A Hollow in DC

The next day the rest of the team were taken away by their various mentors to get more training and while I was just left all but alone in the mountain, I realized that this was the perfect time for me to skedaddle without needing to give some awkward goodbyes as I could all to likely be walking to my death in the Fae realms of imagination.

As I floated above Mount Justice, and I watched the ocean's waves beating upon the beach in the sun's twilight's light. I sighed as I felt the desire to just stay here and just sit on my ass while being with my newfound friends.

But such mediocrity would only lead to my death when Klarion inevitably comes back with a new familiar or should any other cosmic entity decides that Earth would make a mighty fine snack and I get killed before the Justice League's plot armor can kick in.

With a loud thrumming noise, I tapped the air beside me with my finger and jagged black squares opened up in the air revealing a dark tunnel leading to my uncertain future.

Running through this Garganta I definitely noticed it was paradoxically a smoother trip from Hell to Earth as for one I wasn't bypassing whatever barriers put in to keep people going to and from the realms but my 'target' of the fae realms was tenuous at best, so it felt like I was traveling through my black tunnel of space and time blindly as the Fae Realms themselves were based in imagination and thus not entirely a true place, to begin with.

But eventually, I safely landed upon one of the most... Iconic places within the Fae Realms.

With a mighty splash, I was taken from the air and smashed into a sea of crimson blood as far as the eye could see.

Honestly, although the blood was a little too salty and the bones of the massive monsters littering the sea of blood threatened to stab me as the sea of blood's powerful waves carried me around, I still honestly enjoyed the experience.

The blood was warm. The blood was filled with spiritual energies allowing me to subsist off it entirely and most of all, the sea of blood was womb of Tiamat carrying her heartbeat that thrummed with each wave as every single human on earth had a drop of this blood to give their lives a touch of fantasy and potential and here, I was all but soaking in it.

But after an indeterminate amount of time when I felt my spiritual energy had grown more thrice as dense, I began to swim with purpose breaking through the waves of blood until I reached a shore with a very prominent path upon it.

"These Fae lands allow you to travel freely with one step equaling a hundred leagues but with no purpose even traveling for a century will not allow you to travel a single hallway." I realized as I spent a good deal of time just languishing in the Sea of Life but once I decided to leave, I was able to cross a great deal of distance with every motion to push me through the sea.

And most importantly when traveling the Fae lands was that you needed to stay upon the paths with a clear destination in mind and should you succeed in doing so then you will reach whenever and wherever you want to reach.

Traveling in DC is weird. I mean dudes that are all, but normal people are fully capable of walking to the beginning of creation in which Lucifer dyed reality in blood during his fall, to those same people able to walk to the end of time in which Death and Destiny the Endless close the doors to this reality and leave.

Which purpose in my steps I followed the Fae laws by not flying as that would constitute me leaving the path until I the fog-filled forest surrounding the path, I was walking broke with the fog clearing to show a rather small house clearly placed on the side of the path I was upon.

"Baba Yaga..." I muttered seeing the somewhat iconic log wooden home with red roofing and red trim on the accents on the house.

Even as I trailed the Fae lands with the Summer Fae Court's Market as my targeted destination, I still couldn't keep my mind completely focused on that destination and with Baba Yaga playing a large part in the story of how I came to even learn of the Fae realms and the Mundane Stone that I was attempting to acquire it's not surprising that the Fae Realms would show its whimsical nature in attempting to feed a teenager to the child-eating monster Baba Yaga.

Just as with a full moon some Fae skin changers that were the basis of shape changers in werewolves and such would haunt the lands of Earth rarely, so was Baba Yaga a force of nature that would hunt humanity. She was the monster that would snatch up 'lost children' a child that became 'lost' would enter her domain and should she be aware of it she would be able to bring their essence to the Fae realms to interact with her and become her food to harvest at her leisure.

For a moment I just stared at the house before I decided that just attacking it would set the precedent here in the Fae Realms for people to simply attack me for no reason as well.

'But if she were to attempt to eat me... Well, nothing wrong with looting a body after vigorously defending myself.' I thought as I stepped off the path and I felt something a powerful soul instantly lock into me as I did the same to her with my Pesquisas.

Pretending I had no knowledge of Baba Yaga flying through the dense forest surrounding the house I gamely knocked on the door. "Hello! Anyone home?" I called out and then as Baba Yaga silently landed behind me I whirled around as her wrinkled dirty hand was poised to grab me by my neck.

"Hostile intent upon a person seeking guest rights?" I spoke and her wrinkled mole-covered face twitched.

Baba Yaga looked like an anorexic depiction of a stereotypical witch with her long-pointed nose and generally angled face, but I could smell the filth and dried blood off of her with how close we were to one another.

"You aren't a human child!" She hissed as she got over her shock and then she screeched as she went to claw my face with her hands armed with thick fingernails encrusted with filth were grabbed by my Heirro-covered hands.

"You may have the strength of a dozen mothers, but I am above you," I said blandly, and with a squeeze of my own hands I shattered the hands of Baba Yaga and as she screamed in pain the small porch, I was standing upon began shaking as Baba Yaga's house rose to the defense of its master and stood up from the ground on large bird-like feet that made the house break through the tree covering.

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