After heading back up, all the kids were dressed in their more rugged outdoor clothes. They wore pants and shirts with extra pockets filled with the knick-knacks they wanted to bring. Darius brought some of his carving tools. Alex had a small notebook and a magnifying glass.
Alexia was holding a small wooden case by the handle. Lilly had tied her sword to her waist, and Lucia brought nothing. Their youngest wasn't really fond of many items and didn't have any hobbies except for just having fun.
Selene came down too, wearing similar dark clothes to Rowan as they both had this set from the army. She had her hair neatly packaged in a bun and her rapier on her waist.
Rowan nodded, satisfied with the preparations. He grabbed a wide-brimmed straw hat from a hook by the door. It was to match his farmer style so he doesn't look too much like a soldier.
"Alright, team," Rowan said. "To the stables! Single file, no arguments about who gets the window seat."
He led them out to the stables where Shiori and Capper were already patiently attached to the draw bar, their coats gleaming in the early morning light. The two horses were always able to attach themselves to the reins.
"Hey," Lilly whispered to Selen. "Aunty Selene, are you letting me ride with you?"
"Not yet, little warrior," Selene answered, patting Shiori's muscular neck. "Today, they pull the carriage. It's a group trip. You'll ride Shiori for training later. Now, get in."
Rowan helped the children clamber into the back. Lilly and Darius immediately jostled for position near the front cushion, followed by Alex and Alexia. Lucia, tiny in her purple clothes, was content to sit on the cushion beside Alexia, clutching the strap of her seat.
Selene vaulted gracefully into the front seat next to Rowan. She pulled her hair tighter at the base of her neck and gave a small tug to her rapier, checking the fit.
"You didn't tell me the kids have so many things of their own already," she murmured to Rowan, watching the children settle in.
"Everything was recently bought when we went into town, except for the bat. Lucia's bat is… well, it's new. We'll talk about that later," Rowan replied, taking the reins. "Ready?"
He gave the reins a light shake. Shiori, with a snort, and Capper, with a gentle thud of his hooves, moved forward. The carriage rolled smoothly out of the stable yard and onto the well-worn dirt track that led from the farmhouse to the main road, the rising sun casting long, golden shadows across the various fields.
The ride was quiet for a few minutes, the only sound the rhythmic clip-clop of the horses, the rumble of the wheels, and the excited whispering of the children.
"Father," Alexia called from the back. "How far is the forest entrance?"
"It's about twenty minutes," Rowan replied over his shoulder. "But we're making a quick stop just before the road to meet our guide. Someone who can find the ball without us having to wander aimlessly."
"A guide?" Darius asked, leaning forward, his carving kit tapping against the seat. "Is he an adventurer? Does he fight monsters with a sword?"
"He is the best, most discreet guide in the entire continent," Selene chimed in, a wicked glint in her gray eyes.
"Alright, kids. Show time," Rowan said, setting the brake.
Selene straightened, scanning the area with intensity, a tiny smile playing on her lips. She knew Dante's timing was impeccable.
There was a sudden, small pop as a dark shadow gathered directly in front of the horses.
Out of what looked like black distorted air, a man materialized. He was wearing his usual black clothes and cloak, covered from head to toe. Not an inch of his skin could be seen except for the narrow eyes at the top of his cloth mask. It was Dante in his unnecessarily shadowy clothing.
He took one look at the carriage, the eager children, the massive man with the greatsword, and the intense woman with the rapier, and he groaned, a sound of morning fatigue.
"You're late. If you had come earlier, I would have offered you quite the breakfast." Rowan joked.
"Rowan, you bastard," Dante hissed, rubbing his temple with a gloved hand. "I was having a quiet, peaceful breakfast on the sunny beaches of the Copper Coast. I had just gotten to the good part of my tea! And then I remember I had to help you out today."
The children in the carriage stared, completely dumbfounded. This was the uncle who came weeks ago to deliver Aunty Selene's letter to their dad. They had a good memory of this as the man didn't even say hi to them. He just came and left.
"Dante, meet my kids," Rowan said, unfazed, a massive grin on his face. "Kids, this is Dante. The best teleportation magic user in the kingdom, and a man was saved by your father more times than he cares to admit."
Darius was the first to talk to Dante. "You… you just appeared out of nowhere! How did you do that?"
Dante blinked, thinking about how to explain his magic but he quickly gave up. "Uh, yeah. Jump portal. Just magic, I don't know how to explain it?"
