Chapter 34 The Crystal Forest
“We’re not going anywhere,” Thornhold said. “Not without knowing more about you and the Crystal Forest.”
Otsiano smiled. “Well, we’ll see about that.
We need to talk.” He turned, nodding over his shoulder for us to follow him.
At that moment, a group of warriors walked out of the woodland.
They reminded me of Elves, but there was something slightly different about them.
Something almost feral. They took out their bows, aiming them toward us.
“All right, come on,” Otsiano said.
I glanced at the others and nodded. “Do as he says.”
I wasn’t sure if Otsiano was a Sym or an actual employee, and until we knew, it was best to play along. But at least I didn’t get any negative vibes from him.
As we fell in line behind him, the archers fell in step behind us. There were ten of them, and I could tell they knew what they were doing. If we tried to fight them off, we’d be in trouble.
“Are you sure about this?” Thornhold whispered to me as we walked deeper into the woods.
“No, but I’m pretty sure we’ll have a fight on our hands if we don’t tag along. We can always use this time to observe him. I don’t get any residue of evil off of him, though, or the men behind us. They’re more chaotic than outright nasty.”
“I hope so,” Thornhold said. He shouldered his ax as we continued to trek along. “At least they didn’t take our weapons from us.”
“This might help us out in the long run,” I said.
“You mean, beneficial for you? You’re attracted to him, I can tell,” Thornhold said.
I blushed. “Maybe so, but that’s not going to get in the way of my instinct. I just feel there’s something valuable that can come out of this meeting. Trust me?”
He chewed on his lip for a moment, then nodded. “Of course.”
We followed the bear shifter through the forest, well off the road, until we came to a clearing.
Within the clearing, sat a circle of stones, each twice as tall as I was.
The inner circle was at least ten feet in diameter, and Otsiano stopped at the base of one of the taller, smoother stones.
It wasn’t marble—but some polished rock that reminded me of a veiny granite.
I thought the base color was made of a milky quartz, but decided to ask later.
The bear shifter placed one hand against the rock and, after a moment, it began to glow with a dark cobalt light.
He walked from the first stone to the next, and then the next, and at each one, he pressed his hand against a specific place.
I leaned closer to the first stone and saw that there were symbols etched into the rock, and he must have held his hand against them.
I didn’t want to mess anything up, so I didn’t get too close, and I sure wasn’t about to touch the stones myself.
After the ring of stones—there were eight total—was glowing like a neon circle, Otsiano turned back to us. “Come with me,” he said, and his men closed in around us, as though they were about to herd us like border collies.
I took a deep breath and reminded myself that we were here to adventure, to explore, and even if we were stuck here, this was a world that was built for the characters we had become.
So, I stepped forward and followed Otsiano into the center of the stone circle.
The others followed me, and the moment we were all inside, sans the spear brigade who had followed us, a brilliant light flashed and everything shifted a step to the right.
“Shades of the Time Warp,” Thornhold said. “That unnerved me. It felt like it did when we were transported into the game.”
I blinked, squinting as the light began to fade and I could see again. I gasped, bringing my hand to my chest.
The forest outside the stone circle reminded me of a magical faerie forest. The woodlands were thick with cedar and fir, maple, and birch, just like the Dark Woodland, but where there was a faint menace behind that woodland, here everything was lit up like it was Christmas.
The trees themselves had a faint glow to them, with each tree’s aura a shade similar to the leaves or needles.
The bare-branched trees of autumn had a pale halo that was rust-colored.
But along the ground, all the mushrooms of the wood were illuminated from within, and they were no longer low to the ground, but knee high.
And scattered among the sprawling undergrowth, crystal shards thrust up from the ground, also glowing from within.
Everywhere we turned, it was as though nature was throwing a massive light show. Even the stars seemed different here.
“It’s so incredible,” I said, unable to look away. “What is this place?”
“Welcome to the Crystal Forest,” Otsiano said. “Enter in peace.”
Brynn started toward one of the mushrooms. It was a fly agaric—one of the red top with white spots kind. The red shimmered under the night sky, as though the shroom was metallic. “I can’t believe this,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything so trippy!”
Ray and Reggie were just standing there, looking from one place to another. Thornhold stood next to me. He reached out and took my hand, squeezing my fingers. I wasn’t sure if he was scared or just unable to take it all in.
“Where do you live?” I asked, looking around. I didn’t see any sort of village nearby, but then again, we were in a small clearing surrounded by what looked like deep woods.
“I live in a small enclave in the forest—about two miles from here,” he said. “We’ll head to my place. I want to warn you about something, and I can only prove it by showing you something here in the Crystal Forest.” He paused, then said, “Liesel called on me.”
“Liesel?” I hesitated. He shouldn’t know about us unless he had talked to either Liesel or Onna and Casper, so I was inclined to believe him.
“I spoke to her yesterday, and she asked me to find you. She gave me information that you need to know about the Necromancer. Now, will you come with me?”
I glanced at the others who had been listening. They nodded. “All right,” I said. “Lead on.”
As we followed him out of the circle, toward a path that led through the trees, I wondered what Liesel could have found out. Hopefully, it would help save us a lot of trouble.
And, I thought, it gave us a chance to see a world I couldn’t even imagine existing. It was probably a secret module in the game that we hadn’t stumbled upon in our usual gameplay. But now…now…we were getting to see it for real.