"How many more trees are there?" I asked, sipping a transparent liquid from a large animal skin.

"A lot," Adrian replied. "Pass the water."

We were walking through a thick forest again, the night conker roots trying frantically to trip us up as we walked. With Medusa and Scalia gone, it left the four of us: Adrian, Alistair, Leonard and me.

I reluctantly handed over the bag. Adrian hadn't even taken one sip before it came flying out of his mouth.

"What is in this flask?" he hissed, frantically wiping his tongue on his armour.

"V-vodka..." I murmured. Leo shot me a glare.

"WHAT? I was just denied entrance to a competition that meant the world to me, and you expect me not to drink?"

"YES!" Leonard and Adrian said in unison, with Alistair stealing the skin and taking a swig. I snatched it off him, and slipped it into my bum bag. It was midday, and we set out walking in the morning. Time-telling is not my strong point, but even I knew that it had been several hours since I did anything interesting.

"I'm bored..." I whined, throwing my head back. "Not even the spiders will attack us! No bandits, thieves, not even a caravan!"

Leo looked at me. "We're not invading their forest so the spiders won't hurt us, this is a clean, protected road so there are no bandits, and this certainly isn't a trade route."

I frowned, and started to sulk. Earlier I had tried to provoke some spiders, but the only problem is this is a night conker forest. One drop of sap gives you the energy to walk a day, and while that is great and all, where night conker grows, so does sleep-fern. If it touches your skin, it sucks your magic energy out and you'll be out for the count in seconds.

All of a sudden, a man so old he might as well have been a corpse came bursting out of the bush. Huge spiders shot after him, aiming for his legs, but he deflected them with a twisted old staff. His rusted armour was clearly no match for the monsters' fangs, chipping away with every hit. Despite the situation, he was too prideful to ask for help.

"Finally, some action," I murmured, sitting down and pulling out my animal skin pouch and taking a sip.

"I'll help you!" Adrian valiantly stated, summoning his Gungir to his side and leaped into battle.

A spider threw itself at the oldie's flank, but the Gungir speared its head before it could bite him, before striking them down, wave after wave. Almost like a swarm of bees, the spiders flew out of the woods, but they were match for the speed of the Gungir, and to my surprise, the old man's staff.

Sweat beaded on Adrian's forehead, and the unfit grandpa was obviously not fit for battle. Eventually bored of watching them fight, I yelled at Adrian, "Just block off the damn forest!"

Quickly, the young general swung his arms, spawning a huge wave of metal that formed a plug in the gap between trees. The spiders, too dumb to go around it, stopped coming, and the two fighters collapsed to the ground.

"Thank you, warrior," the old guy said. "I am grateful, without your aid I would have died. If there is any way I could return the favour, I would be glad."

"Just one question: why were you in that forest? In the official ranked map that place scores in the reds! Are you insane?" Adrian asked. I understood where he was coming from: in rank, red is the fourth highest, only an experienced fighter can make it through alive, and let's hope their herbology is good, the amount of murderous plants there are in them is insane.

"Red? Ranked map? I do not follow," he replied, eyeing Adrian quizzically. Alistair facepalmed.

"He means it's dangerous for a prune like you to be dancing around in a night conker forest! You're not a damn pixie, old man," Alistair explained, bored of waiting around. This seemed to have pulled a nerve, and the old man went from relieved to seething with anger.

"You dare speak to me, Merlin IV, in such a temper! I will smite you with all the power I-" I cut him off, sweeping his feet from under him with my tail. He landed on his staff, making it snap beneath him.

"What power?" I asked. Generally, I dislike Al and he dislikes me. But, we both enjoy watching people suffer so we tend to work together if it means humiliating someone.

"How dare you slave! Now you have indebted your master! Even though he so generously lets you run free without shackles, you choose to betray him, vile serpent!" the old man shouted, scrambling off the ground and leaving behind flakes of his rusted armour.

"Slave? The slave trade was abolished 400 years ago, and the closest thing to a master that I have is Leo. What age are you living in?" I asked, flicking my long red plait over my shoulder.

"Wait-" Leo said, narrowing his eyes. "-how old are you?"

"168," Merlin the Crinkly Prune said proudly. No surprise there, I thought to myself.

"168 whats?" Leo continued to interrogate, his high pitched voice deepening to conceal his excitement.

"168 moons. Why is that important?"

I caught on to what he was hinting at. Judging to Alistair's shivering and Adrian's blank face, they got it too. Holding back laughter, Alistair asked "So, what type of forest is this?"

"A tree forest? I'm not an apothecary, how am I meant to know? I guess there are quite a lot of ferns, they actually make a comfortable bed..." Merlin IV seemed confused by the question, but we all burst out laughing.

"So you- the last in the line of Merlins, who went missing almost four hundred years ago- took a nap in sleep-fern, which has shown that it can put you in a coma until the fern dies!" Leo laughed, wiping a tear with his wing. "Humans- simpler than slate, but still make the dumbest mistakes!"

"I don't mean to get sidetracked, but we should probably get him sorted out. I mean, Elkurn is only a mile south. We can probably find a healer who can fix him there..." Adrian suggested.

"We are NOT taking a guy who called me a vile serpent into our party."

"Alas! Look who's party leader," Leo said, pointing at himself with a wing.