The pair traveled a long way, and no one else was on the road to ask directions. It was three days into the journey when the girl asked about it. "Why isn't anybody else traveling."
"Well, for one, it's dangerous. Dragons, remember? Also, have you noticed the season? It'll be winter soon, nobody travels in the snow."
"Oh," she sighed, feeling rather stupid for asking something so obvious, but her mood lightened when she looked down at the path they were on. "Look, we're near a town!" she grinned pointing at what she had noticed.
The stag looked down too, "How can you tell?"
"The tracks are deeper, see? and the path has widened sence that last branch."
"Ah, so you are a master tracker now, are you?"
They laughed together until they came upon some dark trees. The stag stopped, taking a step back, she shivvered.
"What? What is it? They're just trees, right?"
"These are very dangerous trees, my friend. It's daylight now, but I'm not sure how deep this forest is, I think we should wait until morning."
"Morning? But it's barely afternoon now.  How bad can it be?"
"I've heard of these trees, they're carniverous, if you step off the path, you'll be killed, eaten." he shifted nervously from side to side, watching the dark trees ahead.
"It can't be too hard to make it through, the town is nearby remember? And if it starts to get dark, the road is wide enough to camp out on."
"I don't know..." he took a cautious step forward.
"Hey, I'm the Manaholder, right? I won't let anything happen to you." she patted him reassuringly as they entered the dark woods together. He stayed in the center of the path, keeping an eye out for any branches that may have grown over the tree border.They were both silent in the spooky woods, but it didn't get better, as the light of day wanned, they started to hear creepy noises from the dark forest. Suddenly, a branch crept out toward them.
"I told you this wasn't a good idea." more branches began to stretch onto the path, a vine crept like a snake.
"Run!" she shouted, and the stag bolted fast as he could down the path, though it got darker by the minute, they could still see ahead. "There! I can see a clearing, just a little farther!"
They had just gotten to the end of the forest when a vine whipped out, grabbing the stag's leg. He stopped so suddenly that the girl fell over him onto the ground. "Eeyaaa!... oof... oww" she sat up slowly and gasped when she saw her friend being pulled back into the woods. "No!" she ran towards him, but someone else got there before her, she could feel the rush of wind as he ran past her.
"Hiya! Take that!" He fought with the vines and branches until they backed off, allowing him to run back and join the two friends. "That'll show 'em. Stupid plants..." he sheathed his sword, smiling "So, you two doing alright?"
The girl smiled, and ran to him with a hug "You saved us! Thank you thankyouthankyou."
"Well... uh... you're welcome... come on, I'll find you a place to stay in town." he led the two into a small village just up the road, "Welcome to Border Town. My name is Lance, I will be your tour guide today. To your right you can see some farming fields, to your left there's some more fields, up ahead, houses, the chapel, general store, and our destination, the inn."
"You mean that's it?" the stag looked around curiously, "All there is to this town is just that?"
"What do you expect?" Lance stopped in front of the inn, "We live on the edge of a man-eating forest, it's not like we get a lot of visitors, let alone business." he turned to the girl, opening the door, "Come on in, I'll get you a room. Although I'm afraid your friend may have to settle for a place in the stables."
"I'm sure that will be all right, won't it?" she smiled up at her friend, who nodded, and knelt down so that she could reach the pack on his back.
"Take your things, I'll see you in the morning." she took the pack and said good night before walking into the inn.
"Well, miss, you have my name, but I haven't yours. What should I call you?"
"Umm... they, uh, they called me Manaholder in Skarn."
Lance got a room key from the innkeep, and started up the stairs, "Manaholder? That's not a name, that's a title, a description. Here, let me carry your bag."
She folled him as he led her to her room, "Well, I...I don't have a name.." her voice trailed off at the end as Lance stopped to unlock the door.
"If you don't want to tell me, you can just say so." He put the pack down in her room and stepped out so she could go in and rest. "I should probably ask what you were doing in that forest, but, you are probably tired from your journey. Sleep well, we can talk about it tomorow."

She awoke the next day to a loud banging on her door, "Come on, wake up!" she groggily out of bed, walking to the door.
"Alright, I'm coming! What do you want!?" she opened the door to find Lance in the hall.
"Oh, thank goodness you're up. Hurry, get your things, some people are after you." he rushed in, gathering whatever she had unpacked the night before back into her bag.
"After me?... You mean they... they came? How did they get through the woods?"
