Chapter 33: The Wild Wood

Military Base East of Arcadia Oaks, January 29th, 2017

"What… where am I?"

Buffy Summers released Merlin and whirled around. "Willow!"

Her best friend was blinking and turning her head back and forth. "Buffy?"

"Willow!" Buffy was at her side - at her bed - in an instant. "You're awake!"

"What happened?" Willow started to sit up, and Buffy helped her - those army infirmary beds couldn't be very comfortable. "Where are we?"

"We're in the army base near Arcadia Oaks. And what happened… Morgana possessed Claire and cursed you and the others with a magic sleep spell."

"A sleeping curse," Merlin cut in, then coughed and rubbed his throat.

Buffy scoffed - she hadn't gripped him that strongly! She had just choked him a little. "That's what I said," she told the old geezer.

"A curse?" Willow gasped.

"I broke it," Merlin said. "Despite the Slayer's best efforts to throttle me for it."

"Buffy!"

"He drove his staff into your chest!" Buffy defended herself. "It looked bad. And I didn't hurt him."

"My bruised throat would disagree."

"You got cursed to death by Morgana but you worry about a little bruising?" Buffy frowned.

"You got cursed to death?" Willow gasped. "Wait, Morgana possessed Claire?" She whipped her head around. "Tara!"

"She's sleeping as well. All of you on the roof were cursed, but with a sleeping curse," Buffy repeated herself. "But after we killed Glory, Morgana attacked us and cursed Merlin."

"But Claire fought her, and forced her to flee," Jim said.

"Tara! Tara!" Willow tried to slip out of the bed. Buffy moved to stop here, then hesitated. She had been asleep for only a few hours, not a months-long coma, but…

"Calm down, young witch," Merlin said, leaning against the wall. "They are not harmed and will not be harmed by the curse, and we have more urgent problems. We need to gain access to your families trapped in the Shadow Realm before Morgana takes them hostage."

"We need to wake up Tara! And Xander! And Blinky! And we need to heal you!"

Buffy nodded at Willow's priorities.

"We cannot afford to. I am at death's door - the scant remains of my magic are all that keep me alive," Merlin replied. "And you do not know how to break the curse - and avoid the traps Morgana placed in the enchantment. She was quite devious; she must have spent considerable time planning for this."

"You broke the curse on me!" Willow retorted. "Show me how to do it!"

"That would take time that we do not have," Merlin protested. "And they would not be of any help, anyway. I need some of your power to open a way to the Shadow Realm."

Willow glared at the wizard. "I said show me how to break the curse!"

That was Willow's resolve face. Buffy almost felt pity for Merlin. Almost - leaving their friends in cursed sleep? You didn't do that!

"I cannot teach you a complex curse-breaking method in a day, and we do not have a day to waste." Merlin shook his head, then winced.

"I don't need a day! Show me!"

"I do not have the power left to waste on a demonstration." Merlin shook his head, then coughed again. Buffy really hadn't gripped him that hard. Right, Morgana's curse.

"Take some of mine, then!" Willow snapped.

"I would not waste that on people who are of no immediate use right now. We have to set priorities."

"I can spare the power. Do it!" Willow held out her hands, palm forward, to Merlin.

Who looked a little confused, Buffy noticed.

"What?" Willow scowled. "Grab them! We're just two, but it's enough for a closed link."

"That's not how you drain magic power."

"That's how we share power - by linking hands and joining each other," Willow told him. "Follow my lead!"

Merlin looked like he wanted to object further but held out his hand. Willow gripped it, closed her eyes and started mumbling a prayer to Hecate.

"This isn't working," Merlin complained.

"You're blocking me. Open yourself to me."

"That's not how it works."

"That's how it works! Open yourself - lower your barriers. I'm not your enemy."

Not unless Merlin insisted on leaving Tara and Xander cursed, at least, Buffy mentally added.

"You…"

"You're dying - what do you have to lose?" Buffy asked him.

He snorted in return. "Very well."

Willow started mumbling the prayer again. And their joined hands began to glow.

Merlin's eyes widened. "By the Order! This…" He took a deep, shivering breath. "This is…"

"Power," Willow said. "Now show me how to break the curse!"

