We plunged through the forest, brush slapping our faces and clawing us back with branches like grasping fingers. The humans could no longer move through the forest unaided; roots rose up under their feet or just in front of them, making them stumble, whereas my larger pads and longer stride could stay ahead or on top of the obstacles. Curtains of moss were somehow denser and heavier whichever way we moved, forcing the humans to go around or use their entire strength to go through. Branches were stiff and hard to push aside. Brambles grew thicker when we tried to go through and wider when we tried to go around. The entire forest rustled and growled, an angry voice that I heard with my Spirit instead of my ears.

Marcus was on my back, knees clenched tight around my barrel and one hand death-gripped on the loop of rope that went around my chest. Estelle and Eugene ran alongside, holding onto extra loops and focusing on bounding forward in long strides while keeping their feet under them as I towed them along. I was going much slower than I could on my own but in trade they were going much faster. Had I been able to carry all three of them I would have been racing forward like my tail was on fire; something was following us and I didn't want to be caught.

"Switch!" Eugene gasped.

I slid to a halt and crouched down. Marcus dropped off of me, Eugene scrambled aboard, and we were on our way again within seconds. I needed to tear free of a grasping of roots that had encircled my ankles in the time we were paused.

{Can we actually outrun them?}

"I'unno, boss. I ain't real familiar wit' mitoki...I t'ink dey are locus-bound, meanin' dat dey have a fixed location and need ta actually travel ta get places. Dey got some kinda fast-travel t'ing like da chief used but mebbe dey can't all use it? Still, sure looks like dey can affect us even when dey ain't heah."

"Hopefully, the forest ends soon," Marcus said, timing his words around some tricky jumps needed to clear a tangle of thorn-encrusted brush.

"Shewah," Murray said. "Makes sense. If da slavahs was in da forest propah den da mitoki coulda rescued dere people demselves. Dey gotta be outside it."

We bounded into an oval clearing where one of the forest giants had been snapped off at the base and taken out a swath of the canopy. The light was nearly gone, the last rays of a tired sun drooping over the ground. The fallen trunk, easily eight feet around and two hundred feet long, was in front of us and our course would take us smack into the remaining stump. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid slamming into it; on my own perhaps I could have dodged aside but with Estelle and Marcus clinging to my stirrups I would have run over one of them and yanked the other off their feet.

As it was, Eugene was nearly catapulted off my back and both Marcus and Estelle fell, crying out in surprise and pain as they were dragged a few feet over the leaf-littered ground.

"What the fuck, Athos?!" Eugene yelled. He let go of where he'd been clinging to my neck, back towards the ground and feet dragging behind, and plopped to the dirt. He glared at me for a moment before pushing himself to his feet and dusting off his rear. "A little warning, man!"

"Sorry," I said, hunching in embarrassment. "I didn't want to run into the stump, but I don't corner well or stop fast with this new body."

"No problem," Marcus said. "It happens. Let's keep moving."

"Oka—" I looked across the clearing to where we had been headed. "Why are those trees moving?"

"What do you—oh shit," Estelle said, looking behind us.

I turned to look back where we'd come from and found that the trees and bushes at the edge of the forest were growing rapidly, more so than we'd seen thus far. The branches were producing new leaves at a prodigious rate and a tangle of briar bushes swelled and spilled out to the sides, new spikey branches developing at the speed of a fast human walk and extending out and up. The same was happening all around the edges of the clearing, generating a virtual wall of plant life to seal us in. Moreover, the grass was growing rapidly, the effect sweeping towards us in a fast-moving wave.

"This is not good," Marcus muttered.

I yelped in pain as something jabbed me in the pad of my foreonpaw, making me jump back. The fast-growth effect had reached us and the grass where I had been standing was now up to my shins. Each blade was stiff, straight, and sheathed in metal. My blood oozed down one of those blades.

The humans were moving too, kicking and stomping to flatten the grass around us. I tried to help but the canine bodyplan isn't well suited for horizontal kicks right along the ground. I tried digging instead, scooping the earth away in a steady shower.

"Up here!" Eugene called from behind me. I turned to look and found him standing atop the fallen tree.

