The world was burning.

Nathan staggered through crumbling ruins, skin blistering in the heat of the fire. He knew with a dreamer's certainty that the flames were everywhere, that he could not escape. All around him was a raging hell, and the circle was closing.

Nathan cried out in denial. He cried out for help, for rescue, for God. Only the fire answered, sweeping closer with every moment until the sweat stinging Nathan's eyes vanished, until his flesh began to curl and blacken. He screamed, and the fire answered.

"Why do you fight?" The voice was ash and thunder, a roar that nonetheless seemed to whisper in his ear.

"All things burn. All things rot, fade, decay. Fate takes back what is hers. Accept it, for this is all you can do, all you are meant to do. What are you meant for but to die?"

Nathan, unable to weep, to speak, to move in the molten embrace of the world's ending, fought to ignore the voice, but the words sank in, deeper than the tongues of fire clawing away his flesh.

He gave up. He wanted nothing more than for the voice to end, the pain to stop. As his eyes began to shut the flames above him parted, revealing a patch of midnight sky. A single star was ringed in fire. Sparks fell from the mote of light and Nathan felt a sweet coolness of tears on his face, easing away the pain. Another voice spoke, this one gentle, deep, and... and somehow... familiar.

"Endure, child. You are meant to endure."

"He is waking up. You had best leave." Maggie's voice.

Nathan groaned as his senses returned. Heavy blankets covered him, itchy but delightfully warm. He burrowed under the covers, unwilling to get up, and winced as his muscles ached.

Chirping laughter whistled and a voice that Nathan didn't recognize began speaking in a strange language. Lyrical and fluid, the words flowed and bent around each other like raindrops.

"Yes, yes, the debt is paid. We will leave soon, and where to is none of your business." Maggie sounded tired and angry. "Thank you for the help, but just... just piss off." Footsteps sounded, and the trilling voice rang out again in farewell.

"Do I need to poke you again? I left my cane at the college, but there's a stick here that I can swat you with."

"Where am I?" Nathan asked from beneath the covers.

"Over the rainbow, Dorothy." Maggie snapped. "Now get your ass out of that bed before I drag you out. I've been sleeping under a horse blanket for a week because of you."

Horse blanket? A week? What the hell? Nathan stuck his head out from the covers, blinking with astonishment as he took in his surroundings.

He was in what looked like some mad hermit's cottage; the entire mess was woven from twigs, bark, and an occasional patch of dried moss. A small fire crackled in the center of the room, smoke trickling out through a hole in the roof. A table and a rocking chair, both made of sticks and twine like the hut, were the only furniture apart from the bed. The walls were a jumbled craze of shelves littered with a magpie's nest of cups, bowls, and bags.

"Where is this?"

"A friend's place." Maggie offered him a wooden cup, but Nathan was too busy staring at her to take it. She was wearing a white something that straddled the line between dress and robe, a matching strip of fabric holding back her hair. He couldn't decide if the look was fetching or too much like a bed sheet.

"What are you wearing?"

"Mounting impatience. Drink some water."

Nathan drank and then handed the cup back. "Who's the friend?"

Maggie sighed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

He laughed, hysteria sidling into his voice. "You got someone to commit suicide just by touching him. You have no idea what I'm ready to believe."

She reached out. "Nathan−"

"Don't touch me."

Maggie sat back, eyes sparking with hurt. "I'm sorry, but he was trying to kill you. In fact, he almost did. I panicked."

"You panicked?" Nathan shrilled. "He cut his own throat! And then, unless I'm crazy, I saw you crack open an oak tree and... what?"

Maggie nodded. "He punctured one of your lungs, maybe an artery too, I don't know. You were drowning in your own blood. An ambulance wasn't going to make it in time, so I..." she waved a hand at the hovel "...I improvised."

"Uh-huh. You brought me to a fairyland doctor, is that it? Who used his magic potions and spells to keep me alive?"

"Pretty much, yeah, but it's a she."

Nathan rolled his eyes and covered himself with the blankets. "Whatever."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going back to sleep."

Maggie peeled back the blankets, looking incredulous. "You think this is a dream?"

"Not really, that never seems to work. But in case it does..." He grabbed the blankets and hid himself again.

