Page 12 of Solivagant

It took longer than I’d hoped to find what I was looking for. A soul deer large enough to carry me. There were deer in Jem’s world too, though even the largest of those were a third of the size of a soul deer. His deer had two eyes and four legs. Soul deer had two front legs and four hind ones, all covered in glowing runes peeking out from short fur. They also had five eyes—two sets and one vertical eye in the center. Their antlers were bigger than ours even though we’d stolen the feature from them. Like huge tree branches, covered in their own glowing soul flowers.

They were wild, and they were dangerous. But so was I.

When I finally found the one I’d been seeking, it put up a desperate fight. I had to absorb four flowers from my horns before I managed to wrestle it into submission. Then we were passing through the Weeping Woods as fast as a stormbird, racing against time to get out to the cursed lands.

The bones were the first sign I was near. They were a warning. Belonging to beasts, elves, birds, and Benygal.

The life was sucked from the woods. Greens and purples turned to browns and blacks. The colors of death and rot. The sweet scent of honey blooms and whisper blossoms replaced by pungent decay.

Then were the runes. Carved into trees, and into the bones that hung from lifeless branches.

The soul deer beneath me tried to pull away, its instincts warning it against entering here. I steered it onward.

Further, until the decay once again gained color and life. It was unexpected. There was a clear line in the ground between the wet mud and lush grass. A perfect circle of life in the clearing with a small house in the center.

It had been centuries since I’d been here last, and I certainly didn’t recognize this place.

The stag didn’t need to be told where to go, the circle of life a beacon it happily followed. I dismounted, letting it graze in the long grass and flowers as I approached the small home alone.

Smoke billowed from a fireplace, and the shuffle of feet as I knocked on the door told me someone was definitely inside.

Despite it certainly not being her aesthetic, I was hopeful that the witch I was here for would be the one to greet me. She wasn’t.

The red-painted door opened just enough for me to catch sight of a shadow elf before she also caught sight of me and attempted to slam it closed again. My hand prevented her from doing so. My strength exceeded hers and she was thrown backward as I pushed my way inside.

“Don’t eat me!” she cried, hands held up in defense.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking around the small area inside the home. The shelves were overflowing with herbs, books, fungi, and flowers.

“I… I live here?”

“Why do you live here?”

“What?”

“Why do you live here?” I snarled. “Here, of all places?”

“Why can’t I?”

My lip pulled up as I bared my teeth at her. She took a step back, then another.

Shadow elves were larger than humans, only in height, but she was still shorter than I was. She wore simple garments on her lithe frame. I definitely had the physical advantages between us. But shadow elves usually resided deep in the forests or underground. They lived in communities for protection. She was alone, out here in the open. And the area surrounding her home told me she was a magic user.

“The witch who owns this land wouldn’t let a shadow elf take up residence here, and certainly not another magic wielder.”

“What witch?” she asked, frightened and confused.

I didn’t buy it. Something wasn’t right here. “Where is she?”

“I know of no witch!”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I swear it.”

I took a step closer, and she quickly retreated, dashing further into the home. I followed, shoving crudely made furniture out of my path as she ran for the small adjoining room.

Only the room wasn’t small at all. The moment I stepped through the doorway of what I’d clearly seen was a small bedroom, the room morphed. The ceiling rose, the walls expanded. The rich moonlight pouring through the window blacked out entirely.