A Thing of Beauty

Chapter 5

Three days had passed after Besha left before the first birds returned to the forest. Zander had changed the magic in the forest. It still kept humans out, but animals were no longer frightened away. Especially the females.

He watched the eagles circle above the forest for a long time before they descended to rest in the tree tops. He envied them. Mated for life, the magnificent birds were wary of him, but after a while they settled in.

And so more birds came. Then the rodents and the insects.

Five days after she left, he circled the forest to check up on the cats and then the crocodiles and alligators. Despite what people thought, they protected the edges of the forest where his magic was the weakest.

Humans had enough space to do their own thing. The forest was his and other magical beings who weren't human were welcome to make it their home too. Wea One had a magician's order to look after the people, everyone else had Zander.

He had lifted the restrictions on the females and almost immediately the cats moved in. They undertook to remain close to the northern boundary to keep protecting it.

The crocodiles and alligators weren't loyal to anyone, so he shifted the boundary a little deeper into the forest, but it was still in place for protection at the southern side.

The mated goblins brought their mates out of hiding and they moved back into their underground homes.

The elves carried on as usual. They were a genetic anomaly among the magic folk in the universe.

Elves only mated with pixies, and there were no pixies on Wea One. Besides Oric there were thirteen elves living in the forest. They acted as Zander's guard. They were the ones that scared humans away from the forest. He wondered how Besha had managed to escape their notice. Oric remained suspiciously closed mouthed about that.

Nine days after she left, Zander and Oric were standing on the observation deck at the highest point in the forest. The tree tops whispered all kinds of secrets around them, but they gave it no notice.

"I wonder if she will come back."

Zander didn't reply, although he had been thinking the same thing ever since she left.

"I hope she found her brother," Oric added.

Since he didn't know the answer to that one either, he kept silent.

"Do you think she is safe?"

"She is," he eventually growled.

"Oh?"

"I put protection magic on her backpack and told her to always keep it with her when she is travelling."

Oric pursed his lips and nodded.

They sat for a long time, simply watching the birds and world around them.

A goblin appeared. He was smiling.

Zander regretted lifting the ban on females when he saw a happy goblin. They had more teeth than he did. Their smiles looked like those of a hungry shark, sharp and scary. The goblins also stopped shaking in fear when they spoke to him. Definitely a bad idea to let the females back into the forest, he thought sourly.

"What?" he barked at the grinning idiot.

"Intruder, master," the idiot reported, still smiling.

Zander narrowed his eyes. "And why are you happy about it?"

"It's that woman again," were the only words he heard.

Oric waved the now confused goblin away before he practically ran down the ladder hidden inside the tree where the deck was located.