Teddy ran to Kit and gave her a hug, while Yan stood up and slowly walked towards them.

"D-do you have th-the bag?" he asked. Kit nodded, the bag was still on her back, the weight helped when she had to pull the rope to safe Teddy and Yan.

"G-great, in here m-must be a c-compass," Yan said. Kit did not know why they needed a compass, but she did enjoy them, it made her feel like a real explorer. Her dad always read her great stories about explorers with compasses in the north.

Yan put his arm in the bag and searched for a while.

"Aha," he said and pulled out the compass.

"Where do we need to go?" Kit asked.

"A l-little further n-north and then to th-the west," said Yan. To the north, however, was quite a fully-grown forest. The trees reached to the sky and seemed to let no light touch the ground.

"Is that the forest of knowledge?" Kit asked.

"Indeed." Kit started to shake a little, she had never met a crazy person. What did crazy even mean? Teddy did not seem to enjoy the sight of the dark forest either.

"Y-you know that e-everything about t-the Forest of Knowledge sp-sp-speculations and stories are?" said Yan. That helped Kit relax a little bit and was ready to enter the forest. With Teddy holding her hand and Yan on her left, they entered the dark forest.

Kit had to push many bushes aside and watch out for low hanging tree branches. She walked further and scratched her knees and legs multiple times. It hurt a little, but she was used to worse. She liked climbing trees and playing in the parks near her house, Teddy did not so much. He always got a little scratched and dirty when they played together, Kit as well but she liked baths.

When they were through the first bushes, a path appeared. The forest was dark, but the road was clear as if someone had cleaned it on purpose because at the sides were dark leaves. Kit did not think much of it since this place had weirder parts.

The three walked for a little while on the path until Yan's ears twitched a little.

"D-do you hear t-that?" he asked. Kit and Teddy could not hear anything besides their footsteps. Thus they walked further into the forest. That was when Kit could hear the sound as well, it was deep and a little rusty.

"OHM," they heard. Kit was not scared of the sound, it sounded peaceful, so she walked straight towards it. Yan followed, and Teddy walked hesitantly behind Yan. Teddy loved adventures but not the ones that could hurt him, his poor fur could get damaged.

Kit saw the creature and immediately jumped behind a tree, hoping that he did not see her yet. The beast stopped with making a sound for a while and watched his surroundings when he did not see anything suspicious, he returned to making the sounds.

"OHM," he shouted again.

"Sh-should we go u-up to him?" asked Yan. Kit nodded, not wanting to make more sound than necessary and sneaked towards the creature.

The creature looked a little like a troll, toadstools were growing on his arms and legs. The little troll was flying but without any wings. Kit stood next to him, waving her arm underneath his crossed legs. She tried to find out if he had some sort of stool underneath or maybe threats, but it did not seem like it. The troll opened one of its eyes, he saw Yan and went back to his meditation. He then had considered that it was, in fact, weird to see an elf in the forest and opened both eyes.

"Hello?" the troll asked.

"Hiya, I am Kit, short for Katherine, and this is Teddy and Yan, they are my friends," Kit said. The troll looked Kit up and down. He was still floating and turned upside down, still staring at Kit and her friends. Yan was uncomfortable with the eye-contact but did not want to break it either, just in case.

"There is an evil demon fooling all of us!" the troll said. Kit was not sure what he meant by this, did he mean what he was saying? If there was an evil demon, they should get out of the forest immediately. Kit was trying to find a way out of the place, but the troll went on with his speech.

"Your soul is your master!"

"H-how?" asked Yan, who seemed to be just as confused by the troll as Kit. The troll turned back to the right side up. He had to think about this problem.

"Oh, well, oh, I know!" He laughed extremely loud and rotated quite fast. Kit got worried that he would get ill.

"It must obviously be the pineal gland!" He kept on rotating. Kit looked at Yan, they were both stunned at the madness of the man in front of them. What on earth could a pineal gland be, Kit knew for sure he was not getting any better soon.

"Nice talking to you, but we need to go, goodbye," said Kit. She picked up Teddy and walked away together with Yan.

"Wait!" yelled the troll, "Before you go, one must be careful with the angry spirit! It will lie and terrorise you, try to think that is all you know!" Teddy looked at Kit and said:

"If I ever get old and insane like that, tell me, please!" Kit smiled.

"Of course, but I am sure that this does not happen that often." At least she hoped so because this troll man did scare her a little.

Yan kept quiet for a while. They walked along the path again, and Kit enjoyed nature. The trees were weirdly bent and shaped. Some of them formed little tunnels above the path. Others intertwined or even seemed to move and dance a little. Kit stopped noticing the darkness and got less scared the further they walked. That is when Yan's ears started to move again.

