The Deepwood burned, ancient trees as old as the world wreathed in fire. Biting, crackling, burning fire, seeping away at their bark, at their leaves, at their blood. The winds howled and the forest screamed in pain but the fire roared right back. Its fury would not be quenched, its hunger would not be sated until all the forest had been turned to ash in its wake.

Before the fire flitted the Fiefling, darting forward and back on its cloven hooves. It’s skin like smouldering wood spraying out sparks to grow the flames behind it. It cackled to itself as it darted, loosed from the realm of its master to cleanse the Deepwood. Behind it flitted the Night Fairy, a rapier fashioned by gnomes in her hand. The Fiefling was fast but she was faster and eventually she caught it and plunged the rapier through its back. It let out a yelp, waving its arms in the air, then it collapsed, its smouldering light fading.

Alfy, the Night Fairy, stopped and panted in exhaustion, sweat coating her body. For three days she had hunted the Fiefling and now she had finally caught it. First, Nian Ra, the Glade Queen had set her on its tail back in Gladsbrook. Then she had followed its ashen wake along the Star Cliffs, seeing all the trees burnt in its path. She’d caught up to the tail of the fire yesterday at Rutterhill and then after two days of non-stop chasing had finally killed it here at the edge of the Deepwood, outside Raharus. The sparks from the Fiefling were starting to ignite and the roaring blaze was beginning to catch up with her again. She could feel its terrible heat cloaking her body, making her sweat even more. The sword felt clammy and loose in her hands and she wanted to drop it. She wanted to just collapse and fall asleep. But the roaring fire told her that would be a bad idea. It had been one thing to kill the Fiefling, that hadn’t been too difficult. Fieflings and fairies were about the same size and shape and fairies were much faster. But it would be another thing entirely to put the fire out. She looked at the blaze drawing nearer and wanted more than anything to collapse before it. For the first time since she’d left, she missed her old home in the Elder Tree.

Solurghis, the Great Frog sat at the bottom of his murky river watching with big glassy eyes. He couldn’t see much of the fire through all the mud, but he could feel it. The water was hot, too hot. Some of the fish had found it unbearable and swam away, others had simply curled up in muddy corners and died. Solurghis had had Memri fetch their corpses for him to eat while he sat in his own muddy corner holding the heat at bay with his water magics. The others of his brood had already died, their huge bloated bodies needed to be kept cool from the water and with it heating up they had all fallen leaving only him and the pitiful Memri who he bullied into fetching food for him while he kept them both cool enough to live. He hadn’t started eating the other Great Frogs yet, it seemed wrong, even to him. But he had long decided that he would do it rather than starve. Who knew, perhaps they would be delicious?

A voice floated down through all the mud and water, a beautiful voice singing a beautiful song. He recognised the song of course, it was the Night Fairy, that new adventurer who was going around becoming popular with all the creatures of the Deepwood. Solurghis grumbled to himself, he didn’t want to leave his nice cool corner of the river. It wasn’t easy keeping it cool all the time, if he left and went up to the surface he was likely to bake in the roaring flames up there. The Night Fairy kept singing. Memri looked up at him with her curious pitiful eyes. You didn’t ignore the Night Fairy, they said. Not if you wanted her help with anything and everyone always wanted her help. Solurghis had already gotten her to fetch a few things for him for his magics and he’d even paid her handsomely to kill Ghorizog, the Tyrant of the River and his old master in the water magics. He hadn’t actually seen her kill Ghorizog, although he’d found the body afterwards. Who knew, perhaps she’d be able to kill him?

Solurghis grumbled and floated his way up to the surface, struggling to maintain his bubble of cool water around him. Memri floated along with him, squeezing her stunted form into the bubble of cool water as best she could. They breached the surface and the Great Frog raised his eyes and mouth out of the water where he immediately felt the heat. The mud and water dripped off him and he felt himself begin to bake before the roar of the fire. His eyes were the first to feel the pain as they began to dry out forcing him to lick them with great gulping slurps.