Merlin released one of her hands and grabbed his staff. "Very well. Watch, then."

He held the staff out over Tara's sleeping body. And, once more, the green mist appeared, glowed, and Merlin drove the staff down.

And Tara's eyes flew open as she gasped.

"Tara!" Willow released Merlin's hand, leaving the old wizard to shudder and sit down on her former bed while she hugged her girlfriend. "You're back!"

"What… What happened? I remember Glory, and we were…"

"We killed Glory, but Morgana possessed Claire and cursed you," Buffy explained once more while Willow hugged Tara. "And we need to save our families before she subdues Claire and enters the Shadow Realm to grab the Key." When Willow glanced at her, Buffy shrugged.

Merlin was right about the fact that they couldn't waste time - he was just wrong about what was a waste of time.


"Alright, I think I got it now," Willow said.

"You think?" Merlin raised his eyebrows. Willow and Tara sharing their magic with him hadn't really improved his attitude, in James Lake Jr's opinion.

Willow frowned. "I am pretty sure, yes," she replied.

"That generally doesn't cut it when it comes to competently cast curses." The wizard scoffed.

"It does in this case. I was merely being cautious with my claims," Willow told him.

"It would behove you to be cautious when working magic, not just when talking."

"D-do you want t-to t-take the lead?" Tara asked him.

"It would be safer," Merlin said.

"I can do it," Willow insisted. "I've paid attention - and Morgana might be the second-greatest witch of your time, but that was a thousand years ago. Approximately," she added. "Magic has made some progress since then."

"So you claim. Yet Morgana is the most dire threat to the world."

"She isn't the first dusty, mouldy ancient threat," Buffy cut in. "And the world is still standing. We just defeated Glory."

"With crucial help from Morgana," Merlin retorted.

"After she took you all out." Buffy stood her ground. "We could've done it ourselves."

Jim wasn't quite sure he shared Buffy's view - they had been on their last leg, literally in their case - but he wasn't about to contradict her. Instead, he said: "Whatever you do, do it - we can't lose more time." They had to save mom and the others.

"Quite."

"I can do it. Just watch me, linked with Tara, and step in if you need," Willow suggested.

Merlin sighed but didn't contradict her. Which meant he agreed.

Willow approached Blinky while Tara and Merlin held hands. She took a deep breath, then started chanting - like Merlin had done. Instead of a staff, she held out her hand, and the mist that appeared was pure white. And… was her hair turning lighter?

Jim squinted. It was either glowing or turning lighter, and…

Willow slapped her hand on Blinky's chest with a gasp. A moment later, Blinky groaned. He was waking up!

"Blinky!" Jim rushed to his friend's side.

"Master Jim?" Blink slowly opened his eyes and turned his head until he saw Jim. "You're alive."

"We defeated Glory," Jim told him. "And we didn't lose anyone else, after…" He pressed his lips together. AAARRRGGHH! was dead. Killed by Glory.

Toby sniffled behind Jim.

Blinky sighed. "Aarghaumont will be missed. His sacrifice saved us all, I believe."

"It certainly helped," Merlin said. "But we do not have the time to lament the dead. Morgana has possessed Claire."

Blinky gasped and sat up. "She has taken control of the Fair Claire?"

"Yes. She cursed you and the others and attacked us," Jim filled him in. "But Claire is resisting her - she didn't let the witch kill us."

"She will not be able to resist for long," Merlin said. "We need to reach and evacuate the Shadow Realms before she takes your families hostage."

"But… without her staff…" Blinky trailed off.

"We need to enter the Shadow Realm through another portal - a permanent one," Merlin said. "And for that, we require passage on the Gyre since the only such location I or anyone else is familiar with lays in England."

"And we need to wake up Xander," Willow cut in.

"Then do so."

"Does that mean that you admit that I know what I'm doing?" Willow's smile was very toothy.

Merlin huffed.

But Xander was woken up a minute later, and they only took another ten minutes to get a transport from Major Ellis to return to Arcadia Oaks despite the bad-tempered Colonel's attempts to stop them.

And Jim was even more grateful that they were in an Army vehicle when they reached the town - it was full of police and people in suits, and soldiers. The clinic was swarming with them. It looked like every police and spy agency was there - not that Jim could tell them apart. And… Oh! "We should call Agent Moore and inform him," he blurted out.

