Forever Forest

Chapter 16

Grudgingly, Terra followed the strange blue haired boy through an even stranger mushroom town.

She nearly jumped out of her skin as a warty greenish goblin child jumped in front of them.

It was dressed in a fine small suit and spoke in a boyish high pitched voice.

"Right this way princ- uh, I mean Mage Reuel." He chirped at them and Reuel sighed and shook his head.

The boy led them down a side path and in between mushroom homes. The path was lined with brambles, thorns and ivy, so thick it began to block the sky along with the forest surrounding them. The only light was a few clusters of firefly's spinning about the air.

"Where are we going now?" She anxiously whispered to Reuel.

"It will be dark soon. Hadn't you noticed?" he tilted his head to the roof of brambles and ivy that covered their view from their sky.

"No, I hadn't." she rolled her eyes and looked ahead to try and see where the path led. However, the path wove and curved this way and that so often that their destination was impossibly hidden.

"We're going to Boonie's Hotel."

"Whose Boonie?"

"You'll see." He threw a grin at her as they turned a corner and stepped inside the most massive bush she'd ever laid eyes on.

It stretched upward and across for yards, branches reaching and surrounding the wooden structure that must have been the so-called hotel. Natural light was so few she might have assumed they were underground. Leaves filled the sky and surrounded the hotel in a bowl-like shape.

The goblin boy led them on towards the entrance of the wood and root hotel. On either side of the path, what she first thought were candles were actually burning flowers. Though they never seemed to crumple or brown. The flowers stayed alive and beautiful even as fire engulfed them.

"Impossible." She breathed, crouching down to inspect one.

"Not too close. The flowers won't burn but you certainly will." She grimaced at Reuel but stood and walked away anyways.

The goblin boy opened the double doors for them and looked back, "Any bags?" He stammered nervously.

"I wasn't allowed the privilege of bringing my things." she muttered to the boy and showed him her tied wrists. Ideally, she hoped the boy might fetch help or at least be shocked to see the vines that bound her to Reuel's every command; instead, the boy simply nodded and continued on inside the hotel.

Why wasn't she surprised.

Reuel chuckled beside her as he brushed past her and followed the goblin in.

She breathed slowly in an act to control her rage before following the two into the luminous building.

The hotel was a lot like her and her father's home, cabin-like though this building was bigger with taller ceilings. A beautiful chandelier of antlers lay above their heads and jovial music floated from a bar nearby as they walked across a long moss and wool rug.

She had to admit, there was something comforting about it. 

Comforting until she remembered the goblin boy on her right, the blue haired mage on her left, and the back of a shabby dead looking crone the three of them now stood before.

A wickedly wide witch hat lay upon her skull, something about the place Terra now stood in told her it was not a costume. Its sides drooped under its own weight, Terra wondered how the crone could even fit it through a door. flowers coated her dresses. Grey hair shone and fell to her feet.