Embers of the Lost
Chapter 1: Archaic Densewood

A world of darkness.

That’s what the Archaic Densewood felt like after years of growing up in the light and warmth of treetops filled with life. There was a sense of decay and a weight of eyes causing heckles to raise on Oscar and Kiki’s backs every few moments. The breeze was unable to penetrate the thickness of the forest leaving the very air to feel claustrophobically close to the skin. The red glow of the moss growing at different angles created ominous shadows in the branches above where Lily walked, her stomach tight and her heart heavy.

“Do you think Mom and Dad are ok?” she whispered out into the darkness, keeping her voice barely audible in case anything was out there.

“They’ll be fine,” Oscar soothed.

“But, what if they get punished for what I just did? Without Dad putting the ice around my wrists, I would never have been able to use magic.” Lily continued, the fear of her parents taking blame for her twisting her stomach painfully.

“I bet Layla and Livius will spread the rumour that you managed to do that yourself and should be feared and despised…” Kiki snarled angrily. The small cat had been in a foul mood ever since they had caught their breath after their escape. Sure, they all knew Lily hadn’t exactly been liked by their kind, but the way the whole population turned so easy against a young girl was disgusting.

“It would increase their reasons for keeping you away…” Oscar sighed in agreement.

“I hope so; then they won’t do anything to Dad.”

As for them, they were left in the darkness, alone with no real knowledge of how to survive and keep going. How did you keep going when everything you knew was gone? Even though she knew the plan was to walk and replace Xalina, every step Lily took became more of a struggle, the darkness in front of her seeming to never end. It had only been a few hours since they entered the Densewood, but Lily felt like it was crushing her already. How far had they walked? Were they going in the right direction still?

“One of you should fly above the trees and replace out if we’re going the right way,” she suggested, pulling her mind towards a logical thought rather than a hopeless one.

One foot in front of the other.

If she could keep taking a step, then she could keep moving forward. What had happened was something that couldn’t be changed, she was in too deep and the damage had been done. Her body throbbed with the pain of the cuts on her feet, her wrists and the small healing cuts within every bruise on her skin itched in its attempt to heal.

Why hadn’t she tried learning any healing magic when she had the chance?? She’d been so fascinated in other daily magic uses, in things that could make her life whimsical rather than anything that could be useful. Lily scolded herself for it now. She’d let happiness make her blind and illogical. She had let herself enjoy friendships and laughter that drew her away from logical learning in the face of a known war. She had let herself be flattered and charmed and her heart stolen by a pretty smile and perfect lies… and she had let that lie guide her in every wrong direction.

Lily had no doubt that Finnigan Byrne had kept her studies on things that wouldn’t actually be helpful to her. He wouldn’t have wanted to give her an advantage.

Hot tears stung the corners of her eyes at the thought of the brunette male who had betrayed her. He had been so perfect, he had made her feel safe and accepted, he had made her feel confident that she was good enough… but it had all been a lie.

Every single word.

The worst part though, was it wasn’t anger that she felt at the thought. It was a sickening acceptance. Because somehow, she must have asked for it. She deserved it for being as pathetic and desperate for acceptance as she was. She hadn’t been clever enough to see through him. She hadn’t been quick enough to fight back. She hadn’t been careful enough to at least keep some part of herself from being owned and thrown aside by him.

The darkness that surrounded her, and the pain that gripped her heart like the fist of a titan were both there because she had failed.

Perhaps it was better to be away from others, at least then she couldn’t mess up anything else and bring more hell down on her head.

Kiki landed back down on the ground beside her. “We’re heading a little too East, but otherwise we are ok. We haven’t got far though; the dark is really slowing us down.”

“Maybe we should use some light to at least allow us to walk without tripping up?” Oscar suggested, looking up at Lily with his face slightly aglow from the moss he currently sat upon.

Lily’s magic had felt stronger over the last few days, but she had been unwilling to push it by using it as a constant companion. The feeling of it being absent from her body haunted her and she was somehow scared that she could lose it all again if she used too much. But Oscar was right, they weren’t going to make any fast movements the way they were going.

