It was Kirsty's first full day at Shokushu University and since she wouldn't actually be starting classes until Monday she decided to take the her student adviser's up on her offer to give her a tour of the campus. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Touring the school prior to transferring there hadn't really been an option because it was so far away so she'd only seen the school in pictures before. They didn't do the place justice. The island was gorgeous and the school far nicer than her previous college with building that hadn't been renovated since the 1970's.

Still, once she saw the Theater wing Kirsty was done with the tour. She gave her adviser the slip as soon as she could and dashed back to get a peek at the auditorium. It was beautiful and classically styled to look more like a theatre one might see in Paris or London and far bigger than she expected. Her old school's theatre department couldn't hold a touch to this place. Kirsty made her way down the aisle towards the stage which was partially dressed to look like an enchanted forest on a hill with a painted backdrop of a medieval castle surrounded by an impressively large maze.

Kirsty was drawn towards the scene like a moth to the flame. What play was this set for and were they still auditioning for it? As she neared the stage she saw a small red book lying open on the edge of the stage. She climb up onto the platform and picked it up. "Act 3, scene vi, Lady Meander confronts the Goblin King in his throne room. M: Give me the child..." Kirsty stopped there and flipped the cover over to read the title of the play. "I know this."

She smiled to herself and flipped the play open to the first page as she crossed to center stage. "Act 1, scene i, Deep in an enchanted wood a woman walks alone, singing to herself as she go. She is clearly nobility by her attire but she seems melancholy. This is the Lady Meander" She reads the stage directions aloud and then suddenly decides to act them out. She exits stage right and re-enters as Lady Meander, singing sadly to herself. "Early one morning, just as the sun was rising,/I heard a young maid sing in the valley below./Oh, don't deceive me, Oh never leave me./How could you use a poor maiden so?"

She paused as Lady Meander heard a rustling in a nearby bush followed by what sounded like a snickering laugh. Kirsty was getting into it now. She'd almost heard the laughter herself. Kirsty shouldn't be indulging in these sorts of fantasies but she hadn't had an accident in years and it wasn't as though there was anyone else around if she did get a little swept away. As Meander she turned towards the offending bush quickly as though startled. "Who's there?"

"Follow the girl," Xoku grumbled to himself as he slithered through the air mere feet from his target and her tour guide. "Sssee if you can activate her talent," he repeated Spectre's order with disgusted exasperation. "What am I? Ssome ssort of dynamo?"

It would seem that a thirty foot serpent surrounded by a cloud of iridescent tendrils mumbling to itself as it floated through the air would cause a bit of a stir, yet noone noticed, For Xoku was employing his 'stealth' mode, mystically nullifying his presence.

"What interesst doess Sspectre have in you anyway?" the serpent asked Kirsty rhetorically, knowing full well she couldn't hear him. "Ssure, you're beautiful, with nicse long legss . . . " he paused a second to imagine wrapping his coils around such a lithe and lovely form. "Mmm . . ." the monster gave a little shake to clear the fantasy from his mind.

"But the cloaked freak doessn't care about ssuch thingss. It wantss to know about your ability to bring fantassy to life - bah!" Xoku paused again as his gaze returned to Kirsty's body. "Sstill, thiss could be fun - I hope thiss tour doessn't take too long."

Then suddenly it was over, as the student slipped away from her escort. Xoku hurried after her, having to dash often in order to get his length through doors before they closed behind the swift moving girl.

When they entered the theatre, he knew they had reached their destination. He took a moment to telekinetically lock the doors. He didn't want any interruptions. Of course that meant he became visible for a moment, but luckily Kirsty was too enamored with the scene in front of her to notice.

Fading out again, the serpent soared up high, circling then coming to rest in the rigging above the stage, where he finally let his stealth mode drop. The shadows and the height should keep him concealed for the time being.

Xoku's attention returned fully to the brunette below as she began to act out the play she had found. When it came time for the bush to rustle and the laugh to sound, he found he could almost here it, himself. Interesting.

Whith his telepathic power, he looked into the girl's mind, carefully sifting through layer after layer until he found a strange psychic structure. Perhaps this is what Spectre was talking about. Xoku let some of his nearly infinite font of mystic energy feed into the unusual process to see what might happen.

The serpent was slightly surprised when a strange little creature leapt out from behind the bush-prop and gave a somehow impolite little bow to "Lady Meander". Was that a goblin?

"My name's Sqwazit, toots. And yur tresspass'n on the king's lands!"

Kirsty blinked at the strange creature that at emerged from behind the fake bush and took a small step back. Oops, she thought and broke character for a moment to look around and ensure no one else was about. She'd done it again, apparently, but she was still on the stage and the forest was thankfully still painted wood and canvas so she hadn't gone too deep. And there miraculously wasn't anyone else around to get hurt if things went too far.

