Dan tossed and turned in his bed as another vivid dream started to take hold.

He was standing in the middle of a narrow cavern tunnel. Firelight from a torch above his head, illuminated the natural hall, showing the many cracks in the stone as well as the emergence of an unusual visitor.

The unknown person had a dark cloak draped over a contorted body. One shoulder was raised much higher than the other and a stone hand reached out toward him. “My Lord, I see that you have made yourself comfortable.”

Dan noticed the voice. It was from the hooded man in his previous vision.

“You see I am only going to give you this offer one more time … Would you be the key toward a better future?”

Dan could feel himself fidget in his bed, but a restricting pain tugged on his wrists. There were two metal restraints, one for each hand, chained to a metal plate imbedded into the stone wall about a foot over his head. He struggled against the restraints and then saw the unknown figure slowly approach him.

“You know its futile to struggle against the inevitable. You should have been taught that from at least one of your advisors. An old friend of mine in your cohort.”

Dan could feel the shackled man pause to think for a moment. The resistance on the chains weakened as the man compiled a list of his advisors in his mind. “Who?” Dan recognized it at the voice of the king.

The hood of the cloak shifted over to reveal an unsettling grin. A crimson shimmer came from there would be two eyes. The hooded figure’s voice was muffled and the torch in his hand weakened. Dan noticed that the hooded man seemed far shorter than he did in his previous dream and lacked the large thick arms and shoulders. “Well if you aren’t going to cooperate, I’m going to find a way for you to fulfill your role. If history has taught us one thing, the end justifies the means.”

Darkness consumed the cavern as a manly scream echoed then all Dan saw was an unsettling black.

Dan sat up in his bed, breathing deeply as if he just surfaced from a long swim. He stared out at the end of his bed as he tried to process his dream. The oxygen returning to his brain. What the hell? … That must be real. He turned over in his bed so his legs were hanging off the edge. He looked out the window the thrumming sound of the wheel returned as he saw it slowly rotating on its axis. It was soothing and helped him relax for a moment until his curiosity took hold of him. Who the heck is that king and the hooded guy? Is it the warlock? What is he trying to show me? The questions didn’t seem to end. He stood up and paced by his bed. No answers seemed to come to mind. His heat skipped a beat when his legs froze in a statuesque pose.

A knock came to the door. “Dan?”

It took Dan a moment to relax his body when he heard Vander’s soft voice on the other side. “Yes.”

“I didn’t mean to wake you. I just wanted you to know that breakfast was ready.”

Dan took a few deep breaths. “Be right out.”

The sweet smell of bacon and fresh greens filled the hallway as Dan walked toward the front of the cottage. Vander was busily sliding an Amphian version of an omelet onto a plate and placing a few slices of bacon. He smiled as he handed the plate over to Dan and reached out his hand over to the chair he was sitting in the previous night. “Here sit over in my chair.”

Dan sat down with his plate in his lap. The aroma was intoxicating and combated the musty musk of the blue couch. The smells disturbed Dan’s snout enough that he looked up from his plate toward the couch. Mark was right where he left him. He was breathing heavily and covered in a light blanket, probably added by Vander last night. Dan then consumed his meal. It had been a long few days and their food supplies were less than adequate for their journey. Dan knew they should have packed a few more things, but the burning letters on the parchment and the exploding phone were enough to force them out of the house without adding a few more snacks. The morning was quiet and calm. The sun filled the curtained windows with a warm yellow light.

On the other side of the living room, Vander was busily finishing up his omelet and turned off the heat to the stovetop. He had a smile on his face as he sat on a chair opposite of Dan and placed his food on the long, narrow coffee table. His voice was low and soft. “I don’t want to wake your friend just yet, but he is doing better. His breathing is stronger and all the rashes have disappeared.”

Dan nodded and sighed. He was so hungry he couldn’t steal a moment to think about a life without Mark, but as he stared at his friend peacefully resting on the couch, he fought the urge to cry. He knew Mark was his friend, but he knew at that moment just how much he meant to him. He smiled at Mark and ate a few more morsels that had escaped his earlier eating attempts and then placed the plate on the coffee table that reached all the way to him. He then said something out of the corner of his mouth that was hard for Vander to hear.

