Mesmerize v. 1: to subject to mesmerism; also: hypnotize, 2: spellbind
"You know, covering people with glitter isn't being a clever trickster," Poppy admonished the pixie as she trudged along behind him. "It's just annoying. You don't even see to find it funny. So what's the point?"
Once again, Pix ignored her. This time, though, he flew up ahead, gesturing for her to come see something.
Cresting the hill, Poppy looked down over a familiar sight. "You should have said if we were simply coming to Bandle City," she chastised her companion, adjusting the strap on her pack. "We could have taken the mageroad. It would have saved some time."
Pix shook his head and made a face, suggesting he'd just eaten something foul. Though Poppy couldn't imagine what that could be, given the sorts of things she'd seen the pixie ingest on the way here.
Had it been weeks? She couldn't be sure. They had left the Institute and walked into the forest. From there they'd never left the trees, though they should have crossed more than one major roads within the first couple of hours. Instead they had simply kept walking as the trees shifted from looming canopies far overhead to snow-dusted pines despite the season, to black and twisted branches grasping at a sickly green sky, to the low and cozy trees of home.
Poppy tried to do the math. She had stopped to eat twice, and they'd left in the morning, but the sun was just rising over the valley and it was over a hundred miles between the Sablestone Mountains and the Institute of War…
Poppy couldn't think about it too much. There was too much to do, and it was hardly the strangest thing she would be dealing with this trip.
Her unlikely companion motioned her forward impatiently. "I'd apologize for not being able to fly, but someone here needs to keep her feet on the ground."
Lulu's response jumped to mind, and her throat constricted but she shook that off too.
They didn't head for the city but for a little group of trees a ways from it, far from the smoke trails of the many residences throughout the valley. With a shiver, Poppy realized their final destination.
Lulu had invited her to the Glade several times, but Poppy had never thought it prudent to accept the invitation. The two times she knew of Lulu going there had resulted in her first losing a couple hundred years, and the second a couple hundred children. Poppy had consulted with Zilean and several of the other mages about this phenomenon, but as with Lulu's erratic behavior they'd found nothing definitive.
She trotted down the grassy hillside towards the unassuming patch of trees. From Pix's movements, it looked like this was it.
She saw movement right inside the tree line.
Poppy kept walking as if she'd seen nothing; whoever was there must have seen her, so there was no point in hiding. But she did loosen her hammer at her hip. No reason not to take precautions.
A cursory search yielded no results, but she didn't have time to search further. So she found a distinctive tree, made a quick notch on it with her knife and quickly untied her hair ribbon and tied it around it in a tight knot. She hadn't had time to prepare many precautions, but she could at least now she'd have some indication of how much time had passed when she got out.
Pix was already hovering between an ordinary looking pair of trees. Swallowing, Poppy followed him between them.
The difference was subtle, but impossible to miss. The world looked the same, but she couldn't feel the warmth of the sunlight, or hear the familiar sounds of the forest. However, there was no denying this place was alive.
Of everything, Pix looked the most different. His form, usually blurred in a haze of magic and sparkles, was distinct for the first time since she'd seen him. He looked far less humanoid without the haze, his features pointed and angular with eyes like a cat and a predatory stance.
Poppy took it as a sign of the sort of creatures she would encounter.
As she walked the forest grew brighter, not the light but the color of the plants. Vibrantly colored moss and lichen grew on the trees, and the foliage overhead grew more colorful, bright yellows and greens and reds.
She kept catching glimpses of bright lights between the trees in the corner of her eye. She assumed they were other pixies; Lulu had mentioned playing with swarms of them that would pick her up and spin her around. A few of the lights had a bigger, more menacing presence. Poppy kept walking, eyes straight ahead.
Pix stopped at the edge of a clearing.
Brightly colored mushrooms adorned the open lawn of grass aggressively green, except for one place.
In the center of the clearing stood a plant, dark wreathed in the glittering purple magic of the place. Unlike the short, smooth leaved plants ringing the clearing, this plant's leaves spiked into points, veins hard and distinct against the dull green leaves.
The pixie stayed back by the line of trees, body language tense.
Poppy walked out to face it. Finally, after all this, an enemy she could face, hammer in hand.
"Hello outsider." Its bulbous head, like a hard bud or clamshell with a nut-like casing, swiveled to face her. Purple magic poured off it in waves. "This place is mine now! I have woven my roots into its core, and-"
The massive plant's monologue was cut short by a hammer to the head. The nutlike shell cracked, sending chunks flying in every direction. The rest caved inward, and a purple goo oozed between the cracks.
Even Pix seemed stunned. Poppy stared down at the crushed plant, then whacked it a few more times for good measure. And broke the stalk off near the head. And pulled a few of its leaves off.
Then she grabbed it by the stem and yanked it. While she was too small to pull it all the way from the ground from where she stood, she threw it over her shoulder and walked forward, pulling it up roots and all. The roots and the hole she'd pulled it from let off purple mist for a few seconds before turning black and withering in the cool sunlight.
Poppy stomped on the corpse until it turned to dust. She didn't feel any relief, no matter how good it felt to smash that thing; nothing much seemed to have changed and she wasn't sensitive to such things. Hopefully it was enough for those that were.
She looked up at Pix. "Was that it?"
Pix nodded dumbly, and let her back to the entrance. Maybe she imagined it, but the pixie seemed to be giving her a little less attitude.
Maybe killing the thing had worked miracles.
Poppy sighed in relief as the unfiltered sunlight hit her face.
The forest looked much the same, but she wasn't about to be fooled by such things. Her ribbon was nowhere to be seen.
What she could see, coming down the gentle slope from the foothills was a pair that looked suspiciously like her and the pixie.
Suddenly realizing what had happened, she rushed through the trees until she was a safe distance from where she had searched coming in. Watching herself from her hiding place, she saw herself look around warily, tie the ribbon in place, and vanish between the trees.
Poppy glanced at Pix, who shrugged.
Shaking her head, Poppy put her hammer back in her belt, stood, and smiled. "Let's go home."