I'm on edge the moment we step into the forest.

And when Hikaru passes the threshold into the forest, he nearly stumbles.

"Thorne's golden wings!" Sio swears, rushing to help him up.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Alesha asks, offering her arm.

"Vertigo," he says. "I can't explain it - it was as if I dropped miles out of the air."

"You usually get that from entering the fairylands or a sacred site, but it's never been this bad," Sio says, putting a hand on Hikaru's shoulder.

"I only felt it a little bit," I offer. Between the two of them it must be something that the pixies, in particular, have an easier time sensing.

"I thought it a twinge of fear," Tayeb admits, arm looped protectively around his now thoroughly spooked daughter, his other hand on the reins. His horses, meanwhile, don't seem that perturbed.

Sekhmet scowls, "Magic shit? Passing between worlds?"

"Or instances," Hikaru says. "Let me -"

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens them again, they're black - with occasional bright reflections moving across them, like tiny shooting stars. 

Well, not entirely black - more a dark violet. Makes sense: there's a lot of ambient magic around here.  I've seen the visual effect when he's invoked Spirit Sight before, but never close enough to see in that much detail.

He puts his hand to his head and grits those sharp teeth but keeps his eyes open. "We are definitely in a high-mana zone, higher than normal. I suspect this used to be an instanced dungeon. Be prepared for trouble."

For Siobahn's benefit, you translate: "So that path could have sent us into one of a whole lot of bubbles of faerieland. No one's gonna follow us deeper, or rescue us."

"Ayup, that's how 'dungeons' do," Sio says, unable to not pronounce the air quotes. Then again, the idea of an outdoor area being any kind of dungeon is pretty funny, so all the notice it gets is an appreciative snort from Ace. "Remember what I said about sticking to the path? And following me?"

There's a mixed chorus of "yes" along with Shadi's frightened nodding.

"Cool. We might survive," Sio says. "The lurch was worse than I expected, but it shouldn't be a problem, hopefully. Follow me. Hikaru, keep those eyes peeled as long as you can stand it. Everyone, Stop talking, start using warsign and bushsign."

She chops forward, indicating the way. Alesha nods, making the same gesture with her shield, one hand on the pommel of her sword.

Sekhmet draws and strings her shortbow in a fluid motion; Ace takes out her maul, holding it choked up to just under the head. And I shift stance, from heel-pushing to bouncing on the balls of my feet with my hands up, ready to block with my gauntlets.

Hoping we all were prepared, we marched on.

---

It's been quiet along the clearly marked path, the dirt and flagstones and markers set here with what the lore assures me was the grudging support of the local Good Neighbors. And quiet should be good.

But.

There should be birdsong, and strange beasts. Willowisps and cries to divert followers off the paths. 

A stupid sliding block puzzle or five.

"I don't understand," Sio says. "This has been going too well. Don't step off the path now, but -"

"No, you're right. This is creepy as hell," Ace says, the rings of her mail clinking under her breastplate as she advances, slowly, on the flagstones and dirt through the woods.

"Keep close," Alesha says, right behind me. She hasn't yet drawn her sword, but she does have her shield, a legionnaire's scutum more than half as tall as she is, decorated with red and gold solar designs.

I take a deep breath to clear my head - and that's when I realize. The air here feels and smells strange in a way that I'm  not sure why is uncanny.

Well. Uncanny for the Nevernever.

"Do you smell something metallic in the air?" I ask. "Maybe?"

Then I hear animal cries - hooting and growling from the same throat. Chittering and snarls. The chiming of bells in 4/12 rhythm.

"Oh thank fuck, finally," Sekhmet says, flipping her shortswords into reverse grip and crouching on the side of the wagon.

I turn a corner, and see them. A pair of owl-bear chimera the size of SUVs, with talons the length of chopsticks. Darting figures of red and green, with roses for manes around their vulpine heads - the infamous Seedlings we've heard so much about in their natural habitat. Chiming wisps, beings of energy wrapped around a levitating seed crystal on wings of light - the least faeries called sprites. And monstrous creatures on two legs, green save for their red faces; redcaps.

Charging at us.

No. Running. From a strange patch of rain and fog further up the road, out of place for the lush and luminous sylvan glade this is supposed to be.

"Hey, smart people." Ace stops to put one foot back, settling into her battle stance. "Does the ocean feed into anything nearby?"

"The closest one is at the port city we came from," Alesha says, drawing her sword. "200 kilometers behind us."

"But that's definitely seawater we smell," Hikaru says.

"And rotten fish," Tayeb adds, gesturing to Shadi - with no small amount of concern - to get into the back of the wagon. His horses champ in nervous dismay.

Hikaru grimaces. "Fae aren't fond of salt."

Ace unshoulders her hammer. "I want to be very clear on one thing here," she says. "If we end up fighting sharks in the middle of the magical fairy forest, I am going to find whoever designed this level, and I am going to shove my entire armored boot up their ass."

"No, definitely not designed this way," Hikaru mutters, almost to himself. "Unless the woods are more lost than we are?"

The lead owlbear sees us and the cart on a road barely wide enough for the cart and someone alongside it - in the way of its clearest path away from the rain of saltwater - and rises to its feet and roars, demanding we step aside. On either side, a redcap tries to find room, running to trample us all before they're trampled.

"Uh," I say, intelligently.

"This is fucked," Sekhmet says, leaping down from the cart and blurring.

There's a pop and a hiss - billowing purple smoke from a smashed oversize eggshell - roars and squeals of pain - the creak of a tree branch -

I look up and Sekhmet is on a branch over the road, looking down into a cloud of thick alchemical smoke that's enveloped the owlbear and its tiny cohort; her eyes are slitted, tracking movement in the cloud, and her nostrils flare. They flick the blood off their blades, and glance at their cloak.

