Dorothea's tail thumped against Sam's back, and she stretched her neck to look up at the colorful feathers flitting in the trees. "It's the fairy roads," she explained. "The fairy realm is like your world -- it exists outside the five kingdoms. The fairy roads are the link between our world and theirs. The roads are full of life energy -- some wizards call them leylines -- and so everything grows differently, the closer you get to the fairy road."

Alphonse looked back with a grin. "Not to mention the fairies that sneak through the veil."

"We should be careful," Dorothea went on with a nod. "Verinia is a beautiful place, but these woods have a mind of their own."

Coralie smacked a low-hanging tree branch with her palm, and it jumped and moved away as if stung, its leaves shuddering. A flock of long-feathered birds warbled above. They passed by a tall stone with a symbol of a sun etched into its surface -- then, half-concealed by foliage, a moss-covered statue of a long-forgotten god. It had the head of an eagle, the outstretched arms of a woman and the wings of a bat, bristled with green lichen and heavy with dew-glistening vines. A crow cackled somewhere in the distance.

"Well that is not right," Alphonse whispered, as he tended to do when faced with the unknown. He pushed his hat farther down his forehead, the feather trembling. "We should be near the brook now, but I know I've never seen that statue before."

Florian huffed, shifting the weight of his pack. "The woods 're just playing tricks again. We're all right as long as we stay on the path."

August, who had been walking slower ever since they had passed the sun-stone, finally stopped in his tracks. While the dwarves trouped onward through the brush and bramble, the Marshal stood breathlessly still. "Sam," he said in a low, grave voice, laced with a hideous sort of anger. His eyes were fixed on that mossy statue, and he refused to take another step. "If you value your life you will untie me and give me my sword."

"You're mad!" Dorothea hissed, and her claws nipped through Sam's shirt for an instant. "I won't have any more of your tricks, Marshal. Keep moving."