Alexia nudged Darius aside. "Greetings, uncle. I am Alexia. I heard you like our grandmother's cookies just as much as we do. Here is some as an advanced payment."
She took out a pouch of her secret stash of cookies that Clara had given her secretly. Dante's eyes, which had been narrowed in annoyance, immediately widened, fixated on the cookies. His grumpy facade crumbled as he started to daydream about grandma's cookies.
"Oh, my sweet, angelic Alexia," Dante murmured, his voice softening with pure desire for the cookies. He snatched the pouch from her hand, tore off a piece of the cookie, and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed slowly, his eyes closing in bliss.
"A masterpiece," he sighed, a tear almost forming in his eye. "A true masterpiece of honey and shortbread, your daughter is an angel. You, however, are still a menace."
He wiped the crumbs from his mouth and finally looked at Selene.
"Selene, my favorite treasure hunter! You look… like you haven't had much food," he observed, his tone a mix of fake affection and bluntness.
Selene smiled, mock affection in her gaze. "Dante. You look like you haven't slept in a decade. I see that the king is still working you to the bone."
"He is a tyrant," Dante declared, pointing a bread-laden finger at Rowan. "He drags me across half the continent for all the trade negotiations. Can't he give me a break? I had to tell the man I was hanging out with you today or he wouldn't let me be."
Lucia, meanwhile, had been studying Dante intently. Her small, purple familiar bat, which had been hiding on her shoulder, took flight, fluttering a circle around Dante's head.
"The bat says you smell like old libraries and a lot of sweat," Lucia said cutely, tilting her head.
Dante froze. He looked up at the tiny, purple creature, his usually complaining expression turning serious. His eyes narrowed. He snapped his attention to Rowan. "Rowan, what in the blazing hells is that?"
"That's Lucia's familiar, Dante," Rowan explained, a hint of his own confusion in his tone. "She only summoned it yesterday. What's wrong?"
Dante ignored Rowan, his gaze still fixed on the bat. He lifted a hand—not in a threatening gesture, but with a cautious, almost reverent curiosity. The small bat landed on his fingertip.
Dante stared at it, the colorful magic of the creature seeming to pulse against his black gloves.
"This… this is not a familiar of the Bloodsworth line," Dante whispered, his voice low and devoid of his usual humor. "It's too… old...too deep. I can't tell much but Rowan, this is a piece of a consciousness that has been separated from its host for some length of time. This is not normal creature magic; this is fragmentation."
He lowered his hand and gently placed the bat back on Lucia's shoulder.
"Be very careful with this, little one," Dante advised Lucia, his tone surprisingly gentle. "It is powerful, and it is a connection to something ancient. Very, very ancient."
The intensity of the moment was so thick that the children, even Lilly and Darius, were silent. Selene's hand instinctively went to the hilt of her rapier.
Rowan broke the silence, his voice firm. "Dante, we need to move. We're going to the edge of the dryad's forest. We need you to pinpoint the ball, it's a carving made by Darius, a perfect sphere with some line grooves. Can you get us a clean, non-aggressive path to it. Can you do that, or are the cookies insufficient?"
Rowan was going to ignore the bat. It seemed to only enjoy sitting or hovering near Lucia. He could feel some sort of protective instinct coming from the bat. It was similar to his paternal instinct but with some minor differences.
Since it wasn't going to harm her, something with its strength was fine to protect the girl.
Dante shook his head, momentarily forgetting the bread. "The cookies are an irresistible form of coercion, Rowan. But this…is going to be hard. Even my highly acute senses are dampened by the dryad's blessing over the forest. Let's go in first and then I'll try."
He took another massive bite of the cookies. "Lead the way, Commander. And try not to antagonize any of the local beasts. Dryads have a notoriously poor sense of humor."
Rowan nodded grimly, the fun and games of the morning now completely gone. He exchanged a look with Selene, who was now fully alert, her eyes radiating concern.
"Hold on tight, everyone," Rowan commanded, shaking the reins. "Shiori, Capper, let's go. Keep the pace steady."
The carriage moved forward, Dante walking silently alongside them for a few paces until he decided to just sit on top of the carriage.
In less than 20 minutes, they arrived at the entrance and went straight in. The forest swallowed them whole. The cobblestone path gave way to a dirt trail, and the light immediately dimmed, filtered by the sprawling, ancient canopy of the towering trees.
The air dropped a couple of degrees and became damp. It started to smell of pine, moss, and rich earth. Rowan drove steadily as he was entering a potentially dangerous forest filled with ancient magic, and his children were with him.
