"Wait, Feri!" A man in his mid-twenties, and wearing a soiled coat tripped over the rotted log he failed to spot among the ferns and ivy. The bark crumpled under him, and bugs scurried out from the moist fortress. Asinis managed to keep his face out of the dirt, but the impact jarred him from head to toe. A tickling sensation crawled over his wrist. He gasped, shuddering as he shook off a centipede. He rubbed his rattled head, regretting every decision he'd made that week. He hadn't anticipated getting lost while evading the prison guard in town.
Feri—no bigger than a five-year-old child—skidded to a stop. Taking advantage of her rabbit legs, she leapt to close the distance between her and Asinis and pulled on his sleeve. "Come on, Asinis!" She cursed behind the mask hiding her too-wide mouth and pointed teeth. "I can't use magic right now. Please, get up!"
Asinis, spurred on by the threat of capture, pushed himself up by his skinny arms. Feri bounded deeper into the woods, her long, pink, floppy ears finding their way out from under her hood, but she slowed down for his sake. He glanced sideways at her, unfamiliar with the guilt forcing him to keep up instead of disappearing alone as he intended when the explosion they had caused first happened.
"Halt!" Asinis didn't dare look over his shoulder when the guard shouted. At first, Asinis thought he meant him and Feri—until he heard the cheap chain mail stop shushing like loud whispers. "We go no further. They're in the hands of the guardians of this wood now."
Guardians of this wood? A magical reference. Asinis didn't like the sound of it. Especially not knowing what it was. He held no interest for nature's magic. The guards gave up their chase, and Asinis and Feri continued running, though Asinis wondered if that were wise. Unknown magical creatures—or beings—often contested saps foolish enough to seek refuge in a haunted domain. Asinis gulped the humid air. His lungs burned. Spending his life in study hadn't encouraged him to exercise, and this current exertion threatened to flatten him.
"Feri. I don't know if I can go any further," he began.
"Just a little more, Asinis. We're almost there!" Her voice jarred him like nails on slate. It pitched high then low and rubbed like gravel. He sometimes couldn't guess what she said, and most of the time didn't know what to think or where to look when she spoke. It hadn't been like that when they first met. The magical explosion had ruined her somehow. Changed the way she looked and sounded. She'd not explained it to him, and he wondered if she even knew.
"Almost where?" he wheezed.
"Here—oh!" Feri slid to a stop. Asinis almost tumbled over her, but he managed to take control of his limbs in time and avoided somersaulting over her head. "Oh no," Feri whispered.
Oh no, indeed. Asinis had seen a sketch of the Waywin Moon Wells in one of the archives, and this didn't look right. The painting he remembered depicted a gleaming silver basin with a white wooden arch, which balanced what he thought looked like a silver gravy boat. Moonlight would gather in it and then pour into the silver basin, which dispersed the moonlight throughout the region to grant blessings and magic. Its purpose often morphed into one of protection or nurturing as its deity presided over mothers. But this one—something had torn it apart.
"Is that... a moon well?" he asked, its state causing him to question himself. Bits that could be natural pebbles or part of the ruin itself scattered far and wide. Asinis couldn't imagine anyone piecing it back together.
"It was..." Feri stepped toward it. "What happened?" Asinis sucked his lips into a frown. "Asinis. This is bad. What if the Eclipsed Shrine is broken?"
"The Empire would not let that happen," Asinis said, but his voice wavered unconvincingly and did not distill her dread. If the eclipse shrine hidden in the center of this forest fell, Feri, one who drew her magic from the moon, would never cast a spell again.
"The Empire?" she cried. "The Empire hasn't shepherd these woods in years. They're a bunch of mice. They must have let something in. Moon wells don't just break!"
"Where's the next nearest one?" Asinis asked. He didn't want to argue over politics and failed government policies. He admired Feri, but he doubted either of them knew enough to carry on a debate over the kingdom's workings.
Feri pointed. "That way. The moon wells encircle the Eclipsed Shrine. They protect it as much as it protects them. But."
Asinis put a hand on her shoulder, hoping to stifle some of her anxiety despite suffering his own. "Don't worry, Feri. I'm sure they're intact."
She frowned. "You are a terrible liar."
His smile waned under a wince. "Always have been," he agreed. "Come on. Let's look."
They turned away from the ruined well toward the snowy mountain peaks, which rose above the forest canopy. Asinis knew they would find the moon well in that direction the same as the first but didn't know how to tell Feri. His gaze bounced to her tense shoulders. Was the moon wells' condition the reason she couldn't use magic? He wasn't used to not knowing, and he didn't like it. But Feri came first. He had to help her. And then maybe—they could go home.
He searched for signs of danger, be it human or otherwise, while Feri led the way. Rustling in the brush stayed Asinis's feet, his fingers tingling with spells. He didn't relax when a squirrel, almost as carrot-topped as him, revealed itself and then scurried away. A badger prowled across their path next. It sniffed at them, but Feri knew better than to agitate it, and so it waddled on after a toothy huff. It had barely disappeared into the brush when a horrific guttural sound burst over their heads. The spell on Asinis's pointer finger zapped, and a frost-like substance covered him and Feri in the same manner as a soldier's armor.
"What was that?" Feri whispered.
"I don't know. But it can't be good," Asinis sang.
A murder of crows drew up between the forest canopy breaks, their caws encouraging others to flee. Asinis thought it best to heed their warning, but Feri hastened her trek.
