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Day Seventy, Dwarf Woodlands
Luso laces his fingers behind his head, huffing out a heavy sigh.
“I’m startin’ to think this plan wasn’t the best one.”
“Don’t say that!” Freyra beams, grabbing him by the shoulders from behind. “We’ve killed, what, a hundred Heartless?”
“A hundred and five,” Eden murmurs. “Most of them Darkballs again. Are they even native to this world?”
“Nnnnope,” Luso said.
“Huh.”
“Anyway,” Luso says, glancing up at the foliage above them. “Wasn’t the whole point in comin’ here that we, you know, deal with our non-Heartless problem? And our non-Heartless problem hasn’t showed. It’s been two hours.”
“We’ve just got to keep an ear out for trouble. Or fighting,” Eden says. “Or whatever massive collateral damage sounds like.”
The words are barely out of his mouth when a shrill scream cuts through the woods, followed by the sound of rapidly approaching footprints.
Eden points off in the direction of the sound, absently. “That’s what massive collateral damage sounds like.”
“Or just someone being chased by Heartless,” Freyra says.
“That’s fine, too. Not going to turn my nose up at free Heartless.”
“If this isn’t him,” Luso says. “I’m going home and getting lunch.”
A girl, a little younger than them, dressed in blue and yellow, bursts through the trees and nearly trips over her dress before Freyra sweeps in to catch her, propping her back upright.
“You simply must help me!” The girl says, finding her footing and moving behind them. “That -- that boy is trying to kill me!”
“Which boy?” Luso asks.
“Tall, blond, long hair?” Eden adds.
“Yes!”
“Jackpot!” Eden cheers, holding up a hand. Luso jumps to highfive it with a grin. “-- I mean. How terrible. For you?”
“Keep heading into the forest, miss,” Freyra says. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t follow.”
“Told you this would work,” Eden says, sing-song. “Mateus is so predictable, man.”
“You’ll have to thank your informant,” Chirithy remarks, from his spot atop Eden’s head, before stretching and vanishing, just as the line of trees at the edge of the forest burst into flame as one.
The girl in blue flinches back, and Freyra waves her away. She sprints deeper into the forest, vanishing into the undergrowth as Mateus strides through the flames, keyblade in hand.
“Hey, Matty,” Eden chirps, raising a hand. “We’re here to screw with y’plans to, what, steal some girl’s heart?”
“Seems like a lot of effort to go through for just one,” Freyra says.
Mateus peers at them for a moment, then past them towards the forest. “I’ve been promised quite a few hearts in exchange for hers. Not that I object to the opportunity to give all of you another trouncing, but standing between myself and a target is really not a good idea.”
“Well, here we are anyway,” Eden says, scraping his foot across the ground behind him. “What’cha going to do about it?”
Mateus’ eyes flick over them for a moment. Then he’s suddenly moving, trying to sprint at the gap between Freyra and Luso. Eden summons his keyblade and pushes off the ground, channeling magic into his legs to swing around and intercept the other boy, their keyblades landing against each other’s.
Eden shoves forward, and feels a momentary surge of power from the bangle around his wrist, before Mateus goes skidding backwards.
“So, you bought a Power Bangle from Mog,” Mateus says. “You and every other worm who can’t win on their own terms. It’s not going to help you.” He raises a hand, muttering something under his breath, and the air starts to hum with magic.
“Freyra, the spell,” Eden says, and Freyra summons her keyblade, raising it into the air as she chants out a spell, her voice overlapping with Mateus’.
A magic circle appears beneath her in lines of violet light, before expanding to fill the entire clearing, then forming a semi-spherical bubble over them, and suddenly
everything
slows
down.
“This … is … complicated … Time … and … Space … magic,” Mateus says, very slowly, with 0.1x speed snideness n his every word. “I’m … almost … impressed.”
“... Thanks,” Freyra replies, very slowly starting to lower her arm.
“I got … the idea … from …” Eden says, and everyone’s eyes slowly turn towards him. “... Agrabah. Freyra has … Space … and … Time … magic. Just … like … your … friend … Arty. And …”
He steps forward slowly. All eyes follow his foot as it moves sedately through the air and lands in front of him. One of Mateus’ traps, a gleaming magic circle of gold light materialises around it, and slowly, slowly, starts to turn into a blast of lightning.
