The crossroads by Caaron’s house was by no means quiet at this time in the afternoon. Squirrels chittered and chased each other around trees. Rabbits hopped by en route to the meadows beyond the hill. An insane number of birds flocked around the trees on the edge of the forest and the road.

Pop. A boy and a dark, unearthly creature appeared in the middle of the road. All of the birds that had been perched on the surrounding trees alighted immediately, a storm cloud of chirping and shrieking.

Kel bent down to catch his breath. His head was spinning. “Gibb’s proud balls, what just happened?”

“We got out.” The creature deadpanned.

Kel fought the urge to throw up. “Yeah, I guess we did.” He felt like he had been flipped inside out and then back again. Add to that the fact that his worst nightmare had just become reality. Remitted to the home of Gerald Hardstadt, your master, the council had said.

“Boy” was staring at his panicked face. “Go?” It pointed up the road with a small, taloned finger.

“No, we can’t follow the road. We have to keep out of sight.” He began a mental checklist of things they needed, the direction they should go… “Oh shite. And my bag is locked up in the guardhouse.” He walked a few paces towards the house, then realized his folly. “There’s nothing for it - they’ll be here soon enough. We have to go.”

So they fled into the woods. The wildlife that was generally so active and audible was eerily silent now. He wondered if it was due to his traveling companion’s presence. The birds back there by the road sure hadn’t been happy to see it. While the thing itself had stubby little legs, it didn’t really use them. It tended to glide, hovering a few inches off the ground. That would probably unnerve most animals, let alone people.

“How do you do that?” he asked, feeling his panic subside as they moved deeper into the woods.

“Do what?”

“Float like that. Is it a spell?”

“No spell. Me.”

“Oh.”

Soon they came across a familiar, narrow ravine. Without thinking, Kel had set them on the path that would take them to the tower. And here they were, at the Faerie Road. If I go to the tower, I can grab the sword and defend myself, Kel thought to himself. Then he imagined himself fighting the guards, probably Johan. That wouldn’t go well. And he couldn’t bring himself to raise a sword against Aksel or even that blonde dufus whose name he didn’t know. It would all end with him getting caught if he tried that. Or he would kill someone, which would be far worse. “We have to take the Faerie Road then.” he said, mostly to himself.

“This road?”

“Yes.”

They tread in silence for a while. Or at least Kel was treading. “Boy” floated along glumly beside him. “What’s faerie?” it asked.

“You know - Fae. The Little People. They use magic, strong magic. And they kidnap people, sometimes. Or at least they used to.” He lowered his head, kept walking.

“Oh?” It didn’t seem to comprehend and Kel offered no further explanation. He had spent enough of his young life thinking about them. Best not to dredge that up now, while he was likely being pursued.

“What do now?” “Boy” tilted its head.

Kel stopped to think for a moment. “I dunno...Get away first, far away. Then...find some food. Get work to buy things we need. I don’t know…” Kel had always assumed he would either escape his situation by attending the Academy or just... not. He had considered running away, as many children do, but he had never formulated a plan. This was beyond anything he had anticipated. His hope had been so strong and then it was just taken away, in an instant. Suddenly, he had an idea “Hey - you whisked us away from the council-house. Could you do that again? Could you take us to the Academy?”

It shook its head. “Only places I’ve been. Don’t know Academy - never been.”

Disappointed, Kel slumped his shoulders and started moving again. “Yeah, that figures.”

Just then they began to pass a strange, ivy-covered structure. It was the same stonework as the tower, still standing after years of the elements fading and weathering its features. Kel couldn’t really tell what its original purpose had been and it was so ruined that he didn’t dare think about entering. For all he knew it was a nest for wild animals.

“What’s that?”

“ Couldn’t say. Something from the country before.”

“Boy” tilted its head.

“The country before. No one remembers its name. But they tell stories about it. This land used to be home to another people, a long time ago. That or we just forgot our own history. People argue about it, honestly. There’s loads of buildings like this around. Some say it’s bad luck, some say good. I got slashed in one, so...I can’t say I don’t feel a certain way about them.” His shoulder twinged.

