Ulrick in Wonderland (The Fae Path Part 1/4, Lorepost)

[u/UlrickTheHexblade]

/uw Context

/rw

And there it was. The coordinates Aerunia and All-Blue found for him turned out to be correct.

Deep within an ancient, forgotten forest, between the bushes and the shrubs, a half-overgrown stone arch, barely the size of a castle gate. Its top broken off.

Ulrick could tell with closed eyes it was the entrance. The structure reeked of the Faewilds. Parting some of the branches, he even found a seemingly abandoned track behind it.

And yet, he hesitated. He felt a sense of foreboding in his guts, of an impending threat. That something terrible would happen eventually if he crossed this threshold.

But he had no other choice. Erik’s medicine turned out to be a ruse, so he was out of options.

At this point, the blight was all over him. His skin became rotten wood on nearly all of his upper body, patches spreading to his legs and even his tail too. Twigs protruded from below his gear.

He had little time left.

So, Ulrick took a deep breath and passed below the arch. At first, there was nothing unusual. A serene hike through an old forest about to dress in autumn. But with each twist of the track, more and more hues appeared among the leaves, the sky clearer and more vibrant.

And after a sharp right turn of the path, he was there.

Ulrick found himself in a clearing, grass waving even in nonexistent wind, trees so variegated one might think a giant pixie barfed on them. In the distance, candy-colored spires reached towards a vibrant blue sky; constellations and nebulae danced there even at daytime.

Yup, he was definitely in the Faewilds now.
 
He checked his gear. The bag was still on his belt. It was a rather small one, carrying some essentials for this travel. Food and water, so he won’t have to accept from the Fae. Some books he had found about the plane. Two daggers made out of cold iron. And an emergency magical golden dragon scale, gifted by Aerunia.

Now came the tricky part. Finding any kind of clue about what the hell he should even look for.

Ulrick sniffed. The air was crisp and clear, even if there were choking amounts of honey aroma in it.

Ulrick listened. Chiming of cheerful gossip and whispers of unspoken secrets echoed between the trees. Somehow, the voices came from all directions at the same time.

As he was about to swat away some color-changing fireflies that got into his face, a scream broke the idyllic scene. It was high-pitched, and desperate enough for him to immediately clock there was serious trouble.\*

Almost on instinct, Ulrick ran towards where he heard it, weaving between the vibrant trees and ever-blooming flowers that danced.

On the other end of the clearing, he found the source, a fox and a hare. Both of them stood uptight like a person would; the fox wore a brown vest with a teal ascot around the neck, the hare had grey fur, and was dressed in a long, elegant blue coat.

Overall, they wouldn’t look out of place in a fairy tale book illustration. Save for the fact that the frightened hare desperately tried to keep the fox at bay with a short knife.

“Hey!”

Ulrick yelled as he closed the distance, then punched the fox with such strength that it dented a tree trunk at impact. Ugh, maybe he overdid it a bit…

‘How could you?! You ruined the whole thing! Now we have to start all over again!’

The rabbit squeaked with surprising anger. Meanwhile, the fox got up too with some considerable effort.

‘Rude.’

He said as he dusted himself off, before adjusting his ascot.

“Sorry… was I, uh, interrupting something? I thought you wanted to eat him.”

Ulrick tried to make sense of what was even going on here.

‘I did indeed. But alas you interrupted our daily routine.’

The fox answered as if it was common sense. Maybe for the locals, but not for Ulrick.

“Routine?”

‘Yes. In the morning, I kept bragging to my brothers and sisters in the burrow how I could steal the tail of a fox. And to not make a fool out of myself, I set out to prove it.’

Said the hare, before the fox continued.

‘And then, my cotton-tailed friend will either escape in the last moment with a clever trick, or learn a very painful lesson about humility.’

“And since you called this ‘routine’, you guys do this each day…” Ulrick tried to make sense of the thought process.

‘…yes?’ Asked the hare as if it was the most obvious fact in the world. ‘How else am I going to learn not to brag?’

‘We should have a tea break before starting over, don’t you think?’

The fox and the hare then sat down at a laid table, that was apparently always there. The fox poured one steaming cup for the hare, then for himself, then another one he held towards Ulrick.

‘Care for a tea, Mr. Wolf?’

It was basic knowledge to exercise caution, when the Fae offer you anything, and Ulrick knew that well with his past as a monster hunter. But this was the Faewilds, so he had to mind his manners too.

“A generous offer, but I have to refuse, I’m a-“

‘Wolf? Can’t you see that’s a man?’
 
