None of us know why this happened, but the Empire began its invasion completely unexpectedly for all of us. Imperial troops swiftly marched across our vast country and besieged the capital, surrounding the city with hordes of soldiers with white banners depicting black crosses with the divine eye.
Looking over the enemy army, Her Majesty Femila Ilti personally led her warriors into battle to stop the enemy moving towards the walls of the city, but it was a meaningless battle, full of horror and despair after which the enemy commander cut off her head and planted it on a pike, placing it in front of the city gates as a sign his superiority and victory over the kingdom of Hippolyta.
It was a terrible sight that none of us wanted to see, but we witnessed this horror anyway and our hearts were filled with sadness, grief, loss and terrible all-consuming pain. The execution of the queen was a strong blow, killing our hope for a better outcome in such a sudden war, but this blow was not decisive, for at the site of the death of the queen a resistance was born that would put an end to the rule of the Empire in these lands.
Princess Niana, the daughter of Queen Femila, fulfilled her mother's last testament; she escaped with all her people to the east. Sooner or later she will gather the people again and liberate her mother’s lands from the Empire. At the sight of the princess, entire villages gathered and set off on a campaign to the east in order to organize worthy resistance there, but the direct path to the eastern lands was blocked by imperial troops and as a result, we were soon stuck in place with only one road leading into the poisonous forest from where people never returned.
The princess's confidants, including me, decided what we needed to do in this situation. Some wanted to fight the Antigonians in order to get to the east, while others wanted to surrender, knowing full well that it would not be possible to defeat well-armed soldiers with crowds of desperate peasants, and still others convinced the princess to go through the poisonous forest in the south, which turned out to be the biggest mistake we made. This mistake cost huge lives.
The once confident and brave girl burst into tears at night when she heard news during the day about how the people who followed her were dying. In plain sight, she restrained the outbursts of her own emotions, but when she retires somewhere in a secluded place, she sobs loudly, experiencing pain for the victims, their relatives and friends. Not many of us survived this path; we did not understand why this forest was dangerous until we drank a sip of rainwater.
The one-year-old baby died first, and then his parents, writhing on the ground from poisoning and covered with green spots, and then more and more people died. Thousands of people who decided to flee through this damned place fell ill among its bushes, because in the poisonous forest anything could destroy them, every scratch, every sip of water or berry.
And although there were no insects or wild animals here, this forest was incredibly dangerous. Now it became clear to us why the travelers who set foot in this forest called it poisonous or cursed, and we deeply regretted that we had set foot on these lands, but it was not too late to change everything, we could return and decide to fight the Antigonians.
Previously, there were thousands of us, there were hundreds, but now there were barely a couple of dozen of us, and later there were only five people left: me, Princess Niana, Alza, Zaden and Khan. And the question comes to mind: why, when people started dying, we didn’t get out of here? Why did they continue to endure these horrors when they could have gone back? The answer was terribly simple: there was no turning back, for there were already Antigonians there who were pursuing us, following us into the poisonous forest, pursuing the miraculously saved princess.
When the first victims of the poisonous forest appeared, Niana wanted to order to get out of it, when the Antigonians suddenly overtook us. They quietly surrounded the camp that we had set up in the forest and quickly attacked, killing many people. Only the pitiful remnants managed to escape and fled further south. Our hearts were pounding with fear, our chests were bursting from continuous breathing, we wanted to eat, drink and sleep, but we continued to run without stopping, and the terrible imperial fanatics continued to pursue us.
Thoughts were lurking in my head all the time: Niana must survive, she is our new queen, if she dies, then our people will never free themselves from the shackles of the Empire. And although I am sure that other lady commanders were able to organize a defense in the east, without the princess’s order they will not take a step back to the west. Without her presence, they will not be able to do anything; such are the traditions of a society where women rule and men serve them.
It is unknown how many days have passed, but we are already sick of this damned endless rain. We were tired of endlessly walking in wet clothes, shivering from the freezing cold, hearing our stomachs growling from hunger, feeling dry in our mouths due to thirst, coughing from a curse and looking around in fear for fear of suddenly losing our heads from our shoulders, it was all unbearable for us .
And here we are again sitting under the foliage of a tree, deafened by the noise of incessant rain and thunderclaps. I sat on a huge root and hugged Alza, who was next in line to die from the curse. Her skin was already covered with green spots, she kept holding her stomach with her hands as if she was going to vomit. Poor girl, she followed the princess hoping to survive, but in the end she only suffers. Despite the horror she experienced, she is still faithful to the young princess, and to be honest, I don’t know why.