Marcus and Estelle scrambled up the broken stump as though it were a ladder and I was able to bound up in one jump, although I still favored my injured paw. My Recuperation was working on it and I could feel the pain fading as the minor wound closed. Around us the grass of the meadow grew steadily, tall as a human within a minute and gleaming with sharp edges. The brambles around the edge of the clearing were now coated in metal with three-inch spikes, and they were growing steadily towards us, tendrils stretching forth and then diving down into the ground to provide rooting for the next surge of expansion.

We hurried down the length of the fallen tree, eager to be out of the clearing. The humans considered it an essentially flat road but my wider body meant that my feet were on curving segments that kept making me struggle not to slip.

In front of us, the grass grew taller than the tree and began to lean over, aiming its tips towards us the way the flowers in Dad's flower box would grow on an angle to get better sun exposure. It kept growing, a wall of needles coming slowly closer and forcing us to pack together. Marcus had both hands on his spear, the point leveled, and Eugene had his sword drawn. Estelle, knowing that the rest of us had close range covered, had readied her bow instead of her swords. There was an arrow on the string but she hadn't drawn yet.

"Wind Slash!" Eugene cried, swiping his sword horizontally. The grass in an arc in front of him was blown back, some of it lopped off and some of it bent. Encouraged, he repeated the Skill on the opposite side, buying us some breathing room. Less than I would have preferred; the trunk of the tree was no longer a bridge out of the clearing, as most of its length was now blocked off by spears of metal-reinforced grass aimed towards us. The area immediately around us was clear for perhaps twenty feet in each direction, but that space was shrinking rapidly.

"Fist of the Gods!"

The familiar bolt of blazing fury came down, burning the grass on my left into ash. Ten seconds later a second one cleared the space on my right. Even before it did, new grass was growing where the previous bolt had struck.

The plant wall closest to us parted like water, allowing Healer of Troubles, Warden, and three other mitoki to step into view. The three junior mitoki were holding drawn swords. Warden held a blue-steel chain with fist-sized weights on the ends. Healer of Troubles had a short-handled sledgehammer in one hand and a sickle in the other. The sledgehammer must have weighed forty pounds but she didn't seem to notice the weight. All five of them were larger than they had been, taller and more muscular, with a faint glimmer of green tracing their scales.

"Hello," I said once it became clear that everyone was waiting for the other side to speak first.

"You set fire to our forest," Healer of Troubles said calmly.

"Eugene is very sorry about that," Marcus said. "Aren't you, Eugene?"

"I was helping," Eugene said. "I saw those animals digging up the ground and eating the roots of the trees, so I figured the trees needed protection. I didn't count on the fire part of it though...I'm a city guy and not used to using Fist of the Gods outside. I didn't realize how hot it was. Honest mistake."

"I am a forest spirit and not used to removing the limbs of a human," Healer of Troubles said, twirling her sickle casually. "If you die in the process it will be an honest mistake."

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I growled, my head going down and my ruff going up. "You will not touch him."

Marcus took one hand off his spear so he could place it on my shoulder. "Easy, Athos."

"Yah Chieftainladyship?" Murray spoke up diffidently. "Sorry ta in'errupt, but here's a piece ah infahmation ya should prolly have: My boss heah? His claws an' teeth are spiritual weapons. He bites ya or smacks ya, it's not just gonna discorporate ya, it's gonna kill ya fah realsies. Not tryin' a be rude or nothin', I jes figured it was somethin' ya should know sohs ya can factah it inta ya plans. Again, sorry ta in'errupt."

"We are spirits of the forest," Healer of Troubles said to me, ignoring Murray completely. "When he set fire to our forest it was as though he set fire to us."

Murray blew a raspberry. "C'mon, Yah Ladyship. Don't be doin' 'em like dat. Youse ain't no forest spirits, youse is locus-bound liminals. Youse don't feel no pain when ya forest boins."

"You claim to know much, imp," Healer of Troubles said, her voice cold. "Do not presume."

"Ma'am, we apologize for Eugene," Marcus said. "We freely and fully acknowledge that he's an ass. I'm—"

"Hey!" Eugene said.

"—not sure if there's any way we can make it right," Marcus continued, ignoring Eugene's objection, "but at least we won't let him do it again. Now, if you attack us then we'll probably die but so will some of you and Eugene will set a whole lot of much larger fires as we fight. Personally, I don't want that to happen. Is there any way that we can resolve this peacefully?"

