The tashgalh tashgalh darted back and forth across the ceiling, trying to stay out of reach but maintain sight of its coveted item. Chap kept barking as he lunged up one wall or the other. The little creature screeched at him, then raced along an arc down the tunnel wall and back the way it had come. darted back and forth across the ceiling, trying to stay out of reach but maintain sight of its coveted item. Chap kept barking as he lunged up one wall or the other. The little creature screeched at him, then raced along an arc down the tunnel wall and back the way it had come.
"How many of these things could be in the tunnels?" Leesil demanded. "And how do you know this animal? Magiere, will you shut that dog up!"
Magiere shot him an angry glance. When she turned to do as he'd asked, all she saw of Chap was his swishing tail as he took off after the fleeing animal.
"They do not live in caves," Wynn said. "They live in..."
Wynn spun about, staring wide-eyed down the tunnel. Before Magiere could demand a better answer, Wynn took off in a headlong rush after Chap.
"Wait! What are you doing?" Magiere called.
"They do not live in caves," Wynn shouted back. "They live in forests."
Magiere grabbed up her pack and slung it over one shoulder, preparing to run Wynn down before the sage added to her injuries in some stumbling fall.
"Forests?" Leesil repeated.
Magiere stared down the tunnel. The bobbing light of Wynn's crystal grew smaller as her voice echoed back up the passage.
"elven forests!"
Chap raced after the tashgalh tashgalh. The dark tunnel made it almost impossible to see his quarry, and he followed mostly by sound. The instant he had seen the little creature, he knew what its presence meant, but he had no way to tell the others. All he could do was terrify it enough to flee for its life.
The tashgalh tashgalh went silent, and Chap skidded to a stop, listening. Then he heard its paws scraping on stone ahead. went silent, and Chap skidded to a stop, listening. Then he heard its paws scraping on stone ahead.
He had seen its like twice when he was a pup in the elven lands. Majay-h did not hunt tashgalh tashgalh, for the little pests were a clever breed and easier prey was available. He could smell its fear of him, knew it wondered why he came after it, but this pursuit could not be helped. He knew it would run for the familiar safety of the forest.
Another scent filled his nose over the animals musky fear and the passage's stale odor.
Pine... and wet earth... and warm, humid air.
Somewhere behind him, clumsy feet kicked rocks down the passage in haste. The tashgalh tashgalh raced away ahead of him. Chap chased onward, and the scent of the forest grew stronger. raced away ahead of him. Chap chased onward, and the scent of the forest grew stronger.
He could see the animal's stiff tail and pumping rear legs. And then light beyond it. An opening appeared, curtained by branches, but not enough to blot out the light of the sun.
The tashgalh tashgalh jumped as it reached the passage's end, grabbing a tree limb. As the branch recoiled upward under the creature's weight, it swung out of sight. jumped as it reached the passage's end, grabbing a tree limb. As the branch recoiled upward under the creature's weight, it swung out of sight.
Chap slowed to a halt just shy of the exit and stared at wet green pine needles glistening in sunlight.
It was still winter, but in the elven Territories, the snow touched only the higher ranges.
He waited there, almost not believing that he had found his way through. For a moment he could not bring himself to step out into the world.
Chap breathed deep and filled his head with all the subtle scents of his days as a pup among his siblings. He was home once again, or at least the place where he had chosen to be born in flesh.
Wynn came scrambling up behind him. Her round eyes and olive-skinned face filled with relief at the sight of branches overhanging the opening.
"Oh, Chap," she said.
He stepped out with the young sage close upon his tail. Somewhere above in the trees, the tashgalh tashgalh squawked derisively. squawked derisively.
Morning had broken, with the sun just cresting the eastern horizon. But the trees still obscured the view down the mountainside. Chap pushed his way through the foliage dotting the small plateau onto which they emerged. When the last branch dragged across his back, he stood upon a rocky slope still partway up the mountain.
"We're on the eastern side of the Broken Range," Leesil whispered.
He and Magiere had finally caught up, but Chap did not turn his eyes from the vision spread out before him.
Down the sparsely forested ridge and stretching as far as he could see lay a vast forestland. Not as in Belaskia or Stravina, with spots of open plains and fields, nor the dank and dull green of Droevinka's moss-strewn fir and spruce trees.
