"Don't...", she twists around and tries to wrench her arm free.

She saw a way to cross the river. She finally feels alive again, but his grip is threatening to jar her out of this magical moment.

He is not giving an inch, so she puts all her weight into pulling away from him. "Please. Just let me go..."

Instead he just holds her tighter, and when she uses her body weight to pull away, he pulls her back against his chest. "Stop! You can't just run off, it could be dangerous!" He struggles to hold her in place. "What's gotten into you? What are you seeing right now?"

Panic rises in her as he holds her tight. "Let go!" She pushes against his arm with all her might but it's like she picked a fight with an iron beam. "Let..." she pushes harder, "me..." she grits her teeth, "go!" she puts all her will power into the demand, calling on the forest and its magic to help set her free. She imagines him pushed backward as she is propelled forward, across the river bank, toward the fluorescent brush and glowing tree that beckon her.

somewhere in her mind

a single

forlorn

click

followed by a triumphant clatter

Nothing of the sort happens.

Instead, as she lunges away again, his foot slips when he takes another bracing step, sending him into a sprawl... and rather than drop his bow to catch himself, he releases her arm.

A wild smile spreads across her face as she rushes toward the crossing. With one great leap she lands on the submerged stone, water splashing up like embers in the auburn glow of the fronds on the other side. Her speed carries her across the river where she lands amidst a sea of yellow, orange, and red. Her hands trace the fiery leaves as they tickle her senses. Mesmerized she makes her way over to the web of glowing ivy drawn across an ancient tree trunk. She touches it gently, marveling at the feel, rubbing her fingers together to check for residue.

She studies the tree, tracing the patterns, gazing up into the branches. Then she presses her palms flat against the bark, leans her head against the trunk, and takes a deep slow breath. Something unfurls inside her:

Does she actually want to return to her world?

Return to what?

It wasn't like she was doing anything useful there. No one is waiting for her. She has a chance to explore now. Maybe even to make a difference somehow.

Somehow.

She turns slowly, leaning her back against the tree (is that a comforting warmth spreading across her back?), and looks at Danny, sprawled on the other side of the river.

Her voice sounds strangely distant to her own ears, like the words are not coming from her, but simply exist in the space between them.

"I'm staying."

He stares at her from across the river, then slowly rises back up. After a moment he hangs his bow over his shoulders and holds both hands up.

"Look. I think... maybe I haven't been clear, here. I know it's a lot to take in, but this place, it fucks with you. Okay? It gets in your head. Whatever you're seeing or feeling right now, you can't trust it. Shit, I don't even know if you're hearing the words I'm really saying right now... what's 1+1 equal?"

She cocks her head to the side.

"Don't you see? We can make a new life for ourselves here. Or..." She pauses a moment and then smiles. "If I bring you back to our world, can I have your bow and arrows and other gear?" She bites her lip, a reddish glow dancing across her eyes.

Danny's face is starkly lit by the red and orange glow of the ferns. "Yeah. Absolutely." His hands are still up, his voice coaxing. "If you can get me home, I'll give you all of it."

She frowns. That was odd... his tone... his words...

"You are trying to trick me. You must think I'm losing myself ... Don't you see? You are stuck in your obsession. 1+1 is 2, but you are assuming that you are the only one who can see clearly. The magic here is beyond anything anyone would deem possible! How would you know if my mind had gone or the magic warped the air between us, making me hear different words than you actually said? For that matter, how do you know if all those other humans are truly Lost, or if this place makes all humans turn against each other - distorting all our perceptions?

Don't you see? It's a choice in the end. You can't trust your senses here. Observations shift. We need to figure out the rules of this place from scratch. Which laws of physics still hold. But part of that is also embracing the magic that is actually here! That magic doesn't have to be bad! The beauty here is mesmerizing. I finally feel alive! I don't want to go back cause I have nothing to go back to. My life wasn't going anywhere. I was drifting aimlessly. I get that you had your whole life ahead of you and want to get back to that. So let me help you and then I'll take over your place here. But don't stab me in the back for wanting a different life than you do."

She licks her lips, then mutters "back back back" while tracing one finger across the warm tracery of ivy behind her back. A thrill runs through her, and her eyes unfocus a little, looking straight through Danny.

The young man watches her in silence for a handful of rapid heartbeats. The river burbles and chuckles along between them, the colors on his face shifting from orange to yellow to red as the fronds sway. Behind her, the tree seems to give off a pulse, its glow surrounding her in warmth before it fades again. A single leaf falls in front of her, veins melding together in delicate blue swirls.

Danny finally lowers his palms. "I had a hard time learning not to try to save people who don't want to be saved. If you can help me get home, and you really want to live here... I won't stop you. I'll even help." He holds a hand up. "Deal?"

"Let me bite your neck." She grins, her eyes shining. Her senses are buzzing, on fire, exploding, enveloping her mind, intoxicating. She felt the pulse from the tree run up her arm, finger tip tracing the glowing ivy. She is riding the wave, feeling it out. The warmth, the glow, the sensory overload.

And all through it, she stares at him, grinning, slowly raising her other hand, running a thumb along her lip and then tracing the relief of her teeth, rubbing across the sharp tip of a canine while gauging his response.

"Then we have a deal." she drops her hand suddenly. "You still think I'm crazy and you are much stronger than me. I need to know I can trust you."

"Yeaaah... that's not happening." He lowers his hand. "And I'm starting to reconsider letting you near a portal back to your world, but I'm too selfish to care that much. If you try to bite me on the way, though, I'm going to subdue you first and worry about the portal after. Understood?"

She raises her eyebrows. "Why would I trust you then? I might as well make my own way through the Hedge."

"I didn't make it this far by letting every girl who acted high on glamour take a bite just because they asked nice or were pretty. Besides, you climbed into my tree, and I spent an arrow saving you before I even knew anything about you. If anything, I should be the one asking you to convince me not to cut my losses rather than risk whatever fae trap you might be part of."