"I wonder what happened to those elves," I said as we trudged forward through the thick mud.

"Who knows. They hate fighting, always have. They must have used some bloody Fey magic to flee," Haltir replied.

"They left us there to die... "I said, confused why the other didn't sound the least bit upset.

Haltir laughed and shook his head. "That's the way of this part of the world, Est. Ever since our ancestors were abandoned on this demon infested continent, it's been every race for itself."

"Do you think those demons will find us here?" I asked, wondering what the abandoned thing was about.

"Nah… they are too busy summoning more of their ugly kin. Won't be setting out hunting for a few days, I think."

Quietly we continued walking. For a long time, the road was nothing but a straight line of mud, hidden between two hills. It was turning dark when we stood atop a hill, looking around. Far ahead, the mud road moved in a swirling line through the hills.

"Should we rest?" I asked.

"No, that's far too dangerous. We will continue until we reach the Purgatory Plains. Then we can find a spot to make camp."

I was about to ask what was locked away in those plains when a shout came from behind us. Afraid the demons had caught up; I turned around. A single figure was running nimbly along the road far behind us. It had a bow on it's back.

We waited, and after five minutes, Haltir laughed.

It took me a bit longer to recognize the figure, but when I did, I smiled. "It's Egilla!"

"She must have one hell of a tale to tell, "Haltir said.

Another twenty minutes later, Egilla stopped in front of us. She was barely out of breath; mud spatters from her boots to her waist. A big backpack hung from her back.

"Here I thought I'd have to run for a whole day to catch up. You two are so slow it's a miracle you didn't get caught by the demons, "she said as she nodded at Haltir before grinning at me.

"Where were you?" I asked, only realizing the reproach in my voice after I'd spoken.

Egilla's face fell, but then she shook her head and looked ahead.

"My fantastic uncle had me escorted away when it became dangerous, "she said, staring in the distance before continuing. "There are doors to a small pocket dimension in some of the wagons. It took me hours to get free and sneak out."

"What the fuck!" I said, kicking mud ahead. "Why didn't they just take all the mercenaries there?"

"That's what I demanded too, but they wouldn't have it."

I turned to her, thinking of all the dead we left behind. "Why?"

"It's a secret dimension, and they said if others knew about it, they would try and take control over it."

We continued walking, Egilla talking about how she was grabbed by two of the Leafskins and dragged through the gate. How she had freed herself from her bonds, finally managed to sneak out of the immense tree city and return back to one of the wagons to find the demons outside. She had to wait for hours before they left, and when she did, she had to hurry as some of the elves were returning, getting ready to reclaim the caravan after the demons left.

Day turned to evening, to night, and back to the morning. The hills in the distance had started flattening out before being replaced by yellow-green fields. The grass ranged from ankle to waist high, and moving through felt like a breath of fresh air compared to the constant mud.

Massive yellow and orange bushes dotted the landscape, and Haltir guided us straight to the nearest. As we got closer to it I saw the bush was actually the top of a massive tree. The tree stood within a deep pit, it's tangled roots and leaves almost touching the sides.

"Finally rest," Haltir said, sounding deathly tired.

I wondered how he was still even moving. His breathing was so laborious I'd worried he might keel over at any second. Egilla was the opposite, moving as spry as the day before, her eyes glistening with anticipation.

"I'll see if it's clear, "she said, and she jumped forward. Like a leopard, she climbed across the branches, quickly disappearing between the leaves.

As I saw her graceful moves, I suddenly realized something. If one of those elves was her uncle, did that mean she was a half-elf of some kind? She wasn't green, though.

"Is she a part elf?" I asked.

"Ask her yourself when she gets back, but make sure to duck," Haltir muttered. He sat on his haunches, leaning on his ax, his eyes closed.

Egilla returned with moments, her dark-haired head poking through the leaves. "It's clear, come down!"

I was about to ask Haltir if he needed help when the old man jumped towards a nearby branch. He held on with a single hand, his ax in the other, and climbed down spry as a teenager. Had he just been faking it? Looking at a nearby branch, I felt a little trepidation but pushed it down and jumped. I easily made it, my upper arms reaching the branch.

