Spidena sat on the log with her chin propper up in the heel of her palm.

As amusing as the scene before her had been three hours ago, it was no longer as enjoyable so much as it was annoying.

Ben, with his shirt off and a muddy handprint splattered across his left pectoral, along with dark mud lines drawn under his eyes, was prancing around a mushroom circle with the sprite who was twirling, whistling, and giggling along with him.

“Join us, Spidena!” Ben called out euphorically.

“I’m fine where I am,” Spidena informed him for the fifth time.

“But you can celebrate the forest! Feel the wind! Bask in the–”

“I thought you wanted to travel as quickly as possible,” Spidena reminded while also knowing that it was quite pointless to try and make any logical points to Ben at this moment.

The man was deep in the enchantment of the fey realm, and snapping him free of its magical haze would take a tich more effort

Spidena wasn’t sure if she should try and use magic, or if she should take a page out of Ben’s book and make him eat or drink something that would make him ill, which would then make it significantly easier to ground him again.

Of course the best way would be to simply shove him out of the realm.

It’d feel unpleasant for him, but Spidena was actually starting to feel a little dreamy herself at the idea.

Her stomach rumbled, which alerted the witch that it was most likely nearing dinner time, and given that Ben had been deep in the enchantment of the fey realm for the majority of the day, they hadn’t breaked for lunch.

“Ben, I’m hungry,” Spidena announced half heartedly. She didn’t expect much.

“Then open your leaves and eat the sunlight!” Ben spun in the air then upon landing, launched himself up to do another one.

“I’m not a plant. I need real food. So I’m going to be stepping out of the fey realm. Filif, of course you’re welcome to come,” Spidena declared, while forcing her tone to be as sweet as possible.

The sprite surprisingly stopped his fervid dancing to stare at Spidena, looking utterly crestfallen.

Panicking a little internally, the witch added with a point at Ben, “If that one doesn’t eat, he’s going to faint.”

Filif looked in alarm at Ben as the man dipped into a dramatic lunge with his arms straight in the air.

“Witches and humans are like that,” she explained. “We need food and water a few times a day. Especially if we are–”

Ben dropped to his knees, his arms fully extended sideways, his face tilted up to the sky.

Spidena stared at his blissful expression flatly for a moment before turning back to Filif.

“Especially if we are being active.”

The sprite’s shoulders drooped, but he showed no signs of anger, and so Spidena risked adjusting her sights to Ben.

“Come on. Put your shirt on, or the mosquitoes will eat you alive once we step into our own realm.”

“Why would they do that? We are all one!”

“Suit yourself. But come on. Let’s go.”

Ben didn’t respond or even move.

Spidena’s eyes narrowed irritably. “I’ll get Wolf to shit on your hair.”

She watched his nose twitch at the suggestion. Then, as her stomach gave another rumble, she let out an exasperated sigh before bending down, and grabbing his upper arm.

While not scrawny, Ben definitely tended toward lean muscle, and it surprised Spidena that it existed at all. Though it did make it harder to heft him to his feet, so the not-entirely-unimpressed feeling passed quickly.

“Do even the Hounds have to work out?” she muttered under her breath.

“We do. We have to restrain people. Or chase them. Or if they get violent, defend ourselves… We never learned how to kill them really… That was a task for the Hawk units,” Ben explained airily while at least allowing Spidena to haul him up to his feet.

Spidena stopped her efforts and stared at Ben appraisingly.

Hm. Interesting bit of information that is…

“Alright, do you see that hill right there?” Spidena pointed ahead where the slope of the land rose sharply, but only for a span of seven feet or so.

“Mhm.”

“Climb that with me. Don’t let go of my hand, alright?”

“Mmm, I don’t want to do that.”

“Too bad.”

“Mnngh!” Ben attempted to object, but evidently had lost the words to be able to do so like a civilized being. So he was left with no other option but to be pulled along by Spidena as Wolf swooped over head letting out a bleat as though to say ‘at long bloody last’.

Scrambling up the hill while holding hands was rather tricky, and annoying, but eventually. After slipping only twice, Ben and Spidena crested the ledge and stared out at the harsh, bright world that they belonged to.

“I’ll be damned,” Spidena scoffed in amazement at the sight before her.

“What?” Ben squinted then rubbed his eyes. The magical clouds in his mind most likely whooshing free of his mind as though an icy blast of wind from reality had just blown straight through his ears. “What the… What’s going on?”

Spidena was still too stunned to take her eyes off the sight before her, and so she reached over to pat Ben on the shoulder. “You’re going to be pretty out of it for the rest of the day. It’ll feel like you just had a very strange, but good dream.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Filif leapt over the ledge abruptly with a warrior like shriek, then landed, put his hands on his hips and beamed up at the duo proudly.

