Unexpected circumstances create opportunities for growth.

~Dagda, the All-Father, Chief of the Gods

The bridge buckled under Crow. His Coiled Ghost Hop shoved him at a downward angle, and the bridge couldn’t take the power of the impact, so the lines snapped where that beast’s talons tore the rope. His head slammed against the planks and stunned him temporarily. Thankfully, the hop spell automatically activated the slow fall effect. His body drifted downward into the mists, but by the time he regained his awareness, it was too late to escape his predicament.

Crow didn’t tell Otto everything. He wasn’t sure how long the slow fall effect lasted, and he was still at least a thousand meters above the tops of the trees. And there was no way to tell how tall the trees were because the mists were obscuring everything below.

The only thing he could do was prepare his Ghosting abilities and hope that he could survive the fall like he did when he jumped down from the waterfall. The difference was he wasn’t landing in the water this time. The one consolation was that the trees looked like some type of fir, and they were grouped together pretty thickly. In a pinch, they were the only option he had to break his fall.

A novel idea came to mind but was quickly dispelled. Crow attempted to use the hop again while he drifted downward, but he couldn’t spring off the air. His feet needed to be pressed against a surface, and then physics took over.

Several hundred meters from the tops of the trees, he felt it. It was like an internal warning telling him that slow fall was about to end. At least he had a few seconds to prepare, but the problem was that he was still too high up.

It was only enough time to mentally prepare himself for the pain. Plummeting downward, he activated Ghost Steps and precisely timed his first step so that he could jump to another tree, but the branch under him snapped. The only thing Ghost Steps did correctly was slow him down some. However, it also turned him, so he was no longer dropping down feet first.

The next branch didn’t give so easily, and his ribs groaned as it smashed into his side. Smaller twigs and branches ripped at his clothes and flesh as he bounced back and forth. No matter what ability he tried to use, he couldn’t avoid the trauma of getting abused by a forest. The only thing he didn’t dare use was Ghost Form or Phasing because he feared he’d plunge into the ground and not be able to get back up before his mana ran out. Broken bones would mend, but getting crushed by the earth sounded terrifying.

Crow didn’t even know which way was up by the time the ground approached and had already resigned himself to a painful end. There wasn’t even time to panic when his body hit the ground like wet clay. Miraculously, his left foot landed first, and his entire leg twisted. The bones within cracked but did not break through some ungodly luck. That didn’t mean the pain was light, and Crow screamed out in pain.

He fell to his back after that, and his head smacked onto a root. Stunned, he could only lay there, unsure why he was still conscious. Crow refused to open his eyes, but only because his head throbbed and opening them felt painful. Something was off. An impact at that speed, with hardly anything preventing his head from hitting a root—his skull should have shattered into a thousand pieces.

“You alive, Draoidh?”

“Huh?” Crow cracked open his eyes and peered around but didn’t see anyone.

“Your people already forgot about us?”

This time Crow didn’t miss the talking tree.

“A treant?”

“Okay, you know a little, but no.”

A beautiful woman with light green skin and walnut-colored hair shifted out from inside the tree. While she was gorgeous, Crow didn’t feel any attraction to her like a man and woman. Instead, he had an urge to protect her like she was his little sister.

“Fae…? Are you a nymph?”

“We are wood nymphs,” the woman said. Her dress of shimmering leaves constantly shifted under a light breeze, which exposed bits of her naked body underneath. Ordinary people wouldn’t gain much from that, but his Sage’s Mind pieced it all together and gave him a complete image of her naked body. It wasn’t something he wanted to do but a side effect of his memory.

“These are my sisters,” the first nymph said, but Crow only saw her. He blinked, and suddenly, there were dozens of them around him. “We trust the Draoidh, so I am sure you won’t say anything. It has been a long, long time since one of your kind arrived here.”

The girl babbled. Each of her sentences was like another thought altogether. It took Crow a bit to get used to the way she talked. It reminded him of his cousin Aine when she was younger. She used to babble on endlessly, and he smiled thinking about it.

