Cold dirt pushes against my back sending chills up and down my spine. I open my eyes only to shut them immediately afterward due to the sun light shining directly into them. I groan, the damage of the previous fights finally taking their toll on my body. I sit upwards and hold my head in my hands. I lift my head up from my hands finally opening my eyes fully this time. I was on a large hill, trees spread around the land. I must still be in the feline. I roll over to my side in order to get up when I felt something made of glass touch my hand. I look at my hand and see a vial of a black translucent liquid. A small note was attached to the bottle. I reach down and grab both the note and the bottle.

The note said: "Dear Celt, this vial contains the water of Styx, it can only be opened once and I am not giving you another." -Skeleton Jack.

I crumble the paper together and throw it behind my shoulder then I check out the vial. A familiar black liquid swirls inside the tiny vial. I place the vial into the void of my bag. I stand up and look around, the terrain was extremely similar to the one just outside the tunnel. Wait... I walk over to the steepest edge of the large hill and see Fenrir and Twitch sitting and talking. Hmmm how to scare the shit out of them.... I smile as I devise a plan to scare my companions. I back up a little ways on the hill and begin to sprint forward. I leap off the cliff and land with a roll. I stand up and look at my now shocked comrades.

"Miss me?" I laugh as the pain from the landing hits me.

I spit a small amount of blood, "Celt, how did you get to the top of the hill? Me and Fenrir checked around and this is the only entrance we could find."

"Oh, you know magic and all that jizz. I have good and bad news however!"

Fenrir walks up to me with a cold expression that could rival Hikari's, "What is the good news Celt?"

"Good news is I got the water from the river Styx."

"And the bad?" Twitch spoke showing less fear then before.

"Well, I kinda maybe got stabbed through the foot and had my bandages cut."

"YOU WHAT?" They both screamed in unison.

I rub the back of my head, "Well, I met this one guy called Tenbrion and I beat him but then I ran into some skeleton dudes..."

Fenrir's face changed from dead pan to concerned, "You faced the Wardens and survived?"

"Huh, that’s what Tenbrion was afraid of. Anyway yah, I fought them was pretty sweet if I might say but I got a spear through my foot."

Twitch rushes up to me, "Are you ok? I mean getting up after a spear to the foot must be hard."

"Twitch are you showing.....concern?"

"Well, I have to make sure my guardian doesn't die don't I?"

I chuckle, " I suppose you do. Well, Fenrir I don't know about you but I think I need that healer you spoke of."

"Yes, it would be for the best." Both Twitch and I climb onto his back.

Fenrir strides forward, leaving a small dust trail behind us. With each leap forward my cuts pulsed with pain, I felt around my body for the bruises of the fights I had previously had. I had several around my head stomach and back as I felt each one a small prick of pain erupted through my back causing me to flinch. I search the trees to see the shadows jumping between trees. After I get healed I am going to beat them to death for following me. I continue to stare daggers at the mysterious followers. Twitch notices my anger toward them.

"Celt, let it go for now. You can beat them to death after you get healed." Did he just read my mind?

I stop my glaring, "I suppose your right Twitch," I look down at him, "When did your balls drop anyway?"

"Well, I was talking to Fenrir and he told me what little he knows about you and it was kinda cool. I mean facing against the captain of the guard must be tough."

I smile, "Yah I guess it was."

Suddenly Fenrir stops sending both me and Twitch up to his neck. "Yo Fenrir buddy, why did you stop?"

"We're being watched..."

"Fenrir if you haven’t noticed we've been followed since we first got here."

"No, I mean something else is watching us." he growled.

I sit back on Fenrir, "Hmmmm, Twitch time to pull your weight. Go up a head and see if our new friends want to say hi."

"You must be kidding me," I give him a nice big smile, "By Celestia, the hive and any other deity out there you’re not joking."

"Nope, now get your changeling ass out there so we can meet our new friends!" I push Twitch off Fenrir.

He crashes against the ground, he slowly picks himself up. He begins to walk forward keeping a cautious pace looking to the side every once and a while. He sweated with each step like how a man knowing he would die the next moment would.

"I feel somewhat bad for Twitch." Fenrir whispered.

"I'd feel worse for whatever is gunna eat him," Fenrir looks up at me, "What? I heard changelings give you indigestion."

Twitch slowly advanced into the jungle, his head flipping back and forth looking for the enemy apparently watching his every move. A bush rustles and Twitch's head snap toward it, the moment his head turned several blurs shot out from a nearby bush. They quickly surrounded Twitch, the shadows hiding their forms from me. Twitch shrinks, the enemy circled him sizing up their prey. Soon they began to close in on Twitch.

"Celt!" Twitch screamed in fear.

"Yes?"

"Help!"

I jump off Fenrir, "Fenrir, mind showing our friends who is the alpha?"