Holding the ax in one, I climbed down, again realizing how fantastic having four arms was.

--

Hours later, we sat at the bottom of the tree, a small campfire close to the earth wall, smoke trickling up. Haltir was already fast asleep, his soft snoring barely audible above the constant rustling of leaves.

"I wanna ask you something, but don't kill me, ok?" I said, staring at Egilla across the fire.

She looked back, a weary look across her face. "Let me guess. You want to ask why my skin isn't green?"

I didn't reply. It wasn't exactly what I'd wanted to ask, but it would do.

"Halfblood elves, whose father is a male of another race, never have green skin. Some have green hair, or really pointy ears, but never the skin."

"Are there many?"

She leaned back and nodded. "Yes, although not here. It's one of the reasons the male forest elves hate the other races so much. Female forest elves, especially the older ones, prefer males of other races. Nobody knows why, but it's one of the reasons there are so few pure forest elves left."

"Your uncle seemed to like you, "I said, taking a small piece of ration and chewing on it.

Egilla snorted. "It's because I'm a woman. The forest elf elders hope that they can get half-elf females to come to the Veridicent Glades and mate with purebloods."

I grinned at her, shaking my head. "And I take it the half-elf women don't like that very much?"

She laughed. "That's the problem. Many do. As stupid as it might sound, the half-elf women usually prefer pureblood elves. It's one of the reasons the other races make fun of the Forest elves so much."

I shook my head in wonder about the ridiculous nature of this world.

"I'll go and sleep now. You're sure you don't need a rest?"

"Nah, I'm fine. The only real benefit I got from my mother is that I only need to sleep once per three days. Even then, I can easily do without for another few days."

Turning to the tree and the blankets I had laid ready, I turned in. Looking up at the branches, I wondered if I could increase my Woodcrafting by making more small creatures from the branches. I decided to try in the morning. Any increase in strength was welcome. The last thought I had was that I hoped Sandra didn't pick the half-elf race. It'd just be my luck if she did and ended up with some Forest elf.

--

We traveled through the Purgatory Planes for eight days, which owed their names to the odd partially buried trees we spend the night with. During the evenings, Haltir forced me to train with the ax, although truth be told, after our recent battle with the demons, I needed little persuasion. It lasted until an hour before we should sleep, which I then spent using one of Egilla's knives to carve small animals. The first time the others just looked at me in astonishment before laughing at my monstrous cow. After that, they ignored my failed attempts at art. During the day, we saw many tracks of animals and sometimes heard them roar in the middle of the night, but we didn't come across any.

Haltir attributed it to our astounding luck, but Egilla deciding our paths had more to do with it from what I could tell.

Most of the day, we just walked forward silently. At first, I'd tried to get Haltir to tell me things about the world, but he made good on his threat that he wasn't Agga and kept most answers to a bare minimum. Egilla was ok with telling me about the history of this continent, but when I saw how fast my knowledge was increasing, I eventually stopped asking.

On the afternoon of the eight day I saw a line appearing on the horizon. As we moved further, they changed to mountains, white snow on the tops. Rolling hills of green and yellow lay before it, and from this distance, it looked like a verdant green heaven compared to what I'd seen of this world so far. There were even trees that didn't seem like they would get up and eat you.

"That's our destination?" I asked.

"Yes, those are the Harrowing Hills, "Haltir said.

A few hours later, I shook my head. "Those aren't hills. Those are bloody mountains!"

"The Giants didn't seem to think so, and they named them," Haltir said with a laugh.

"Are those Giants still around?" I asked, hoping we didn't have to worry about giants attacking us.

"Nope, they were killed ages ago."

I blinked, wondering who killed them. Egilla must have read my mind, or my expression gave me away because she laughed and pointed at the mountains.

"Those hills house the most horrifying Fey creations you can encounter. Left behind by the Sun elves after their wars with the Giants, they have changed, interbred with the wildlife over the years, creating horrid abominations.

I almost stopped in my footsteps. "Why the hell would anybody create a city in such a place?"

