Kara gasped, her face filled with terror. The sharp edge of the knife was touching her throat. "I'm K-Kara, and I'm here for answers about my past, a-about me." The girl's gaze became curious. "Answers, huh?" "Yes, yes, answers, that's all! Please don't kill me..." The redhead only glared at her. "I should kill you for trespassing. Humans are not welcome here. They never have been, and they never will be." "Oh, stop it!" one girl called. "You've messed with her enough already."

"I wasn't messing with her," she muttered, but the girl moved away anyhow. Kara backed away, ready to run if she had to. When she saw the lack of hostility in their gazes, however, she stopped trying to leave and just looked at them all. One girl, the one she had seen first, came forward. She was laughing, her green eyes alight with good humor. "She wasn't going to kill you, little Flightless girl. That was only to scare you and make you leave. None of us could hurt you even if we really wanted to. It's against our laws." "Oh." Kara was relieved, but irritated too that they thought that it was funny to nearly kill someone. They've got a sick sense of humor. The fairy girl stood, and as she did so Kara noticed that her dark hair hung down around and over her shoulders, wavy and curly. Her insectile wings gave a single flutter. "I'm Reena. Welcome to the fairy world, Kara." "Reena," Kara echoed as she was pulled to her feet by the girl's strong gloved hands. "That's a nice name, I guess." She looked at the other fairies there. One had pretty, glossy blonde hair that was cut short with a gentle looking face. She wore a green top and short jean pants, with long dragonfly-like wings. The other girl had longer auburn hair with brown eyes and a stoic expression, along with wings that were tattered at the ends. Her shirt was ruffled, and a pale peach color, and her pants were dark blue jeans. They both wore boots that were nearly identical to Reena's. The redhead spoke first. "Reena, who is this, anyway?" The blonde spoke too. "Yeah, she looks almost...like a Flightless." The girl came closer and gasped. "Oh my gosh! She is a Flightless! Don't tell me you brought another one here again." Reena shook her head. "No, not this time. She came through a portal, abd you know I can't create those easily." Turning to the other fairies, she said, "You could at least introduce yourselves to her since she doesn't know who you both are. It would simplify things." The auburn haired fairy sighed. "Fine. I'm Rowan." The blonde fairy smiled, her face cheerful despite her confusion at meeting her. "I'm Sunny. How did you get here?" "I'm Kara, like I said before," Kara told them. "It's, um...sort of complicated about how I'm here and why exactly." "Tell us," demanded Rowan. "No human girl can just create a portal and step through it straight into the fairy lands." "I created it using a book I found, but-" Reena interrupted her. "Did you just say that you used a book to create a portal? Was it a spell book, by any chance?" Kara nodded. "Yeah." "Then you'll have to see Sylvan at once. She'd want to hear about this." Before Kara could react, Reena had grabbed her wrist and was pulling her somewhere. Kara shook her arm free and followed her instead, Rowan and Sunny right behind her. They crossed a worn dirt path that slowly appeared as they raced through the forest. Kara couldn't help but admire the beautiful scenery. The trees were dappled with sunlight, their trunks a dark brown. The leaves that fell from their nearly leafless branches were many different colors-red, orange, brown, yellow. The only thing that was different about autumn here was that the air carried no faint chill to remind passerby that winter would come soon. It was warm like it was still mid July. Kara was grateful for that-she hated cold weather-but it was still relatively unusual, considering that the last few days of her summer vacation had been cold. Kara and her escorts reached a river. It was big, too big to cross without a bridge. Reena smirked and snapped her fingers. Flat stepping stones floated up to the surface of the water, forming a line of rocks to cross. Kara scaled thek, stunned by what the fairy girl had done. Rowan and Sunny were unfazed by it, however. They just kept moving, their heads facing forward. The trees had finally begun to thin out, revealing a lone willow tree up ahead. Its branches stretched up high, and its leaves were still green, not withered at all. In fact, all of the plants nearby were still in bloom as if it were spring in only those exact spots. Reena smiled, turning to her companions. "Come along, then. Sylvan will be eager to meet you, Kara." Kara nodded slightly, and began to ask various questions as they walked up to the tree.

"What do you mean by that? Who's Sylvan? Is he nice?" Reena stifled a laugh. "Sylvan's a she, but yes, she's nice as long as she's in a good mood." Everyone stopped walking. They were right in front of the tree, which turned out to be much bigger than Kara had thought it was. Sunny glanced at the tree, then back at her friends. "Reena, I'm so tired now. We should have just flown here." When Reena didn't reply, Rowan answered her. "Yeah, but then you would've had to carry that Flightless here." Sunny fell silent, realizing that this was true. There was an awkward moment when no one spoke. Kara broke the silence. "I think we're in the wrong place. This is just a tree. Yeah, it's big, but it's only a tree. There's nothing special about it." "Humans," Rowan scoffed. "You think you know everything, don't you?" "Shh!" Reena suddenly whispered. "I'm trying to concentrate!" Kara noticed that while she had been standing around, Reena had put a hand to the tree's bark. She was now murmuring words that were spoken too quietly for anyone else to hear. Her eyes glowed an even brighter green, and her wings beat together. The tree trembled, and it creaked as thick lines were etched into it, forming an arc shape. It became a makeshift door. The door quickly opened, and they each entered.