Maggie turned the bed on its side. Nathan yelped as he sprawled on the floor, limbs akimbo as he realized he was naked.

"Get up."

"Where are my clothes?!"

"I'm blind, remember?"

Nathan scoured the hovel for his clothes, grateful for that. "Look, Maggie, even if I was stabbed..." he poked at the spot where he thought it had happened. It was a bit tender, but that was all. "If I was, it wouldn't heal this fast, and I don't believe I'm 'over the rainbow.' Whatever I saw was probably caused by... uh... blood loss."

"So you weren't stabbed, but you hallucinated due to blood loss?"

Nathan scowled, but said nothing.

Maggie cocked her head and spoke in a voice every bit as brittle and cold as her smile.

"When you were two, your parents bought dry ice for Halloween. When they weren't watching−"

He froze, half into his pants. "Shut up."

"When they weren't watching, Jack broke a chunk off and dared you to hold it. You refused, so he pinned you and shoved it down your shirt. You still have nightmar−"

"Shut up!" Nathan shouted, dressing quickly. When he spoke again, the calm he forced into his voice fooled neither of them.

"I don't know how you know that, I don't care how you know that. I'm done with these games. I'm leaving."

"Leaving?"

Nathan had a habit of pacing while he thought, claiming he thought best on his feet. He wasn't thinking as he walked out the door.

Maggie stepped outside just as Nathan vanished beneath the tree line. An old, honey-brown mare eyed her from across the meadow and trotted to her side when she whistled.

"Help me get him?"

A beautiful creature, the horse sported a long, flowing mane and a tail to match, both the delicate white of a winter morning. She had a world of mischief sparkling in her eyes as she snorted, something of a cheerful contempt in the sound.

"I know, I know, he will probably end up back here, but what if he finds the Way?

Is that possible?"

If horses could shrug.

Maggie pursed her lips. "Five minutes. Then we go after him and I will owe you. Again. Agreed?"

She headed back into the hut, not waiting for an answer, and began tossing odds and ends into a battered rucksack. "If he ends up dead, I'll blame you."

Even as he stormed away Nathan was admitting to himself that running off into the woods was stupid. However, he knew the area around his hometown very well. The only body of trees nearby that was large enough to merit the title 'forest' −and these woods certainly did− was only a few miles thick, and campus was right on the northern edge. He also still had his compass.

There was something of a path, or at least a thinning in the underbrush, and the trail led in in the right direction. Nathan took it, stopping to retrieve his battered guitar case before he did. It was sitting at the foot of an eerily familiar tree. When Nathan took a second look he realized that it was another oak, this one with a great, gaping hollow.

Nathan pretended not to notice and glanced back at the hut, already hard to see through the trees. He considered going back, just for a moment.

No. Whatever game she is playing, I want no part of it.

He turned and considered the path. It forked around the oak, and both trails veered only slightly from due north. He consulted the compass and went left.

Nathan whistled as he walked, if only because that's what you're supposed to do. Now and again birds or the occasional squirrel flitted across the path, and once a deer surprised him by bolting through the underbrush only a few yards away. After several minutes, Nathan glanced over his shoulder.

He could still see the hut through the trees. Nathan stared for a moment, then turned and pressed onward, ignoring a familiar oak tree.

It was easy going, and Nathan caught himself humming once or twice as he made his way. Now and again birds or the occasional squirrel flitted across the path, and something that he hoped was a deer surprised him by bolting through the underbrush only a few yards away. After several minutes, Nathan looked back.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The hut was still there.

Nathan turned and paid absolutely no attention to the oak tree marking the split in the path, heading right this time.

He hurried and kept his head down, the woods eerily quiet, though now and again birds or the occasional squirrel flitted across the path, and once something bolted through the underbrush only a few yards away. After several minutes, Nathan checked again.

He hadn't gone any further. The same tree loomed overhead, and suddenly it was all Nathan could do not to bolt. He sat for a moment and then stood up, much too agitated to stay still. Nathan paced around the tree, considering his options with rapidly deteriorating calm.

This is... this is impossible. Is it magi− nonono, no. You just have a lot on your mind.

Nathan brought his wrist up and consulted the compass again. It pointed back at the hut for a few moments before swinging north again.

