It was a cold day today and Sorcha was warmly dressed in the clothing that she got. She had not really done anything to her goal of finding answers, which wasn't true that was her uncle's goal and she was just entertaining herself by finding more information about humans, other species and see how it all worked. Four years and yet it felt like she had a lot more to learn about human beings and other races, she had some interesting meetings in the last years but it was very questionable from time to time.

As she was waving her ways through the streets of Magnolia she noticed more green than before, which was very weird considering it was the middle winter. She walked towards the branches and placed her hand on it but it felt like it rejected her and she couldn't get a reading. She frowned a little and walked on to find a big root above the ground sliding over the cobblestones, if you looked at it you wouldn't at first notice it moved, she noticed with her Earth magic quicker. But she did the same and again the nature rejected and even felt hostile and she heard some noises yelling out and she noticed people running away from the sound towards the middle of town. She had been on her way to the East Forest but now she was more interested in that sound. So the elf hurried towards the noise and looked at a handful of what seemed to be knights.

"The roots are enemies, we are going to chop them and make sure they would not attack the town. If anyone wants to volunteer to help that would be great. The roots and branches seem to try and take over town." Now she realized that the tree or whatever it was felt like an alarming source but to chop it off would only make it more angry, "I think that would be a bad idea." she whispered more to herself than anyone else.

The sky is washed with grey, watery light illuminating thin patches to brilliance. In some moments, she watched her boots over the frozen sidewalk, perfect concrete slabs, flat and square, and in others, transfixed to the interplay of cloud and sun above. Patches of snow crunched beneath her feet and her breath steamed before her like a banner, a white weakness flying towards the sky. Breath pale against the numbing air, she blinked thoughtfully as the frost patiently kissed her face, captivated by the soft, dusty illusions of light that sat heavy on her eyelashes.

Everything before her was white, white and more white.

Snowflake enjoyed everything about this kind of weather, the satisfaction of being the first to make an impression in a blanket of freshly lain snow, the subtle crunch underfoot as she strode forward and the best bit of all—the sight of low hanging shafts of sunlight illuminating the sparkling whitened scene in front of her. It wasn’t until footsteps resounded through the vicinity, growing louder each passing second. The ground shook slightly beneath her, and she wondered if some kind of disaster was just about to occur.

She wasn’t wrong.

The woman clad in white cloak shuffled quickly towards the scene, meandering her way over the crowd of people that ran past her figure in panic. It was as if they had experienced death themselves—the way they raced over one another, not even knowing that all of them were the same race of the same kind. Fearing for the worst, some would even step on another, in which Snowflake had to quickly assist the person back to their feet before continuing her way forward. A glimpse of green caught her attention and when she looked around, she began to notice vines spreading over the town, crawling like snakes. They were moving and alive right in front of her eyes. Something was terribly wrong.

Rune Knights gathered in the middle of the town, where the disaster had begun. There, she would see much thicker and larger roots, seeping from the ground and through the cracks of buildings and walls, causing it to rumble down entirely. She didn’t know whom she had grabbed, as her hand reached out to the nearest person; a female with long auburn hair and ears with sharp pointy ends. An elf? By the features of her face, the female didn’t appear that alarmed by the situation. Perhaps she might have some information of what had occurred.

”Excuse me, do you know what’s happening?”

Her face was hooded quite well, so that one wouldn’t take notice of her easily. With an effortlessly recognizable face and a high reputation, she didn’t desire any unwanted attention when she chose to walk around the streets, which was why her white cloak had been her most trusted piece of clothing recently—she wouldn’t exit her room without it.

She stood from a distance, looking at the people, the knights, making an plan about what to do against these roots and branches. She whispered to herself that it wasn't smart but a few seconds after someone grabbed her left forearm and she turned her amber eyes at the person next to her, cloaked her pale face almost completely hidden and the elf narrowed her eyes. Not immediately sure what to think but she didn't plan to say anything, perhaps this woman heard what she had said and wanted to help. That would be a good thing.

The lady asked her if she knew what was going on and Sorcha shook her head lightly, "Not completely, something is going on in the East forest and the trees are angry. I know that sounds strange but there won't be another reason for the roots and branches to be here and form a danger to the town." she turned her eyes from the stranger towards the knights and sighed. Stupidity was unfortunately always an issue and she hated how she was but a small perhaps even pawn in this game. She didn't even think she belonged in the game between humans and nature but it made it very difficult to help in that case. "Thing is that if they chop down the roots and branches, the tree will only become more angry. Someone would need to go into the forest and stop it from the source on. I only don't think they would listen to me." She made a nudge with her head towards the knights and turned back to the cloaked lady, "I should try though."

