The forest heaved and shook as we walked, branches shuffling in unison like the entire thing was taking in calculated breaths. The energy it gave off almost made one want to join in with it, to match their breathing pattern with it. I felt the temptation rise and fall whenever I came to focus on my own breathing.
It had started three days ago, in tandem with a wind pushing at our backs in the direction Ruby had charted. Combined, these two sensations gave everyone in the group the feeling that the forest was trying to expel us as quickly as possible. The chattering of animals haunted our nights still, but much of it had seemed to have subsided. As we got closer and closer to the forest’s edge the attacks diminished and our food sources along with them.
Despite this, the gut feeling the forest emanated of rage and hate remained. The ire of the forest pounded in my head like a beating drum whenever I sat down to rest, screaming threats of death and suffering that I knew it could back up.
We’d moved faster than we ever had before. We needed to, because Corith never gives sinners any leniency.
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“What did you say?” I breathlessly asked Ruby as I leaned up against a tree. A beam of sunlight occasionally peaked through the branches and went directly into my eyes, something I found to be a comfort. We were resting in a small inlet of land encircled by trees. The others around us were either mingling or eating another whitethorn.
“Our timetable has moved up. Whatever’s been happening the last few days has meant we’ve been moving faster than expected. I think we’ll be out before nightfall and at the lake.” She responded while twirling around the pencil she held in her fingers.
“That’s if your map is correct.” Silva interjected. Ruby responded to the indignation with a death glare I’d been careful to avoid.
Her calculations had been correct so far, so it confused me to why Silva would even say anything of doubt.
I guess I might have inspired a sense of pessimism in her. Or maybe that’s Corith’s fault.
“We wouldn’t be getting pushed like this unless the forest didn’t want us out,” Sera said as she stood up from her rest and moved to the center of the circle. “Ruby’s predictions don’t matter. We just need to keep pushing forward.”
Silva visibly cringed.
“‘Keep pushing forward?’ North, your platitudes are spreading.”
I had to take a few moments to try and think about the word platitude and what it meant, and simply assumed that it meant something like catchphrases.
“Not my fault. Maybe they’re that good.” I smugly tried to retort despite not knowing exactly what she was making a dig at. Silva looked unconvinced, as did everyone else.
“It’s not like it’s something only North can say, Silva. I just thought that’s something we should do. It’s not like Corith is interested in keeping us here, if the wind is any sign.” Sera responded, toying with her hair. The gust had placed it at an unnatural slant, and it seemed to only be getting more slanted the longer we sat. “If we’re done taking a break, I think we should take that advice and get moving.”
I nodded, moving away from the tree and towards the middle of the clearing to grab my pack. All of the group followed suit, and soon we were ready to get moving.
Run.
The thought didn’t feel like my own, as though it was blown directly in between my ears by the wind. It was unlike the other times the forest had placed punishments or whenever the ire of the forest placed itself in our direction. It felt like the forest had finally wormed its way deep enough into my mind that it could finally exert its will over me.
And it wanted me to leave.
A quick look at the rest of the group showed that everyone else had gotten the same sensation.
“Move. Now.” I ordered, although I couldn’t tell whether it was something I’d actually wanted to say.
Our pace was unnaturally quick as the wind kept pushing at our backs while we darted over the roots and under the branches in a single file line. The order that had been forced upon us overtook any other thinking.
All we could do was run.
Until the cassobans came back.
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The sun was halfway through its descent by the time we heard the screeching come from above. The noise was enough to snap my consciousness out of the murkiness, to finally focus on myself as an individual.
“Don’t stop moving! Sera and Silva on offense! Ruby and Mell, defend those two! Alex and Wanderer, with me!”
The group split into three, Sera backing up Ruby and Mell using his massive frame to cover for Silva. A quick turn behind me sent my heart into my stomach. There were far more of them than the first time we’d been punished with them.
That means we’ve got to be close to the edge!
I twisted my arm above my head and quickly began to push a large amount of mana to my palm
“Lights!” I shouted, and everyone quickly turned to look away from me. A large blast of blinding light white emanated from my palm and lit up the whole treeline surrounding us. A cacophony of confused shrieks and the sound of a couple of loud thunks against the dense Corith wood was enough confirmation that I’d bought more time for our offense.
