Keefe had convinced us exploring the forest was about more than just hanging out with his family on the platforms far above the ground. It was also about walking through the forest, being close to the roots, and actually appreciating the sheer size of the trees. I understood it the minute we were back on the ground. I hadn't seen it from the ground level yet. There was no clear path and we had to climb over some of the larger exposed roots. They were well taller than me.

Keefe and I had taken the lead, while Zeke and Astral struggled a little harder. I felt more alive here than I ever had before. Keefe were telling me about the different trees, the sorts, the plants. And I had brought my new rucksack so I could take samples and experiment. I kept stopping to quickly sketch something, and then Zeke and Astral could catch up to us.

I loved it here. I wanted to stay here. The elves had welcomed us as if this was our home. They were so lovely, and I was slowly learning their language, so I could converse with them more comfortably. They were patient with me when I butchered their grammar or the pronunciation. They softly corrected me and showed me how to properly form my mouth around the words. It was a hard language as it has a bunch of sounds, I had never even heard. Both soft and harsh and guttural. Whereas mine was flatter and we had much harder Rs. Astral would have a much easier time with it as his dialect was softer and actually resembled the elfish language.

"Look here," Keefe said, squatting in front of a massive plant. It kind of looked like a flower but the leaves were too thick. They were red with small black dots on them, and it definitely looked poisonous.

I squatted down beside him and studied the plant closely without touching it.

"You can extract the poison easily from this one. Just tip one of the leaves," he said and put his bow on the leaf, tipping it down. I handed him a vial as a thick clear substance started dripping from the tip. The vial was soon filled, and he handed it back to me, letting go of the leaf. It went back to its original position, looking entirely unbothered.

"It paralyses. In too high of a dose, it'll even paralyse someone's heart. But just a drop and someone will be out. We use it for our arrows. Or for traps. To keep outsiders out."

"I thought you were pretty open to visitors." I arched a brow at him.

He shook his head. "No. You were with me and that's why you've been let in. Same with my father when he was still alive. He'd only come when my mother was with him. We don't trust outsiders much."

"How come?" I rose back up to my full height and Keefe followed.

"Humans can be quite cruel to anything they deem... Not like them."

I bit down on my lip. "Yeah."

"But none of you are humans." He smiled a bit of a cheeky smile and started walking again. "We're better friends with the mages. Especially the ones who come to learn from us. As you might've guessed, we love sharing our knowledge."

I smiled a little at that and nodded. "You've been teaching me for a while now."

"As you've been teaching me."

"Is that one of the reasons you wanted to stay with us?"

"Amongst other things." He tapped his temple. "I mean, I also just happen to like y'all. You're very nice."

I chuckled a bit as we started the climb over another root. It was easy to do as the bark was riddled with valleys and hills. Perfect for climbing really. We stayed on the root, waiting for Astral and Zeke to catch up again.

Astral was panting heavily as he climbed and then when he made it to the top, he promptly sat down.

"Whoever thought this was a good idea, I'll have their head," he growled and showed me his hands. He had gotten a couple of blisters.

"Oh, you poor abused creature," I said with as much fake concern I could muster and sat down beside him, our legs dangling over the edge of the root.

"I'm not even joking, this is torture." He did look genuinely upset.

"We'll head back now then," Keefe said and squinted a bit. He took his bow off his back and stared harder into what appeared to be nothingness. "Do you see that?" he asked Zeke who was standing beside him, clearly trying to recover as well.

"What? My life flashing before my eyes?" she panted.

"No, smoke." Keefe didn't even acknowledge her joke.

I rose to my feet and fell in beside the elf, looking in the same direction. "Is it uncommon for there to be smoke here?"

"Yes. We don't burn anything on the ground. Too risky as the rain barely makes it down here. Makes everything very dry and too easy to start a forest fire." He jumped down from the root. "We have to figure out what's happening."

I opted for climbing down instead of jumping. Astral groaned loudly and let himself slide down to the ground, landing beside me. Zeke was the last to follow, climbing down as well.

"What happens if it's a forest fire?" I asked.

"Fires don't just randomly start here. Someone started it and we have to figure out who. If they're friends or not."

I grabbed Astral's arm. "Do you think it could be Venus?"

He glanced at me and shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know, but..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. "There's someone out there."

"How would you know?" I asked with a low voice.

"I can sense magic miles away, remember? That's why we went this far before stopping. I could sense her. I don't wanna be anywhere near her. And... I don't know, but this..." He rubbed his chest, sweat making his forehead shine. "It doesn't feel right."

"Let's go then," Keefe said with a fierce determination. He led the way towards where he had seen smoke. The closer we got, the foggier it became. Everything smelt burnt. My eyes were quickly watering, and it was making it hard to see anything.

"I can't see," I said and stopped. I rubbed my eyes which did make it a little better, but everything was becoming so blurry.

"We've got to turn back. We can't run around here with Mars blinded." Astral said, his voice coming from a place close to me.

"We've got to go this way. I've got to warn my family!" Keefe exclaimed. "We need to split up."

"You can't leave us here. We won't know which way to go!" Astral growled and grabbed my hand, getting me to take a couple of steps forward.

"I can't let my family burn either," Keefe growled back.

"Fucking fine." Astral let go of my hand and I rubbed my eyes again, seeing him clasp his hands together hard, aiming it towards the smoke.

A gush of wind swept in between the trees, almost knocking me over. It cleared the smoke and the stinging in my eyes stopped.

"But now she'll know exactly where we are."

"But at least now Mars isn't blind," Zeke interjected. "So, let's go instead of standing around here and fight!" She started forward.

Keefe sent one last look at Astral that didn't exactly look friendly before he went after Zeke.

"Come," I said and grabbed Astral's shirt, urging him to come with me.

