Grayson headed South after he realized that pretty much every dangerous creature in the Northern forest would have been hunted down by the knights patrolling the area over the last couple of weeks. He focused his eyes on the Southern forests, wondering as he went if he would be able to find the clearing that he originally appeared in. Okay, yeah, he definitely could if he wanted to, but did he want to was the real question. He considered it as he reached the airspace over the forest and something felt... different.

  He and Mink had been flying for the past two and a half hours. Mink was doing fine, but as soon as they reached the forest, his wingbeats slowed and his speed increased. They weren't losing height, but instead seemed to be simply flying more easily. Grayson relaxed some of the control on his construct, changing it from being the iron barrier around his skin to something far more porous.

  Grayson didn't know the mana density in the village. The farm he'd spent most of the morning at had enough mana of various types that he'd been able to blast rats for an hour without having to worry at all about how much mana he was using. Up in the sky over the forest, it was like he had been dropped into the bottom of the sea as mana flooded into him. He slammed his construct closed less than a quarter of a second after releasing it, but even that was almost too much.

  With barely a moment to spare, he compressed all the mana he couldn't hold into his right hand and fired it as a beam directly into the sky. Despite being largely untyped mana, earth, air, and water mana all joined the beam, leading to effectively an enormous sand-blasting ray. It burst out and continued straight up for a second before being cut off. Grayson kicked his heels into Mink's flank, definitively not wanting to be in the area when what looked like half a ton of small rocks and globs of mud fell down. Thirty seconds later, it still hadn't.

  A few minutes later, Grayson got over his fear of getting slightly muddy and focused his attention back on the ground. They were far over the forest, much further than it seemed they should be based on how long they had been travelling. Grayson turned Mink back to the North and looked around for landmarks. He couldn't find any.

  Below Grayson was a clearing. Aside from that, all he could see in every direction was the forest. Looking around, he tried to urge Mink forwards, but no matter how fast they appeared to be travelling, they didn't seem to be moving at all. The wind whipped at Grayson's face and hair as he looked down at the small clearing that stayed perfectly stationary under them.

  "Ah fuck." Grayson muttered. He urged Mink downwards.

  Are you sure this is a good idea?

  Well, we can't go anywhere regardless. Any better ideas?

  We could pray for divine intervention.

  As much as that appeals, I can't help but feel that would be premature. Alright, do we remember the fae forest rules?

  Don't eat the food.

  Don't step off the path.

  Don't go to sleep.

  Don't give them your name.

  Where'd those come from?

  General rules regarding fae from media over the past 16,000 years.

  There's also "Don't invite them into your home" but we don't have a home.

  And we're unlikely to find one.

  We could make one, but I doubt it would help.

  Grayson sighed.

  Agreed. Alright, let's meet whatever felt like trapping us in a pocket dimension.

  They reached the clearing and Grayson dismounted Mink, improvising a nosebag at Queuecy's suggestion. With the pegasus' mouth safely covered and preventing it from eating anything, Grayson wandered into the clearing. It wasn't as big as the verdant meadow he'd first shown up in, only being a few dozen meters across, but it was still large enough to see from over one hundred meters up. Grayson was relatively careful as he explored the clearing, keeping Mink's reigns in one hand and leading him around.

  Nothing happened for a full minute before Grayson finally spoke.

  "I assume something brought me here for a reason?" He was slightly testy because if you're going to trap someone in an extradimensional space, you should at least have the good manners to introduce yourself. Nothing, however, introduced itself.

  "Look, I have a job to do, looking for anything that might run out of this forest and hurt people. If nothing's going to talk to me, I'd like to get back to it please." That worked.

  An ethereal voice came into being. Sounds that were already there turning into words like shapes in the mist turning into buildings or signs.

  "And how do you propose to do that, little human?" asked what Grayson presumed to be the living spirit of the forest.

  "Look, you're the one who brought me here. I'm just responding to the energy you're bringing. Not many people like being trapped in extradimensional spaces." Grayson was annoyed at this presumably incredibly powerful entity. It didn't occur to him to feel afraid. He did wonder about that, as whatever this was could turn the rustling of leaves and the wind through the trees into speech. But he had a metric fuck ton of magic here. Swings and roundabouts.

  "So I am the rude one here? Not the one who gave a very noticeable beacon?" The voice was not amused either.

  "Wait, what?" asked Grayson, completely nonplussed.

  "A great beam of mana infused with three elements into the sky? How could that be taken as anything but a signal?" Now the voice also sounded unsure of it's position. In Grayson's head, Queuecy reminded him of the giant beam he'd fired into the sky so he didn't explode.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Oh uh, shit. Look, I'm sorry about that. I just took in too much mana and didn't want to die so I purged it." Grayson said sheepishly.

  "Wait. What?" the ethereal voice asked, mirroring Grayson's own question from a moment before.

  "Yeah, I shot it up because any other direction could have damaged something. That was supposed to mitigate the damage..." Grayson trailed off. Hearing a forest laugh was unsettling in a way that Grayson had never considered possible. The leaves of the trees pulsed in rhythm like the exhales of a laughing man. It was unnatural, like every tree at once shook a single time, stopped, then shook again repeatedly. Grayson was very concerned.

