Tiana POV

"What's a Hevelm?" Julian asked.

Sam looked around my old bedroom as he said, "It's a horrible monster that uses your own nightmares and dreams against you. This way it doesn't have to worry about hunting its prey. Now the more important question: why is one here?"

I looked back under my bed and pulled out a chest, "Mother put one here years ago as a guardian. It usually stayed in the dungeon and was satisfied by whatever was thrown down there. The thing must of broken free after I left, but at least we know where everybody is."

"Oh, and where would that be?" Eva asked. She crossed her arms over her chest as I unlocked the magical chest that had been hidden under my bed.

I didn't look up as I started to pass out the weapons that had been in it, "Either in that thing's stomach or out in the forest. Whichever it is we better move fast." Julian gripped his sword in two hands while Trevor clutched his maces. Sam had a spear and Evan had a bow and arrows.

Eva looked furious, "Where's my weapon?" I rolled my eyes as I placed the chest in my knapsack. Luckily it was like putting the stuff in a storage chamber. No one had time to answer as another roar came from the Hevelm.

"That one sounded a lot closer," Julian whimpered.

I went over to him and smacked him, "It only sounds closer because you fear it being closer. Now focus and let's get out of here." Sam nodded and we began the descent down the stairs. Another roar sounded, but it didn't sound like that of a Hevelm in a hunt.

"Oh no," I whispered. Before any of them could ask what was wrong I was running down the stairs laughing.

Ian called from above, "Have you gone insane?" I ignored him and started to go even faster. It was easy going to the main hall where the noise was coming from. Another roar sounded and as Evan, Sam and the others came around the corner I stopped them. I whispered a spell and began to glide into the room.

A Hevelm's corpse sat in the corner and on one of the tables a lion was dancing about. He stopped and blew into a horn making a sound much like that of a Hevelm. I silently came up from behind him and grabbed his arms.

The lion gave a yelp of surprise and dropped the horn. He started to twist about as I pinned his arms behind his back. His mane brushed my face as he roared his defiance. I called for my friends and they came in just as dispersed with the invisiblity spell.

"Help! Scarecrow! Tin Man! Help me, I'm going to die," the lion cried. I raised an eyebrow, but heard the clink of metal and the rustle of straw. As I turned around I brought the lion with me.

"We're not going to hurt anyone, calm down," I yelled at the lion's companions. Sam then fell back laughing as the lion stopped struggling.

I looked at Sam as he asked, "Let me guess: your name is Lion." The lion's ear flicked in annoyance as he looked at his companions. He leaned forward and I released his arms. The lion cried out as he fell onto the floor with a soft thump.

An actual scarecrow walked over to the lion and helped him up while a tin man watched us. "Cowardly Lion, why were you making that awful noise?" the scarecrow asked.

Cowardly Lion looked down, "I was just having fun, Scarecrow." Scarecrow began to chide the lion as they walked back to their friend. Only the tin man seemed to notice us.

I looked at my friends and shrugged we began to walk away when the tin man said, "Halt! Why are you here?"

I turned toward the tin man and smiled sweetly, "That's none of your business." Then I led the others out of the crumbling stronghold.


Evan POV

I was glad that we didn't have to fight that thing in the corner. But the names Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion sounded familiar. It was strange having seen a Hevelm and being grateful it was dead. The thing was quite majestic in a cruel way.

"Looks like Dorothy Gale from Kanas wasn't crazy after all," Julian nudged Trevor. They both chuckled as we entered the courtyard. The horses weren't there, except Sam's.

Tiana looked around, "That lion must have scared away our mounts with his rucus." Sam nodded and went over to his horse, what was its name again?

As I was about to start walking Tiana's hands began to glow with a silver fire. She started to chant something and the ground began to rise. Skeletal horses came out as the dirt fell off of their bones and fire began to take shapes of manes and tails.

"Necromancy," Eva spat. I was startled as fur began to cover the bones and saddles covered their backs. The first skeleton horse shook its head and made the fiery mane lick the air above it and around.

"How dare you use the black arts?" Eva screamed at Tiana as she went up and patted the lead horse's nose.

"There is no black art for sorcery, everything is open for me," She said as she turned toward Eva. "This is the only way we'll be able to travel now that our horses are gone and we'll make better time."

Eva glared at Tiana, "No way am I going to ride one of those things."

Tiana smiled, "Oh, then I guess I'll have to leave you here where another Hevelm waits." Eva ran for one of the horses and mounted. Her eyes were wide with fear as she glanced between the stronghold and her mount.

Tiana mounted and motioned for us to do the same. As soon as we mounted our skeletal horses rode out the gates and into the Dark Forest. We went a bit slower than our mounts liked so Sam's horse could keep up with us.

