Attack and Defense

Helbram was nowhere to be found. Nobody had seen him since the day before, he wasn't in any of the places he especially liked, and he hadn't left any message.

Harlequin was starting to get worried.

The forest was too vast for him to look everywhere, especially if Helbram had moved away from its center. Harlequin could easily spend the whole day searching and still miss his friend.

He finally stopped his research and came back to the Sacred Tree. He sank into the moss between its roots, covering his whole body except for his eyes. He liked it here; it felt and smelt like his pillow, except bigger.

Harlequin tried to guess Helbram's reasons for leaving without a word. Did he feel neglected because Harlequin spent so much time with Dahlia? Was he sulking somewhere?

Harlequin dismissed the thought. It wasn't Helbram's style.

Then had something happened to him? Was he stuck somewhere, unable to come back?

It wasn't credible, either. Harlequin knew first-hand that King Dahlia would defend the fairies against any threat, and the forest itself would never be hostile to a fairy.

Then what?

Harlequin sighed heavily, frustrated to his core.

The breeze pushed blades of grass in front of him. Harlequin extracted an arm from the moss to seize them. They were yellow and dry, and they didn't belong to the forest. They must have come from the meadows beyond it. It was a long way to go for them to end up here.

Harlequin played with the grass blades, thinking. He remembered how excited Helbram had been to go to the border, that day when they had been attacked.

Was he exploring?

But he wouldn't have gone alone, would he?

Now that Harlequin's brain had brought out this idea, he couldn't think about anything else.

"Oslo," he called.

The Black Hound appeared in the moss next to him.

"Do you know where Helbram is? Can you bring me to him?"

Oslo hesitated.

"You could, but you don't want to?" Harlequin pouted. "That's not very nice."

Oslo pushed Harlequin's shoulder with his head.

"I should ask the Fairy King? Uh. Why not."

It wasn't something Harlequin would have considered before, but now that he spent a fair amount of time with Fairy King Dahlia, it didn't seem as odd. Harlequin stood up and levitated towards the heart of the Sacred Tree.

He made his way inside the Tree. King Dahlia wasn't here, but he found Gerheade.

"Lady Gerheade?" Harlequin asked. "Have you seen the Fairy King?"

"He should come back soon." Gerheade watched Harlequin. "Why do you want to see him?"

Harlequin felt uneasy under the other fairy's gaze. He was still as impressed by her as ever.

"I was just wondering if… I'll wait for his return."

Gerheade tilted her head, reading through him. "You're worried about your friend."

"It's easy to check on him," Dahlia's voice said from behind.

Harlequin turned around. He hadn't felt the king enter, but now that he was paying attention to it, his power was unmistakable.

Maybe Dahlia was right and he really should pay more attention to his surroundings.

The Fairy King moved his hand, and a screen appeared inside the trunk. It displayed Helbram's shape flying at great speed under the bright blue sky. Behind him, Harlequin could see clouds of dust.

He could also see the fields and meadows, and the remarkable rarity of trees–which could only mean one thing.

Helbram had left the Fairy King's Forest.

Harlequin stared at the screen, worry screaming inside his heart.

Dahlia tilted his head. "He seems to be doing fine."

Harlequin didn't reply. He was too speechless for that.

Dahlia moved his hand again, and the screen zoomed in on Helbram's face. Harlequin immediately knew that something was wrong.

Dahlia and Gerheade must have seen it too, because their expressions darkened.

"But maybe it wouldn't hurt to check on him." With another wave of Dahlia's hand, the screen vanished, replaced by a portal.

Dahlia entered it, and Harlequin hurried to follow him.

Helbram reached the forest in a matter of minutes, leaving the clouds of dust created by the march of the soldiers far behind.

He wouldn't have time to reach the Sacred Tree before the hostile humans arrived in the forest, though. He would have to ask the animals to deliver a message to the king. Or maybe he could call Oslo? He had never tried this before, but the Black Hound almost always answered Harlequin's calls.

