The ever-autumnal forest of Sandora certainly lived up to its name. Rows upon rows of pines and maples swayed in the breeze with their regal colours of bright red, orange and vermillion and all shades in between. Sunlight bounced merrily against the golden leaves, piercing through the morning mist and draping over the surrounding trees in an ethereal glow.

 

The forest was just as beautiful as Joe had imagined it to be. And it was far deadlier as well.

 

“Now listen, milady.” Nero began seriously, “This is the last leg of our journey, and the deadliest one to boot. No matter how beautiful or dazzling it looks from the outside, the forest of Sandora is no place for an ordinary human to trespass into. One is much safer at the edge of the forest than at the center of it.

 

“…And yet that is exactly where we must go.”

 

Joe nodded solemnly.

 

It was strangely difficult to keep up with the sense of danger when one was surrounded by enchanting trees and glowing leaves that painted up a pretty picture straight out of a fairytale. Everything about the place screamed beautiful and harmless, but Joe squashed down that thought just as it had formed and focused on the words of her trusted bodyguard.

 

“What do you want me do, Nero?”

 

The man pressed his lips into a thin line. “Nothing much, milady. Nero can take you right to the center of Sandora, where the witch of the west resides in her humble cottage. All you need to do is promise that you will not let me out of sight. Ever.”

 

The girl swallowed nervously. “G-Got it, I promise.” But somewhere in her mind, there was a suspicion itching to rear its head. Why did the instructions sound strangely similar to every clichéd warning in crappy horror movies?

 

“But err—just to be sure, Nero. What happens if I accidentally let you out of my sight?”

 

Her companion sent her a look that sent chills down her spine. “Then they drag you to the other side, milady Joanna.”

 

‘Oh boy.’ Thought Joe miserably. ‘I’ve jinxed it now, haven’t I?’

 

 

                                                     -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

The walk through the forest could be passed off as fairly uneventful, if you managed to ignore the sudden gusts of breeze that came from nowhere and lifted the maple leaves off the ground in tiny little pirouettes. They made for a curious sight, Joe thought, as if some higher power was pulling them by the strings and making them dance in the air. The forest exuded a kind of mysterious beauty that looked like one of those quintessential landscapes printed on glossy postcards.

 

It was as if someone was desperately trying to enchant and woo the two human intruders who were making a beeline straight towards the centre of the place.

 

Nero led the way silently, eyes fixated in front of him and never straying away from their path.

 

Joe followed him just as silently, with an eye on her surroundings and the other on Nero’s broad back. She tripped on her feet several times, too busy to stare at the regal autumn colors of Sandora that glowed brightly against the dawn sky. A part of her badly wanted to stop and stare, but the other part, that took ominous warnings too seriously, was determined not to be left behind.

 

It didn’t help that Nero, the ever responsible Nero with his cheery giggles and amusing grins, had not made a peep since they’d entered the forest. It made Joe more nervous, if it were even possible. She badly wanted to keep the nonsensical chatter going, only if to put her mind at ease and away from the stinging pain in her arms and feet.

 

But seeing her bodyguard’s self-imposed vow of silence gave her second thoughts. So she swallowed her complaints and firmly clamped her mouth shut. They were in their final leg of their journey. What wouldn’t she give to have it stress-free and hassle-free?

 

Of course, since sparkling video game universes were never quite kind to the villainesses, such a thing was but a pipe dream. About twenty minutes of non-stop walking (and occasional tripping) later, Joe began to feel a distinct chill in the air. This was odd, because it was hardly nighttime anymore, and she was pretty sure that all that walking should have made her sweat like a pig instead.

 

So why did she feel like she was walking inside a frigging refrigerator?

 

She frowned at the sudden change, whipping her head around to find the source of the puzzling chill. Nero hadn’t stopped his brisk pacing, and so Joe couldn’t either, but the more she walked, the more there was a distinct feeling of ‘something wrong’-ness in the air that was impossible to ignore. The girl rubbed arms distractedly; she definitely wasn’t imagining it.