Eden channels his magic down to his legs again, and speeds forward out of the way before the trap can fully activate. The blast of lightning materialises behind him at one tenth of its usual speed, a second long flash that then fades away.
“And … now … your traps … are … useless,” Eden says.
“Ha …” Luso crows. A long pause drags on. “... ha …”
“This … is … exhausting. Can we … finish … this … quickly,” Freyra says. She pauses for several seconds. “... Relatively … speaking.”
Eden taps his foot against the ground. Across from him, Mateus raises an eyebrow and does the same. Then, with a flash of blue-white light from Eden’s back, and a flash of golden light from Mateus’, they both speed forward.
---
The experience of using his speed-boosting spell when everything’s slowed down to one tenth of its normal speed is an odd one to Eden -- neither as slow as he’d normally move without it, nor anywhere near as fast as he’d be using it any other time.
He and Mateus zip about the clearing, leaving trails of light behind them until the whole place is covered in a web of blue and gold light. They rebound off trees, use the clumps of earth their movement rips up as floating platforms to push themselves higher into the air, dart around the slow-moving figures of Luso and Freyra.
Eden’s certain that Mateus is winning.
If it was speed alone, Eden knows he would win; if it was swordplay, they’d be locked in a permanent stalemate; but Mateus seems to have an infinite number of ways to enchant his keyblade, enough passing ability with nearly every magical element to ensure that he has a limitless supply of ways to brute force his way into landing a blow.
When Eden gets close, Mateus shrouds his keyblade in flame, so that every time their keyblades strike each other, the searing heat scorches Eden’s hands; when Eden puts distance between them, Mateus summons a whip of lightning from the tip of his keyblade, and batters at Eden from afar, leaving long burns across his shoulders, face, and legs; when Eden uses his superior speed to try and work his way past Mateus’ guard, Mateus summons a cloud of icicles to gather in clumps on Eden’s ankles and slow him down.
Eden rebounds off a tree at one side of the clearing, and Mateus rebounds off another, sweeping his hand over his keyblade and wrapping it in a swirl of fire. As their keyblades land against each other, it explodes and sends Eden flying, bouncing off the side of the Slowga dome and landing face first on the ground.
He starts to roll over, slowly, as Mateus zips down to Freyra and rakes his keyblade across her back. Her spell dissipates as she falls, and Luso, running to help, is suddenly catapulted forward as time speeds up again, just in time to land in one of Mateus’ traps and be caught in a blast of lightning.
Eden pulls a skill card, the one Mog made for him especially for this, from his belt, but Mateus is over him in a moment, pinning his arm to the floor with a boot on his wrist.
“What’s this, then?” Mateus nearly sneers, reaching down and plucking the card from Eden’s fingers. “... My, my, this is custom work isn’t it? You sourced the data for it yourself?”
He turns it over in his hands, peering at the image on the card: A boar Heartless, dressed in a crown and an extravagant yellow cloak, with text reading ‘#☐☐☐☐☐&#’ beneath it.
“Somethin’ I made with data from the training robot,” Eden says, with a slight grin. “Y’know, the one I made with data I stole from you guys? That one.”
“The one Ursus guys ain’t allowed to use,” Luso adds.
“The one Ursus guys aren’t allowed to use,” Eden adds, somberly. “But all the data you’ve given us is really useful, so thanks.”
Mateus snorts, pressing down on Eden’s wrist with his boot. “I suggest you save the mockery for when you’re in a less precarious position. Shall we see what this card does, then? Your little custom-made trump card. I’m sure it’ll be quite the sight.”
“I -- really wouldn’t, if I were you.”
Mateus gives him a smirk and raises his keyblade with one hand, and the card with the other. “Who shall I test it on, then? The boy or the -- …”
“Definitely Luso,” Eden says.
“Dude!” Luso protests.
“Dude!” Eden replies.
“Dude,” Freyra adds, wisely.
Mateus turns towards Luso, and scrapes the card across his keyblade.
The first thing that happens is the card catching fire.
Eden sees Mateus’ eyebrows rise in surprise before his entire keyblade explodes with golden and red light, swinging wide as it’s wrenched about by a torrent of energy erupting from it, passing over Luso’s head and flattening the trees around them.
It doesn’t stop. Mateus grabs his keyblade with both hands, trying to wrench it back under control, as the torrent of energy intensifies. A blast of feedback crackles over him, then another one, scoring his arms and face with burn marks.