"Oops. We totally forgot about him," Buffy said. "That's usually Giles's job."

"Buffy!" Willow gasped.

"Hey! You were cursed, we were beaten up, Claire had all gone demony… It slipped my mind. And Everyone else's!" Buffy replied. "I'm calling him now, happy?" She pulled her phone out and tapped the screen. "Hello? Agent Moore? I've got good news and bad news..."

Jim shook his head and stared at the buildings as they drove past. They had beaten Glory, only to face a worse threat. Or so it seemed. Morgana. And Gunmar.

"Do not despair, Master Jim," Blinky said. "The Fair Claire will not surrender or give up."

"You underestimate Morgana. A mere child will not be able to contest her control of the body for long," Merlin told them.

"Claire's not a mere anything!" Jim snapped. "She saved our lives - I saw her fight Morgana. She's the reason the witch fled."

"A temporary setback," the wizard replied. "We cannot count on a repeat of such an outcome. We have to prepare for the worst."

The worst? They had already prepared… Jim gasped. "You want to kill her."

"As a last resort."

"...and thank you. We'll call you once we know more." Buffy stored her phone, then stared at Merlin. "A last resort? And what will we try before that? Do you have a plan for that?"

"We need to find Morgana's original body and deal with it."

'Deal with it'? Ah!


Wild Wood near Camelot, January 29th, 2017

"You know, this is the second time we had to return to this area for something we wanted to do after passing through," Buffy Summers pointed out as they walked through the forest. "We could've saved a lot of time and hassle if we had just done everything right when we arrived here for the first time."

Merlin turned his head to not quite roll his eyes at her. "Do not blame me for your inefficiencies. You woke me up on your first return, didn't you?"

"We didn't know that we would have to return here," Willow objected.

"Hindsight is always 20/20," Xander added. "Though if this is the way to reach Morgana's frozen body, we could've done that when we were here. Well, you, actually - this is the first time I set foot onto Merry Old England. Weird - I expected Giles to be present for the occasion…" He trailed off, and Buffy glared at him. Giles was in the Shadow Realm. Cut off and possibly in danger from Morgana!

Willow spoke to Merlin again. "You could've said something about this being the way to reach Morgana's body."

"If I did that, Morgana would have taken control of your friend at once - and we would have been forced to fight her without being prepared. I would not have given us good odds for such a battle," the old geezer replied. "The shock of seeing your friend possessed would have kept you from doing what is necessary."

"We're not going to kill Claire!" Jim told him.

"Indeed, we shall not sacrifice the Fair Claire in this struggle," Blinky agreed.

Merlin stared at the two. "Do you honestly think that your friend will survive you, should you fail to vanquish Morgana? She will free her body and then dispose of the girl." He scoffed. "And even if Morgana felt, for some reason, merciful, I doubt your friend would do anything other than attempting to avenge you. With predictable results."

Well, Buffy had to admit - not aloud, of course - that this was likely. She could easily see Claire making a suicide attack on Morgana, given the chance, if Jim and the others were dead. But you didn't kill your friends! You saved them! Just as she had saved Angel. Eventually.

"Claire won't let Morgana kill us! She'll help us defeat the witch!" Jim spat.

"Your trust in your friend is quite touching, but I fear it might be misplaced. Resisting Morgana's control once was already a remarkable feat. To do it twice? And after Morgana had more time to solidify her power over the girl?" Merlin shook his head. "We cannot count on such a thing happening again when we make plans to face her."

"P-plans t-to face her?" Tara asked, "We are going to find Morgana's real body, aren't we?"

"We are. But my former apprentice will not let us do as we please with her body. On the contrary, she will attempt to stop us. And we must prepare for this."

"She shows up, we knock her out." Buffy shrugged. "And you shouldn't underestimate Claire as you underestimated Willow."

Merlin narrowed his eyes at her. And he ignored her reminder that Willow had proved him wrong. "Do you truly expect to be able to easily 'knock out' one of the greatest witches of the world?"

Buffy didn't, actually - things rarely worked out as she wanted them to. See: Angel. Or Riley. But this wasn't the time to be all defeatist. "Won't know until we try. Do you have a better plan?"