“Excuse me?” Vander asked.

“Thank you,” Dan said. It took a lot of energy to muster the words, but he said them. He was used to having people thanking him that he didn’t know how to say thank you himself. It was awkward enough to have Vander smile and relax in his chair.

“You are very welcome, Dan. Don’t worry. Your friend will make it out alright. I’m always willing to give a helping hand to those that need it.”

Dan nodded and stared out a window to his left. The shade of the high trees that surrounded the house filled the front yard and garden in a cool darkness. It was nice to see it from inside a home, safe from the many dangers outside, but something nagged at him. The dream. The quest to find his parents. The things that needed to be resolved soon. Something came to the front of his mind that he almost forgot about. He stood up and ran back to his bedroom.
“Everything okay?” Vander asked, finishing up a piece of his omelet.

Dan nodded. “Yeah, I just wanted to check on something in my bag.”

He reached his bedroom door, twisted the cat knob, and then walked inside. The room was still dark, lacking the eastern sun light. He found his bag on the floor by the foot of his bed. He knelt down, opened the bag, and pulled out an old piece of parchment. He recognized it as the letter from the warlock and unrolled it. His full stomach twisted and turned at what he saw. Next to the phrase, “Sun sets for the seventh time” there were two slash marks burned into the parchment. It’s keeping track of the days and we’re almost halfway to the deadline! Crap! He rolled up the parchment and put it back into his bag, but he froze. He thought about the mysteries of the parchment and its cryptic lines that he couldn’t resolve on his own especially without Mark.

He returned to the living room, holding onto the parchment in his hand. He paused in the entryway and could see Vander’s bald head poking out from the top of his chair. What if it burns like before? He stood there frozen for a moment deep in thought over the repercussions of what was probably going to happen. The letter could ignite and get rid of all the clues to his parents or nothing happens because as far as he knew Mr. Vander wasn’t the cops. Dan weighted the options in his mind for only a second and made a decision.

“Mr. Vander, Mark and I are out here because of this letter.” Dan plopped the rolled up parchment in Vander’s lap and waited anxiously from behind the chair.

Vander casually grabbed the parchment and unrolled it. After reading a few lines with no fire or explosions, he rolled it back up and left it on his lap then stared out ahead. Dan assumed he was deep in thought about the wording used in the letter. “It is very well written, but is lacking a flow between the words. I’ve always made sure to tell my students during their poetry unit that –.”
“But what does it mean? The note … what does it say? … Where are our parents?” Dan’s outburst seemed to awkwardly end Vander’s train of thought.

The old teacher reeled in his face extending his nostrils to an unusually large size. He was flustered from Dan’s interruption, but carefully recovered. “Let’s break it down then.”

Dan was relieved to see that the letters didn’t burn. Maybe it was only triggered if the cops tried to read it. He anxiously looked over Vander’s shoulders as he tried to decipher the first line.

I come with glad tidings from the land within the wood,

Vander cleared his throat. “Well this seems to be a nice intro, but what glad tidings are there to be had?”

To relay news about the location of your brood,

“Okay so the good news is he knows where your parents are … Brood is another word for family,” relayed Vander in a teacher like tone.

Dan nodded sarcastically and rolled his eyes from behind Vander’s head.

That lie under stone and earth from forty years past,

“Hmm, the Clash War … that was forty years ago.” He looked up to think. “Stone and earth. Stone and earth … stone and earth … Mountains? Hills?”

“Any one of those around here?”

Vander nodded. “Flarestone Mountain and Greed’s Hill.”

“Greed’s Hill?”

Vander raised his brow and nodded. “Yeah, I know an aptly named land feature. It was the site of a major battle of the Clash War.”

“So that’s a possible spot where my parents are?”

