" Where is this guy? How much time does he need? " I muttered under my breath.

It's been more than half an hour since Toby went away. I couldn't leave Sylvie alone here and taking her with me in forest didn't sound like a good idea either.

It shouldn't have taken this long.

Is this guy just roaming around the forest freely, while making me worry? But what if-

Worry settled deep in my chest, and dark thoughts began to creep in.

' Did something happen to him? '

" What should I do? " I glanced beside me where Sylvie was sitting with her knees pulled close to her chest . She noticed my gaze and spoke " I am hungry. Uncle Toby is taking a lot of time. "

"He'll be back soon " I said, though my voice lacked the conviction I wanted it to have.

"It shouldn't take this long to find food. What if something happened to him?" The worry in her tone tugged at my heart, enhancing my own.

"Nothing will happen to him," I reassured her, though my own fears whispered otherwise. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were running out of time. There was no reason for me to believe so, but my gut feeling was telling me otherwise.

"Do you think he'll bring back something good?" Sylv's voice was lighter now, her imagination wandering. "Maybe a pie or those sweet buns he told me about?"

I chuckled softly, trying to lighten the mood. "If anyone can find a pie in this forest, it's Uncle Toby. "

Sylv leaned her head on my shoulder, her presence a small comfort amidst the uncertainty. "Tell me a story while we wait," she urged, her eyes sparkling with the remnants of childhood innocence.

"Once, there was a brave knight who ventured into a dark forest…"

As I wove the story, I could see Sylv's tension ease, her imagination taking flight, if only for a moment.

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The silence in the forest had deepened, wrapping around Toby like a suffocating shroud. His mind raced, trying to make sense of the sudden shift.

He knew illusion magic when he felt it..this wasn't just a trick of the eyes. The air itself felt heavier, colder, with a malevolent presence lurking just out of sight.

He crouched low, placing the firewood carefully on the ground. His hands, usually steady, were tense as his eyes darted across the shadowed landscape.

The trees seemed closer now, their thick trunks pressing in on him, their branches like twisted claws ready to ensnare.

"This is definitely magic," he muttered, trying to focus. "But whose?"

It couldn't have been Allysanne. Not after all this time. She would have wanted Sirius safe, not trapped in a spellbound forest.

But there was something familiar here, something that made his skin crawl with recognition.

Toby straightened, feeling the tug of the spell grow stronger, like invisible threads pulling him deeper into the heart of the forest. His body felt sluggish, his limbs heavy, as if the very earth beneath him was trying to swallow him whole.

"Focus," he whispered to himself, clenching his fists. He could break this. It wasn't the first time he had faced magic of this nature.

The trick was to stay grounded, to keep a sense of reality tethered in his mind.

" huunnhh "

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, letting his other senses take control.

The sound of rustling leaves. The faint shhh of the wind, though weak, still moving through the trees. The damp smell of moss and earth. His pulse in his ears. The steady beat of his heart.

He opened his eyes. The shadows still writhed at the edges of his vision, but his mind felt clearer now. The illusion was still there, but less potent. It would only take a little more effort to shatter it completely.

*snap*

A twig snapped behind him.

Toby spun around, hand instinctively going to the dagger at his waist. His breath caught in his throat as he stared into the darkness. There was nothing visible, just the faint outline of trees and bushes, but the sense of being watched pressed on him harder.

*snap*

Another snap. Closer this time.

He didn't wait. His instincts took over, and he bolted in the opposite direction, his feet pounding the ground as he darted through the underbrush.

Blindly charging towards an unknown, unseen enemy was granting yourself a death sentence. Toby was many things, but never a fool. He has to shatter the illusion first. Only then, he could be at equal grounds.

Toby's mind whirred, trying to think. He had no time to break the illusion fully, but if he could get to the cottage, the spell might weaken on its own. He didn't know how far he had wandered from the cottage, but he had to try.

With his hand still on the daggers on his waist, Toby ran. He was getting far away, or maybe he was not. He couldn't quite tell. But he was sure of one thing,

" the illusion isn't fading away."

He cast a glance over his shoulder, but the landscape turned into a surreal blur, each tree and stone getting far away.

It felt as though reality itself was conspiring against him, the area around him facing. Each step he took, echoed in the oppressive silence.

As he sprinted deeper, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. The daggers felt like extensions of his own fear..he would need their cold comfort soon.

He soon started hearing whispers of his name. It feels as if someone was calling for him, it was a familiar yet distance voice.

The whispers intensified, urging him toward themselves, but Toby had faced worse than this.

Gripping the hilts of his daggers, he summoned his resolve, drawing strength from the very fear that threatened to consume him. "Show yourself!" he shouted, his voice slicing through the silence with unexpected clarity.

In response, the darkness shifted, and a pair of gleaming eyes emerged, fixating on him with complicated emotions, he couldn't decipher.

Then a face emerged, one he never thought he would see again, yet one he was deeply familiar with. A face he could never forget, deeply etched in his memories.

How could he? When he spend his whole childhood with her, when it was his own...

" Mother? "