"It didn't work well last time," Jim pointed out.

"Last time, we were all hurt, tired and surprised," Buffy retorted.

"Uh… we're still hurt and tired," Toby said.

He and Jim were. Buffy had some bruises left, but her leg was fine. "And we were down to just us two. Now we have everyone!" Willow should be able to give Morgana a run for her money. Or at least hinder her long enough for Buffy to reach her.

"I'll do my best, but I'm not sure what I can do. My non-lethal options are a little limited," Xander said, patting the shotgun dangling at his side. "We didn't manage to get rubber bullets for this."

"Shoot her in the leg, then," Buffy told him.

"No!" Jim objected.

"A mundane bullet will not be able to pierce the armour I crafted, anyway," Merlin said.

"Well, then I can shoot her to distract her!" Xander said with a grin that Buffy knew was forced but might fool the others.

"We need to get the staff away from her," Blinky said. "That is how Morgana can control her."

"It was the means that allowed her to possess the girl," Merlin said. "But after Morgana has taken over a body, she can relinquish the staff without relinquishing control of the body. Of course, removing the staff from her hands will also greatly reduce the threat she poses to us."

He wasn't using Claire's name, Buffy realised. Always 'the girl' or 'your friend'. Was he distancing himself from her so he could kill her more easily? She'd read about that in college, but she wouldn't have expected Merlin to need that to do what he thought was necessary. "So, what's your plan to stop Claire then?" she asked.

"We hold her at bay while we break through the seal keeping Morgana's body captive to destroy her body."

"Won't that leave her still in Claire's body?" Willow asked.

"No. She is merely projecting her mind, not her soul."

Buffy hoped the old geezer was right about that.

"So… we need to stall her and break through centuries-old seals?" Willow asked.

"Yes." Merlin nodded. "I shall take care of the seals, and of her body, while you keep her from reaching me."

That sounded like a working plan. And it meant Willow wouldn't have to kill Morgana. Or Merlin fight Claire.

But things rarely worked out like planned, Buffy knew that.


"How much longer do we have to walk through this damned forest?" Spike complained. "It's getting a little late - or early. I don't fancy seeing a sunrise out in the open."

James Lake Jr tried to check his watch, then frowned - it was underneath his armour, which he should've known. But it was getting late, and he hadn't slept since yesterday. He'd have to check his phone for the time, and…

"It's still several hours until sunrise. Don't start whining," Buffy said. "We didn't get you blood from the Army infirmary just so you can whine about walking."

"Pardon me for being concerned about an existential threat. You might only get a few more wrinkles if you keep tanning in the sun, but I'll be burnt to a crisp."

"'More' wrinkles?" Buffy blurted out, and Jim winced at her tone. "I'm the Slayer! I don't get wrinkles! Right, Willow?"

"Uh… I don't actually know. I mean, no Slayer really reached old age, I think, so it probably never came up. But you didn't stop growing when you were called, did you? And you aren't stuck in puberty."

"Oh my God!"

"Cease your pointless whining. We are deep in the Wild Wood - daylight has no claim to this land. If a troll can safely walk the grounds at noon, a vampire should not have to fear anything either."

"'Should' isn't exactly reassuring, old man," Spike replied.

"And who cares about sunlight? I need to know if I am going all wrinkly!"

"So focused on your appearance…"

"I can assure you, Master Vampire, that we are quite safe here from the sun. My people might have left the area, but the old enchantments remain - no sunray will touch the ground here," Blinky said.

"But! Plants need sunlight to live! How can there be bushes and grass and other growth without sunlight?" Willow protested. "We should be walking through a wasteland covered by a dense canopy. Oh! You must have used magic to supply the plants. That's… Oh! That means you probably can grow anything below the earth, too!"

"Unless the enchantment used merely prevents sunlight from reaching anything but the plants," Merlin said.

"That would work, but wouldn't it be easier to just strip the magical part of sunlight that hurts vampires and trolls?" Willow asked. "Like a shield, placed in the forest's canopy?"

"Green sunblock!" Xander added.

"That is how it was done," Merlin grumbled. "Which is why it's not a practical means to deliver sunlight underground."