She only didn't know what to say, the thing was that her mask would hold her away from issues like this, she would not have enough time in her mind to form a political correct answer or a diplomatic way to explain it, since she was so furious about the knights, only thinking about destroying things. She took a step forward in case the lady had let go of her and thus given her the ability, she looked over her shoulder at the mystery woman before decided that to do something to at least help Magnolia, she would have to speak and volunteer to go into the woods, she could probably be there quickly and figure out what was going on.

"Don't, if you hurt the tree it would only become worse." She spoke with a loud and clear voice, sure of herself. One knight looked at her and laughed after a few seconds "As if the tree can do something to us." This man was dumb, proof of the stupidity and ignorance, if the tree couldn't do anything, why be afraid of the branches and roots?

Nobody would believe if they heard that the trees were angry—at least not these Rune Knights, but she knew that the auburn-haired female wasn’t lying; she couldn’t think of a reason as to why the woman would lie to her. The way she explained it to her, it was almost as if she understood the language of the trees. Was that the perk of being an elf? Snowflake knew she could trust no other than this woman relating to this issue, however, the knights were eager to chop off the roots that was causing chaos over the town. Considering how she had seen the roots slither and move right in front of her eyes, she believed that it would indeed cause nature to run havoc if the Rune Knights chose to cut them off.

Stormy hues travelled over to the tangled vines, as she attempted to figure out where the root of the problem was; East Forest. ”You’re right, someone will have to enter the forest to solve this case,” But, how could she let an unarmed female wander into a forest that was almost like a maze to most people? Having most of her time spent with Chelvaric, she was aware that elves had no difficulty wandering the woods, albeit, reflecting on the incident that had just occurred, it could be dangerous for a young female to go through the woods alone. ”Wait,” she called out once again.

”I’ll come with you.”

And, as for the knights…

The woman slipped her hood off her head and walked over to one of them. ”Y-you are…” the knight stuttered, in surprise of whom he had just seen.

”Good, you know who I am. Listen to the girl’s suggestion. Don’t harm the vines, nor the roots. In case you disobey me, I could always invite your lieutenant. She’s a close acquaintance of mine.” Despite the humourless smile that grew on her lips, her tone was as icy as the wind that blew through the north. The knight froze in the spot, nodding repeatedly and shuffled away to inform the rest of the knights. Having a big reputation does do you good, she thought. With that, she pulled her hood back up once again before swiftly pivoting in her heels to head towards the forest.

”Shall we go?”

It felt a bit strange to try and explain to someone that the trees were angry. She could explain a few more aspects to why she knew and the like but she didn't. She had to figure out how to stop the Rune Knights from making the mistake that could be disasterous for the rest of the day and the town for that matter. She wasn't very aware if there was a race issue when it came to people listen to elves and she wasn't trying to figure it out, she was really tring to stop this and she had no time to figure out if people would listen to her because she was an elf or not. She needed to get into action.

She spoke to the knights but they laughed at her. It was that she didn't care about their ignorance and she wasn't hurt from their stupidity but they could harm others with that attitude and she looked a bit forlorn. It would be even more dangerous to go into the East Forest if the knights here would just do whatever they wanted. But she would have to try, perhaps she was fast enough even though she had her doubts. She looked back at the cloaked lady and nodded, but this didn't help much.

She took a few steps away from the little plaza that she was at right now, the place where the knights had rallied the citizen and themselves to pick up this job. She stopped when she heard someone call out wait, especially because it was the voice of the lady and she looked over her shoulder, not saying words but silently asking the question. She gave a small smile, "I appreciate that." Perhaps finally a person that did care a bit more about nature than the simple persons that were these knights. She watched the lady, she had no idea who she was, albeit Sorcha was a bit ignorant to the important people in this world, the world that wasn't around her family and kin.

She liked the effect this woman had on the knights though. Making them stutter and even giving another threat, she couldn't help but grin about the idea. "Yes let's go, the faster we figure out the problem the better. For everyone." Because the woman hid her looks again, she decided to not say anything about it,e ven if she found it funny to see and funny as well. Who knows, depending on the conversastion they might have during their walk to the forest, she would figure out what kind of person this lady was. She quickly turned to walk to the East Forest, it would be quite a walk if they would have to go deep inside the forest as she expected. All they had to do at the moment was follow the vines and roots that seemed to be coming from the same point.

Having spent time with Chelvaric, she was highly influenced to take care and be responsible for nature as well—not that she minded—since she enjoyed the verdant trees and the gorses of thick bushes growing over the vicinity. After all, it was nature that made the country all the more beautiful. Being aware of her awful directional sense, Snowflake let the elf woman take the lead towards the East Forest. It would have been quite a walk, considering how the vines and roots were blocking every available path they had.

