The next morning it was still night time. Melanie squinted at the green glowing vine-lights all around. Kendo had moved closer in his sleep and was clinging to her like she was his personal teddy bear. She wondered if that had been a conscious choice or just a natural response to the chilled, misty air.

Forcing herself to conclude that Kendo had just been cold, Melanie peeled his arms off her and laid his leather jacket over him. She felt gross. That encounter with Fowlina had gotten her blood pumping. She had slept caked in sweat and now she was itching like crazy. She tiptoed to the opening of their little hole where the wood splintered inward like a bundle of reeds.

Wherever they were—Olden, that’s what Fowlina had called it—it wasn’t like anything Melanie had ever seen before, except maybe in her dreams. Or rather, her nightmares; the whole place seemed to be watching her. The dim lights that prickled out from each colossal tree seemed like endless eyes, all staring blank and dull like vultures. For all Melanie knew, they could’ve been just that: eyes of a million beasts waiting to strike. Or coil or bite or drag her and Kendo off into an abyss like Grivgas had her mother.

Melanie stopped thinking. It was something she learned how to do on her self-appointed holidays from school. Knowing how to just stop her thoughts and observe what was around her had passed many a boring day back home where things made sense. She hoped to clear her thoughts of her mother.

Well, it worked back home but here it backfired. Voiding her mind of her own thoughts only served to make the unfamiliar surroundings creepier and send her into a primal fight-or-flight freak-out mode. Calming her breathing with ten long breaths, she swallowed and only then realized how thirsty she was. She spun on her heel to look at Kendo. He was still fast asleep, unconsciously tugging his jacket tighter. Melanie didn’t feel like waking him up. He was supposed to be resting his shoulder anyway.

She paced around inside the hole like a madwoman. Eventually she got sick of hearing her own footsteps and sat down, plopping right beside Kendo.

“Hey Kendo,” Melanie said, not really sure if he was awake or not.

“Mm,” Kendo said, sounding very asleep.

“How are we gonna get out of here?”

Kendo inhaled a sharp, waking breath and rolled over to stretch, facing Melanie. “We’ll figure something out,” he said in a satisfied groan. “What’s wrong?”

Melanie thought she must’ve looked positively dreadful for Kendo to show such concern. He scooted closer, leaning on his elbow. She looked at him, fully confiding, “I mean. How will we get out of here? It’s freezing, there’s no food or water, and it’s a long way down.” She was terrified, more terrified of starving to death in this stupid hole than of Grivgas and Frock and Fowlina all rolled into one. The monsters seemed so easy to dismiss, so simple to explain as just fantasy, but starvation was real. She remembered posters from history class and images from the news of so many children with their ribcages showing from under their skin like claws.

Kendo regarded her seriously.

Melanie pleaded for an answer, a way out of this tree-hole. Her eyes wetted and she blinked the tears away.

“We’ll get through this,” Kendo said, “We just gotta think.”

That did not comfort Melanie in the least.

Kendo rolled to his feet and stretched his left arm up in the air. His right arm still hurt too much to move it very well. He glanced out the entrance to the hole. “It’s still dark out,” he said, not expecting a response.

“What if it’s night forever here?” Melanie asked, feeling a strange panic set in. She never thought she was afraid of the dark, but the thought of it never ending made her so nervous. It made her heart feel like it was getting ready to trample out of her chest.

“Don’t worry.” Melanie had been so busy worrying over how to get out that she hadn’t even noticed Kendo kneel down in front of her to meet her eye level. She squeaked and jumped back like a frightened gerbil and he gave her a look that said, “You’re starting to freak me out here.” Kendo was reminded of a time just after his mother died when his dad used to pace back and forth in the kitchen, neurotically sipping coffee until he got so twitchy and agitated Kendo would have to yell at him to stop. It wasn’t a fond memory and Melanie seemed to be reenacting it; she even had the same nervous twiddling fingers as Kendo’s father. “Okay, just calm down okay. Freaking out isn’t gonna get us anywhere,” Kendo said looking Melanie square in the eye.

She turned away. Of course he didn’t understand. All those thoughts of him snuggling up to her in the night really had just been the cold. “Yeah, okay, fine. So what do we do exactly?” Melanie watched Kendo’s expression flip to annoyed and then to confused. After a minute of waiting Melanie said, “See. You don’t have any ideas either. You know I always knew I’d die in a hole somewhere.”

