This feeling was nothing like Falco had ever experienced before. Without moving her beak, Zephyrus was able to telepathically communicate with him, transmitting her thoughts into his own mind. Her almost majestically deep voice reverberated through his brain as it bounced off his own thoughts making him a bit lightheaded at first.

  Night turned around to face Falco as he said, “I see you’ve finally joined the conversation. I’ve been wondering when your innate powers would awaken, and now is actually the perfect time for it to happen.”

  Falco, still a bit confused, asked, “How… Why can I hear what a bird is saying? And why is it telepathically connected to me? What did I do?”

  Night held out his palm and manifested a small black bell seemingly out of thin air. He held the bell by the string in front of Falco as he said, “Oh you didn’t do anything, you’ve just awakened some of the powers of your race which have been sealed away, similarly to how Gale and Demon did. As an elf, you are blessed by nature, which means that you can communicate with and talk to animals.”

  A bit discouraged, Falco said, “I guess that's kind of cool. I mean it's not as cool as being able to control lightning or reap souls, but I guess it could be useful.”

  As Night held the bell between his index finger and thumb, he insisted,

  “You’re underestimating yourself Falco! That ability is extremely helpful, especially in this forest. Using this bell here, I can only communicate with one specific animal, Zephyrus, but with your ability, you can talk to anything that's alive, possibly even some types of plants. I mean you can’t telepathically send your voice back and you’ll have to speak out loud, but the animals will understand everything you say. By being persuasive enough, you might even be able to recruit some of the native animals to lead us through the forest; their senses have been toned to navigate the forest with minimal trouble.”

  Falco looked at Zephyrus, and then looked back at Night, “I mean, from what you’ve described, the animals in there must be some horrors beyond our worst nightmares, so would any of them really care about having a conversation with some random outsider? I'm sure that they're not all as polite as Zephyrus here.”

  Night patted Zephyrus on the neck, “Well, my girl here has been trained in speech and understanding for pretty much her whole life since she was a hatchling, so of course the wild animals won’t be as clear and articulate as her, but that could make it even easier for you anyways. Wild animals are going to be running off of their animal instincts, so if you say something along the lines of, ‘If you cooperate with me, then I’ll bring you food,’ they may take the offer since there's nothing more important to an animal than food. Just make sure you can live up to the offer or… Let's just say, you might become the food.”

  Falco looked down, “Umm, I’m not really the best at being persuasive, but I’ll give it a try. Maybe I could even make us a few friends along the way just like you and Zephyrus.”

  Night walked past Falco as he patted him on the shoulder firmly, “That's the spirit! Well, we're heading into the forest soon, so get yourself ready, I’m just going to go round up the others and then we’ll leave. Try not to underestimate yourself so much, just do the best that you can and maybe, you’ll even be surprised at what you can really do.”

  ~~~

  After Night had rounded up the rowdy Gale and Demon, whose conversation had devolved into insulting each other's powers and arguing over who is stronger, the group came together in a huddle as they stood at the edge of the forest.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Night shushed the rowdy group as if he was their father, and then spoke as he leaned into the huddle, “After careful consideration, and a long chat between me and Zephyrus, we’re finally ready to head inside the forest. Now, there's a few rules that I need to give you guys, I’ll make them quick so they're easy to remember. The first, and undisputedly the most important rule, is to always be holding onto each other. The fog can create illusions which can trick all of your senses, except for touch, so as long as we are continually in contact with each other, we won’t get separated.”

  Demon snickered, “Aww! We have to hold hands, how cute! I know you're a wimp, Falco, so I’ll hold your hand, okay?”

  Falco said quietly, “Umm I don’t really want-”

  Demon whispered in his ear ominously, “Okay then, I’ll just take your soul instead…”

  Straightening up, Falco said aloud, “ I’d love to hold your hand Demon!”

  Condescendingly, she replied, “Good boy!”

  Night interjected, “Demon, stop flirting with Falco. Save that for the bedroom.”

  Patting Falco playfully on the shoulder, Demon said, “Oh come on Night you know it's not like that, I’m just teasing him. Right, Falco?”

  Falco whispered to Night, “Get me away from her…”

  Night ruffled Falco's hair, “You're alright, sometimes you just have to deal with people. Now, back to where I was. The second rule is to always be aware of the trees. From the outside they may just look like normal giant trees, but they are actually sentient beings who frequently roam around the forest in search of food. Once they choose a direction to move in, they will continue in that direction for a while before stopping to take a break. So, if you hear some rumbling coming towards you, stop and look around, figure out which direction it's coming from, then quickly move out of the way. The trees are surprisingly fast for their size, especially with their tentacle-like roots which they can move independently.”

  Curiously Gale asked, “So, if we were to be caught by one of these trees, how are we supposed to get out of their grasp?”

  Night responded, “Well, it depends on what it does with you. Most likely it’ll be a death sentence if they just decide to eat you, but sometimes they’ll just discard you, especially if they’re already full. I'm strong enough to cut off their roots and get away just barely, but you guys will definitely be overpowered by them.”

  Demon interjected, glancing at Gale and Falco as she smirked, “Maybe Gale and Falco will be overpowered, but not me, not with my new tier two crystal!”

  Night pointed at the katana on his waist as the purple crystal shone dimly on its hilt, “Don't get cocky, if my tier four enhanced katana can just barely cut through the roots, your measly tier two scythe would just bounce right off.”

  Demon replied, “I'm just joking Night. Please be my heroic savior if I get caught though!”

  Night continued, “Yeah I’ll save you if you get caught, don’t worry. Anyways, those are really the most important rules to follow, anything else can be explained while we're walking. I have a bad feeling about the things going on in that forest, so we’ll depart now.”

  Falco chimed in just as Night was turning away, “Wait, you said walking? I thought we were going to be riding Zephyrus through the forest?”

  Gale and Demon nodded in unison, as they had the same question to ask. The group looked at Night, his back turned to them, waiting for his answer. Without turning to them, he walked over to Zephyrus, patted her on the neck, and promptly rang the black bell causing her to disappear back into the shadows.

  Night turned around with a heavy sigh and answered, “Zephyrus cannot come with us. There's no light way to put this so I’ll just say it as it is, if she goes into that forest,” he paused and looked down at the bell in his hand, “she’ll be murdered and eaten by her own kind.”

  The three party members gasped in unison, Falco then asked in a concerned voice, “What could she have done that's so bad where she has to be killed on sight by her own kind?”

  Night responded as he walked toward the forest, “There's no time to explain right now, it's too convoluted. To sum it up, she’s a traitor. She’s a traitor in their eyes, yet a hero in my own, I could never repay her for what she did for me.” Night paused, looked back, and waved them on, “C’mon there's no time to waste, we’re going now.”