Healer of Troubles studied us in silence for what felt like a thousand years.

"Your weapons lack the power to hurt us," she said, gesturing towards the humans. "Your large friend...perhaps the imp speaks truly, but we stand within our domain." She raised one hand and the grass surged towards us, its needle tips now only four or five feet away on three sides, the only clear path being towards the mitoki.

"Force Spike," Marcus said. A triangular jet of blue-white power lanced out of his hand and slammed into the tree trunk between us and the mitoki, blasting a fist-sized chunk of sawdust into the air. "We aren't limited to our physical weapons."

"My bow isn't spiritual...yet," Estelle said. "I have no idea if a Piercing Arrow is going to hurt you or not, but I suspect neither of us wants to find out."

"None of us want to fight," Eugene said.

"I do, scum," said one of the junior mitoki. Healer of Troubles made a cutting gesture at him and he closed his mouth and looked abashed.

"Look, Eugene screwed up," Marcus said. "We should have stopped him but we didn't move fast enough. If there's a way we can make it right then let us know. Otherwise, can we please just move on? I don't want to die today, but if I do then at least one of you is dying with me and I think that's a loss for all of us."

The junior mitoki muttered and Warden started twirling his chain in lazy circles. I looked at the size of the steel ball on the end and winced internally at the thought of how much it would hurt. There was no room to dodge on this tree trunk and the spear grass made it impossible to jump off, so my only option if it came to a fight would be to blitz them and hope that I could knock them aside before they could get an attack off. That was problematic, since I doubted that throwing them onto the spikes of the grass would hurt them the way it would hurt us.

"Harmful as you were, the slavers have taken my people and may return to take more," Healer of Troubles said at last. "You are the lesser of two evils. You will bring us our brethren or proof of their death. You will also bring us the heads of all the slavers. Do this and you will be forgiven."

"No problem," Eugene said in relief. His sword relaxed, although he didn't sheathe it yet. "We're on it."

"And he will stay here as warrant for your compliance," she continued, pointing her sledgehammer straight at Eugene.

"Fuck no," Eugene said instantly, his sword rising back to guard position. "I'm not sitting around here. Besides, I'm the one with the heavy combat Skills. Keep one of these two." He jerked a thumb towards Marcus and Estelle, who both shot him a dirty look before returning their attention to the mitoki.

"I don't want to leave any of my friends," I said. "Besides, don't the slavers outnumber us? We'll need all of us to beat them."

"I regret hearing that," Healer of Troubles said calmly. "Nonetheless, the violator will stay with us. He harmed our forest and thus he dies. I will permit you to buy his life back with those of the slavers, but that is as far as my generosity goes."

"It's fine," Estelle said. "Eugene, it makes sense for you to stay. The mitoki aren't savages and they aren't going to hurt you while we deal with the slavers if they agree not to. Athos is our main melee combatant and I've got the range." She hefted her bow slightly to make the point. "Yes, you're very useful in a fight, but it's likely that either the three of us can do the job or the four of us can't."

"You are not leaving me here, you dumb bitch."

I swiveled my head to look reproachfully at Eugene. "Hey!"

"Eyes on the prize, people," Marcus said, his voice tight. "We're in the mud right now, let's not go at each other."

"Yeah, plus I'm holding our best bling," Eugene said, keeping his eyes firmly on Healer of Troubles as he spoke.

"Our best bling?" I asked. "We left the orichalcum with Si—oh! You mean the—"

"Exactly!" Marcus said, quickly reaching out to put his hand on my snoot. He wasn't looking at me, so he ended up patting my ear and poking me in the eye a little bit, but it was enough to make me stop talking before I actually said 'the portal stone' and maybe gave away to the mitoki the fact that we could leave whenever we wanted. Although the portal took sixty seconds to open, and that was a very long time in the middle of a fight. Of course, even if we left we would need t return. We had to pass through this world in order to continue on the path home.

Okay, maybe the portal stone wasn't as easy a solution as I had thought.

"Eugene, we're definitely going to want that bling when we get back to Hellsport," Marcus continued. "You don't have to worry about us leaving you behind."

"I'm not, because you're not going to do it. I'm not staying here."

