“Now these are fresh illumees!” Froke was stuffing his face full of glowing spheres he had picked off the ground near the small trees that dotted the landscape on the approach to the denser part of the forest.

    “What’s an illumee?” Vesper asked.

    “It’s what we eat, a good-food, a light-bite,” said Froke, delighted he could fit so many rhymes into his answer. “The illumees come from the fairies,” he continued.

    Vesper picked one up and examined it.

    “This is the best food we have to eat, in Noominia it’s a treat!” Froke said.

    Vesper ventured to taste it with the tip of her tongue. Nothing. It wasn’t disagreeable, so she tossed it in her mouth and took a bite.

    “When the fairies laugh and make no trouble, they trail behind them strings of bubbles. They float down slowly, loop-the-loop. I like to think of it as fairy poop.”

    Vesper spit the illumee out of her mouth. “Eyughth, ptha, ptha, gross! We’re eating fairy poop?”

    “It’s the most potent food in this realm. What’s the most potent food in your realm?” Froke chewed as he spoke.

    “Chocolate, maybe? But it’s not poop. Well come to think of it, it kinda looks a bit like poop,” Vesper said. “Then there’s honey, which is bee barf. . . .”

    “Then think ‘chocolate’ and try eating one again.”

    It didn’t taste so disgusting the first time—at least until Froke mentioned fairy poop—and she was getting hungry, so Vesper picked up another illumee and thought of the best creamy milk chocolate she had ever tasted.

    “Here goes nothing.” She popped the small, glowing ball into her mouth and chewed. It made a slight pop when her teeth bit through the soft coating.

“Hey, this tastes just like chocolate!”

    “Yes, it will mimic the taste of any food, so think delicious thoughts, and never think rude.”

    Vesper tried another, “Mmmm, strawberries! And cake, ice cream, pizza . . . so amazing!”

    “If you are fond of this, Froke will show you illumee bliss. It’s in a place so good near the edge of the deep woods. This will also protect you from the dragon’s dark glare, the illumee’s glow will begin to shine from in there,” Froke gently poked Vesper’s belly. Vesper smiled in response. “Froke will show you the way to the Keep, all you need to do is move your feet.”

    They continued their venture into the forest for perhaps an hour. As time passed, Vesper began to notice more life in the woods. There were creatures everywhere, living in the trees, in the ground, the water, flying above her. At first she didn’t notice them, yet they were there.

    Without warning, Vesper and Froke were upon a series of small waterfalls. The forest floor around them was filled with illumees, as was the bed of the river. All through the tree branches floated glowing bubbles which dropped slowly past each branch, rolled off of leaves, and dropped gently to the forest floor. The entire cascade glowed, as many of the illumees had landed in the whorls and eddies of the water.

    Above the canopy of leaves, the unseen fairies were playing and laughing, each of them dropping pearls of light that lit up the deep woods so much it looked like midday, though dawn was still hours away. Vesper could see more flocks of fairies bathing in the water and playing tag in the surrounding woods.

    “Hungry? Now, we feast!”

    Froke and Vesper spent the next hour gorging themselves with illumees, seeing who could invent the most extravagant desserts. During their feast, the sunrise caused the forest to turn golden, pink, and then light blue. The sky made the illumees seem even brighter. Vesper saw many creatures as they picnicked, including trees that walked and a family of little forest people, a pod of freshwater mermaids enjoying the crisp water of the cascade, and giant butterflies scraping the sky.

    “Froke will show you a magic spell, and if it doesn’t work, please don’t tell,” Froke seemed a bit shy about pulling out a wand from under the edge of his shell.

    “You have a magic wand?” Vesper was a bit giddy from all of the illumee light in her belly, and couldn’t hide her excitement. She also noticed she was literally glowing, the illumees had started taking effect.

    The wand looked tiny in Froke’s hands, and was nothing more than a winding branch wrapped in shiny green twine on which dangled three or four charms.

    “Froke is learning a little charm, to protect you from harm. It’s called the veribloom and it has much, much power.

    “Oooo I can’t wait to see it!” Vesper chirped.

Froke held the wand out and spoke slowly, “Hiljaisuudesta—veribloom grow, for Vesper show."

    Nothing.

    "Sprout from your seed, to protect Vesper in her time of need!” Froke waved his wand again.

    There was a tiny puff of sparkling dust just above the ground. They both stared at the spot, while Froke stood frozen, pointing at it with his wand.

    “Humph,” Froke grunted.

    Vesper waited another moment, then turned to Froke, “I’m sorry, Froke. I do love your magic wand, though.”

    Froke sighed in disappointment.

    Then, ever so slowly, a tiny vine sprouted out of the ground, growing until a bud formed at its tip, then petals burst forth. It was as big as Vesper’s pinky finger, though it stood proud, showing off it’s blue petals and golden filaments.

    “Froke did it!” Froke lifted his wand in triumph.

    Vesper couldn’t help but laugh as she walked over to get a closer look.

    “This is great! It’s actually quite small, isn’t it, but very cool, Froke! Can I pick it?” She knelt down beside the tiny flower.

    “Oh, yes, it’s yours,” Froke answered excitedly. “Its size doesn't matter much—just look at you, you only grew to such-and-such,” Froke said as his giant arm gestured toward Vesper, measuring just above the top of her head with his hand.

    “The veribloom is a truth flower, and truth is one of the most powerful powers. It can protect you when who is not who, what's not what, or how. . . not sure about how.”

    Vesper smiled, then carefully picked the veribloom and pocketed it.

    The feast continued, and when they were stuffed, they sat next to the cascades watching the comings and goings of the many fairy folk, and were entertained by their playful games. Soon, Vesper began to think again of going home, and how she’d love to take a fairy with her, just so she could still eat illumees for dessert.

    “Now I see what you mean about fairy poop,” Vesper admitted as she examined the trees. “But I wouldn’t call it poop. It seems more like the illumees are dripping off, or shedding . . . like dogs shed their fur.”

    “What’s a dog?” Froke asked.

    “You don’t know what a dog is?” Her jaw dropped.

    Froke just shrugged.

    “Only the most loyal, amazing, fuzzy, cute animal that protects you, plays with you, and will be your best friend without you even having to ask. Dogs are my second-favorite animal. Horses are first, of course. Well, now I guess horses and unicorns tie for first.”

    Vesper’s description of dogs bruised Froke’s feelings.

    “Froke is fuzzy, if you count moss,” he said.

    Vesper chuckled.

    Suddenly, it was as though a dark blanket suffocated the air. The alert fairies reacted first, leaving their baths and games and darting toward the safety of the deep forest. The mermaids disappeared below the surface of the water, and the little forest people scrambled to gather their belongings.

    Froke stood up; Vesper followed.

    “We’ve got to leave, now,” said Froke.

    “What’s happening?”

    “Froke has seen this before and we don’t want to be here when it—”

    An enormous and heavy dragon dropped from the sky into the pool of water at the top of the cascade, scattering fairy folk and illumees everywhere. The water sizzled and steamed. The tree trunks around the dragon began to darken with rot. Its wings sliced through branches and trees, causing them to crash. Fairy folk scattered in a panic, and many young ones were left stranded at the cascade.

    A dense fog rolled into the woods, its source was the shadow dragon itself—a tactic used to confuse its prey. It snapped at a flutter of fairies as they flew by with its massive jaws, swallowing a dozen fairies in a single chomp.

    “In here! Now!” Froke held up a tree branch and signaled Vesper to run into the cover of the deep woods. She dove under the branch and took several steps before she turned back to check on Froke. When she turned around, Froke was leading the way again.

    Froke led her along trails, between trees, and past thick patches of underbrush. Vesper ran full speed yet could not keep pace with the giant.

    “I can’t keep up!” Vesper yelled, panting. The dark fog began to fill the woods where they stopped.

    “Keep moving! You aren’t ready to face that beast!”

    They started running again, but the fog was too thick. When Vesper looked down, her feet were buried in the fog and she noticed she was glowing from the illumees she had been eating: her skin, her clothes, the necklace, even her shoes. Afraid of crashing into a tree, she stopped running.

    “Froke! I can’t see! The fog!”

    “Vesper! Just keep talking. Froke will find you.”

    “Froke?!”

    She heard the shadow dragon approaching with the sounds of slithering and crackling and the smell of burning tree bark.

    “Froke?!”

    Vesper knew instinctively that if the dragon caught a glimpse of her glow, it would all be over. She sat at the root of a tree and began to scrub her arms and face with mud to cover the shining light.

    The bark of the tree she was leaning against turned slick with black rot. Fungi grew in an instant around its base and the rotten trunk steamed and creaked as it strained to support its heavy branches. The air began to heat up, and just behind Vesper, the dragon’s tail slithered along the forest floor, but Vesper didn’t dare to look.

    Vesper then felt something grab her waist and lift her off the ground, and everything went black. Vesper noticed her body heaving, straining to gain back her breath. She did not feel any pain, yet she could not move.

    Am I dragon food? What happened?

    Vesper blinked hard against the curtain of darkness that enveloped her. She smelled the earthy forest floor beneath her, and felt her cheek pressed hard against the mossy ground.

    She heard the familiar rumble of Froke’s voice fill her ears: “Don’t make a sound.”

    The next few moments felt like hours until finally the hill giant stood up, revealing Vesper curled up on the forest floor, unmoving and in shock.

    “Dragon gone. Fog gone. . . Poor little night-lights,” Froke said, looking back toward the now empty cascade. “That was a close call for you, too. Are you okay?”

    “You . . . are . . . an idiot!” Vesper scolded.

    Froke’s rough face looked hurt and confused as Vesper slowly rose to her feet. “If you think I’m here to fight that thing, you’re out of your mind! I’m going home, back to my world, my friends.”

    “Well then, Froke doesn’t need to be saving your life,” he said sarcastically. “That thing can heat you and eat you like a unicorn barbecue. Until you’re ready to fight you see that Froke protects you, right?”

    Vesper did not look convinced. Her brow furrowed and she began walking in circles, holding her elbows, trying not to slip on the trail of rot and dust left by the dragon.

    “We must continue on the journey we planned, to the tower. That is where you will find your power, where truth will grow, like your veribloom flower. Or, if you must go home, the Silence Keepers will show you the way back. The Keep is not too far. You’ll be safe there from the dragon’s char.”

    Froke started walking at a slow pace. After a moment, Vesper followed at a distance.

    As they walked, the forest slowly returned to normal. Bird-like creatures flew from branch to branch above them, chirping and squawking as they had before, and now and then Vesper spotted a fairy glowing in the distance, flying low near the roots of the tree trunks, or high up in the dense canopy of the forest.

    When all seemed normal, suddenly Froke froze and stood silently, sniffing the air. Vesper stopped beside him and watched for a moment, before rolling her eyes and kicking the ground.

    From deep in the woods came the faintest beat of a drum which grew louder by the second, soon joined by the jingle of bells, accented by crashing symbols. Vesper was now paying attention and turned to face the sound.

    “What’s that?” asked Vesper.

    “Stay close,” said Froke.

    Vesper was on tilt from her encounter with the shadow dragon.

    She feared the worst had yet to come.