Vander rose from his seat, holding the parchment in his right hand, then paced around the living room. “It was one of the largest battles in the Clash War. Out near the eastern front. I remember hearing the shells land all the way over here.”

Dan walked over from behind the chair so that now he was facing Vander face to face. “What else does it say?”

Where the deep, breath of Fierston ended the war at last,

“Fierston is an ancient god … what is it doing on here? Unless it was referring to something. Breath of Fierston … fire!” Vander froze in his place. His eyes wide in terror. His feet unable to move.

“Mr. Vander?” Dan took a step forward to make sure he was alright. “Hello?”

Vander shook from his petrified state and faced Dan, but his gaze was no longer of care and kindness, but of an overwhelming fear. “The Great Fire of Flarestone. That’s what ended the war.”

“So, my parents are hidden under the place where there was a great fire that ended the Clash War?”

Vander shook his head. “Or it can be anywhere in the forest that was hit by the fire. Which is everywhere!”

“Where is it?”

Vander was too shaken to say anymore, but his body language told Dan that this fire did more than just destroy a forest. It killed thousands of lives within minutes. Suffocating them in ash and smoke while burning the rest. At least that’s what Dan remembered from his history classes. He always tended to remember anything that involved violence or mutilation. It was far more interesting than how to plant herbs or which noblewoman married which nobleman.

“How about the rest?”

Vander calmed down and continued onto the next line.

A challenge is offered that is incredibly arduous,

“Arduous means difficult or hard, if you didn’t know.”

Dan sarcastically nodded once more.

To find your family within a cavern, caliginous,

“Cavern interesting …. Family in a cavern.”

Dan got excited at the confidence in Vander’s voice. “What do you think it means?”

“Well Flarestone Mountain has caverns deep within it, but …”

“But what?”

“They aren’t easy to navigate.” He didn’t seem to want to spend anymore time thinking about it.

No one else should know of your journey,

The line Dan feared the most.

“Hmmm … well that’s not true anymore.” Vander turned his head to face Dan. “Now isn’t it?”

Dan shook his head. “Nope.”

“Hmm … “ Vander entered another fix of thought. “that is interesting.”

“What?”

“It’s just … no one else ‘should’ know. It’s an opinion not a statement.”

“So it’s not something that has to be followed?”

Vander shook his head. “ ‘Should’ implies a personal opinion while if he used ‘can’ it would be an option for you to choose. Therefore this warlock may have had a few certain individuals in mind when he wrote that statement … or I could be overanalyzing it.”

Dan was awfully quiet as he pondered Vander’s analysis. Holy Kolsnout, that can be it! The warlock wrote “no one else”, but really meant cops. Finally, some positive news. We figured it out. Take that, Warlock!

Vander moved on to the next line.

Or your elders lives will end with no mercy,

“Now that is pretty threatening,” Vander pondered. “It seems as if this warlock is creating an ultimatum.” He looked over at Dan who held a confused look. “It means he’s created demands and consequences if they aren’t met.” He continued in his teacher voice. “But why take your parents just to have you run into the forest?”

“I know, that part didn’t make sense to us.”

“Unless he needed you boys to walk into the forest. He needed you to be in a specific place … Here … maybe he needed you here.”

An eerie presence filled the cottage as a warm breeze rolled into the living room. Dan looked over to the front of the cottage and noticed that the windows were all opened halfway with billowing curtains obstructing his view of the outside.

Vander stood up from his chair. “That’s odd. I could have sworn I didn’t open those this morning.”

Dan stepped toward the front of the house and paused near the wide front door. At first it was faraway like the rumblings of a distant storm, but it didn’t pass by from above. Outside the windows, it repeated with a chaotic assembly of fluttering sounds. “Get down!” Dan ran over to Vander, tackled him over his chair, knocking it backwards until it hit the floor.

Crash! The front windows broke open with the destructive driving force of a hundred razor sharp beaks. The room was filled with clusters of feathers in all matter of shapes and colors. Dan protected Vander as a few sharp talons and beaks snapped toward their heads.

