“Whoa…” Bithi had heard the stories of the massive cities outside the forest and had even visited a small town with her parents when she was young. But it had been nothing compared to the towering monoliths of engineering that stood before her.

  Exiting the barrier that encompassed and protected the forest from unwanted outsiders, Bithi found herself standing in a field that stretched as far as she could see in either direction. A sort of break between the asphalt of the city and the foliage of the forest.

  “Well, what’s the worst that could happen, Fmb?” Bithi said, trying to reassure herself, the furry creature on her shoulder nuzzling her cheek in response. Approaching the city, Bithi was met with the first real obstacle of her journey so far.

  A wall.

  Nearly twice the height she was and stretching along as far as the field itself, Bithi sighed as she looked around for a gate or way through the wall. Of course, if she had really wanted to, she could have easily cast a spell to lift her over the wall. But the elders had given her a very strong warning before she had left.

  “No Magic in the city.” Bithi repeated the warning to herself. At first she thought it was strange—no magic? From all the stories she had heard, mages and magisters were celebrated in the outside world. But for the residents of the forest, it was different.

  Forest Dwellers, Tree Huggers, Nature Freaks, Guardians of the Old. Bithi and her people were called something different everywhere you went in the world. What, you may ask, did they call themselves? Well, the answer was simple.

  Druids.

  A race that sat amongst the oldest in the world. Harnessing the power of Nature and crafting spells to match.

  Bithi sighed. At least that was how the legends went; in reality, while yes, druids held a degree of control over nature, their usage of magic was, in concept, the same as every other school.

  “Guess we’re walking some more.” Bithi said dejectedly. Deciding to follow the wall to the left, Bithi secured the pack on her shoulder and began to walk. From over the wall, she could hear the faint hustle and bustle of the city, the constant hum occasionally interjected by a shout or loud horn of sorts.

  Compared to the small border town she had visited in her childhood, the city was intimidating to say the least. A growing nervousness pnted itself firmly in her psyche, but regardless, she carried on.

  As she had followed the wall, it began to curve away from the forest, the field giving way to rolling hills of the grassnd. A pale orange sky beset by gray cliffs peaked with white became the backdrop for the otherwise uniform green nd.

  She followed the wall for a little over an hour before coming across a change in the otherwise unchanging barricade. In the distance, an old, worn road that wound through the hills towards the forest found its end at a gate built in the wall.

  “Looks old.” Bithi commented. The road itself was overgrown with weeds and roots sprouting up through cracks in the pavement. Even the gate was in a level of disrepair that contrasted hard with the retive cleanliness of the wall. Its design was a far cry from the modern buildings that towered the skyline behind the wall, though still far more advanced than anything she had seen in the grove.

  Once she stood in front of the gate, she could appreciate it in greater detail, though it was simply a gate. Bithi frowned; she had expected something grander than a simple wooden gate to bar her way into the city. She wasn’t sure what she had expected.

  It just wasn’t… this.

  “Do I knock? I don’t even see a way to open this. I really don’t want to have to go even further around…” Bithi compined to the Fmb, who had hopped off her shoulder to give the door a good sniff.

  Inspecting the door closely, there didn’t appear to be any way to open it, no knocker or any sort of mechanism that would indicate a way to open. Bithi scratched her head and rested her staff against the gate. If it really came to it, would she have to climb over the wall?

  She wasn’t too keen on breaking the only rule she had been given, but after a long journey, she wasn’t in the mood to aimlessly wander the wall till she found a way in. After a few minutes of pondering and searching the door, she decided on the only thing that made sense and knocked.

  Bracing her knuckles, she knocked weakly at first, not wanting to give herself splinters. But the sound barely rose above the ambience of the wind rushing through the pins. So she knocked again, harder this time. And then again, harder.

  Still, it didn’t seem to do anything and wasn’t very loud. Stepping back, Bithi caressed her knuckles, red soreness already appearing on the skin. Then, she had an idea; picking back up her staff, she swung, hitting the door with the bottom of the staff.

  KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

  Finally, a decent sound. She tried again a few times, taking care to hit the gate too hard. The staff was sturdy and had seen its fair share of battles, but it was still a gift and the st thing her grandmother had given her. She didn’t want to break it.

  It wasn’t until the fourth round of knocking on the gate and waiting for a response that it dawned on her.