“Yes,” he said between slurps. “What is it… that you want…?”

Alfy hovered above him, her thin tiny form buzzing there, holding her rapier casually by her side. To Solurghis the rapier wasn’t very big but it was still intimidating, especially with his eyes so close to it. “We must put out the fire before the entire forest is destroyed,” Alfy said, no longer panting as heavily as she had been earlier.

Solurghis grumbled. “Why should I care… the fire will not reach the river…”

Alfy grew angry at that but Solurghis couldn’t see it, he could barely see anything. “The fire will destroy the river as it destroys everything else,” she said cooly, maintaining her composure. “There will be no leaves or plants or creatures falling into the river for you and yours to eat. Ash and burned branches will fill it until you cannot see or swim or taste. Smoke will fill the air and you will be unable to breathe when you come to the surface. This fire affects everything, not just us Great Frog, the forest is all connected and-“

“Yes yes… yes… I suppose,” Solurghis grumbled. “What should I do then…? I can hardly fight the whole forest fire by myself…”

Alfy frowned. “Use your water magics to put out as much as you can. I can fetch anything you need to make your magic stronger.”

Solurghis was finding it difficult to think now, such was the pain of the heat. He ducked back down to cloak himself in the cooling water then re-emerged. It was even worse the second time. “I cannot put out much of the fire… My magic isn’t strong enough to fight an entire-“

“That’s a shame,” Alfy said nonchalantly. “I’m sure Ghorizog could have done it.”

Solurghis grew furious. “I- you-… I-!“

“What do you need Great Frog? More of the Red Mirkweed? Another Moon Lotus?”

The Great Frog simmered in his scalding lake. If he was going to work for the Night Fairy like this he may as well get something worthwhile out of it. Something that might actually allow him to put out the fire but either way would increase his magics tenfold. “There is an old stone idol…, the Frogstone…, an ancient artefact of my kind…. It was stolen from Ghorizog years ago… by gnomes and is now in one of their filthy caves guarded by a rock manticore... With that I can stop your fire… But without it there’s only so much I can do…”

Alfy looked at him quietly, he swore she was only doing it to prolong how long he had to stay out of the water. “Get started on the so much you can do. I’ll be back with your Frogstone as soon as I can.” Then she was gone, flitting away between the fires.

Solurghis sank back into his river and sighed. He would get started at some point, but first he had to recover. Then he had to have lunch.

Alfy sped through the burning forests to the Star Cliffs where the fire had already petered out. Now there was nothing there but stumps and ash. Here and there a few gnomes forlornly dug through the ash, searching for lost belongings, finding none. Alfy flitted over the top of them, heading to the caves. She hoped Solurghis would keep his word and begin cleansing some of the fire. She really should have gotten him to start sooner but she’d been so busy stopping the Fiefling. She still hadn’t slept and wasn’t feeling confident about taking on a manticore. But she had to try, didn’t she? Wasn’t that what she was supposed to do? Her mind drew mostly blanks. She was so tired…

Eventually she landed at the cave of Riddison, the gnomish blacksmith who’d made her rapier. She staggered inside, struggling to maintain her composure and called out to him. He turned from his desk and by the time he saw her she was standing straight up again, feigning awareness.

“Alfy,” he said in surprise. “You look terrible. Are you-“

“There’s no time,” she interrupted. “I need to put out this fire and I need the Frogstone to do it.”

“The what?”

“The Frogstone, it… it’s a…” Alfy’s tired mind struggled to find words.

“Is this to do with Solurghis?” Ridderson asked, beginning to grasp what was happening. “You shouldn’t trust him Alfy, he’s not-“

“He’s the only one who can do anything about the fire!” she shouted, exasperated. “Maybe you haven’t noticed but the forest is burning down and we need to do something about it and he’s a water wizard!” She started panting again as she stumbled to the end of the sentence.

“Yes but-“

“He says your people stole an idol from his people years ago. Claims he needs it to put out the fire. Apparently it’s guarded by a rock manticore, do you know where it is?”