"Something we are all grateful for," Blinky said. "While I know that we are safe here, I cannot help but worry that the enchantment might fail. Without solid stone above us, or at least a building, most trolls won't feel safe enough to rest."

"Yeah," Spike agreed.

"And what about my wrinkles? Is there a spell that can remove the part of sunlight that causes wrinkles?"

"You don't have wrinkles, Slayer!"

"But I could get wrinkles!"

"That would be a good business idea - magical wrinkle prevention. Don't let Anya hear that."

"Xander!"

"You know she would jump at it, Wills."

Jim shook his head at the antics of the 'Scoobies'. They were about to face Morgana - well, once they found the entrance to the Shadow Realm Merlin said was in the woods here - and they were still joking. Just like they had been with Glory.

He clenched his teeth. And how had that turned out? Claire possessed, AAARRRGGHH! killed, Mom almost killed, their families lost - temporarily - in the Shadow Realm…

Toby, next to him, sighed. "I still can't believe that AAARRRGGHH!'s dead."

Oh. Jim winced. "Yeah," he said.

"He sacrificed himself for us - for your mom - for everyone. I can't help thinking that if I had been… stronger, then he wouldn't…"

"Tobes…" Jim trailed off, pressing his lips together. What could he say? He thought the same, after all. If Jim had been strong enough to handle Glory, AAARRRGGHH! would still be alive.

"Aarghaumont chose his fate," Blinky cut in. "Tobias, Master Jim - do not blame yourself. It was his decision, and I dare say he saved us all. He knew what he was doing, and I am convinced that the last thing he wanted would be for you, for anyone, to blame themselves for his actions."

"But I can't help it!" Toby blurted out. "We had all the plans, and then something goes wrong, just one thing, and everything fails and AAARRRGGHH!..." He shook his head, sniffling, and Jim carefully acted as if he didn't know that his friend was crying.

Blinky sighed. "Tobias… It wasn't your fault. Every battle is a risk, and sometimes, the smallest slip or stumble means someone died who should have lived." Jim heard him sigh again. "I saw that at the Battle of Killahead Bridge. My own brother… was killed in the battle, and I have often wondered if I had just been a little more competent, a little more attentive, if I had noticed him being dragged off sooner…"

"Oh." He had seen his brother die in battle? Jim shook his head. That had to be…

"I know you are blaming yourself. Trust me, I know how it feels, but you should not. Aarghaumont knew what he was doing. We should honour his sacrifice, not let it poison us."

"It still hurts," Toby replied.

"And it always will. But you will learn to live with it."

Provided they survived Morgana, Jim knew. And as Blinky had said - even if they defeated her and saved Claire, not everyone might survive.

But this time, Jim would make sure none of his friends died on his watch. He was the Trollhunter; that was his duty.


"...and with your Slayer healing, you really don't have to worry about wrinkles as far as I can tell. The way you heal smaller wounds without scarring means your skin should be more resistant to this."

Buffy Summers tuned out the talk between Jim, Toby and Blinky a few yards behind her and nodded at Willow. "Good, Willow!"

Her bestie was trying her best, so to speak, but it wasn't as if Buffy really worried about getting wrinkles. She was one of the oldest Slayers in history already, after all - well, longest-running would be more precise - and she was barely into her twenties. Her odds of reaching the big thirty were about as high as her winning the Powerball lottery. Of course, if she had been getting wrinkles already, that would've been different.

"Are you now satisfied that you shall not prematurely suffer the ravages of old age?" Merlin asked.

She beamed at him. "Yep!"

He rolled his eyes in response.

"So, not to copy Spike's whining," Buffy went on, "but how much longer are we going to walk? Not asking for me; I can go on for hours, but if we're about to fight Morgana at the end of this hike, we might want to take a rest before we enter her lair. Or her prison." Merlin wasn't looking very hot himself, after all - she knew that his magic was the only reason he hadn't keeled over already. And Tara and Willow were lagging a little, Jim and Toby were still hurt…

"It's not very far any more," Merlin said. "We are almost in the heart of the Wild Woods, where the barriers between the realms are thin - so thin, many a wanderer has stumbled through them without noticing, only realising their predicament when one of the numerous dangers of the Shadow Realm preyed on them."

