Teris jostled suddenly, turning from the ancient trees that their ancestors had traveled among to see something unexpected. It was grey and rough, almost like stone, but more straight and organized than any stone Teris had ever seen. Closest thing would have been a cobblestone road, but that was only once. They only had those in the cities, which Teris had mostly only seen from a distance. Expect that once.

Upon further inspection, there was a cobblestone road next to it. But black in color and smoother than they had ever thought possible. With a yellow line going through the center? What need would a city have of that on a cobblestone road? And how did they get here in the city, when a second ago they were only a handful of steps away from their cottage, hidden and secluded in the wild woods far enough that most wouldn’t dare find them.

Now they were here, seemingly in a big city, if the roads were so well kept. Had they been transported by a spell? Teri’s was sure there had been no one near them to do such a spell, which would have been noisy and surrounded by elements that would be hard to miss. That doesn’t mean someone didn’t cast one in another location, though that would take a great amount of concentration, plus a very good knowledge of Teris.

Had the kings guard finally got ahold of them? Was this Umberlin? They had heard it was beautiful, and nothing like anything that has come before it. But where was the castle? Where were the people, the shops and dwellings leading up to the wall that protected the castle from lesser folk like Teris?

All they could see was the cobblestone road, as well as the path next to it with the smoothed stone. Around that there was only forest. And yet it was silent. How odd. The forest always spoke to Teris, even the less magical or wild has whispers or hums. But here it was silent.

The road seemed to go on forever, so far Teris couldn’t even see the end. How had Cumberlin managed a feat like this? It would have taken years just to lay the foundation, and there would need to be constant maintenance. How did they have the resources if they were so crippled by the resistance group that was supposedly tearing their way through the kingdom?

Teris started walking, what else was there to do? They walked and walked and walked until they could feel the sun burning a whole in their head. Sometimes they wished they could curse the gods for giving them black locks, they harnessed the sun’s warmth like nothing else. Making Teris the worlds hottest wildling. Though Teris wouldn’t mind being called that.

Most wildings had coloring that helped them blend into the wood. Browns light like the trunks of great oaks and deep like rich soil, greens resembling leaves that brush the sky and moss so hardy that it will grow on any surface. Sometimes even red like the clay mud in some creeks, or yellow so fair and soft you would think it was picked from a dandelion. Never black like Teris’.

Teris used to pretend their hair was for the glimmering and shining obsidian stones they had seen put up on shelves in their mom’s workshop, even though they had never seen them scattered through the forest like some other stones. When they tried to tell the other wilding kids that, they laughed and said of course it was for that, since it didn’t belong in the wild, just like them.

Suddenly, a sound caught Teris’ attention. Whirring and rumbling almost like a carriage but quieter.

Then they saw it. A large carriage like contraption, with no horses or donkeys to pull it. It seemed to be made entirely of metal, yet it glinted with red so bright it looked like a Ruby. What kind of contraption was this? It looked like a carriage, but how was it moving without anything pulling it? A spell? Teris had seen contractions that could be moved by wind magic, even on land, but this thing had no sails.

It raced past them with an unnatural speed, and Teris stood still in shock.

Something was wrong. This did not even seem like their world. Teris had not seen much, but none of it was familiar, not even the trees. This did not bode well.