"We're going the wrong way," he said.

"I know but we can't just abandon Keefe's family. Not after all they've done for us."

Astral groaned, clearly frustrated we couldn't just be selfish and leave.

We continued forward as fast as we could. Keefe was much faster than us, showing us, it was in the forest he truly belonged. How he jumped between the roots instead of stumbling over them like the rest of us was a true testament to his heritage.

We made it to a big root and had to climb it. Keefe stood on top of it, looking pale. His eyes were wide, and he was hyperventilating.

I turned my eyes on what he was looking at and was about to topple over. Everything was on fire. The platforms were falling down in droves and elves were everywhere, trying desperately to kill the fire.

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

It was as if ice ran down my back. The last time we had been in a forest and he had said that, we had almost gotten killed by forest spirits. And Keefe had saved us.

"Burning trees," I said, fear gripping me.

"Burning trees," he repeated and nodded. "Fuck it, come on. We gotta help." He jumped down from the root and held his hands out, big black clouds forming over us. It was if he had moved the sky down between the trees and let the rain pour over us. And it was working! It was actually working!

I jumped down too and helped an elderly elf away from the fire. She looked almost relieved as I sat her down on a root next to someone trying to mend a burn victim.

I hurried back to the elves only to catch Astral getting shot right in the chest by a purple lightning bolt.

"Astral!" I screamed and ran towards him.

He struggled back up on his feet his arms catching fire. He turned towards the source of the lightning. Venus stood on top of a big root, lighting licking up her body.

"Don't explode," he said over his shoulder and then threw his hands towards her, massive fireballs flying towards her. He unleashed what could only be described as the apocalypse. Fire, lighting... big roots unravelled themselves from the ground and slammed down on where Venus had been standing.

She appeared out of nowhere, right in front of Astral, gripping his throat. "You're such a disappointment."

He clawed at her hand as she almost carelessly lifted him from the ground. He turned his head and shook it the best he could at me. He still didn't want me to explode. I could end all of this right now I didn't understand why he didn't want me to do it! I didn't understand.

I ran towards her, picking a stick up and slamming it into the back of Venus' head. It wasn't enough to make her more than flinch, but she lost the grip she had on Astral.

He struggled to get air in, wheezing in the process. He fell to one knee, slamming his hand down on the ground. Roots sprang up, grabbing Venus, wrapping around her. With the roots came more lightning, electrocuting her.

Astral rose again to his full height, his hands having turned the colour of his night-sky-eye. Even the tip of his hair turned dark blue. It was as if the night was overtaking him. Dark blue seeped from his eye, staining his skin.

He raised his hand and clenched it into a fist, the roots growing even tighter around Venus.

She coughed out a laugh. "I'll die. You know it won't matter."

"It'll matter to me," Astral said with a voice I couldn't even recognise.

"I'll just wake up again. Like your beloved."

"And then I'll kill you again." He swiftly turned his fist and the roots jerked hard. A sickening crunch sounded through the forest, silencing everything else.

Venus' head was in a weird angle. It looked grotesque. She was still smiling, her eyes wide open but seeing nothing.

"Astral," I whimpered.

He turned his gaze on me. Dark blue was seeping into his regular eye as well. All the green and the lush browns on him was slowly turning dark blue and I didn't understand what it meant, but it couldn't be anything good.

He slowly came towards me, his shoulders rising and falling with his heavy breath. It sounded like he was struggling to breathe. I took a step back, but he kept coming.

"Astral," I tried again.

He raised his hand and roots crawled up my body.

"Astral, stop!" I tried to fight the roots, but they were digging into me. "Please!"

He raised his other hand, lightning cracking around his darkening skin.

"Please," I tried again. "I love you. Don't do this." Tears unhooked from my eyes, trailing down my cheeks.

He stopped and blinked. The dark blue subsided from his eye first. He gasped loudly falling to his knees, the roots falling with him. I couldn't stay on my feet either, falling on my rear with a hard bump.

"Mars," he whimpered and rubbed his eyes before burying his hands in his hair. "I can't..."

I slowly crawled towards him. He bent over, pressing his forehead to the ground, repeating 'I can't' over and over.

I gently took him in my arms, and he dug his fingers in my shirt, pressing his face to my chest.

"It hurts," he whimpered.

"I don't know what to do," I said with a cracking voice.

"Make it stop!" he screamed, releasing my shirt and pressing his hands to his head. "I can't stand it, make it stop!"

"I don't know what's happening Astral." I had no clue what to do. I wanted to help him so badly, but how could I? I didn't even know what was hurting him. I didn't know what to do and I had never felt more powerless in my life.

And then his body slumped. An arrow was sticking out of his back and Keefe stood above us, lowering the bow. He had a hardened look on his face.

"Come on." He said and gently took Astral out of my arms, picking the boy up from the ground.

"You... You shot him," I said, completely dumbfounded.

"Yeah. Not much else we could do right now, is there? And he was in pain. Much better he sleeps a little. Look, the blue is subsiding too." He nodded towards Astral's face. Blue veins had spread from his eye, but they were slowly fading again.

"I... I don't know," I stammered. Zeke was by my side then, helping me back up.

"He's immortal, right?" she asked.

I nodded a bit frantically.

"Then he won't die. He'll be alright."

"Will he?" I asked, my gaze swinging from one friend to another. Zeke glanced up at Keefe and he dodged my gaze.

"What's happening to my boyfriend?" I asked with a shivering voice.

Neither could answer that because neither knew. None of us knew and the only one who did was just killed.

I turned towards where Venus had been killed but her body wasn't even there. The only thing there was, was flames. Flames everywhere. The whole forest was on fire and Astral had been a part of that.

The trees were burning, and he was burning with them. 

The End