"Enough," Healer of Troubles said. "It was not a request. He Who Wards the Upraised Green, take the arsonist and escort him to River Bend. He is to be kept comfortable but may not leave."

Warden stepped forward, starting to spin the end of his chain slowly.

I lowered my head again and growled, long and low, lips skinned back from my teeth.

Ozone washed over me as Eugene began charging Fist of the Gods.

Estelle brought her bow up and drew, sighting down the arrow at Healer of Troubles who stood calmly with no sign that she was being threatened. She raised one hand and the grass began to grow again, gleaming metal and needle-sharp points curving in towards us from all directions. If we didn't move in the next ten or fifteen seconds then we were going to have grass spears stabbing through my thighs and the humans' chests.

"Wait!" Marcus shouted. "Everyone just wait." He set the butt of his spear on the ground and brought it upright, keeping his right hand on the shaft while he raised his left towards the mitoki. "Eugene, Estelle, lower your weapons. Athos, be calm."

Estelle looked at him like he was crazy, but she slowly relaxed the tension on her string and lowered her bow, although she used one finger to pin the arrow in place instead of putting it away.

Warden paused, scaly head cocked to the side. The chain did not stop its lazy spin but it did not accelerate either. The grass stopped growing towards us.

"The fuck you say," Eugene said. He was starting to visibly glow as Fist of the Gods continued to gather strength. "I'm not letting these guys get the jump on us."

I growled my fervent agreement. I had had just about enough of the mitoki and their threats.

"Athos, stand down," Marcus said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Even if we could win this particular battle, there's probably hundreds or thousands of mitoki in this forest. We can't evade them and we can't fight through all of them."

A pleased murmur went through the younger mitoki warriors at those words.

"At the same time," Marcus continued, "an ageless creature is probably even less anxious to die than a human. It's a much bigger deal for you, isn't it, Chief Healer of Troubles? Humans grow up knowing that we've only got fifty or sixty years, but your people expect to live forever. How many centuries have you known each of these warriors? Imagine what it would be like to be without them, forever. Imagine them not at your campfires, not at the forges or gathering food or whatever they would normally be doing. Imagine a giant hole in your life where they used to be and the hole can never be filled because the person who used to fit there is dead. Everything they were, lost. Imagine the pain of that, and then stop and talk with us instead of fighting."

Healer of Troubles stared at him for a moment and then snorted. "With a tongue that silver, you would make a good chief. Very well. Have your companion release his spell and we can talk."

"Eugene," Marcus said. "Shut it down."

I could smell the anger wafting off of Eugene but after a moment the light that was starting to radiate from his skin dimmed and disappeared. "You better be right," he muttered.

Healer of Troubles nodded in satisfaction. "I take it you have a proposal, mortal?"

Marcus held up his left hand in a 'wait, be calm' gesture and then slowly reached into his shirt and pulled out the small leather bag in which were kept the guidestones Simon had given us. He poured some of them into his hand to show what they were, then put them back and tugged the drawstrings closed.

"We're walking a path between worlds," Marcus explained. "These stones show us the way to the next step in our journey. Without them we can't progress. Take these as your hostage; we'll be back for them, you can count on it. We'll bring the slavers' heads with us. Everyone wins."

Healer of Troubles seemed undecided. After a moment, Warden spoke up.

"Perhaps a second edge?" he suggested. "We have their stones as a threat, but let us provide an incentive. A weapon such as that given to Forsworn Farwalker."

His chief laughed. "An excellent idea," she said. "Mortals, we know that there are at least eight slavers, perhaps more. Bring us all of their heads and we will not only return your stones to you, we will grant each of you a weapon of power such as those in the stories you mentioned. When you bring them back to your own world you will make it known far and wide that they are the work of the Shadowed Iron River clan." She suddenly frowned and looked at me. "I am unsure what weapon would work for you, but we'll find something useful in lieu of one, have no fear."

I had not in fact been in fear of that, so I simply nodded and relaxed, shaking myself to settle my ruff back down.

"Okay," Marcus said after a moment. "Everybody's calm now, right? You have the stones." He tossed them underhanded so they plopped at Healer of Trouble's feet. "Warden can escort us the rest of the way to the slavers. Right?"

"Indeed. He Who Wards the Upraised Green, accompany them."