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  Over the next few days, the forest path turned into an ancient road leading them out of the valley into mountains. Evergreen pines mixed with hardier varieties of trees and lighter underbrush. Often, there would be a stream or river next to the road.

  The scenery was some of the most beautiful Tathan had ever seen in his extensive travels. He and Liselle would stop to look at lakes surrounded by snowcapped peaks. Wildlife teemed everywhere they turned. They saw dangerous creatures such as bears, carnivorous fairies, cougars and others. One time, a wyvern, which was a dragon-like reptilian creature with leathery wings and barbed tail, eyed them hungrily. Tathan stood in front of Liselle with his sword drawn, but the creature turned away, looking for something not on the road.

  It rained most afternoons and even snowed one day, but they were able to find decent enough shelter when it got bad. During their travels, Tathan taught Liselle what he knew about magic. It only took a week for her to learn all the various spells he had picked up from wizards and tricksters in his travels. Not only did she learn them, but she improved on most. He didn’t know a large number of spells, or anything particularly powerful, but it had taken him a lot longer than a week to figure them out.