The Changeling Forest

Daughter of the Dark King IV

The Dark King watched her as his daughter found the edges of the forest and left behind the blades of grass, each in their turn, offering up the light he had given each to her as she passed, and each shimmering into peace and rest after such long service – long at least for such as they were. He watched as she lay to rest herself under the forests eaves.
He rested himself now as his people became once again as they had been long ago. He had left the keeper here, and the tramps, and the whispering grass, to bring the people here and hold them hidden in safety against his return.
He bid the tramps build a great fire as the night encroached, and they danced around it and let the light go freely where it would.
His mind retreated to past remembrance of his defeat, driven from his realm with greater spells than his own. The Wing and the Wind had been his means, and with these he had ruled his people well, but they were not for conflict. He had left the keeper and her cottage and this had not been suspected. He had left the fool at the crossroads and those who pursued him had thought this their own. He convinced the people of the village that they were who defeated him and made mighty conflict at the gate before curling unto himself to wait the ages, and those who pursued him thought him gone forever, and for long smoldering ages he knew no better himself. But he awoke as he knew he would and found none who remembered the old spells, and created for himself his daughter and began to lay his plans.
His people took shape in the night, awakening as if from a dream, and the tree tramps clothed them in the embers glow. The Dark King drew back to himself the Wing and the Wind, means of another age, and his people recognized him and were glad. The tree tramps fluttered away then on the dawn’s first breeze for their master had bid them serve his daughter now and protect her.

…

The Dark King’s daughter awoke to the morning sun to find the forest gone, naught to see now but the grass and the distant camp where the changeling forest had been.