"Would you mind telling me about this place?" I asked, my eyes darting around. I did not know how long we had been walking, but there was something very wrong about these woods. In some places sunlight dazzled my weary eyes. In others, moonlight smiled as cold winds howled past.

Through the darkness in the light I saw a great many things. Towering cities of marble and gold. Massive mountains overlooking towns and kingdoms. A high cliff dangling over an ocean. Churning lava and clear lakes. At first I had thought myself insane, but as I passed by one wonder after another I found that it could not be a hallucination. They were all real.

"The Waywood is the crossroad where all forests meet. A single tree of many leading back to the grove from which they traveled. Trees which have journeyed beyond land and sea, beyond realms." She explained. At least, it sounded like an explanation. I didn't understand a word of it.

"A road of trees?" I tried.

Her lip curled in what could have been a smile or a sneer. "The Waywood is no road. There is no distance in the forest of time. Only a bridge where all realms meet." She said.

I must say that her words gave me more questions than answers. "A forest of portals?" I asked. She laughed. It was as melodious as her voice, soft and twinkling like a bell. Beautiful, but also mocking. There was a strange pity in her voice, like a mother discovering a lost child.

"No." She replied. I decided it would be smarter to ask less about that afterwards.

The forest was disorienting. Clouds of desert dust faded away to freezing glaciers of ice. Mountains became valleys and flat ground grew hills. Rivers ran into oceans which burned into lava mountains, and every step I took a new world appeared. Animals of all shapes, sizes, and species brushed past. Sometimes less than a few feet away. It felt like I was walking through a spiral that twisted on it's head every time I moved.

"How much further is your home?" I asked. My feet twisted as I walked. All sense of direction and location fading away. Through it all, Silvana did not slow her graceful stride. Distance became meaningless. I remember most clearly being on one side of a city before traveling to a mountain high above mere moments later.

"In distance, a million miles, and none. In time, a million hours, and one." She replied. If it was possible for her to make less sense, she did there.

"How many more minutes must we walk before reaching our destination?" I tried.

"None." She responded. That was when I saw the village.

By a river in a grassy plain a few dozen houses circled a street. At the center a larger stone building towered over the rest. A church of sorts, I assumed at the time. A respectful distance away was a much larger manor, several times the size of the village's humble mud homes. Surrounding it was a field of greenery and beyond it, wilderness.

As we drew closer I caught the glimpse of fields glowing golden in the distance. Grain ready for harvest. The fields were larger, ringing the area around the village. A few cries came from the distance as a few children ran by. "Helyo, Silvana!" I heard. Then I saw their faces.

I wasn't sure whether I should feel happy or horrified upon first seeing them. They were unhealthy, and quite obviously. Their arms and legs seemed no different from sticks in a forest, and I don't mean large tree branches. I couldn't see their rib cages, but bones jutted out from joints where skin was draped over flesh in a line thinner than parchment. If I were to guess, a strong wind would have knocked them over.

Their smiles were bright, and carried the innocence and joy that only children could have. The laugh of young boys no older than ten did not fit on their dusty and grimy faces. The heads that cheered and nodded were so large compared to their emaciated bodies it was almost comical, but this was no cartoon. It was real, and horrifying.

They were naked, and shamelessly so. I could see the dust and cuts ringing their frail bodies, and the countless marks and underfed muscles that came from too many days of work not rewarded by food. Their teeth were yellow from lack of care, and many were cracked and falling. It gave the impression of scurvy, but seeing it on movie pirates was another thing from witnessing children suffer the same!

My heart twisted as I saw them. So young, and they never knew a day of being well fed. So young, and they lacked the healthy glow no children should be denied. The glow that they may never know. But they chattered on as children might, coming closer for Silvana to pat their heads and tousle their hair. Then, they came to me.

"Ho's dis?" One of the boys asked.

Silvana gave them a soft smile. "A visitor, Eric. Go, tell my father that I have found a worldwalker. She tossed a coin at him. It was a cold bronze thing, carvings atop the metal almost unrecognizable. I could make out only a faint outline of a face, and behind it a sigil of some sort.

Eric gave a cry of delight before running off. The other boy, it had to be his brother, followed. "Why are they starving?" I demanded as soon as they had fled.

She turned to me. "Starving? I would not say so. They eat not as well as you and I, that is true. Yet they live, do they not?" Her voice was almost puzzled.

I opened my mouth to speak but found no words. They lived, yes. But so poorly! It was as if a demon had descended to steal the health and color from the poor children's cheeks.

Then and only then did I realize how blessed a life I had lived. I was born to a family most would consider poor, but I had my meals. These children? No, I would be surprised if they had a single meal a day. If there was anything worse than their plight it was Silvana's unconcerned look. Dismissive and uncaring, as if she had seen it too many times to find it anything but normal.

Ask me what it was that drove me to my throne, and I would respond, look here. Remember this day.