Page 82 of Whisper Woods

“There was a portal, near the cliffs to the east of the pack grounds. They moved it when they sent me back. Made it closer to here. But then they shut it. I tried to go back through but it was gone.”

“Portal?” Mauvy’s face scrunches and she rubs her chin, deep in thought. “It made you cross the Woods, right? One side to the other? What did it look like?”

“Yeah, took us clear across the Woods. Rafe said they used to be all over the place, but eventually they faded because of whatever. They looked like shimmery air. You wouldn’t see it if you weren’t really looking.”

Edith scoffs beside me. Maybe because those portals would make her jaunts through the Woods aloteasier. But everyone’s attention is on Mauvy.

“Maybe not all of them.” She mutters to herself, jumping off the stool abruptly, her hooves loud on the stone floors, her long skirt almost tangling her up as she runs to the door leading to the tavern.

She hauls it open with her surprising strength, yelling behind the bar. “Woodsy! Get your butt back here!”

There is an awkward moment where we all look at each other, waiting for the Black Stump’s bartender.

He looks at us, crowded around the table and my no doubt wrecked face and slumps, hanging his head dramatically between his shoulders.

“What now? Why is it always you lot? Can’t someone else go and save the world or whatever? I have a date.” He sounds so dejected, I immediately feel the shame of the pressure our recent adventures have had on him. Just like Dad and the guys at work. It’s been really unfair on all of them. Fuck.

“It doesn’t matter Woodsy, we’re not going—” I’m cut off by Mauvy who rounds the table to lay a hand on my arm, hip checking Seldon out the way as she does.

“Seff, dear, kindly shut up.” She pats my arm to show there are no hard feelings and turns back to Woodsy. “Remember when Dirk and Bright were in the other week and they said that one of their guys had disappeared and reappeared in the Woods?”

Dirk and Bright are two orc brothers, good guys but dumb as a box of crayons.

Woodsy nods slowly, his brow puckered. “Yeah, they were going on about how Bix said that he was on another side of the Woods. Saw a big hairy being and jumped through whatever it was and came back.”

Mauvy nods impatiently. “Yeah, what did they say it looked like?”

Woody exhales and shakes his head. “I dunno, it’s hard to make sense of them sometimes. They said the air was shiny, and it felt funny. That’s why Bix fell through. He touched it and it sucked him in.”

Mauvy looks at me, her eyebrows practically in her hairline. “That sound like your portal?”

Well, fuck me. “Yeah. Yeah, exactly like it. But they said they’re all gone.”

Edith’s bony hand claps me on my back as she lets out a wild cackle. “Ha! They haven’t stepped foot on our side in centuries. How would they know?” She claps her hands together excitedly, not always a great or safe thing when it comes to Edith. “Sounds like we’re having another adventure!”

“Gods’ tits. I’ll call Mira. She’s gonna be pissed.” Woodsy mutters. “But whatever. You guys have fun. Be safe and all that.” He smiles at us to show he’s not entirely pissed at us all.

“We’ll bring you back a tee shirt. How about that?” Theo teases.

“How about a raise and a bonus?” Woodsy throws over his shoulder, already on his way back to the bar.

“Done.” Roan, agrees readily. We hear Woodsy’s little crow as he disappears out of the kitchen. “Right, let’s go get Seff’s man back and find out what these Tathys beings are saying about Theo.”

I try to object, guilt eating at me even as my excitement grows.

I’m going to get back to Rafe. And we, all of us, can help him, help Tathys, with whatever fuckery is going on and maybe even save the Whisper Woods.

***

It’s not a direct route back to Rafe. It never fucking is. After quickly getting changed into the stash of clothes I keep in the staff's rooms, we get ourselves ready to make our way into the Woods to find Dirk and Bright’s orc troupe. It’s a bit of a journey, considering we’re not one-hundred percent certain where they are camping at the moment, but Mauvy was pretty confident of the directions she gave us.

Personally, I’m giving us a fifty-fifty chance of success.

But I’ll take it if it means there is a chance I can get back to Rafe.

“So, tell me about this Tathys place, what’s it like?” Edith walks next to me and Seldon, picking random bits off trees as we go. I wipe a bead of sweat from my temple. Summer may be over but the humidity is still sticking in the trees.

“It’s... big. The energy there? You know how you’re always bitching that faes are weaksauce and all that?” Edith hums in acknowledgement, a dreamy smile on her face when Tor, Theo, and Roan overhear what I’ve said and turn to glare over their shoulders. “I can see what you mean. It’s like… there was something different to the magic there. They were in perfect harmony with it.Everybeing does magic there, even like, shifters and stuff. I guess ‘cause they don’t havetechnology or whatever, they have to. It’s how everything works.”

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