The next morning dawned bright and cool, with a grey mist curling around the trees, and Katja settled her mother's red cloak over her shoulders.

Running her hands over the soft fabric, she tried to channel her mother's boldness, as well as the woman's singular determination to uncover answers, but try as she did, she couldn't quite overlook the fear sloshing in her stomach with each step she took.

She and Wolf soon reached a wide canyon, its rocky walls shooting upwards at odd angles.

Katja's eyes traced the ridge line, pausing on a spot that looked decided differently from the others—it was smoother, completely barren of trees, as if a landslide had occurred at some point and the entire top of the wall had collapsed and slid down into the gorge, restructuring the cliffs and reshaping the canyon below.

Katja tried to draw a deep breath, but fear kept her lungs constricted, and it didn't help that the air was so still, it might as well have been frozen in place.

"This is it," said Wolf, keeping his voice low "The heart of the Schwarzwald."

"What do we do now?" Katja whispered in response, then startled as a nearby tree suddenly extended a branch and pointed toward the opening of a cave. At the same time, the grass beneath her feet rippled, the colors changing and creating a gradient of light that pointed in the same direction as the tree.

The Waldkonig must know they were near, and the realization made Katja shiver.

Wolf made a face as he stared at the cavern doorway, his tail drooping towards the ground.

"I'd prefer to stay out in the open," he said. "That gives us a better chance of escaping...although, if the Waldkonig truly controls the forest the way I was taught he does, perhaps that's not really an option."

Katja crouched down and placed her palm against the ground. She could sense various types of metals, some close by, others far below the surface, and knowing they would be underfoot when she went into the cavern made her feel better, even if she couldn't see them.

Rising to her feet, she touched the wolf necklace, then squared her shoulders and raised her chin.

"Let's go," she said determinedly, and side by side, step by step, she and Wolf strode into the cavern, leaving behind the sunlight and heading into a darkness that might as well been a portal into another world.

Tiny blue lights crawled over the slick tunnel ceiling, and bright yellow and green dots scuttled over rocks. The smell of rot and decay was almost overpowering, and Katja felt like gagging numerous times; only through sheer force of will was she able to keep her mouth closed and her feet moving.

Strange things bloomed here beneath the ground, odd-looking plants with leaves that glistened and reminded Katja of knife blades. Blue and purple orchids twisted their petals to watch as she passed, clicking their leaves against one another in a language all their own. Furry orange moss seemed to cover an entire stalactite, at least until she got closer and the entire mass suddenly made clinking sounds and turned gold, each creature somehow throwing up a protective shield that joined together to form one single, impenetrable covering.

Through it all, though, the one constant was the black veins snaking over and through everything, plants and rocks alike.

Thankfully, the tunnel wasn't very long, and it soon opened into a sunshine-drenched field, so bright Katja had to squint to allow her eyes the chance to adjust. The sun shone down on a ground carpeted in thick green moss streaked with the ubiquitous black lines, and trees of all kinds grew in a semi-circle around what appeared to be a throne, fashioned from woven branches.

Perhaps most important, the throne was occupied.

"And so," said the Waldkonig, "at last you have found me."

He rose from the throne in one single, graceful movement, his green and silver robe billowing around him, the sunlight catching on the sharp tines of his large gold and silver crown. White-blond hair cascaded over his shoulders, and every inch of his bearing provoked both awe and terror.

He inclined his head towards Katja, who suddenly felt as if her feet had become rooted to the ground. Her mouth went dry even as her palms became damp, and she gave a deep bow in return, hoping her trembling legs weren't terribly obvious.

"It's an honor, Waldkonig," she said, surprised at how small and distant her voice sounded. "Thank you for allowing me to travel through your forest to meet with you."

"The honor is mine," replied the Waldkonig graciously, placing a hand against his chest even as his eyes remained on Katja's face. "For so long, I feared I would never have the chance to meet you. Fate, it seemed, had other plans...or at least knew enough not to interfere with mine."

The intensity of his stare made Katja almost as uncomfortable as the words the Forest King had just said.

"Why would you fear never meeting me?" she asked. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Of course not," replied the Waldkonig. "How could you? Left with only those insufferable Hexen to instruct you, kept blind to your legacy...your history...to the truth of who you really are."

The hair on the back of Katja's neck rose and something inside her whispered that after this moment, nothing in her life would ever be the same again. She swallowed hard, then managed to ask in a shaky voice, "What do you mean?"

Irritation flashed across the Waldkonig's face, although it was quickly replaced by an inviting smile.

"Let us start over," he said. "You are Katja, and you may call me Kobald. Welcome to my domain. Perhaps we should begin with why you wished to meet with me."

Katja held up her hand and pointed to the ring.

"This belonged to my mother," she said, softly at first, but her voice grew louder the longer she spoke. "I have an affinity for metal, which allows me to learn the history of an object. According to what I learned, this ring was made by your magic."

"You are partly right," nodded the Waldkonig. "I did indeed play a role in making that ring. But, while I have no doubt you are an incredibly gifted metallurgist, that's not exactly how you learned the origin of the ring, is it?"

Katja gaped at him, and he smiled before turning his gaze towards Wolf.

"I must admit," said Kobald, "I did not expect to see you here."

Katja gasped as Wolf shimmered and transformed into his human-form. His chest was rising and falling in quick succession, and tension radiated from his body.