Nodding her head gently in the dark, Lily held her right hand out in front of her and pulled the little light around her to one spot which grew until it was a large red orb. As the only light available was red, Lily figured that she’d leave it that way and just brighten it. The orb floated up to head height and moved a couple of feet in front of her, illuminating the woods in blood red hues.

“Well… that’s not creepy…” Kiki drawled.

“But we can see where we are walking now,” Oscar nudged her in annoyance.

“Uh huh. Sure.” Kiki scoffed but hopped over a few unearthed roots that had previously been unseen in the darkness.

“Such a cynic.” Oscar rolled his eyes before spreading his wings and flying up to move by Lily’s side.

The orb moved at the same speed and distance as it’s caster, Lily focused more on the ground than the light itself. But it didn’t wane; it didn’t even dull in brightness the longer they walked forward. Adjusting the direction, Kiki took the lead and the light allowed them to actually follow each other without Kiki and Oscar having to guide Lily like supporting the blind.

“This is much better!” Oscar chimed happily as he swayed back and forth in the air, his eyes reflecting the orb like a red moon in green pools.

It was certainly easier. And there was something a little smoothing about being able to see at least several feet in any direction.

That soothing feeling quickly vanished at the sound of a snarling to their left.

Two sets of three pink coloured dots in ellipses patterns glowed in the darkness, just out of the reach of Lily’s light. Once, then twice, they blinked out of existence for a moment before reappearing with a brighter glow and focus in them.

“What is that…?” Oscar hissed as quietly as possible.

Though that was enough to cause the snarl to grow into a growl and the pink dots to blink once more before the owner of them dove forward into the light, snapping its large fanged jaw closed in the space where Lily had just managed to move her leg from.

The thing was a large creature, its shoulder height reaching Lily’s lowest ribs. It had reptilian skin, and its head and back had layers of thick, pale armour that raised up in many areas away from the creature’s spine. In the red light, it was difficult to tell its colouring but it appeared to have a different colour to its underside compared to the brown on the top side under the armour.

Its six hooves dug into the ground as it spun to follow Lily’s movements. Its breath held the stench of flesh and blood. Not that Lily gave it much thought as she bolted away from the beast, forcing the red orb to fly ahead of her so she could see where her feet were going to connect with the ground.

If she fell, she was dead.

The forest seemed to shake at the roar that echoed when it gave chase. Smaller critters on the ground could be seen bailing out of the way while the sounds from above said that any nearby birds were fleeing. Not that they needed to. Lily was a much bigger and much easier meal. Or she would have been, if the thunderous hooves had gained a little more speed before Lily’s mind was able to catch up with her body.

Hooves. It had hooves.

“Get in the trees!” She yelled at the two cats as she pushed off a risen root and leapt up to catch hold of a branch above. For the first time in her life, she found herself glad that she had been motivated to climb and run to make up for her lack of wings. Once up several branches, Lily could settle down on one and sigh as the beast below howled in frustration.

Letting the light vanish from in front of her, she was left with nothing but darkness and the sounds of the beast trying to get up into the tree after her.

Letting out a shuddering breath, Lily pulled her knees up to her chest, barely registering Oscar as he landed on her knees and Kiki on her shoulder.

“We’re so going to die…” Lily whispered, each flinch at the noises below causing tears to spill down her cheeks. “There’s no way we can do this.”

“Of course, we can, we survived that and it can’t reach us.” Oscar soothed, reaching out with a paw to pat the top of her head.

“And what? We just wait here until something else comes along and kills us instead?!” Lily half shrieked, half sobbed into her knees. She hated this. She felt lost. Scared. Alone. Weak. Her body still stung and ached, the ball of her right foot had been sliced open on something as she ran, the blood soaking into the bark and dripping down onto lower branches.

How was she possibly meant to survive?

“Come on. We’ve got the truth in that satchel, Xalina will be able to help.” Kiki chimed, oddly optimistic. The droll stare she gained from Lily through bloodshot eyes was clearly disbelieving. “And if not, Xalina is a warrior, remember. We’ll be safer with her.”

