"No."

"Wait, why?" Astral asked and frowned.

"Because I ain't going through that forest, son. It's haunted." The driver scratched his big belly.

"But how are we supposed to get to the next town then?"

"Not my problem. Ain't nobody going north these days. Everyone's going south for the coming autumn. You lot should do the same." He looked entirely done with the conversation.

Astral growled under his breath and turned on his heel, walking away before he said something stupid. I knew he'd say something stupid and so did he. It was better to not have this argument. It was better to just walk away.

"So, what do we do?" I asked and scratched my head.

"I guess we'll have to walk. It's not even that far. Might take us better part of a day but not more than that. There's a town on just the other side."

"Ugh I hate walking," Astral whined.

"I know but sometimes we gotta do something we hate in order to do something we don't hate. Which is getting to another town." Zeke smirked and I couldn't hold back a snort. I secretly loved how condescending she could be when dealing with Astral's childish behaviour.

"I guess we'll have to walk then." Astral pouted. "But I'm gonna complain the entire way."

"We know," I said and pulled my rucksack on my back. "It's lucky I still like you, even when you pout like a three-year-old."

"It's lucky I still like you when you offend me so," Astral shot back and grimaced at me, shouldering the strap on his own rucksack.

"If the truth offends you, then so be it." I shrugged and grabbed the straps on my bag. "You can be offended and walk at the same time."

"It's like you don't even like me." He was smiling as he said it.

"Oh, I don't. Next to you I just look a lot taller. It helps with my self-esteem." I shrugged again, but much more dramatically this time.

"You don't look that much taller."

"He's right. He looks taller," Zeke chimed in.

Astral theatrically grabbed the front of his jacket, clutching the fabric in his hand. "Why do you hate me so? I took you in, clothed you and fed you. And now this treachery."

"Mate, I just said Mars looks taller next to you. Your ego needs to relax."

Astral looked to me but I couldn't stop laughing. I grabbed his hand and pulled him to me, kissing his cheek.

"Come on, the both of you. Let's get going."

The forest was pretty. White flowers covered the forest floor, making it look like there was snow everywhere. The sun was filtered through the leaves, casting everything in a green glow. The trees themselves were crooked and looked more like fantastical creatures than actual trees. The path through was well down-trodden and it was easy to walk here. Seemed well-travelled. I didn't understand why the carriage driver had said the forest was haunted. It seemed entirely regular, besides the fact that it was probably prettier than other forests. I felt happy here. Almost euphoric. We had seen field on field on field, so it was just a nice change of scenery.

And I did love walking. Especially where there was plenty of shade and I didn't have to wear my specs or worry about burning my skin. It smelt nice here too. I was in a very good mood and this forest was a big part of it.

We talked about a bit of everything. Astral and I told Zeke about the college. About the people who had lived there, who we liked, who we hated.

"Castus sounds like a right twat," Zeke said and spat on the ground.

"Oh, he was. But seeing his face when we told him we got our studies fully funded was worth everything we had to go through," I said and squeezed Astral's hand.

"I can imagine. There's nothing sweeter than succeeding in spite."

Both Astral and I laughed, nodding in agreement.

We continued but then Astral stopped. He squinted into the darkness between the trees.

"I've been here before," he muttered with a low voice.

"What do you mean?" Zeke asked.

"I've been here before," Astral repeated.

"We don't know what you mean, Astral..." And that's when I realised. His vision. About a forest. How we just forgot about that... His visions had never really made much sense, not even in hindsight as they were too abstract. But this one hadn't been.

Astral pushed me behind him and held his hand out. Lightning bolts sparked, criss-crossing down to his elbow. I grabbed Zeke, hopefully bracing her against whatever was coming for us.

It wasn't enough though. Out from the between the trees, shadows appeared. It was as if they were dancing at first, coming out onto the path, surrounding us. They kept circling us. Astral threw a lightning bolt after them, but it went right through.

"They're getting closer!" I yelled and pressed Zeke to me. "Astral!"

"I know!" he growled back. He shot another lightning bolt, but it did nothing to the shadows. I bent down and grabbed a rock from the path, throwing it at the shadows, but that too just went right through.

Astral walked backwards, ending up in front of Zeke and me. "I don't know what to do!"

I grabbed his hand, holding on to Zeke with the other. My heart was slamming so hard in my chest and there was barely a meter between us and the shadows now.

Out of nowhere a golden arrow buried itself in one of the shadows. The shadow changed from being almost without form to turning into a grotesque monster. Long sharp teeth formed in an opening, that was probably supposed to be a mouth. It still had no eyes, just a big mouth.

Another arrow flew through the air, hitting another shadow. And then another and then another. They were pulling back, mouths agape and no sound coming from them at all. The only thing killing the silence of the forest was the howling of each arrow fired.

The shadows pulled back, now hissing at us.

"Looked like you needed some help there," someone said from behind us.

All three of us whirled around, coming face-to-face with a person, cast in light from a hole in the treetops.

"They're drawn to magic, the spirits of this forest." The person stepped out of the light and removed their hood, exposing a sharp and square jaw, a strong nose, full lips, a head full of black hair and big brown eyes. Big pointy ears jumped out from his thick hair. He smiled, dimples digging into his cheeks.

"We didn't know," Astral said barely able to close his mouth.

I was right with him, gaping at the stranger. He was very handsome. Tall and had broad shoulders. Pecks for days too, exposed in his sleeveless shirt. A very tight shirt too.