"How many years has it been?" continued the Waldkonig, tapping an elegant finger against his chin. "I really don't keep track anymore."

"Over two hundred, sir," replied Wolf, keeping his eyes on the ground.

"Wolf, what's he talking about?" asked Katja, fear digging painful talons deep into her heart.

The Waldkonig's eyebrows raised. "He didn't tell you? This isn't the first time your friend and I have met, although I never knew him as Wolf. Back then it was...Max, wasn't it?"

"Yes, sir," replied Wolf morosely as Katja gaped at him. Slowly, he raised his head, looking ill as he forced himself to meet her gaze. "Max used to be my name...before the Waldkonig turned me into a shapeshifter."

"And was being a shapeshifter everything you hoped it would be?" asked Kobald, a cruel smile twisting the corners of his mouth. "You see, Katja, when I first met Max all those years ago, he was nothing but a human with no magical abilities, bereft of a father, desperate to provide for his family. I offered him a way to do so, and he took it."

Katja's heart wrenched, and she fought down the urge to cry, as well as to yell at Wolf.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, her voice cracking, every word effortful.

Wolf hung his head.

"Because I was ashamed," he admitted in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

Katja stared at him, everything inside her shaken at the revelation, anxious for details that would help her calm down, help her make sense of something she didn't understand.

Deep down, though, she knew learning more about Wolf's previous interaction with Kobald wouldn't satisfy the questions that had been percolating in her mind since being handed her mother's jewelry. Putting aside what she'd just learned until she could better deal with it, she turned to stare directly into Kobald's hazel-grey eyes.

"I'm not here to learn about Wolf's past," she said firmly. "Tell me about my mother's ring."

"It wasn't just your mother's ring," replied Kobald. "Wolf could smell my magic on it because I helped Sabrina make it."

The air in Katja's lungs evaporated, and her legs wobbled, suddenly so unsteady, she feared they would give way completely.

"Your mother was an exceptionally gifted metallurgist," Kobald continued, "and she sought answers to questions others never even considered asking. She was especially interested in learning whether metal could be combined with living organisms—for instance, could you make a tree covered in iron instead of bark—and when she couldn't find the answers within the Hexen, she came to me."

The corners of his mouth rose even as he shook his head.

"I admit, I was caught off-guard when your mother strode so brazenly into my forest. I should have stopped her the second she entered my domain, but I was curious as to what she wanted, so I went to her...and she was nothing like any witch I'd ever encountered before."

Katja's head began to pound as she fought down her own awareness, attempting to ignore the unwanted thoughts blossoming into her consciousness at Kobald's overly-familiar tone.

"Your mother explained her research to me," said the Waldkonig. "And the more I spoke with her, the more fascinated I became. I allowed Sabrina to remain in the Schwarzwald, and together we began to experiment with combining two different substances.

"It was beautiful," he sighed. "Trees with metal branches, ready to cut down anything that stood in their path, plants with tungstem stems, flowers with titanium blossoms—everything in the forest could be infused with metal, making it indestructible. No one would be able to harm it."

"But by the time you met my mother, you'd already forced everyone else out of the forest," noted Katja, feeling the Waldkonig was overlooking an important piece of information. "Who were you so worried about protecting it from?"

"No one," replied Kobald smoothly, a light appearing in his eyes. "My plan for infusing my forest with metal was never about protection...it was about domination."

Katja blinked in shock, and then suddenly, everything made sense.

"You wanted to turn the forest into a weapon," she said, swaying where she stood and wishing she could sit down.

"Yes," nodded the Waldkonig. "I wanted to create a metal forest that could expand outwards until it covered the entire world, transforming it into what it should have been all along...mine. With an army of indestructible plants and animals at my disposal, there would be no stopping me!"

Katja felt ill, and her vision swam. How could her mother have been involved in such a terrible thing?

"Did my mother know?" she finally managed to ask.

"Not in the beginning," admitted the Waldkonig, and Katja found herself able to breathe the slightest bit easier. "In the beginning, she was interested in combining metal with living things purely for research's sake, to answer her own questions and to push the bounds of what was possible. But, eventually, she discovered my true intentions."

His face clouded, and he pressed his lips together in a thin line. "And that, as they say, was the beginning of the end."

Tossing his head, Kobald straightened his broad shoulders.

"I never expected to fall in love with your mother," he said, making Katja's stomach curdle. "But I did. I welcomed her into my forest, and together we made a home. We worked side-by-side to create that ring you now wear...I provided the metal from deep beneath the Schwarzwald, as well as the diamonds, and your mother fashioned them into a ring. She was everything to me."

Pain flashed across the Waldkonig's face, and his eyes turned cold. "And then she betrayed me."

"She left," said Katja, putting the pieces together. "But you could still sense the ring you'd helped her make, so that's why the Schwrazwald kept expanding towards the castle—you wanted the ring back."

"I did purposefully expand the forest towards the castle," nodded Kobald. "But it was never about finding the ring. It was always about finding you."

"What do you mean?" whispered Katja, everything inside of her recoiling and urging her to run away as fast as she could so she wouldn't have to hear the truth some part of her had already realized.

But at the same time, she was nothing if not skilled at accepting things she wished weren't true, so she stood perfectly still, even as every word landed like a blow.

"Sabrina took you from me," replied the Waldkonig, his voice laced with bitterness it was clear time hadn't softened. "That was her betrayal. I'm your father, Katja."

(Artwork by JerzyGorecki from Pixabay)