"Summer Court." She nodded.

His eyes instantly lit up. "Well let's go already! It's been forever since you've been there."

She nods, stepping outside and looking around. "Lead the way."

He leads her through the wyldwood. The evening following Ashs departure, Puck and Claire hit the edge of the wyldwood. "Not far now," Puck said, giving her an encouraging grin. A few yards from where they stood, the snow and ice just...stopped. Beyond it, the wyldwood stretched before them, dark, tangled, trapped in perpetual twilight. "Just gotta cross the wyldwood to get you home. You'll be in your new life before you can say 'summer school.'"

She nods, looking behind her.

Tir Na Nog remained eerily empty and quiet as Puck and Claire continued their journey alone. And as the sun sank lower in the sky and the shadows lengthened around them, it was obvious that Ash wasnt coming back. He was truly gone.

She stayed silent during the journey, following Puck.

He already knew she was upset, and kept trying to distract her with jokes and a constant string of questions. What happened after they left him to confront Machina? How did they find the Iron Realm? What was it like?

"It was really strange. We met his brother, some pack rats helped us get out and then we just kept going onto Machina. He was very... Poised... Confident, and very calm. He had a whole army at his disposal, Kerri was burning anyone and everyone as usual... It went by surprisingly fast. I missed your jokes though... I think Lin did too, she was really happy to have Ethan back." She explained, smiling at the memory of Ethan hugging Lin's legs.

"I'm glad," he said, his lopsided smirk on his face. As they approached the colorless murk of the wyldwood, something moved in the shadows to their left. Puck spun with blinding speed, whipping out his dagger, as a spindly form stumbled through the trees and collapsed a few feet away. It was a girl, slender and graceful, with moss-green skin and hair like withered vines. A dryad. The tree woman shuddered and gasped, clawing herself upright. One long-fingered hand clutched her throat as if she were being strangled. "Help...me," she gasped at Puck, her brown eyes wide with terror. "My tree..."