Though it had been brief in reality, the journey there seemed to have stretched on for eons to her, as if time was thinned out into a linear form that made her steps a tad bit slower, if not from sheer uneasiness. The woman rose no questions throughout the journey; she couldn’t think of any possible topic to converse with the other female. Snowflake tugged onto the rim of her hood as she mentally cursed her dull communication skills.

”Uh, what’s your name?” Snowflake proceeded to mend her slightly awkward tone of voice, the words now coming off as clear and resolute from her lips as she spared the stretching horizon a long, observing glance. The sky was washed with grey, and when she tried to peek beneath the curling canopies of some decaying trees, all she could see was an empty sky that was evidently a foreboding warning to the trouble ahead.

It was like she had some kind of tunnel vision, her hand, right, extended to almost touch the enormous roots to follow them towards the Eastern Forest and to only see that and to think in her mind that she would be able to sooth the tree for whatever reason it was upset. She knew that the mysterious lady was with her but it wasn't really in her mind, she had so much to learn about humans and the other beings of the society that was unknown to her. However she also had formed her opinion about that and wasn't very open about much considering how she not liked the society around her.

She was so well obsessed with finding the source of this problem that she had not even thought about making conversation, which was not something that she hated or minded to do. Diplomatic and Politics also asked for conversations as well as allies to be able to continue in a task given and she needed this lady as a ally for now. She wasn't strong enough if something more was going on than just an upset tree. Her magic, even though taught by her father had gotten a big dent in the four years that she had let it be.

She was brought out of her obsession a little when she heard the lady ask for her name and she slowed down a little to walk next to her. Of course as an elf, she had the ability to be light as a feather and walk through nature with ease but that didn't count for everyone, "Oh pardon my rudeness. I'm Sorcha of the Donovan Elf line." Which sounded strange to say but this lady seemed to be very powerful, especially after what she had done with the knights.

The more they walked into the forest, the thicker the vines, roots and branches became, something felt off, it didn't only feel like a tree that was angry, that was the consequences of something else, "It feels as if someone used magic against the forest." She said, stopping in her tracks and looking around,t here was only no evidence for that. It was a pulsation in the air that didn't change and made her feel a bit restless.

”Sorcha,” she repeated to none other than herself, engraving the name into her brain as she did so before introducing her own name to the fellow elf. ”I call myself Snow.” The rest of the journey was mostly filled with silence while she conjured up thoughts of all the happenings that could occur inside the forest. None of the townsfolk seem to know the reason why, including herself, though she could briefly guess that someone must have fooled around with something to cause this trouble. Perhaps there was a reason behind their doing, albeit, her priority was to find out the source behind this incident and solve this as quickly as possible to prevent any further inconveniences.

The closer they approached to the woods, the less people there was, she noticed. The woman stood in front of the massive realm of trees as she tilted her hair upwards to enjoy the full view, feeling her hair tumble further down her back. Darkness lingered between the spaces in the decaying trees and the road she took was hideously matted with dead grass, as if they were affected solely from the high concentration of deathly intentions that were undoubtedly leaking from the forest.

Nevertheless, the assassin did not hesitate to join the elf woman on the little trip inside the forest. The light streaks through the boughs in both brilliant and shadowy beams. In the summertime, they were white gold, illuminating the greens into virescent riots; yet the gift of those warm days has passed for the season. On these wintry days, the fogs cast those same beams of light into sepia tones and the woodland becomes the most beautiful of photographs—but maybe no so much now. It was as if all the life of the trees have been sucked out by the magic that someone had used so carelessly.

”Yes, I suppose the same.”

By the corner of her eye, she could almost see the vines and trees moving or was she seeing things? The demon blinked once, twice and the vision disappeared. Was something wrong with her eyes? At least for the moment they figured out the main reason behind this mess, but how were they to solve it?

Sorcha looked back to Snow for a few seconds when she repeated her own name and than introduced herself, "It's a beautiful name, it fits you very much." She couldn't help but say, Sorcha being a nature lover and almost everything that came with that, including snow, could see an elegance to the lady that would fit the beauty of the Snow covered world as well as the power it possessed and the mystery. The rest of the walk was a bit more silent, mostly because she had to focus on the area around her as the trees had taken up a lot and there was no clear path anymore. Sorcha wasn't even sure if there had been a clear path, she had not been here before and she looked at the way the trees branches and roots, including the vines made their way through the forest. If she looked forward, it looked as if there was a curtain of vines and for some unknown reason it gave her the shivers. She wasn't sure what to do about that.

The vine wood was a strange contrast to what they had seen before, the dead patches of wood and grass before and it surely did confuse the elf. It was as if someone had used magic against the forest and she told her findings out loud to Snow and stopped walking for a second. Snow agreed and Sorcha tried to figure out if that person might still be in the forest, she pointed at the vines before them, "The caster might be hidden in there, since that seems to be very lively." She frowned and looked at her right quickly, she had thought for a second that she had seen some snake coming closer but all she saw was a vine, wow perhaps the forest was also throwing off poison to cast people of from getting closer?