Helbram landed under the trees. The familiar coolness of the forest temperature was a welcome relief. He was opening his mouth to yell Oslo's name when he felt the presence of two beings he knew very well. One spoke of a power so vast and ancient that it filled Helbram's heart with awe, and the other had the familiarity and pleasantness of fresh moss in the summer.

"Fairy King Dahlia? Harlequin?" Despite the severity of the situation, Helbram grinned. "Harlequin, were you worried about me? How nice of you."

To say that Harlequin looked displeased was an understatement. Next to him, his pillow was twitching to the rhythm of his shoulders. "You… You've left the forest! Without letting anyone know!"

"I was curious," Helbram said. "Oh, Harlequin, if you knew! I talked to a human!"

"You're crazy!"

"Fairies, please. This is not the time," Dahlia said, raising a hand. His gaze focused on Helbram. "So humans are about to attack us."

Helbram hadn't said anything about it aloud, but it was almost everything he could think of. Of course the Fairy King would hear.

Harlequin paled. "What?" He paused, reading Helbram's heart. "Oh."

Dahlia flew next to the last trees and watched through the trunks.

"They'll be here soon," he whispered. "It has been a long time since I've seen that many humans attacking the forest."

Harlequin swallowed hard and joined him, followed by Helbram. The clouds of dust were coming closer and closer. Soon, the soldiers would be upon them.

"They're so numerous," Harlequin whispered. "What are you going to do?"

"Number is not a problem." Dahlia moved backwards and leaned against a tree. "But I'm getting tired of that particular group. I want to make sure that they'll never come back."

Helbram bit his lip. In spite of everything, he felt uneasy. "Are you going to kill them?"

Fairy King Dahlia watched him. "You don't have to stay," he said simply.

In all honesty, Helbram didn't want to stay and see the humans die. But it was obvious to him that Harlequin was going to remain here, and so Helbram felt compelled to do the same.

The three fairies observed the approach of the soldiers in silence. Helbram was expecting them to try entering the forest, but they stopped at a good distance from it and took curved sticks that Helbram didn't recognize immediately.

"Bows," King Dahlia whispered. "They're going for a long-range attack."

The humans took shorter, straighter sticks that had to be arrows and lit them. Then they notched them on the bows.

"What are they trying to do?" Harlequin said, as perplexed as Helbram.

"They want to use arrows to burn the forest," Dahlia said, his voice vibrating with anger.

Helbram held his breath. He hadn't considered that the humans would be crazy enough to attempt burning the forest. Not that it would work anyways; despite the summer, the moisture would prevent the fire from starting.

Now that he was thinking about it, it wasn't normal that the air would be more humid here, next to the forest's borders, than it was deep into it. It was like the forest knew and prepared itself for the attack.

The flaming arrows reached the trunks. To Helbram's surprise, they did ignite the damp moss. The fire was quickly choked by a pack of vines summoned by Dahlia.

"This fire is magical," Dahlia said. "They had more than one mage, apparently."

The anger that was surrounding him made Helbram's skin crawl. If it had been directed at him, he couldn't have withstood it. He took a step aside and glanced at his best friend. Harlequin's face was a mixture of fear and anger, and his fists were clenched.

Dahlia moved forwards. "Let's see how they react to my magic." He extended his arms and moved his hands, whispering words that were too low for Helbram to hear.

Helbram felt the magic at play; the power spread from the forest and coursed through the grass and plants of the meadows, until it reached the soldiers.

One by one, the soldiers turned around and left as fast as they had arrived.

Helbram watched the scene in utter disbelief.

"What did you do?" Harlequin said, fascinated.

"It's my personal magical power. It's called Hypnosis. I merely suggested…" Dahlia smiled, and there was no hint of warmth in this smile. "That they had work to do at home."

The mage named Gregory was sitting in his tent situated in the center of the deserted camp when the attack on the forest began.

