Record of Lodoss War Vol 1 Chapter 2.8

Chapter 8

Parn and the others left the city of Alan three days after news of the downfall of Kanon had reached the city. Trusting Deedlit, they had decided to go through the forest to Valis.

At first, of course, Slayn had opposed the plan. He was scared of the Forest of No Return. That frightening name was not merely the result of legends and old wives’ tales. In truth, for hundreds of years, no one who had entered the forest had ever been seen again. Any number of heroes and adventurers had tried their luck in the forest in that time. But all of them had shared the same fate. The Forest of No Return never changed — year after year, it was the same black, forbidding presence, seeming to hold the many lives it had swallowed up as a menace. As Ghim had said, rumor had it that the forest drew its power from an ancient elven curse.

No one knew if that was true, except perhaps for the victims who had disappeared into the Forest.

That dark forest loomed to the right of the party. On their third day out from Alan, it had come into view. But Deedlit kept on walking along the highway, showing no signs of leading them into the Forest.

“Here it is!” Deedlit’s cheery voice rang out when they had been following the highway south for two days. Hearing the glum responses of her companions, she made an annoyed face and set off on a path branching out from the right side of the highway.

A narrow path stretched from the highway to the woods. Slayn couldn’t believe his eyes, wondering who in the world would ever use such a path.

“The path I told you about lies ahead. But remember this: once we’re in the forest, we can’t afford to stop. And try not to get too surprised. Strong emotions have a bad influence on the trees.”

“As long as we keep that in mind, we’ll be fine?” Parn was unable to hide his worry.

“Just keep that in mind and follow me, and we’ll get to Valis safe and sound,” said Deedlit, looking straight into Parn’s eyes. “We need to hurry.”

As they drew closer to the Forest of No Return, the little group’s fear grew stronger. But it was too late to turn back.

They must have walked the little path towards the woods for about an hour. Finally, they entered the Forest of No Return. Close up, it didn’t seem such a strange place - just an ordinary forest. But they couldn’t help feeling that the place had an increasingly evil aura to it.

At the end of the little trail grew two tall conifers. They looked like twins — their height, the thickness of their trunks, even the shape of their branches was the same. The s.p.a.ce between them somehow seemed to form a gateway.

“Here it is. We go through here.” Deedlit’s voice was filled with an irrepressible joy. “Follow the instructions I gave you. And under no circ.u.mstances should you leave my side. If you do, you might get caught in the ancient elven magic.”

Having said her piece, Deedlit turned toward the forest and cried out loudly in the elven tongue, “Fome alanis katulu!”

Something strange seemed to happen between the twin trees. The scenery between the two changed, and a golden light shone out.

“Follow me, before the gate closes.” With these words, Deedlit slipped into the golden light.

Steeling himself, Parn followed in her footsteps. Next, Eto, Ghim, and Woodchuck ran after him. Slayn was last. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and ran into the golden light after them.

“Ahh!” b.u.mping into something, Slayn almost dropped his staff. When he opened his eyes, he was staring at Woodchuck’s black-clad back.

“Don’t startle me. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.” Woodchuck turned to complain.

“Where are we?” Slayn was so fascinated by his surroundings that he completely ignored Woodchuck’s words.

They were in a s.h.i.+ning gold forest. The short evergreen trees shone gold in the sunlight. The th.o.r.n.y bushes and fern thickets they had seen from the outside seemed to have vanished without a trace. The thick cus.h.i.+on of leaves on the forest floor eased their tired feet.

“This is the Forest of No Return?” Parn gulped down his saliva and spoke in a shaking voice. “It looks like another world.”

Another world! Slayn finally realized what Parn was saying.

“I see. This is really another world. Right, Deedlit?”

Slayn was shouting in his excitement. He poked the ground repeatedly with his staff, as if to make sure it was really there, then stared up at the sky.

There was no sun in the sky. Instead, the whole sky shone.

“What do you mean?” Parn looked at Slayn.

Watching Deedlit, who was in front of the group, Slayn slowly pieced a sentence together.

“This isn’t common knowledge, but the world is made up of three different planes. One of them is the world where we humans live. We mages call it the material world. The second one is the world where the spirits live. It is broken up in turn into several different planes, but collectively, we refer to it as the spirit world. And finally, there’s a world which forms the link between the physical world and the spirit world. This is the so-called fairy world. That is where we are right now.”

“If you know that, I could have explained it. I was wondering whether humans would understand,” said Deedlit, seeming a bit ashamed. “It’s as you say. This is the world of fairies.”

“So tell me, Deedlit. Is it not true that elves lost their homeland? I had heard that they had tied themselves to the material world and were no longer at home in the fairy world. If that’s true, why were you able to bring us here?”