The comment regarding her name was something Snowflake received often, especially from those whom she’d just met. Perhaps that was the reason why her parents had named her to the snowflakes—her demeanour itself resembled to that of a winter. Having her history discarded a long time ago, she barely had any memories of her parents and she hardly remembered how they looked like. She knew for a fact that she loved the snow unconditionally as a child, even now. It was a sight that she could never grow bored of her entire life. ”Thank you,” she whispered, loud enough for the other female to hear, for she didn’t wish to disrupt the vines and branches that crawled around them. It was as if they were listening to their conversation.

Her eyes followed in the direction of Sorcha’s finger. The vines appear to thrive more than usual compared to the rest within the vicinity. Glancing around and seeing the branches move, it made the goose bumps crawl underneath her skin; it felt so unnatural. Nodding at Sorcha’s suggestion in acknowledgement, she began to head towards the direction. The woman ensured herself to make as little sound as possible, despite the twigs snapping underfoot and the rustle of the leaves. There could possibly be someone in the forest, but what might this person be doing? If it were the main culprit behind all this mess, they would be required to capture him alive and force some answers out of him.

Sorcha turned to look shortly at Snow again and smiled at her for a short amount of time as well. She liked how the mysterious woman whispered, as if not wanting to disturb nature. If only everyone would work and think that way, or many more people, it would save the woods from being harmed. Now the trees she knew, around the elven empire, liked to hear voices and singing and liked to feel the dancing of their light feet on the roots. It was a tale her mother used to tell her but she wasn't sure if it was true, she had just never seen the woods around her home do something like this and with that, she wasn't sure what this was. It wasn't natural that was for sure and she pointed out the woods of vines in front of them, a few meters.

Once they decided to go there, Sorcha wondered in the short amount of time if it would work to just simply sweep the vines away softly with her hands and move in there, it was a dangerous idea and she wouldn't perhaps be powerful enough to fight against the vines in case they did something, perhaps not physically but sure as what she wouldn't be able to do it mentally. It wasn't the fault of the woods, it was the fault of the caster inside here. She stood now in front of it and the vines reached for as far as she could see, making it like twilight here, the little bits of light were behind them. "Let's hold hands so we won't lose the other in the mess of vines." She held up her own pale hand, hoping that Snow would understand, but she bet Snow did, she seemed to be a very intellegent being.

Once they would start, there seemed to be no ending coming towards the vines that she moved away as carefully with her hand as she could, where she expected the plants to attack here, nothing happened. And as long as it went on, it suddenly stopped and showed a whole lot more space than she could have believed possible in a cocon of vines.

Her eyes drifted over to the elf woman that stood a couple inches ahead of her, studying her carefully; not out of suspicion but, out of curiosity. It was as if Sorcha exactly knew where everything was located—as if the nature was speaking to her. She wondered if every elf had the ability to do so, though she does see Chelvaric interacting often with the verdant greenery around them, which she found quite strange to see. So far, Snowflake had been encountering the most fascinating people recently and honestly, she appears to be quite gifted in assuming a stroll whenever the times were most interesting. It’s as if there had been a compass implanted into her head that always directed her to a compelling venture in wait.

The first was a Neko, and now, another Elf.

Sorcha’s suggestion to hold hands rather caught her off guard, causing her to freeze in her spot for a moment. Displaying affection hasn’t always been her best suite and she was still uncomfortable with getting close to someone else. Albeit, it would have been extremely rude to neglect her offer and thus, she slid her hand in Sorcha’s in an awkward manner that one could possibly perceive. It was an embarrassing moment for the poor demon, as could be seen by the light shade of scarlet that blossomed on her cheeks, although she quickly dismissed it, not wanting to distract Sorcha from her own discomfort.

As they did so, they began to probe further forward, pushing the vines that shrouded their vision with their hands however, this seemed to be leading them nowhere but an endless abyss of vines. The mundane procedure continued on for several minutes until they finally stopped right in front of a hole, or perhaps a gate—something that looked similar to a portal. The assassin quickly exchanged glanced with the elf female, silently asking if she wishes to continue further. She wasn’t sure where this would lead to, but this was going to be a hell of an adventure.

She had missed the idea of the discomfort that Snow would feel about the physical contact, she had been absorbed about the energies that she felt coming from the vines and trees around this cocon of vines. Where she had thought it would be like a barrier, impossible to break, they could step in while holding hands. Unable to lose each other in the mess of green lines that would hide everything from their view. But finally they reached at some edge. Which seemed to be very strange and even scary, yes Sorcha would admit that. She had no idea if she wanted to step into this gate or hole or whatever it would be, would they be able to get out and get back? No one was practically waiting on her, perhaps her uncle but what about Snow?

