“We should hire a ranger,” Syril said as they headed toward the gates following Ellen’s tracking spell.

  It had pointed east, and they followed it to the edge of the city where it led beyond the last building.

  “We don’t need a ranger,” Ellen said.

  “Why not?” Syril asked. “None of us are good in the woods. Do you remember how long it took us to find the vampire lair the first time?”

  “We didn’t have a tracking spell for that, just a map,” Ellen said, waving her tracking spell, a floating blue line that pointed east in front of him.

  “We could have brought a map this time,” Syril said, and everyone groaned.

  When they settled down, he refused to give up the point.

  “Is a tracking spell going to tell us which plants are poisonous to the touch?” Syril asked.

  “No… but you did add that ointment to our adventuring check list so we’ll be fine. It was really itchy though.”

  “Did you bring the ointment?” Syril asked.

  “No… but it wasn’t that bad,” she said, contradicting herself.

  “This is why we have the check list!” Syril said triumphantly.

  “But we don’t have time to check it today,” Grom pointed out.

  “That’s why I wanted to hire a ranger!”

  “Rangers aren’t on the check list,” Grom said matter-of-factly.

  “Neither are smart ass lying dwarves,” Syril grumbled, giving up the battle.

  ***

  The forest was lush and vibrant, creatures flying and scurrying about in the warm summer air. The group had left the city out the main gate but quickly left the road to travel through the woods beyond following the tracking spell.

  At first the woods were clear of undergrowth and foliage, the forest so near to the town having been picked clean of readily available fallen wood and kept cleared to discourage monsters and beasts from living too close to the walls. The trees that stood were ancient, soaring hundreds of feet into the sky, some with trunks a dozen feet across.

  “Aren’t you a wood elf?” Linar asked Syril.

  “Half wood-elf,” Syril answered.

  “So why can’t you navigate?”

  “Why would being half wood elf make me able to navigate?” Syril asked.

  “Isn’t it like, in your blood? It’s in the name,” Linar said.

  “Either it’s in the half I didn’t get, or not a genetic trait,” Syril said. “I was raised in a city.”

  “I don’t think it works that way,” Linar said.

  “If your mom was a cleric, would you be good at… clerical matters?” Syril asked.

  “Let’s keep my mother out of this,” Linar said with a bit of an edge.

  “Shut up you two, we’re getting closer,” Ellen said.

  At her words, a flock of birds broke from above and flew low over their heads. One of the group’s flights was cut short and it fell to the ground behind them.

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  “Linar, did you just kill a bird?” Syril asked.

  “What of it?” Linar said, walking to the dead bird to recover his knife.

  “Why?” Syril asked.

  “I don’t like birds,” Linar said. “Anything with wings really. Any time a bird flies over me I kill it.”

  “That’s the behavior or a sociopath,” Ellen said.

  “No, he’s definitely more of a psychopath,” Grom said, joining it. “He’s got ‘principles’ after all.”

  After retrieving his knife, Linar kept walking, ignoring them both.

  “He didn’t deny it,” Grom said in a whisper to Ellen. “I was only joking.”

  “Me too…” Ellen said as they both watched Linar walk to the head of the group where he scanned the trees for more of his hated enemies.

  After the incident with the bird, the forest grew more treacherous, and despite Ellen’s insistences that they were near, they had not yet reached the target.

  “Do you think we are going in circles?” Bill asked.

  Ellen, who was growing increasingly flustered at the failure of her magic to produce results, didn’t answer.

  “Do you know who would know that?” Syril asked the group.

  When no one responded, he answered himself.

  “A ranger.”

  Suddenly, the thick roots that had been disrupting their travel shot out of the ground and began wrapping themselves round their legs.

  Linar and Syril reacted first, jumping up as soon as they noticed the movement, each grabbing a low hanging branch and swinging out of the way.

  Bill drew his battle axe and wildly cut at the vegetation, while Ellen disappeared, teleporting just out of the active roots range from where she started shooting firebolts at the those that had not yet reached her companions.

  Grom stood as the roots engulfed him. He struggled to pull himself free but failed. As soon as he pulled one foot out and moved to pull out the second, the roots had ahold of the first again. He pulled out his mace, and wacked at the roots to no effect until his arms too were wrapped up in the woods.

  “It’s magic!” Ellen said after a moment of struggle.

  “You think?” came Grom’s muffled response from within the bundle of roots.

  Ellen quickly cast a spell, and when she reached her hand out towards the writhing roots, a wave of stillness rippled through them, the effect of her spell stopping their growth, but did nothing to banish that which had already occurred.

  “Get me out of here!” came Grom’ shout from within his woody prison.

  ***

  “Stupid forest, stupid nature,” Grom said as they continued their trek after he’d been freed.

  After the root incident, the forest rapidly grew denser, with bushes, vines and big leafy plants completely covering the ground. Bill went to the front, wielding a cutlass Ellen had found in her bag of holding, and used it to clear a path, but the going was slow.

  “There’s a reason my people live underground ya know,” Grom grumbled.

  While his smaller profile meant he didn’t need to fight through as much of the brush to fit through, Bill was only clearing the path at his own chest level, leaving Grom’s shorter legs to struggle through what remained.

  “Oh, can it,” Syril said. “You grew up in the city, same as me.”

  “Aye!” Grom said, a little bit of his false Revan accent coming through, “And when did we ever have to cut our way through the thicket to find a cat?”

  “That’s not a fair question,” Syril said. “When did we ever go looking for a cat?”

  “That’s it!” Ellen shouted in frustration. “Everyone get back!”

  All eyes turned to the wizard who already had a flame growing in her hands. Before anyone could stop her, she went to the front of the ground, brought he hands together in a clap out in front of her, from which erupted a cone of fire.

  The leaves quickly withered and burst into flame, and Ellen walked into the fire, protected by some magic. Further and further she walked, the vines and plants that had been giving them so much trouble melting before here.

  After she’d walked a few dozen meters, she stopped, turning back to the group who were waiting where the fires had started, backing up from their spread.

  Standing smugly, she reactivated her tracking spell and looked at the arrow, and then followed it indicated direction, right back the way she’d come.

  “Gods damned it!” she cursed. “It is moving.”

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