THE BRISKNESS OF Spring was refreshing.

It felt like it had been centuries since my skin had felt the sun, or since the air had been so warm and thin. There was no ash, no harshness, and no gunfire.

Only magic.

For myself, it was not unusual, and I had grown accustomed to it. To the humans, it was was quite ethereal. There was not much that resembled that of Earth here besides the vibrant flora. The fauna, was unlike anything which they had ever seen before.

And the colours —human eyes would take a while to adjust to the bizarre saturation and shades of colour. For me, it felt like opening my eyes again after too long.

Earth was so bland and grey compared to this.

"I can see why you didn't want humans coming here," Georgia piped up and marvelled as an emerald-jewelled hummingbird flittered by. "We would have eventually destroyed everything."

I nodded, my gaze following a glittering golden stag with antlers that wound, hung and twisted like jungle vines. "There is a beauty in the untamed," I said.

It was as I had remembered it in my youth —unparalleled magnificence. If one were looking for a mild, mystical paradise, the Beta Plane was it. The Alpha Plane had not been made to be beautiful; rather to hold it. The dark twisted deadness of the landscape reflected the hearts of those who governed it.

The World-Weavers cared nothing for their environment. Everything was the same to them. Something that lived, that was surely to eventually die.

The forest almost seemed immune to such mortality.

It was so alive; from the inhabitants to the very air that thrummed with the beat of life. It was difficult to imagine that it would ever end.

As we trekked on, I found it a miracle that we had managed not to encounter a single other creature of magic. The tree Elves were usually nestled higher up in the trees that towered to unfathomable heights into the sky. Perhaps we were being as quiet as I had urged.

The air began to cool as we neared the edge of Spring, preparing us for the bite of Winter.

That was when we heard the rustle of leaves.

It was not an ordinary sound made by an animal —so I prepared for the worst. Adam and I stood either side of Georgia; the soldier with his pistol and my hands outstretched, ready to call on my magic.

"Show yourself," I demanded.

"You brought humans..." a voice trilled from beside us, accentuating every single vowel.

"You should not have done that," sang another.

"Should not have done that," echoed one that sounded like the youngest of all of them.

"How do they know?" Georgia hissed.

"We can smell your repulsive mortal arses from quite some distance away," came the reply; followed by laughter. "It is so easy to sniff out humans."

Georgia shot me an outraged look.

I hesitated, before responding with, "We are of no threat to you. Please let us pass safely."

"The man has a pistol," the first voice pointed out.

"A weapon, a weapon!" cried the youngest.

"He can put it away," I assured, shooting Adam a look. He was outraged that I would render him vulnerable, but I needed to earn these creatures' trust —so he reluctantly lowered his defence.

I then called them out again.

Slowly —three figures emerged from around us; behind, in front and to Adam's side. Three Elves stood before us, clad in branded Gamma Plane t-shirts paired with grass skirts and trousers.

The first voice, and whom I assumed to be oldest, was a tall lanky male with curled golden brown hair decked with Autumn leaves which framed his thin face. The upper half of it was painted a fading red, complimenting his luminescent golden eyes. His companions flanked him either side: a female slightly shorter than himself and a younger one who was half their height.

She was definitely the feistiest.

Her face was painted a fading green. She bared her unnervingly sharpened teeth at us and shook her full mane of vivid amber curls, sending stray twigs flying from the small branches among them.

The older and darker skinned female seemed to be one to keep a rein on things. Her hair was fashioned into one long coil of raven which brushed the forest floor, topped with deep-coloured feathers fashioned like a crown. Her lilac eyes scrutinised us carefully. They contrasted beautifully with her golden painted face.

I glanced up at the sky. The biggest and brightest sun was now significantly further west.

"Good setting," I greeted appropriately.

"You can skip the formalities," sneered the male, "and instead, you can explain to us how you managed to bring those filthy humans here."

"A Gate," I answered.

"A Wytch coven allowed you passage?" the older female questioned. "That is preposterous."