"Feri!" Asinis tripped after her, willing his limbs to propel him forward and not lose sight of her. Low branches smacked him in the face, rocks threatened to pitch him earthward a second time. And then he burst into a clearing. Feri stood in it, shoulders slumped and pink face ashen. She loomed over a dormant stream etched into the encompassing stone base of the moon well. "What are you thinking?" Asinis hissed before his voice faltered. The moon well before her stood in a pile of rubble worse than the first.
Feri looked over her shoulder at Asinis, tears in her red eyes. "Asinis..."
Asinis swallowed at Feri, realizing—she may be trapped forever. He watched her sorrowful expression shift. Her brow furrowed, she screamed, and in a swift movement he had grown accustomed to, she tackled him to the ground. The earth at Asinis's back rattled his ribs and knocked the wind out of his lungs. He gasped when he could and then threw his arms around Feri as a spear sped through the place he had stood.
Feri, pupils turned to slivers, lifted her head. Asinis tilted his enough to look for what tried attacking him, but nothing revealed itself. The spell in his middle finger sputtered, and his vision shifted. The magic he used separated the shadows from one another and outlined a band of people so expertly hidden, they only translated into disjointed silhouettes. They prowled forward, and a group dressed in rogue-like clothes stood over them. Asinis felt Feri slide the knife from her belt and hide it in her palm. His heart rammed against her raging one, and the remaining spell in his finger jumped in anticipation.
A ruckus on the other side of the moon well forced the rogues and Asinis to look in that direction. Asinis gawked at the fifteen-foot creature bursting from the pine and cedar trees rising out of a wall of blackberry bushes. Wood and vegetation twisted together to create a monster, which ran toward them at a speed not suited to his size.
"Ha, ha, ha. So, the tree keeper is real," one of the men standing over Asinis and Feri said. A wild glint lit his shadowed eyes. He stepped forward, making a motion with his fingers. His troupe of six spread out while he pressed his foot on Asinis's shoulder.
Asinis clenched his teeth, nose scrunching in pain. Feri's breathing grew heavier, the pupils of her eyes shrinking further so they all but disappeared. Asinis held her as tight as he could. He willed her to keep calm. She lost control of her emotions in tense situations, and he didn't know what would happen if he let her loose. Screams curled him inward, and he saw out of the corner of his eye the tree keeper. It swept out one arm, its roots extending to pierce through the first three rogues. Then it flung them off, and they crashed and clattered around the moon well. Feri, though unable to see, flinched as if sensing the impact, and Asinis felt her hot breath coil through her mask.
One of the rogues threw a dagger into the tree keeper's vines, but the tree keeper didn't even grunt as his coiled barbs turned it around and shot it back through the rogue's shoulder. The leader pressed his boot harder into Asinis, as if holding him responsible for his subordinate's deaths. He dislocated it with a popping sound. Asinis cried out. His vision wavered. A vicious snarl snapped from Feri's lips, and she slipped out of Asinis's arms, rose in a blur, and slashed at the leader's face. He shouted as the tip of her blade tore through his hood and sliced into his cheek. A line of blood slid down his face. His eyes ablaze with fury, he retaliated.
Asinis, shouting, turned onto his one uninjured hand and both knees. The spell on his ring finger screamed free, the shrieking sound so intense all—save the tree keeper—shirked because of it. That moment of vulnerability should have been enough, but the rogue leader recovered as the spell bolted toward him. He rolled out of its way, and the agitated sound wave tore apart the trees behind him. The attack left dangling branches and shredded leaves, a fate that would have ripped the rogue apart. He threw a dart at Asinis, but Feri jumped up from where she held her ears and snatched it out of the air. She threw it back at him. It sped past his neck. Feri lost her accuracy when in a frenzy, and Asinis didn't know how to help her. He looked over his shoulder where the tree keeper threw its arms down on the last rogue. The others it had killed lay strewn across the holy grounds. Their lightless eyes pointed towards heaven or pierced the dirt. Asinis swallowed the bile climbing up his throat. He didn't have any more spells. That he could hold three at a time was a feat in itself. Asinis cursed as the rogue snatched Feri by her neck. A scream caught in his throat as he staggered to his feet, mind racing for anything to save her with. Feri's legs flailed under her, her fingers clawing at the rogue's hand. Her scratches left behind deep, bleeding gashes, but he ignored them. Then, moving so fast it created a wind that rustled Asinis's hair, the tree keeper's arm sped past as tangled roots. They wrapped around the rogue's ankles, who clenched his teeth when he realized he could not escape. The force with which it pulled him was so fierce, it flung his fingers open. Feri dropped free, and the tree keeper slung him so hard and fast he cracked in half around a tree on the other side of the moon well.
Asinis, his breathing staggered gasps, scurried to put Feri behind him. She tugged on his coat to retreat, but they paused when a mournful wail came from the faceless creature. It fell to its knees, sending a tremor under their feet. The foliage and roots covering it retracted and shrunk, and the pale face of a young man and his black shrouded eyes revealed itself. Asinis gasped and Feri gawked. They stared at the young man, now covered only from the waist down. He raised his arms, saw the blood on them, and screamed—eyes round in panic and fear. The agony and loss in his voice caused Asinis to grasp at his heart and stare as tears spilled over the person's cheeks. Feri released Asinis. He wanted to stop her, but only a small cry got past his lips before she closed the distance between herself and the stranger who trembled. Confused. In pain. Of course, Feri would go to him. She stood on her toes and then put her arms around him. The tree keeper crumpled into them, and Asinis watched as this terrifying, pitiful stranger mourned over whatever he had lost and what he had done.