Amongst the swarm of feathers came a collective voice that resonated with an eerie chorus. “You told someone of your journey. Although you were told specifically not to. You will suffer the loss of one day on your journey. If you fail one more time, the parent of my choosing will serve as payment for your mistake.”

“Shut up!” Dan shouted toward the swarm of what he knew to be bladecrows, flying around him.

Vander was making terrified yelps and hunched over, tugging on Dan’s shirt to join him.

“One more mistake and a parent dies.”
The swarm moved and shifted in size like a piece of dough and exited out of the front windows.

“We will be watching.” Within seconds the front of the cottage was empty except for the three Amphians in the living room.

Dan stood up. The anger and frustration building within him. More threats and obstacles were thrown his way and he just didn’t know what to do. He let out an outburst of rage and kicked a small table under a windowsill. It rattled with his movements as his ankle throbbed in pain where it struck the hardwood. “More stupid crap thrown our way. I can’t even find our parents and now this?” He sniffled a bit from his snout and wiped his eyes with a clean section of his sleeve. “We need to understand the rest of the letter.” He stomped over to the capsized chair and searched the floor beneath it.

Vander stood up, his breathing very deep and constrained. “Oh my lord, oh my lord.” He paced like a mad man back and forth, reciting “oh my lord” about ten more times. He paused when he spotted the couch and walked over to check on Mark. He sighed with relief, relaxing his face and voice to its old, normal self. “Your friend is fine.” He scrutinized a few feathers that rested on Mark’s chest, a few leftovers from the warlock’s messengers. “These aren’t from any normal bird.”

“No, there from bladecrows,” Dan said after lifting the chair back to its original state and continued to check the floor.

“Bladecrows? … those animals are well extinct.”

“Well … that’s what we thought too.” Dan grunted with no sign of the letter. “Where the hell is it?”

“What could bring something back such as bladecrows? … there must be some form of powerful magic at work here.”

Dan lowered his head until it rested on the dusty wooden floor. He squinted his eyes as he focused his sights underneath the couch. He twitched with excitement when he saw the parchment and reached out for it. “I found it!”

Vander shook from his train of thought. “Oh good. Let’s read the rest, shall we?” Dan handed him the parchment and he continued from where he left off.

For these dark trees are terribly cursed,

“Well I guess that needs no explanation,” Vander’s body trembled when he read the words.

And have no clemency for those who are not well-versed,

“Hmm … so this can mean a few things.” He read on and then returned to the line in the poem. “One, it could mean being well versed in magic or Two, it could mean that you have to be well versed in survival.”
“Probably both,” Dan huffed.

“Hmm … if it is both then I fear the worst. No one has used magic in decades ever since the Clash War.”

“Were you alive during the Clash War?”

Vander nodded and stretched out his hand to a photo by the windowsill. “I was around your age when the war started and almost sixteen when it ended. I’m sorry but I know what it is like to lose a parent. My father was lost to the war.”

Dan stepped toward the photo and saw a happy family. A smiling, proud father with his arm around his son and his other arm around a woman toad in a spring dress, Dan assumed to be Vander’s mother. Vander looked like he was ten in the photo. “What happened to your mother?”

Vander was quiet for a moment. “It was childbirth. She died trying to give birth to my baby brother.”

“And where is he?”

“He didn’t make it either.” Vander murmured as he fidgeted with the parchment. He held it up to read the next line.

You only have when the sun sets for the sixth time,

“Hang on, sixth? … When we got it, it said seventh.”

Vander shook his head and held up the parchment for Dan to see clearly.

With three marks burned next to it was the phrase with the single word replaced. What the hell? … Now we’re already halfway to our deadline and haven’t searched any sites for them.

“Changing words around isn’t difficult magic, but doing it from far away can be difficult.”

“So you think the warlock is close by?”

Vander shrugged his shoulders. “He would have to be within a few hundred yards if I remember it correctly, but it’s been so long since I have heard anything regarding magic. I would have to get into my father’s old study to get more information on it.” He then looked at the rest of the poem.