Buffy gasped. "Wait! What 'many dangers' are you talking about?" Mom and Dawn and the others were in the Shadow Realm! And without anyone to protect them except for Giles and Stricklander, and the changeling looked more like Blinky than AAARRRGGHH!. That didn't have to mean he was useless in a fight, of course.

"The Shadow Realms are a land of magic and shadows. Many monsters that shun the light - in more than one way - retreated there when mankind pushed back the borders of the wilderness."

Buffy rolled her eyes. That kind of talk made Giles sound hip. Purple Prose at its worst. "Can you be more specific? Like, how do those monsters stack up against, say, a changeling?"

"Are you worried about your family, left stranded in the camp?"

"Is water wet?" she shot back. Dumb question, dumb answer.

"The changeling should be able to see off most monsters. And, thanks to the curse binding him to the Trollhunter's mother, he should be motivated sufficiently to do so."

"What if he breaks the curse?" Willow asked.

"That would require a ritual which I doubt he could perform without your Watcher noticing."

That was a little reassuring. But Buffy wasn't quite sure how Giles could stop the troll from doing it anyway. On the other hand, Giles knew a lot more about magic than Buffy did. Or even Willow. And he didn't trust the changeling, so he probably was prepared for this. Probably.

She pressed her lips together. That was the best she was going to get until they kicked Morgana out of Claire's body. "How much longer till we reach the heart, then?"

"Not very long. It is not merely a physical journey, either."

"Oh!" Willow perked up. "Do you mean it's also a spiritual journey? Like a vision quest? Do we need to be in the right state of mind to enter the Shadow Realms?"

Merlin turned to look at her with a frown. "While being open-minded helps when walking through the barrier, I was talking about the fact that the forest is magical and changes in response to intruders. We could, for example, take a rest here and find ourselves in the Shadow Realms as the Wild Wood shifts around us."

"I vote for a rest!" Xander chimed in, raising his hand.

Merlin scoffed. "I said that this could happen, not that it would. We cannot count on this - we have to physically reach the heart of the woods."

"Why did you mention it then?"

"To explain that I cannot accurately predict how much longer we have to walk, of course."

Buffy clenched her teeth. The old geezer was yanking her chain - no one asked for a precise number; a guess would've been good enough. Hell, on a trip, asking how much longer the trip would take was more a social norm than an actual question. At least according to the script she had read in college.

"Now kindly cease thy questioning; we are about to enter the territory of a monster that has not retreated into the Shadow Realm."

"A monster? What kind of monster?" Buffy asked, looking around. Her Slayer senses weren't doing any sensing.

"The Wild Boar. An ancient being of great power and ferocity, born into the Wild Woods when they were still young and spreading all along the coast. It has defended the heart of the woods for millennia. We might have to parley with it unless we want to risk a battle that might leave us too wounded to take on Morgana."

That didn't sound good at all. "How do you parley with a boar? I don't speak pig," Buffy said. "Do you?"

"I have been told by reasonably qualified sources that I eat like a pig," Xander joked. "But that's all I can do."

"There are spells to communicate with animals," Willow said.

"The Wild Boar is no mere animal. It is akin to a primordial spirit in some ways. We will be able to communicate. The question is whether it wants to communicate with us." Merlin looked around. "We shall soon find out."

"Great. In case it doesn't want to talk, is it edible?"

The annoyed look Merlin turned on her made Buffy grin in response.


"You do not eat the Wild Boar. It's a spirit who has taken a physical form!"

James Lake Jr grinned - behind the wizard's back - as Merlin berated Buffy. Sometimes, he couldn't stand their joking, but he could use a laugh right now. And he had the strong feeling that Merlin's Plan B was still 'kill Claire to defeat Morgana' or something like it.

"Well, if it has a physical form, we can kill it," Buffy said. "And if you kill animals, you shouldn't waste them."

"Yes," Willow chimed in. "Sustainability and respect for the environment. I don't like hunting, but if you hunt, you should eat the animal. Trophy hunting is the worst."

"And wild boar is supposed to taste great," Xander added.

"Really?" Toby looked interested. "I've never had boar. I thought it tasted like pork."

"It's supposed to be different," Xander told him.

"Jimbo?"