"In the daylight the trees are harmless, and you've slept through the morning."
"Slept?... How did I sleep so long?" she was begining to help pack now.
"I'm betting you were exhousted from running away from those trees." He took the bag in one hand and her arm in the other, leading her down the hall, "This town's not big enough to occupy them with a search for long, so we have to move quickly."
They made thier way to the stables where he mounted a horse and she climbed to the back of the elk, "I recognize the uniforms, those are Skarn soldiers." he told her, "The magistrate probably found out you were missing and sent a search party."
They began to ride through the town, Lance in front to check for any soldiers rushing through the streets,"The Migistrate'll have our heads if we don't come back with that girl." "More importantly, we can't let anyone else get ahold of her." "Hey, over there!"
"We've been spotted, run!" Lance followed behind as the stag bolted down the road. They gallopped out of town in the direction of the hills and mountains beyond.Lance checked behind them to see how close the pursuers were. "They're gaining on us." he looked around, trying to remember something, and turned off the path, "Follow me!" they ran over the grassy hills until they found a large stone in the ground, a circle about 15 feet in diameter, with symbols carved around it's edge. Lance stopped his horse in the center and jumped down  quickly brushing the overgrowth away from three pillars that surrounded them.
"It's a teleportation device." the stag explained, in awe, "These haven't been used in centuries, not since the war."
"That's right." Lance told him, placing a gem in each of the pillars, "I'm hoping we can use it to get out of here."
"Please," the girl spoke, sliding off the stag's back, "it's not worth the risk, we can-"
"We'd never be able to outrun them. Don't worry," he walked back to the center making motions with his hands, "I'm a wizard, I can handle this." as he closed his eyes to concentrate, she put a hand on his shoulder.
"If you are so determined, I will help you."
He nodded, finishing the spell, and before the soldiers could find them, they'd dissapeared.

"Wow, it worked." Lance smiled, leaping for joy, "I did it! wooh!"
The Manaholder and her Stag friend let him celebrate his accomplishment alone, they were too busy looking awe at the castle towering in front of them. It was made of marble and seemed to shimmer in the sunlight. The gardens surrounding it were overgrown with weeds and vines. Further out, there was nothing, the castle seemed to be floating on a chunk of land in midair.
"What is this place?" she asked, stepping carefully toward the castle.
"I think," the stag spoke, following her, "it is the mages' castle. A long time ago, they ruled the world from up here."
Lance stopped congradulating himself long enough to see them wandering off and went after them, "Hey, be careful, you two. You don't know if the land is still stable."
"Stable?"
"Yea, this is a really old place, and with all the magic being sucked out of the world, this ground could be falling apart."
"Sucked out?" the girl turned in surprise, "What do you mean by that?"
"You mean you don't know?" Lance looked a bit confused, but started toward the castle, waving his hand, "Come on, if anything starts to fall apart, we'll be safest in the castle. I really wasn't sure this place was still here." he spoke as they walked, "You never know where those transport things are going to send you. I've heard there's a way to 'direct the mana flow' or something like that, but I've never understood it."
Inside was a large room with two staircases going up either side, and many doors. A pair of large double doors was just across from the front. "Here, this should be the library." Lance spoke as he went to open the doors. the room was huge, books lined the shelves and went up three stories high, with stairs leading up to balconies that ran along each floor.
"So," she asked, "what were you saying about the magic being sucked out of the world?... and why didn't YOU tell me anything about it?"
"I didn't know the details," the stag said, "and I didn't want to give you faulty information."
"Well," Lance began, "I suppose that means I have to tell the story. Sit down, get comfortable, it's rather long. Before the war, magic used to be everywhere. Nearly everyone could use it, even if just a little bit. Nearly every shopkeeper had magic seeds or rings or gems for sale. That all changed with the war. Wizards and Mages fought over the right to rulership. The final battleground was a town called Selver. Everyone had evacuated the place, knowing the war was comming. Good thing they did too, powerful magic users like that could make a great mess when they're upset, and they did. Nothing was left of the town but a smoldering crater when all was said and done. The mages had come up with some kind of ultimate weapon, a spell they said would end the war forever. Everyone could see, for miles around, a bright flash of light comming from the town's direction. THose closest to the blast felt the effects first, fairies lost their ability to fly, magical artifacts lost their mystical attributes, basically, anything that was magical, wasn't anymore. Gradually, mana began seeping out from the land, and still is. Eventually, those forests you passed through won't be dangerous anymore, the trees have already begun to get sluggish."
