“FRINO” I yelled and then quickly winced as I recalled where I was.

  Frino looked like he had been dragged through hell and back, and then for good measure been dipped in the ghoulish pit! His clothes were torn and covered in dried sap and mud, one of his antlers had a broken tip and he had a haunted desperate look in his eyes. His face revealed a mixture of emotions surprise, joy, hope and sadness.

  When he spoke, it was with a tremble in his voice “Mike! I can’t believe you are here!”

  He looked out of the doorway and asked, “Did you get caught as well?” and then quieter “do you know if the others are safe?”

  Standing in the hallway seemed like a bad idea, so we moved into the room. It looked much like the one I had woken up in, with one major difference, what looked like the remains of a smaller sized woodwraith halfway out of the pit.

  Frino saw me looking and said, “I will get to that, please tell me what happened with the others?”

  I quickly brought him up to speed on what had happened after his disappearance, and as I told him about Moll’s decision to go back to the camp without attempting a rescue. He just shrugged and said, “It has happened before and I would not have gone after Moll either” with a sad smile, he added “Only persons I might have gone into the woods for would be Nelly and Barlo.”

  He looked me in the eyes and said, “Be sure to tell them how much they meant to me?” A bit uncomfortable I said “you tell them yourself when we get out of here Frino! Barlo will be so happy! He cried; you know?” I studied the hallway to avoid his eyes and said “Besides I am sure Stalker will be here soon. He will know the way out!” He just shook his head and said “You are waiting for your pet to come rescue us? Seriously, did you hit your head when they dragged you here?”

  Harsh, but fair, he didn’t know Stalker like I did, so to change the subject I asked, “We found signs of a battle between the panther, you and a woodwraith! What happened Frino?”

  Frino sighed and slid down the wall to sit on the floor while telling his story. “I was going to get Nelly and Barlo.” He smiled. “They always take too long to get back and end up getting cold or overcooked lunch” While listening to his story I kept scanning the hallway and the room.

  He continued “They were not that far away… I got careless and didn’t pay attention, at first it was just a feeling, rustling bushes, something half seen, nothing really… I couldn’t call for help, you know?” I looked at him and he added “I would feel silly calling for help because of rustling bushes and Sslaras would never shut up about it”

  With a little smile he said “I should have listened to you about that panther, by the time I realized what was happening, it was too late to yell” he chuckled, “but someone else beat it to me, while trying to get away from the beast I got snatched by a monster… ohhh barred gates did it not like that!” he picked at some dried sap around a hole in his shirt.

  “The panther tried to take me back from the woods… I was scared stiff! so... so didn’t really see what happened, but at some point, I woke up here… floating in that disgusting sap mud” He pointed at the pit in this room. “I have been here since I woke up, too scared to leave” he looked at me and finished his tale “around an hour ago, there was some traffic in the hall, maybe that is when you got here?”

  “Sounds about right” I said, and as the light enters the room again and illuminates the wooden elephant in the room… the dead woodwraith. I ask, “so what happened there?”

  Frino shudders and still absentmindedly picking at the sap around the hole in his shirt, he says “When I woke up… this monster was pushing me into the pit” the light continues its tour around the room and is now appropriately over the remains shining a light on the mess. He continues “I was staring into the face of a dried-up old corpse and I … I grabbed the head and tried to twist it, to hurt it, but it was so dry and old that it just crumbled in my hands.”

  Flabbergasted I look at Frino. I go over to check the remains and see that there is indeed a headless mummified corpse entangled in the wood. I can even see where Frino got his branch from.

  “I don’t know what to say… Man, that is incredible!” I look at Frino sitting next to the doorway, he doesn’t look like he feels incredible. He is still picking at that sap.

  He looks up at me and says “It got me Mike” I look at him, picking at the sap… around the hole in his shirt…

  “Oh, fuck no! What do you mean it got you!” I rush to him to see what he is picking at. It looks like a rough puncture wound. There are dark lines going from the wound out all over his chest.

  He looked up at me dejected, as if he had more or less given up. The light was on its way out of the room.

  Pointing at the opening I say “ok, none of this doom and gloom routine! You killed a woodwraith with your bare hands!” I went over and helped him up from the floor and said, “You are stronger then this!” Giving his shoulders a squeeze “now you and me are going to follow that light, find a cure for you and then leave this fucked up place!”

  Frino still looking a bit dejected, smiled and followed me out.

  As we walked out into the hallway, I looked at the roots running along the walls and asked, “Have you tried touching the roots?”

  Frino looked at me weirdly and said, “Why would I do that?” he was using his branch as a walking stick and with the other hand he was picking at the sap. He pointed at the light moving through the roots and said, “We are in a dangerous archive filled with wooden monsters and there is weird light running through roots, why in the barred gates would anyone touch that?”

  “Fair point” I said “someone tried to brain me with a branch... I touched the roots when I had to dodge to save my life”

  Frino didn’t even look sorry, as he said, “so what happened? Did it hurt?”

  “No, it was like I was reliving a memory… but it was not my memory, but it felt like it? Does that make sense?” frustrated I added “How is that even possible?”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Frino made sure he was in the middle of the hall, and said “This whole place is cursed, nothing makes sense!” he grabbed the branch tightly with both hands and looked like he was ready to smash the roots and then relaxed his grip “No, no that is not true… We came for the woods; the wood came for us… I guess that makes sense.”

