising buildings that looked ancient and ruined from the start? It's kind of like that. The iele share some things with mankind, however alien they are in other aspects.

It occurred to me that I didn't know where any of my friends were, and the woods weren't exactly small. Oh, sure, I could find them with my strigoi senses, eventually, but that would take time if I moved at human speed. And if I moved at full speed, I'd level the forest and set everything on fire, too. I would also attract the wrong sort of attention.

But, somehow, I just felt that they would find their way to me, and vice-versa. This story was more than a place: it was an idea made fact, the old, vast woods where travelers got lost, and wonders and horrors awaited behind every tree and bush.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The forest is mankind's oldest nightmare.

After a while, I realized I couldn't keep track of time. Since I didn't breathe or blink, and my heart didn't beat, I didn't have much of an internal clock. I couldn't have said how long I'd been in the woods...and then, a bit of flesh on my chin quivered and sagged, then fell off.

I looked at it fall with a kind of fascinated horror. I didn't try to catch it, and why would I? What could I have even done, jam it into place and pray it would stay there?

An idea came to me. Since Bianca didn't seem to be in a hurry to find me, and I didn't have anything better to do...

Strigoi are associated with both solomonari, mages, and pricolici, or werewolves. None of us are bound to a single shape, and it was us Stoker drew inspiration from when he came up with the idea of shapeshifting vampires.

I became a flea, then a bat, then a snake. A frog, a wolf, a bear, a cold mist. Each form brought new sensations...and a piece of me was still missing.

Even when I became mist, I could somehow tell there was less of me than there should have been. It was...sickening.

After a few more shapes, I switched back to my default form. It was then that Bianca found me.

She had ditched her modern clothes for a sheer white dress, covered in vivid splashes of colour, and a crown of flowers. It took me a moment to realize she was showing her true face.

I could, on a vague level, tell what other people might find attractive. But like this, Bianca looked...strange, other, to me. Like a brightly-coloured insect.

'Are we all going back to our roots today?' I asked by way of greeting. 'Mihai put on the robes, and you...'

'Why are you naked?' she asked, an amused smile on her face.

Looking down, I realised that she was right. I hadn't even...damn it, Mihai. Would it have killed you to create some clothes to me before we parted? Just because I missed it, it doesn't mean you should, too.

'I...' I began awkwardly. 'That is, we...screw your mother's ancestors, Mihai.'

'Oh?' Bianca raised an elegant eyebrow. 'And what did you two do, exactly?' Her smile widened. 'Alone, in the forest?'

I made a strangled sound, and she laughed musically. 'He went all out on you, didn't he? Hit you with every spell he could think of?'

I nodded, and she shook her head. 'Honestly...percussive maintenance? You'd think you were a faulty TV or something. I'm surprised he didn't smash your head open looking for an antenna...' She trailed off, running her eyes up and down my body..."Hmm...'

'Bianca!'

'Oh, relax, would you. I'm not into...dead meat.' Still smiling, she approached me, taking my hand. 'We're going to meet with my sisters. But before that, I'm going to make you some clothes. Wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea.'

'Of course not.'