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, just waving branches overhead.

“Belak?”

“Aidan, lad, you’re alive! I was afraid you'd gone and died on us. Can you 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. The waving branches were not waving in the wind. They were moving with a life and purpose of their own, and they did not seem to be friendly. Little Seymore was crouched with spear in hand and attempting to fend off the reaching branches around him. The invisible hands gripping Aidan’s shoulders let go, and suddenly an axe appeared out of nowhere, spinning through the air to chop at 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, you have to 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 onto his shoulder. A flaming tree wrapped a branch around him, 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 jacket 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. He eventually picked himself up and took inventory. His clothes were ruined, 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.

"Aidan! That's the second time tonight I've thought you were dead," said Belak.

"Technically I am dead. But thankfully no deader than usual just now." said Aidan, with a somewhat nervous laugh. His legs felt like jelly and he suddenly had to sit down. "I thought I was a goner too. I have no idea what happened there. I ought to be burned at least a little." He examined his very much the worse for wear finery. There were burn holes all over it, but his skin beneath was unmarked. His head, on the other hand, ached horribly. He put his hand to it, feeling a sizable lump, and his fingers came away red.

"Are you all right lad? When you got that lump I really did wonder if you'd died. It doesn't look too good."

“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.

He looked back at the forest, where the fire was still smoldering, but not spreading. There were plenty more trees between them and the castle. "I don't think we'll be getting around the back way. I hope the others have better luck than we did."

"Aye."

The trio circled back to their starting point and sat down to wait for the others.

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

“I didn’t save you from that tree, Aidan," said Belak, from the empty air next to him. "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.”

They sat in silence for several hours before there was a sound of footsteps from the maze.

"I hope that's Brianna and the rest," said Belak.

"You and me both," said Aidan.

Much to their relief when somebody stepped out of the entrance of the maze it was Lavasida, with the others close behind him. “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 sorceress and she found us.”

“Found you charming,” said Brianna with a grin. "The sorceress caught us, but Lavasida seduced her and got what we came for. She is probably going to be very unhappy when she wakes up though, so we should get going."

"Yeah." Aidan climbed to his feet. 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.”