She looked away from the hole and turned to Snow before she would take a step back, she felt her foot slip and she would try to get a step back but the vines now forming a mass that seemed unbreakable and unreachable. This was like a trap, the portal growing and them falling in there in only a matter of minutes, even before Sorcha would be able to say sorry. But as soon as she fell in, trying to stiffle a scream, she heard a sweet, melodic voice calling out, "Please. Help us." And she had no idea what it was, there was only white, no sign of nature that she could hear or understand or anything strangely so what could it be?

Finally when the portal came through an end as if going towards Wonderland, she fell on a giant leaf. Bigger than she had ever seen before with lilac spots on it, that didn't look surprisingly poisonous. She looked around, everything looked much more full of  nature than Magnolia had been and there were strange creatures, little animals, flooting on the wind. Where in the name of the Nature Queen had they arrived?

Whereabouts was this portal going to lead them?

That—she did not know and how were they to return back onto the land? The woman stared at the portal in front of her, battling with her own decisions. She didn’t wish to disappear without a trace for days, especially not without informing Chelvaric since he might be searching for her for days. If she were unable to return, what was she supposed to do? Clearly, Snowflake was very reluctant to enter the portal and Sorcha seemed to feel the same as she retreated a few steps back. Despite, she did come up with an idea that could help the two. She thought about informing the mayor of the town and have someone investigate the area before they enter, but it was too late. Sorcha slipped underfoot and due to them having their hands held together, Snowflake was dragged down with the fellow elf as they both fell into an endless abyss.

The world rushes by in a blur and darkness engulfed around her as gravity would pull them further downwards. Her hand instinctively reaches outwards, in an attempt to grab something, but there was nothing apart from the gust of air that separated between herself and the portal that they fell from. A female voice echoed within the walls of the abyss—it wasn’t Sorcha’s, but someone else’s. Perhaps she was just imagining things, she quickly pushed it to the back of her mind and focused on what was at hand. She knew the pain was coming. It goes by fast, yet slow, almost suspended.

Then, impact.

Her eyes flew open in surprise. She’d expected to fall on some sort of hard ground and imagined some broken bones in a result, however, her body was resting on a massive leaf, supporting her weight as if it was a cloud. Sliding off the giant leaf, she landed with a soft thud on her heels and her mouth instantly gaped open upon seeing the surroundings. Trees ten times her height adorned the area and the vicinity bloomed with colours; beautiful flowers and plants and even creatures she’d never recognized before. ”Where in the world are we?” It was as if they were in a magic place, somewhere unknown, but what were they supposed to do here?

Where she noticed in the corner of her eye that Snow had slid of the leaf, she was still looking at it to understand more of it, it seemed to be some sort of viber that she didn't understand and the purple wasn't just a colour nor poisonous but some sort of pollen that were just a different colour than the usual yellow. When she studied the leaf for as long as she could, because answers seemed to be impossible, she let herself slide down the leaf as well and looked around, the plant seemed to be much taller than them, which made sense considering the size of the leaves.

She looked up at the sky high trees and the creatures but she didn't see a hole in the sky from which they had fallen, so it worked like some random teleportation? That would make it that they wouldn't have to be near the sorcerer, she hunched down to try and find footsteps but saw nothing, "I wish I had an answer for that but I don't. I have no idea where we are. It seems like a fictive world if you get what I mean and that means that the magic user creates this and uses the real world's nature source to create this fake one, and that means that Magnolia's forest is dying, which could explain why the vines and roots go through the town. They are trying to get away from dying." It all sounded far fetched but it sort of clicked in her head and made her understand so much more even though it felt like rambling. "Of course it's just a theory."

Gorses of bushes and wild flowers thrived around her and there was one particular flower that stood out to her the most, among all. Out of curiosity, Snowflake gently pressed her finger against the flower and its petals would bloom from the reaction and moved around as if it was alive. Utterly taken aback, the woman retreated a few steps back, her gaze still fixated on where the flower was. What the hell was this place honestly? Her eyes flew above and around her; the place looked no more than a magical forest to her, but the question was; why were they brought here? Technically, they weren’t brought to the place, instead they fell into the portal in an accident.

Nevertheless, she still remembered the voice that called out to them, asking for help. Perhaps there was something wrong with this place after all. It was too magical for it to be true. Awestruck, Snowflake could only nod in acknowledgement at Sorcha’s explanation. It was an amazing theory—something she had never even thought of. But then, nature had nothing to do with her and she wouldn’t understand even if the plants came to life and talked to her.

”Come.”

Her eyebrows shot upwards.

”Was that you, Sorcha?”

”Come. Help us.”

This time, the demon figured out it wasn’t the elf female, for she had her eyes glued on Sorcha’s lip—not that she intended to do anything to her. The voice was familiar—it was the same as the voice that called out to them earlier. What did this woman want? Upon her request, the flowers and trees would bend forward, almost bowing them as if they were royals. The bushes that stood in the way would clear out of the place, as they all created a simple, long path for them to walk. Beyond her lingered something she couldn’t quite unveil; something hidden in pure darkness. Their destination was unknown, albeit, would their answers be awaiting for them if they were to travel along this path?

How crazy was the idea? She wasn't entirely sure if there was an amount of crazy because well they had fallen into a hole that actually wanted them to fall in and that even asked for help, yet it felt like it made no sense. While saying the theory out loud to Snow, she regarded the whole world in that tiny little spot that she was now. The floor, or well the earth they were standing on, the soil seemed to feel like the same texture and everything as normally in their world. Perhaps her theory of creating a fictive world was wrong, perhaps this was true in a location not yet found by the Fiorans. But she wasn't so sure about all that, the leaves didn't look natural, the colour contrast, the reaction to Snow her touch. She knew that plants and flowers remembered friendly feelings, touch, voices, even songs but that was not the way this flower reacted and she could only frown and narrow her eyes, wondering what she should think about it.

When she heard the voice she stoop up straight and looked around, shaking her head when Snow asked if it was her. No, but it was the same voice as in the portal, apparently this world, if her theory was right, was fed on the energy and life essence of the trees in Magnolia and that meant that these were the spirits perhaps of the trees talking to her, nymphs?! They could die if their tree would die as well. Her eyes turned a little bigger and her amber hues looked for the creatures in the sky, their souls? She turned to face the the plants forming a pathway, "Okay I have another crazy theory. I don't know if it's possible with the woods of Magnolia and this world but if my theory is correct, these might be the spirits of the trees or the nymphs that reside in the forest, they need our help or they die." Which was already quite clear from the first part of her theory, that the forest was being killed, she didn't understand if this world would remain living if the trees died, or for how long?

Reluctant, Snowflake froze in her steps, waiting to see what Sorcha’s reaction would be. The path was provided before them, but would it be smart to actually go along with it? What if they never returned? She wasn’t just about to disappear to some unknown land without even informing her lover; she knew he would be worried to death. Not to mention, after everything she did to get to this point, she wasn’t going to rot in some place that she didn’t even know of. Well, she would have a partner, at the very least. That wasn’t very convincing to her, nevertheless, having someone of calm-minded, like Sorcha did help her sort the mess that jumbled in her mind.

Snowflake had always been a thinker, but was never one to speak her doubts. A mystery woman, she was, and she liked remaining the same as how people portrayed her.

Her feet stepped forward, and stopped immediately when Sorcha provided another explanation—another theory that she had come up with. Honestly, how many theories could this girl conjure? Yet, all of them made sense to her. ”If so, then we should provide help to whoever is calling out for us.” Snowflake simply assumed that Sorcha was correct. Despite how they've met a couple of minutes ago, there was something about that she could trust. Besides, being an elf, Sorcha was better at solving the situation than herself. But, the question still remains. Who was causing danger to this place that it would even effect the massive realm of woodland in Magnolia Town? The frosty sculptress took another step, but this time she didn’t hesitate. Confidence shone of her being, her head titled upwards as she began walking down the path.

”Come, we can sort this out together.”

It was yet, another puzzle for the woman. Perhaps this was better than lying around moping in the rooftops, and doing nothing. Or so she hoped.

Her mind was pushing her to find a solution and with that an answer to the happenings but actually she only made assumptions. And she had to definitely tell herself that those answers weren't real as she wasn't sure. She wasn't even sure at the moment if she was making things up but as she spoke she realized that did sound like an okay theory, bit farfetched perhaps but not all too crazy as she had expected. She looked around once more, the pathway showing and she wasn't entirely sure what to do about it.

Nature didn't seem to be unwilling, there were no signs of roots or vines that would block their road, make them stumble, struggle and so on. The way the path was made could either mean something good or a trap and with the questions that were asked to help them; both options remained in her mind. She nodded when Snow seemed to agree, and dismissed the thoughts of a trap right now but she stayed alert, as she expected that Snow would do as well. She looked around once more but since there was no sign of a hole or portal to jump in, she wondered if it could harm her if they would leave without marking this spot. The exit wasn't here anyway.

She turned her amber eyes back at Snow and nodded, time to follow the road and see what answers they would get. The whole road went on and on it seemed and just as with the vines, they suddenly stopped. She looked at the plants the whole time as she walked, but they didn't immediately close behind them as if they were okay with them walking away and thus perhaps not a trap.

