I slept good that night. Mayor Con had taken me under the gold evergreen and I dozed right off to sleep with such ease, one might have thought I were a sloth.

Turns out, the Golden Tree is also a house. A big, luxurious house. The appearance of it is the size of a whale, but when you walk inside it looks even bigger than that. You would think it would be uncomfortable to sleep in a tree, but it was probably the nicest slumber I ever took, even better than the ones I had at my stay in the Hark Kingdom.

I had the entire Tree to myself, and I soaked up as much of it as I could. I spent hours admiring the beautiful antique art and medieval posters plastered all throughout the home. It probably would've taken at least a day to explore the Tree in its entirety, and by the time I had fallen asleep, I'd hadn't even traversed half of it all.

By morning, Willow and Con had greeted me with a delicious breakfast on a golden platter. If this wasn't the life, I have no idea what could be. I had a full stomach by the end of finishing the plate.

Willow showcased her interest in magical creatures through her sum of books, artworks, and tapestries she had in her half of the Mayor's Cottage.

Her favorite of these was the Elven Ways. She babbled on about how Elves fascinated her immensely, and the way she'd always been intrigued by such pointy-eared creatures since she was just a wee baby.

I told her all about my major obsession with Elements, which caused her to laugh, but then agree. She explained that along with her incurable passion for Elves, she also really liked Elements. That's when I decided to tell her.

"I... I have an Element."

Her eyes lit up at this and she began to beg like a dog, "Can you please show me it?"

I nodded, because I was going to show her anyway.

I thought I would show her the pliable Orb of Light. I pushed my hands together and the illumination appeared. I moved my hands closer to me, stretching out the ball of yellow and white. She was watching it crazily, as though this were the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

I put my hands farther away from me and closer to the Orb, making it smaller. I stretched it out again until we could no longer see each other from our ends.

Then I made the Orb go away.

"That was breathtaking."

I smiled. "I'm glad you liked it. I have a lot more magic, but I think want to wait before I use it."

She nodded understandingly. "Okay."

•••

Throughout the day, I'd learned a lot more about the Crooked Realm and its horrid creatures, such as ogres, orcs, goblins, and trolls, plus Souleaters, which I already knew about from Emma. Willow explained that these creatures each had a special magic of their own.

"Ogres have the Grime Power," said Willow. "They have to ability to conjure even the slightest slip of muck and filth, and sent it flying at you. This includes mud, dirt, soot, dust, and other grimy things."

I tried not to gag at this. Just the thought of some man-eating giant chucking a block of mucous and sludge at me made me want to puke.

"Then there's goblins. They heave the Power of Greed. They're not the most magical, but they have a way with words... and thievery. If you look away for even one second, they could remove all of your armor and even your wielded weapons and shields. They're quite irksome in this sense, but also very powerful."

This one scared me. Imagine I blinked, and the next second my armory and weaponry was just taken by some ugly little creature so swiftly. I wouldn't even know how to react.

"And then there's trolls. Nasty, ugly giants who have the willpower to freeze."

"Like the Ice Element?" I asked Willow.

"Sort of. Except they also have the power to control your mind and read it."

"Gee, trolls are powerful."

"Yeah, they are."

She then told me about orcs and Souleaters and their powers.

"Orcs are humanoid giants with the ability to crush anything in their path, to obliterate," Willow said.

"What?!"

"Yep. Just a snap of their fingers and they can have you gone like you were never even there to begin with. They're very mighty in this sense."

I shook my head in disbelief. It seemed as though the creatures named just got stronger and stronger with their powers.

Then there were Souleaters.

"Vicious phantoms with the Power of the Spirits," Willow explained. "They can do so much damage, plus they can through walls and possess somebody."

I gasped.

"They can possess people?" I asked.

Willow nodded.

"They can, deceitfully, be anyone they truly desire to be. You, me, any king, any Magick, any creature. They have to be the strongest monsters the Crooked Realm has to offer."

"So that's what Emma when she said that they look just like normal humans. They're possessive ghosts amongst us," I came to a realization.

"Yep," said Willow. "And they can reap your soul as well. That's the most harmful pain a person can endure—if their body can even endure it."

Just the mere thought of Souleaters scared me. My heart raced just thinking about them. Ghosts that can possess you. Phantoms and spirits so strong they can axe your soul and slurp it up like some noodles or jelly. That was what frightened me the most.

Willow gestured at the Golden Tree.

"To ease the tension, I'll talk about our famous Golden Tree," Willow said. "Do you know why it's called the Golden Tree, by the way? Well, besides that fact that it's golden and it's a tree."

I shrugged. "No, I don't."

"It belonged to my ancestor, Frank Golden. He's the one who had his servants build it for him in the olden days. When they did, he would never leave the luxurious home. It's been kept the same that way for centuries."

"So why doesn't you dad just live there, then?"

"He argues with the fact that the cottage is older and more righteous than the Tree. He thinks it should be considered higher than it."