This time both Haltir and Egilla laughed, but I could hear a slight undertone of fear in it.

"Because this is the most fertile land on the whole continent. It is one of the few places farmers can grow crops and know more than ten percent will make it."

I could understand that. So far, none of the wildlife seemed edible, only the fish making it even harder to get food if most of the crops failed. But still. Looking at the dark mountains -I couldn't think of them as hills- in the distance, I shivered as my imagination tried to picture the horrid creatures that might inhabit it.

After another quiet evening below one of the buried trees, we reached the foothills at the end of the next morning. Without a road to guide us, I wondered how the other two even knew where we were heading. Haltir didn't show even the slightest uncertainty, though, as he guided us left, further along the foothills.

I counted the days we had traveled so far. It'd be forty days by foot from Sart, but we took the wagon, and that halved it. Since then, we had traveled nine days, so that meant we had eleven days of walking left? I groaned as I felt the leather boots chafe my ankles.

"How much further?" I finally asked, hoping I'd miscalculated.

"Another week along the hills and then almost five days through them to reach Dursic, "Haltir said.

I groaned and looked around. A few hundred meters halfway on the hill to the right was one of the verdant trees. A thick branch had snapped off and had fallen a bit further down. From what I could see, it looked like perfect wood to continue my experiments, and I began making my way into the hills.

"Where do you think you're going, Est?" Haltir snapped.

"I want to get that branch to carve something from, "I replied.

"Be careful. Some of the trees here are as poisonous as those in the Howling Forest."

"I'll be careful," I said, looking at the tree as I moved closer. From what I could see, it didn't have any of the markers Agga had taught me to look for that said it was poisonous. No black lines on the leaves, no overly exposed roots, no odd mushrooms or growths on it, and no barbs along the leaf edges.

I stopped at the branch, which was as thick as my arm at the base, thinning to a finger-thickness at the end. Bending down, I saw most of the leaves had begun wilting. It had happened a few days earlier. Not too long for the leaves to die completely, but long enough for them to start. As I made it to pick it up, I saw that a second branch lay below it, partially crushed by the larger one. It was as thick as a finger and with a single verdant leaf. That was odd. Why wasn't that leaf wilting? I examined it closer and noticed the small branch had roots at one end, and twenty centimeters from it was a small hole. This wasn't a branch. It was a small tree that had been uprooted.

Examining the sapling, I knew it would die soon if it stayed uprooted. A small bout of sympathy made me shake my head. Back on earth, I lived in a city, and there was little greenery left. As the planet became hotter, especially in the urban areas, droughts had killed off most small pockets of green in them. Only one park remained, and you needed a permit to enter. I'd been there a few times with Sandra, but it was pretty expensive.

Putting one hand across the small roots to protect them, I lifted the larger branch off with two hands. It wasn't all that heavy, at least not compared to the Winding Weed wood ax I wielded. Tossing it to the side, I cleared out the partially collapsed hole and placed the small sapling in the ground, pushing the dirt around it. When I was sure it'd have a good chance, I stroked one of the beautiful green leaves.

"Now be more careful little one, or you won't become big and strong like the others!"

To my shock, the leaf seemed to shudder as if in response. Holding my breath, my hand frozen on the leaf, I waited, but it didn't happen again. It must have been my imagination. Getting up, I grabbed the large branch and grinned at my foolishness.

"I'll be taking this to try and craft some nice things! Grow strong and tall, little tree!"

Grinning at the small sapling, I turned and saw that the others had moved on, standing in the distance and waiting for me. I put the branch across a shoulder, besides the ax, and jogged after them.

"What took you so long?" Egilla asked when I finally caught up.

I grinned and shook my head. "Nothing, just had to give some first aid."

The other two looked at me in surprise, but I wasn't about to tell them I'd saved a small tree.

We continued for another few hours until we saw a dug out tree somewhat back out on the planes. It was the first in a while, and Haltir set out for it. It was only just becoming dark when we reached it, meaning we would have a lot of time before nightfall, and I shivered as I saw Haltir move towards me. It seemed like we would be doing a lot of training tonight.