 

Then the source of chill became more apparent. Thick waves of fog rolled into the forest from nowhere and draped over the ground like a funeral shroud. Joe squinted her eyes at the scene; never in her life had she seen fog moving in so rapidly and suddenly, especially when it was a bright, sunny summer morning just a few seconds ago. It was almost unnatural, and mildly alarming.

 

Joe sprinted in the direction in which she had last seen Nero. The visibility was detoriating at a breathneck pace, almost to the point where she couldn’t even see beyond three meters around her. The alarm bells returned to her mind a thousand fold when she realized that her bodyguard’s back was nowhere to be found.

 

“Nero!” Panic was creeping into her voice, which fortunately made it louder. Joe tried wading through the fog, flailing her arms around like a headless chicken. “Nero! I cannot see you! Nero, where are you?!”

 

No answer. The silence was almost eerie to her ears.

 

“NERO!”

 

When no gruff voice returned her shout, Joe was fully convinced that she was all alone. The fog rolled in relentlessly, snaking around the trees and swallowing everything in its path. The leaves had lost their regal glow and fluttered around listlessly towards the ground. The colors had washed out in muted shades of orange and red, as far as her eyes could go, which wasn’t very far at all.

 

The ever-autumnal forest of Sandora no longer looked like a glittery fairytale forest. It was deathly still and ominously suffocating, as if firmly reminding the girl of her rightful place.

 

She had lost Nero. She had lost her way and was left defenseless in a mysterious magical forest, to the mercy of who-knows-what that might drag her away to ‘the other side’. Joe hadn’t known where that was, but she was plenty sure that she didn’t want to find out.

 

“Dammit! Damn it all!” The girl pulled at her hair with frustration, tears stinging her eyes. “You had one fucking job, Joe!”

 

She wanted to bash her head against the nearest tree. She wanted to kick herself and add a few punches to it if the universe would allow for it. She wanted to go back to her old world and physically smack her old self away from the thrice damned video game. Her head was throbbing with anger and lack of sleep. Her feet stung with the cuts and blisters that she had no way of tending to.

 

Joe wanted to cry, but she was too tired for that. She just wanted to curl up and fall asleep in the ground, the forest of Sandora be damned.

 

A voice drifted to her ears from faraway, just as Joe was contemplating on the effectiveness of prostrating herself on the wet ground and begging the magical entities of the forest with puppy eyes. The sound was faint, but it undoubtedly belonged to a human.

 

“Joe!” It called through the fog. “Joe, where are you?”

 

The girl leapt to her feet and whirled around towards the source. Her heart was threatening to burst out of her ribcage. Was that Nero? Did he manage to find her after all?!

 

‘No, you buffoon.’ The sharper, more pessimistic part of her adult mind interrupted sharply. ‘Listen to it properly. Does that sound like Nero?!’

“JOE!!” The voice called again.

 

“It isn’t him….” Joe muttered out loud; face pale and teeth chattering in the cold. “He wouldn’t call me by my nickname! He would say ‘Milady’ or something, but never ‘Joe’!” What the devil was going on in this place?

 

The puzzled girl strained her ears for further confirmation, but the voice had stopped just as abruptly as it started. Then came another, a more distinctly different voice, and Joe almost tripped again in surprise.

 

“Milady!” It said urgently, as if someone was desperately looking for her. “MILADY, I AM RIGHT HERE BEHIND YOU!”

 

Joe whipped around in excitement, almost shouting her presence to the voice. Then she stopped short. How did Nero know exactly where she was? If he did, why hadn’t he come for her already? And most importantly, why did the voice not sound like Nero’s at all?

 

“Nero! Nero, is that you?! WHERE ARE YOU NOW?”

 

There was a deafening silence once again. And then, “It is me, Nero, milady! I have come to rescue you! I am right behind you!”

 

I? The frown was deepening on her face. There was something terribly wrong with this conversation. Why was he standing behind her and shouting in first-person speech instead of running to her straight?