Crackles of lightning and shatters of ice filled the air as the cassobans recouped and descended once more. The wind behind us must have helped us be more elusive, as I could feel the narrow misses of cassobans around my head. Wanderer took a brief moment to pull out his blade and slash at the air, landing it in the underside of the cassoban and disemboweling it. Blood splattered onto my pack and my neck.
“Sir, on your right!” Mell shouted, drawing my attention to one of the cassobans who was rapidly descending with a clear aim for my neck. Before it could get any closer, Alex had already raised his right hand into the air above my head. I opened my mouth to tell him to stop, but watched as only a brief explosion of fire exited and returned to his palm. The cassoban flinched mid flight, losing control and allowing itself to fall directly into the path of Wanderer’s blade.
“North, I see it!” shouted Ruby. Clear enough, the blue of water could just barely be made out in the distance through the gradually opening tree line. We were there.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Wanderer’s shoulder bumped into mine to grab my attention.
“We’ve got one comi-” His words were cut short as his voice wavered. His foot had run into a branch, causing him to fall.
I tried to move back to grab him, but the wind and my momentum kept me running until finally, I broke the treeline and was standing directly in front of the lake. Soon, everyone was there. Everyone except Wanderer.
“I need to go back.”
I turned away from everyone who was already moving farther from the lake. I could hear some of them start to try and stop me, but I didn’t care.
I took a single step into the forest and was faced with the blistering winds trying to expel me once again. I kept walking, forcing each step towards Wanderer who was yelling something at me. Probably telling me to run and save myself. The wind was too loud for me to hear any of it. Above him, I could see a Cassoban begin to descend.
No. I need to save him.
I put more pressure in each and every step, trying to keep myself from falling backwards. I was only a few paces from Wanderer when the cassoban landed on his right arm, piercing its talons near his elbow. As he was starting to get lifted up from his side, I grabbed onto his other arm to hold him down and pull it off of him. I didn’t have the offensive magic or brute force of any of my comrades, so all I could do was pull.
Instead of grabbing onto me or onto his other arm, another cassoban grabbed onto his right arm and began to pull, lifting him off the ground. The sound of flesh tearing was audible even over the wind.
The cassobans had given up on me as prey, and just went for what was easy. All I could do was pull, seeing the tendons on his arm become visible, then bone. Their screams grew louder in the air as they watched from above.
“NORTH, RUN!”
I didn’t respond. I did nothing except keep holding on, all the way until it snapped. The torn flesh of his arm finally gave way in this disgusting game of tug of war, and everything past his elbow was wrenched off his body from the cassobans. We both collapsed onto the ground, completely out of breath.
The cries from above were louder. They didn’t want to give up on their prey. I didn’t have the energy to run and neither did Wanderer. As the birds prepared to descend on us, I raised up right my palm just as before, hoping that blinding them would save us in some idiotic fashion. Righteous anger and exhaustion had overtaken any strategic thoughts.
There was no light that came out of my palm. I took the desire to scream and put all of it into focusing the flow of mana, trying to transform it. With one final screech, the cassobans all started to dive. Light refused to come forth as they grew closer and closer, even as I channeled more mana into my palm than I had when acting as a primer.
My skin felt like it was about to burst, the mana leaving a roiling pain inside of my right arm. I was staring death in the face like never before.
I looked at Corith, at the cassobans, and put all of my emotion into three words.
“LEAVE US ALONE!”
All of the mana I’d been gathering in my palm released in one giant burst of sickly blue light. My arm crumpled under the pressure as it was blasted backwards and dislodged from its socket. The force slammed Wanderer and I into the forest floor. The entire forest shook in response as though it was taken by surprise.
There was a following moment of silence, broken by the thud of a cassoban landing next to my head. One after another toppled downwards lifeless and empty. Those outside of the blast were fleeing back into the forest out of fear.