"You shouldn't be wandering the forest alone. It's not safe here," the stranger said.

"Right," Zeke said, the only one not gaping at the stranger. She sent both Astral and me a weird look and took a step forward. "Would you mind leading us out of the forest? We don't have those fancy arrows."

"I sure wouldn't!" he almost exclaimed happily. "That's what I do. I take care of people."

Astral and I shared a glance, before I stepped forward too. "I'm Mars. This is Astral and Zeke. We're travelling to Heatherhills. For the college."

"Very pleased to meet you. I'm Keefe." He smiled even brighter, as if that was even possible. His eyes almost glinted, offering a bit of contrast to his light brown skin. "And it'd be my honour to accompany you to the college."

"Uh... We really only needed an escort out of the forest," I muttered. He looked so happy I couldn't bear telling him we really didn't need him to escort us all the way to the college. It'd be easier to kick a puppy, I reckoned.

Turned out, Keefe was a wanderer himself. He had travelled far and wide but had stayed by the forest for a few years now, escorting people in and out of the forest. He was a couple years older than Astral and me. Twenty-two and all alone in the world. There was something primal about the way I wanted to protect him immediately. He kept smiling and kept being so nice. He was even carrying my pack for me now.

"I like your specks," Keefe said gleefully when I had to put them on as the forest was thinning out.

"Thanks," I said and touched the frame of them, almost self-consciously.

"Is that fashion where you come from?"

"No, they protect my eyes."

"Very smart." He looked like he was thinking hard for a second, a crease forming between his thick brows. "Everyone should have a pair. The sun is ruthless. Makes my head hurt to go around squinting all the time."

"Get a hat," Astral interjected.

"A hat?" Keefe looked utterly confused.

"It'll offer shade?" Astral tried.

"Oh. Yes. We should all have hats."

Zeke clenched her lips together to keep her from laughing.

"How about we get you a hat in the next town? As a thank you for saving us from the shadows." I smiled at Keefe and he looked like he was about to cry.

"No, I couldn't-"

"Listen, if everything you want is a hat, then we'll get you a hat," Astral chimed in.

"You are very kind mages." He put his hand on his chest.

We pressed on and finally made it out of the forest. It was odd how at the beginning, there had been all this joy within me, but it was nothing compared to how I felt leaving the forest. The big trees had felt oppressive after the shadows. As if they were lurking behind every trunk, just waiting for us to make a mistake.

But they didn't leave the forest to come onto the path again. They did watch us, I knew that. I saw them out of the corner of my eye. But they didn't come to us. Once one tried to step onto the path and Keefe had jogged up in front of our little group, showing his bow to the shadows. Then it quickly retreated in between the trees.

He had no quiver full of arrows. He just carried the bow.

"Is it magical? The bow?" I asked, nodding towards it. He had it strapped on his back.

"Yes. No arrows needed."

"Who made it?"

"The elves in the ponds. Up in the mountains. Usually, they lure humans into their ponds to drown them, you know? But they gave me this bow instead. I did wander into one of their ponds and I was about to drown, because I'm not a good swimmer. Then they helped me get out and gave me this bow. Told me I'd never need help or protection again, if I carried this. Took me ages to realise the arrows materialise on their own. Just pop right out of the air. And it's different arrows too. The bow knows which ones I need. Like how they're gold now here in this forest, because the ghosts here don't like gold."

"Elves?" I asked and arched my brows. I'm sure they'd take off if they could. Right off my forehead.

"Yeah, they're very nice. Unless they wanna drown you, obviously. Then they're not so nice."

His dialect was one I had never heard before. He'd almost jump over some words and then draw others out, as if he didn't quite remember which word, he had started and how it ended. It was endearing and quite frankly, it was charming. I could see why the elves had chosen to let him live and help him out. He had probably flashed them his dimpled smile and apologised for falling into their pond.

Astral's fingers slipped in between mine and he pulled me closer. "What're you talking about?"

He had been walking a bit ahead with Zeke, telling her about his vision in detail and they had been trying to figure out why he'd have an immediate and non-abstract vision all of a sudden. Maybe they influenced each other?

"Keefe was telling me of his bow and how he got it."

"Elves!" Keefe chirped happily.

"Mountain or forest?"

"Mountain. Pond elves. Very nice people."

"We never confirmed if they were real or not at the college. Or if they were real if any were left."

"There's plenty of elves. Used to be elves in that forest as well, but they moved out when the ghosts moved in. And I mean, I'm half an elf." He smiled again.

"Half?" Zeke asked and stopped in her position in front of us.

"Mum is an elf, Da is a human."

"Was that why the pond elves helped you?" I asked. "And is that why you can use the elf-bow?"

Keefe laughed a wholehearted laugh, slapping his stomach. "You'd think you'd never met a half-elf before."

"We haven't," all of us said at the same time.

"Oh," Keefe said and dried his eye. "Well, I'm honoured to be the first then." He readjusted his cape a little and then continued walking. "And yeah, the pond elves don't kill other elves or even half-elves. We're all family, after all. They're my cousins, so to speak. My mum is a forest elf, so all forest elves are my siblings."

"Must be nice to have such a vast family," I said.

"Gets hard at family get-togethers. Never enough food."

I couldn't hold back a snort. I couldn't imagine how it must've felt to have that many family members. I only had Astral.