Deedlit lept into the air like an arrow taking flight. She went incredibly high before landing as softly as a feather. “Slayn, I have no memory of losing my homeland. Here… or rather this plane, is the world I really live in.”

“Huh.” Slayn felt like the most useful part of his body - his brain - was not working. He called out to Deedlit. “You’re a high elf. I had no idea. I thought you had gone extinct.”

High elves were a people of legends. Not just their culture but also the people themselves were held in high esteem by the people of the Old Kingdom, and it was said they were the upper cla.s.s of elves in ancient times. They were known as both Ancient Elves and High Elves.

“We’ll probably disappear one day. But that is long in the future - once even the souls of the G.o.ds begin to fade, and the corpses of dragons rot.

Slayn was deeply moved. Parn didn’t really understand, but to judge from Slayn’s words, even among elves Deedlit came from an elite clan.

“I’ve heard us dwarves used to live in this world as well. But we left it long ago. They say it was in order to find real gold, not this fake stuff. Anyway, it seems like there aren’t any riches beneath the earth here.” Ghim gazed at the head of the battle-axe he held as he spoke. “Fairies hate iron, so it must not exist in this world.”

The axe’s blade had vanished. Seeing that, Parn hurriedly checked the armor he was wearing. It too had disappeared. He wore only a linen s.h.i.+rt and a short loincloth.

“But… I can still feel the weight of my armor.”

That was why he hadn’t realized. His armor still weighed on him, though he couldn’t see it.

“It’s fine. You just can’t see it because iron cannot exist in this world. It’s the same reason you can’t see the true form of the G.o.ds or the bodies of certain fairies in the material world. But hurry up. I told you not to waste time, if you haven’t forgotten.”

Deedlit was getting annoyed. Parn picked up his pace and loped after her.

“What does she mean?” Parn couldn’t help asking Slayn, who he had caught up with.

“That’s simple. In the fairy realm, time moves more slowly than in our world. If we waste time, hundreds of years might pa.s.s in the material world.”

“Uh-oh.” Parn blanched. “Deedlit, we’ve got to get out of here, quick!”

“I don’t want to get any older!” yelled Wood. It would seem he misunderstood Slayn’s words.

That’s why I’ve been telling you to hurry up this whole time! Deedlit was annoyed, but as she sped up she caught sight of Parn’s desperate expression and burst out laughing before she could stop herself.

When they had advanced through the golden forest for another ten minutes, Deedlit chanted some more strange words. As she did so, another pair of twin trees just like the spot where they had entered appeared. The party ran out through the gate and left the realm of the fairies.

Outside, it was night.

“It’s true. It was the middle of the day when we went in.” As he spoke in a voice filled with surprise and admiration, Parn checked in the darkness that his armor had reappeared. Having a.s.suaged his worries, the young warrior seemed to realize he was still running. He sat down on the ground, breathing deeply to catch his breath.

With a flash of magical light, Slayn’s blue-robed form shone next to him.

“But how many nights has it been, I wonder?” Slayn looked out from his hood onto the scenery around him. In the magical light, he could see that they were surrounded by hills. Behind them, of course, was the Forest of No Return. In the darkness it seemed, as in tales, to be squirming with magic which might — even now — stretch out a tentacle to grab Slayn.

“Judging by the distance we’ve come, I’d say it’s been three days. If you lot hadn’t wasted so much time we could have been here sooner, though.”

“There’s no way we could have been calm, seeing that place. But it was a good experience. Many humans have gone into fairyland, but few are those who have returned to the material world afterwards.” Replying to the energetic elf, Slayn finally stood, brus.h.i.+ng the dirt from his robe.

“Where exactly are we, though?” asked Eto, looking anxiously in the direction of the forest.

“About three days east of Valis. If we cross this hill country, we ought to be near the northern highway that links Kanon and Valis. But it would be better to cross the mountains to the west. Otherwise we might get caught in the middle of the war between Valis and Marmo.” As she said this, Deedlit pointed up the steep slopes, looking up at the stars to be sure that it was really due west.

“Let’s get a move on, whatever we do.” With a nervous glance back at the forest, Woodchuck picked up his bags and slung them across his back again.

“I agree. Even though it’s night, I don’t feel sleepy. We should walk through the night and get as far away from this forest as possible. We can decided when we reach the mountains.”

True to Parn’s words, the party made their preparations and set out.

“This time difference is a pain,” said Eto to Woodchuck, who was walking beside him, as he looked up at the sky. How many days of morning prayers have I missed?

“Yup. It must be late at night, but I don’t feel like sleeping. But I’m a bit hungry.”

“Truly, I feel as though I haven’t eaten in three days!”

Ghim’s words finally brought smiles back to the party’s faces.