The Downhill Fey Forest Ch. 02

But before he left, he had to ask Sleepy a few things; she did live here, after all, and might know something helpful.

"By the way, how does travel work here? Those fairies told me something about random movement and downhill travel, but it was vague."

"Oh, yeah. It's downhill every direction here, that's just how the place works. Apart from that, travel here is normal if you have somewhere specific in mind and know how to get there, but if you walk around with intent to leave the forest, you get whisked somewhere random the next time you go downhill. If you want to leave, you need to get a magic pendant from Queen Titania. She's the fairy queen and keeps the place running. Nice lady, from what I've seen. I hear she just gives the things out for free."

"And where do I find her?" he asked.

"In her palace North of here. Just go through the flower fields, then the wooded canyons, then, i dunno, two more places or something, I don't go up there that often, and boom! You're at her palace. It's just a few days travel, I think, and there's nothing dangerous on the way except the fairies, and you already met them. They shouldn't be too much of a nuisance, since they've never killed anyone and you should eventually get to the palace."

A few days. There went his hope of getting the envelope to Elagwyn by nightfall. Although Alban wouldn't get the delivery on time, he at least knew how to escape now. But the failure still stung; there was no guarantee he would be paid now. "Thanks," he said. "That's all I needed."

"Happy to help. Goodbye," she said.

"Goodbye," Alban said. He waved to Sleepy, and she waved back. Then, he found his compass and started trekking North.

~~~~~ ~~~~~

The trees were sparse enough to let in a flood of bright sunlight, which lit up the colorful flowers all around him. Alban was right last night; it was beautiful in the day. Apart from a few beehives on trees, and some birds in the distance, he didn't see anything of note.

He missed Sleepy. Maybe it was the consensual sex, or the fact that she was the first friendly face he had met in this forest, or maybe it was just because Alban travelled a lot and didn't make many friends. He wished he could have stayed with Sleepy for just a bit longer, talking, maybe having breakfast together when she was ready to wake up for the rest of the day, him having rations, her having something else... Yeah, that would have been nice...

But, he had things to do and places to be, so he kept going North.

By ten, the trees started thickening again, and the flowers became more sparse. By eleven, there was a proper canopy above him again, with the familiar bluish trees and bluish grass taking the place of the rainbow of flowers from before.

There was another downhill forest slope ahead, but at the very top, Alban saw a crude wooden sign. The pink text on it read:

Fairy village ahead!

~~~~~ ~~~~~

Thank you for reading: part three will be out in a little while. Until then, there are other stories on my profile that may interest you. And don't forget to vote!