She pokes her hand through a large slash through it. "Asshole gremlin," she mutters. "I liked that cloak."

"Knock them off the path," Alesha says. The lead owlbear leaps out of the smoke cloud and lands - heavily - on Alesha's shield; with a grunt, she shoves it off, shield raised. "And see if they take the chance to escape."

"Good plan in theory," Ace growls. "In practice why should we get nice things?"

One of the redcaps lunges at her feet, only to be thrown back by the force of an arrow through its shoulder.

Sio draws another arrow but doesn't notch it yet, flitting over a fallen tree-trunk with her wings as she advances past the owlbear, eyes scanning the forest for targets of opportunity.

"Step off the path if you need room to maneuver but do not leave sight of it," she barks.

Alesha whips her head back. "But you said -"

Sio laughs, more crazed and tense than mirthful. "- stepping out's how the fae notice us, how we draw aggro. We have aggro already. The only way out is through the road."

I glance at Ace - still sleeping badly from the last fight. I take a deep breath, and exhale it, shaping it through sacred gestures into healing winds around the frontline of Ace, Alesha, and myself.

Ace stiffens for a second before loosening up again. "Thanks," she mutters, in no particular direction.

My heart skips a beat.

But there's no time for distractions.

"Okay," I say. "To push through most efficiently, we should..."

I look at the redcap that assailed Alesha.

And grin.

Sometimes the obvious move is the right one.

"GRYPHON!" I push off; my legs fold up under me. "TALON!" I extend them, my sash and my tails streaming behind me as Ifly through the air. 

"KIIIIIIICK!"

For a moment, I think I've landed squarely on its arm... but it rolls its back, unnaturally fluid, and throws me off.  

I land in a crouch in glaive's reach of it. At least it's distracted.

Ace blinks at me for a half second before shaking her head and launching herself towards my furry, feathered foe. She swings the hammer low, and raises it up, putting all of her strength into one massive blow.

The hammer slams under the monster's chest, lifting it up and throwing it, bodily, heavily, onto one of the sprites fleeing in our direction and the tail of a seedling. There's a horrible squelching noise, and the sound of breaking glass, as the sprite is flattened underneath the bulk of the owlbear; the wounded seedling screams pain and squirms out, dripping sap and rosewater from it's crushed tail, darting into the woods and out of the fight.

"AND STAY DOWN," she ki-ai's at the owlbear.

The ursine beast responds in kind. The noise from its throat is a warbling growl that could not be produced by either a bear or owl alone, and it blows my tails and hair back, and Ace's too.

Ace keeps yelling. "BITCH, GREMLIN MADE WORSE NOISES WHEN HIS DINNER WAS LATE-"

A deceptively quick claw slams into Ace's back, and she drops to the ground heavily, chin hitting a flagstone and her back cracking in a way that definitely isn't therapeutic. Adding further injury to the insult, a sprite flits past, points a glowing limb, and singes her tail with a hurled ember.

As she groans her pain I hiss in sympathy, and hope her armor protected her from the worst.

There's a flash and a crack, in that order, as a bolt of lightning flies from a sprite in the backline taking a potshot at Sio. It tumbles, twists in midair towards Ace.

She grits her teeth and sets the metal pommel of her hammer into the earth, the metal head straight up.

Lightning flows down the hammer, and through her hand - and out, through the grounding.

Ace hisses "I hate this game, I hate this game, I hate this game..." and I wince.

Hikaru steps forward, takes a deep breath, closes his eyes - and opens his third, his normal pair black flecked with stars. "Some kind of magical interference where the salt rain drips in, roughly hemispherical..." he mutters. "The seawater's eroding the wards on the road, but they're still live for now. We need to move quickly."

"Getting away good. Okay," Ace grunts into the ground.

"Got it. We'll be pushing forward," Alesha says, striking her shield with her sword.

I nod. "Which means pushing the monsters off the road."

"Naturally. Levin-pilum!"

Hikaru steps forward and sweeps his staff at the monsters, and fires a lightning bolt of his own, the golden current twisting to avoid us and seek the foe. The redcap next to you ducks and covers, the bolt sailing a foot above his face. The owlbear is not so lucky and gets hammered, and I see bits of its skeleton illuminated from the inside and smell burnt fur and feathers. It screams.

Two seedlings leap between the trees, one trying to whip Sio in the face with its tail - as a distraction from it chucking an enchanted seed into the tree behind her. She's buffeted by the tail and backpedals, but manages to twist around and avoid an erupting pillar of thorny vines just in time. The other lands on the owlbear Ace used as a croquet ball, dropping golden glowing pollen into its fur, before bounding off it to sling something sharp into my cheek.

I hiss, but it's more painful than harmful.

Alesha rushes forward shield first, trying to scoop up and throw the redcap next to you into a tree. It jumps off the shield, crouching against the tree, brandishing scythe-like arm blades.

Positioning her between the owlbear, and Ace.

And me.

"Ace, Deedee," she says softly. "I've got you both."

She points her sword to the owlbear, then draws its eyes from the point up to her own eyes by raising the blade, then slams her shield twice.

The owlbear turns to face her

And then, crackling purple energy swirls on the ground near your party, describing a circle about as wide as I could leap - under the owlbear, one sprite, and Ace. Three invisible hands filled the magic circle in with geometric shapes and a cursive script I couldn't understand.

It didn't do anything, yet, but it was lying there. Humming. Gathering power.

Hikaru looks at it, then up, past it - and shudders. "Thank you for buying us time," he says to us. "I think... I think I know what caused this, and we might need it."

"Fuck me running," Ace says, struggling to rise.