The blue Lantern eagerly urged Anise closer. All she had to do was reach out, and the Dragon's desire would do the rest.

A batmonkey screeched in the dark frozen treetops.

Bright, searing clouds of fire billowed out of the Lantern in Artemis' grasp. Reus swiped Anise back with a paw just before the white-hot flames could melt her skin, but the scalding heat of the inferno quickly singed what was left of her dress. Fire thundered as powerful and frightening as the inferno, higher and higher, illuminating and destroying everything around it in a blinding, thundering light.

The trees wailed in pain, uprooted themselves, writhed and crashed twitching to the ground.

Reus skittered back toward the river, huffing at Anise to come with him, to abandon the stranger, though the Dragon's will insisted that she walk forward into the inferno.

[b]"GET ON THE GOSHDANGIT RAFT CRAZY LADY!"[/b] Morly hollered from the shore.
[hr]
Meanwhile, the way was open to Artemis: a dark path through the darker woods, illuminated in haunting red and white by the flames that consumed the carnivorous trees.

It would be a long walk across tilted stones and strangely writhing roots, little streams and thick mossy boulders, before the glow of the fire disappeared behind Artemis.

Occasionally, something dark skittered in the corner of her eye.

Birds crackled and chittered in the branches.

At the edge of the Lantern's light, grass and bushes rustled.

A huge animal, thin like a deer, glided slowly among the shadows, unconcerned with Artemis' presence.

Something glinted on the ground ahead: a rosary with an iron rose. It was damp, as if it had just been fished out of water.

A firefly glinted in the dark. A few others blinked among the shadows to the left of the rosary. They almost formed a line, if one stared long enough -- a trail of fireflies, leading off among the stones and low-hanging branches.

To the right, half-hidden among roots and ivy, a dilapidated sign had been nailed to a tree. Two words were carved into it: NO SOLICITORS

In the bark below the sign, a rune was carved.

In this direction, the path was much clearer, as if it were traveled frequently. Spaced along the way were white stones, each carved with a different rune.

In the distance farther down this path, Artemis could hear the faint, rhythmic sound of someone hammering wood.