He came to gradually. He was aware that he was lying flat on his back and something was tugging on his foot. Or rather somebody was pulling him away and his foot was being held firmly in place.

“Blasted plant! Let go!” shouted a voice. Aidan’s eyes shot open, but he still didn’t see much of anything.

“Belak?”

“Aidan, lad, you’re alive! You must get yourself loose. I can’t get this cursed tree to let go of you, and the others are getting a mite annoying.”

“Huh?” Aidan looked around and his eyes went wide. Little Seymore was crouched with spear in hand and attempting to fend off the reaching branches around him. The trees had come alive, and they didn’t seem to be happy. The hands gripping Aidan’s shoulders let go, and suddenly an axe appeared out of nowhere, spinning through the air to chop branches and trunks.

Aidan tried to get to his feet, but the tree root was still holding his foot. No sooner was he up than it pulled him down again. Drawing a dagger he started sawing away at the wood. Around him Seymore and Belak were fending off the trees that actually seemed to be moving slowly closer.

“Aidan lad, you must get loose. I can only hold them off for so long!”

“I’m sorry! I can’t cut this thing! It’s as hard as rock.”

“Me have idea!” The usually quiet goblin suddenly piped up. “Trees hard to cut, but trees burn. They no like fire, me think.”

“Seymore lad, you’re a genius. Fire! Hold them off for a moment more and I’ll have a torch.” The goblin nodded grimly and attacked the branches with renewed ferocity. A dead branch rose up off the ground, there was a crash of glass as the invisible dwarf broke his oil flask over it, and then a flare of fire. “Take this!” shouted the dwarf, and flung the torch.

Aidan almost expected a shriek as the nearest tree went up in flames, but there was no sound. The tree writhed, its branches flailing in agony, spreading the fire to the neighboring trees. Aidan felt the root around his ankle let go and he jumped to his feet. Seymore was already out from the immediate circle of trees and was running through the woods. Aidan ran after him, but something latched on to his shoulder. He looked back to see a flaming tree, apparently determined to take Aidan down with it.

Aidan struggled to free himself, but a second branch was already wrapping itself around his throat, dragging him backward. He tried to shout for help, but he couldn’t get any air. The tree had him pinned to its trunk now and the flaming branches were all around. He heard Belak shouting, but knew there was no way the dwarf could reach him.

Curiously the flames didn’t seem very hot. He could see them licking up all around him. Not only was the tree still burning, but now his trousers and vest were catching fire. But he couldn’t feel it. What was going on?

The grip of the branches was weakening as the tree died, and suddenly Aidan broke free. He tumbled to the ground and stayed there, rolling to extinguish his clothes. When at last he got up his clothes were smoking, but he himself seemed unhurt. That was downright weird, he thought to himself as he hurried away from the burning trees. Weird, but very welcome. I thought I was a goner.

“Aidan lad! You’re not dead!”

“No. Well, not any deader than usual these days.”

“Come on. We have to get out of here.”

“Amen to that. Let’s go before this whole forest burns down, and us with it.”

An hour later the three of them stood before the maze. “There’s no way we can go through the woods with all the trees against us. Do you think we should go through the maze after the others?”

“I don’t know lad. Mayhap.”

“I don’t think I’ll be much use. I still can’t quite focus, and my head is killing me.” He reached gingerly behind him and felt the back of his head. There was a tender lump there, and his fingers came away sticky with blood.

“Aye. When I couldn’t wake you lad, I thought you were dead. You’ve quite the gash on your head there.”

“Maybe I’ve got a concussion.” Everything was still swirling around him, refusing to fully focus. The adrenaline rush that had carried him through the battle with the trees was fading and he felt worn out. Dead tired in fact. And I can’t even get up the energy to laugh at my own bad pun. Sad.

“I never seem to be any use. I always end up needing to be rescued.”

“I didn’t save you from that tree, Aidan. You saved yourself.”

“But I didn’t do anything. It was just… weird. The fire didn’t hurt me. I don’t know why. Flame Song is immune to fire, but I’m not! And its not as if you can gain something like fire immunity just by being married to a firecat.”

“No, most likely not.”

“Wait… I think I hear something.”

“What is it?”

“Voices. I think it’s the others.”

“Let’s home they had better luck than we did, lad.”

Belak’s hopes proved well founded, as Lavasida emerged from the maze first with the baron’s amulet in one hand. “What happened to you?” he asked, surveying the scorched aerian and somewhat battered goblin.

“We met a few trees,” said Aidan. “You?”

“We found the witch and she found us.”

“Found you charming,” said Brianna, emerging from the maze behind him. “Lavasida seduced the woman to get the amulet. She’s going to be surprised and unhappy when she wakes up.”

“Er…” Aidan couldn’t think of a ready response. “Ooohhh…” Suddenly everything started spinning again, and he started to collapse. Lavasida darted forward and caught Aidan before he could hit the ground.

“Are you all right?”

“Not exactly,” said Aidan woozily. “But I don’t want to stick around here.”

“I’ll second that,” said Flame, taking Aidan’s arm as Lavasida helped him to his feet. “Let’s get going.”