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The forest looked unassuming enough from the outside, surrounded on three sides by high, snow-capped mountains, expansive and deep. A lazily flowing stream trickled out of the forest and a dark, feathered mare stood at the edge of the trees, drinking deeply from the stream. As she raised her head, there was a soft clacking as the beads that hung around her eyes settled into place and she squinted at the bright light that shone into the valley outside the boundaries of her forest. She didn't leave the cover of the trees often, but when she did it was usually at night, and never very far from her wooded home. She rarely even came out this far to the edge of her domain, but she was making her rounds, checking her bones, and listening to their messages.

Not much happened in the forest without her knowledge. She had been here for so many years that she had lost count, but she knew it to be in the hundreds. She was a young filly in her prime when she had first stumbled upon the wood during one of her nocturnal flights. From above, the forest was darker than the surrounding night, reverberating deeply with a magic that Hyela felt in her bones. She felt it drawing her in, calling to her and she could not resist it. As she landed at the forest’s edge, she could feel it pulsing and undulating as if it was breathing. With her first step beneath the trees, she felt a warm embrace and hadn’t gone more than a few leagues from the forest since. It was hers.

Over the years, she learned to listen to the forest and developed skill in the reading of bones. The earth could speak to those who had the patience and knew how to work the right tools. She began collecting bones, both from ritualistic sacrifices and those left behind from meals when she indulged her more blood-thirsty side. These bones were hidden strategically about the forest, buried in the dirt, beneath rocks, or high in the trees, wedged into the crooks of branches. She would visit them from time to time and they would share their secrets and observations with her. She knew the comings and goings of all life in her forest.

She turned from the bright valley to head back into the comforting darkness of the woods. A few yards within the forest, she found a familiar rock and, lowering her head, turned it over with her muzzle. Digging lightly with her clawed foot, she unearthed a pair of femur bones from a rabbit and laid them out next to the overturned rock. She picked up a stick between her teeth and, holding it next to the rock, struck the rock sharply several times with one of her claws until a spark caught and lit the end of the stick. The flame burned briefly, long enough for her to singe the bones before it faded out, leaving behind burnt black marks. She gazed at the bones, interpreting the pattern laid across by the flame, and slowly a low growl formed in her throat.

When she spoke, her voice was hoarse and raspy, the one thing that truly hinted at her ancient age. “Hmmmm...a stranger.” There was somebody in the wood. They hadn’t been here long, perhaps three to four days, but they were still here. She glanced into the darkness of the wood, listening and smelling the air. “A foe?” She turned her gaze back to the bones, but they gave her no further information. “Bah!” She hissed, kicking the bones away from her and turning to march deeper into the forest. Branching to the right, away from the stream, she came upon an interchange of several well-worn paths. She stopped, lifting her head and sniffing the air. Even this close to the edge, the forest smelled damp and earthy, the air thick, but there it was - the hint of an unfamiliar scent. She let out another slow growl as she turned to the northeast, following the scent. “A stranger…”

The stranger was an easy quarry, his path sticking mainly to the riverbank. A safe bet. Very little risk. A clear way out, she thought. "How dull." The river barely scratched the surface of what her forest had to offer. There was much more to see, smell, taste, and feel. How boring to stay with the river. Perhaps this was to be a lackluster encounter. "Dull." Hyela sighed, fluttering her lips in an exasperated raspberry as she exhaled.

While she did take great care in protecting her forest and knew all that went on here, she was not inhospitable to visitors. She knew it was impossible to prevent others from wandering into the forest or passing through. The river conveniently cut a path through the woods and over the mountains to emerge in the forest and fields below. Not too far in the other direction was the great desert. Thus she had met many new friends from many different lands passing through on their way to other places. Most meant no harm, but every now and then, a foe would come. And she had ways of dealing with foes...

There were also others that lived in the wood. There were forest creatures as well as other soquili here when she arrived, and their families continue to take residence in the deep, dense wood. Sometimes visitors decide to stay. Some help keep watch, alerting Hyela to any strangeness in the wood, but mostly the mare kept to herself. Her long life had lead to much loss, and she grew weary of grief. Easier to keep others at a distance, don't let them get close.