"So it is because of this war in Selver that they needed my help so badly." the girl pondered, looking down at the papers that littered the desk
"What do you mean?"
"I told you I was Manaholder, didn't I? It means I bring magic back to things that have lost it. That's what I was doing in Skarn, but the Magistrate was just using me..."
"So you ran away, and that's why those soldiers were after you." Lance nodded, finally starting to understand, "And probably how we got here too."
"So what do we do now? We can't stay here."
Lance shrugged, "Why not? I've always wanted to look through this library, and you don't want to go back and get caught by those soldiers do you?"
"No, but I do want to go home."
"Great, I can help you get home, but we should wait here for a week or two, they'll probably give up on looking for you by then."
She just sighed, and walked out of the library to explore the rest of the castle. Most of it was just bedrooms and studies, nothing really interesting. One of the study rooms, though, held several strange devices, on the desk was a miniature model of a metal circle, propped up by some metal legs and strange etchings on it. The paper next to it was titled 'Exploration of Other Worlds'.
'Thus far we have discovered several different worlds, visible through various means. The problem remains however, that we are unable to send anything to or from these worlds.' She rustled through some other papers to see what else she could find. One paper had a list of strange symbols coupled with names of worlds. She was pondering over the writing when she heard someone come through the door, it was Lance.
"There you are, Destiny, I was wondering where you went. Look, I'm sorry about back there, I didn't....."
"What did you call me?" she looked at him curiously,  still holding the list in one hand.
"Oh, that, I figured you needed a name, I've got to call you something, right? The stag told me about you, and I think it fits you. Anyway I wanted to apologize, I didn't realize how important it was for you to find your home."
"Don't worry about it." she said, and went to the shelves in the room, looking over the books, "I think I like that name... 'Destiny'" she giggled a bit and took a book down from the wall.
"What are you looking at there?" he peeked over at the book she was opening.
"Did you know, that the mage's had found other worlds? They saw them through thier magic mirrors and crystal balls, but they could never get to them." she was flipping through the book, which seemed to be some sort of journal
"How do you know this though?"
"I read it... Aha! there!" she pointed to a spot in the book and read, "'The apparatus is almost finished, we must position it correctly in order to obtain the dangerous weapons of Screaming Lights. These will aid us in ending the war, I only hope it can be finished before the battle. '" she turned the page, "'Our initial tests have failed, we are still unable to bring anything physical to or from this other world. We have however, conversed with the people of this land, we find them quite interesting'......hmmm, no, not here either... maybe.." she turned a few pages more, until she found the last entry, followed only by blank pages, "'Although our attempts have been inconclusive, many of the others believe only more power is needed to pull the weapons through. We will be bringing the apparatus to Selver today, and end the war. I can only hope it works.' There, there it is, we have to go to Selver"
"What!? Why?" Lance was oviously surprised, and quite confused.
"Nothing in this world is recognizable to me, don't you think I would have remembered something? But I don't remember hearing any of the names of these cities at all, and I'm so different from everyone else here. What if that's because I don't belong here? Because I came through that apparatus they made."
"That's rediculous, that war happened years ago, and that would be the last time the thing was used, and you were found only weeks ago." he sighed, looking down at the journal.
"I-I still feel as if we should look into it. I suppose it's alright if you don't want to come, but  I'm going anyways." she folded the paper she held and put it into her pocket before walking out to find the stag. He was waiting for her outside.
"Well, are we off again?" he asked, kneeling down so she could climb on.
"Yes, my friend, we are going to Selver."
"Are you...." he saw Lance coming after her, "it seems we will have another joining us on our journey."
"Destiny! Wait, you can't go by yourself!" he panted, leading his horse to the teleport circle, "Let me go with you, if it has to do with what happened in Selver, maybe it can help restore the magic to this world."
"Destiny?" the Stag asked
"It's what he's named me.... Very well, you can come along. Be our guide." she smiled, watching him set up the pillars for operation. Then he pulled a book out of his saddle bag, and started flipping pages and positioning stones in the pillars. "What's that?"
"What?... Oh, this book, I found it inside, it tells how the transport rings work. This way, I can make sure it takes us close to Selver."
She nodded, and when everything was ready, he made the spell and clapped his hands, and they were gone in a flash of light.