Playing tricks. Think. Think, think, thi− What would Pooh do?

As he began to circle the tree a second time Nathan seized on that, perhaps a little desperately.

When they're lost in the woods and constantly returning to the sand pit, Pooh Bear suggested they look for the pit, reasoning that since they'd been looking for home and finding the pit, maybe if they looked for the pit they'd find home.

"That's ridiculous." Nathan said aloud.

Do you have a better option?

Rattling his bracelet a few times, Nathan shrugged. Pit it is, then. He finished his third lap round the tree and pushed into the brush, heading northwest. It was harder going, but not much harder. A while later, Nathan glanced back, and was delighted to find that tree, meadow and hut were all out of sight. Progress.

"What do you mean he's gone?!"

The horse sighed and repeated herself. Maggie climbed onto the horse's back, scowling.

"I told you! Let's go get him before something else does."

Nathan had been walking for an hour or so when he first saw one of the trees. The undergrowth had gradually cleared as the trees grew: now the brush was limited to an occasional sunny thicket while the trees had become massive. If he hadn't known better he'd have guessed he was walking in old growth. Then a cloud darkened the path and he looked up.

It had been a cloudless day up till now, and it wasn't a cloud that hid the sun. It was a gigantic tree.

His first thought was of redwoods, but he was in the wrong place. Besides, redwoods didn't have smooth gray bark or ragged, black-red leaves. It towered over the rest of the forest the way a king towers over the pawns on a chessboard, the branches reaching out as if to hoard the sunlight for itself.

It was beautiful, Nathan thought. Majestic. The kind of thing that poets dreamed of capturing in a handfull of words. Yet there was something alien about it too, something that gently tugged at his mind, as though he was sneaking a look at something not meant for him. Not meant for anyone. The set of the branches, the way the leaves moved in the wind, a thousand subtleties that Nathan couldn't fathom hinted at something not unnatural but rather too natural, monstrous in the raw force of its presence. In a flash of insight Nathan knew that this tree didn't exist on Earth, or at least not on his Earth. It couldn't.

Maggie had been telling the truth.

Nathan was suddenly very, very nervous. Her talk of fairies might not have been craziness after all. And if there were fairies, there might be less pleasant things.

He turned to go back and everything went dark.

Nathan yelped and fell on his ass. He wasn't blind, but for a moment it seemed that way. His surroundings had gone dark so suddenly that his eyes had to readjust to the change.

By degrees he began to see a narrow path driven into loamy soil, winding around the roots of giants that only laughably might be called trees. Only the vaguest flickers of sunlight pierced the canopy, leaving everything below in twilight. For a wild moment he thought he'd simply shrunk: it was like being an ant out for a walk in Sherwood Forest.

Nathan considered panicking. It was honestly quite tempting. With a rattle of his bracelet he consulted his compass, stood, and began heading south. It wasn't much, but it was something. He was surprised by how rationally he found himself looking at the situation, but there were only two options he could see: either he'd found his way into a fairy forest or he'd gone completely, irrevocably insane. Either way, it was an adventure of the sort he'd never expected. He considered pulling out his guitar and playing, just to tempt fate, but decided that it would be a step too far.

Besides, Nathan was pretty sure he was being followed.

He'd looked a few times but hadn't seen anything. Nathan even checked the branches overhead, having seen more than enough horror movies. In fact, he hadn't seen or heard anything that wasn't the wind for the past few minutes.

Okay, that's not right. There should be birds at least. As he thought that, something rustled overhead. Heart pounding, Nathan whirled to see a huge black bird glaring at him.

Is that... is that a raven? Nathan glared back. "What are you looking at?"

The bird considered him, not moving a muscle. For a moment Nathan had the strangest feeling it was about to speak, but then it cocked its head toward the trailing path. A second later it gave a loud caw and took off into the darkness.

"Huh."

It's not a sign, it's not a sign...

Perfect silence surrounded him. Nathan fancied he could hear his own heart beating. He turned and started walking before he thought too much.

An hour later Nathan's shoulder blades were itching uncontrollably. The feeling that something was watching him had taken root, lodging in his mind like a splinter.