As she followed the stranger's safe trail along the river, she occasionally stopped to check little stashes of seer bones she had tucked away. She learned a little more with each message she received. A stallion. Young. Single-horned. "Hmmm..." The Uni, a peaceful race. "Though always exceptions," she croaked. "Rare with this breed." She looked down at a quartet of jaw bones stuck firmly into the earth, hidden beneath a low-hanging, wide-leafed plant. "Zealous. Curious. Doubt. Hmmm...ahhhh yes, finally courage." She lifted her head and gazed back towards the riverbed. Here the stallion had finally branched away, leaving the safety of the water. "Yes, finally courage."

Her feathers ruffled in excitement as she followed the stranger's path from the river. Perhaps this encounter wouldn't be so dull after all. His rather twisted and nonsensical wanderings had him looping back around his path several times, not really getting him anywhere but deeper in the forest. She had created an intricate system of paths, shortcuts, clearings and even sometimes traps throughout the forest over her many years here. Visitors often got lost, but she always found them...eventually. The stranger had found some of her more hidden paths, which was impressive, but it had not served him well. It was clear he was lost.

Suddenly, a warm wind blew from the south, and she turned, sniffing the air. The earth could speak to those who listened. She let out a low cackle as she ducked behind a bush, following a twisting trail around to one of her small shrines. Here she got her first glimpse of her young visitor as she came up behind him, her clawed feet barely making a sound on the soft mossy ground. She knew by now he had no malintent, so she allowed him his gaping stare at her shrine. She was proud of it, after all. She loved showing off her collection. After a minute or so, she was growing bored again so she finally spoke, hoping she would give her visitor a nice startle.

"Hello, young stranger," she growled in her froggy voice.

Her repeated ridicule of his path through the woods irked him slightly, but he was able to push it out of his mind. As he followed the mare out of the clearing, he tried to keep his guard up while allowing himself to be taken in and fascinated by her. This strange and interesting creature had clearly been here for a very long time, probably longer than he even understood, and the forest seemed to come to life around her as she moved along the twisted and overgrown path. Was it his imagination, or did the leaves waft and wave at her as she passed?

The path to the clearing was so tight and close he had to follow directly behind Hyela as she led him back to the forked path where he had become truly lost. As the path widened, she picked up her pace, and Shen trotted lightly behind her to keep up. She navigated along the intricate network of trails without thinking and Shen had the impression she could find her way with her eyes closed. He tried hard to keep track of where they turned, hoping that he might be able to find his own way out, but they were so deep in the forest, it was impossible for him to keep his bearings. At times, Hyela would suddenly duck behind a shrub or rock to move onto a path that was completely hidden from Shen. At times, they even passed through underground tunnels, just tall enough for a soquili to pass through. He wondered how she had accomplished all of this seemingly on her own.

Never sparing a look behind her to make sure her new friend was keeping up, Hyela made he way deftly through the forest. After many twists and turns intentionally created to confuse others, they emerged from the brush to come into a clearing occupied by a deep, clear blue spring. She stopped there, finally turning back to her new companion.

"Almost there. You may drink, if you have a thirst." As if to illustrate that the pool was safe to drink from, Hyela lowered her own head to take a few large gulps of the cool water before fixing her gaze back on Shen.

"Passing through, you are? To which lands are you headed? Desert or plain or swamp or wood? Many destinations on the other side of the mountains."

He was indeed thirsty after their journey through the forest and followed Hyela's lead, taking a large drink from the spring. He smiled as she asked where he was heading.

"I'm not quite sure, to be honest." He paused, thinking of how he had aimlessly wandered into this forest and smiled. "Probably one of the reasons my path was so bad."

"Lost you were before coming here? Not a good place to come, if you do not know your way."

"Not exactly lost, no. I guess you could say..." How to phrase it? "I guess you could say I've set off to find myself. You see, most of my life I have been searching for my brother. We were separated years ago and I searched far and wide, trying to find him. Unsuccessful, I have recently decided to..." To what? Give up? Abandon his search? That sounded as if he had given up on Huojin. But it was something different than that. "I have recently decided to move on." That was true enough. And, he reminded himself, probably what Huojin would want for him. "I've moved on, and now I am exploring the world to learn new things, meet new soquili, and explore new lands. I suppose I'm trying to be adventurous, but here I've already gone and gotten myself lost."

She considered this for a moment. "Hmmm, certainly not new, this place. Very very old. Older than Hyela. Old as mountains." And he was certainly going about finding himself in a strange way. "If lost you are, perhaps bones can help. Almost there, we are. Come."