It was unintentional, but it saved my life. I painfully twisted my neck to check on Wanderer. His gaze, still turned upwards, was bloodshot. His ragged breath was accompanied by the occasional twitching of a limb. His head slowly turned towards mine, giving the best fake smile of reassurance.
“North, I…” His words began to wander into an unintelligible mush of sounds. He tried to mouth out the words ‘thank you’, which was replaced by a deluge of puke.
Oh fuck. I gave him mana poisoning.
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The lake’s surface was oddly serene. It was untouched by wind, completely smooth and serene like the perfect mirror. The stars of the night sky were reflected on the pool, all of the night sky directly in front of me. Sitting down next to such a thing of beauty should have been calming, but all I could really feel was dread.
Behind me I could hear the sounds of Wanderer continuing to throw up. His arm was cauterized by Alex. When I’d asked to heal it, I was stopped almost immediately. Putting any more mana into him at this point could kill him.
My plan to save someone almost killed them in the process from my actions.
Some leader I am.
I could feel someone’s hand land on my shoulder. Sadly, it was the shoulder I had just dislocated and then relocated less than an hour ago.
“Ow!”
“Oh. Sorry North.” Sera apologized in what felt like a half hearted manner. She quickly moved to my other side and plopped herself down, staring out at the lake.
“Is Wanderer doing any better?”
There was an eerie silence which told me a lot more than words ever could. Sera simply gave me a pat on my other shoulder.
“Guess I did a great job saving him.” I said with the sarcasm of a dead fish.
“North, you did save him. It’s just…”
“That I also probably killed him through the same method I saved him?”
Sera furiously shook her head in denial, swishing her massive amount of hair around in a chaotic fashion. It was a comforting visual, although it didn’t much help the tone of the discussion.
“Silva said he’ll probably end up fine, but what you did, that’s the thing. First the wolves, now this.”
I shrugged and painfully raised my hand up to look at it. The palm looked singed, speckled with unnaturally black and red flesh with a thin coating of Corith dirt. After becoming aware of my own body’s healing, it didn’t bother me much. My injuries would fade, unlike Wanderer. I shook my hand to try and get rid of the dirt and noticed how I could see what looked like small blue embers flutter to the ground.
“I don’t think I can do that again. Not for a while. The forest had dense enough mana for me to pull from, and even if I could, I’m pretty sure I’d end up destroying my arm.” I explained, still showing the occasional wince from the burning sensation that occasionally crept up through my veins, “Mana certainly does a lot of listening to me, but that doesn’t change whether or not my body can keep up with the flow. I got lucky this time.”
I wondered what Elm would have said to me doing that. Whether he would have admonished me or gone into full researcher mode.
“We’ve gotten lucky several times.”
There was a moment of silence, where all I could hear was the crackling fire above which was roasting one of the several cassobans I’d killed. Sera let out a massive exhale as her vision turned upwards towards the real stars.
“It’s so odd, walking around without the ire always weighing down on us. I’d gotten accustomed that I didn’t realize how much of a mental drain it actually was.” Sera noted to me.
“I guess. This just doesn’t feel entirely real. I thought that when we finally escaped the forest I’d feel this massive sense of elation, but it’s just not there. Now that I can sit, it just feels so hollow.”
I didn’t think it was because of Wanderer. Something in the back of my mind believed this feeling was more of an eventuality.
“North…” Sera sighed, slowly stepping up from her sitting position to stretch, “We did something no one else has ever done. We survived for weeks in the forest and made it out the other side. I don’t blame you for feeling a bit empty in the aftermath.”
“It’s not that. We wouldn’t have had to do that if I didn’t fuck up and get caught off guard by Arlin. I guess I was hoping that making it all the way out to the other side would give me some sense that it was all worth it, but it didn’t. And now, not only have I lost almost all of our forces, but I poisoned the man who had declared he would use his entire life to protect me.”
I was hoping for a response from Sera, but she said nothing. The pitying look on her face said more than enough. She simply started walking towards the fire just as Alex had finished roasting the first cassoban and was starting to tear off pieces.
We had made it out of the forest and into freedom to continue our fight. Yet as the sound of Wanderer’s violent coughs echoed through the quiet night, it was hard to feel like any of this was a victory.