Then, as abruptly as it started, the torrent of energy flickers out. Mateus’ keyblade gives off a few more sparks, before, with a sound like ice breaking, a web of thin cracks spread across its golden edge, bleeding light.
Mateus stumbles backwards, breathing heavily. “What did you do?”
“What’d I tell you guys?” Eden says, standing up and loosening his shoulders. “Predictable.”
“We did tell you not to use it,” Freyra says.
“Damn, dude,” Luso mutters. “That might actually be the worst skill card I’ve ever seen?”
“Riiiight?”
“Did Mog actually charge you for that?” Freyra asks.
“I -- …” Eden frowns. “Yeah, he charged me a lot for it, actually.”
Mateus snarls at them, raising his keyblade in front of himself. Eden raises his, as Freyra and Luso approach, lifting their own.
---
It’s three against one, and every time Mateus tries to channel magic through his keyblade, the magical energy flickers and disperses before he can. He can’t even sustain any traps, although Eden sees him trying to summon them.
For all that, he puts up an okay fight. Eden can see why he’s the top-ranked keybearer in Daybreak Town.
A heavy blow from Eden sends him skidding backwards, just in time for Freyra’s keyblade to land against his with a crash, pushing him to the edge of the flattened trees. One of the cracks on his keyblade widens, letting off motes of light.
Luso pulls three cards from his belt -- some kind of maned cat; a man in a red robe with a sword on his shoulder; and a man in black with red, spiked hair -- and scrapes them across his keyblade, charging it with a flame that starts off red, then turns white, then blue.
Eden sees Mateus charge at Luso, and Luso charge at Mateus. Their keyblades land, and there’s a momentary explosion of heat, before, at the edge of Mateus’ keyblade, a chip of metal the size of Eden’s thumb comes loose. There’s a burst of light from the keyblade, before its colours turn dull -- not quite grey, but nothing like the lustrous gold it had been there.
Mateus raises his chipped keyblade, staring at in mute horror.
“You broke it,” he says, quietly disbelieving. “I can’t …”
With a crackle of energy, a Lane Between materialises behind him. Arty exits first, her keyblade pointed threateningly at Luso, scowling; behind her, Jecht exits, and moves protectively between them and Mateus; and finally, the red-haired boy meanders out, his hat tipped down over his eyes. Eden sees him smile wryly for a moment, before he takes up position next to the Lane.
“Nobody move,” Arty says.
A Chirithy materialises on Mateus’ shoulder, staring down at the keyblade. “We should return to Daybreak Town, Master Mateus. Lord Aced and Master Mog will no doubt be able to repair it, to a certain extent. Given some months, a degree of functionality can doubtless be restored.”
Mateus’ expression turns flat, as his personality seems to drop away from him. Eden cocks his head -- he’s done that before himself, after all, let the perpetual act they put on drop.
“Yes,” Mateus says, flatly, holding up his keyblade. “We should work quickly to make sure I can return to missions for the Union as soon as possible.”
“Indeed,” Chirithy says.
“You haven’t saved the girl, Snow White,” Mateus says. “I came with two others. Kuja and Noah are still hunting her down.”
“Geez, dude, you really don’t give us much credit, do you?” Luso says, folding his arms. “Why do you think only three of us are here to fight you? We could’ve mobbed you with all seven of us, y’know?”
“Admittedly, we kind of expected your goons to be with you, and when we got the others to prepare an ambush, the idea was to draw them away, but …” Freyra shrugs. “We’ve got Izana and Alvis on the task of dealing with one of your party members, and Queenie and Adelle dealing with the other.”
Mateus’ expression is still flat as he turns towards the Lane. “Huh. I suppose you do win this time, then.”
“I suppose so,” Eden says.
Mateus doesn’t say anything else, instead walking into the Lane, with Arty and Jecht following. The red-haired boy lingers by the Lane for the moment, before tipping his hat to them and retreating into the Lane, which flares bright and then fades, leaving only the forest behind.
“I’m startin’ to think this plan wasn’t the best one.”
“Don’t say that!” Freyra beams, grabbing him by the shoulders from behind. “We’ve killed, what, a hundred Heartless?”
“A hundred and five,” Eden murmurs. “Most of them Darkballs again. Are they even native to this world?”