“Why do you do that?” Kendo snapped, thrusting his arms out in sheer frustration. He clenched his eyes shut and let out a gravelly, pained moan. Arm movements weren’t such a good idea with his shoulder still recovering. “Cynicism never helps anything,” he said, calmer.

Melanie gulped. She had absolutely nothing to say.

Kendo straightened his posture, rubbed his right shoulder and went over to the splintery entrance. He gazed out at the twinkling vine-lights. Amidst the dim green, a vibrant aqua colored vine shined out from all the rest. “A blue one,” he said.

Melanie tilted her head at him, confused. “A blue what?” The tension lifted off the air.

“A light. Come here, see?” Kendo pointed into the distance at the aqua colored light, “The rest are green but that one’s blue.”

Melanie had to squint pretty hard but she saw it. She didn’t really understand why he bothered pointing it out though so she shrugged her shoulders at Kendo with a pointedly bewildered expression.

Kendo looked at her. He was beginning to think she had a point. This time it was he who started pacing around the hole, his footsteps creaking as he circled round and round. Finally, he went up to a point in the wall where the green vines were brighter than the others and put his hand on his chin as he examined them.

Melanie rolled her eyes. Was this supposed to make her feel better?

“Woah!” Kendo jumped and fell back onto his hands. He was too shocked to scream in agony when the stress of the fall reached his shoulder and stared wide-eyed at the wall.

“What?” Melanie asked, unamused. But then she saw it. The green lights where swirling around each other, in and out, in and out, like glowing neon shoelaces. They slithered out of the wood towards Kendo and he crab-walked out of the way.

“That! That’s what!” Kendo yelled, clambering to his feet.

The lights recoiled and danced in front of them back and forth, like they were pacing.

“What are they?” Melanie asked, thankful for a distraction.

“How the hell should I know?”

“You’re helpful.”

She got an irritated grumble from Kendo for that, but then they both focused on the dancing green vine-lights. Melanie risked getting closer. The lights made no move to attack her or anything like that, so she took another step. Still nothing. Kendo scratched the top of his head nervously. It made his hair stick out at even weirder angles.

“What are you?” Melanie said in an almost-whisper, more to herself than anything.

The vine-lights conglomerated into one, merged together to form a glowing green creature with a twisted, intertwined body and a face with both a beak and eyes that were perfect circles, outlined in the vine-light with pupils formed by two vines rising behind its head. It was like a school of fish forming patterns, or birds flying in formation, except it was vines and they all moved fluidly as one when the creature tilted its head to the side at Melanie. It opened its beak, which was ever so slightly tinted yellow; the only thing not formed by vines, and then closed it again. It had an elegance to it that Melanie would never had fathomed until seeing it before her, pulsing its glows like a heartbeat and constantly moving, readjusting its body.

Kendo stood flabbergasted. They had slept through the night with that thing in the walls, never the wiser.

It moved again, swaying back and forth like a pendulum in the wind. Suddenly Melanie could understand it. She sidestepped one way, and then another. It mirrored her and added a sideways head tilt. She copied it again. They repeated like that until Kendo cleared his throat really loudly at them.

“If you don’t mind explaining what the heck you’re doing,” Kendo began.

“Oh right!” Melanie said, out of her trance. The creature folded its vines to blink. “This, um, glowing vine thing can get us out of here. It says it can take us to The Creature’s Court.”

“You can talk to it?” Kendo gave both Melanie and the creature a cockeyed look.

Melanie answered him with a blush and what could’ve been smirk but was really just an embarrassed tick of her lips.

Kendo rubbed his eyebrows like he was trying to get rid of a headache and then pinched the top of his nose. He guessed since it was their only feasible (that’s a laugh) way out of the tree, he had to comply. “Alright,” he said at length and with such a defeated tone, “So how exactly can it get us out of here?”

The creature opened its beak excitedly and waved its body back and forth again. Then the vine-lights in the center of its body curved outward and weaved a doorway into its middle. It blinked twice at Melanie with a cock of its head to the left. The vines that stood behind its eyes acting as its pupils sank down and around the rest of it, pointing to the gaping center of the creature.