 

A nasty thought reared its head in her panicking mind. It was a weird suspicion, but she wasn’t willing to let it go. Joe cupped her hands in front of her mouth and shouted back in the direction of the voice.

 

“NERO! Where are you? Have you found George?!” She yelled. “George! Are you there with Nero? Answer me!”

 

She knew no George, but the nagging thought in her mind wanted her to test the voice before she could fully trust it.

 

As if cue, another voice rang in the forest, heavy and husky and breathless, as if someone had run a lengthy marathon right through the heart of Sandora.

 

“I am here, milady! This is me, George! I am right here with Nero!!”

 

Joe pursed her lips. That right there was the answer to all her questions. There was something was screwing with her. Something or someone was using her own words to lure her right into the fog, unaware of the fact that there was no ‘George’ in this forest that she knew of.

 

“MILADY!” The voice persisted. “Nero and George are waiting for you, milady! We are right behind you!”

 

The girl scoffed. She might be inexperienced in the ways of this world, but she certainly wasn’t naïve. Joe firmly believed in the time-honoured advice of ‘When lost, stay put right where you are.’ Especially after what had just transpired, she was even more inclined to believe in that. She was not moving an inch. Nooo Sir.

 

The voices stopped abruptly, as if they had come to the same conclusion. The eerie silence enveloped the forest once again. Only this time, Joe was strangely relieved. There was nothing more disconcerting than unfamiliar voices calling out your name from nowhere. The fog wasn’t letting up, but the girl calmed her heart and focused to feel the direction of the wind.

 

And then she heard it, a low rumble that started somewhere behind her. An earth-shattering growl followed, echoing from the depths of the forest like an erupting volcano. It yanked her out of her focus and sent her heart hammering away with fear. It wasn’t just any sound. It was the hungry growl of a wild predator, the kind you wouldn’t want to hear even in your worst nightmares.

 

Joe paled as the unbidden memories of Lucia’s words came rushing into her mind.

 

 

‘The village folks say that they have heard hungry growls of a beast on quiet summer nights. Some think it is a leopard. Some say it is a tiger.’

 

And then, ‘And some say it is a gigantic, two-headed lion that guards the home of the Witch.’

 

 

‘Calm down, you asshat.’ Joe told herself, squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again. It must have been the same thing as the human voices. The night had long passed, for Pete’s sake! It would go away if she ignored it. Her heart was still pounding like a jackhammer, but Joe counted backwards from ten and stayed silent as a rock.

 

‘Ignore the sound, you twat, you little dipshit.’ She repeated in her mind; somehow, cussing yourself was strangely therapeutic. Why didn’t people do it more often? ‘Keep still and don’t react to it.’

 

The bushes rustled in front of her and broke her out of the reverie. Joe took a tentative step back. It’s just a shitty sound, just a shitty sound. She told herself, even as her eyes stayed locked upon the rustling bushes.

 

When the bushes parted slowly, Joe couldn’t hold onto her conviction anymore.

 

What came out was a hideous six-foot-seven creature, with bloodshot eyes and a mean sneer on its face. It shook its head wildly as it came up front, stalking towards her in a menacing gait. Joe couldn’t suppress the scream that tore from her mouth. ‘Oh no no no no no! Ain’t no way this was true!!’

 

Her eyes widened in disbelief. There was no way around it; this thing certainly didn’t look as harmless as a phantom voice!

 

The creature was a cross between a lion and a gigantic bird. A bizarre amalgamation of sorts that Joe did not think was even possible. Yet, there it stood menacingly, snorting and growling and shuffling its bird-like feet on the yellow grass. The girl wobbled in the face of its sneer, trying but failing to hold back her panicked sobs.

 

It was a giant two-headed lion with enormous wings on its back. Its tail swished around with a force that sent the branches cracking and twigs flying everywhere.

 

‘If I manage to get out of here alive without pissing myself,’ Joe thought miserably, feet shaking with fear. ‘I’m never coming back here again!’

 

Nero’s longsword felt heavy on her back, and for a single heartbeat it sent a tiny sliver of hope to her mind. Joe bravely reached her sweaty palm to grip its handle.

