Subject 4652 (a.k.a. The Great White Wolf)

The woods wound a little farther until the fairy stopped at a tree. It was like any other tree, maybe slightly bigger than the rest, but it smelt of a sweet fungus. The fairy turned her curious and shy green eyes to The Wolf one last time. Then she opened the tree.

The bark fell away in the shape of a door as the Bug-Fairy twisted the knob and flew into a richly adorned tunnel grown naturally from the tree.

A cyclopean troll, with a rough and knobby horn protruding perversely from the center of a crooked forehead, peered at The Wolf with scrutiny only a one-eyed creature can muster. It was off-putting but The Wolf padded lightly into the room anyway.

A treasure trove of insurmountable wealth filled the inner chamber of the tree. The walls were inlaid with gemstones and paintings. Only a thin path of dirt up the middle was visible under the haphazard piles of golden vases and silver candlesticks, many of which were lit. The dirt path was long and winding, much longer than should have been possible inside of any tree.

Everything seemed to fit in just the right way, giving beauty to the strange. Even the troll sat down in an asymmetrical wooden chair that managed to be both simple and incredulous. It conformed perfectly to the door guard's lopsided body.

4652's guide joined a group of her kin dancing in the upper reaches of the tree. Each fairy had an entirely different color pattern, like butterflies or rainforest frogs. One fairy had dragonfly wings the color of blood and large eyes of solid red, another had a bright and reflective coat of feathers and eyes that put off light. All of them fluttered about in circles before flying off just above the path. The Wolf was excited to follow, for he had never seen a fairy before today, and now he had seen three up close and a dozen in the distance.

The tunnel room opened up into a display of natural color, unlike any other

in the human lands found

Both colors of autumn and fall blend together on the ground

Trees inside the tree sport yellow, red and green

blue speckled mushrooms give off bright orange powder to the air which stays clean

making the abode as bright as if there were sun

all around the fairy-folk have merry fun

At the end of the dirt path, on a mound of riches more extravagant than any in the tree sat a throne of ice and gold. From this throne, a regal Queen stood to welcome the animal with movements full of both power and grace.

"Hello, Magnificent Wolf!" The ground froze and bloomed around her every step, as if ice was all the dirt required to sprout fully grown flora in her footprints. On second glance, even the gold and silver trinkets lining the path produced flowers in her wake. Only these blooms were more crystalline than the ice and etched decadently with the colors of the precious stones they blossomed from.

"Welcome to my humble abode. You seem to have traveled far, and you smell of that accursed prison," The Queen spoke in a tone and moved in a way that even an animal could understand everything she meant to say. But of course; what creature, man or beast, would not understand her next words?

"Let us fetch you something to eat! I doubt those heathens fed you anything good."

The queen raised her arms, billowing with blue-green lace, and the space before the courtyard grew a mile long. Vines and trees rose from the earth to form a table big enough for the giants and small enough for the short-folk. The queen took a seat by 4652 at the head of the table. On his other side a lady snail with a yellow-green mouth twice as wide as his snout smiled at him in greeting with massive herbivore teeth and then turned her chompers to a plate full of mushrooms and flawlessly ripened fruit.

Across the table sat the fairies and a light-green bug with a long face, feelers for a mouth, and scythes like blades of grass for hands. 4652 still had to look down, but it was tall for a bug. One of the scythe hands pokes a giant steaming hot fly. This makes the fairies uncomfortable and puts uncouth expressions on their faces, but they daintily devour their dishs of flower, anyway.

In a shadowy corner behind the Queen's throne, a veiled figure sat in a solid piece of onyx carved with symbols that all gave the inexplicable impression that the timeless entity didn't wish to be looked upon. He or she nibbled softly on jelly-filled cookies.

The wolf struggled to imagine himself a dish, for he had never been given options before. Learning from those around him, he conjured up a single red apple to his plate. The tart taste was evident in his curling upper lip, but 4652 swallowed it nevertheless. Next, he thought of a salad like that of the fairies, and then he reluctantly imagined a bug like the one that the mantis had, but wound up passing both of those to the other guests with a push of the snout after only a few bites. The Queen smiled sweetly at him as he contemplated the jelly-filled cookies, "let me help, dear."