"With pleasure." He spoke with a savage grin. My god remind me never to get him to smile...

Fenrir leaped forward with blinding speed. He struck the closest enemy, biting down in the middle causing cracking noises to be heard. He threw the body at two others and then made his way to the next victim. He leaped forward slashing at the beast cutting it in half between his claws. He swings his paw outward batting a leaping enemy into a tree.  The two that had their comrade thrown at them finally rose up and tried to strike at Fenrir's legs. He swung both of his hind legs backward in a fluent motion smashing into the enemies. The first one smashed into another tree and the other landed beside me.

I looked at our foe, it was vaguely canine. Large pointed teeth, slim frame with its hind legs bigger than the front. Small twigs poked out of the wolf and some ever had leaves growing on them. It's eye fling open, pure yellow eyes stare at me. It quickly returns to its feet and prepares to charge at me.

"Before you worry about me, worry about the 1000 pound wolf coming after you."

The wolf looks behind itself just in time for Fenrir's paw to descend on its body crushing it. Fenrir raises his paw only to see a bunch of sticks and twigs.

"They're Timberwolves, if they are coming after us then that means we're close."

I jump onto Fenrir, "Alright, Twitch good job as the bait now get up here so we can get going."

Twitch flies onto Fenrir, still quite shell shocked at what had happened a few moments prior. His eyes still wide from the beasts and how easily Fenrir beat them. We both were jerked back as Fenrir took his first stride toward our destination. He weaved between the trees, almost how a master swordsman weaves around the battle field. Bounded off rocks and leaping to the side to avoid trees. Soon the trees stopped suddenly, Fenrir stopped a few feet away from the sudden drop off. The cliff slopped down about 100 feet or so before giving way to a tree wall. In the center of the large crater stood a massive tree. The branches reached outward I bet a dragon could easily sleep on one of them.

"Yo Fenrir what is this place?"

"Celt, this is the World Tree, Yggdrasil."

I laugh, "Well this is an ingredient on the list but what about that healer you talked about? It's not very good if I drop dead in the middle of collecting the bark."

"She is also down there. We should hurry the entrance is on the other side."

I jump off Fenrir and walk over to a large tree. "You know I've always wanted to try something in my life."

"Celt, this is not really the ti..." I rip  a sturdy board of bark off the tree.

"I've always wanted to board down a hill." I ran over to the slope then jumped.

I jumped onto the board and landed against the slope. I continued to board down the hill, bobbing up and down form the occasionally bump. I look behind me and see Fenrir sliding down the hill with Twitch on his back holding on for dear life.  I laugh as I look back down. We were about 3/4s of the way down when I hit a rather large rock on the way down. My board went backward sending me forward. For a few moments I flew, for another few moments I saw my life flash before my eyes and with the last few moments airborne I said.

"Oh this is going to hurt." I crashed into the trees with much force.

I fell through the trees breaking a few branches on the way down before landing in the nice soft thorns that layed at the bottom of the trees. I groan as I get up and out of the branches, collecting a few more thorns in my body in the process. I finally get out of the thorns just in time for both Fenrir and Twitch to make it to the bottom. I hear a few snickers come from Twitch while Fenrir remained stone faced.

"Yah, laugh it up now. Just so you know it isn't hard to fall off Fenrir when your asleep." I pull a thorn from my arm, "Now do some magic and remove these damn thorns!"

Twitch's horn begins to glow, the same glow envelopes the thorns scattered around my body. All at once the thorns pulled out, the pain was basically trying to help cuts all over your body by taking a bath in lemon juice and salt. A few speckles of blood flow down my body. I crack a few of my joints making Twitch cringe.

"Alright, now that we're done getting down here where is this healer?"

Fenrir walked toward the wall of trees, "Through here. Celt if you wouldn't mind, could you just break through it with your crossbow?"

"Sure," I pull my crossbow out of its holster, " Terra Ventus!"

The ground rumbled around, a few pebbles and clouds of dirt began to collect onto the crossbow. A solid brown bolt formed, next a swirling wind wrapped around the projectile. The final product was a swirling mass of brown and clear wind all contained within one shape. I raise the crossbow and take aim toward the wall of trees. I pull the trigger sending the bolt forward, a small cone formed around the missile as it collided against the trees. One after another the trunks of the trees were shattered, causing the tops to collide with the ones by them. The end result was a large hole through the entire wall.

"Now that we have that wall out of the way shall we go visit your friend Fenrir?"

"Yes." Both Twitch and I jump onto Fenrir.

We began to head toward the large tree in the center of the crater. Past the wall was a small clearing with the gnarled tree taking up most of the space. The sheer size of the oak could be compared to the Empire State Building. Must have been here since the beginning of time...  We enter the clearing and the wall behind us regrows, thorn vines taking back their place and trees regrowing at a rapid pace.