When they came into the clearing in the piece of forest, there wasn't much. A few of the spirits flying in the air and some mushrooms in the middle of it, but as her elven eyes stared at those mushrooms, she noticed a tiny little creature on it, but she looked impressive enough, a fairy, a green one, which meant that she represented nature and she was wearing a crown. The nature queen was here?

The further they went into the woods, the forest grew thicker. Or was she just seeing things? Her eyes glided upwards to see the dim sunlight that pierced between the gaps of the leaves. The path was long, much longer than she wanted it to be and the entire journey was filled with silence. Snowflake felt anxious, especially when not knowing what they were about to encounter. The flowers and smaller trees, on the other hand, continued to guide them correctly through the forest, so as to prevent them from walking astray. The demon continued to observe around her; it was almost as if she were in a park—no, even more than that. She’d never seen such amount of dense trees growing in any parts of Fiore, and certainly flowers not these beautiful.

It was a sight to behold.

Seconds plodded by, each separated by an eternity, and she would only grow worried by each passing second. She felt like she needed to go back home; back to Chelvaric, but how was she going to do that when she had already committed herself to helping some non-existent woman, who’s been speaking to them through telepathy. The walk continued, and not long after, she’d begin to see weird creatures soaring through the air. Were they spirits? She looked to her side and never had she seen before the large number of butterflies that filled the area, ever in her life. In the middle of their pathway was a tiny being and admittedly, Snowflake had to squint through her eyes to see properly.

A crown. Was she the queen of this forest?

More like a fairy to her, due to her petite size. The frosty beauty had expected some kind of beautiful maiden with large wings and a flower crown, but certainly not a fairy. Perhaps her expectations were a bit high. Snowflake stood before her as the fair-- nature queen continued to observe them from head to toe.

”Welcome to my forest, ladies. I am Faylen Trisdi, please call me Fay.”

Of everything she had thought about, her mind thinking too much, making crazy theories, she had not expected the Queen to be here. Not in this form either but that didn't bother her much. Perhaps this way saved her energy and.. she actually made another amount of assumptions, she had never met the Nature Queen, only heard stories and by her blessings, Sorcha didn't know if the queen had more forms or if that were just legends.

She had wanted to say many things to Snow, even through their short journey towards here, or long depending on how you looked at it. But now she was again lost for words and she simply hunched down, to show some respect to the little Queen. Only a few things made no sense if this was her forest, or were all the forest in the world her for.. Sorcha really needed to stop thinking.

"Your majesty, if this is your forest, does that mean we are still in Fiore?" Which might be one of the important questions, sure Sorcha wouldn't mind helping, that is; if she could do something. The thing was that she also wanted to return to the world as she knew it. She bit her tongue softly to not ask the Queen if she had seen her family, perhaps they were here, hidden by the magic and the mystery that was around this place.

The Queen answered positive and explained that you could consider this as a spirit world, a copy and extended version of their own Fiore and with that still connected to the real world. "Without the real world the spirit world would not exist and it is every where around you. But I asked for your help because someone with malicious intentions had stepped inside and harmed both worlds. The energy and rhytm that we know here in the spirit world is fading." And for some reason Sorcha believed the Queen didn't mention the effects it could have on their own world.

With a slight bow, Snowflake would pay her utmost respects to the Nature Queen before flipping her hair lock of silver hair over her shoulder as she retreated. ”Snow, your majesty,” she’d briefly introduce herself while Sorcha quickly dived into the matter at hand. It seemed that she was also very eager to learn about the place, more than herself, mayhap. When Sorcha raised the question, her brows furrowed in concentration. It was something she had been wondering since they stepped foot inside this world; something she had been very concerned about.

Despite how the Nature Queen reminded them of how they were still in the country, none of the things around them looked any familiar, compared to those on their land. At the very least, the demon was still glad to hear that they were still in Fiore. Albeit, she wasn’t sure if this would even be the time to let out a sigh of relief. There was still more to come.

According to the Queen, the woodlands have been harmed by someone, a villain, with no specified intentions of why the person is doing so. Undoubtedly, they were here for a reason; to get rid of this culprit. ”This must have been fate, for you two were the first to have ever heard my calls,” the queen smiled with delight, though with a hint of sadness behind the sparkle in her eyes. Perhaps it was. Having the important questions answered, the demon had no choice but to carry along with the plan, doesn’t she?

”How may we find this person, your Majesty? Is there any hints on how the culprit looks like? Does he wield any magic?”

Numerous questions slipped her mouth as Snowflake became more and more eager to discover what actually happened. Though, it was quite obvious that the culprit would have been able to use magic—strong enough to even cause damage in both worlds. The person must know a lot about both the spiritual and the real world, she assumed. If this person was even capable to causing two worlds to the brink of destruction, how were they to defeat him? It wasn’t an issue on confidence, rather, it was something more akin of her habit to over-think things, and simply put, she was very much inclined to believe that this was going to require them more than just hard work and efforts.