“Nnnnope,” Luso said.
“Huh.”
“Anyway,” Luso says, glancing up at the foliage above them. “Wasn’t the whole point in comin’ here that we, you know, deal with our non-Heartless problem? And our non-Heartless problem hasn’t showed. It’s been two hours.”
“We’ve just got to keep an ear out for trouble. Or fighting,” Eden says. “Or whatever massive collateral damage sounds like.”
The words are barely out of his mouth when a shrill scream cuts through the woods, followed by the sound of rapidly approaching footprints.
Eden points off in the direction of the sound, absently. “That’s what massive collateral damage sounds like.”
“Or just someone being chased by Heartless,” Freyra says.
“That’s fine, too. Not going to turn my nose up at free Heartless.”
“If this isn’t him,” Luso says. “I’m going home and getting lunch.”
A girl, a little younger than them, dressed in blue and yellow, bursts through the trees and nearly trips over her dress before Freyra sweeps in to catch her, propping her back upright.
“You simply must help me!” The girl says, finding her footing and moving behind them. “That -- that boy is trying to kill me!”
“Which boy?” Luso asks.
“Tall, blond, long hair?” Eden adds.
“Yes!”
“Jackpot!” Eden cheers, holding up a hand. Luso jumps to highfive it with a grin. “-- I mean. How terrible. For you?”
“Keep heading into the forest, miss,” Freyra says. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t follow.”
“Told you this would work,” Eden says, sing-song. “Mateus is so predictable, man.”
“You’ll have to thank your informant,” Chirithy remarks, from his spot atop Eden’s head, before stretching and vanishing, just as the line of trees at the edge of the forest burst into flame as one.
The girl in blue flinches back, and Freyra waves her away. She sprints deeper into the forest, vanishing into the undergrowth as Mateus strides through the flames, keyblade in hand.
“Hey, Matty,” Eden chirps, raising a hand. “We’re here to screw with y’plans to, what, steal some girl’s heart?”
“Seems like a lot of effort to go through for just one,” Freyra says.
Mateus peers at them for a moment, then past them towards the forest. “I’ve been promised quite a few hearts in exchange for hers. Not that I object to the opportunity to give all of you another trouncing, but standing between myself and a target is really not a good idea.”
“Well, here we are anyway,” Eden says, scraping his foot across the ground behind him. “What’cha going to do about it?”
Mateus’ eyes flick over them for a moment. Then he’s suddenly moving, trying to sprint at the gap between Freyra and Luso. Eden summons his keyblade and pushes off the ground, channeling magic into his legs to swing around and intercept the other boy, their keyblades landing against each other’s.
Eden shoves forward, and feels a momentary surge of power from the bangle around his wrist, before Mateus goes skidding backwards.
“So, you bought a Power Bangle from Mog,” Mateus says. “You and every other worm who can’t win on their own terms. It’s not going to help you.” He raises a hand, muttering something under his breath, and the air starts to hum with magic.
“Freyra, the spell,” Eden says, and Freyra summons her keyblade, raising it into the air as she chants out a spell, her voice overlapping with Mateus’.
A magic circle appears beneath her in lines of violet light, before expanding to fill the entire clearing, then forming a semi-spherical bubble over them, and suddenly
everything
slows
down.
“This … is … complicated … Time … and … Space … magic,” Mateus says, very slowly, with 0.1x speed snideness n his every word. “I’m … almost … impressed.”
“... Thanks,” Freyra replies, very slowly starting to lower her arm.
“I got … the idea … from …” Eden says, and everyone’s eyes slowly turn towards him. “... Agrabah. Freyra has … Space … and … Time … magic. Just … like … your … friend … Arty. And …”
He steps forward slowly. All eyes follow his foot as it moves sedately through the air and lands in front of him. One of Mateus’ traps, a gleaming magic circle of gold light materialises around it, and slowly, slowly, starts to turn into a blast of lightning.
Eden channels his magic down to his legs again, and speeds forward out of the way before the trap can fully activate. The blast of lightning materialises behind him at one tenth of its usual speed, a second long flash that then fades away.
“And … now … your traps … are … useless,” Eden says.
“Ha …” Luso crows. A long pause drags on. “... ha …”
“This … is … exhausting. Can we … finish … this … quickly,” Freyra says. She pauses for several seconds. “... Relatively … speaking.”
