The fog gradually thinned out until Chloe could finally start seeing stuff again. She blinked and looked around, her grip on Mr. White easing as the ground beneath them became solid again.

  They had emerged into a forest, but not just any forest. Everything around them was bright and super colorful.

  Trees stretched high overhead with red and blue colored trunks, their leaves glowing in shades of gold, teal, and soft pink. The ground was covered in thick moss and strange flowers that pulsed faintly, like they were breathing along with the forest itself. Chloe stared, wide-eyed. Okay… yeah. This place is actually really pretty.

  For a brief moment, she thought maybe the fog wasn’t all bad. It had dropped her somewhere interesting, after all. Somewhere magical and not immediately trying to eat her.

  The thought caught up to her, and she felt a bit sad. The fog had also separated her from Raenof and Sierra, and that part wasn’t great. However, being split up also meant Ynett wasn’t nearby, and that softened the sting more than Chloe wanted to admit. Maybe the fog wasn’t entirely bad. Just sort of selectively annoying.

  Chloe straightened up on Mr. White’s back and gave his bony neck a firm pat, forcing herself to refocus. This really wasn’t the time to get distracted, no matter how pretty the forest was. She pointed ahead between the trees. “Alright, Mr. White. Let’s go explore. And if anything tries something funny, we hit it really hard.”

  Mr. White let out a soft huff, blue flames flickering brighter for a moment, and started trotting forward. His hooves crunched gently over moss as they moved deeper into the forest.

  The farther they went, the weirder the place got. Little critters skittered across the path, some with too many legs, others with wings that looked like they shouldn't let the creatures fly. A pair of fox-like things bounded past them, their tails trailing sparks of light. Mushrooms taller than Chloe’s head pulsed slowly, changing colors as she passed, and vines slithered away on their own somehow. Chloe kept leaning left and right, eyes wide, pointing at things.

  Before long, Chloe spotted something big ahead. Standing just off the path was a figure shaped like a person, but made entirely out of flowers.

  Bright flower petals covered his body, with thick vines wrapped around his arms and legs like clothes. His head looked like a huge flower with a vaguely human face in the center. When he turned toward Chloe, the petals shifted with a soft, gentle rustle.

  Chloe leaned forward, squinting with interest. “Huh. Mr. White, you think that guy’s a fey?”

  Mr. White let out a low huff, blue flames flickering in agreement. “Yeah,” Chloe said, nodding. “Thought so.”

  Chloe nudged Mr. White forward. The flower guy didn’t look dangerous, but he did look pretty funny.

  Mr. White trotted a little closer, and Chloe kept one hand on his neck, just in case things suddenly went bitey or weird, which felt like a very reasonable precaution in a place like this. The flower fey noticed them right away and waved enthusiastically. “Oh! Hello there! You’re new, aren’t you?”

  Chloe waved back carefully. “Uh, yeah. Hi.”

  "Cool, cool, mind if I ask you a few questions? It's not often that I get to meet outsiders."

  "Sure… depends on what kind of questions though."

  "Oh, nothing too big. Just hear me out!"

  The flower fey stepped closer, clearly excited. He started asking her questions right away, surprisingly normal ones.

  Weirdly normal. Where she was walking from. If she liked the forest. Whether the light here felt warm enough or too warm. He even crouched a little to look at Mr. White, asking if he was always so quiet and if his hooves ever got stuck. The fey didn't even ask about how Mr. White became a skeleton horse.

  Chloe answered what she could, keeping everything pretty vague by her own standards. She didn’t know what happened if you answered a fey question wrong, but she had a strong feeling it wasn’t something fun. She talked around things, skipped details, and shrugged a lot, which usually worked out great for her.

  After a bit, she noticed something important. The flower fey hadn’t asked her name. Not even once. He hadn’t asked Mr. White’s name either, even though he kept glancing at him with clear interest. That stuck out to her right away.

  Chloe didn’t point it out, but her brain started quietly poking at the idea. The last fey she met had been really eager to get her name. This one, though, seemed to be actively avoiding it. That either meant he knew the rules really well or he was choosing not to play that game at all. Chloe wasn’t sure which was worse, so she decided to stay friendly and keep her guard up at the same time.

  They drifted a few steps off the path as they talked, the flower fey happily chatting about the forest. He talked about how the light always stayed just right, and how the moss bloomed brighter after a good rain.

  Chloe nodded along, smiling when it felt appropriate. Eventually, she cleared her throat. “Hey, actually, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about a fog spewer monster, would you?”

  Stolen story; please report.

  The flower fey froze. His bright petals drooped almost instantly, the color dulling a little. “Oh. That thing? I hate it."

  Chloe leaned forward on Mr. White, interest lighting up her face. “Oh yeah? Same. It split me up from my friends.”

  “It eats my food. Drains the soil. And it keeps taking my friends away.”

  Something twisted in Chloe’s chest at that. She got it. Losing people sucked. Even losing people who were annoying or complicated still sucked. “Yeah, that’s really messed up.”

  “If that creature were gone, the forest would heal. But I’m not strong enough to fight it. I tried once. It barely noticed me.”

  “Well, good news. I punch things really well.”

  “You would help? Truly?”

  “Yeah, I was gonna deal with it anyway. It’s in my way. And it’s rude. And now it’s personal.”

