"But..." Maddox panicked, watching Robin's thoughts rush to her tongue, arguments she had probably been planning since the moment he had been lost in his past. Then, like a waterfall of words, her face lit up as each phrase was rushed into the same breath.

"But I want to see the dragons, okay?" She hardly seemed to breathe between words, every phrase shaded by innocent darkness, seeping from the pitch black trees. "They only live in the third ring! I can't go there until I'm 19, but I really want to and I swear I know how to survive...and there's still a little bit of sunlight left..."

"Fine!" Maddox bit, throwing his arms up in surrender. She was too determined, too set to be swayed. Desperately, he sank back against the dark trees, leaning against it for support. "Just show me how to get passed this thing. And if I get in trouble for this, I'm blaming you."

"Fine by me." She grinned, jumping to the ground and beginning to pick at the bark of a Greek pomegranate tree. "They'd let you get off easy anyway. You're human born; basically oblivious to the rules."

"Hey!" Maddox shot, although a shrug of her shoulders quickly dismissed the offense. No matter how much he pretended she wasn't, Robin was right. He was still figuring out the basics of moonshadower law, still understanding how their society functioned. No amount of studying would help him learn their way of life, or at least not to the extent that he wanted to. No matter what he did, he would always carry the image of a human.

"Just, tell me what you're doing, okay?" He stumbled over the words bitterly, copying Robin and filling his hands with the inky black bark.

It took several minutes until their hands were full, everything around them fading to the darkness of the trees as the sun sank. They must have stripped the bottom of the tree bare, leaving Maddox feeling as if his hands were covered in inky black blood. However, the feeling quickly faded when Robin showed him how to mold the bark into an orb. It was a tricky, messy task, especially since the sun had been replaced by a faint moon and he was forced to watch Robin's dark hands work with black bark in the faintest light.

But after a while, Maddox had formed a lopsided sphere of bent bark. As Robin had called it, it was a ticket to the third ring of the forest. Greek pomegranate bark had a high concentration of light energy, so carrying it made their own light energy seem older. Although not very reliable, Robin had somehow managed to hold the orb close to her heart and drift over the line, followed quickly by Maddox, although his skin tingled like fire for several minutes.

"Okay, first things first." Robin declared as she dropped the sphere onto the ground. "We need some light. Can you make an orb?"

He nodded his head, quickly drawing the light inside of him towards his fingertips. Often, he forgot that Robin was non-luminescent, more of an absence of light than a creator. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that she somehow carried more light inside of her than him. He was filled with lies while she was bubbling with adventure and wonder.

Maddox quickly drew the light to the palm of his hand, pulling it out of his body like a needle and thread. It tingled as it pooled onto his palm, stung his fingertips like the fire before he started taking the pill. Still, Maddox managed to mold and bend the rays of light until he had formed a ball, a mini flashlight to guide them.

"Good enough?" He asked, holding it up for Robin to see. With a quick shrug of her shoulders, she nodded her head.

"It's great. So, the next thing..." She paused, sorting through her thoughts. "Survival I guess. Do you remember volcano mice?"

Maddox shook his head, his blonde hair seeming to catch the beams of light and send them careening across the dark trees.

"Well, they're these giant rodents with quills and fangs...really really poisonous. Just kinda...run if you see one."

"Oh," Maddox mumbled, wide-eyed as the forest seemed to take on a darker tone. Not that he thought it could have been possible. With inky black trees that blocked out the moon and plants that ate up the ground before him, vicious creatures seemed like the last thing he wanted to deal with.

"But they're kinda rare," Robin added as his fear began to fade away. "What you really need to look out for is the faeries. They like fire, and not in the way you do."

"But I don't like fire..."Maddox trailed off, lost behind the glowing orb of flames in his hand.

"They will burn you alive."

"Can we not talk about what's gonna kill me?" He asked desperately, Robin's dark eyes mischievously laughing at him. His stomach was tossing and turning, each and every possible end running through his mind.

"Fine, you little fledgling." She teased, although Maddox was just glad to change the subject. "C'mon. The dragon fields are this way."