Eraemis watched as the strangers he had just met walked away from him. Leaving him in the forest with another stranger.

The stranger was dressed in royal looking robes which were as green as the leaves on the trees surrounding him. His beard was rich and brown. His beard was the same color as his beard and went as low as the bottom of his ears. He wore a band around his forehead that squeezed his hair against it.

The stranger had a soft looking face with no wrinkles or elderly marks, despite his deep sounding voice.

Eraemis and the stranger walked side-by-side for a short while until they reached a tall tree. The stranger stood next to it doing seemingly nothing until a rod appeared in his hand out of nowhere.

The rod was as green as his robes and at the top were three spikes protruding out from the top. In the imbedded circle which lay in the center of the three spikes was an orb with a green glow and dense smoke inside.

The stranger started to use it to walk and Eraemis noticed that he walked faster than before. By the time they had made progress in their walk, they stopped. The stranger had not talked to Eraemis on the entire trip and Eraemis was too busy looking around him.

This forest is amazing! He thought to himself.

“Do you know where we are going?” Eraemis finally asked. The stranger looked at him as though he just noticed he was there.

“We are heading into the forest, deeper in. Almost to the edge of Archanon itself,” he replied in his deep voice.

“Archanon? Is that the name of the forest?” Eraemis asked.

“No,” he said. “It is the name of the land in which everything around you and I live,”

“Then what is the name of the forest?” Eraemis asked.

“Quilen,”

“The Forest of Quilen?”

“The Great Forest,” he said, sounding slightly annoyed.

“And this place is going to help me remember?”

“No. That is my responsibility,”

“Why?”

“My friend entrusted the task into my hands. I accepted,”

“Why?”

“As King of Quilen it is my responsibility to handle responsibilities that are asked for me to handle,” he explained. Before Eraemis was able to ask anything else, he put his hand to signal Eraemis to be quiet.

Then, all of a sudden he stopped abruptly. They were at a tree. The tree was shot into the sky almost as high as the mountains. The King of Quilen knocked his staff on the body of the tree.

The ground around them began to shake. Eraemis held onto a nearby smaller tree for support. The shaking continued and Eraemis saw that the tree he knocked his staff against was starting to move as well. The body specifically. A gaping oval started to form a few inches from the bottom of it. The oval grew larger and larger, and then wider and wider until a large oval shaped doorway was in its place.

The King of Quilen signaled for Eraemis to follow him and he passed into the dark and mysterious oval in the largest tree in The Great Forest. Eraemis hesitated to follow. He was torn between staying safe or going where he did not know. But then, a scream filled the silence of the forest and it sent him running into the tree.