Selene leaned closer to him and whispered. "Dante is scared, Rowan. I've never seen him scared of a magic signature before. Whatever that purple bat is connected to, it's big."
"I know," Rowan whispered back. "He usually just complains. This is… different."
In the back, the kids were quiet but were already soaking up the atmosphere.
"The air is so rich," Darius observed, taking a deep breath. "I can feel the wood's age and wisdom."
"Yes, son. This is very old growth," Rowan confirmed. "Keep an eye out for anything interesting."
Lilly had her rapier out, holding it across her lap. "Aunty Selene, the trees are so close. How do you use a rapier when you can't fully extend the arm for a lunge?"
Selene smiled, her eyes still scanning the shadows between the trees. "A true duelist adapts, little warrior. In tight quarters, the rapier becomes a dagger. Quick, efficient stabs and slices. You need to keep the movements to a minimum. It would be even better to keep a dagger on you."
As they moved deeper, the forest began to show its true colors. Massive ferns, taller than the carriage, lined the path. Strange, luminescent fungi glowed with soft, inner light, and occasionally, a patch of iridescent moss shimmered with an eerie glow.
"Can we stop here for a moment?" asked Aleccia. Rowan knew what she was upto so he stopped the carriage.
He and the other adults didn't detect any monsters within half a kilomter so it was safe. Alexia immediately went to work after she hopped out. She uncorked a glass vial and used a small silver trowel to collect samples of the glowing moss and the soil beneath it.
"The mana saturation is phenomenal, Father," Alexia reported, her eyes alight with scientific excitement. "This moss should have some good use. I need more samples!"
Alex, meanwhile, had his magnifying glass out, examining the strange tracks left in the soft earth. "Father, these tracks are too large for deer. And too deep. I think they might be… monster prints. Should I record the shape and size?"
"Record them, Alex. But do not wander off," Rowan cautioned, his grip tightening on the reins.
Lucia, meanwhile, was happily talking to her purple bat, pointing to a strange, flowering plant with deep-blue petals that curled inward. The bat fluttered down, touched the petal, and immediately the bat glowed slightly.
"The bat says the plant is sleepy, Daddy. It wants a nap," Lucia giggled.
"That is the Sleep Bloom, Lu," Alexia revealed, looking over. "It is a potent tranquilizer herb. Do not touch it."
Selene hopped off the carriage and kept an eye on the kids.
"Now that we're in, can you sense the ball?" asked Rowan to Dante.
"Hmm, I can try." he answered, then closed his eyes. Dante first sensed the unique aura on Darius. Since the boy had spent a long time with his creation, his aura should be all over the thing. It would just take a while to find it in this forest crammed with all sorts of magic fluctuations.
They took their time exploring and enjoying the sights around the forest. Lucia had even found a piece of shiny, silvery crystal the size of her thumb. It was small but very bright. Her bat had helped her find it underneath a bunch of rocks. It was really just a shiny crystal with no magic inside.
As they moved along, Rowan cast a low-level ward of protection and awareness over Shiori and Capper, a ward that would make them feel better in this damp environment they didn't like.
After a while of searching, Dante opened his eyes and took the bread from his pouch, ate the last of it, and then looked at Rowan.
"I found it, but it's not in a good spot. Your daughter had impeccable aim when she hit that ball right into the heart of the forest." he revealed.
When he heard that, Rowan sighed. He had a bad feeling all day long, and it turned out that it was right. The ball ended up in the one place of the forest he disliked the most. Not because that place was dangerous, quite the opposite actually, it was because the dryad herself lived in the center.
Rowan glanced at the kids and then sighed. "You heard that Selene?!"
"Sure did. What's with the grim look? The dryads are usually peaceful beings and sense around, there are no monsters approaching us. As I said, they are too scared. They also stay away from the dryad's home so that's even better for our destination."
Rowan nodded at her words as it was all true. None of the monsters dared to get near this group because the three adults here are very scary people. And I bet that bat scares them too. Monsters have better danger sense than we do.
"Alright then, let's keep heading to center." Rowan said as they continued along the way.
Lilly walked beside Selene as they discussed and practiced some rapier moves on random boulders or dead trees they found. Alexia continued to collect samples of plants she was interested in. Alex just enjoyed cataloging anything he found of interest.
Darius cut off a piece of wood from a dead tree using Selene's help and was carving it while sitting inside the carriage. Lucia continued to find shiny things like rocks or even metal growing from the ground with her bat's help.
They went through the forest for over an hour until the world twisted.