But I cast these thoughts out of my mind as I approached the woods. The forest felt somewhat hollower than normal. Ivy must have used a lot of energy not that long ago. I would need to caution her about that when I met her. It was not good to use too much of the free energy. I spread out my powers to contact Ivy. Up to this point, I had not been broadcasting myself as I walked, just in case the issue at my woods was unrelated to Maximus. I was fairly certain Maximus was at the root of whatever caused Rine to send that signal to me. But if he was hiding somewhere along my path, I did not want to make him run away again if he felt me as I marched. If I lost his trail, I might never find Faun.

Surprisingly, as I stretched out my feelings I did not sense Ivy's presence, but I could immediately tell that something was wrong. I could feel the blight infecting these woods. His blight. It was no longer a time to be cautious. I spread out my powers over all of her woods and the surrounding gra.s.slands. Anyone that could sense spirits would be able to find me, but there was also no way for them to hide from my searching unless they were at least as strong as Faun.

Maximus was not in the woods any more but Ivy was also missing. Not far from my location was a spot completely distorted by magic. It was not just Maximus's. I could tell Ivy had used most of her magic in that spot. This would explain where all of her energy went.

I quickly headed over to see the wreckage of a great battle. Vines were twisting everywhere, and were continuing to grow at an abnormal rate due to the energy that Ivy had pushed into them. I would congratulate her for being able to control that much power in any other circ.u.mstances, but I was furious at her! Why did she ignore me and try to confront him?! I shouted inside my head. She was not ready to face him.

The hideous death Maximus brought had spread all over the battlefield. It was especially strong at a large mound of rotting vines. I was just about to give into despair at Ivy being caught by Maximus, but before I crumbled I sensed a magical trail left by Ivy as she ran away from the battle. She had used the plants as a springboard to increase her speed. But there was also a trail of death following after.

I could tell that Maximus had not been far behind Ivy. Dead vines and brambles were strewn over the path.The further I followed, the more I could tell that Ivy did not have the advantage of speed. Her efforts to block the trail showed her becoming more desperate. Poison oak and raspberry vines full of thorns were increasingly blocking the path.

This continued all the way through her woods until just before the western edge. There were obvious signs of a physical confrontation, judging by the broken branches and disturbed soil. Splotches of black sludge were scattered around the devastated underbrush. This muck was different from anything I had seen yet. It did not cause death like the blight Maximus caused. But the energy in all the plants it touched was frozen in place. I didn't dare touch this filth for fear of what it would do to me.

While being careful of my step, I looked around and found myself very near the edge of the wood. The carnage of the landscape was severe. A large branch that was recently cast off from a tree showed signs of human blood. Ivy's power was present in where it broke. It was clear that she caused it to fall. There was also a dense smear on the ground nearby, which I found was sap full of Ivy's power. The only thing that I could think of was that this was her blood. I started to s.h.i.+ver. This fight was bad enough to even make a dryad bleed.

I could feel both their trails leaving the woods heading west. But I was not able to sense Ivy or Maximus's path after leaving the woods. Ivy I could understand saving her energy, but why did Maximus hide his trail?

I wish I had Leafia and Istan with me to help me track them. But I would have taken several more days to reach here if I waited on them. I briefly thought about waiting for them. But I never told them to follow me back to the woods. Who knows if they would come this way and how many days it would take them. They might stop for a rest for all I know.

The only choice that seemed to make sense for me was to continue traveling to my woods. It would take me almost two days to get there still. Since I got a message from my woods, I have to think, and hope, that Ivy made it there. The timing would not make sense for anything else. The question now was whether Maximus made it there as well. With a determined step I headed off through the gra.s.slands making my way back to the road we took previously. It was not the most direct path but it would save me lost energy in trying to cross the rivers or having to go around fences. I needed to commit all the energy I could to getting to my forest as fast as my feet would carry me. And I had learned the hard way how territorial bulls can be. Outrunning them was not an option for me. I was not good at the sprint.

The past two days on the road as a naked green woman, I got many extra looks when I came across pa.s.sing travelers. I had done what I could as I traveled to encourage my hair to turn green. It was not that I had absolutely no control over my hair, but compared to my skin I might as well have no control. I could encourage it to speed up the rate of change or slow it down a little but no matter what I did if I stayed in one spot for more than a few hours my hair would match its surroundings. If I was not paying enough attention, I would end up with my hair color changing to blue spruce in the middle of town. I still can't believe I did that. I was really out of it. But by carefully playing with this trait while I walked, I was able to get my hair to be a shade that most people would call green. It may not make much of a difference but the green hair made me feel better about walking naked along the road. Though actually, I was walking just beside the road to stay in better contact with the gra.s.ses and fields around me.

One thing that I found very interesting is that most of the people in Yana that saw me walking down the road naked did their best to stay away from me. Several of the men did eye me but I would expect nothing less. Very few had tried to approach me. Of those, a few people approached me wanting to help, and in one case to help himself. Him I left tied up on the side of the road.

Here in the Fraklin Duckdome, I think it was called, people were much more inquisitive. Several offered me a cloak or a ride in the right direction. While I would really enjoy taking a break from walking for a little while by riding one of the carriages I pa.s.sed, I always politely declined. I was not willing to slow down and no one would be able to keep my pace for long. It did not feel worth my time if the rest was only going to be half an hour.

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I slowed down just enough to be polite each time I was asked if I needed help. I wanted to just ignore the requests, but this trip out of my pond had taught me that people thought I was some sort of vengeful spirit. Just thinking back at how Emily cowered in fear still makes me sad. I was still working on convincing people that I was a nice spirit. But as my hair turned green, all of these encounters were lessened. It helped that as I was journeying by myself, I was able to steer clear of the towns and settlements along the road. Luckily there were very few on my path.

As I journeyed between Ivy's woods and mine, I spent much of my time searching for any signs of Ivy or Maximus. This meant that I was no longer hiding myself, but I decided now that I knew Maximus had been here so recently, sneaking around would do me no good. I needed to find Ivy and make sure she was safe. If Maximus sensed me, he would have to give up on Ivy if he wanted to get away from me. However, I did keep my presence reined in to a point that I could accurately perceive while I walked.

This in no way meant that I was giving up on Faun. It was just that keeping Ivy safe was now much more urgent. I would not gamble with both Ivy and Faun's lives.

I had found no sign of any magic struggle, or any unusual magic at all on my walk. The were a few splotches of spirit I felt drifting in the distance. I felt that they might turn into something like fairies in the not too distant future. I wanted to stop and learn more, but it was not urgent. Ivy's safety was most important right now.

The first night on the trip from Ivy's woods to mine pa.s.sed with still nothing to note. I would get to my woods a few hours after dark the following night if I did not misjudge the distance. I had very little experience traveling by horse, so I wondered whether I gauged the return trip accurately. I would be able to find out a little after noon tomorrow. By that point I would be able to sense my woods (if I was right).

A little after sunrise I saw a group of men and horses off in the distance. As I watched them, I could tell they were finis.h.i.+ng breaking up camp. It looked like all I could do was brace myself for some awkwardness since it seemed that they would be ready to go about the time that I got there. My only hope was that they were going the opposite direction as me.