“Are you sure this thing doesn’t just wanna eat us?” Kendo asked, sarcastic.

“Oh come on, it’s our way out,” Melanie said and dragged him by the wrist into the creature’s center.

A cloud of purple dust enveloped Melanie and Kendo almost as soon as they stepped through. Kendo coughed it out of his lungs and Melanie winced at the particles that had entered her eyes. She blinked them away, her eyes tearing a little.

“You said there was a blue vine,” Melanie said. Her voice echoed all around them.

“So what?” Kendo felt like he was in water; there wasn’t any real ground wherever they were, just purple dust clouds and a floating sensation that was making him feel nauseous. In the back of his mind he hoped they didn’t end up falling out of the sky again.

“It told me to look for it here, that it would lead to the court.” Melanie treaded the atmosphere, turning around to see anything that looked like it was a blue glow. “See anything blue? All I see is purple dust.”

“No. Hey wait,” Kendo pointed, his arm feeling heavy even though he was essentially floating, “Over there.”

There was a soft blue glow pulsating in the distance that had until that moment been obstructed by one of the purple dust clouds.

“So that’s where we’re supposed to go,” Melanie said, raising her hand to her forehead like she was blocking the sun in order to see, even though the only light was from the blue in the distance and the particles of purple all around them. She swam the distance fast enough that Kendo had to struggle to keep up and stopped just before she touched the light to wait for him.

They looked at each other, gave each other a reassuring nod and shimmied into the blue glow hand in hand.

When they came out the other end, Kendo was grateful they were only a few feet from the ground as they fell out of the air. Melanie landed on her butt and rubbed it rather begrudgingly. Kendo had learned from last time and actually landed properly, on one foot and one knee. He helped Melanie to her feet and they turned toward the blue light as it wiggled back and forth like that green vine-light creature had before. This time when Melanie stepped from side to side to say thank you, Kendo joined her. The blue vine-lights leapt as one into the air and dispersed like a firecracker before they dissolved into the night.

The wind was cold and dark and eerie. Kendo and Melanie hadn’t noticed while their vine-lit friend was around, but once it left the calculated silence returned. They were at the base of one of the colossal trees now and as they craned their necks upward they could see all the twinkling vines like stars up above. The ground was much like back home, gravelly in some parts, dirt in others.

Music broke the silence. Whistles from the other side of the tree and singing in a language neither Kendo nor Melanie recognized transformed the night from horror-movie-creepy to almost festive. When they rounded the tree (which took much longer than it should have, given its ridiculous size) Melanie and Kendo both stood staring at the scene in front of them, tourists looking out at a World Wonder.

The Creature’s Court was inside a clearing of those mountainous trees the size of a small plain. The roots poking out from the ground spun, making a sound like maracas as they tried to trip passersby and huts that could’ve been just huts or possibly creatures in and of themselves stood at odd intervals in the space, some large enough to accommodate entire stadiums and others too small for even a human hand to fit into. The entire place was lit by the vine-lights hanging down from the treetops; they bounced and swung to the beat of the music, fast-paced and scratchy, like techno-rock but with a classical sound mixed in. Some of the music sounded like Metallica mixed with Beethoven, but with accordions.

It was an outdoor disco full of monsters.

A great jet black winged horse that smelled of ink trotted past Kendo and Melanie and into one of the larger huts. Tiny little brown elephants with cat eyes and deer hooves strutted undertow in a pack, only getting out of their perfect square formation if another creature threatened to stomp them. Ants the size of bushes scuttled and ticked, mocking one of the smaller huts. The hut grew cross and soon erupted into an angry, fiery inferno. It screamed at the ants in a language that sounded ancient and harsh before it returned to its original state and let out what was left of the creatures that had been inside during its outburst. A woman in a silk robe with an angular face and pointed ears with hair made of fire stepped out of the hut-inferno completely unharmed, dragging on a chain behind her three goats whose coats had been singed off. Other monsters came bursting out of the hut in panic, rolling on the ground to put out the flames as the hut grew high and skinny then spewed out whoever was left alive from inside. The ants scampered away, weaving in and out of the rest of the crowd to get away from any straggling victims still aflame.