"Yet, here I stand," I deadpanned.

"Oh, we have a smartass," the male smirked.

"Smartass, smartass!" the youngest Elf began to chant as she cartwheeled in a circle around us.

"Are you sure you should be teaching her that kind of language?" Adam dared to speak.

I elbowed his stomach and put a finger to my lips.

"The Elf children are taught to be wild and free to do as they please," the male humoured Adam. "The older ones are simply here to stop them from falling out of trees —or off of a cliff."

"That's how they raise children? Seriously?" the soldier frowned in disbelief.

"Stop talking," I hissed.

The older female then curled her lip as the younger one jumped into her waiting arms. The golden Elf gave us such a glare that it rendered Adam silent. "Do you have a problem with how we raise our children, human?" she asked, arching a dark brow.

Wisely, the soldier shook his head.

Georgia then felt that it was her time to speak up. "If it means anything, she's an Eve!" she blurted, pushing me forward, and hoping it would help.

It did not.

The reaction we received was rapid blinking and looks of disinterest. Evidently, it meant nothing to them.

"An Eve Dreamcatcher?" mused the male, flicking his brassy hair aside. "That is a new one."

"So we heard," I quipped.

The older female frowned, her light eyes narrowing. "Why are you in the Beta Plane?"

I pointed to Adam. "We are searching for a cure for his magic-induced insomnia," I explained. "And some fluctuating emotionlessness."

"He probably deserved it," the youngest piped up.

I heard Adam growl under his breath.

"Well, do you know where to begin?" asked the male.

"No," I admitted. "The plan is to go from Gate to Gate and see what we find along the way. It wraps up time efficiency and productivity into one."

"That is a shit plan," the older female informed me bluntly. I frowned in offence. The Elves then looked between themselves, suspicious and uncertain.

"We really do mean no harm," I assured them. "My human companions have not misbehaved."

"We cannot guarantee that they will keep their oaths about keeping to themselves," the male said gravely. "Humans cannot be trusted."

"But you can trust me," I countered.

"Can we?" quipped the younger one, glaring at me with her deep, blazing emerald eyes.

"She is right," sighed the oldest. "Can we?"

"What proof do you need?" I asked. "Tell me and I —"

The Elves then shushed me and stiffened; their ears flattening and perking skittishly. I had no time to be offended. So, I frowned and listened —but I could not hear anything, which meant that whatever the Elves were hearing, was near silent.

Then the older female gasped, her eyes widening. "Shit. A pack of Icen," she breathed. "Run!"

No one needed to be told twice.

We blindly tore through the forest, heading East. I did not care about anything except willing my legs to keep going, to keep bounding; even if my muscles would not stop screaming. Halting was not an option.

"They are getting closer," warned the oldest, picking up the pace. We Gamma-Dwellers still struggled to match it. "Keep together!"

Even though we were going faster, I heard the heavy thudding paws next; then Adam and Georgia. Real panic then began to set in. The Icen were practically on top of us if the humans could hear them.

"What are they doing this far from the Pine Woods?" asked the youngest Elf. "It is not cold enough here!"

"They wandered too close to the border," the male hissed, pointing back at us. "Fucking idiots."

"Hey, dude —fuck you," Georgia tried to respond as she panted, "we were purposefully headed that way —until we bumped into you."

"Less talking," the Elf deflected. "More running."

I did not know how far we ran —the trees and undergrowth blended together in one band of green and brown. We might have already made it miles away from our intended destination.

"Wait," the Elf male then said, listening out for the sound of paws again. We slowed down considerably. "...It sounds like they have begun to retreat. They must have realised that it was getting too warm."

"I will go and look," said they youngest, immediately scrambling up a tree. She squatted on a branch two stories above us, and peered northward. She strained for almost half of a minute. "...All clear!" she then cried, before jumping down to the lowest branch and swinging back and forth from it.

"Good Elf, Knott," the male praised her.

The young Elf let out a sound that resembled a bark.

