The bear looked at us as if we were nuts.
We went on singing.
He began backing away, then—in a shimmer—suddenly a tall, handsome man stood there, wearing a fur cloak, no shirt, and a pair of trousers. He had hair that flowed down his back, long and black with a wave that looked like it was straight out of the salon, and his eyes glowed—a deep frosty blue. He had a five o’clock shadow, and a mustache that was just the right thickness. On his head, he wore an autumn wreath of leaves and rowan berries.
I stopped singing, and the others followed suit.
“What on earth is that racket?” he asked, his voice a low, sultry tone.
I couldn’t pull my eyes away from him. He was just so yummy it was hard to look away. I normally didn’t base my reactions to people on their looks, but I couldn’t look away. He was so…so…earthy.
“Quit drooling,” Thornhold said, jabbing me lightly in the ribs. “Answer the man.”
“I’m…we were singing. We thought you were going to attack, so we wanted to warn you off before…” My words drifted off. I cleared my throat, trying to clear my head as well. “I’m Erenye, and these are my friends.”
The bear shifter stared at me, then he laughed. “I’m Otsiano, the Guardian of the Forest. Or rather, the Guardian of the Crystal Forest.”
Crystal Forest?Nobody had said anything about the Crystal Forest.
“I thought we were in the Dark Woodland,” I said.
“You are. But there are hidden Waypoints, ones that only appear at certain times. And you have wandered right next to one.” And with that, he smiled again. “And now, you are going to accompany me to my realm, and we’re all going to have a little talk.”
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.