Sighing, Lily pressed her face into her knees again, swaying in her seated position as the creature below slammed into the tree in the attempt to knock her out of it. A slim but sturdy branch grew from the trunk of the tree and latched itself around Lily’s waist to secure her in place.

“We’ll wait that thing out; it’ll go for an easier meal eventually.” Oscar concluded, hopping up to a higher branch so he could lie down. “We should try to sleep.”

Lily scoffed, but made no argument. As if she was ever going to sleep with that thing snarling in the darkness and waiting for her to give in and accept her fate. She didn’t want to die, especially not in such a bloody way, but as she sat in the darkness, listening to Kiki’s soft snores… Lily could admit to herself that living didn’t seem so great right now. After everything, things were supposed to have gotten better, not worse.

The darkness of the forest was oppressive and it was almost impossible to tell night and day apart from under the canopy. Lily spent hours staring up at the dark canopy, watching the little flickers of birds which glowed with bioluminescence strips down their wings and chests, watching what was likely a squirrel moving along the branches silently.

Perhaps she should do the rest of the journey in the trees themselves? It was far more peaceful, and there was a little bit of light stealing through the canopy leaves, giving the world up in the branches a dark green hue. But it was better than the pitch darkness with red spots of light down on the ground.

At what point she dozed off, Lily couldn’t say, but when she awoke it was to a stiff back and silence from the tree base. Shifting carefully on the branch, she groaned as her spine and neck made popping sounds in protest. Her left leg had slipped during the time she rested and hung down from the branch. Her right was still in its bent position, her knee having been used as a pillow with her cheek resting on it. Stretching the leg out, Lily grimaced at the feel of the wound on her foot reopening, blood trying to squeeze through the tacky drying scab that had started to form.

Twisting her leg to get a closer look at the cut, Lily pressed a quick kiss to the small cat still curled around her shoulders; a quiet apology for moving while Kiki slept. Freezing the blood over her cut to kill anything dangerous, Lily placed her hand against the branch and focused her magic into growing a long paddle-like leaf that she could bandage her foot. For good measure she bound her left foot as well to help prevent any more cuts. The Archaic Densewood was not as smooth and foot friendly as the mosses that grew on the trees in the Fae Greenwood.

“You should rest more…” Kiki mumbled from Lily’s shoulder.

“I ache, and my butt’s numb,” Lily sighed in return. She was emotionally exhausted, but there were too many jolts of discomfort running through her body for her to settle back down.

“Then we should move some more and rest again in a while.” Oscar chimed, stretching out along the branch above them with a large yawn.

“True, can’t let her ladyship’s bottom suffer too much,” Kiki sighed dramatically.

“Plus, that thing has gone.” Oscar added. “We should be safe to go back down.”

“I was thinking we should stick to the branches. It could be anywhere down there in the dark.” Lily commented, finally moving the vine from around her middle and wincing as she got to her feet. “Ki, can you check the direction again?”

With a nod, Kiki spread her dotted wings and jumped up to fly into the canopy.

“Are you alright, Lils?” Oscar asked as Lily straightened herself up and leant her arms on the branch he was sat upon. She turned her silver eyes to the large feline, he didn’t really have to ask her that. The cats were bound to her soul, they could feel her fear, her loneliness, and her pain. The guilt of leaving her parents to whatever consequences back home ate at her, and the betrayal of Finnigan Byrne ached like a phantom limb. She couldn’t even remotely begin to soothe it, and unlike the abrasions on her skin, she knew that emotional wounds would linger for many years to come.

Lily would have chosen a death by a thousand cuts over the raw agony of trusting someone to the extent she had Finnigan, only to have them rip everything from you and stomp on the still beating heart attempting to survive in her chest.

Despite that, she pushed a small smile onto her lips and lied, “Yeah Ozzy, I’m fine.”

Oscar ducked his head a little in acceptance of the answer before nuzzling his head against Lily’s cheek. “You know, we’re here, no matter where we go or what we do… Kiki and I are never leaving your side.”

