"I was doing fine."

"You were doing more than fine," he praised her to gain her attention back at him fully, "But just fine is not what I am looking for. With years that will come by and pa.s.s, I would want you to fight along with me. To have my back while I will have yours. Though, you will need to upgrade your weapons. To create something which will not require you to stay too close to your enemies," he said without sparing a glance at her this time, he looked ahead with a small smug smile on his face. 

"I will do my best!" she exclaimed, her voice full of spirit now. 

"I have no doubt about it," he responded back to her. Both Damien and Penny walked in further and further into the forest, the parts where the local's men and women didn't come to visit or stroll. 

The place only turned thick from the scarce scattered trees. The roots of the trees stood out on the ground, like creepers only that these were thick and they had to raise their legs to step and move forward. Penny didn't know when it happened but there was a smoke-like fog that started to move at the bottom of their legs on the ground.

"There's fog," Penny said out loud for Damien to hear who had noticed the fog as they had reached them to spread out, "It doesn't look like to be part of the forest."

"It is," Damien corrected her, his eyes looking lazily over the ground where the fog didn't move but had settled itself. They could still see part of the roots like the trees they belonged to were thick and old, "Some parts of Valeria have these that are part of the forest. They are often called the heart of the forest, telling how these parts have their own mind. Be careful where you place your feet," that was something hard to follow, thought Penny to herself especially when she couldn't see the ground clearly anymore. 

Seeing him push the branches away from their path so that they could pa.s.s through, she heard Damien say, "Once Alexander and I got stuck in the forest but we did come out alive. It was fun," his voice came out to be casual and Penny couldn't stop focussing one the word alive which he had uttered, "A layman will never dare to step in here unless they aren't aware and are stupid. Of course, we are no layman's children so it doesn't apply to us," he added before Penny would point out anything he just said, "It is called the forbidden dark forest one should never step into but at the same time if you're looking for witches, this is the best place to look for."

"What kind of things are there in here?" she asked, suddenly turning around to hear an owl hoot in the distance. This didn't feel like a training environment, thought Penny to herself. It felt more like a haunted forest that she shouldn't have followed Damien. The owl continued to hoot in the quiet and deserted forest. So far they were yet to meet the black witches who had taken the books along with them and the boy who had been kidnapped.

"Just creepy little beings and some tall or wide. I hope you enjoy them," Damien said grinning at her. Penny didn't know why but she had a bad feeling about this. Every time Damien looked at her with that sparkle in his eyes, there was something big waiting for her. 

They continued to walk until something flew in the wind and Damien quickly pulled Penny to his side to let a sharp knife get stuck in the tree behind them. 

"We finally have the company we were waiting for," he commented turning in the direction in which the knife had been thrown. 

Penny was standing next to him, watching with him when she felt something wet fall on her shoulder. As she had removed her coat earlier, the drop seeped in and touched her skin. Turning to her look at her shoulder, she watched a black liquid that had fallen on her right shoulder. Another drop dripped down but this time a little away from where it had fallen the first time. 

When she raised her head up, she found a black witch sitting there, aiming at them with an arrow. Before she could pull out the string, Penny pushed Damien while moving away from the spot to have the arrow shoot and hit the roots of one of the trees. 

"Take this," Damien threw her the gun which he had borrowed from Elliot. He then pa.s.sed her the bullets. Unfortunately for Penny, she had only learned by seeing Damien on how to shoot without paying much attention to how to open and load the gun. 

One witch sat at the top, firing the arrows one after another making it difficult for them to stand in the same place. At the same time, other witches arrived, which included the woman who had previously come to visit the town.

Arrows and knives started to fly in the air and Damien started to fire the gun, the revolver which kept shooting silver bullets one after another.