He pulled away staring deep into my eyes. I felt his gaze deep in my soul—even with the little light that was left. He reached down and wrapped his arm around my legs and lifted me into his arms. I wrapped mine around his neck and rested my head on his shoulder as he stepped into the black ink filled chasm, toward the world mortals could never see.
The blackness was thick and soft and just as liquid as it appeared. Marren’s steps remained sure. The liquid didn’t even make us wet. With the fading of the rushing water that had filled my ears as soon as he walked through, a new sound took its place. The sound of a forest, awakened and moving, just like on the mortal realm. With birds singing, flapping wings, hooting of animals in the distance, and a shallow sound of a waterfall close by.
I held onto Marren as he stopped outside of the cave mirroring the entrance on the other side. Although on this side of the entrance, figures depicting all the Ancients stood guard to protect the magic this realm offered.
Everything appeared as it was on the mortal realm with only a few differences. This place was wild and free. Lacking in the control of human hands that governed where trees would grow and where houses would sit.
Marren lowered my legs to let me stand on my own, keeping a hold of my hand. I stared in awe at everything lined in a bluish-green glow and much brighter than the mortal realm’s auras. Even the stars burned brighter and the moon more brilliant.
Sounds of strange birds filled the night air as unseen creatures skirted in between the trees. Upon the mountains around us were a few glowing lights of fires. Even the scent of the forest was thick with a sweet and heady bouquet carrying on a slight breeze.
“What do you think?” Marren asked, bringing my hand to his lips for a kiss.
“No words can describe what I think.”
He chuckled under his breath.
“Come on, the others are waiting for us. See them? Up the road ahead?” He pointed ahead of us.
I peered down the road finding a small group of huddled figures. They waited for us to join them with aura’s faintly lined in bluish-green. I nodded. Marren pulled me behind him while I took in everything surrounding me, overcome with the magnificence and beauty.
“Follow me and stay close. We will likely bump into some unpleasant things on the way to our home.”
I clung to him tightly as we walked slowly. The path ended abruptly as small tendrils of dirt fingered into the line of trees that stopped the path from going farther. Marren stepped through, pulling on my hand, but I didn’t move. He glanced over his shoulder. His eyes were full of worry. What is wrong?
The path just…ends?
He let out a chuckle, forcing my heart to dance. “This is for our protection, in case someone manages to get through.”
“I thought it was impossible for a mortal to get through?”
“Mortals aren’t the only thing we need to worry about here. Besides, it would be really hard for a mortal to pass through the crossover without getting lost. It can be a very disorienting experience. The last thing we want is for someone to happen upon our world and go off telling others.”
He turned to face me, his dark hair falling along his shoulders. His dark skin shone silvery in the moon’s light. But his face, the wolf part, was increasingly shadowed. His eyes beckoned me, and his excitement and elation to be home filled me.
Such unreasonable anxieties I had. I was one of them, not some mortal who happened to glimpse the world not meant for them. I smiled, the sharp points of my teeth biting into my lip slightly and uprooted my feet from the ground they seemed attached to as I walked through the boundary of trees.
***
We walked for what seemed like hours. I paused to stare at strange flowers and inhaled their perfumes, some of which Marren had stopped me from doing, saying something to the effect of being killed by the poisonous fumes or getting a festering wound from a thorn.
“You need to teach me about your world and its secrets before I roam into a dragon-occupied cave and find myself eaten.”
“That would be extremely hard to do.” There was a chuckle he tried to hide in his words. “Dragons no longer exist, even in our realm.”
“Oh, how sad.”
“That’s a consequence of what we had to endure before the move here.”
Our conversation ended as a part in the trees opened up to a clearing. As we continued through, I noticed a number of paths led up to a set of stairs, one for each path, which rose to a large round pavilion. The pillars gleamed in the moonlight, topped by another band of stone, round and hollow in the center. On the platform, a round table carved from the same stone stood in the middle, followed the same design. I imagined what its use was for. Surrounding the table were chairs, carved from the ground up. Each had a unique design and was extremely intricate.
“Dwarven craftsmanship, lass. Finest in this or any other realm!” Raden’s voice boomed through the clearing, over the trees and bounced against the mountains and then returned to us.
“Indeed, the most impressive detail I’ve seen yet,” I agreed.
“Or ever will,” he added.