The Tree's Heart

VII

Clover heard the faeries and their singing and dancing in the following days, but she made sure to stay inside the house, just as Willow had told her. It seemed like navigating this magical forest was much more difficult than she would have thought. There seemed to be dangers all over the place and they were tricky dangers.

At least Willow was keeping her busy during the following week. She had said that they would have to travel for a while, because they would need to go to a hilly region to visit the gnomes, whatever that meant. They would have something that Willow needed for the potion and that was why they needed to go and trade with them. And they would need some provisions for the way there. It was a journey that would take them two days, according to Willow. Two days seemed a lot of time to be walking through this place.

The forest was big, sure, but two days seemed excessive. And Clover had never heard of any mountains or notable hills in this area. As far as she was aware, this place was just forest. But whenever she asked Willow about it, the only answer she got was magical forest. However this magic worked, it had to mean that there were two different forests at some point. Clover imagined them like different dimensions or something. Not that Clover knew much about any of that stuff, not really.

Either way, she was busy helping Willow bake bread and polish some old coins and tiny little knick-knacks. Apparently, the gnomes liked shiny things and anything that they could tinker with. And they also liked to have a loaf of bread which gave them more time to work on their little contraptions and gadgets.

Another thing they had to do was sewing some sleeping bags for themselves. Willow was mainly busy doing that – sowing the cloth together and stuffing it with straw to keep them warm while they were sleeping outside. While they were doing all that, Willow was giving her some more information on the faeries and the fae, since Clover had almost walked into one of their little traps and had almost become one of them.

Clover was grateful to hear some more things about them – not because she was afraid of them, but because she was fascinated. She felt like she wanted to know everything there was to know about them. And she could even feel herself forgetting about having a life outside of this forest. She caught herself wondering whether it would be so bad to become fae and just stay with them. They seemed happy.

Clover didn't know whether she really felt that way or whether it was some weird influence from the forest or from her encounter with the faeries. Either way, Willow had told her to stay away, so she was doing her best not to get too tempted to join them. Still, she couldn't help all those thoughts sneaking into her head from time to time. She couldn't help the pull she was feeling when she heard them singing outside the cabin at night. Clover wondered whether they were targeting her for some reason.

Willow had said that they would sometimes target specific people, so they would join them as fae. She didn't know what exactly the reasons for that were, just that the fae had to pay a tithe to hell every seven years and that would mean that they needed more people that were part of them. Willow told her a whole lot of things about souls and how they worked and how the fae were different from humans, but it was too much for Clover to take in and keep in mind. The fae seemed complicated.

After about a week of preparations, they were ready to set out into the forest. Pooka had been staying around the house lately and when they left, Willow had told her to make sure the cabin would be okay while they were gone. Clover wasn't sure if the cat understood any of what they said to each other and to her, but according to Willow it was possible. Anything was possible, according to her.

They had started walking in silence for a little while before Clover couldn't take it anymore and started asking Willow the questions that had been on her mind for a long time and that she had been too afraid to ask. It seemed like this two-day walk was a good opportunity for them to bond or something like that. Not that Willow seemed very keen on bonding with Clover, but not knowing things about Willow made her nervous and it made living in her cabin feel incredibly awkward. Clover needed answers.