  The flower fey’s smile bloomed wide, petals glowing brighter than before. “Then I know where the Fog Spewer lives. You just have to follow me.”

  Chloe didn’t follow the flower fey right away. She shifted her weight on Mr. White’s back and narrowed her eyes, watching how the petals on his body slowly swayed even when there was no wind. He seemed friendly. Maybe too friendly.

  After everything with the rabbit guy, Chloe had learned that fey smiling at you didn’t really mean anything good or bad on its own. Still, she didn’t exactly have a lot of options.

  Her friends were still missing, and this flower guy was the first person who actually claimed to know where the Fog Spewer lived. Chloe glanced down at Mr. White and whispered. “We keep our guard up. If he tries anything weird, we hit him.”

  Mr. White let out a low huff in what felt like agreement.“Alright,” Chloe said louder, pointing ahead. “Lead the way. But just so you know, I’m watching you.”

  The flower fey beamed at her. “Of course! I would expect nothing less.” His voice stayed light and friendly as he turned and led the way forward.

  They left the colorful forest behind, and went into a darker looking one. The trees grew taller and closer together, their trunks dark and twisted, blocking out the usual warm light.

  The glow dimmed bit by bit, like someone was turning down a lantern. Even the soft grass under Mr. White’s hooves thinned out and cracked, giving way to cold stone. Along the edges of the path, pale mushrooms sprouted in clusters, glowing faint blues and greens.

  The forest felt wrong now. Too quiet. She noticed how the usual sounds had faded away.

  There were no buzzing insects, no birds calling, no leaves shifting in the wind. All she could hear was the steady clop of Mr. White’s hooves against stone and the faint rustle of the flower fey’s petals as he walked ahead of them.

  “This place feels dungeon-y,” Chloe said flatly.

  The flower fey laughed. “The Fog Spewer prefers dark places you see, so that tracks."

  The answer made sense, which somehow made Chloe trust it even less. She nodded anyway, keeping her expression neutral. At least if something went wrong, she would still have Mr. White.

  The path began to slope downward, the air growing colder with every step. Soon, it opened into a stone corridor that looked like it had been half-swallowed by the forest. Thick roots pushed through cracked walls, and moss clung to the stone in damp patches.

  The walls themselves were old and worn, carved with strange symbols. Chloe squinted at them, trying to make sense of the markings, but they didn’t look like anything she recognized. In fact, they just kind of looked wrong, like they weren’t meant to be read so much as stared at until you felt uncomfortable. Chloe decided she didn’t like them very much and kept moving.

  As they stepped fully inside the corridor, Chloe felt a familiar prickle crawl up her spine. It was the same feeling she always got right before something went very wrong. “Hey, flower guy, you sure this is the right way?”

  The flower fey stopped and turned to face her, his smile still perfectly in place. “Yes, just a little farther.”

  Before Chloe could say anything else, the ground beneath them shifted. Stone groaned loudly, then gave way.

  Chloe barely had time to grab onto Mr. White before the floor dropped out from under them. They fell into a deep, dark hole, air rushing past as the light above vanished in an instant. Chloe yelled something that was definitely not polite, clinging tightly as they tumbled before finally slamming into the bottom of whatever hole they fell into.

  Everything went quiet except for Chloe’s groan as she lay there, stunned. She pushed herself up quickly, panic spiking as she scrambled to her feet. “Mr. White?”

  For a long, tense second, Chloe felt scared. Not because she was trapped in some weird hidey hole, since she was pretty good at getting out of dark places. But because something bad might have happened to Mr. White, and she's already lost him once before.

  Luckily, after blinking a few times, Chloe saw Mr. White was somehow fine and had pushed himself back up to stand. Relief hit her so hard her knees nearly gave out.

  “Oh thank everything,” she muttered, pressing a hand to his neck. “You’re okay.”

  Once she was sure he really was fine, Chloe finally looked around. The space around them was wide and shadowy. Faint light seeped in from glowing mushrooms scattered across the floor and walls, revealing a place that felt deep, old, and very much not where she wanted to be.

  Chloe swallowed and frowned as she looked around the dim space. Wherever this place was, it definitely wasn’t supposed to exist. She had a bad feeling about it, and she hated that feeling.

  The first thing she did was obvious. She was not about to stay stuck in some hole like a chump. Chloe summoned her wings and shot upward, beating them hard as she flew straight up. She kept going, higher and higher, searching for the opening she knew had to be there.

  Except it wasn’t. No matter how far she flew, the walls just kept stretching upward endlessly.

  That made her slow down. The hole they had fallen into hadn’t been that deep. She was sure of it. The fact that she couldn’t find the exit now was super weird.

  With a frustrated huff, Chloe dropped back down and landed beside Mr. White. “Rude,” she muttered.

  She clenched a fist and took a swing at the wall, then another, putting real force into it this time. The stone cracked slightly, but it didn’t give way. The wall barely reacted, like it was offended she even tried.

  Chloe shook her hand and scowled. “Okay, fine. Punching isn’t working."

  She turned to Mr. White. “You got any ideas, buddy? Or are we just living here now?”

  Mr. White tilted his skull. Then he lifted one hoof and pointed it off to the side. He let out a short snort, like he was judging her just a little.

  Chloe followed the direction of his hoof and blinked. There, set into the stone wall, was a doorway. She had no idea how she had missed it before.