“What is land now?”

“You mean the country? It’s called Sepheria.” He gave him a long look. “You really didn’t know that?”

“No,” the creature shrugged as it glided along.

“It’s a pretty big kingdom.” He recalled the lessons in geography Caaron had given him. “It’s the third largest country in the world.”

“Tell me more. About world.” It seemed pleased to hear this information. To Kel’s knowledge, he hadn’t seen it this interested in one of their conversations before.

“Well, aside from Sepheria there’s countless other countries, but the ones we border are Zephirost, Hestoria, Orai, Leviland. All around us, on either side. And then there’s the Empire. I’m told it’s far across the world from us, but they have a large territory just north of our country as well.”

“What’s Empire?”

“A big country. They own a lot of other countries. Let them keep their names, but they all pay the Empire to...not sack them, I guess.”

“Sack?”

“Destroy, raid, pillage.” He enumerated each word on his fingers.

“Ohh.” The creature thought a minute. “My home is empire.”

“Really?”

“Sack things. Demand tribute.” It shrugged. “Sounds like empire.”

Kel was unsure, but he was pretty certain his shadowy companion meant that his home was an empire rather than the Empire. He decided to see if he could get some more information on where this thing was from. “Tell me about your home.”

“Very busy. Very fun. We have lots of snacks.”

That was random but snacks were good, he figured. “What’s it called?”

Kel regretted his question immediately as it opened its maw and let out a high-pitched vibration that seemed to drill right through his eardrums. A murder of crows that had been roosting in the branches above flew away and cawed at them from a distance in avian fury.

“In…..er...human language?” Kel ventured, ears ringing.

“No name. Just the one.”

They continued in silence for a while. The road was longer than Kel could have imagined and time seemed to stop here. In the gloaming of the forest, it was hard to tell what time of day it was. Aside from the crows, not a single sign of life appeared as they traversed through the wood.

After a time, “Boy” turned to Kel. “Name,” it said.

“What?”

It gave him a look that, for a creature that strange, amounted to a sidelong glance. “You said give me better name.”

“Oh right. I did.” A lot had happened between their last conversation. He had completely forgotten. He thought for a moment. “How about... David?”

The thing scowled.

“Yeah, you don’t really look like a David. Okay, how about Will?” Looking at the creature’s giant unblinking eyes, he thought that William would be none to pleased with sharing a name with it. Something about this felt like it was important. Naming, William had once told him, was a powerful process. There had to be meaning behind it.

“Well, every time I see you, there is a popping sound. So what if we called you ‘Pop?’ No...sounds like I’m calling you my father. That’s all wrong…”

But the creature’s pointed ears perked up. “Pop. Close to my name.” It made the sound again, an awful reverberation that, to Kel, didn’t sound anything like “Pop.”

“Well...It’d be a little weird. How about something more name-ish. Like….Poe?”

The goblin-thing gave a shiver of happiness. “Yes. Poe. I Poe.”

Kel felt a strange sense of relief. Naming it had given him a degree of familiarity with the creature, brought its personality into focus. It wasn’t just some strange visitor from a world that was busy and had snacks. It was Poe.

“Where go now?” Poe the goblin-thing asked.

“Right now...” He honestly hadn’t thought about it yet, but now was the time to decide. Where could they go? From what he knew, the school was in the north, just outside the capital. And as hear as he could tell they were now going southwest, nearly the opposite direction. Now that he thought about it, the Academy didn’t even accept students until they were fifteen. He could go to another town and find work, perhaps. He had skills. Maybe Kel could assist a wise man (or woman) in another village somewhere. But he couldn’t do it close to Fellow’s Glen - he’d have to go far far away or they would find him. For now, his initial instinct was to get as far away as he could. He would worry about everything else later.

“Right now, I guess we’re going where the wind takes us.”

“Wind?”