Several plates appeared overflowing with piles of thunderbird drumsticks, a massive wasteland hog complete with a sizable apple in the mouth sat in the middle of the ordeal, and for dessert one big cinnamon roll cooked to be just gooey enough.

Doggy drool was imminent.

Once the feast was concluded and the troll had returned to his post, The Queen turned to The Wolf, "why don't I show you around the rest of the city? I think you'll enjoy the freedom."

They made the trek through a wooded area where they came to a small bridge exactly on the edge of the tree-line so that the land beyond was hidden until you stepped foot on the wood.

The path turned to cobblestone on the other side. Staircases and patios wrapped around giant mushrooms and flowers as large as trees. People with long ears and bright smiles bent over to pet bunnies of all colors of the rainbow.

'The wolf growled low at the people.'

"Oh, calm now. They are simply elves, taking refuge from the humans, same as us. You've spent your whole life as their slave, haven't you? Come, I would show you something."

They walked this field of large poppies and dandelions for what could have been hours, or mere minutes, before arriving at a peculiar part of the forest.

Houses lit orange in the windows were built into the tree tops high above. Small waterfalls leaked from the trees into pure streams at the ground where more homes were built into the roots of trees much larger than the tree the city resides in.

Mountains and hills are interspersed where they would be most appealing to the eye, and bridges made of moss connect various canopies in an almost chaotic manner. A winged ape dangles under one such bridge by one arm with a relaxed disposition. It seizes the opportunity, when an Elven woman passes by, to spring into action. He swings up, tugs once at her hair, and flies away hooting in laughter with his friends.

4652's doubts about these 'not humans' were beginning to ease when she led him to something that shook the core of what little he knew.

Up a set of stairs made from roots was a courtyard before a tree bigger than any of the others, bigger than any tree that had ever existed. The creatures rushed or lollygagged around shopping stands as people do at the mall. To one side of the town square were cages of thick wood growing out of the side of the tree, cages filled with pleading and starving humans. A human-pup looked up at The Wolf much the way a dog-puppy looks at its human.

She must have meant it to bring a sense of justice; to comfort him in some way, but when looking around, he realized the tree was just a large cage.

4652 ran again. He would never be proud of it, but what could he do in the face of such creatures. He wasn't ready for the reality that humans were being treated the way that humans had treated him. All this time, he had blamed them for the torment, but there were humans in cells with him, and there were humans in cages here?

It should've felt like justice, but justice is not a feeling, and this only confused the gentle giant.

The queen calls after him; her voice starting sweet, yet morphing into enraged command with every word, "Your emotions manifest reality here. Please be calm, friend wolf. You could be so much more if you let go and join us. Let your power help your new family. Become one with the wilds, and you'll never have to run again. Your strength could fuel the tree, be one with us, be truly free, create this reality in your own imagine."

Her last words were a pleading cry of desperation, "please! Replace me! The tree won't let me die!"

4652 runs back the way he came, and all color washes from the forest. The elves turn to him with featureless faces and vanish altogether. The fairies become more insectoid in shape as their color dissipates, leaving them all black and grey, instead of wrought with wonderous color. Buddy makes it to the once golden entrance room he arrived in.

The snail-lady's large blocky molars turned to long needles. The troll at the door was more or less the same, aside from drooling copious amounts of venom from its distressing sneer.

The city shrank into a room barely big enough to hold them all. The queen, the fairies, the snail, the mantis, troll, and the timeless thing in the corner all laugh in a chorus that shakes The Wolf to the core.

In his fright, 4652 flickers once, but the power in his veins refuses to activate. It required energy to force himself away, and the unseen horrors of the forest were draining him. Absorbing his essence to feed the magical cage of their tree. The Wolf tried again and thought hard of the creek with the shiny fish.

The effort broke out into scars on his legs until finally he vanished again, only to reappear on a beachfront beside a human village, of sorts.