She smiled to herself and then turn back to the goblin as Lady Meander. "Sqwazit? Trespassing?! Whatever are you talking about? This forest is on my father's lands. King Henry granted him these lands as a reward for his loyal service during the war." She had to ad-lib a bit as the little goblin hadn't said exactly what was written in the script. Her own fault for not reading further ahead.

Xoku blinked. The goblin hadn't said what was in the script? He had assumed Kirsty's power would have created it from the play she was acting out . . . Maybe she was right about not reading far enough ahead, but there was something naggingly familiar about the name Sqwazit . . .

"Father, smather," Sqwazit retorted. "These lands belong ta none other'n th' Goblin King an' he sure aint named Henry."

Sqwazit . . . Goblin King . . . King Henry . . . even Lady Meander - all these names were giving Xoku a feeling of deja-vu. As he watched the scene below and pondered, he didn't notice more and more of his mystic energy feeding into Kirsty's power. The world began to shimmer around them all.

Kirsty did notice however as the illusion deepen around her, seemingly on its own. There was glass growing beneath her and a breeze rustling through her hair and the silken white gown she was now wearing. Were she not getting so into it herself she might have been concerned about how quickly the illusion was solidifying around her. It normally didn't happen this fast.

"The Goblin King!" Lady Meander exclaimed through Kirsty's mouth and she spun around as if expecting the man himself to materialize behind her. She forgotten completely about the script now. "You must be joking! This are faery woods?"

Finally noticing the change, Xoku hastened to cut off the flow of his mystic energy. Too late - the transformation was complete. The three of them were now fully in some enchanted forest . . . a strangely familiar one. Damn Spectre! It must've known something like this would happen! Perching carefully on what was now a high tree branch, Xoku retruned his attention to the scene below.

"Aye!" Sqwazit chuckled as the young woman exclaimed in suprise and spun to confront empty air. "And now ya knows yur 'n trouble, cuz th' King's lookin' fer a new bride . . . "

That makes sense Xoku thought. After all, he sacrificed the last one to . . . !

The ancient serpent finally realized why all this seemed so familiar. Somehow, the mixture of the play, Kirsty's power and his mystic essence had summoned an incident from his past . . . One he'd rather not see repeat.

Slipping from his branch, Xoku dropped down between Kirsty/Meander and Sqwazit. "Run, girl!" he cried as he squared off against the strange creature who was much more than a mere goblin.

Kirsty, who would have been more than happy to play out a "doomed to wed a Faery King" fantasy, snapped out of her immersion when the strange eastern looking dragon-like creature suddenly dropped from the trees between her and Sqwazit. "Run, girl!" The beast snarled and she wasn't about to argue with a creature with a jaw that size. She turned on her heels and dashed off into the forest, hopefully towards the exit to it rather than deeper in.

What the hell was that!? That creature wasn't from the play... But then, the dream had starting getting off topic long before that. Sqwazit wasn't saying his lines right either... Something wasn't right here. This had happened before but never this fast and she generally had a greater control. That dragon... Where the devil had he come from? Her foot caught on a root and she swore as she went down. "Blast! You need to calm down, Kirsty." Blind panic would only serve to raise the nightmare level of the illusion and she'd lose control of it completely. She heard something coming up front behind her and quickly ducked behind a nearby tree to hide.

Xoku was a bit surprised Kirsty reacted to his directive so quickly. Of course, she was probably running away from him as much as because he told her to. But he didn't have much time to reflect as Sqwazit snarled and leaped at him, changing mid-flight into a great, baleful hound . . .

***

Meanwhile, nearby: Gardum the ogre was trundling through the forest, minding his own business, completely unaware of any stranger-than normal goings on. It was his approach that Kirsty detected, though he was not actually following her, nor did he even know she was there. He hummed softly and tunelessly to himself as he trudged along, his path taking him right by the girl's hiding place.

But the true danger to the young woman was not from the oblivious ogre, but from the tree she had chosen to hide behind. One of the true ancients of the forest, it had been awakened by her presence and it had been the one to snag her foot with a root. Now that Kirsty was so close, the tree felt something strange come over it. A feeling that it had no experience with.

Compelled by this new sensation, the tree reached out to grab Kirsty with its gnarled branches and twisted roots . . .

A humming ogre! Kirsty pondered. Now that's the kind of absurdity she'd come to expect from one of her dreams. Or at least, one of her nighttime dreams. Maybe I feel asleep and am in one of those dreams. It would explain the dragon earlier and it might also explain why Sqwazit had suddenly gone off script. But there was the problem with that theory. She could actually read the script enough to know the goblin hadn't been following it. Normally she had trouble reading in dream or, at least, making sense of anything she tried to read while dreaming. There was supposedly a reason for that. Something about one side of your brain controlling skills read and the other side controlling dreams. But if it wasn't a true dream then why...

Kirsty's thoughts were interrupted by a branch of the tree she was hiding behind almost grabbing her. She yelped and jumped back from the offending foliage. She did not have any desire to reenact a scene from a Sam Raimi movie just at the moment. The tree wasn't giving up though. More branches reached out for her and root jumped up to trip her and entangle her long legs when she tried to move away. "Gah! Stop it!! Let go of..." Kirsty toppled over backwards and landed on her rump. "Son of a bitch! Get off!!" She struggled to pull her legs free of the tree roots and forgot all about the melodious ogre who was still within earshot of her swearing.