Nathan wished, not for the first time, that he didn't have the guitar with him. It was heavy, and the damned thing was constantly getting snagged. Each time it happened it set him on edge. Even as he thought about it the guitar snagged on something in the dark and whipped into the back of his head.

Stupid piece of... Nathan took the case from his back, glancing around as he did. Why do I feel like I'm about to be mugged?

Something breathed.

It went on and on, a dragging pull of air that continued far longer than seemed possible. It reminded him of the way someone would sniff a flower or, Nathan thought as he suddenly began shaking, the scent of a good meal.

This thing was hunting him. It had been for over an hour, playing with him. And now it meant to be heard.

Nathan turned slowly, saw nothing, and then looked up.

He could have reached out and touched the thing dangling overhead. Nathan wasn't sure what it was. It might have been human, once, if someone had broken every bone in a man's body and reset them in the shape of a twisted, leprous wolf, something out of the delusions of a psychopath trying to justify the blood on his teeth.

Its flesh was rotten, pocked with sores, gouges, and places where the skin was simply torn away to expose patches of glistening, palsied muscle. Warped ribs stood out over a stomach bloated with hunger, and its face...

As ruined and decayed as the thing's body was, the face was worse. The eyes and nose were simply gone, leaving empty pits that wept blood and other, less pleasant fluids. The mouth was a horror, absent lips revealing a sparse crop of jagged, rotting teeth. As he watched, the flesh around the nose-hole puckered and the sound of its horrible breathing filled his ears. It oriented on him, suckling the air, and Nathan couldn't fail to recognize the hideous expression it made.

It was smiling.

Nathan ran headlong into the darkness, too terrified to scream. The thing dropped to the ground and gave chase, no longer bothering to keep quiet. It kept pace easily, its thin, whistling moans of excitement hot at his back.

A patch of light flickered ahead and Nathan fled toward it, the pallid, scabbed hands of the thing plucking at his shoulders, not to grab but to touch and to frighten.

It's toying with me.

Nathan threw his arms up to shield his face from branches suddenly in his way, crashing heedlessly through the undergrowth. A few moments later the branches vanished, and the lack of resistance sent Nathan tumbling. He rolled to his side with a cry, fists up, but the thing was gone.

Shaking, he got to his feet. He had stumbled into a meadow, little more than a patch of grass and feeble sunlight. A large pool of water filled one corner, cupped by the roots of a tree at the far end of the glade.

Nathan dared to hope the thing was gone. Then the hollow rattle of its breathing sounded again, seeming to come from all directions.

Nathan's eyes narrowed, the fear in him suddenly drowned in savage fury.

"COME OUT!" he roared. It was irrational, impossible, but there it was. Far in the back of his mind he was screaming in terror, but that voice was drowned out in a tide of adrenaline-fueled rage.

"I'm not a toy! I AM NOT A TOY!" Nathan threw the case from his back and raised his fists again. "Come out!"

The branches above him rustled and Nathan dived left on instinct, snatching up a heavy branch. The thing fell to the ground a heartbeat later, ruined hands clutching. He swung the branch, but the thing snatched it in an iron grasp; though wasted it was still hideously strong.

Strong or not, though, it was still built like a human. Nathan dropped the branch and stomp-kicked the thing's knee, a keening rasp whistling through its teeth as it buckled under the blow. Nathan threw a short, vicious punch at its face that connected right between its eyes. It staggered back and Nathan pressed forward, throwing a left at the thing's throat.

With a hiss it seized his wrist and pulled, flinging him to the ground. Nathan managed to roll to his back but then it was on him, pinning him down. It snarled, empty face inches from his as it slowly leaned to his throat, bloody drool seeping down its chin. Nathan screamed and slammed his forehead into its face. The thing drew back, hissing as it seized his head with one hand and dashed it to the ground several times.

I am going to die, Nathan thought as it reached to pin his wrists. I am going to die, and I can't do anything about it.

There was a magnesium-white flash and the thing flung itself away with a shriek. The light dimmed into a small, heatless sun, following the motion of his hand as Nathan pulled himself up.

Jack's cross. It was glowing white-hot, blazing as it dangled from his wrist. Not understanding, not thinking, Nathan drew the bracelet from his hand and shook it toward the thing as it backed away, licking at its seared fingers. "Come on, then," he snarled. "Come on, you half-dead piece of shit, come on."