Eden taps his foot against the ground. Across from him, Mateus raises an eyebrow and does the same. Then, with a flash of blue-white light from Eden’s back, and a flash of golden light from Mateus’, they both speed forward.
The experience of using his speed-boosting spell when everything’s slowed down to one tenth of its normal speed is an odd one to Eden -- neither as slow as he’d normally move without it, nor anywhere near as fast as he’d be using it any other time.
He and Mateus zip about the clearing, leaving trails of light behind them until the whole place is covered in a web of blue and gold light. They rebound off trees, use the clumps of earth their movement rips up as floating platforms to push themselves higher into the air, dart around the slow-moving figures of Luso and Freyra.
Eden’s certain that Mateus is winning.
If it was speed alone, Eden knows he would win; if it was swordplay, they’d be locked in a permanent stalemate; but Mateus seems to have an infinite number of ways to enchant his keyblade, enough passing ability with nearly every magical element to ensure that he has a limitless supply of ways to brute force his way into landing a blow.
When Eden gets close, Mateus shrouds his keyblade in flame, so that every time their keyblades strike each other, the searing heat scorches Eden’s hands; when Eden puts distance between them, Mateus summons a whip of lightning from the tip of his keyblade, and batters at Eden from afar, leaving long burns across his shoulders, face, and legs; when Eden uses his superior speed to try and work his way past Mateus’ guard, Mateus summons a cloud of icicles to gather in clumps on Eden’s ankles and slow him down.
Eden rebounds off a tree at one side of the clearing, and Mateus rebounds off another, sweeping his hand over his keyblade and wrapping it in a swirl of fire. As their keyblades land against each other, it explodes and sends Eden flying, bouncing off the side of the Slowga dome and landing face first on the ground.
He starts to roll over, slowly, as Mateus zips down to Freyra and rakes his keyblade across her back. Her spell dissipates as she falls, and Luso, running to help, is suddenly catapulted forward as time speeds up again, just in time to land in one of Mateus’ traps and be caught in a blast of lightning.
Eden pulls a skill card, the one Mog made for him especially for this, from his belt, but Mateus is over him in a moment, pinning his arm to the floor with a boot on his wrist.
“What’s this, then?” Mateus nearly sneers, reaching down and plucking the card from Eden’s fingers. “... My, my, this is custom work isn’t it? You sourced the data for it yourself?”
He turns it over in his hands, peering at the image on the card: A boar Heartless, dressed in a crown and an extravagant yellow cloak, with text reading ‘#☐☐☐☐☐&#’ beneath it.
“Somethin’ I made with data from the training robot,” Eden says, with a slight grin. “Y’know, the one I made with data I stole from you guys? That one.”
“The one Ursus guys ain’t allowed to use,” Luso adds.
“The one Ursus guys aren’t allowed to use,” Eden adds, somberly. “But all the data you’ve given us is really useful, so thanks.”
Mateus snorts, pressing down on Eden’s wrist with his boot. “I suggest you save the mockery for when you’re in a less precarious position. Shall we see what this card does, then? Your little custom-made trump card. I’m sure it’ll be quite the sight.”
“I -- really wouldn’t, if I were you.”
Mateus gives him a smirk and raises his keyblade with one hand, and the card with the other. “Who shall I test it on, then? The boy or the -- …”
“Definitely Luso,” Eden says.
“Dude!” Luso protests.
“Dude!” Eden replies.
“Dude,” Freyra adds, wisely.
Mateus turns towards Luso, and scrapes the card across his keyblade.
The first thing that happens is the card catching fire.
Eden sees Mateus’ eyebrows rise in surprise before his entire keyblade explodes with golden and red light, swinging wide as it’s wrenched about by a torrent of energy erupting from it, passing over Luso’s head and flattening the trees around them.
It doesn’t stop. Mateus grabs his keyblade with both hands, trying to wrench it back under control, as the torrent of energy intensifies. A blast of feedback crackles over him, then another one, scoring his arms and face with burn marks.
Then, as abruptly as it started, the torrent of energy flickers out. Mateus’ keyblade gives off a few more sparks, before, with a sound like ice breaking, a web of thin cracks spread across its golden edge, bleeding light.
Mateus stumbles backwards, breathing heavily. “What did you do?”
“Everything okay?”