Melanie and Kendo looked at each other bug-eyed, both wondering if the other had just seen that happen. They held hands and tried their best to navigate through the crowd of monsters, utilizing the buddy system from grade school.

Melanie nearly tripped over a creature that was deep green and the size of two footballs placed next to each other; it had a long neck and flippers and a stubby little tail. If it weren’t for the lack of shell, Melanie would’ve thought it looked like a deformed snapping turtle. It made a gurgled screechy noise at her and flopped away. Kendo couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“Didn’t know Nessie had a cousin,” he said in a snicker.

“Ha. Ha.” Melanie saw one of the vine-lights pointing to a hut in the distance, past the hut that exploded and the little brown elephant monsters and a flock of creatures that looked very much like Frock but in different colors. “That way,” Melanie said and yanked Kendo off in that direction. On their way, they passed a man with ebony skin and a single eye in the center of his chest, half-lidded, whose face was void of features and an olive-skinned woman by his side much taller than he was who only had one leg and hopped spastically on it to keep up with his determined strides. They passed yellow slime that moved on its own, little pixie-like creatures who threw twigs at anyone who came close, an eagle the size of a basketball player with no feathers on its chest, a fern that crawled across the ground and latched onto a unicorn’s hoof, and all the roots from the colossal trees that spun and spun and spun across their path trying to trip them at any chance they could. Melanie and Kendo learned to simply hop over the spinning roots and ignore their snappy clicking sounds, to watch their ankles for any ferns that came too close, to lurch out of the way of anything larger than they were.

Despite their learned precautions, they both thought it was miraculous that they got to the hut without being eaten or dismembered or exploded. They stepped inside together, both sincerely hoping this hut wouldn’t spontaneously combust like the one they saw earlier.

One step inside and the blaring music from outside ceased. Kendo let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. That jet black winged horse was inside and so the entire place smelled like an inkwell. It was still a better atmosphere than outdoors; the creatures in here didn’t seem intent on trampling them, in any case. The winged horse had his wings folded and was speaking to a creature made of decaying vines and leaves that was much smaller than he was. There was a marble bar in the back and the bartender looked surprisingly human amongst all these other beasts: a man in a black blazer and tie with burgundy slicked hair. But when he smiled, his mouth was full of shark teeth. Kendo averted his eyes from the bartender and tiptoed over to a table with Melanie to sit.

“Creature’s Court,” Melanie said to break the ice, “Who woulda thunk, it’s full of monsters.”

“No kidding,” said Kendo.

They shared an awkward sigh.

The lantern on their table rose onto its tiny twiggy legs, shook itself off like a dog, and then circled around and set itself down again. That sort of thing was starting to seem normal to Melanie and Kendo.

“So I heard you’re looking for Grivgas,” Someone said from the table behind them. Melanie and Kendo turned to face her. She had faded purple hair and wore a sterling silver dragon around her neck that was gnawing at the chain from which it hung. Her attire looked spookily similar to Kendo’s, black and punk.

“How do you know that?” Melanie asked her.

She shrugged, “Word gets around. I know lots of things.”

“What kind of creature are you? Some kind of psychic?” Kendo asked. He was genuinely curious. She looked human, unlike the rest of the company.

She laughed, “Me, psychic? No. I’m human. I just think it’s way more fun around here than where I come from.” A little fuzzy creature made of lint with one goggling eye climbed onto her finger and she picked it up to pet it. It made a sound like a squeak and a purr and closed its one eye contentedly. The silver dragon hanging from her neck stopped chewing on its chain for a moment and remained stationary long enough to look like a normal fashion accessory.

Kendo and Melanie glanced at each other to hide their weirded-out expressions and then Melanie cleared her throat before she asked, “So if you know we’re looking for Grivgas then do you know where Grivgas is?”

She sipped her drink. It smelled sweet enough to be nectar, held in a goblet adorned with crisscrossing black flowery designs. “Grivgas should be here any minute. You know the hut with the anger issues? It’s the one next to that. You can find him there.” She smiled and gestured at them to get a move on, her little lint goblin friend sitting on her shoulder.

When the black winged horse padded over to the table, Kendo thought it best to take the advice and leave, and so he grabbed Melanie’s hand and they reentered the chaos of The Creature’s Court, hoping they hadn’t been sent on a wild goose chase.