Jim shook his head. "I never made boar - or ate it - myself. Sorry."

"Ah."

"Cease this inane prattling about eating a guardian spirit!" Merlin spat. "You risk enraging it, should it be listening to us. We are already in its territory - the heart of the woods - and at any moment, it could appear to face us. Disrespect it at your own peril, but do not do so when we are facing Morgana's return."

Well, the man had a point. Sort of. Jim didn't like it, but he nodded. "Let's go." They had to enter the Shadow Realm and save their families before Morgana overpowered Claire and took them hostage. Or worse.

Merlin nodded in apparent approval to him, then turned and walked past a denser patch of underbrush - and suddenly stopped.

"Oh," Buffy said, peering past the wizard at what he was staring at, "It looks like someone beat us to eating boar."

"What?" Jim followed the two into a small clearing. In the centre, he could see a skeleton - an animal's skeleton. It was huge, easily dwarfing the cow's skeleton they had seen on an excursion to a ranch.

"That's a boar's skeleton - look at the tusks in the skull."

"Holy…" Toby whistled. "Look at the size of that thing."

"We are looking," Xander said.

"Who killed it?" Buffy asked. She sounded a little envious, Jim thought, but he wasn't sure.

"A kill-stealing hunter?" Xander snorted.

Merlin still stared at the skeleton.

"It might not have been killed," Willow said. "The bones are all in place. Maybe it just… died?"

"It could've been poisoned or wounded in a fight, escaped and died here, in its lair," Xander speculated. "We would need an autopsy to find out. If you can run an autopsy on a pile of bones."

"It would be more like a forensic analysis of the skeleton," Willow said. "I think so, at least."

"Or it d-died b-because t-the magic is fading from t-the woods?" Tara speculated.

"It doesn't matter. The Wild Boar is dead. The woods are bereft of its defender." Merlin shook his head.

"Yes," Blinky agreed. "A great loss, indeed. I've never met the Wild Boar before, but I knew about its legend."

"Yes, yes, a pig's dead. Can we move on?" Spike asked, looking up. "I don't trust the whole sun blocking woods thing."

"With the Wild Boar dead, the entrance to the Shadow Real might have shifted," Merlin said. "Let me check…" He waved his staff and closed his eyes. After a moment, he opened them again. "No. It's still there. Right at the skeleton."

"So… the big bad boar died right on top of the entrance of the Shadow Realm? That's not exactly giving me good vibes," Xander said.

"Good vibes? It's not the seventies any more, Xander," Buffy said.

"The seventies will never die!"

Merlin huffed, interrupting them. "The Wild Boar must have guarded the heart of the woods to the last. The least we can do is to honour this dedication." He waved his staff again, and the skeleton moved aside, forming a pile of bones.

"That's honouring the dead?" Toby whispered next to Jim.

Jim would have chuckled at the comment, but… "Something gives me the creeps, Tobes," he whispered.

"Me too," his friend whispered back.

"So… we just walk through?" Buffy asked.

"You do not simply walk into the Shadow Realms," Xander said in a deep voice.

Jim laughed at the reference, as did the others, but Merlin frowned. "I did explain that many have passed into the Shadow Realm without noticing until it was too late for them, did I not? Yes, we merely have to walk through here." He pointed his staff at the area where the bones had laid just before.

"And you really need to see Lord of the Rings. Or read it," Buffy said - but she walked past him, right onto the spot he was pointing at.

And vanished - faded from view within a second. Toby gasped.

"Do not dawdle," Merlin told them, a moment before he, too, faded.

"Well, let's go," Jim muttered. "We don't want to get left behind if the entrance shifts around."

He walked straight along the path Buffy and Merlin had taken. Missing the entrance would be embarrassing. As he reached the centre of the clearing, he held his breath. One step. Then another. He felt a slight chill wash over him - like a soft breeze.

And he was somewhere else. In another forest, darker. With a sky that was familiar.

The Shadow Realm.


The Shadow Realm, January 29th, 2017

"So… how do we get to our camp? This doesn't look like a floating island in a sea of shadow stuff. It looks like a rather non-floating forest in some shadow… something."

It had sounded better in Buffy Summers's head before she said it, but the gist should be clear: Which way to Mom and Dawn and the others?

