The forest only grew denser the further they walked and it was hard to imagine any town buried deep within it. Nevertheless, the trio kept going until they reached a steep cliffside where—instead of distant rooftops or a clear path below—they found a long, wooden bridge hidden by the surrounding foliage nearby. It was so well camouflaged that neither of the sisters were able to spot it on their own. It traveled off the cliff and disappeared among the trees clinging to the steep stope.
Castellar motioned for the girls to stay closely behind him, "This way will take us directly to Heartwood. From this point on, don't say a word unless I tell you. You'll give us away."
Right, a loose tongue didn't exactly match the still face of a mask. Ferris might've felt insulted by the needless reminder if she wasn't so absorbed by the sight of the path ahead. Dark beams groaned lightly under her feet. The surrounding canopy acted as a natural railing. Peering down, she couldn't see the earth below the sea of overlapping branches.
Her heart pounded a bit. There was something breathtaking about walking so high above the ground. Besides that, the walkway itself was strange and new, like a secret passage talked about only in stories. Even Ciara couldn't resist momentarily stepping away to peep over its edge.
"Now, it's sturdier than it looks, but there's traps and puzzles that are hard to avoid. I should be able to spot them, but both of you need to be—"
There was a fork just ahead of them that split around a wide trunk. The right side was a little clearer than the left, and Ferris shifted toward the former path for a better view. Her ankle snagged a low tripwire.
A boney hand dragged her back as the sound of splintering twigs echoed through canopy. A large blur swung past her, and only as it slowed to swing back did she realize what the object was: A log suspended by heavy ropes, designed to act as a crude, but efficient battering ram.
The skeleton finished his earlier warning with a grumble, "Careful…"
There was no point in bothering with an apology. Wordlessly pulling her a few steps further back the way they came, Castellar stormed down the opposite path. Ferris bit her lip—nervous at the close call, but amused by the other adolescence's peeved reaction to it.
If all Monster villages were guarded this way, then she wondered how merchants from the Human Kingdom came and went from them safely. If they had horses, the creatures wouldn't have been able to pass through the area. Then again, maybe this village had another road in and they really were following a secret route.
Some sections of the long bridge were more obvious than others. There were places where, instead of beams, clinging vines were woven together to form the base. These rocked under the trio and they held fast to the branches around them for balance.
As promised, Castellar was able to notice any additional traps placed in their way before the sisters could: More tripwires and battering rams., trigger-fired darts and arrows, parts of the bridge that were intentionally worn down and only identifiable by subtle markings left in the wood. A wrong step would easily send a less cautious trespasser crashing through the trees, bones broken and the wind torn from their lungs before they even touched solid ground.
There were a couple of puzzles as well, mainly pullies to lift them to higher or lower platforms or clear the way in locations where the bridge seemingly stopped in mid-air. Ferris and Castellar took turns with the ropes, lifting Ciara and themselves across the different levels.
More surprising than the complicated layout of the bridge, however, was its sheer length. A full, fifteen minutes passed along its twists and turns and they still hadn't reached the end. Castellar assured the girls that the village wasn't much further; however, he seemed to grow more wary as they drew closer.
His alertness paid off as a stout figure threw himself in front of them from somewhere beneath the bridge. Castellar manifested a staff into his grip. Under her cloak, Ferris' fingertips traced the dagger tucked at her waist. Ciara gave the two adolescents room to move.
The newcomer was troll-like in appearance. He was short, with rough, rouge skin; three piercing eyes; and two long arms that practically stretched to his knees. If he stood straight, his forehead would've barely come up to Ferris' nose. Nevertheless, his muscular form covered under a layer of leather armor was intimidating. Bridge or no, it looked like he could maneuver around the cliffside canopy with ease.
He blinked myopically at the group, tilting his head as a coarse voice passed through his sharp teeth, "Castellar… No way, is that you?"
The skeleton relaxed a bit, but kept himself in-between the other Monster and two Humans as the former drew closer to size him up. Castellar remained still, saying nothing as he gave him a perplexed look. Whatever memory this person had of him, he didn't appear to share.
The troll stared at him a moment longer, too close for comfort, before craning his head back in a sudden, loud guffaw, "That is you, right? Fraktur's son! It's been years! You were such a scrawny thing the last time I saw you." He smacked Castellar on the back hard enough for the boy to almost stumble forward and their current strip of bridge to quake, "You're still scrawny… Guess you can't help not having any meat on those bones though."
He laughed some more at his own joke while Ferris and Castellar shared a look. This stranger was so engrossed by the reunion—and the sound of his own voice—that he barely seemed to pay attention to the sisters. Still, hidden, the girl's hand traveled from her belt to her chest: He hadn't even thought to check their souls yet… They were safe.
