I went to the entrance and peeped out. There was a faint lightness beginning in the sky but I couldn't see anything on the ground yet. I couldn't hear anything either except the slight wind noise in the tops of the trees. I didn't think the men who had been with Sherwood, if they were still following, would be quiet and invisible, any more than they had been the night before. Actually, considering their attitudes as the argued with Sherwood, I would have been vastly surprised if they had followed. So I crept out and went over to the great fir tree and stood between the roots where I'd napped. I felt the presence of the tree spirit and I somehow communicated my search to it. I felt a warm reassurance that there was nothing in the area that was unusual except ourselves.

I walked over to the creek as the sky grew slowly lighter to splash water on my face. As I looked up, something came out of the forest on the opposite side of the clearing. I could see a faint glow, but it faded as the light of sunrise increased. I watched carefully for a few minutes but saw nothing more until Twigs emerged from the grass from the same general direction. I figured it must have been him.

"Do you glow slightly at night?" I asked him.

"How would I know?" he replied in his grating voice. "I can see things, but you know it's not the same way you do; I don't have eyes. I don't have any idea if I glow."

"Have you seen any sign that we're being followed?"

"No, no humans are anywhere around except you and Malcolm. I don't think those fellows would follow us after their leader was killed."

"That's how I feel too. Well, I guess I'll rewarm the rest of the soup for breakfast."

Twigs didn't comment, he just walked away and disappeared in the underbrush. I got the fire going again and the soup warming - by now it was more like mush - It sure smelled good.

When it was ready I went to the tent to tell Malcolm and almost bumped into him as he came out of the tent flap. "Justin my boy, I smelled a wonderful aroma, you haven't eaten it all have you?"

"Of course not, master, It's all ready and there should be plenty for both of us."

"Good! I can see I will be well blessed in taking you as my apprentice. I had no doubts, of course, or I would never have done it, but your cooking skills will make it doubly favorable."

"That's one of the things I was thinking about last night - my apprenticeship that is, not my cooking. I'd like to know exactly why you took me as your apprentice and what our relationship will be and why you thought I wasn't human and thought I was the Elemental you were looking for, and..."

"Justin, slow down, my boy. I too want to discuss these things, but there will be plenty of time as we walk along today. Right now, let's enjoy your wonderful soup and the new dawn. I'm beginning to feel there might be the faintest touch of spring in the air. I wouldn't be surprised to see a snowdrop or two or some early buds on the some trees soon after we leave this dense forest."

"All right," I replied, I was after all Malcolm's apprentice, so I dished up soup for us.

As we ate, I said, "But before Twigs comes back I want to mention that I got up early to see if there was any sign we were being followed. I stood by the fir tree and I got the impression from it that there was nothing unusual around here except us. Then I saw a faint glow come out of the forest over there and in a while Twigs came from that direction. Do you think Twigs glows slightly or did I see something else? I don't remember Twigs glowing night before last, but I was a bit occupied by other things then."

Malcolm thought for a while as he savored his soup. "I don't know," he said at last, "I know little of elementals such as 'Twigs', that's why I was searching and calling for one. That's also one reason I thought you might be the one I was looking for - I had no idea what such a creature might look like. I wanted to study one to see if there was any interesting and useful 'magic' I could learn from it.

"Anyway, I believe we must be very careful around Twigs; how we study it and what we say around it. Intelligent creatures that are not human don't have the same values humans do. Some of Twigs' values, or lack thereof, may turn to our hurt if we're not wise and careful in our dealings with it. A proverb says it can be dangerous to deal with wizards. That can go several times over for a non-human intelligence, especially one that's not yet understood.

"I believe we will begin to understand Twigs far faster because of your experience with it and the spirit of the apple tree and I will be happy, I think, to end our relationship sooner rather than later. But now, lets get going - I think by the time we make ready it will be light enough under the trees to walk without running into them."

Malcolm went to the tent and took his pack out and began to put the cooking gear into it as I washed it in the stream. There was still a bit of soup left - more like stew now - so he dug in the pack and extracted a lid that fit snugly on the pot, which he then put in the pack. Last of all he folded the tent into an unbelievably small package, even for the outside size, let alone the inside size, and stuck that in the pack. It was kind of mind-numbing to think that the pack had just been a small item inside the tent and now the tent and everything in it was a small part of the items in the pack.

Malcolm swung the pack up onto his back effortlessly. We started off with the sun at our backs assuming Twigs would be following and make an appearance off and on as it did yesterday.

About a hundred feet after we entered the forest on the other side of the clearing it became so dark that we had to concentrate on our steps so that we didn't trip on a root or step in a hole. We couldn't take the attention to talk or even think much. The trees had grown ever larger as we'd walked through them yesterday. It was just huge trunks and a mostly smooth floor of fir needles with just enough roots and holes to make it hazardous to walk without watching your step. There were occasional places where the firs were more widely spaced and there was more light and some underbrush but not many.

It wasn't gloomy or threatening; in fact it actually felt benevolent and protective; a comforting and warm sort of darkness despite the cold winter air. That kind of surprised me since I hadn't felt anything at all about the forest yesterday.

"Master," I said slowly as I continued to watch my step, "that big fir tree I mentioned this morning - yesterday as I was napping between its roots I felt that its spirit and I conversed. Nothing is clear about it except that it happened and that the spirit gave me something that made me very happy but I don't know what. Now I seem to sense that this forest feels like it cares for us and is protecting us. Do you think that may have been the gift - a feeling about trees or forests?"

