"I can't leave?" Cybelline turned her freshly scarred face towards the fox, "Says who?"

The fox looked at the young child whose eyes could burn ice and bristled. For some reason. he felt a little scared when faced with this little child. The fox looked at the child carefully, there was a spark of magic in this ordinary child, but nothing about him was alarming.

And yet, in the child's anger, the fox felt an instinctive feeling of danger, the kind that animals all shared. The sense of dread before earthquakes, fires, and floods. The fox took a step back, and then, remembering his own power, scoffed at the strange fear he had toward the youth.

"This place was build based on your wants, needs, and desires." He said, "Why is it that when most would die for a chance like this, you want to leave?"

"Then go find someone else." Cybelline's voice was cool. "I don't want it."

"Why won't you stay? This place was created based on your every want and need" The fox asked, a little hurt, a little offended. He had only wanted to play a joke in the beginning. And the tree was never wrong in choosing the next caretaker it rescued people and brought them here.

Cybelline took a deep breath, and forced down the unease. She sat down and looked at the perfect land, her gaze always falling back towards the dying, gnarled tree. It was no higher than her knee, the skin ancient and cracked. Six branches, that, if you looked closely enough you could see were six different colors. Black, white, gold, blue, brown, red. There may have been many leaves before, but now only a handful remained on the tree. A good breath would knock them down.

"What are you doing?" The fox demanded suddenly as Cybelline reached out towards the withered, gnarled, dying tree.

A light flashed as her hand touched the barrier. A sharp, piercing pain ran up her hand, it was as painful as the blood curse she had just experienced.

Cybelline turned to the fox, "What's so special about this tree. Why me."



"It chose you." The fox said simply, "It does that sometimes, bring dying people with the Spark who can help it live a little longer."

"So because I was dying, it decided to bring me here?" Cybelline asked. The fox nodded.

"What is this place?"

The fox's voice was a little tight, "What does it matter if I tell you? You caretakers all die in the end. Mortals." He plopped himself down and began to wash his paw, his back to her.

Cybelline was never rash and if the situation called for it, she was always the first to calm down. Taking a few deep breathes and allowing the tension to leave her body, she thought through her problem.

She sat down on the ground, and wished there was some firewood. The moment she had the thought, the wood appeared in front of her. She looked at the fox, "Did you do that?"

"There are a lot things outside the fog. If you ask within reason, I'll provide everything for you." The fox said, his voice muffled by his paws, he sounded a little dejected. Cybelline nodded and added this little tidbit of information into her knowledge of the place. "How big is this place?"

The fox turned his head away, and Cybelline shrugged and started building a little fire. Taking out some of the kills she had made over the last few days she began to make roasted rabbit and pheasant.

The little fox's tale wagged. Cybelline saw it from the corner of her eye and made no comment. Soon, the irresistible smell of the roasted meats wafted into the air.

Plop. A suspicious liquid dropped from the fox's mouth.

"What's your name?" Cybelline suddenly asked as she flipped over the sizzling meat, the oil dropping onto the fire below, creating a hiss and a flare of flame.

The fox didn't answer, Cybelline didn't mind, she was busy cooking. The fox, seeing that she didn't ask anything after that, turned around curiously. That was his mistake.

Smelling it was one thing, seeing it, was another. The pheasant was large and plump, its skin crackling in the heat of the fire. The fox gulped. Cybelline tore off a drumstick, "Too bad I don't share food with strangers."

The fox turned his head as she took a huge bite, and then turned back. And then turned to face her again, his black little nose quivering.

Cybelline hid a smile.

She offered the drumstick, "Let's call this a peace offering. My name is Cybelline."

The fox refused to look at her. He was in turmoil. He wanted to leave but the smell was everywhere. When was the last time he ate something that smelled this good? All of the caretakers he'd encountered treated him with respect and fear. No one talked to him the way Cybelline did. No one certainly cooked the way she did, instead they all lived off the water of the life giving tree and the fruits of the land beyond the fog.

The fox's resolve began to wane, he looked at her and then back at the food, "What did you do to it?"

Cybelline took it back and bit in. Just as she was about to take another bite, two furry paws wrapped itself around her arm, "My name is Red. Since you offered, it would be rude to refuse. I mean I don't even like human food..." In a flash it was gone.

"Slow down, you act as if you haven't eaten in a year."

"Thousands. Not many of the caretakers ever thought to give me food. Not that I need it." The fox said as he left the bone shining clean. So much for not liking human food.

"If you come with me to the outside world, I'll take you to eat things you've never dreamed of."

The fox's ears perked up, but then flattened again, "I cant leave this place, my Queen asked to safeguard it. I made a promise."

"And how long have you been here?"

"I...I can't remember." The fox said, "Everyone dies and only I'm left behind."

The fox looked up to her, "Look, if you don't leave, this could be your home too. If you stay here with me, I promise I can heal your friends. Just a few hundred years and my magic will build up again."

"No." Cybelline said quietly, "There are people waiting outside for me."

"No one has ever left this place, there has been many caretakers " The fox asked, a little bit of hope in his voice.

Cybelline frowned, "How many have tried?"

The fox thought for a moment, "A few have taken part of the Trial, and those who chose to do so, died."

"What Trial?"

"Give me another leg and I'll tell you."

Cybelline tore off the other rabbit leg.

"The Trial is a test set by Queen Titania." The fox said after he finished the leg. "Whoever can pass it, can leave this place. But if you fail, you're burned alive."

"Sounds fun." Cybelline whistled.

The fox nodded, "The Trial is not just anything a human could withstand. Even First Blood Fae were not powerful enough to withstand it. Not that they were stupid enough to try."

"Why didn't you tell me about it in the first place?" Cybelline asked.

The fox looked down, "I think it's a waste of life. Besides, most caretakers never want to try it anyway. They were too happy to stay in this little paradise."

"When you say Queen Titania, do you mean the queen of the Fae?" Cybelline asked, her voice almost hypnotic, the fox nodded, "The Great Queen of the Fae and Folk."

The fox burped and eyed the half eaten pheasant, Cybelline took it off the rack and placed it in front of him, "Look, I can't promise I won't die. But there are people who are depending on me. Just like your queen depended on you. I have to do this."

He looked into her eyes and saw her iron will. This was not an ordinary child, or an ordinary human as he had first thought. Something about this particular human was very, very different.

Should he trust this child? Red didn't know. His task was to offer the trial after the caretaker had been there for three hundred years. Not many even lived that long.

"And if you were to leave, would you tell anyone about this place?" He asked, cautious.

"No. I'm not stupid enough to tell people about a magical place that's stuck on my finger." She said, "It would be too stupid a way to die."

The Fox breathed a sigh of relief, "A long time ago, someone poisoned Queen Titania. She was dying and she was the Source. They were trying to steal the Source. My queen knew that if it fell into the wrong hands, it would mean annihilation for all."

"What is the Source?" Cybelline asked.

"The Source is the heart of magic. It's what grants those with the Spark enough power to waken their magic in the first place. It's what produces enough magic in the land so that things can grow and thrive. Without a proper Source, magic would fade forever."

The fox looked at the tree sadly, "Queen Titania knew she didn't have much time. She took the Source from her body and hid it in the World Tree, the oldest and largest tree in all of the land. I was asked to guard it."

"Something went wrong." Cybelline guessed.

"The Source needed a living, sentient body to work properly and channel magic to all the realms. In return, the magic produced by people fed the Source and kept it alive. The World Tree, while powerful, could not provide the first requirement. And Titania knew that she needed to hide the Source, so she created this place. A ring in which the Source was hidden. Over the years, the Source create magic which created a realm beyond the fog."

"But there's no way for magic to be fed back to the source" Cybelline surmised, "That's why it's dying."

Red looked at Cybelline, "This is the greatest secret of the ring."

Cybelline tapped her chin, "And the trials?"

"If you can get through the barrier and touch the tree, you are allowed to open the barrier and go home."

Cybelline looked at the fox, "If I touch the source of all magic, I'm allowed to leave?"

The fox nodded, "It sounds simple, but no one has done it before."

Cybelline stood up, "Thank you."

The fox looked up at her sadly. He turned his back on her as she walked towards the tree.

Burying his head under his furry paws, he sighed, he didn't want to hear the screams when the trial started.