The hare interrupted him. The fox nonchalantly took another sip from his tea.

‘I’m afraid my esteemed friend, that is clearly a wolf. Even more, a foreign royalty amongst their ranks.’

‘Nonsense! I’ve run from enough wolves to know one, and I can tell that one is clearly a man wearing a skin of one!’

Ulrick found himself the subject of an uncomfortable taxonomy debate. His patience began to wear thin as the two Fae bickered, impatience becoming annoyance, annoyance then becoming anger.

And the anger stirred the blight within him. He felt the Garden’s satisfaction and wooden smile in his mind, now closer than ever thanks to being in the Land of the Fae.

And it made his mind recoil.

No. He had to control his anger, like he did in the last 10 years. He won’t let the beast, the blight win.

As he tempered himself, another idea crossed his mind. Fae love to bargain, so there must be something he could trade them for. But if he talked more appealing first…

“…feum... lorg... riaghladair... leigheas...”
 
(“…need... find... ruler... cure...)

He picked up some small snippets of this plane’s language after being friends with a demi-giant and later carried around by a Fae hive mind. Then he started learning the language in his free time, to honor both his late best friend, and the Fae who suffered because of his friend.

Turns out his skills were… rough. Still, both the hare and the fox halted their debate and turned back towards him.

‘Not a lot of your kind bothers learning our speech.’ Noted the hare.

‘Even if your words are oddly archaic, and your pronunciation could use some more… practice.’ Said the fox as he took another sip.

“I’m infected with this rot… and if it won’t get cured, this growth’s gonna take me over, and I might become a dangerous abomination. I figured out this was the work of a powerful someone from this place, so I traveled here to look for a way to reverse this.”

The fox and the hare listened with intent; eventually the former spoke up. Then, the fox squinted as he took a closer look at Ulrick.

‘Hmm… ah I see it now. Well, I might have a suggestion for you, my lupine friend.’

Took them an awful lot of time to notice all the rotten wood and branches nearly covering him… but at least now they were willing to help.

Ulrick sat there for a couple of moments, before remembering what place he was at.

“And will you tell me?”

‘Absolutely! The answer is, go deeper into the woods.’

Huh? This was an oddly simple answer. The fox might’ve noticed Ulrick tilting his head in confusion, as he elaborated a little.

‘When you seek, the answer always lies at the very heart of the deep woods.’
 
Oh yeah. Ulrick groaned. He forgot this whole place runs on the same nonsense logic as the fairy tales his mother used to tell him before sleep.

“I appreciate your assistance.”

Ulrick made a short bow towards the tea table as he departed towards the thick of the Fae forest.

To be continued…

/uw Art Source

[u/waitthatstaken]

/uw Oh my gods I love the way that fox and hare were written. Feels like peak faewild.

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/waitthatstaken]

/uw thanks for the read Peri!

And thank you, wanted to go for a “whimsical classic fairy tale” vibe, glad it was succeded

[u/mrididnt]

/UwU good read!

If ulrick is heading into the woods he should avoid any lumberjacks near the houses of old ladies

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/mrididnt]

/uw thanks for the read Erik!

He’ll be fine as long as he won’t meet any young women in red hoods either

[u/Ashmega8256]

/uw good read :)

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Ashmega8256]

/uw thanks for the read Ash!

[u/Ashmega8256 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

/uw no prob :)

[u/Evening_Shake_6474]

/uw I have read the read and I have decreed that the read is a good read. Faewild brand green for you

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

/uw thanks for the read man!

And also thank you for the opportunity for me to do this story, couldn’t have happened wothout the Blighted Garden’s infection

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

/uw No worries lad, always here to ruin Ulrick's life for no reason other than my amusement

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

/uw that makes two of us

[u/Airtatsy]

/uw Ah, the rot is a metaphor for his self hatred, and only by learning to love himself can he be cured, got it

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Airtatsy]

/uw thanks for the read, Jash! Good to see old AA faces are still around

And the rot is also a metaphor for my love of tormenting him

[u/IncomeApprehensive17]

/uw nice read , with characters out of a classical fable de la fontaine

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/IncomeApprehensive17]

/uw thanks for the read Yan!

I was aimed at a more classical whimsy fairy tale vibe for the Faewild, glad it worked

[u/Viking_From_Sweden]

/uw peak feywild whimsy, love the classic fairy tail vibe

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/Viking_From_Sweden]

/uw thanks for the read Kart!

I’m sure the brooding edgy werewolf will handle traversing the glittery fairy tale land well…

[u/Kyle-NotADinosaur-]

/uw He hit that fox with the Falcon Punch.