“The best place to go at the time - wherever is easiest. I’m thinking Ferryton. It’s a day’s walk from here and it’s on the way south. It’s technically in another province, so the city guard can’t come after us there.

“Scared men won’t chase us?” It seemed disappointed.

“No, they won’t.” Now that they were through it, it had been pretty funny to see the looks on the guardsmen’s faces when they had approached Poe. He recalled the one council member fainting at the sight. The thought made him chuckle.

Soon enough, they came to a break in the road. This was The Crossroads, an intersection well known as the traditional road from the village began to wind around hills that gave way to pine barrens, crossing the faerie road along the way. This was the only place that folks of the village generally encountered the faerie road and so it was, of course, considered a haunted place. With the bright sun overhead, though, it didn’t look so bad. Poe didn’t seem to like the prospect of coming out into the open sunlight much. “I go,” it said, sounding annoyed. “Bye.” With a soft Pop, Poe was gone.

Kel sighed. “Fine, I guess I’ll just be a fugitive on my own for a bit.” He began to walk towards the Crossroads, just as the sound of hooves pounding the road heralded a swift rider. Kel’s pulse quickened as he ducked behind a tree. Hal’s fire, they had caught up quick.

The hooves slowed to a trott and stopped, right in the middle of the Crossroad. A single horse gave a familiar whinney. “You should come out, young Kelvin!” the rider called.

Reluctantly, Kel stepped out from behind the tree. Of course the rider was Johan, wearing a serious expression.

“Have you come to bring me back?” Kel worriedly assessed his surroundings. Were there others approaching with him? He wondered if he could call Poe back to him in time to whisk him away somewhere else. But where would they go? Poe hadn’t been anywhere else in his world. He would basically only be able to take them somewhere around Fellow’s Glen. And that would be next to pointless.

“I am here to bring you justice.” Johan dismounted, boots crunching in the cracked mud of the road.

“And what if I won’t go back?”

The captain shrugged. “Kel, once you cross this road, you will no longer be under my jurisdiction. Do you know what that means?”

Kel shook his head. Johan had never called him by his shortened name before.

“It means that I can no longer protect you.” He walked a few paces closer. Kel tensed up, his instinct to defend himself conflicting with his fondness for the man.

“It also means,” Johan unslung something from his shoulder, something brown and scratched and old, “that I can’t pursue you past this point.”

Kel looked up at the tall guardsman in wonder. “What are you doing?”

“Giving you what you deserve, some small amount of justice at least.” He held out his arm to offer the bag to Kel - his satchel. Kel hesitated. Was this a trick?

“Go on,” Johan said, “take it.” He smiled wistfully.

Warily, Kel reached out and took the bag. Johan stood aside, and swept an arm in the direction of the faerie road. “Go on ahead. If I were you, I would avoid Ferryton altogether and double back to Five Pines.”

Kel was in disbelief. He had been sure that the lawman would turn him in, regardless of their relationship.”But won’t you get in trouble?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just make this chance worth it.”

“Thanks Johan. Be sure to thank Caaron for me. And Kyleria. And tell Ryla I said goodbye.”

“I will.”

“I hope we’ll see each other again.” Kel gave the guardsman a hug. He had seen him so often in passing but had never fully taken stock of their bond. He truly was a good man. Kel was dimly aware, selfishly, that by hugging Johan he was saying goodbye not just to him but to everyone that he knew and loved from the village.

“I’m sure we will, Kel.” He patted the boy’s shoulder. “Be safe, stay on the trail.”

As Kel continued down the dug-out faerie road, he paused a moment to listen to the sound of retreating hooves fading into the distance. “Goodbye,” he whispered.

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From there, the road became a Faerie Road proper. It was darker here, wilder. The road was not as degraded as it was in the previous wood: the path was cobbled with moss-laden stones and he occasionally tripped over a loose one here or there. He kept catching glimpses of things out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned there was nothing there. Part of him wished that Poe had stuck around.