Or no longer your parents you’ll find.

“Hmm … this may not necessarily mean death.”

Dan walked back over with the slightly good news. He won’t kill them?

“It could mean that the warlock wants to put them somewhere else for eternity like hide them or there have been rumors of some of the Elders developing alternate worlds that coexist alongside our own,” he shook his head and scoffed at his own words, “but it can’t be that.”

Dan started to get lost within Vander’s descriptions of old magic. Hiding places? Alternate Worlds? Where the hell have I been?

Vander read the last two bits and was really intrigued.

“May you succeed or fail with the rest?” he questioned himself. “So there were others?”

Dan was angry that he had overlooked this. “Others?!”

Vander nodded. “There could have been more families that had their parents taken.”

“But how wouldn’t it be on the news.”

Vander pondered it for a moment and then continued, “It could be because of the land in which they disappeared. This territory is to be controlled by neither the Amphian aristocrats or the Mammalian king. It’s supposed to be lawless. That’s what frightens other countries from sending police or even the military into here. Except for my house there are no other independent areas in the entire forest.”

“So the rest of the forest is just wild woods?”
Vander began to pace in the excitement of analyzing the final piece of the letter. “The Warlock wants something from these families, but doesn’t want a lot of attention. He wants to do it in secret, hence sending you boys out into the forest alone. There is no press, no police, no laws. The perfect spot to commit a crime.”

“But what crime? What does he want with me and my parents?”

Vander shook his head and let loose a defeated sigh. “I’m sorry, Dan. I don’t know, but I could tell you that this warlock must love history.”

Dan raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because of the name he gives himself. Warlock of the Forest. That’s an ancient title that the Elders gave each other when they used to control over regions. There was also a Warlock of the Coast, Warlock of the Sea, Warlock of the Mountains, Warlock of the Lakes and Rivers, and a bunch of others, but they died off about a thousand years ago.”

“Could he be related to one of the Warlocks of the Forest?”

Vander nodded. “It’s possible. I have a few history books in my study. Maybe one can help.” He noticed Dan looking over at Mark with concern. “I’ll let you stay here and look over your friend. I’ll grab the books and we can read together, how’s that?”

Dan looked back at the front door and then at Vander. “Sounds good. I also want to check one of those battle sites today. We have no time to waste.”

The old teacher smiled. “I bet you were the captain of the Rockliffe Middle swimming team, weren’t you?”

Dan smirked. Yep. “Won two championships.”

“Well I will leave you to it to plan our journey, Captain, but I may need a few things before we go. Also, we need to think of how we will protect Mark while we are gone. We can’t take him with us.”

“What would be the safest place to leave him?”

Vander looked up, visualizing the layout of his cottage. He easily kept in mind which walls were reinforced and which areas weren’t exposed by any windows. He eyed the broken glass on the floor, knowing far too well that he was going to need to clean that at some point, but as well as a fearful reminder of what is out there awaiting them. “The basement. We can leave him in the basement.”
He disappeared into the hall and returned a moment later with a few books under his arm and a knapsack strapped over his shoulder.

Dan returned to his bedroom and grabbed his sack, packed it with the necessities, then dropped it off in the living room.
Vander was waiting for him by the couch and they each grabbed an end of Mark. Vander held Mark by the shoulders and walked backward into the hall. They reached the end and then angled to the right to fit Mark into an open doorway that led to a lit wooden staircase. Dan lowered his arms to keep Mark at a level angle as they descended the stairs.

Once they reached the bottom, Dan took a quick look at his surroundings. The foundation was made with large rectangular stones. Wooden walls divided up the otherwise large space into a few small rooms. Vander led them into one of the rooms, which was mostly unfinished. There was another couch. This one was far older and dustier, but it looked like Vander put a clean blanket on top. Dan plopped Mark’s feet on one end.

“There we go,” Vander breathed as he relaxed Mark’s head on a pillow. “Safe and sound.”