“I know,” Lily sniffled back, turning her head into the soft black fur of her companion. Being in the dark alone without them would have been impossible. “Thank you.”

Once Kiki had returned and rectified their direction again, they began to make headway. It was strange to move over branches at a proper height, but it was less daunting than walking through the darkness of the ground. Lily was able to extend branches to cross gaps between trees and thicken them so they didn’t break beneath her feet.

They moved without light, and somewhere below they heard the snarl of the beast from before. This time it sounded like there were two of them, and from the yowls of pain, they were fighting. Lily shared a look of fear with Kiki as they silently moved from one tree top to the next until the snarls and growls faded away into silence again.

“I wonder if this place is always so quiet,” Kiki whispered. “The Greenwood always has birds and critters making some kind of noise.”

“Maybe because of the dark, predators have better hearing so stealth has become vital for survival?” Oscar suggested from somewhere ahead of them. While the tree tops had a little light in them, Lily still couldn’t see further than ten feet in front of her and it was all shadowed and blurred together.

“Then, perhaps, we should stay quiet in case everythings’ sense of hearing is fantastic and we’re being tracked by noise.” Lily mumbled, unable to shake the feeling of dread gnawing at the back of mind.

“Good point!”

Rolling her eyes at the smaller cat’s response, Lily took her attention off where she was stepping between branches. Her foot twisted as she stepped slightly off to the left of the branch. With a yelp, and a couple of thuds of bone against wood, the white-haired girl clattered down from the treetops and crashed hard into the ground below.

Not onto. Into.

The area of ground she had hit gave way beneath her allowing her to fall another good six to eight foot before finally stopping. Crying out, Lily pushed her torso up to look at her ankle where the pain was radiating most. Her right foot was twisted at a horrible angle and she could see a little bit of her bone trying to break the skin just above her heel.

“Lily! Are you ok?!” She could hear Oscar and Kiki somewhere above her. The pain was blinding and she had no words to give in return. What could she say? No; she was lying in her grave and it was likely that if she even managed to move a beast like before would pick her off like the most pathetic prey to exist? Those words wouldn’t form, instead she just hissed and muffled her cry as she tried to move her leg.

“Stay where you are!”

“Oh yeah, like I can do anything else!” Lily snapped in pain before her eyes widened, realising belatedly that that voice had belonged to neither of the cats.

In the very dull light and dirt dust trickling to the floor from the hole she had created, Lily focused on two threatening objects that Lily recognised from history books as battle axes. Immediately her hands rose in front of her with her fingers splayed as though they would be any use as a shield.

Beyond the handles of the axes, Lily could make out the silhouettes of two very small people. They were just over half her own height, and their hair… or maybe hats… were incredibly unruly. Their features remained hidden as the source of light came from another holding a lit torch safe out of reach down the tunnel.

“To your knees! Hands behind your back!” The left person snapped through the dark, their voice a little high pitched as though it hadn’t fully matured yet.

Instinctively, Lily attempted to obey, but moving her leg brought her back to reality in blinding agony. Cursing loudly, she shook her head and bit back the tears. “I can’t… my foot…” She tried to explain.

“Lily!” Oscar landed beside her while Kiki landed in front, hissing at the strangers with her wings splaying out wide and her fur standing on end. The strangers faltered.

“You’re a fairy?”

“Of course, she isn’t. She’s got no wings.”

“Her companions do; and they can talk.”

“She’s still an intruder.”

“And can use magic...”

“Should we cage her?”

Silver eyes darted between the small silhouettes before grabbing hold of Kiki who went to lunge at the closest one. “Don’t. I can’t do anything with this foot. You’ll just get hurt.” Looking back to the strangers, Lily held the little kitten close to her. It was very clear she wasn’t going to fight them.

“Get a trolley, move her into one of the artefact rooms.” The voice furthest away finally said, leaving the other two to complete the instruction. Much to Lily’s dismay, they were not careful when forcing her onto the trolley and wheeling her through the dirt tunnels.