It retreated across the clearing, alternately swiping at him and shielding its eyes. Several times it tried to feint, to lunge around the little charm. Nathan moved with it, thrusting his brother's gift in its face whenever it drew close.

Hissing, the thing drew back to the edge of the pool, and Nathan slipped. The creature pounced and swiped at his arm, knocking the bracelet from his hand and hurling him into the water. The pool was ice cold, and Nathan's flailing limbs found no bottom. Nathan sputtered and coughed, struggling as his clothes weighed him down, scrabbling at the edge of the pool in a mad panic only to remember too late what was waiting.

The thing seized his hair and hauled him into reach, teeth lunging. Nathan screamed as the teeth sank in, barely noticing the water through the pain. Barely, but he still noticed.

The water was heating up.

Blood dripping from its teeth, the thing drew back and smiled again, savoring the slip of flesh it had torn from him, but Nathan was much too distracted by the sudden, boiling heat of the pool. He thrashed, desperate to escape, and some of the water splashed into the thing's face.

If it had had eyes they would have widened in shock. With a shriek it dropped Nathan and turned to run, four limbs scrambling. Nathan sank and caught a fleeting glimpse of something rising from the depths of the pool. The surface of the water exploded and he was blown from the pool by the force of its passing.

He hit hard, hearing a heavy thump as the whatever-it-was hit the soil. Nathan turned to see a huge beast built vaguely like a cat, with smooth, burnt-orange skin and a crested head that by turns mirrored that of a lion and some of the toothier dinosaurs. Armored plates lined the creature's back, trailing into a double row of wicked spines that ran the length of its muscular tail.

The creature batted the half-dead thing to the ground like a toy. It keened for a moment before the great beast pressed down with an ominous crack. It tore the head from its prey's shoulders, a welter of pus-streaked blood spraying from the corpse, and threw the grisly trophy away with a roar that made Nathan's ears ring. Then it turned to him.

Oh. Shit.

It stalked to him with fluid grace, and Nathan comforted himself with the thought that at least this thing wouldn't play. It bent down, opened its jaws...

...and licked him.

The beast's tongue was rough and blazing hot. Nathan yelled as heat bloomed where the half-dead thing had bitten him. The creature pulled back and Nathan put a tentative hand to his neck.

His wound had been seared shut. Nathan stared up at the beast. "Uh... thanks?"

It regarded him quietly, skin steaming in the air.

Nathan cautiously stood up and smiled. "Did you happen to see where my bracelet fell?"

Idiot, it's a giant dinosaur-cat, it's not going to− The beast raised a scaled eyebrow before looking pointedly at a spot several yards away. Nathan checked the spot and found the bracelet lying there. He slipped it on and turned back to the creature.

It was less than a foot away, staring at him.

Nathan fell on his ass and the beast leaned forward, yellow eyes the size of Nathan's fist calmly observing. As he watched, it slowly bent down and sank its teeth a few inches into its own leg, snarling softly as the blood started to flow. It brought the wound forward until it was only inches away from Nathan's face.

Nathan swallowed nervously and watched the blood slowly drip to the loamy soil between his legs. Where the drops landed the leaves and roots began to smolder, feeble tendrils of smoke swaying upwards with a dull hiss as the loam burned.

"Ah... no thanks." The scared little voice in his mind gibbered hoarsely as he reached forward and patted the thing's proffered limb, wincing slightly at the heat of the creature's flesh. "Not thirsty."

Snorting, the beast backed away and then stalked back to the pool, vanishing with hardly a ripple and leaving Nathan alone in the glade.

Nathan burst into sudden, raucous laughter, tears streaming down his face as he pumped his fists into the air. He was chanting something, gasping the words out, and it took a few seconds for him to register what he was saying.

"I'm alive... I'm alive. I'm alive!"

"Good."

Nathan turned with a grin to see Maggie sitting on a horse and looking tired, worried, and incredibly pissed.

"Hey there!" He savored the look of shock on her face as he fetched his guitar and sauntered over.

"So, Glinda, over the rainbow it is," he said. "Where can I find some slippers?"