“Are you going to keep following us even though we have to travel in our own world for a while?”

The sprite hesitated, lifted his hand to his round, smooth chin thoughtfully, then gave an ambiguous single shoulder shrug.

“You are welcome either way. Thank you for… this,” Spidena nodded at the scene before her with a smile.

Filif swept into an exaggerated bow.

“Spidena…?” Ben drawled while rubbing his face, then squinting again. “Did you give me drugs as some kind of revenge?”

“Paha!” Spidena tossed her head back. “Oh no. You did all of that absurdity in the fey realm on your own, and what you are seeing right now, is real.”

“But how-”

“Filif. He must have taken us on a short cut.” Spidena smiled down at the sprite who beamed up proudly at her. “He took us to the road in a single day.”

Spidena’s calves practically screamed in celebration at the long stretch of unencumbered land before her. No dips. No sudden rocks. Just smooth packed dirt. Even the monstrous rains the day before had only created dips and wells along the sides, leaving the middle still perfectly intact.

Ben looked down at his bare chest dumbly. “What happened to my shirt…? And my coat?”

“They’re in my bag. Come on. I think I can walk for a little while longer. Especially if it means we might be able to find one of those communal camps you described where I could maybe share a tent or food with other people.”

“My head is killing me…” Ben bemoaned as he pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes again.

“Huh… I’d always wondered if people who came out of the fey realm were just feeling a hangover or if it was the traversing the boundaries itself. I guess I now have an answer.” Spidena proceeded to reach into her bag and draw out Ben’s shirt and coat.

“Drunk people go there… often?” Ben wondered despite his struggles.

Spidena opened her bag and started pulling out Ben’s clothes for him. “Oh yes. It’s how most dodders and seebs are able to ever see it. Even witches have on occasion tripped through a mushroom ring and gotten themselves stuck for a while.”

“So because I… Because I stepped in the ring I wound up… there?”

“No. You would’ve wound up there even without stepping in the ring because Filif was guiding us. What crossing the ring did, was put an enchantment on you so you lost your wits and became harmless. Rings can act as a gateway, but if they aren’t a gateway, they just make people a bit loopy for a bit.”

“So… many… words… You’re… talking a lot,” Ben groaned while accepting his clothes from Spidena.

The witch rolled her eyes. “Alright there forest man, tell me. Which direction should we go?”

“Can I… Can I take a break?”

“No. You never let me rest, so you don’t get to either!”

Ben whimpered but didn’t argue against her point either.

Which was a shame really.

Spidena would’ve loved to fight with him some more in his weakened state.

Ben proceeded to pull his shirt back on, though it took him three tries to fine the right hole for his head to emerge from.

As Ben pulled on his coat, Spidena nodded in approval at his more appropriate state of dress.“Let’s go. Wolf?” Spidena summoned her raven seriously, drawing the bird down to a nearby maple tree branch. “Please see about finding us a squirrel or two for dinner?”

Wolf blinked once, and launched himself into the air once more, and disappeared back into the woods.

Satisfied, Spidena looked back at Ben who had watched the exchange with bloodshot eyes.

“Well? Which direction?” Spidena repeated expectantly, her hands moving to her hips.

Ben’s eyes slowly closed, then opened again, and then he weakly moved his hands away from his paling face and pointed to his right.

“Excellent!” Spidena bobbed her head in understanding, and marched forward.

It was nice not being the one struggling with their journey for once!

Eventually Ben followed behind Spidena, while Filif would dart back into the trees, then out again. At one point he danced with a butterfly out of the woods, another time a squirrel was chasing him angrily… And other times he just seemed to be spinning for fun and losing his footing.

All in all, for Spidena’s first time officially traversing the fey realm, it had been a nice experience. Which had surprised her after so many warnings from her mother and father when she was growing up…

Though she decided she wouldn’t tell Ben it was her first time doing it.

She rather preferred feeling more in control, and like the authority on all things magic related.

It helped bolster her mood almost as much as a soft bed for the night would’ve!

Glancing over her shoulder at Ben as he dragged his feet forward, Spidena grinned.

Maybe the hard part of their journey was truly over.

They had traveled so far ahead of schedule thanks to all of their magical encounters, and aside from being curious about them, no magical creatures had attacked them or caused any problems.

Staring up at the sky that was slowly losing its brilliant bright blue hue in favor of dusk, Spidena allowed herself to feel tentatively hopeful that they would reach Kintel without any grievous injuries, in a third of the time it would’ve taken them normally.

*

What the witch had not considered, however, was that fate was only hurrying them along because it happened to have some rather big plans for Spidena and her companion…

And if they knew even the half of it? Well…

The witch may not have been so jolly just yet.