The small army of mercenaries that he had trained for months so they would be able to fight the forest was following the first step of his plan by putting fire to the trees. Gregory had enchanted the flames himself; water would have no effect on them. The powers protecting the forest would have to fight it by other means, and Gregory expected that they would tire before his army would. Then, they would enter the forest, with Gregory at their head.

But it would take hours, maybe days, and Gregory would rather remain in the calm and quiet of his tent until then.

The mage smiled to himself. This was the achievement of thirty years of research, ever since he was a small boy and had found an old scroll describing a source of eternal power–the Fountain of Youth.

As a self-taught mage, he was well aware of how little time he had to master his own powers. He needed more time, so much more time, to learn everything he had to and leave a permanent mark on this world.

If the legends were true, there had once been a city filled with mages like him, and they taught each other their craft; and they were feared by their enemies. But this city no longer existed, and Gregory had met very few mages in his life. None of them had been half as powerful as he was.

Unless he counted the forest itself. The disappearance of his scouts, including a decent mage, had been proof that the forest hid a great magical power–probably what the villagers had been harping on about. If Gregory was to reach his goals, he had to take it down.

He watched the full length mirror he was using to follow his men's advance. The mercenaries had fired the first volley of flaming arrows, with many more to come.

Gregory suddenly frowned. All of a sudden, his men were turning around and leaving. He wondered whether his lieutenants had decided that they were too close to the forest and intended to retreat a few steps before firing a second volley of arrows, but it wasn't the case.

They were retreating.

Gregory watched them, his disbelief growing with each step they took towards the camp. When they were almost at its doors, he left his tent and crossed the sea of tents to meet them at the entrance. He wanted to hear their reasons as soon as possible.

The few soldiers who had stayed with him to guard the camp watched him with mild alarm. He ignored them, keeping his focus on the discussion to come. His lieutenants were going to regret disobeying his orders. After everything he had done to prepare them, had they fled like cowards?

It wasn't the style of these men, nor had they been losing the battle. As far as Gregory could tell, they hadn't been attacked yet. Whoever was protecting the forest didn't want to leave it.

Now the soldiers were close enough that he could see them. Gregory stood firm at the entrance of the camp, ready to meet them the way they deserved.

He wasn't ready, however, for the way they stopped and raised their bows, starting to shoot flaming arrows at their own camp.

Putting Gregory's own magical fire to it.

Harlequin, Helbram and Dahlia were watching the events unfold in the camp through one of Dahlia's magical screens.

The soldiers who had been so eager to burn the forest earlier were now setting fire to their own camp, and marching through the inferno as if it didn't matter to them–until they collapsed. Their faces didn't show any feeling. It was as if they weren't the ones acting, as if they couldn't feel pain or fear or regret. As if they were animated like the makeshift humans Helbram had scared Harlequin's bullies with.

Harlequin looked away. He hadn't known that Dahlia possessed such a power.

However, if fairies could have different magical powers, it made sense that fairy kings would be no exception. It they all shared the magic Disaster, as Harlequin had learned, it wasn't all they could do.

Harlequin wondered what would be his own specific abilities. Despite the sheer power of a magic like Hypnosis, he hoped he wouldn't have it–there was something about taking control of others that repelled him.

"When will they wake up?" he asked.

"The spell will dissipate after a while, or if they go out of my reach," Dahlia answered. "One could also use the Seeds of Awakening, of course."

As these seeds came from the Sacred Tree itself, there was no chance that the mercenaries would be saved by them.

Harlequin glanced at the gruesome scene on the screen. The humans had now put fire to their entire camp, and were falling like flies. For a moment, Harlequin feared that the fire would spread out of the camp, but the mercenaries had taken the precaution to cut the vegetation back all around it. They were the only ones doomed.

"Was it necessary?" Helbram sounded sad.