It was vivid glowing green of multiple hues, even though winter was upon it and it lay nearly at the northernmost end of the continent. Multiple rivers flowed away from the range through the heart of a vast land, each a shimmering blue ribbon across a verdant fabric that rolled here and there with the hills beneath its surface.
The forest stretched as far as Chap could see. Somewhere beyond it to the northeast were the eastern ocean and the gulf bay no foreign ship had ever berthed in. He did not remember how large the elven Territories truly were. But then he had not seen much of them as a pup before he was taken away.
"It seems to go on forever," Wynn said.
At the mountain's base, stepped slopes dropped gradually, and the sparse growth of the plateau built quickly to warm, bright foliage that reached for uncountable leagues.
Magiere stepped up beside Chap, but of them all, she appeared the least touched by the sight.
"Yes, so large it looks closer than it is," she said. "We're out of food, and we still have to make it down this mountain."
Chap looked up at her pale features marred by exhaustion. Where Wynn's showed relief and overwhelmed awe, in Magiere's face he saw some hint of fallen resignation. Then he glanced at Leesil, whose amber eyes sparked in the sunlight but were chill with determination.
A human, a dhampir, and a half-blood. He had brought them into a place where the word "unwelcome" was but a polite term for what awaited them.
Wynn's lips had parted to speak when a high-pitched chirp sounded above them. Chap looked up, but the sky was empty except for dark billowing clouds trapped upon the mountain peaks. The sound trailed into a string of slurred notes, erratic but strangely lyrical, and then it faded in the light breeze.
Wynn fished in her coat pocket. She pulled out the feather she had found. In the sunlight, it was mottled white.
"Where did you get that?" Leesil asked, as he had not seen the feather until now.
"I found it at our last stop in the tunnels."
Leesil took his pack off her shoulder and dug through it until he pulled out the small arrow. The trimmed feathers on its notched end matched the one in Wynn's hand.
Magiere only glanced at the feathers and then down the slope. "We need to get moving."
Chap turned along the plateau to find them a path. He barked for the others to follow him. For a moment, Wynn looked up into the empty sky then back toward the mountain's passage, hidden behind the trees. The feather was still in her hand.
Chapter Three.
D escending the rocky mountainside took most of the day. As the sun passed to the west above the Broken Range, the forest surrounded Chap and his companions. He returned to the land of his birth. escending the rocky mountainside took most of the day. As the sun passed to the west above the Broken Range, the forest surrounded Chap and his companions. He returned to the land of his birth.
Whenever a break appeared in the green canopy of needles and leaves, Wynn's gaze wandered to the mountain behind them. She insisted that the tashgalh tashgalh might still follow them. Chap neither heard nor smelled it, but she was likely right. Those little bandits were persistent. might still follow them. Chap neither heard nor smelled it, but she was likely right. Those little bandits were persistent.
Chap nudged Wynn aside before she stumbled into a tangle of poison ivy clinging to an oak. She slowed, wavering on her feet, and Chap paused when he noticed that Leesil had halted as well.
Leesil glanced about as if searching for his bearings. With a shrug, he took a deep breath, prepared to move on, but Chap saw Wynn swallow hard with panic on her smudged face.
"You all right?" Magiere asked.
The question startled Wynn. "No... yes, I am fine, just... it is nothing."
Wynn shook her head and continued onward, but Chap watched her with concern. Now and then she stared through the forest, her wonder mixed with worry.
Chap stayed close as they moved deeper into the trees. He expected Wynn's normally incessant babbling to begin over all the subtle strange differences the forest held compared to those of the human lands. Her sage's curiosity was the main reason she had forced her own inclusion in this journey long moons ago back in Bela. But she remained silent and watchful, and more than once started at the sight of even the most mundane foliage or tree.
Chap had been just a pup when Eillean had carried him away from this place. Lush, oversized leaves and enormous red and yellow hyacinths hung from the vines in one grove. They all stopped briefly to replenish their water at a crystal-clear brook winding through scattered azalea bushes. A small flight of bees thrummed between the flowers until a hawk-wasp chased them off.
"It is almost warm here," Wynn said. "How is that possible?"
