Vol 1 Chapter 28 (1/2)

Chapter 8

Parn and the others left the city of Alan three days after news of the downfall of Kanon had reached the city Trusting Deedlit, they had decided to go through the forest to Valis

At first, of course, Slayn had opposed the plan He was scared of the Forest of No Return That frightening naends and old wives’ tales In truth, for hundreds of years, no one who had entered the forest had ever been seen again Any number of heroes and adventurers had tried their luck in the forest in that time But all of them had shared the saed — year after year, it was the sa to hold the many lives it had sed up as a menace As Ghim had said, rumor had it that the forest drew its power from an ancient elven curse

No one knew if that was true, except perhaps for the victims who had disappeared into the Forest

That dark forest looht of the party On their third day out fro along the highway, showing no signs of leading them into the Forest

“Here it is!” Deedlit’s cheery voice rang out when they had been following the highway south for two days Hearing the glum responses of her companions, sheout frohway

A narrow path stretched frohway to the woods Slayn couldn’t believe his eyes, wondering who in the world would ever use such a path

“The path I told you about lies ahead But remember this: once we’re in the forest, we can’t afford to stop And try not to get too surprised Strong emotions have a bad influence on the trees”

“As long as we keep that in mind, we’ll be fine?” Parn was unable to hide his worry

“Just keep that in et to Valis safe and sound,” said Deedlit, looking straight into Parn’s eyes “We need to hurry”

As they drew closer to the Forest of No Return, the little group’s fear grew stronger But it was too late to turn back

They must have walked the little path towards the woods for about an hour Finally, they entered the Forest of No Return Close up, it didn’t seee place - just an ordinary forest But they couldn’t help feeling that the place had an increasingly evil aura to it

At the end of the little trail greo tall conifers They looked like twins — their height, the thickness of their trunks, even the shape of their branches was the saateway

“Here it is We go through here” Deedlit’s voice was filled with an irrepressible joy “Follow the instructions I gave you And under no circuet caught in the ancient elven ic”

Having said her piece, Deedlit turned toward the forest and cried out loudly in the elven tongue, “Fome alanis katulu!”

Soe seemed to happen between the twin trees The scenery between the two changed, and a golden light shone out

“Follow ate closes” With these words, Deedlit slipped into the golden light

Steeling himself, Parn followed in her footsteps Next, Eto, Ghim, and Woodchuck ran after him Slayn was last He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and ran into the golden light after them

“Ahh!” bu, Slayn almost dropped his staff When he opened his eyes, he was staring at Woodchuck’s black-clad back

“Don’t startleto have a heart attack” Woodchuck turned to complain

“Where are we?” Slayn was so fascinated by his surroundings that he conored Woodchuck’s words

They were in a shi+ning gold forest The short evergreen trees shone gold in the sunlight The thorny bushes and fern thickets they had seen from the outside seemed to have vanished without a trace The thick cushi+on of leaves on the forest floor eased their tired feet

“This is the Forest of No Return?” Parn gulped down his saliva and spoke in a shaking voice “It looks like another world”

Another world! Slayn finally realized what Parn was saying

“I see This is really another world Right, Deedlit?”

Slayn was shouting in his exciteround repeatedly with his staff, as if to make sure it was really there, then stared up at the sky

There was no sun in the sky Instead, the whole sky shone

“What do you mean?” Parn looked at Slayn

Watching Deedlit, as in front of the group, Slayn slowly pieced a sentence together

“This isn’t coe, but the world is made up of three different planes One of thees call it the material world The second one is the world where the spirits live It is broken up in turn into several different planes, but collectively, we refer to it as the spirit world And finally, there’s a world which forms the link between the physical world and the spirit world This is the so-called fairy world That is where we are right now”

“If you know that, I could have explained it I ondering whether hu a bit ashamed “It’s as you say This is the world of fairies”

“So tell me, Deedlit Is it not true that elves lost their homeland? I had heard that they had tied theer at home in the fairy world If that’s true, ere you able to bring us here?”