Viridescent vines ventured in our path, as we made our way across the hills that marked the beginning of Lord Baeron's lair.

The bearmen, just like the lykans were the sons of the Mother of the sky and another god. Their father especially favoured Lord Baeron, who was blessed both in wisdom and good fortune, which was reflected in each an every one of his possessions. But above all of them, the grandest were the suspended gardens of his lair.

"As I was saying..." continued Binge, "When they are going to see me, they will know for sure!" His flower mouth opened wide and swallowed a bird that landed on his shoulder. He paused, his forehead creasing into an expression of displeasure. "I look nothing like those furry fluffs."

"Then we are lucky that it's their hibernation time," said Prisscil. "I don't want to think of being ganked by them for even one second. My gills shiver just at the thought of it."

"They say Baeron is asleep for half the full moons there are in a year," I explained. "He feasts with all his men before that for three days and three nights, and then falls into a death like slumber."

"Only when the goldwings who migrate from Cirrus Vale arrive back do they awaken. The dirge of a goldwing can awaken him. Isn't that so?" inquired Vision, shooing away some flies that gathered around him.

"But that won't happen for at least two full moons. Spring doesn't come until then."

"Oh, great!" cried Binge. "So, we are betting our lives on a lousy birdy! What's next? Walk straight into death's bed?"

"Stop complaining, and quit stuffing yourself with everything around us!"

"I can't help it! Ok?" he yelled at Prisscil, who slapped him over the head with one of his tentacles. "I am stress eating, ok? STRESS EATING! Just thinking of becoming a tuna salad for them scares the shit out of me."

I wished I could tell him it was going to be easy. That we would just walk in there, grab that damned slumbershade, and make a run for it.

"Just asking, since we're already here," asked Prisscil. "Why do you need this slumbershade?"

"Not why, but for whom..." mumbled Vison, looking my way.

I didn't know how to explain my irrational decisions. How, for some woman I knew for less than a year, I was ready to risk, not only my life, but theirs as well. 

She wasn't of my kind. She was the vessel we used to get rid of the curse. 

She didn't even like me.

And yet, she was everything I craved for. 

"So, there is girl..." said Prisscil, and his eyes widened in my direction.

"There is always a girl!" blabbed Binge. "We always seem to be in some type of pain in the ass because of some girl."

I frowned, and I felt the need to tell him he didn't know what he was talking about. Maia was NOT 'some girl'.

"You don't get to talk here, ok? You freaking ate Toranf's dog!" scolded his eldest brother. "Or, did you, perhaps, think eating one of Hallowmore's most eligible lady in waiting's pets would be a good political move for us?"

Binge turned around, and with a scowl dragging down his face, he flipped Vision with both hands.

No word was uttered after that. Not about Maia. And certainly, not about the dog he ate.

No word was uttered.

Until Binge spoke again.

"So, if they all are sleeping," started he, "and nobody else is allowed in the gardens besides their kind, who guards everything?"

"The gardens guard themselves," exclaimed Prisscil, as we stepped in front of the grand emerald gates, and a colossal Venus flytrap spring rapidly towards us from beneath the grass. The color left his face and the gills on his cheekbones moved rapidly up and down.

"Don't move!" shouted Vision, and all four of us froze still, as the cannibal plant inched rapidly in our direction. 

But just as we were expecting it to attack, it stopped in front of us. 

"It responds to the vibrations of our movements," pointed out Vision.

"So... are we supposed to just stand here like some garden statues? Until when?"

"You know I can't stand still when I am hungry!" cried Binge. "Can't you just pluck it from the ground, brother? That worked on the goyels in the Vale. It should work with this one as well."

"And risk losing one of my tentacles? Do you know how much that hurts?"

"Pansy!" insulted Binge.

"You did not just call me that!"

"Pansy. Pansy. P.A.N.S.Y!" continued Binge, much to his brother's annoyance.

"I am going to strangle you right here, right now!" warned the older brother, struggling to hold his balance still. "So shut that big mouth of yours, or I will shut it myself!"

"Stop it you two!"

"But he is nothing but a pansy!"

"Guys-" I tried to warn them as Binge flinched towards his brother, and the Venus flytrap rushed in his direction.

It was a blink of an eye, and green blood gushed out, staining our skins.

Prisscil's voice, loud in agony, filled the air, and two of his tentacles ripped away from his body as he blocked his brother from harm's way.

With the fresh prey in its grasp, the Venus flytrap, slowly retracted, dragging the large members into the ground, leaving an empty path in front of us.

"Bloody Moon!" cursed Prisscil, falling to the ground with a loud 'thud'. His brothers rushed to his side.

"Why did you do that?!?" panicked Binge, horrified at what just had happened.

"Step aside," I told him, and I ripped a part of my top garment, and quickly wrapped it tightly around Prisscil's back, which turned a bruised tone of teal. "This should stop the bleeding for now. Try not to move too much."

"He is not gonna die from two lost tentacles..." explained Vision, not fazed as much by his younger brother's heroism. "He grows more each new moon. The gods know, maybe too many sometimes."

"Shut up!" exclaimed Binge, his mouth opening all the way to his abdomen, revealing his two rowed teeth and the gaping void he held hidden, the pupils of his six eyes constricting into narrow vertical slits. "Did you forget what happened in Helldorn?"

He fell silent, as his brother rested his back on one tree that grew thickly on the path, its shade guarding us from the heat of the three suns, which were now up in their full grandeur.

"This is all my fault..."

"Oh, quit being a baby!"

"I think it is best if you stay behind," advised Binge, his voice, more calculated. "You are in no position to continue with us. Who knows what might happen inside those floating forests."