"You don't remember me at all, do you? Guess I should've expected that…" the troll kept talking, "The name's Briddle, I'm part of the guard here. You came here with the king and your family on an inspection tour. I met your father again last year. He said you'd ran off to join some guild full of mages."
Briddle's expression twisted into one both of disgust and curiosity. Even as close as his village was to the borders, it didn't seem like he had much experience with Humans.
"Is that true? What are they like, huh? Could any of them use magic just as well as we can? Do Humans really…" he cut himself short, eying the girls for the first time if only for a second, and then continued in a still much-too-loud whisper, "make waste?"
It took a certain amount of will for Ferris not to burst into her own fit of laughter at the ridiculous question. It was even harder to manage when Castellar glowered disapprovingly at the innocent face the troll made as he waited for an answer.
The young skeleton chose not to dignify anything that Briddle had said with a proper response, "We'd like to stay in Heartwood for the night. Is Fibeas still around?"
"That old toad? Yeah, he's still kicking."
"I'd like a word with him."
"He's probably still at his post. I'll show you where! And hey—your timing couldn't be better! We're holding a fair for the next few days."
The last stretch of their walk was much shorter than the rest had been. In a mere five minutes, they arrived at a community nestled within a deep basin. High cliffs surrounded it on all sides, casting shadows over the whole of the village early in the evening.
Heartwood was small in a number of ways. Not only was the village compact, but the homes varied in size. Most were as tall as the buildings Ferris was more familiar with while others were half that in-scale, better suited for equally as tiny Monsters. A few were perched in the treetops, standing adjacent to other canopy trails similar to the one they entered by.
As Ferris had expected, the area was too closed-off for horses or wagons to come in. Instead, there were other travelers that had also clearly arrived on-foot, their wares spread out on thick blankets along Heartwood's crooked paths. There was a smell of roasted mushrooms coming from fire that a knee-high, pig-faced, fungal monster was tending to—among other street foods. Music played somewhere in the distance.
Although there was a wide variety of Monsters, there wasn't a single Human anywhere in sight. For not the first time, Ciara buried her face against her sister's back. Ferris double-checked herself and Ciara to make sure that their cloaks were tightly fastened and their masks were perfectly aligned. A few people gave their group curious looks, but they were no worse than a glance given to any other stranger. If their curiosity trickled into suspicion, Briddle's presence by their side chased away those doubts.
Weaving around the majority of the village, the troll guided them almost to its opposite side. There was one, heavily fortified entry to Heartwood from the ground: A gateway fashioned around a stone arch with a narrow passage beyond it. Twin, wooden guard stations were positioned on either end, looming over them. Telling them to wait, Briddle climbed the ladder connected to one and soon vanished from view.
"Wherefore then, love, are we to run away?
"To hill, to sea, to thine homeland or mine?
"By faith, I cannot bid for you to stay,
"Nor can I bear to part come morning's light."
An improvised stage was set up within a clearing not far from them; it was little more than a slightly-raised platform and a few curtain-bearing posts. There were only a handle of actors, who all seemed to play their roles well enough. Their costumes, however, did them no favors. The outfit for one of the leading roles—a Human woman—was particularly bad, with an unruly wig that didn't sit right on the actor's head and a gown that was so long that it was a wonder they weren't tripping over themselves while wearing it.
"Fairest, do not abuse your face with tears.
"For now, we part—"
"But why endure alone?
"Should you or I bear consequence for this?
"A fateful bond forbidden by the world?
"In parting now, we may just both atone,
"Or, separately, may drown in each our woes.
"Do not cast me aside like this—!"
Ferris quickly stopped paying attention. There were always stories like that shared between the Two Kingdoms: The tale of Cecelia and Acheron just happened to be a very popular one she'd heard several times before.
In Monster territories, Cecilia was a witch whose body was steadily failing her, so she tricked Acheron into in order to take over his—committing atrocities as she paraded as him and locked his own consciousness away. In Human territories, Cecilia was a naïve girl that fell in love with a devil, Acheron, who only courted her for the sake of claiming her soul after luring her away from the safety of her village. In areas where the populations mingled more often, the pair were typically lovers that fled from their separate kingdoms in order to be together, only for the both of them to be killed as traitors.
Their story was so old that it was impossible to known how much truth there was to any of its three versions. However, there had been a Cecilia and Acheron: No one doubted that, even if there was a chance they went by other names. Some romanticized their relationship, many treated it as a warning. To Ferris, it was just a simple tragedy.