“Well no but-“

“Thank you, that was all I wanted to know!” Alfy turned to leave but Ridderson shouted for her stop. She tried not to but she did, her body was looking for any excuse to stop.

“Alfy there might be another way,” Ridderson said quietly. “A way to put the fire out I mean.”

“Then why,” Alfy asked spinning back around menacingly. “Have you not already done it!?”

“Well, because, it’s forbidden. And there’ll be consequences.”

“Consequences worse than losing the entire forest?”

“Well no… well maybe… but…”

“I don’t have time for this,” she turned to go but Ridderson was too quick.

“Take this,” he said ripping a stone ring from his hand and pressing it into hers. It was cold, to cold and when it touched her she saw a dread monolith towering over her, sucking everything warm and good and alive right out of her. Then she blinked and it was gone, probably a figment of her tired imagination. She looked at the ring, it was completely unadorned by gems or anything but in the very corner there was a tiny carving of a bird.

“A bird?” she asked.

Ridderson frowned. “There’s no bird. That’s a ring of Qinar, the Resolute. He can probably save the forest.”

“Probably!”

“Well he will keep his word, unlike Solurghis! You can’t just-“

Alfy left, Ridderson reached after her but she was already long gone and unlike fairies and fieflings, gnomes are not faster than raging wildfire. He didn’t bother chasing her and went back to his desk. “Look after yourself Alfy,” he said sadly. “There’s only so many people you can help before you need to start helping yourself.”

The manticore looked terrifying. It was a huge stone gargoyle in the shape of a thin coiling lion. Easily as big as a horse it was covered in spikes, from its tail all the way along its back and up to its mane which was an enormous crown of jagged stony death surrounding its face which was asleep. Alfy was glad of that, also slightly jealous.

She’d learned of the location of the cave from Argomela, the gnome queen. Initially Argomela had been unwilling to divulge the location of such a secret cave but Alfy and her rapier had been extremely persuasive. So now here she was, creeping around the great manticore toward the back of the cave. As she crept, she noticed it had wings, huge stone things she’d mistaken for the cavern walls initially. They were enormous batlike things that wrapped all the way around the roof, meaning she had to creep under them. There were also huge claws to creep around and the jagged spined tail that curled its way through the cavern. She was quiet though, she was tiny compared to it so it wasn’t too difficult.

She reached the back of the cave and sure enough there was the idol. It was small, which was fortunate, else it would have been difficult for her to carry, and as idols go it wasn’t particularly good. More of a misshapen rock in roughly the shape of the frog than the great magical artefact she was expecting. Nonetheless she picked it up and began to creep slowly back toward the manticore. Then it spoke and she froze. Its voice was deep and powerful, filling the cave with terrible echoes and rumblings.

“You,” it said slowly. “Are not a gnome.”

“Um…” Alfy squeaked as it slid about in the cavern. Its huge stone form sliding along the sides of the cave until it turned to face her, crowned in its great jagged mane.

“You are a fairy,” it said with no emotion. “Bearing my master’s ring.” That phrase had emotion, curiosity of all things which was much preferable to the wrath she was expecting.

“Um… yes… I was given it though, I- I didn’t take it…”

“You were given it by a gnome?”

“Yes…”

“They always were too fond of fairies. My master never reprimanded them for it but perhaps I should.”

“Do you want the ring back or…?” Alfy offered.

“I have no use for the ring, just as I have no use for that ridiculous idol. I am merely following a sacred duty passed down to me.”

“What sacred duty?”

“The gnomes live in great fear of the frogs for reasons which are beyond me. Hence they have summoned me to care for their stolen idol and prevent it from falling into the hands of Ghorizog.”

Alfy struggled to hide a small smile. “Ghorizog is dead. I killed him.”

The manticore smiled, revealing even more spikes all through its mouth. “Then I am free.” It began the process of turning back around, coiling and writhing its way through the cave with many scrapings and scratchings. It walked to the mouth of the cave and looked out onto the burning forest. Alfy walked under its wing and stood beside it, holding her newly obtained idol.