Dan was happy to know Mark was safe. He scanned the walls and stone and felt comfortable leaving his friend. It was far cooler in the basement which was nice considering the hot, humid temperatures outdoors. “What happens if he wakes up and we aren’t here?”

Vander smirked. “Well let’s just hope he doesn’t ruin the furniture.”

Dan laughed. He hadn’t felt the relieving power of a laugh since that morning on the jetty. It almost felt foreign as the muscles in his face stretched to a grin.

“Come on. I’ll need your help, Mr. Captain.” Vander left the room at a brisk pace.

Dan stayed for a little longer. He just needed to make sure that his friend was truly safe.

Mark continued to breathe deeply in a peaceful slumber. Unaware of the fact that Dan was about to abandon him.
Dan thought for a moment about all those days he spent on the jetty at Edora Pond, the adventures in Rockliffe Marsh and how through it all, Mark was there. Mark was a constant in his life and in a way, it felt odd to Dan to do anything without him. Although Dan had many other friends in middle school, he really didn’t connect with them as much as he did with Mark and right at that moment, he realized this was the first time he was going somewhere new without him. He knew Vander would be there, but he’s mostly a stranger. A nice stranger, but not someone he has known and trusted for years. A part of him told him to stay with Mark and make sure he woke up to a familiar face, but he knew the mission was direr. I’m sorry, Mark. We’ll be back quick. I promise. He retreated to the hall, closed the door, and ran upstairs. Don’t wake up before I get back. When he reached the kitchen, Vander was sweeping some of the broken glass into a dustpan.

“Just a little last-minute cleaning,” Vander chuckled. “Not like I did much of it in the first place.” He pointed over to the kitchen counter. Sitting on the white stone surface was a pile of bagged sandwiches, fruits and vegetables. “Help yourself to a few things. We’ll need to make sure to stay well fed.”
Dan filled up his pack with a few treats and then took out the bottle he got from Mark earlier, opened it, and placed it under the faucet.
“Stop,” Vander cried. “Don’t use the water there. I have some in my bag … It’s just a little minerally.”

Dan knew that “minerally” was a fancy way of saying that dirt is in the water. He had the same issue at the Siltmoor, which took over a week for the staff to fix. The dank body odor smell from a week of not showering stung his nostrils. “Okay, I understand.”

Vander filled up the dustpan with broken glass fragments and dumped them into a wooden waste bin. “We’ll need the map before we go anywhere.”

Dan huffed as their departure time seemed to be delayed further and further. “Ok, I’ll be outside.” The warmth of the sun helped alleviate some of his frustration. This is going to be a long trip if he keeps this up. We should be able to get there and back in a few hours. He waited for an excruciating five minutes and then Vander joined him outside. He had a red sack with a rope strap and filled to the brim, with what Dan could assume were bags of food.

“Well everything is locked up. Mark should be safe.” He pointed to his left. “Let’s head to the old Glares Falls. It’s the closest battleground here. I know there is a statue of a fire god out there.”

“So you’re not sure if it’s the Fierston guy?”

Vander shook his head. “I haven’t been out there in a while.”

“So where is it?”

Vander held the map out in his hand. “It’s to the east. Probably about a few miles or so.”

Dan reached into his bag and pulled out his father’s compass. It snapped open with a rusted crack, the magnetic needle spinning around until the pointed end stopped at a large “S”.

“That’s a nice compass,” Vander awed. “Customized as well.”

Dan nodded. “It’s my dad’s.”

Vander was uncomfortably quiet, possibly not knowing what to say in the situation or maybe his mind was preoccupied with other things. “Well, we shouldn’t dilly dally.” He turned around to the left. “If I am correct this direction is east.”

Dan matched Vander’s position and consulted the compass. The arrow pointed to a large “E”. “Yep, that’s east.”

“Well like you said, Captain. We need to check this site out before it gets dark.” Vander took the lead and entered the forest.

Dan looked back at the cottage and then returned his sights on Vander. I’ll be back, Mark. Let’s just hope our parents are at this place.

Next Chapter: 10 - The Dim Swindler