Occasionally, when he came upon fallen wood that was suitable for burning, Kel would collect it in his bag - the darkening woods made him well aware that at some point he would need a fire. In the distance, something howled. It was far enough away that it wasn’t worrisome - Kel heard howling all the time from his loft at home. Still, he wasn’t going to ignore Johan’s advice: “Stay on the road.” He fully intended to.

When the twilight glow of the forest became simple darkness, it was time to rest.

He quickly piled the wood he had gathered along the way and muttered an incantation to set it ablaze. Beside the fire, he laid out his bedroll to make camp. It felt odd to do so there in the middle of the road, but it was better than the alternative. He shifted a little, removing a few stray cobblestones from beneath where he sat.

Kel shivered and looked around him as the fire crackled, feeling more alone than ever. Granted, Poe had stuck around with him for hours this time. Much longer than the minute of conversation that he had with it over the previous week. Kel wondered what had been different about this time. Had giving it a name helped? Tethered some sort of bond between the two. He considered calling Poe back to him, but he felt bad about it. He didn’t think it was fair to keep ripping the creature away from its home. Plus he couldn’t stand the thought of those eyes watching him as he slept. As familiar as he now was, Poe was nothing if not unnerving in appearance.

His stomach growled. Now that he thought about it, he had last eaten lunch ages ago and he certainly hadn’t come upon anything edible while walking the faerie road - berries and mushrooms tended to avoid those strange places. Perhaps, by some chance, Caaron had packed away something for him.

He dug into the satchel, hoping that there was something, anything, he could eat. His hand closed on something hard and jagged, a familiar feeling. It was the gate glass he kept, glinting in the dim firelight. Disappointed, but curious, Kel examined it. Wrapped around the crystalline form and tied with twine was a note. Caaron, he thought to himself. He hastily unwrapped the twine and unfolded the crumpled note:

Find Maximillion Magnus the Third.

Max is a patron of the Academy and an accomplished magician.

It was strange that he said it that way. Magician. Not wizard or sorcerer, though Kel had never learned any sort of distinction between the two. The word magician wasn’t really something he had heard often. What was even more confusing was that Caaron’s note didn’t say where Maximilian Magnus the Third lived. That would have been helpful. He turned the page over, but there was nothing there. Blank.

Well, he could think about it later, once he had eaten. He renewed his attempt to rummage in the bag now, his hand feeling around vials, a book or two, and something that seemed….sharp. His hand had just started to close on something he thought was an apple when somewhere out in the woods a twig snapped. Now that he thought about it, Kel hadn’t heard that howling in the distance for a while. He scanned the perimeter of the road and felt his stomach drop. Glowing eyes were staring out of the darkness on either side of him.

Without a moment to lose, he did the only thing he could do. Kel dug deep and imagined himself as a wolf. He pictured a layer of tawny fur emerging from his skin, his nose and mouth elongating into a snout, all four limbs changing, bending, lowering him to the ground. He pictured all of this and projected it into the illusion he cast. The first wolf to emerge from the brush was surprised to find another wolf, though it was a strange looking one at that. It tilted its head and the other, strange wolf did so as well, tentatively. The rest of the pack caught up and were all bewildered by what they saw. It just seemed...off. They really weren’t sure what to do, as they could have sworn there was a human here and there was one of those hot bundles of flame burning right there, which usually meant that people were nearby.They sniffed the air: the scent was here. That was for sure. But the thing in front of them did not look human.

Kel concentrated, picturing himself the way he wanted them to see him. He shifted slightly; now that he was looking at a wolf, some of the subtle differences came into focus. Markings along his snout, the ears tweaked a bit, underbelly just a little whiter. There - now he looked much more natural.

Silently pondering this other lupine stranger, the pack decided to greet it. They yipped and whined among themselves until finally, the largest of them, the alpha came forward. It gave a low, barking howl. Welcome.

Kel froze. He hadn’t the slightest idea what that meant. He assumed it was a greeting. The best thing to do was to try to mimic what they had said and then quickly excuse himself and hopefully climb a tree or something before they figured out what he really was. He made an attempt.