“I am told fairies rarely leave the Elder Tree,” the manticore said. “They flitter about, singing and dancing and very rarely venture off to places as dangerous as here. Has the Elder Tree burned down?”

“No,” Alfy replied searching for her old home in the darkness of the forest before her. She found it, still there, still with all her old family.

“So why are you here? Why not sing and dance and leave the worries of the world to other creatures?”

“I am the Night Fairy,” she replied ruffling her wings which were black as night, not like the other fairies who all had colourful wings to light up the day. “I don’t need the Elder Tree anymore.”

The manticore nodded, but it wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure, you look very tired. Perhaps you should-“

Alfy flew away, she’d heard enough of that from Ridderson already. As she flew she heard the great stone wings beating behind her and a rush of air as the huge beast took off into the sky. She didn’t look back though, she didn’t have time to be impressed.

Solurghis was munching on a leg belonging to a frog called Skurmigi when Alfy got back. He had done nothing to put out the fire but he had discovered that the legs were by far the best part of a frog to eat so he was proud of himself. She called him up with her singing again but this time it was far more intense and even being unable to see much he could tell she was angry when he breached the surface.

“You have done nothing!” she shouted at him.

“Well… I mean I-“

She stabbed him then. It wasn’t deep but it was painful and he hadn’t felt pain like that since his old duels with Ghorizog. He howled in pain in his gargly way and then instinctively covered his nose where he’d been stabbed with his hands.

“What was that f-“

“I have your idol, you are going to get to work immediately before I realise your uselessness and wipe out your entire pathetic species!”

Solurghis would have liked to be angry but there was something about the rage of the Night Fairy that made him think better of it. He reached for the idol. Alfy was tired, so very tired at this point so she just dropped it. It splashed into the river and Solurghis sank to retrieve it but Memri got there first. Wrapping her tiny stunted form around it.

“No Memri, give me the idol,” Solurghis gurgled. He knew Memri wasn’t the most intelligent of frogs but that was why she was still alive really. “I need it to stop the fire I-“

Memri gripped the idol tighter and he felt his skin begin to blister and burn as the water flowed out of it. He was surrounded by water but he couldn’t touch it, it all flowed away and the mud flowed it, drying on his skin, caking onto it. He reached for his magics but there was no water to touch, no water to move, no water to control. Memri was controlling all of it.

“No-“ he said weakly, floundering about, thrashing. The wound on his nose bled and there was water in that. Not much water, not nearly enough. But he used it anyway, thrusting it through the mud and water in a stream toward Memri. The smaller frog panicked and thrashed away but her stunted form was too slow and the stream flowed into her mouth and nose and eyes, constricting her lungs and choking her. But it was too late, his skin was already too dry and too caked with mud. He floated slowly to surface and looked up at Alfy with glassy eyes. “I’m… he gurgled, feeling the heat of the fire again. “Sorry…” Then the last of the frogs died and the Night Fairy looked on in horror.

Alfy collapsed onto the bank and watched the two frogs floating in the river. It had all happened so fast and there had been nothing she could do. They were both dead and now nobody could use the idol. It had all been for nothing, the forest was burning and it would go on burning and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

The monolith towered over her and she fell toward it, fell toward its inexorable pull.

She blinked up at the burning forest and the river, red in the firelight. She slowly raised her hand to look at the ring.

She touched the monolith and felt it drawing her in, stone closing around her with a grip stronger than anything, crushing her, breaking her, pulling her.

The ring was in her hand, looking up at her. The Ring of Qinar. “I can save the forest,” it said. “But I will need something from you. Someday.”

Alfy had left the Elder Tree. She didn’t need it. She didn’t need the protection of gods or demons she could live her life herself. But maybe she had been wrong. Maybe she had been wrong about everything.

She plunged into the monolith.

The forest stopped burning. All the fires died out almost instantly and the heat faded away. For how could the fire burn when all the trees it was burning were made of stone?