From now on the twins rode southwestward. Faolan enjoyed the silence after Tosa's verbal excesses, but it was not long until Moira started talking to her horse again. This time, it started slowly. She explained to it that Tosa was right and it was indeed beautiful, before she continued to tell stories about her life. When they came to another small stream and got off the horses to fill their waterskins, she turned to Faolan.

'Why did Father name me after a goddess? He doesn't believe in gods,' she said.

'Maybe Mother gave you your name? She did believe in some gods. Or maybe they just liked the sound of it?'

'That's nonsense, Father always said he'd given one of us a name and mom chose the other one. And he obviously didn't name you.'

'Why not?' asked Faolan. He didn't see any reason for her assumption. Moira just gave him a sneer, but when she saw he really didn't get what she meant, she searched for words.

'Well...' she said. 'I guess if Father had named you, he'd have chosen a... I don't know, mightier name?' She watched the water flow underneath her.

'My name means wolf, isn't that mighty enough for you? Right, it's not a god but...' Moira tried to escape the conversation by climbing back up on her horse. 'What is your problem with it? Why don't you think Father chose my name?'

'Because...' Moira took a deep breath. 'Because your name means small wolf. It fits you well if you ask me, but I think Father would have chosen a mightier, less cute sounding name for his firstborn, don't you think?'

For a while, Faolan didn't know what to say. He'd always liked his name and never really wondered about its meaning or origin.

'And how do you know that? You didn't know what your own name meant up to today, so why do you know mine so well?' he asked when they were already back on their horses and trotting on.

'Because I asked Father.'

'Just like that?'

'Just like that. I was curious.'

'But not about your own name?' he gazed over to her, but she didn't look back at him.

'No. To me, my name always just meant 'I' I guess... But that was in a time when you started behaving...' she hesitated. '...weird. I thought I might find an explanation in your name. And I kind of did.'

'How?' asked Faolan even if he was sure he didn't want to know. Moira smiled now and happily started giving him a long explanation about how he was a lonely young wolf living in his own world and so on. 'That's really not how I see myself,' he muttered after a while, but she didn't bother to ask for his point of view.

After that conversation, there was an uncomfortable silence lying between them for days. It held on until they saw the edge of a forest appear on the horizon. Already the thought of it lightened their hearts and Moira started talking again, this time, to both of the horses. Faolan mostly listened and only rarely commented on something. They ate once more before they finally entered the cool semi-shade under the leaves of the first trees.

Soon after they were in the forest, the sun set far in the distance. Faolan already expected the blue glowing to reappear as if it was completely normal. To his disappointment, the forest stayed dark all night.

It's probably just one of these nights, the forest doesn't always shine after all, he thought to himself.

The next day, they slept in because they had gotten used to the sunlight waking them up in the morning, which didn't happen under the trees where it remained shady all day. Faolan saw this as an invitation to start wandering through the nightly forest again. Throughout the day, he started thinking about whether the horses would like the glowing. Did they know it already? Maybe they'd seen it before, he thought. He couldn't have known that the forest only shone around the twins.

When the sun finally disappeared and the sky's blue turned ever darker, Faolan got what he'd been waiting for. The forest started glowing again, at first, only where the leaves of trees and bushes had touched his or Moira's skin, later all around them. Still something was terribly wrong with it and made the twins go silent. Instead of watery blue, this forest glowed pink. There were no small shadows following them, no butterflies flying around them and the plants which they'd touched didn't grow as gently as those in the blue forest, as Faolan called it, but grew quickly, almost eagerly.

The horses ignored the glowing at first, but when the plants around them started growing up their legs, they got very restless and soon the twins had to walk on their own, leading the horses forwards. They tried to find a place where the road would be broad enough for them to be out of the plants' reach, but they failed.

Well, if roots are able to grow long enough to dig a hole into a mountain, they could certainly reach over a small road, Faolan thought to himself.

'What do we do now?' he asked with panic in his voice.

'I don't know,' Moira said. They were already too deep in the forest to try to ride back out of it and the plants got more and more bothersome. When a tendril tried to climb up Moira's leg and she couldn't shake it off, she took one of her arrows and used it to cut the plant away. When the metal touched the tendril, it lost its shine and swiftly moved away.

Moira just looked at Faolan in surprise, handed him the arrow and took another one in her own hands. Unfortunately, they couldn't help the horses which grew increasingly panicked and wouldn't let the twins close enough to their legs to help them.

'What's wrong with this forest?' said Faolan while he held the arrow low so he could just tip plants with the arrowhead to force them to retreat. The only answer he got was the neigh of his horse. Moira's horse joined in moments later.

Great, Faolan thought and covered one of his ears with his free hand. Right, I could control the blue forest by wishing, giving it a try here won't do any harm. I wish for us to be left in peace.

His wish had immediate effects. The forest started glowing much more intensively and plants started attacking them from all sides now. The horses kicked and Faolan had to let go of the reins but his horse couldn't escape. It was soon tied to the ground, lying on its side, whinnying with horror. Its mate joined it moments later and the twins stood next to them, unable to help the poor creatures.

Panic filled Faolan's chest now. He could hardly fight the forest back anymore and deep within him he felt a strong desire for an eggshell to hide in and not come back out until morning. Then, time stood still. The first thing he noticed was that his sister stared at him with an open mouth, ignoring the plants climbing up her legs and coiling themselves around her arms. Next came a warm feeling, radiating from his stomach to the tips of his fingers and toes. The last thing he noticed was him dropping the arrow and the plants stopping a few centimetres away from his face.

Faolan took a deep breath and then another one. Not knowing what was going on, he looked around. Everything was happening much more slowly now. Moira had started fighting the plants again and the horses struggled to get free.

Following an instinct, Faolan suddenly stepped to his sister and pulled her close to him so she was inside the protective shell that had formed around him. It was not made of any material and looked more like pure energy. To Faolan, the most fascinating thing about it was that it shone in a dark blue.

As they stood there, Faolan calmed down quickly. His mind was blank and he observed the plants move back to their place, shrinking slowly and losing their shine without feeling anything. The horses climbed up on their feet and would have taken their chance to flee, had Moira, who had squirmed free of Faolan's hug, not grabbed the reins just in time. Faolan's shell was shrinking now and finally disappeared into a tiny ball in front of his stomach, which then entered his body causing Faolan to scream with pain.

'Are you alright?' asked Moira when his scream ended and he sat on the ground, holding his belly. The worry on her face made her look much older than she was. Or perhaps it was the darkness; Faolan wasn't sure. His vision flickered and he was breathing heavily.

'Yeah, yeah, I'm okay,' he said weakly. The soft moonlight shone on his face and for a moment, it looked as if it were glowing.

'Come on, let's get away from this place,' Moira said and climbed on one of the still restless horses. As soon as Faolan had mounted the other one, the horses galloped through the night. Fear filled Faolan once more, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time. He just desperately hoped the horses would see enough so they wouldn't trip and make him fall to an early death.

// Hi again, so here's another poem from @Tschike , I may have used it before but I just really like it ;P

You want to know the sacrifice

And wonder, trial or surprise

Our heroes' eyes will set upon

Just one quick vote and they'll go on.