As we came closer and closer to being out of the Dark Forest Shadow sped up so we could go faster. I looked at Tiana and noticed she was riding bareback with her hands gripping the fiery mane of her horse. My heart pounded as I realized the fire didn't hurt Tiana's hands.

Eventually, we stopped and dismounted our horses. The process reversed itself as the horses sank back into the ground. Tiana pulled out the chest which had held our weapons and pulled out tents.

"How does it do that?" I asked.

Tiana looked up, "My mother gave it to me as a birthday present. She said if I ever needed anything the chest would provide it. So far that's proven true." She placed her chest back in her knapsack, which could only be magical, and began setting up the tents.

Julian looked at Tiana, "What are we going to eat? The horses had our food on their saddles." Tiana looked up and smiled.

"I packed more food in this knapsack, hang on." Tiana placed the bag down and began to pull a box from inside of it. She pried it open and passed out some bread, cheese and water to everyone. We ate in silence and I volunteered for first watch tonight.

Tiana didn't argue and crawled into her tent, "Wake me around midnight." I nodded and set my back to the tree that Shadow was tied to. The watch was empty and when I woke up Tiana I went to sleep.

In my dream I saw fire coming straight at me, I rolled out of the way and it followed me. A girl in black was controlling it with a girl in purple next to her. I pulled out a sword and charged at the duo. Nothing would let me stop and I kept charging.

Fear showed in their eyes as I thrust my sword toward the girl in purple's heart. I slashed through mist and behind me I saw the girl and she sent a ball of water at me. It sent me crashing to the floor where it turned to ice and froze me in place. The girl in black then set a fireball at my head.

I woke up in a sweat as Tiana poked her head through saying breakfast was ready. She frowned, "Are you all right?" I nodded and she left me to get dressed with clothes she'd brought me from her chest of wonders.

Outside Eva, Julian, Trevor and Sam waited with Tiana in different clothes, Julian wore a brown shirt and leggings along with Julian making them look old-fashioned while Eva wore riding boots, a white shirt, which I found out later is called a tunic, and black leggings. Sam and Tiana wore what they'd worn the other day.

We dined on some meat, water and cheese. What was with all the cheese? Then we began to walk with Sam leading Shadow.

"Why don't you just summon those horses again?" Julian asked.

"Because we're nearing the end of the forest and they wouldn't be able to take the sunlight. Also, we'll all get sore from riding horse back for three days straight if I did," Tiana replied without stopping.

Sam looked at her, "Not to mention it'll weaken you even more." Tiana didn't stop, but sped up.

I walked up to Sam, "What do you mean?"

"When someone casts a spell, it uses some of their energy. If they don't rest enough they'll eventually be weakened with exhaustion," Sam explained. I looked at Tiana's white hair in the ponytail, why didn't she say something about it?

I looked at Sam, "Doesn't the same apply to Eva?" He shook his head and said it only affects sorcerers. We walked on in silence. Tiana shouted out how close we were getting to being out of the forest. When she announced that she could see the exit my heart raced waiting for the sunlight.

"Wait," I shouted up to her. Tiana turned around as I asked, "Where are we going?"

She pulled out the note, "We're looking for someone in a town nearby." I raised an eyebrow, but she turned and started to jog down the path toward the exit. The sun looked heavenly as we ran out of the Dark Forest and into a meadow. It made no sense that something so beautiful was next to something so ugly.

Tiana didn't join in our enthusiasm about the sun, but walked on. She moved toward a place where vultures circled overhead. Our original mounts lay dead with slashes along their flanks. Tiana dug graves for them, thanked them for their service and apologized for their fates.

She then collapsed to her knees after the horses were buried.


Sam POV

Evan called me and I walked over to him with Shadow's reins tight in my hands. He kneeled next to Tiana. Her body was racked with tears and her pale skin was paler from exhaustion. Evan and I made a silent agreement before lifting Tiana onto Shadow's saddle and walking back to the main road where the others waited.

Eva's face became flushed with anger when she saw Tiana on Shadow. She began to complain until Tiana silenced her. We began to walk down the road when Tiana fell asleep with her arms wrapped around Shadow's neck, tears still streamed down her face for some reason I didn't know.

I let her sleep until we came upon a fork road, "Which way?" Tiana opened an eye and pointed to the right before sleep overcame her again. We followed her directions until we came upon a human town.

She woke up as we entered, her skin was back to its normal color as she dismounted and led us through the town. We passed a temple of Mav, the god of healing and light, and quite a few inns. Tiana led us to a stable and left Shadow there before entering an inn called Dragon's Way.

Before Tiana could ask for a few rooms there a boom came from nearby. We looked to a wall that had just been blown apart. A woman in black stood there with fireballs in her hands.