 

Wrong move, because the two-headed creature chose that moment to bare its fangs in an ear-splitting roar. The girl promptly stopped herself in time. The animal (bird?) probably didn’t like its authority questioned in the forest. And Joe sure as hell wasn’t quick enough to decapacitate the fucker with a single strike. She was no Nero.

 

The creature’s face morphed into what could only be described as a mocking sneer. Joe felt ice in her veins. She didn’t dare turn back and run. She couldn’t outrun it anyway, not with her paltry stamina and pitiful speed.

 

All she could do was stall for time and not give the creature any other reason to pounce on her. Not a good strategy at all, but it was all her sluggish mind could come up with. ‘I hope that I look unappetizing enough.’ She thought tiredly. ‘Please, don’t eat weird things from who-knows-where! You’ll get a stomach ache, birdy!’

 

For a hopeful moment it seemed like the creature had miraculously heard her thoughts. It straightened its back and stared.

 

 

And then all hell broke loose in the forest.

 

A myriad of sounds rushed upon her from all directions, ranging from an elephant’s trumpet to a hyena’s laughter to an eagle’s screech high up in the sky. Joe clasped her hands over her ears, unable to stop the assault of sounds. What on earth was happening in the forest? Was this some bizarre magical performance, an opera of animals?!

 

The voices merged and separated, echoed through the dense fog, cackling gleefully over each other. It felt like the entire forest was mocking her existence. Joe gritted her teeth, willing herself to tune out the sounds and focus on human voices. And then they came, as if answering her prayers with another round of inhumane mockery.

 

“Milady, we have come for you!” The human voices said, bellowing in a booming laughter. The girl paled in fear. The words sounded as if a thousand voices were converged to a hideous mish-mash of scratchy, off-key tunes. As if someone was pounding on the keys of a grand piano with a giant wrench. “Milady, won’t you come to look for Nero and George?!”

 

Joe could swear that she’d heard a soft, feminine laughter somewhere in between.

 

She didn’t dare reply. She hadn’t replied to voices even once, only asked more questions. She had the feeling that the voices badly wanted her to reply to them; and their taunts only strengthened her belief. “WHeRe arE yOU, sHiTTy JoE?!” The human voices yelled cruelly, growing desperate by the second. “We will keep you safe, milady! Oh, wHErE aRe YoU?! ANSWER ME!!”

 

The sounds rang out over each other noisily, babbling strange words that sounded like English but made no sense. Calls of animal overlapped over them in the most terrifying manner. Joe felt as if she was sitting smack in the middle of a zoo, and all the animals had broken loose from their cages. The fog receded and crept back in at an impossible speed, and the colors of pine and maple shifted from orange to blue to purple to black, as if it was following the will of a whimsical child.

 

Leaves changed to snails and snakes, and then leapt of the trees in a gleeful dance. The cacophony was deafening, transcending all logic and reason, as the forest of Sandora descended into utter pandemonium.

 

The girl crumpled on the ground as her feet gave way abruptly. Her head was pounding with sensory overload, the impossible swirl of colours spotting her vision, and a constant ringing in her ears that made it seem like her head would split open any moment. Joe clutched her head in vain; painfully aware of the two-headed creature that was watching her movements like a hawk.

 

She couldn’t run even if she wanted to.

 

And then came a familiar voice, higher and shriller than ever, drowning out the maddening bedlam of the accursed forest. Joe snapped open her eyes in a jolt of recognition, because a familiar voice had never sounded sweeter in her ears.

 

“Get up, Joanna Stuart! What happened to your pompous proclamation of making out of here alive?! ” The clear voice rang inside her head authoritatively, as if it owned the place. “How long do you intend to lie there sniveling on the ground?!”

 

It was a voice she’d gotten strangely accustomed to having inside her mind for the last few days. And it had never sounded more comforting to hear again.

 

Lady Joanna Valeria Winsten had waltzed right back to her old quarters with all the pomp and elegance of a true villainess.