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The silver trees to her left rustled and Alex tensed. But it wasn’t an arrow that came out of the forest, it was a young woman.

Or, really, she may not have been ‘young’, since she was clearly Meyarin, and age was irrelevant for their eternal race.

“I said, what foolish mortals dare trespass upon Raelia?”

The Meyarin was as entrancingly beautiful as any of her kind, with long golden hair, skin the colour of honey and eyesas green as emeralds Those eyes pierced Alex with a burning anger. But she was more concerned about the drawn arrow pointed straight at her heart.

“Uh…” Alex shifted nervously. “Just us. My friends and I. We, um, we come in peace?”

If Alex wasn’t so worried about not making any sudden moves, she would have slapped her forehead for such a ridiculous statement.

“You trespass upon sacred grounds,” the Meyarin said, her expression livid. “The penalty of which is death.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait just a second,” Jordan said, jumping to his feet, with Bear and D.C. following. “We didn’t come here deliberately. Or, well, nothere, here, at least. We’re looking for Meya. We just got dropped off at Raelia. So not our fault.”

“Yeah,” agreed Bear, indicating to Alex. “And we wouldn’t have known where we were if Alex hadn’t been here before.”

The Meyarin looked at each of them as they spoke, but her arrow remained fixed on Alex, and now her gaze returned to her as well. “What does your companion speak of?”

“We didn’t deliberately come here,” Alex repeated. “It wasn’t intentional—”

“No,” the Meyarin interrupted. “He said you’ve been here before?”

Alex frowned at Bear, wondering if he’d landed her in even more trouble. But since their being in Raelia was already punishable by death, it wasn’t as though she could be executed twice. “I was here about a month ago,” she admitted. “At night.”

“Impossible.” The Meyarin gave a firm shake of her head. “Before today, no mortal has ever set foot in Raelia. You must be mistaken.”

“Believe what you want, but I’m telling the truth.”

The Meyarin appeared torn by the honesty in Alex’s expression, and after a few tense moments, she hesitantlylowered her weapon. “Come with me,” she ordered. “We’ll see if you speak the truth.”

With those words, the Meyarin turned away and headed back into the forest. When Alex stepped over the mushrooms to follow her, nothing changed, and she realised she was actually in Raelia, as opposed to the last time when she’d been transported there from the middle of the Ezera Forest.

“Make haste, mortals,” the Meyarin ordered, “or I’ll be forced to motivate you.”

Alex shuddered at the Finn-inspired thought of the Meyarin running along behind them shooting her arrows. She exchanged anxious glances with her friends, and they all picked up their pace.

After a good ten minutes of silence, Alex couldn’t keep quiet any more. “Why are the trees silver?”

The Meyarin’s steps faltered, but then she continued striding forward without pausing to turn around.

Alex guessed being human meant she wasn’t worthy of an answer, so she was surprised when the Meyarin spoke.

“You’re in the Silverwood. That is their nature.”

“The Silverwood?” Jordan repeated. “That’s so cool! I thought it was only a myth.”

“Clearly, that’s not the case,” came the Meyarin’s dry reply. “But it’s unlikely you’ll ever leave this place to tell anyone otherwise.”

That managed to dampen Jordan’s excitement.

They continued walking in silence for another five minutes before the silver trees began to change colour. Slowly but surely the bark transformed into a radiant gold, and the leaves turned into a shade of dark honey.

“Are we in the ‘Goldenwood’ now?” Alex whispered to Jordan, thinking it a valid guess.

Forgetting how good Meyarin hearing was, she was reminded when their guide snorted in response. It was the firstnon-aggressive sign the Meyarin had exhibited and Alex hoped it was a positive noise, but she couldn’t be certain.

“Are all mortals as uninformed as you?” their escort asked.