"We are standing in the heart of the representation of the Wild Wood in the Shadow Realm - its counterpart, so to speak," Merlin replied. "The 'sea of shadows' you described is far from here - beyond the Dark Sea. It's not tied to an actual physical location but formed from the dreams and fears of the people."

"That sounds rather ominous," Xander commented.

"Yeah. I've had some really bad dreams sometimes. Before a test, or if I overeat," Toby added.

"I don't want to visit my fears. Not again," Willow said.

Oh, yes. Buffy nodded with her lips pressed together. That hadn't been a fun Halloween. Not at all.

"You should have thought about this before setting up your camp on one of the few manifestations of solid ground there," Merlin retorted.

"We didn't know," Jim spoke up. "It was the best thing we could think of. And it felt safe."

"And you could've said something sooner," Buffy told the old wizard. "Not like now, when it's too late."

"I was not certain whether or not this was a deliberate choice by Morgana," Merlin replied. "Or if she had merely influenced the girl's thoughts to make her pick the location."

Buffy scoffed. It wasn't as if Merlin had held back with his other opinions. "So, how do we get there? Walk, then swim? That'll take a long time." England was only about half the size of California, as she had once pointed out to Giles, but that was still a huge island.

"Of course not. In the Shadow Realms, physical distances do not mean nearly as much as they do in the physical world." Merlin sneered. "If we can fix our destination firmly in mind, we will be covering leagues with every step."

"Uh… And if we can't?" Toby asked. "I'm sometimes easily distracted."

"Then you will be lost. I suggest not letting yourself be distracted. Think of your family." Merlin didn't quite shrug, but his tone made Buffy think he didn't really care one way or the other.

"So… we think of our loved ones, then click our heels together three times and poof - we're there?" Xander asked. "Or is it more like a walking thinking thing?"

"We walk." Merlin obviously didn't get the reference.

"Great. More hiking. At least there's no sun here."

"Are you ever going to stop complaining, Spike?" Buffy asked.

"No." He bared his teeth at her in a warped smile.

Jim spoke up: "Let's focus on our camp, guys! We can't waste time."

"Do we close our eyes for that?" Toby asked. "I can focus better with my eyes closed, but walking is harder."

Buffy heard Merlin sigh and grinned. Even though their situation wasn't particularly funny - they did have to reach their camp, and quickly. And… Wait! "And how do we get back to the real world with the others?" she asked. It was one thing to focus on her family, but to focus on a pile of bones? And Dawn and Mom wouldn't be able to - they hadn't seen the pile of bones in the first place.

Merlin turned towards her. "We need to reach them first. Then we can decide on our next step."

"And what if Morgana was already there and has gone again?" Toby asked.

"Then we will find your friends and families dead or worse," Merlin said in a flat tone.

Buffy clenched her teeth. She couldn't stand that attitude - Merlin acted as if everyone was expendable. And as if he was their leader. "They aren't dead!" she snapped.

"I do hope they are not dead. But every minute we waste here discussing the obvious means more time for Morgana to reach them. We need…"

Buffy held up a hand, interrupting him. "Quiet!" She hissed and cocked her head.

Merlin actually fell silent.

Buffy turned around. Something… she could hear something moving through the shadowy forest. It was trying to be sneaky and silent, but it wasn't good enough to fool her. "Something's coming, she whispered.

"What is it?" Willow asked.

"Don't know," Buffy replied. "But I doubt it's something good."

"Great. Can we go through the Sunshine and Rainbow Dimension next time?" Xander commented as Willow and Tara held hands, a soft glow appearing around Willow's free one.

"I hear it too," Spike said. "It's big."

"A bear?" Xander asked.

"Bears are extinct in England," Willow said. "As are most large predators."

The huge thing that stepped around a tall tree wasn't a bear. It was a wolf. A wolf the size of a small elephant. And with spooky red eyes.

"Someone forgot to tell it that it's supposed to be extinct," Xander muttered.

"I think it knows," Tara whispered as the wolf growled. "It's very angry."

"Great. It's the Thanksgiving vengeful spirit part two," Buffy said. "Even though it wasn't us who killed all the wolves in England."

The wolf opened its mouth - its maw - and howled.