"If so, that's very exciting. We'll have to watch and see if this is just the feeling of the moment or is a new sense you have. I'm beginning to wonder if you are the one I was looking for - no, not really," he chuckled, "but perhaps your encounter with Twigs and the apple tree spirit changed something in you so that the fir tree spirit took an interest in you. Just be careful about the trees you associate with. If this is a new sense and is reliable it may protect you from getting entangled with bad trees, so to speak, if there are such.

"Also, it would be amazing and wonderful if the trees were being protective towards us. I would feel much safer if I could count on this sense. I'll be very interested to know if it works with trees outside the forest too."

"Do you feel unsafe master?"

"Well, Justin, there is evil in the world, and sometimes great evil. No one ever knows when it will come upon them and often it seeks wizards out. Any protection a wizard can get is welcome. If you, as an apprentice, are protected to any extent by this forest it's very positive. If it extends to other forests or even individual trees you will have an advantage I've never heard of before. It remains to be seen of course what form this protection may take and whether it may extend to those around you, but look at what happened to Sherwood and his band. Just try to keep a watch on this feeling."

As we walked on, the light increased to the point where we didn't have to keep such a careful eye on the ground.

"I have cultivated a sense of feeling magic over the years. It allows me to sense beings that are inherently magic in certain ways. Many other wizards, sorcerers and others do the same, some much better than me. It doesn't work with trees it seems - I don't feel the presence of their spirits nor any sense of whether this or any forest has any attitude at all. I never heard of others who felt tree spirits either, thought there are other beings that do. It did, however, allow me to sense that Twigs was about and it seems it allowed Twigs to sense that I was looking for it.

"And that's the answer to your earlier question as to why I thought you were the one I was looking for. I felt a strong aura of magic in you. I had never before felt a magic aura in any human before except those who study magic; wizards, sorcerers, witches and their apprentices and the like. That's why, no matter how much you looked like a human boy I thought you must not be. And I jumped to the conclusion that you were the one I was looking for. I am abashed, for I don't often jump to conclusions."

"Master, the priests of the town I come from do everything in their power to suppress magic and make it and anyone who practices magic seem the ultimate evil. How could I have anything magic about me? They would have killed me at once if they had seen any magic in me."

"I don't know how you are magic or why - I just know you are. The extreme anti-magic attitude of the priests and the isolation of the town probably protected you; there are evil sorcerers who hunt magic beings and put them to their own use. They would have been unlikely to visit your town because of the anti-magic attitude, as well as its isoloation.

"Now that you are with me and my apprentice such will be less likely to notice you, assuming that any magic they detect in you comes from learning magic. We will certainly have to begin your training quickly and try to find what the natural magic in you is all about. I don't doubt that the tree spirits are reacting to you partly because of your magic. You will have to attempt to contact tree spirits as much as you can - just be careful."

"I'll try. Another thing that bothers me is the whole business of the pursuit. Even if the town thinks I killed Dampster on purpose the urgency of the pursuit is hard to understand. Even harder is how they found us; the townspeople seldom leave town and never go far into the woods."

"Well, my boy, I certainly don't know everything and having never visited your town I can't begin to conjecture about those things. How they found our camping place could be coincidence but it's very unlikely. I'd like to know but I'm not going back to find out and I hope we'll never have occasion to need to know. If the town weren't so anti-magic I'd think their persuit might be related to the magic I see in you. But it's very hard to imagine, as you say, how they could have let you live and roam freely about if they had any idea there was anything magic about you."

We walked along pensively for a while, each in his thoughts. The land was no longer essentially flat but had begun to have valleys and ridges - nothing very hard to walk through - and was generally rising. As we were climbing up toward the next ridge Twigs suddenly appeared before us.

"The way ahead is not safe." it said in its creaky voice, "It would be best if you went that way for a time and then continued."

Malcolm replied, "What is it you sense, my friend?"

"I don't know what it is, I just know it feels not safe."

"The ways you guided us yesterday turned out well, my friend, and I am inclined to continue to follow your advice. But I'm also curious, especially since you cannot say why you have this feeling. I believe we'll continue this time, very cautiously of course, and see what it is that you feel is 'not safe.'"

"I would like to know too. I will be about." and it dissappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"Justin, do you have a sense of the forest and does it agree with Twigs'" Malcolm asked.

I considered a moment. "It feels no different to me - perhaps there is something ahead the Twigs can feel but doesn't bother the forest."

"Well, we'll see. I wish I'd asked Twigs how far away this feeling is - but then it probably couldn't have told us. I'll just lay a temporary spell of indirection on us and we'll go forward cautiously. There aren't many dangers I can't deal with if I'm alert to the posibility."

He reached into a pocket, felt around a moment and extracted a small vial, opened it and took out a pinch of dust, threw it in the air and said three words I didn't know. Nothing seemed to happen, but Malcolm said, "Now we're ready, let's go forward." and he set off up the ridge at the same pace we'd been going all morning.

As we came over the top of the ridge so we could see down into the next small valley we saw bright color and movment illuminated by a shaft of sunlight coming through a break in the trees above. We stopped and watched. There was a fight going on between a large tan mountain cat and a bright blue creature that looked something like a horse. I'd never seen a blue horse before, but this one was even more strange - it had a blunt silver horn about six inches long in the center of its forehead. Near them, but away from the area of the fight, was a girl with copper colored hair and a dress so white it looked luminous.