"S-someone is s-singing!" Yan said. Kit looked quickly around her, nobody was in sight, but she liked songs and wanted to sing along.

"Where is it coming from?" she asked.

"W-we need to s-stray from the path a li-little, I think."

"That is okay." Yan led the way to the singing person, the further they strayed from the path the darker it got again.

"Ssshhh," shushed Yan. Kit heard some soft singing as well, it sounded more like humming than singing. They walked on their tippy-toes closer to the creature when they were only a few meters away. It looked like another troll, but Kit was not too sure since this one did not seem to fly.

Oh my dear

Never had it been so clear

The souls that should be great

Know a lot of hate

I see them all

Yes you cannot hide

When it is all so clarified

That your soul

Is not the golden mean of life.

The last sentence of the song did not fit the rest, but what did make sense in this land? Teddy held Kit firmly, she kneeled to hear what Teddy was saying.

"I do not like a single thing about this, Yan must have set this all up!" said Teddy.

"Teddy, how could he have planned this?"

"How would he know where this man was? He says he hears them, but do we know for sure? No," said Teddy.

"Teddy, I promise that Yan just has great hearing. He is not bad, he is our friend, and I like him a lot," Kit said.

"Who is there?" yelled the troll, who heard the conversation between Teddy and Kit.

"I am Kit, short for -" Kit got interrupted by the troll continuing his story.

"I know you are out here; I can see your souls! Do you follow the golden mean?" The troll had hairy arms and legs, an enormous beard, and a great stick that he leaned on.

"Wh-what does he m-mean with g-golden mean?" Yan asked Kit.

"I really do not have a clue." Both Yan and Kit simply stared at the troll. They stood right in front of him; however, he looked right past them.

"Sir, what is the golden mean?" Kit asked. The troll was scared by the presence of the three friends. It seemed like the forest did not get a lot of visitors lately.

"The golden mean..." he said, "the golden mean, ah yes, my favourite means! The golden mean is the perfect way between two others, yes, yes." Kit looked at Yan, his speech was correct, but she could not understand a thing he said.

"Your soul is bright, very bright, how? Well, you must be the perfect means of cowardliness and rashness. Perfect, perfect, might there be another soul? Above the human one? Not underneath vegetative, but above all, yes, maybe..." The troll kept on rambling about souls that Kit thought it was a great moment to get away, but before they left she said:

"Sir, if I may interrupt, did you know there is another troll here? He likes to talk and listen to others as well, he was just back there," Kit pointed where they came from, "maybe he can help you!" The troll stopped talking and grabbed his beard.

"Thank you!" His feet were shown as he ran to the place where the three had come from. He held his beard in his arms. Kit kept on thinking about what the troll said. What does it all mean? It started to toll in her head. Yan saw her worried face and told her:

"P-please do not l-listen to the trolls, they only s-say these things to c-c-confuse the visitors until they g-go crazy!"

"Okay, I will block it out, it cannot be that hard when all they speak is gibberish," Kit said while smiling at Yan.

"This is a land of fools, and I do not know If I want to be a part of it," said Teddy, "Kit, maybe we should go back home, your dad must be very worried." Teddy had its paws crossed in front of its body and pouted a little. Teddy had never cared about her father and never wanted to stop an adventure.

"Teddy, do you need a hug?" Kit asked.

"Yes," said Teddy, "please." Kit gave Teddy the best hug she could possibly give to make Teddy feel better. It seemed to work because its pouty face turned into a little smile. Yan looked at the two friends.

"Teddy, d-do you want a hug f-from me as w-well?" he asked.

"No," Teddy replied, "but thank you."

"We must get back to the path! I think that must be the easiest way to get out of the forest, do you remember how, Yan?" Kit asked. Yan looked around and pointed his ears.

"Yes, f-follow me!"

As Yan had promised, they soon had found their way back to the path. Yan turned around, looking at Kit and Teddy. He wanted to ask something, but he did not know if it was the right moment to do so. Kit looked him straight in the eye and said:

"What is wrong?"

"I wanted t-to ask you s-something," Yan said.

"So, ask me." Yan hesitated, but shrug it off and said it.

"Do you have forests where you are from?" Kit started laughing, she expected a shameful question, for example, if he could go to the toilet. Not if there were forests on earth.

"Yes, we have forests," she said. Yan was confused by the laughter, but before he could respond to Kit, his ears moved again. This time he heard a low and deep sound, but Kit and Teddy listened to the sound as well.

An enormous creature doomed up from the shadows of the trees, and every time it took a step, the ground shook because of it. Teddy assumed his usual flight position and grabbed Kit's leg. Kit let out a little scream of terror.