  The laughing fit of the forest lasted far longer than Grayson expected. He was expecting something purely performative. Something that would be done to either unsettle (successfully) or ease (very unsuccessfully) his mind. Instead after a full minute, where it stopped for a few seconds, then restarted, which again repeated a few times, the voice finally returned.

  "Not only did you not mean to summon me, but you were actively trying not to harm the forest? I have been summoned that way for millennia, great heroes coming to challenge me, entering the forest, approaching a clearing and launching a beacon. Yet here comes you, launching one of the most powerful beacons I have ever seen and you tell me you did it purely by accident?" The forest - well Grayson still presumed it was the forest, for all he knew it could be a very powerful dragonfly - resumed laughing. Grayson scuffed his foot in embarrassment.

  "If you say it like that, it sounds dumb. I didn't even know there was a... whatever you are. What are you anyway? Sorry, now I'm being rude. My name's Grayson and this is Mink." Grayson decided that not pissing off something that apparently had historically defeated a number of heroes was the smart thing to do.

  The ethereal laughter grew slightly sinister. At the edge of the forest something started to change. Roots began to poke through the surface of the earth, twisting together in an all-too-cliché pattern.

  "It's good to meet you, Grayson, to speak to you in the flesh. After all, my family have shown so much interest in you, and I wished to see what all the fuss was about. And here you are, coming into my domain, challenging me, so how could I not be a good host and meet you face to face." The roots had grown more than ten meters tall, forming into the shape of a large beast with muscular arms similar to a gorilla, but far too many small legs. The arms were woven from dozens of roots, but each leg was a single root, their myriad tapping making the whole move with unnatural smoothness. Truly ironic for an avatar of the Goddess of Nature.

  "Bolan" whispered Grayson. The great beast dipped it's head.

  "With only a few significant clues. You aren't as stupid as your actions make you look." The voice was no longer coming from the forest. Instead it came from the beast, deep and otherworldly.

  "Umm, we don't need to fight do we?" Grayson ventured. He was hopeful, but not optimistic. You don't form an avatar made of roots to serve tea.

  "And after such an invigorating challenge? How could there be any other outcome?" The voice almost seemed excited, though Grayson wondered how much of that was his estimation of the body language of a nearly forty foot high root monster. He sighed.

  "Then how will we know when to begin?" Grayson asked, resigned to the combat.

  "Throw a leaf into the air. On it's landing, we will start."

  Grayson took a deep breath and drew his sword. He walked to the edge of the clearing, bringing Mink with him and tied the pegasus to a nearby tree. Gathering a leaf from the ground, he headed back into the clearing and stood before the avatar of Bolan. He threw the leaf into the air. As it was about to land, he asked a question.

  "So when I first arrived, why did you keep knocking my clothes on the floor?"

  It got him the initial opening he wanted. The leaf landed and he was already within the guard of the avatar before it moved. He burst fire mana down the length of his blade and out, extending it another meter. With that, he swung at the head of the root avatar. The strike was overcommitted, putting him off balance for extra power, but despite his gamble, it only cut a foot through the gargantuan beast's neck.

  It's reprisal was swift as one of it's arms swept in, looking like it was going to club him, but grasping roots extended from the arm to grip him like a hand. Grayson jumped, directing fire mana out his off hand to burn the grasping roots and absorb the impact of the blow with his legs. He kicked off the immense arm before more roots could grab his ankles, narrowly avoiding the other arm as he shot to the other end of the clearing. There, he began to plan.

  Water mana could make a water cutter with applied flow rates. Sprinkle some sand into that and you got a pretty devastating weapon that could gouge far deeper than water alone. A tunnel of wind mana to maintain the flow and pressure in a narrow beam would ensure that the attack would land. He'd done something similar before, but that was more just to purge excess mana. This time, he'd be directly blasting something. Well, not him.

  Queuecy took over the concentration for creating the cutting beam while Grayson focused on dodging the immense rock hurled at him by the avatar. The rock was just a prelude as it charged him, it's strange gliding movement making it seem much slower than it was. Grayson counter charged, sidestepping another hurled rock before parrying a punch from one of the root arms. As he did, a water cutter burst from his shoulder, scoring several centimeters deep into the arm in less than a second. Queuecy noted the damage and made modifications.

  Another punch sidestepped, another cut with the water cutter. Grayson's blade swept down on the area, cutting half way through the arm before he wrenched it clear. A new plan formed and instead of fire, he coated his blade in magic mana. He hardened the mana, then began to vibrate it at high speed. As he dodged the next swing by backstepping he followed up by stepping in, letting a water jet from his shoulder buy him the time he needed to jump further into the guard of the avatar. A dozen jets burst from over his body, all focused upwards on the neck of the avatar as Grayson crouched and leaped straight up, severing the head.

  The root avatar stopped. Then it's head regrew. Grayson readied himself to attack, but it didn't come for him again. Instead it stood and watched him curiously. Eventually it spoke.

  "What the fuck are you, Grayson of the Lost World?"