“Do you show yourself to strangers?”

“No. Never!” She was so serious that Crow couldn’t help but laugh.

“Where am I?”

“It is… are you ready for it? The Laughing Grove of Despair,” the nymph giggled.

Crow scratched his head and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Why…?” Crow was sure that was a name they gave it, not its actual name.

“Well…” the nymph hesitated and looked down at her toes. “It wasn’t our fault! Promise. All we did was giggle a few times. We were just playing with them, and then they went crazy. We are really nice and didn’t do it on purpose.”

The leader gave Crow a wronged look, and he couldn’t help but laugh. Thinking of it from an outsider’s perspective, hearing random laughter in this place could break sound minds. The mists and the tall creepy vibe, mixed with random giggles, would unhinge anyone with weak willpower.

“Don’t take offense. I was just surprised.”

“Good,” the nymph laughed and pointed toward a nearby tree. “Now, let’s see if you live or die. Your fate is determined by whether you can read what is on that tree.”

Crow’s body tensed up, and he turned to read the markings. Was she really a nymph?

The markings were definitely Draoidh, and he was very familiar with Ogham runes at this point. It was a simple phrase, but he looked at the nymphs, who silently giggled when he finished reading. They tricked him. It wasn’t a threat to his life but an explanation of how to escape this place.

“It says the only way out is up.”

“Unfair, right? I mean, if you could fly, why would you need to know that. So mean.”

“Is it true?”

“It is. There are plenty ways in, but I admit you are the first to fall from the sky.” The nymphs were all laughing hysterically. “If we didn’t help you, you’d have died for sure.”

“How did you know I was Draoidh? Was it my clothes?”

“Pfft, your clothes?” The nymphs were giggling again. “We can smell your blood. No hiding your bloodline from us.”

The representative of the nymphs was the only one that spoke. If the others weren’t giggling and laughing, he’d think they were illusions or incapable of communicating. He felt they just didn’t talk because they were deferring to the first of them to appear.

“Alright, ignoring that for the moment. How do I get out?”

“Fly?”

“There isn’t a place to climb out?”

“If there is, we’ve seen no one capable enough of managing it.”

“Then how the hell… oh.” Crow thought of something. “Do you have someplace quiet where I can meditate? And does this place have another name?”

“Another name? I’ve heard some humans call it a prison or something like that.”

“A prison of what?”

The nymphs all shrugged.

“Humans? There is a place near the southern cliffs that might be a door. Humans are sometimes tossed in from there. But it’s sealed tight and has opened in at least a hundred years. Those prisoners tried to climb out, but the cliff is like polished stone, giving them no way to climb up, and even if they do, the door is seamless, so there is no way to pry it open.”

“Are there any humans here now?”

“Nope. Come, we’ll take you to a safe place, but we can’t stay with you long. We have to be back inside our tree by nightfall—uh, and you should probably hide.”

“Well, that isn’t promising, but show me the place.”

After walking for a few minutes, the wood nymphs brought him to a log cabin. It didn’t look to be in disrepair, but a wooden structure like this should have rotted away. Especially if humans hadn’t been here in over a hundred years.

“We preserve it. It was built by a cultivator who protected us thousands of years ago. He was a quiet man and never talked much.”

“What happened to him?”

“Not sure. One day he was just gone.”

“Do people really come to harm you?”

“Not people… you’ll see soon. Don’t leave the cabin at night.”

“What is out there?”

“We don’t know. We are too afraid to leave our trees, even to peek. Do you have a way out?”

“Maybe,” Crow removed a box from his Vortex Pin that Mugna gave him before leaving Oiche. “This is special to the Draoidh and might help me escape.”

“Ohhhh! We love treasures. Open. Open.” The nymphs all crowded around waiting for Crow to open the box, and he chuckled at their silly nature. They were very innocent fae and were pleasant company.

“Very well. This is my way out.” Crow flipped open the lid and grabbed the orb about the size of his palm, and held it up for them to see. “This is a Silver-Eyed Crow beast core.”