"The cottage is junk, no offense. The Golden Tree is... well, it's just perfection. What mayor—what rich man of importance—would even sacrifice their backs for such a... interesting home over a nice one?"

"My dad, I s'pose," Willow said as she bit down on some chocolate. "He's special in that sense."

I laughed at this and so did she.

"So, are you going to stay another night?" She asked suddenly.

"Yeah," I nodded. "I think I need more than just a day to let my ankle heal completely and get enough rest and food in stomach."

"Oh, cool," Willow smirked. "Maybe we can play a trick on Old Man Gus. He lives just over there. He's blind as a bat and the whole village loves to perform jokes on him."

I shook my head. "No offense, but I don't think I have time for silly games."

Willow cocked her head, then said, "Eh, fine."

"So why don't you just live in the Golden Tree?" I asked her.

Willow laughed. "I wish. But my dad says that wherever he goes, I go, and vice versa."

"So then why don't you just go to the Tree so he can tag along with you?"

Willow laughs again. "It doesn't work like that. If I were going to a party, maybe. But a whole separate house, no. I despise parties anyway, so that's fine."

"So do I!" I exclaim. "Parties are some of the most detestable things I've ever experienced."

Willow nodded in agreement.

"Well, bye Dylan. I have to head home now. See you tomorrow again?" She asked me.

I shook my head yes. "Yep. See you, Willow."

She waved and ran home, and I waved back. Then I looked up at the Golden Tree. Oh, I wish I could stay longer than just two days. But I had a quest, right? I couldn't just forget all about it.

I walked toward the Golden Tree so I could snooze for my last day here in Treeville. Or maybe I would explore the rest of the treehouse. Maybe. Either way, I knew I had to spend these last few hours in this great town wisely.

•••

I had gotten through half the Tree now, but I was just too tired. I clambered to one of the many bedrooms exhaustedly and fell onto one of the many giant beds in the house. It was so soft I could hardly keep my eyes open any longer.

I yawned and closed my eyes. Slowly and gradually I fell asleep...

•••

I woke up to the sound of screaming. I gazed out of one of the two gigantic windows that overlooked Treeville and watched in horror as the entire village scurried and hurried to get away from the giant that was stomping through the woody town.

I realized at once that it wasn't just a giant, but five of them. They were all trampling through the town, stomping angrily and roaring and pumping their chests like gorillas.

I hastily ran down the long spiral staircase that led to the other side of the Tree where there was a slope that was a shortcut to get down to Treeville quicker. I was just about to go down this slope when I felt like I was floating in the sky. Except I wasn't.

It didn't take me long to realize that I'd been picked up by one of the many giants—or the Golden Tree had been, at least. I just so unluckily happened to be in it at this time, and was now being chucked across the sky.

I was flying through the Tree. My head was spinning and so was I. I hit the golden bark suddenly with a thud and groaned.

I'd been thrown.

I tried to get up but I was too dizzy and way to injured. Blood trickled out of my head and the corners of my mouth. I couldn't even lift a finger to wipe it or touch the floor. I was too weak, too wounded.

There was hardly even time to register my surroundings or anything that had happened. My vision became blurrier and blurrier and soon enough I had passed out...

•••

My eyes slowly opened up. I wasn't in the Tree anymore. I was in a cabin, or something of that sort. I could hardly feel my legs or my arms or any part of my body, and my head was totally busted.

I looked to the right of me to see Mayor Con and Willow, who was crying.

She looked over at me and her eyes lit up instantaneously as soon as she saw that I was up. She ran over to me hugged me tight. I blushed at this.

"Oh, Dylan!" She sobbed. "I thought we'd lost you. Oh, I'm so happy you're alive!"

"Yeah, me too," I said with a sad and weak smile. She held my cheeks in her little hands and smiled too.

"Father!" She yelled to the Mayor. "He's up!"

Mayor Con came over to me and observed my face and body.

"Amazing!" Said the Mayor. "To have even survived such a commotion and ruckus. The injuries would have been sure to kill a Regular, but a Magick like you can endure such pain."

I felt at the spots that hurt the most and muttered healing incantations weakly.

Lights appeared and the spots slowly felt better, but not completely.

"Oh, Dylan..." Willow said again, her voice cracking. She wiped the tears and blood off of her face and she dug her face into my neck.

I held her tight. It felt as though she herself were a healer, and was curing all my injuries with just her touch. I groaned as her father poured some sort of liquid over my lower-half wounds.

He uttered strange words and suddenly my wounds felt even better than they already had.

"Dylan..." said the Mayor. "After you are done cuddling with my daughter, I have to talk to you about something very grave.."

I nodded and, awkwardly, Willow pulled away from me, though I didn't want her too. I wanted her to stay and continue to put her face in my neck, it just felt so nice.

But she walked away and left the cabin. So did her father. The only person left was me. Injured, stupid me.