Before Misty could react to the plant, there was suddenly a loud bang, and the plant in front of her exploded into fragments. "What the?"

She hurriedly scrambled backwards, stopping in the middle of the wooded area to try and figure out where the noise had come from.

Alphabittle looked about. "Interesting choice of weapon for that."

Misty got up and looked at her father. "What do you mean?"

"If I identified the sound correctly, it's a hammer rifle. But I can't think of many people who own or use those given magazine weapons are so common."

"You can identify guns from the sound they make?"

"Well, technically it's a rifle, but yes, I can."

Suddenly, another voice cut through the darkness.

"They'll be approaching your position. This way! Head towards the orange beacon! I'll cover you if they start to head your way."

Misty looked about. "Who was that?"

Alphabittle looked around as well. "I'm starting to get a sneaking suspicion as to who is speaking to us. Come on; let's go. Beats standing around out here with this mess on our tail."

And so, they began to set off across the terrain, the murky terrain lit only by a series of orange beacons leading through the forest. Without them, they'd have gotten lost, and as a result it was vital they paid close attention to where they were leading.

Most importantly, who was the 'they' this mysterious voice had referred to? Was there something down there with them, and if so, what? Would it be causing them any difficulty, or was it benign and not a problem?

They continued on their way into the forest, the beacons continuing to light the way and show them where to go.

"Hurry! They'll know you're hear."

Alphabittle broke into a run. "Quick, Misty! Pick up the pace!"

Misty nodded, and broke into a sprint herself. Or her best approximation of a sprint. It was a bit hard to assess precisely how fast she was going in the dingy light.

Speaking of which, why was it so dark and dingy down here? It had been perfectly bright back at Parkend. Why had it dropped so very dark? Misty knew they were deeper in the trees here, but it shouldn't reduce it to effectively night time levels of visibility.

At last, the path seemed to be coming to an end, and as they looked forward a large building loomed out of the darkness. It was heavy built and made of metal, quite out of keeping with the local area, and they continued to close in on it. There was a balcony facing towards them, and they could see a hooded figure standing on the balcony with a rifle of some description in hand. They seemed quite serious. "Get through the doors! I'll meet you in there!"

"Not much point in standng around out here!" Alphabittle said, as he reached the door. Once at it, the doors opened and he entered alongside Misty.

No sooner had they entered then the doors slammed shut again, and lights came on to illuminate a previously dark hallway.

"To your left are the decontamination chambers. Step into them."

"Just who are you?" Misty asked.

"Does it matter? Do as I say and I shall explain everything."

Without hesitating, Misty and Alphabittle hopped into the machines sitting to one side. The doors closed once they were inside, and within moments they were fired up to full power, with some flashing lights and pops to boot.

"Decontamination complete. The airlock to the main lab is opening now. Step through, if you please."

The doors on both the decontamination chambers and the end of the room slid open. Misty and Alphabittle stepped through them, and into a lab which seemed to be humming with equipment.

"Good to see you both made it!" said the voice from earlier, and a woman stepped around the bend. "Now that you're here, you're..."

She trailed off as she saw who was standing there. "Ohh..."

She was a woman with mildly lilac skin and greenish eyes that seemed to pierce the room with their light, at least that's what it seemed like. Her hair was dark green, and based on the way it was sitting she probably had rather noticable bangs were her hair not tied back for the environment she was in. She was currently wearing turquoise slacks, a pair of black boots, a grey shirt, and a medical labcoat which currently had a pen set in the top pocket. A case of rounds sat next to one of the doors, and she had probably just finished taking it off.

Alphabittle looked coldly at her. "Nearly twenty years and all you can say is 'oh'. I can see we're off to a flying start."

The woman blinked, then began to walk round a table. "I wasn't expecting to see you here, that's all. Now then, I know it's a lot but-"

"You'd better have a pretty damn good explanation for why you ran off all those years ago."

The woman stopped and turned back. "I didn't run off, I was moved to a new station. You know that."

"And it was just after Misty disappeared," Alphabittle said. "Coincidence I think not, Faven. No doubt you already had another guy lined up to replace me."

The woman looked furious. "How dare you. You know I didn't take it anywhere near as well as you did! Out here there was a chance I'd find her again, but work got in the way!"

"A likely story," Alphabittle said mockingly. "What sort of mother does that?"