It took her a couple of seconds before she realized that she had just hoped on the question and matters at hand and had not been so polite to even introduce herself and now Sorcha was far to embarrassed to do anything about it. The idea of a spirit world had never crossed her mind but as she looked around her, it seemed to be some sort of energy, making it possible for every sort of plant to grow here perhaps? Plants that were not native to Fiore and thus she had never seen. Perhaps with this rhythm and energy that the queen spoke about, there were possibilities that the plants grew bigger and brigher and thus she couldn't connect them to her own. It would be a relieve for a short second to see some plant she did recognize, even if the Queen said that they were still in Fiore.

She turned her eyes back on the Queen and gave her a small smile as the queen mentioned that they were the first to hear her call. She had heard it in the tunnel indeed and now she could feel the resonating of the trees being different than in Magnolia, where they were angry, here they felt sad, perhaps it was the influence of the Queen.

The Queen shook her head slowly as Snow asked some questions, "I only know he is a mage, planning something and using the energy of the spirit world. So that means he either is a Nature or Earth mage." At that moment Sorcha realized that the Queen clearly said he but she seemed to say that she didn't know much more. She looked at Snow shortly but decided not to talk to the queen at this point about it and watched her again as she pointed to the northeastern corner of this place, "Travel in that way and you will find more of the destruction as well as the person itself."

Sorcha her own mind went ahead of itself again, if this person was that strong to freak out the Nature Queen, how would she fight against someone like that. She was good with weapons but she had none and her magic wasn't very much developed and she was afraid to use Earth magic here in general. She bowed again to the Queen and turned to Snow, "We can always try to have a look first before we find a good solution?" She said softly, not wanting to offend the Queen but they had to realize their own safety as well.

The one thing that made Snowflake confused about the entire ordeal was that if the Queen knew that someone was going on a rampage within the woods, didn’t they do anything to take measures upon it? That couldn’t be it, she assumed. No one would just sit and watch someone else destroy their own land. Perhaps the Queen wasn’t strong enough to go against the culprit, and that only made her wonder the strength of the aforementioned person. Nature or Earth. Those were the possible elements of the magic that the criminal wields—or so the Queen informed.

With little to none other information about the culprit, the mages had no other choice but to see what they’ll be able to find with what was provided. At the very least, they do know where the person was located in general, but not specifically. Her eyes trailed off towards the direction of where the Nature Queen pointed—the northeast. When Sorcha raised her questions, the Queen didn’t hesitate to agree. Certainly, there had to be some sort of terms and agreements, since they might be putting their lives on the line here. ”Yes, most definitely. But, I’d like him captured as fast as possible, please. I will be watching over you.” For some reason, Snowflake didn’t doubt the Queen, for she was aware that the Queen would be protecting them—somehow.

The demon released a long sigh that she had been holding for as long as she could remember. Snowflake wasn’t sure why she had signed up for something like this—she never wanted to—honestly, she didn’t expect this to be so complicated. Now, here she was; tangled in this mess. ”Is there anything you’d like to get before we head off?” It would have been delightful if she had actually brought her newly attained weapon along with her. Not only she could use the blade to fight, in case they encounter some enemies, she could also train to better her usage with the weapon as well. What a shame.

Even though Sorcha had no idea what Snow was thinking, she was thinking in the same track of thoughts. Her idea wavering around the Nature Queen, such a powerful being as the stories of the elves told her again and again would be able to stop such a mage from going on and on to destroying both parts of the normal world as well as the spirit world. She herself wasn't extra strong against either element, with having Earth magic herself in a defensive form and not trained enough for this; she felt a bit useless.

While she told her issues to Snow, the Queen answered which bothered her a little. If the Queen was able to watch over them, why not take care off the mage herself? She didn't want to discuss this as it clearly wouldn't get them to the point that it would be fixed and she rather would do something or go home.

She heard the sign of the person next to her and let her amber eyes shortly look at her partner in this event, she shook her head to the question, "There is nothing I could get." She had no weapons ready, they were at home and thus she would have to trust on her instinct, she should ask Snow a couple of questions about her strength and power but she felt that it might be too much to do around the Queen, "Let's set off." Even though the Queen would be watching them, she felt this eerie misunderstood feeling in the air that she wanted to be away off, so she simply set off into the Northeastern direction that seemed to be going fine as the trees and plants in the beginning seemed to move away from them but that randomly stopped, probably out of reach of the Queen.

"I do have to admit, I don't think I can be of much help." Was the best way to warn Snow already about her incapability.