From the wolves’ perspective, the strange wolf hesitated before letting out a sound that translated roughly to “Wcolen?” That was odd. The pack agreed, on an instinctive level, that that was definitely odd. And the thing wasn’t swishing its tail. Its ears never perked or twitched. It was static. Starting with the alpha, the pack began to growl. They didn’t know what this was, but the uncanny reality of what they were encountering caused them to howl and snarl. This was not a wolf so they might as well eat it. The alpha moved first, lunging for the imposter’s throat.

Kel snatched his bag up and ran, the illusory wolf melting away as he did. He muttered the words for the barrier spell he had used to deflect Derry’s sword, hoping against hope that it would work on fangs as well. He sprinted around a tree and held on to the lowest branch, using his momentum to swing him around and up. Then, he used a burst of wind to give himself the boost he needed to climb up and into the higher branches. Just when he thought he might be safe, Kel learned his first lesson about wolves: they could easily jump higher than he could climb.

The first bite scraped his rear and he was suddenly very thankful he had cast the spell before; the fangs slid harmlessly across his trousers. The next clamped around his leg and, while it didn’t sink in as much as it would have, it still pulled him crashing ten feet down. The rest of the pack was waiting, a mass of growling teeth and fur. He used another blast of wind to right himself before he could fall prone and into their jaws. The alpha was upon him before he could run. It backed him against the tree, snarling and snapping. Without even thinking, Kel let loose a whipping motion with his fingers that slashed against the air between them. Something fizzed and splattered across the left side of the wolf. There was a yelp of pain, followed by an angry howl as the alpha shook itself, attempting to fling off the acid that was eating into it. Kel took the opening and dashed away.

He was running, 100% instinct. It seemed to last forever, lungs exploding, legs burning. Occasionally a bite would snag an appendage - his hand, his other leg - but every time they would slide off. Angry snarls rang in his ears as on either side of him members of the pack were running to head him off. A light glowed ahead - orange fires burning in the distance. His frenzied brain didn’t care if he was caught or if this was some new danger - he needed to get away. A furry body dove under his legs and he tumbled to the ground. He rolled and felt himself thump sidelong against a heavy oak tree.

The pack closed in on him, growling. Trailing behind them, the alpha, its ruined left side still bubbling from the acid, approached. It snarled, slavering through it’s half-burned mouth and staring with the one good eye that remained.

This is it. Kel thought. I’m dead.

The huge wolf reared back, rows of teeth ready to rip into Kel’s throat and draw forth a rain of gore. Thwack. For a moment, it paused there frozen in malicious hunger. Then it fell onto its side and lay there, an arrow shaft protruding from the ruined eye.

The other wolves spun around yipping, confused. Whistling sounded from all around them. Thwack. Another wolf fell. Thwack-Thwack. Two more were downed with terrifying precision. The one remaining wolf fled back into the darkness of the woods. Kel heard another whistling noise, but whether it found its mark or not he was unsure. No further yelps or howls were heard.

He looked about him, at the bodies of his would-be eaters lying around him, blood soaking the ground. His heart was still pounding and he wasn’t sure what was worse: wondering if the last wolf would come to finish him off or if he would hear another whistling sound and find himself the target this time.

Before he could ponder this much more a loud voice called through the trees, “You can come out now.”

He hesitated. What if they were looking for him? Surely the mayor would send others after him, even if Johan refused. Then again, no one in the village could shoot that well...

Sensing his hesitation, the man called again, “Or you could stay there and we can leave you for the wolves.”

Nothing for it, then. Wincing in the light, Kel emerged from the tree line. Before him was an encampment, white-topped tents surrounded by brasiers blazing with fire in the night. A tall banner flew from the largest, central tent, but between the smoke from the fires and the shroud of night, Kel couldn’t tell what the crest was.

“There we go,” a cloaked man smirked, his bow trained on Kel’s head. Five other men, similarly cloaked, flanked him on either side. “Let’s have a talk, shall we?”