She turned from Shen and followed the bank of the pool around to the other side, where a rocky wall was covered heavily with thick, trailing vines. She knowingly moved behind another shrub to squeeze through a small corridor between two large rocks to enter into a small, dank cave.

Following the mare into the cave, Shen blinked as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. Small cracks of sun peeked through gaps in the rocky ceiling of the cave. Whereas the clearing with the pool outside the cave was strangely absent of any of Hyela's bones, this place was again littered with them, much like the clearing where she had found Shen. Except here, there seemed to be a little bit more ceremony - he noticed several small bowls containing what appeared to be varied herbs and roots, remnants of fires and, eerily, stains of blood against the stone.

He knew it customary to compliment a new acquaintance's home, but he was finding it difficult to identify any pleasant aspects of this place. "Your home seems very safe and hidden. I'm sure you never have worry of intruders." He knew it was a bit of a reach, but he could fathom no other compliment for this place.

"No, no, young Shen. Not home yet...almost there." With that, she turned towards the back of the cave and disappeared.

Taking a deep, nervous breath, Shen followed the feathered mare to the back of the cave, through another small corridor in the rocks, and out into yet another clearing in the forest...

Shen's eyes lit up, reflecting the flames that came to life before him. He watched as Hyela bent low over the fire. It appeared as if she was whispering something to the flames, but he couldn't hear her over their gentle purr. One by one, she added the ingredients she had gathered into the fire, a slight flare erupting from the pit as each one was added. Finally, she took a rolled bundle of dried herbs and held it over the flames, igniting just the end. Shaking her head to extinguish it, she placed the bundle back into an earthen bowl as delicate tendrils of smoke curled from the burnt end, emitting a sweet and comforting aroma. He stared up at Hyela from his position on the ground as her gaze turned to finally meet his.

"Young Shen, you have travelled long and far. Many answers you seek, but guilt and shame have clouded your one true path." Without taking her gaze from his, she kicked her carefully gathered bones into the fire pit where they landed at the edge of the fire. Licks of flame reached out, marking the bones. "Fire and earth know your path. Long before you were born, was it writ. Open yourself to their words, and they shall right your path."

She carefully reached into the pit, gripping her talons around each bone to retrieve them from the edge of the flames. She laid them out carefully on the ground between her and Shen and finally lowered herself to lay in front of him, no longer looking down at the young stallion.

"Hmmm..." she growled. The bones were charred and burnt by the flames, black singe marks painted over their white surfaces. "A troubled childhood, yes. There was great love for the brother you lost. His strength, you wanted to be. But the brother is strong enough on his own, dear Shen." She glanced up at him, a touch of sympathy in her eyes. "But this you know now. Is good to learn and adapt. Did your best to find him, you did, and always will there be love between brothers. Moving on, you are. And proud should you be of that."

She glanced briefly back at the bones, and her eyes widened as a shout of mirth burst forward from her grinning mouth. "Ah! But another has already shown you this way! One of the night tribe, who reads the stars. Good her messages were, and you have heeded. Good, good. Good to stay malleable and open-minded, young Shen. Is how you learn of the world. This one will be special to you, visit her again you will."

He had already told Hyela of his brother, his search, and his decision to move on, so he was less than impressed that she brought up Huojin. However, his heart skipped a beat as she mentioned a nightwalker who reads the stars. Though he had though of Rook many times since entering the forest, he had not spoken aloud about her. Perhaps Hyela wasn't just some crazy old hermit, after all. Stifling the questions blooming in his head, he remained silent and let her continue.

"Young Shen, though you are brazen and brave, still there is much doubt in you. A desire to correct your father's legacy, you have. But trepidation, you also have. Feelings of inadequacy, fear of failure. Ill-prepared, you feel, to follow what your heart truly desires."

She was silent for several moments as her eyes darted around at the bones scattered before her. An occasional growl, or a slight nod or shake of her head were indicators that she was hard at work deciphering their messages. She spoke after a long silence.

"There is one who will offer to give you what you want. There is one who can release you of the burden of fear. There is one who can offer support and strength in partnership. There is one who may try to trick you. Hmm, many decisions you will have to make." She nudged the vertebra bone, turning it onto it's other side and nodded." Yes. Many decisions to make." She returned her gaze to Shen, sitting in silence as she watched him take in the messages she had delivered.