  Nodding at that, I said “I need to know if what I felt was real, if it happens again… you know?” I looked at the roots on the wall and reached for them. I knew that it probably was a stupid move. But the chance to experience life through other people’s memories and or ideas? That was one of the few things that had kept me sane during those last bad years! Admittedly as audiobooks, bit I wanted to taste those memories, those stories again!

  “Stop” Frino hissed loudly, but it was too late I was already…

  … I had been waiting for this night for so long! A slight gasp escaped me, as Alauron slowly slid his shirt off and showed off his muscular body, I bit my lips as I let my fingers dance over his arms, subtle and strong, and up, caressing his chin and lips, feeling the hot breath on my fingertips, before grabbing him by his beautiful curly hair and softly… pulling that rope, making sure it was tight and secure, It would not do to lose as much as one pelt on this journey, after all I had fought hard for every one of them and endured the harsh winter here in Limbo! Now it was the time to take them through the gates to… Tiny Protector … I slowly left the bed, taking care not to wake Alauron. I stopped before getting dressed and let the night air cool my heated body while I just looked at him, still not able to fully believe that he had chosen me! And over my… Danger Alone… I looked over the city, much had changed since last I was in this system. I just hoped that … Protect Pack ... WAKE UP!

  When I came to myself, I was looking up at Frino, and to my immediate joy, Stalker as well!

  Frino was shaking me and saying something about how worried he had been, that I was crazy and that my pet fox had come and brought me back to consciousness, but I couldn’t focus on him right now, as Stalker flooded me with emotes.

  Stalker emoted Tiny Protector save pack; I smiled my little protector came for me! old smell no danger Tiny Protector. No danger? Even though the images and concepts had gotten stronger from Stalker, that had to be a misunderstanding right? They didn’t attack him because he was not a humanoid? Stalker continued Tiny Protector lead pack home. At that I perked up and tried to give him a good scratch behind the ears, with a growl he let me know what he thought about that. I quickly changed it to a quick pat on the back.

  I emoted joy Tiny Protector and added Lead hunt home? Stalker confirmed with a smug little hufhuf. He knew the way out. I looked at Frino and said, “Stalker knows the way out!”

  Frino looked at Stalker, then at me, and with a frown he said, “You were serious when you said your pet would come for you…” then with a quick shake of his head, as if he couldn’t believe it, he continued “This is great I might get to say goodbye to Nelly and Barlo after all…”

  His words struck me deep in the pit of my stomach, yes we might have a way out, but that wouldn’t matter for Frino, unless we found a cure for him.

  “… Fuck, I’m sorry Frino, you are right, getting out is only part of the challenge here!” Looking at the roots where the light and memories were running through. “I think these memories that I experienced are our best shot at an answer” I said, my little dip into the memories had already added to my Lorekeeper quest completion and I was sure that following this thread would unveil something that we could use… It had to!

  After officially introducing Stalker and Frino to each other, we continued following the light, until we came to another cross, where Stalker wanted to take us the opposite direction of the flow of light.

  Looking back and forth between the hallways, nothing much looking different, it was the same surreal mix of building materials that seemed to almost organically form the walls and floor of this place. I looked at Frino and said, “Stalker says that the way out is to the left. He says, he encountered a few woodwraiths, but that they didn’t attack him.” I looked at the adorable fox monster and decided I didn’t really care why they didn’t attack him, as long as he was safe.

  Frino still nervously picking at the sap around his wound said, “Let’s get out of here then!” seeing that I was not convinced, he added “When I woke up here, I resigned myself to never seeing my friends again and to die alone in this wooden nightmare place” He smiled sadly at me “You have given me hope that I don’t have to die before saying goodbye and even if I don’t make it out, I’m not alone.”

  “I hear you” I said “But we can’t just give up now… Not while there is a chance that the cure might be in there” at this I pointed in the direction the lights were moving “Now we know the way out, let’s go explore a bit further and find the cure, so that you can come back and tease Barlo for crying!” At this Frino grinned a little and after a little pause, he reluctantly nodded.

  With a last look at the way out, we continued following the lights deeper into this hellish place. So far, we had not encountered any woodwraiths…

  Things started to change as we went deeper, the floor had a noticeable decline and the roots running along the walls got bigger and there were more of them, some seemed infected with some kind of rot, and I made sure to stay away from those. We encountered rooms that so far, we could see were totally blocked off by roots and we started to see the first woodwraiths.

  Stalker quickly demonstrated that they did indeed not react to him, and with him as scout we slowly followed the flow of light down taking care not to disturb the monsters. Finally, the hallway ended in a cavernous room.

  The room was filled with roots running from the roofs, the hallways, the walls all into a giant woodwraith construct, easily 6 meters tall and at least 3-4 meters wide at the chest, the infection was more pronounced here and filled must of the right side of the chest, at the base it was almost like the roots fanned out creating a giant dress that rested on a floor drenched in blood red sap and soil…

  The lights that we had followed all this way entered the giant and filtered through it down into the ground where it temporarily made the sap shine with an eerie light.

  But what caught our attention and breath was the most desiccated frail looking mummified corpse I had ever seen (to be fair, I had not really seen that many mummies) hanging in this giant woodwraith, wearing what looked like a prettier version of the gate symbol, a root holding up a trio of necklaces towards us. Necklaces that looked surprisingly like the ones I had lost…

  Then a voice, like the rustling in the leaves, whispered, yet somehow still filled the cavern:

  “...Beeelieeevveerrr… waaaiitteeeedd…. soooo…. loooong”