"Fenrir, who is your friend?" Twitch questioned.

Fenrir stopped and both Twitch and I got off him, "Her name is Terra, and I am fairly certain she can help your injuries Celt."

"Hold up, if were still following the logic of this place. Then that mean your friend Terra is someone to do with the earth." Wait a minute only two ponies have latin names. "Your friend is a god isn't she?"

"Yes, I am." Spoke a stern motherly voice.

I look over to the voice, in front of us was an alicorn much like Celestia, royal presence but with a subtle motherly feel. She stood quite tall, nearly as tall as myself. She had a light brown coat with darker brown swirls running across her body giving off the appearance of knots in wood. Her mane and tail flowed like Celestia and Luna's but instead of a dark blue or a multicolored mesh it was a dark forest green with tiny bits of white to give the appearance of light peeking through a canopy of trees.

"Hello, as you know I am Terra goddess of nature. Now please tell me who you are?" She spoke in a soft yet steady tone.

Fenrir walks toward the tree. What is he doing? "Well Terra, I am Celt, the bugbear."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Celt. I hope that the guardians I sent to meet you didn't cau...." She stops and stares at Fenrir who had just raised his leg toward the tree. "If you try and do your business on my tree I will remove your wolfhood."

He instantly lowered his leg and walked back to me. "Anyway, may I ask what happened to my forest guardians I sent to meet you?"

"Your forest guardians wouldn't happen to be Timberwolves would they?"

"Yes they are."

Fenrir stepped up, "I crushed them, I mean no offense to you Terra but your guardians are weak."

"I will keep that in mind for later. Next time however do refrain from crushing them."

"Wait, how did you know he crushed them?"

"I could sense you destroy them a while ago."

I cross my arms, "So why did you ask then?"

Her face remained plain, "Just curious, anyway, what brings you here Twitch, Fenrir and Celt?"

"Wait how did you know our names?" Twitch questioned.

"Hmmm?"

"Only Celt introduced himself, how do you know mine and Fenrir's names?"

She didn't even react, "I know Fenrir from old legends about him and some other things burning down the tree."

"Ok, that explains how you know Fenrir what about Twitch?"

"Oh him? Anything happening in my forest I know about it. Now that introductions are out of the way we can move onto buisness, I suppose. So Celt why are you here?"

"Two reasons actually, the first is we need Bark from the World Tree and second I need some healing."

"Hmmm, we shall make a deal then, if you complete a task I assign you, I will give you the Bark."

I cross my arms, "And what about the healing?"

She stared at me, "I will speed up the naturel process of healing on your body for a few moments. That way you are at your peak condition while you do my task."

"Alright then, you have a deal."

She walks up close to me, "Hold still while I speed your healing."

"Before we start, can I ask if this will hurt?"

She stops and thinks for a moment, "No you can't."

Her horn glowed brightly. I feel a tingling feeling spread all across my body. First the bruises faded leaving no hint that they were ever there. Next the newest cuts began to clot, a slight ping of pain spread across my body. Next the large slash against my side, slowly the skin began to knit back together, then the meat inside reformed back its original form while it happened pain pulsed throughout my body. The last part was my foot, the skin sealed and reformed the muscle tissue that had been cut from the spear. Her horn stopped glowing and she backed up alittle ways.

"There your body is healed."

I remove the bandages and see a large scar across my side. "Why do I have a scar then?"

"I sped up the naturel healing process, so a scar was left where your cut was."

" Well I feel slightly cheated, but I suppose a deal is a deal. What task do you want me to complete?"

"I simply wish for you to stop a rampaging basilisk heading this way, turning everything into stone."

My jaw drops to the floor, "And how am I supposed to get close enough to stop it without being turned to stone?"

"Well, you could run at it with your eyes closed and hope for the best."

"That doesn't sound effective at all."

She stares blankly at me, "No, it probably isn't."

"Any other suggestions?"

"You could use something to stop direct eye contact."

I reach into my bag until I find the sunglasses from earlier, "These should stop anything requiring eye contact. Fenrir you should stay here just mostly since you have to defense against it. Twitch can that eye shield thing you have stop direct eye contact?"

"Uh, yes the Hive said that our 'eye shields' does block eye contact...Celt why do you want to know?"

I laugh, "Cause Twitch we gunna go basilisk huntin!"

"You seem strangely accepting of this task."

"Well, I want that bark. Now Twitch we better get going, that basilisk isn't going to kill itself."

I grab Twitch and begin to jog toward the large entrance that had just opened in the wall of trees. At full sprint, I still felt no pain at all. God, I love magic! I continued to dash forward ready to hunt and kill the basilisk. Behind me I hear a bit of dialogue between Fenrir and Terra.

"You realize he is slightly crazy."

"I wouldn't have followed him this long if he wasn't." Next Chapter: I am not a good snake charmer (22) Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes