We ran. We ran as fast as our sore, bare feet could carry us. But still they gained on us. Tears streamed down my face as I fought to catch my breath, muscles screaming in agony as I pushed myself past exhaustion.

“Quick!” Dip whispered, suddenly grabbing my forearm and veering off towards a weeping tree. “Here! Down here, I see some berry-pods!”

He saw some what?

We scrambled down the bank of tall violet grass, and ran under the safety of the weeping tree, it’s violet, leafy tendrils forming a graceful, three-hundred-and-sixty degree shelter from prying eyes.

I bent over and put my hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath. But as soon as we had entered, Dip darted back out again. I had to stop myself from screaming in sheer panic. Where was he going? They were going to see him!

Seconds later he re-emerged through the dangling, delicate branches with something luminescent in his hand. He came closer and opened up his hand to show me a couple of bright orange, glowing orbs. Anyone would think they were tiny fruit - almost like kumquats. Except kumquats didn’t glow, nor were they transparent.

I eyed them warily and looked up at Dip, “What?”

“Eat it,” he said, putting one into my hand, “it’s the only way they won’t find us.”

I started to protest but he grabbed my forearms and looked me in the eye, the way he always had done when he wanted to me to focus.

“You’ve got to trust me Shu, ok?”, he said, his big brown eyes boring into mine. “Trust me. We don’t have time. Eat it now. All of it.”

With that, he put his into his mouth and swallowed it hole. I followed suit. I was too tired to question anything right now.

I put the strange orange, glowing orb into my mouth and swallowed. An overwhelming tingling sensation came over me as the strange fruit slid down into my insides.

I looked over at Dip and watched in horror as his eyes changed from dark brown to that slightly transparent and bright orange glow that the fruit had. And then, Dip… disappeared.

It was like the air swallowed him up.

Where did he…?

No time to finish that thought. Something was happening inside me. Suddenly, I felt as though I was being sucked in through my belly button. Shrinking, shrinking, and sucked backwards through a tiny vortex mid-air. Next thing I knew, I was growing back to my original size again, but from the other side.

The other side of what though?

It felt as though I was on the inside looking out. I was in some kind of… what? A bubble or some sort. Almost like a womb. Transparent orange. Tingly.

Over to my left I could see Dip in a bubble too. I saw him put his finger to his lips and then point to my right.

My eyes grew wider as I turned my head to see a dark figure move through the violet tendrils. They’d found us. Or at least one had.

I froze, barely breathing as he strode straight into the space under the tree and stopped less than a pace from me. But for some peculiar reason, he didn’t seem to see me, nor Dip. I could hear him breathe, he was so close. He was dressed all in black, his face covered in a black metal helmet, his cloak falling to just above his knees.

He turned his head away from mine, and then slowly turned it back towards me.

Could he sense me even?

He turned on his heel and exited back the way he came, his cloak billowing behind me.

I let out a gasp and looked at Dip, bewildered at what just happened.

Had anyone ever got so close to a Forbidden Knight and lived to tell the tale? And what was that fruit I’d just eaten? Dip seemed to know about them, or at least enough to insist we eat them. And sure enough, those strange glowing orbs saved our lives.

Dip sure had a lot of explaining to do. But first, I needed to get out of this bubble. I gestured silently to Dip, signalling that I wanted to get out. Dip looked around his own bubble, prodding and poking around. After a couple of minutes he gave me a faltering smile and shrugged.

Oh, great.