  “Wait, am I an idiot?” Bithi stopped, pnting the staff in the ground beside her and thinking for a moment. “Who is going to open a gate to a massive city just because someone knocked?”

  In hindsight it was obvious; if someone came knocking on her backdoor at home, the st thing she would do is open it willingly. Defeated and accepting the reality that she would have to continue the wall until its end or break the rule and climb over, Bithi turned and picked up the pack she had dropped behind her.

  “Come on, Fmb, let g—”

  “WHO THE HELL IS KNOCKING!?” An enraged voice roared from behind Bithi as she started to step away. Whirling around with her staff raised, Bithi locked eyes with a burly man wearing a slightly disheveled grey uniform, an insignia of an owl embzoned on his shoulder.

  The angered man stood where the gate was, or rather where it had been. As if it had never been there to begin with. A slight breeze carrying a bitter scent wafted through the gap in the wall. It made the hairs on Bith's neck stand up and the back of her throat tingle.

  “WHO ARE YOU?” The man shouted, approaching Bithi with rapid speed. Instinctively, Bithi stepped back, raising the staff to point at the man. Was this going to be her first experience in the city? A scuffle before she had even stepped foot inside. Bithi prepared herself for the worst before she remembered something.

  “Wait!” Bithi shouted, hurriedly reaching for her pack and rummaging through it to produce a silver medallion bearing a familiar insignia. “I was sent here as an envoy!”

  The man stopped, his angered expression going bnk in confusion. “An envoy, what? An envoy of who? Why are you banging on an abandoned gate instead of entering through…”

  He stopped, the man finally taking in Bithi’s rustic appearance. From the patchwork leather cloak to the worn linen trousers and simple blouse, alongside a creature he had never seen before. The man sighed.

  “You’re a Druid, aren’t you?” He asked.

  Bithi lowered her staff, happy the situation hadn’t escated further. She stepped forward to let the man inspect the medallion further. Begrudgingly accepting the medallion, the man looked it over, flipping it in his palm before sighing and handing it back.

  “So, a real Druid of the Forest. A real tree kisser, care to expin why you’re banging on a back door to the city instead of using the checkpoint like the rest of you?” The man sighed, slinking his shoulders back and rubbing his chin.

  Bithi gave the man a confused look. “The rest of us? Are there other druids in the city?”

  “Are there other… They gave you tree huggers a whole section of the city, “other druids in the city.” The man scoffed as he handed the medallion back. “You must really be from the sticks if you don’t know that. Expins why you’re banging on the backdoor.”

  “Sorry?” Bithi knew there were other groves than the one she grew up in; they even traded frequently. But this was the first she had heard about Druids outside the forest. The elders hadn’t told or didn’t know; she wasn’t sure which was more concerning.

  “Come on.” The man sighed, seemingly accepting the burden that had just been thrust upon him. Motioning for Bithi to follow him, the little druid cautiously accepted and followed the man through the gap in the wall. A few steps past the threshold of the gap, Bithi turned back, and sure enough, the gate had reappeared as silently as it had vanished.

  “How does th—”

  “Nope, no stupid questions. Just follow me.”

  “Bu—”

  “Look, I’m sure you’re a sweet girl, but you’re already ruining the luxury of having to do barely any work back here; the least you could do is stay quiet.” The man shot Bithi a look over his shoulder.

  Bithi frowned but listened, remaining silent as the man led her away from the gate. It was tucked away, hidden behind a rge brick building that cast shade over the entire alley and blocked any view of the rest of the city. In front of her, the man stopped at a small booth with a worn chair and a small desk scattered with papers. The word “Police” was written in a dated font on a pque that sat above the door.

  Looking past the grumpy old man, Bithi was relieved she had made it into the city and was spared the torture of walking the rest of the wall. In fact, was this not a positive for her? Police were supposed to be trustworthy, at least that’s what she had heard.

  Rounding the corner of the building, Bithi was met with a reality that shattered the expectations she had built about the city. Trash and filth littered the dimly lit streets, buildings in various states of decay with pnks boarding up windows and doorways. A sickly man sat huddled against a building with a deranged look in his eye.

  Everywhere she looked, the grime of the city, absent of the beauty of nature, had nestled itself in firmly.

  She started to regret a few of her choices.

  Just a few.