"And for your information I didn't have somebody else lined up," the woman interrupted him. "In the eyes of the law we're still married unless something has happened nobody told me about. I may be a many things, but an adulterer is not one of them."

Misty was now very confused. "Can somebody explain to me what's going on?" she asked.

Alphabittle looked over. "Family business," he said. "I don't think I ever mentioned her to you. This is Faven Blossomforth."

"I go by Firstmorne professionally," Faven said.

Alphabittle rolled his eyes. "You never were that committed to the marriage, were you?"

Faven looked annoyed. "You know exactly why I practice medicine under my maiden name. I was already an established doctor before I met you, and to get everything changed over and renamed would be a massive amount of work. It was just easier to keep using my maiden name."

Misty had partly tuned out of the conversation, and her eyes were drawn to a pair of photographs sitting on a desk. The first showed what appeared to be a forest scene from many years ago. She recognised Alphabittle in a posh suit, although his hair and beard were blue rather than white, suggesting this was from when he wore a younger man's clothes.

The woman standing by his side was the same one Misty had just been speaking to, and she was visibly younger too. Clad in a sleeveless white wedding dress that looked like a flower in bloom, the scene was clearly one of happiness based on their smiles.

Faven had noticed Misty looking at the picture, and looked over. "That was our wedding day," she said. "Alphie loved the outdoors, so we decided to get married in Ashdown Forest." She smiled. "I still remember it like it was yesterday."

Misty then looked to the next photo. It showed Faven in a hospital bed, holding a baby in her arms. Misty looked closer to see... herself?!

What was she doing there? She had no clue who her mother was, or even her own age, unless... but it couldn't be...

Misty blinked in shock, looking from the photo to Faven and back. "Y- you're my mom..."

Faven bent down to Misty's level, and smiled. "Welcome home, Misty," she said. "You know, you really do resemble your grandmother very closely."

Misty quickly pulled Faven into a hug. "I'm so glad to finally know who my parents are!" she whispered quietly.

Faven sighed. "I'm glad you're safe too. I know I could have been a better parent-"

"You can say that again," Alphabittle said snarkily.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise I was done speaking," Faven said coldly, before turning her attention back to Misty. "But I'm here now. And we need to stick together, as this forest is not what it seems."

"Yeah, what is going on here?" Alphabittle asked. "Why do you have all this kit here? Decontamination chambers? They? A rifle? What sort of doctor needs all this stuff?"

Faven picked the box up and popped it in a cupboard, before placing the rifle in a glass case and locking the lid with a key. "This is going to take a while to explain, but it's why I've been out of the loop for so long. You see, I was sent here a long time ago to respond to a strange series of medical incidents in the towns surrounding the forest. Only this was no ordinary disease."

Author's Note

Well, we are deeper into the forest, and now another major source of inspiration comes in. Part of the depiction of the Dean Forest is modelled on illustrations of Mirkwood from an old edition of The Hobbit, and some inspiration was also taken from this video which re-imagines Winnie the Pooh as a dark fantasy movie.

But by far the most notable part of this chapter is...

Faven Firstmorne. A character created by Thomlight Sparkle 1 to serve as Misty's mother (seeing as the cancellation of TYT means we'll never learn who she was), here she makes her formal debut in my writing. If you have read Infection, you now know who the focus character of that story was. Aspects of her personality here are modelled on Martha Jones, a character Freema Agyeman portrayed in the BBC series Doctor Who.

Faven's firearm is the model depicted above, though I have decided to go for a wood and steel finish instead of the colours depicted above. For firearms enthusiasts, it's a double-barrelled hammer trigger rifle chambered in .450. These weapons were designed for hunters; the first trigger 'sets' the weapon to fire, then the second is effectively a hair trigger. This allows the hunter to configure the weapon to fire without worrying about accidentally setting it off.

The inspiration for the description of Faven's wedding portrait came from a discussion myself and Thomlight Sparkle 1 had whilst I was planning A Sky Full of Stars. He commented that one idea he'd had was that Alphabittle and Faven would probably have a forest wedding in Bridlewood, so I chose to reference this idea. This also inspired the description of Faven's wedding dress, which I have linked below:

I mean, it does look like a flower in bloom, doesn't it?

But, next time, more of the mystery will be unearthed.