Pak

　　"Sunlight&"

　　Kano crests a rocky ridge just ahead of me, and as the word leaves his lips, he falters. I nearly stumble into him. The sunlight peeks in from the world outside, beseeching us to come and bathe in it. Kano looks at me and takes my hand. We run as fast as we can go. Cabbage zooms ahead of us, eclipsing the growing light - soft, warm late-afternoon light, casting a scatter of leaf-shaped shadows across the mouth of the cave. The cavern opens wide, and we stumble into a grassy meadow. Kano collapses into the grass, panting, laughing, crying. I fall to his side. He cradles me in his shoulder, and the sunlight warms us together.

　　"Where do you think we are?" he asks. I prop myself up on my elbows, glancing around. Dirt, trees, leaves, branches, clusters of mushrooms& I rake my mind for anything I can recall about the woodlands, but there isn`t much. Forest natives rarely leave them, and outsiders rarely go in. The information in my Cultures class was even more scant than what they taught about the Du閚, and who knows how accurate. The trees here brush against each other, and dense canopies cover the sky. I can`t see anything but forest, and the more I pay attention, the more I can`t discern where the sunlight is coming from. We`re nowhere near Iridan. The forest is too thick, untouched by loggers. The air smells vaguely sweet, like magic mingling with fruit. Apples, maybe.

　　"The only forests I can think of are Belethlian and Yelind& I`m drawing a blank, otherwise."

　　"I thought Belethlian got burned down?"

　　I shrug. "It`s been a couple centuries since that. It probably grew back."

　　"Wait& Really? It can just grow back?"

　　"There are seeds under the dirt all the time. Fire can`t get through the dirt."

　　"That`s so-"

　　Kano cuts himself off. His face grows dark, and his eyes shift beneath the shade of his brow. He sits up all the way and takes my hand.

　　"What`s wrong?"

　　He stays quiet. A cloud rolls over the light, or so it seems, though I can`t see any clouds. Just the absence of light.

　　"Where did the cave go&?"

　　"What?"

　　I turn to look at the wide-open mouth of the cave - where we just came from - and it`s gone. It`s nothing but vines and roots covering up a rock wall.

　　"I don`t like this," Kano whispers.

　　The trees around us seem to stiffen, rustling leaves as if in a breeze, but the air is still and empty.

　　"Where`s Cabbage?" I say, surging with panic, scrambling to my feet. I turn in circles, but he`s nowhere. "Cabbage!" I call, my voice cracking, echoing as if I were shouting in a big, empty house.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it`s taken without the author`s consent. Report it.

　　"Cabbage!" I call again, but there is no response.

　　"Pak," Kano says, taking my arm. "We have to stay quiet, okay? We don`t know what`s out here." His voice carries a superficial calm. The ground around us shivers, like the roots beneath us are stirring from a restless dream. I feel it in the soles of my feet.

　　"What are we supposed to do?" I whisper.

　　"...I don`t know, but - but just take a minute to breathe, okay? Nice and slow&"

　　He guides my hand to my belly, keeping his hand on top.

　　"Breathe into here," he says. "Nice and slow with me. In&"

　　I take a deep breath, our hands moving together like a boat over gentle waves.

　　"...and out."

　　I let my breath go, and a bit of the tension goes with it. He guides me through a few more rounds of this, until the terror releases its grip on my heart. The ground calms down, and the leaves go quiet. The sunlight peeks through again.

　　"I`m sure Cabbage is fine," Kano says. "Isn`t he, like, immortal or something, anyway?"

　　"I mean& probably?"

　　Kano pulls me into a hug. "We`re going to be okay," he says. "We`ll find Cabbage, and we`ll find somewhere to settle and build a house and start a garden and a shelter for animals - all that stuff we talked about, it`s still going to happen. We`ve been through way too much to let some spooky forest take us down. And I haven`t had a chance to tear your clothes off yet. Do you have any idea how long I`ve been wanting to do that?"

　　I grin, cheeks flushing. He kisses my forehead.

　　"Which way do we go, then?" I ask. From the corner of my eye, I notice shifting in the foliage. Branches part in the air, and serpentine vines hedge out the dead undergrowth, clearing an obvious trail.

　　"Uh& Should we trust it?"

　　I take a deep breath. I haven`t noticed any other sinister movements. The sun is still showing. The trees are still calm.

　　"I wish Cabbage was here," I say. "He`d know."

　　"Yeah, he would&"

　　"I don`t see what other choice we have."

　　"If something out here wanted to hurt us, I doubt we`d get away from it just by getting ourselves lost somewhere else," Kano says. I nod, and he takes my hand.

　　"I still have the knife if we need it."

　　"Here`s to hoping we won`t..."

　　Cabbage

　　What the mortals didn`t know was that Cabbage was right there, hopping along at their heels. The dense magic that permeated Belethlian had swallowed Cabbage`s corporeal form (being that his corporeal form was, itself, pure magic), just like a drop of water swallowed by the ocean. But his essence was still present.

　　The path the forest opened was peculiar, even to Cabbage, but so far, he hadn`t sensed any real maleficence. It was no worse than the Dream, in that respect, but it was just as tiresome. So, he gave a frustrated huff and followed the mortals, tail flicking and thumping against the ground. It did pain him to see his favorite person so worried for him, but at least the red-furred idiot was there to calm him down. Dumb as he was, at least he was useful for that.