"This is what they would have done to us, had they been given the chance," Dahlia said. He waved his hand, and the screen disappeared. "I think that's enough. They won't come back."

Harlequin guessed that he had lifted the spell.

"I will patrol the forest, just in case," King Dahlia added. "Do you want me to bring you back to the Sacred Tree?"

Harlequin hesitated. On one hand, he wanted to be near the Sacred Tree; and on the other hand, he wanted time to process what had happened away from the other fairies.

It looked like Helbram could use it, too.

"No, thank you," Harlequin answered.

Dahlia nodded and took flight. Harlequin and Helbram remained motionless, watching the world outside the forest. Now that he could watch it without fearing for his home, Harlequin thought it was beautiful in its own way; but not enough that he would have wanted to leave the forest.

"You're even crazier than I thought," Harlequin whispered to Helbram. "What if you had been hurt outside?"

Helbram shook himself up. "I'm not defenseless, you know. And I disguised as a human. Nobody could have guessed I'm a fairy!"

Harlequin rolled his eyes before asking the question that was weighting on his heart. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Helbram shrugged. "I just wanted to take a look from the forest's border, I didn't think I would actually leave it."

Harlequin took it like the apology it was.

"There are good humans, you know," Helbram suddenly said. "The one I've talked to was very polite and an excellent storyteller." He watched Harlequin, a familiar spark in his eyes.

Harlequin sighed and relented. "Alright. What did he tell you?"

Helbram put an arm around Harlequin's shoulders. "The most amazing stories you can imagine, my friend! Picture this…"

And Helbram started telling his tale while both fairies took the way back to their home. It seemed like around them, the forest was listening as intently as Harlequin did, its leaves quivering as if it rejoiced in Helbram's return.

Fire was everywhere.

Gregory had given up on trying to extinguish it. It would feed on the camp until there was nothing left but the bones of his fallen soldiers.

They had been defeated. All his careful planning, all the time he had invested in this quest, had all been for nothing. Gregory had only one thing left to do: to save his own life.

Despite the rage burning in his heart as ferociously as the fire around him, Gregory teleported himself back to the kingdom he was from. He would come back later, with a new and better plan, and more men to fight the forest. It would take more for him to give up on his dream.

Gregory landed on the castle's courtyard. It had been a long time since he had last been here, and he didn't recognize the guards. They started when they saw him, pointing their weapons as if he was a threat.

"Let me through," he said. "I'm living here."

"Not anymore."

Gregory turned abruptly to see the king's general come closer, his expression determined.

"What are you saying?" Gregory said threateningly. He was sick and tired of this wretched day, and he wasn't sure he could hold back, even in front of the high-ranking officer.

"Sir Gregory," the general said. "You've left despite the king's will, and remained absent for years. Someone else took your place."

"I told the king that I was looking for a power that will serve him well, and… You're saying I've been replaced?"

The general lifted his eyebrows. "And where is this power you're mentioning?"

Gregory clenched his fists. "There was a… setback."

"I see." The general's gaze didn't show any hesitation. "In any case, you've been deemed a traitor and you're not welcome here anymore. For the services you've rendered, though, the king leaves you the choice between exile and capture."

"Are you serious?" Gregory's rage was whispering to him that if this was how the king wanted to treat him, he should take his revenge on him immediately. Maybe he could start by killing his soldiers like his mercenaries had been killed under his very eyes, mercilessly.

He raised his hands and threw a spell that would engulf them in fire.

The spell dissipated in the air like it was a puff of smoke.

"Lady Merlin," the general said, bowing to a woman dressed in a cloak and barely anything else.

Gregory took one look at the newcomer and immediately knew that she was the most dangerous person he had ever met.

"I don't think I can let you do that," she told Gregory.

He tried to defend himself and cast a spell, but he couldn't move anymore.

He knew, then, that he was never going back to the forest that had defeated him this day–that even if this woman spared him, the king wouldn't.

It was the end of his road, way sooner than he had dreamed it.