“Sure. Everything’s chill,” Eden says. “I think some of the data from each must’ve conflicted with each other. Caused some kind of overload, followed by a critical failure.”
Mog blinks at him. “Is that possible? It’s the same kind of system as your cards, right?”
“It is,” Eden confirms, opening up his Text and pausing. “... Huh. Well, there’s a thought.”
“Sure. Everything’s chill,” Eden says. “I think some of the data from each must’ve conflicted with each other. Caused some kind of overload, followed by a critical failure.”
Mog blinks at him. “Is that possible? It’s the same kind of system as your cards, right?”
“It is,” Eden confirms, opening up his Text and pausing. “... Huh. Well, there’s a thought.”
“What’d I tell you guys?” Eden says, standing up and loosening his shoulders. “Predictable.”
“We did tell you not to use it,” Freyra says.
“Damn, dude,” Luso mutters. “That might actually be the worst skill card I’ve ever seen?”
“Riiiight?”
“Did Mog actually charge you for that?” Freyra asks.
“I -- …” Eden frowns. “Yeah, he charged me a lot for it, actually.”
Mateus snarls at them, raising his keyblade in front of himself. Eden raises his, as Freyra and Luso approach, lifting their own.
It’s three against one, and every time Mateus tries to channel magic through his keyblade, the magical energy flickers and disperses before he can. He can’t even sustain any traps, although Eden sees him trying to summon them.
For all that, he puts up an okay fight. Eden can see why he’s the top-ranked keybearer in Daybreak Town.
A heavy blow from Eden sends him skidding backwards, just in time for Freyra’s keyblade to land against his with a crash, pushing him to the edge of the flattened trees. One of the cracks on his keyblade widens, letting off motes of light.
Luso pulls three cards from his belt -- some kind of maned cat; a man in a red robe with a sword on his shoulder; and a man in black with red, spiked hair -- and scrapes them across his keyblade, charging it with a flame that starts off red, then turns white, then blue.
Eden sees Mateus charge at Luso, and Luso charge at Mateus. Their keyblades land, and there’s a momentary explosion of heat, before, at the edge of Mateus’ keyblade, a chip of metal the size of Eden’s thumb comes loose. There’s a burst of light from the keyblade, before its colours turn dull -- not quite grey, but nothing like the lustrous gold it had been there.
Mateus raises his chipped keyblade, staring at in mute horror.
“You broke it,” he says, quietly disbelieving. “I can’t …”
With a crackle of energy, a Lane Between materialises behind him. Arty exits first, her keyblade pointed threateningly at Luso, scowling; behind her, Jecht exits, and moves protectively between them and Mateus; and finally, the red-haired boy meanders out, his hat tipped down over his eyes. Eden sees him smile wryly for a moment, before he takes up position next to the Lane.
“Nobody move,” Arty says.
A Chirithy materialises on Mateus’ shoulder, staring down at the keyblade. “We should return to Daybreak Town, Master Mateus. Lord Aced and Master Mog will no doubt be able to repair it, to a certain extent. Given some months, a degree of functionality can doubtless be restored.”
Mateus’ expression turns flat, as his personality seems to drop away from him. Eden cocks his head -- he’s done that before himself, after all, let the perpetual act they put on drop.
“Yes,” Mateus says, flatly, holding up his keyblade. “We should work quickly to make sure I can return to missions for the Union as soon as possible.”
“Indeed,” Chirithy says.
“You haven’t saved the girl, Snow White,” Mateus says. “I came with two others. Kuja and Noah are still hunting her down.”
“Geez, dude, you really don’t give us much credit, do you?” Luso says, folding his arms. “Why do you think only three of us are here to fight you? We could’ve mobbed you with all seven of us, y’know?”
“Admittedly, we kind of expected your goons to be with you, and when we got the others to prepare an ambush, the idea was to draw them away, but …” Freyra shrugs. “We’ve got Izana and Alvis on the task of dealing with one of your party members, and Queenie and Adelle dealing with the other.”
Mateus’ expression is still flat as he turns towards the Lane. “Huh. I suppose you do win this time, then.”
“I suppose so,” Eden says.
Mateus doesn’t say anything else, instead walking into the Lane, with Arty and Jecht following. The red-haired boy lingers by the Lane for the moment, before tipping his hat to them and retreating into the Lane, which flares bright and then fades, leaving only the forest behind.