"Not too far. Once we get on the road it'll be really fast!"

"Really fast like how?"

"Like... being on a road? How do roads work where you're from?"

"You walk on them, or ride a horse, and you go as fast as you or your horse is walking."

"Oh," says Sunpatch. "Well, our roads are different."

"Different how?"

"They're magic and they make you go faster."

"They move while you're on them, or they make you move faster, or something else?"

"They make you move faster, I guess?"

"Huh."

"You'll see!"

"So I will."

Eventually, of course, they're going to reach the road.

The path they're walking along joins onto another, broader path, and maybe fifteen minutes after that, there's a green-gold glow visible up ahead.

"That's the road," says Sunpatch.

As they approach, it becomes clearer what they're looking at. It's another path, not all that different from the ones they've been travelling so far, but the trees that line it are especially tall, and in the shade of their spreading branches the floor of the path glows a warm and pleasant green. Sunpatch stops a few feet short of the glow.

"If you've never used a road before, you should probably be careful," he says. "You won't get hurt if you fall down, but it's embarrassing."

"Careful like how?"

"Well... okay, when you're on the road, you can run really fast. And it makes you go along the road, so you won't go flying off if there's a curve or anything, but if the road bends and you're not paying attention and you keep running in the wrong direction, you'll lose all your speed really fast. There's kind of a trick to it. Try it walking first, walking's easier and we'll still reach the Tree pretty soon that way. And if you get confused or lost somehow you can just stop and sit down and I'll come find you even if I'm out of sight by then."

"Okay." She carefully steps into the glow.

And Sunpatch steps in too, and starts slowly walking in a direction. His steps carry him farther than they look like they should; he sort of... slides along the glow, smoothly and steadily. If Ikrifiss and Korafen try it, they'll find themselves doing something similar, with the effect falling off sharply as they turn away from exactly parallel with the road. The footing is very stable, but there's definitely a learning curve involved and it's easy to get disoriented.

Ikrifiss is exactingly careful and going significantly slower than Sunpatch.

Korafen manages not to skid off the road at any time but this involves some level of falling down.

Sunpatch stops frequently to let them both catch up.

"Okay, maybe the road won't help as much as I thought," he giggles.

"Well, it'll help us later that we made these mistakes now."

"True!"

And he doesn't seem to have anywhere to be; he's very patient with all the stopping.

Very friendly of him. At least they're still going faster than human walking pace.

This is true. And maybe they'll figure out the road well enough to get to the Tree before dark.

Thereabouts, yeah.