The cottage was exactly how Vylad remembered it. It was a quaint, mossy building with giant pumpkins and vibrant mushrooms growing alongside the walls, with strange markings carved into the door and wood trim of the roof.

He stood on a short hill, looking down on the small clearing where the wooden home was bathing in the bit of sunlight that managed to peek through the leafy treetops. It had taken him a week to find it. He had heard of how it was nearly impossible to find your way out of the Enchanted Forest—both safely and generally—let alone find a specific destination inside of it. Still, he had not known just how difficult it would be until he was traveling in endless circles for hours at a time and getting attacked by blood-thirsty thieves with shiny golden daggers. Daggers that most thieves wouldn't be able to afford, which is how Vylad knew that the thieves must have been more skilled at their job than the thieves in the surrounding villages usually were. It was the...