To call Gardum melodious was probably a disservice to to the word, but he was still within earshot, and wasn't humming loudly enough that he wouldn't notice Kirsty's outbursts.

"Ho! Who there?" he bellowed, turning toward the noise.

The tree, still possessed by some unknown force, continued to try to capture Kirsty. Luckily, its attacks were fairly clumsy and she was able to avoid being swept up by the branches, so far. Of course, the roots trapping her legs were a bit more of a problem, but even there, they were more tangled in the skirts of the full-length gown she now wore than actually restraining her limbs.

"Oh damn it all to hell." Kirsty swore again when she heard the ogre bellowing. Now she had even more unwanted attention than before. Of course, a tune-deaf ogre was better than a rapey tree. She decided she take her chances with him. "Me, I'm here! Please help me!! This stupid tree is... Ouch!! Blast it! Cut that out!!" Kirsty continued struggling with the tree while she cried out for help. She was attempting to tear her dress free of the trees grip instead of trying to break the thick roots of her very determined tree. Sadly, she could not avoid getting a couple of nicks and scratches from the none-too-smooth bark of the tree trying to entrap her. She hoped her assessment of the ogre had been right and he'd help her out.

Coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress might seem like a rather chivalrous deed for a typical ogre to perform, but if Gardum stopped to think about such things, he wouldn't be a typical ogre.

"Gardum come!" he bellowed as he charged toward the voice in the trees. His thick, purple hide protected him as he crashed through the brush surrounding the ancient tree's clearing. Despite being just shy of ten feet in height, Gardum was dense (in more ways than one) and heavily muscled, so the ground shook slighltly as he stomped along.

The sound of the charging ogre seemed to give the tree pause, and it shook itself as if waking from some dream. Discontinuing its attack, it turned to flee. Unfortunately, its roots were still caught in Kirsty's skirts and much of them were torn from her in the tree's haste.

Of course, the tree was much slower than a running ogre, so Gardum arrived long before it made its exit. But, seeing the girl apparently free of her nemesis, he was suddenly confused and unsure what he should do, or even why he had come running in the first place.

"Phew!" Kirsty exhaled with relief as the ogre, surprisingly, rushed to her aid and the tree, blissfully, decided to stop messing with her. Even the loss of the last foot or so of her dress didn't bother her so long as she was free. Of course, there might be another problem. The ogre who had dashed to her rescue now seemed extremely confused as he towered over her prone form looking for the enemy that was no longer there. Kirsty wasn't exactly sure if ogres were good or bad in this world but as Gardum had rushed to her rescue she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But good or not, it seemed like a bad idea to leave him so confused with she was still semi-prone beside him. "It run off when it heard you coming." She explained as she hastily got to her feet and started to dust herself off, noting as she did so that her shirt still covered the most important parts of her lower half. "Thank you, you were really a big help. I don't know what got into that tree but thankfully it seemed to change its mind. Oh... I'm Kirsty, by the way. You are Gardum, right?"

Gardum stood staring after the tree, watching as it scuttled away while trying to free itself from the trail of fabric still stuck to its roots. "Tree run . . . "

Turning to Kirsty, the ogre regarded her as if seeing her for the first time. He eyed her down and down, taking in her disheveled yet fetching form and felt a strange tingling in his head. Luckily for the girl, whatever it was failed to penetrate the thick bone of his sloping skull. He absently scratched at the mat of dark green hair on top of his head.

"Kirsty," Gardum repeated, working his jaw around the unfamiliar name. "Me Gardum," he agreed with a smile so full of jagged, yellowed teeth that a passing bird fainted dead away in mid flight. He was happily surpised and slightly confused that she knew his name, having forgotten he shouted it out earlier.

"Kirsty hurt?" He scratched the top of his head again, finding the concern he felt a little puzzling. But something kept telling him she was precious.

Kirsty watched the tree's awkward retreat as well and couldn't resist a small smirk. "Yes, the tree does seem to be trying to run." She felt a little bad for it as it struggled to disentangle itself from the cloth restricting its movement. But seeing as that material was once a part of her dress she couldn't bring herself to feel too badly for it. She wondered what had come over it anyway...

She wasn't wondering for long however before her attention was drawn back to Gardum as he attempted to answer her. He might not be the greatest conversationalist but he as long as he wasn't trying to eat her he was okay in her book. "Hurt? No, I think I'm alright." She did a quick evaluation of herself as she spoke. She had a couple of new scratches but nothing dire. "I am a little lost though. I was trying to find my way out of the forest and back home to my castle..." Or rather, Lady Meander's castle. She would need to find a way back to reality eventually but she should try to get safely out of this forest first. "Do you know the way out of this forest, Gardum?"