For once, Chap was relieved that the talking hide was lost. He did not wish for conversation now. He simply wanted to breathe the air and to feel feel the forest's life. Just for one more moment to forget the danger that lay ahead. the forest's life. Just for one more moment to forget the danger that lay ahead.
It was still winter, even here, but far warmer than the Broken Range or its chill labyrinth of caves and tunnels they had traveled. Here, winter would feel like early autumn to outsiders. He did not know why. Perhaps the elves had lived here for so long that the region itself responded to their nurturing presence and returned it in kind.
He hopped another brook. Wynn scurried to catch up and dug her fingers into the fur between his shoulders. She gripped him too tightly until he complained with a whine. She need not worry about losing him.
A wandering line of elms, silver birch, and willows led to a small open slope. On its far side rose an old cedar, its trunk stout and wide as a grain wagon.
"It's enormous," Magiere said. "I've never seen its like, even in the depths of Droevinka."
Chap sniffed the scent of clean loam on the breeze.
"We're here," Leesil half-whispered. "We actually found it."
They had all suffered for it. Now Leesil walked a vast foreign territory, with little notion what to do next or where to look for his mother. In truth, Chap was little better off.
He shrugged free of Wynn's grip, though she was reluctant to let go, and drifted back to lick Leesil's hand with a whine. Leesil was only half-elven, but could he feel the life that pulsed around them? If he let its current run through him, perhaps it would cleanse some of his burdens.
Leesil scratched lightly behind Chap's ear but did not look down.
Chap called up one of Leesil's distant memories of Nein'a leading a ten-year-old half-elf through the forest outside of Venjetz. The two moved in sync through the trees.
Leesil breathed deeply. "I know. We have to go deeper."
Magiere stepped close on Leesil's far side, brushing her shoulder to his.
"Almost a dream of sorts... wasn't it? As if we'd never really find it."
He did not respond at first, but finally hooked his tan fingers into her white ones.
"Yes... no matter how hard we looked."
"But we're here," Magiere added.
"Have you learned to read minds now?"
The jest held only a hint of Leesil's old mocking humor, but Magiere still smiled and pulled him forward.
"Let's find your mother," she said.
He followed but turned his head both ways, as if looking for something and then frowned.
Wynn looked back at Chap over and over, to make sure he was still there. He trotted ahead to catch up to her. Her eyes wandered, but even as she passed black-stemmed amethyst flowers sprouting from dank tree branches, her wonderment was brief. Tiny hummingbirds of brashly mixed colors darted in and out of the large blooms.
Chap led them deeper into the trees, and the world shifted completely to rich hues pulsing in the somber light filtering down through the forest canopy. He pondered calling a rest while he hunted for food on his own; his companions were fatigued and hungry, but at the same time, he was wary of letting them out of his watchful sight.
"Did we pass those trees before?" Wynn asked, grasping his fur again.
Chap barked twice for "no" and took another step. He led them true with certainty. Within a day he hoped to reach the nearest river sighted from up the mountain.
Wynn's grip tightened and pulled him to a stop.
"I don't think so," Leesil answered, and glanced back at the cluster of elms.
Magiere released his hand, looking back along their path.
"We're lost!" Wynn whispered sharply.
"No, we're not." Magiere pointed to the old hulking cedar by the clearing slope, still within sight. "You can just see the line of trees back to the brook we crossed."
Her gesture pulled Chap's attention, and Leesil followed it as well, but his brow wrinkled with uncertainty.
"Yes... that's right," he finally agreed.
"No, it is not," Wynn said.
She turned a full circle, switching hands to keep hold of Chap. Twice she looked to where Magiere pointed, but her gaze flicked quickly about in confusion.
"It is not the same," Wynn whispered, and shook her head.
Chap was baffled. Even without scent he could backtrack their exact route by sight.
"Not the same?" Magiere asked. "Not like... the elven lands near your home?"
"No!" Wynn snapped. "I know those flowers-blhacraova-and the birds feeding upon them are vanranas vanranas, but... but they are not where I saw them last."
Chap stared at the purple tree-flowers and garish hummingbirds. They were exactly where he had passed them.
"It changes," Leesil said quietly. "Sometimes... I think. The forest changes."
Magiere grabbed his arm. "Nothing's changed."