"Yeah, okay," Adam breathed. "Wild and free."

I shook my head and suppressed a smile —before meeting the gaze of the oldest. My amusement died.

"What are we going to do with you three?" he mused, pacing in front of us. "We do not belong to a village, so we are on our own. Oh!" he then exclaimed. "I know. We will have a duel."

"Excuse me?" I deadpanned.

The youngest Elf, whom I assumed to be Knott, gasped. "Duel! Duel!" she cried, clapping her hands together. "Brother never loses!"

"Your best against our best," the male Elf clarified. "The winner and their team is granted the freedom to do anything they wish."

"And...what exactly is it that you three wish?" I questioned suspiciously, folding my arms.

The Elves smiled at each other.

"Well," the male then smirked, "We are rather hungry. And we have never tried humans before."

I tried not to think about my travelling companions strung up like curing meats in a butcher's as I sat on a tree stump regaining my breath.

Adam and Georgia were sitting in front of me, gulping down their water supply.

We had thought about making a run for it, but we all knew that the Elves had unparalleled stamina. We would be dead long before we reached the snows.

A duel, it seemed, was our only option.

"This is fucking crazy," Georgia declared, launching to her feet. "I can't believe we've run into cannibals. And now we have to fight for our freedom?"

"Elves are not cannibals, Georgia," I sighed. "They are not humans. They can eat you if they wish."

Her jaw dropped. "Are you encouraging them?"

"Of course not," I clipped, offended that she would even think that I would do that. "I will duel with them. No one is going to get eaten."

The teenager then threw herself back on the ground and crossed her legs, before biting at her nails.

"If worst comes to worst," Adam grunted as he pulled out his semiautomatic pistol, "I will shoot them."

I did not tell him to reconsider. Because I understood that if it came down to choosing between my people and humans, I would have to go with those I knew better.

I would not feel good about killing other creatures of magic, but I could not let them win.

Georgia had a life ahead of her.

Adam still had a cure and purpose to find.

I could not let them down.

"Warm-up time is over!" Knott suddenly shrieked from behind the tree to my left. We all jumped, causing her to burst out laughing. And before we could recover, she abruptly became unnervingly serious. "Go to the Duelling Pit!" she ordered.

My ears were still ringing slightly as I then stood up. I stretched my arms and did a few squats.

"That little one is so loud," Georgia commented. "I swear she's going to burst my eardrums."

"Hopefully we will not be around long enough for that to happen," I sighed, before marching off down the path that Knott had taken.

The Duelling Pit was actually exactly what it sounded like: a dug-out shallow circle in the middle of a clearing. The ground looked dry and dusty, which I realised was much better than fighting in mud.

The Elves stood on one side, and we took the other.

"Welcome," the male beamed, his arms outstretched. "We present our best mage: me, Fuirus."

His name seemed to suit him.

"Oh," I quipped, surprised. "We present ours; which also, happens to be me. Purple."

"How long have you had your newfound magic, Purple?" Fuirus asked, his tone playful and mocking, and his expression threatening.

"Long enough," I bit back, handing over my carryon bag to Adam for safe keeping.

"Oh, she seems confident, Glimm," Fuirus addressed the older female. "This should be interesting."

"Get on with it already," was Glimm's response as she attempted to wrap a leash made of vine and ivy around Knott's midsection.

The young Elf protested bitterly, complaining about not wanting to witness the carnage. I tensed. Her cries did not instil me with faith.

Fuirus turned back to me. "Here are the rules," he said, "there will be no biting, fatal wounding and physical contact. All fighting is to be done with magic."

As he finished, red flames burst from his skin. He grinned manically, rendered a living torch. So his magic was fire. I would think that I possessed the advantage, but I had barely done anything offensive with my frost and ice, let alone I could not yet control it.

I was severely disadvantaged.

"Weavers let me live," I prayed under my breath.

Fuirus gestured for me to come hither as he stepped into the dug-out circle. "On your mark, Purple."

I braced myself, and ran forward into the pit.