“I-I’m th-thirsty.”
Alza said in a trembling voice, pleadingly looking me straight in the eyes with her dying gaze.
However…
«Tomorrow you will die.»
I knew this for sure, I saw her death, even more, she was dying right in my arms and all because of this very sip of water. I thought that I would take pity on her in this way, give her something to drink, but in the end she would only provoke the curse and die much faster, and then the Antigonians would quickly overtake us and I would die the last of all the survivors.
“Forgive me, Alza, but you must be patient.”
I said in the most encouraging and gentle voice possible.
Tears appeared in her eyes, she began to sniffle. I understand her, she felt betrayed as if by my refusal I was leaving her to certain death, but she does not understand that I am doing this for her own good and I regret that this may be true.
«Maybe at least this way she will live longer than one night, otherwise I don’t know how we all will survive.»
Meanwhile the rain was not going to stop. There was no longer even wet soil underfoot, but only deep streams flowing between the trees, washing away all the dirt and fallen leaves from the trees. If we descend from the root, we will drown in water up to our knees, but if we stay, we will quickly be found by the Antigonians who are following on our heels.
I don’t know when this will happen, but the last time, before they died, they came the night right after Alza’s death. Apparently they stumbled upon the girl’s abandoned body and quickly found us. I decided that I would not do this again, but how can we prevent the same outcome?
«Should we just...give up?»
I shook my head, throwing the idea back into the garden of damn Sod. In one prediction, when I suggested this, I was immediately stabbed by Khan, he would not even allow the thought of surrendering to these imperial fanatics.
«Then we need to go now and hope that Alza doesn't die along the way.»
So I decided, saying it out loud:
“We must go, the Antigonians are nearby.”
Zaden and Khan, two royal soldiers from the villages adjacent to the capital, looked at me while a feeling of fatigue emanated from their faces, and this is not surprising, because we just recently crawled onto this root to rest, and now some prophet invites them to immediately hit the road.
“Let’s rest for a while longer?”
Zaden objected, clearly not having time to rest.
"Zaden,"
The princess turned to him, looking into the green forest darkness.
“If Ripun said that the Antigonians are nearby, then we must go.”
“They couldn’t have gotten to us that fast!”
"SHUT UP!"
Niana shouted angrily, turning towards the soldier.
“I trust Ripun, he helped us all the way, gave us the necessary advice, so don’t hope that the Antigonians really didn’t get to us because of some rain. Even then they would never have been able to reach us, but they did it anyway and... killed... killed a lot of people.”
And indeed those warriors (it’s hard to call them that) who attacked us were dressed in strong white armor that tightly covered their bodies, and their weapons cut the unfortunate people into pieces with one blow. Anyone who tried to fight back then could hardly even scratch their plates, because these were not ordinary soldiers, but real paladins.
«I didn’t think that they would send paladins from the order after the princess, but it seems that’s the case. They decided to kill the princess to ensure that there would be no resistance in the east of Hippolyta. If this happens... then our people are in danger of destruction.»
While I was thinking about this, Alza also added her word. Although the young maid clearly did not have the best opinion of me because of my refusal to give her something to drink, she still supported me:
"L-let's go."
"I agree too."
Khan said, rising to his feet after sharpening his spear with a stone.
“Staying here for a long time is like death, but we don’t have much food and water left for long. We might last a couple of nights, but these bastards will get to us much faster.”
Khan looked at me sternly and said sternly:
“I trust your instincts, Ripun, but if it leads us all to the grave, then I swear to the great mother I will take you to her on a date.”
I swallowed after this threat, frightened by Khan’s words. After all, I know perfectly well what he will do to me if I decide something that he doesn’t like. Soon we quickly got ready to go and jumped into the water and, as I expected, we were knee-deep in it. Alza even screamed and felt the freezing water burn her thin legs:
“Ay~! It’s cold!”
"I'll take you."
I said, taking her body in my arms. It was hard to carry Alza in my arms along with her things, and yet I continued to hope that she would survive, but I really didn’t know what to do to make her live to see the next day.
“Ripun, are you okay?”
Zaden asked me and I answered him, groaning with heaviness.
"Yes..."
They saw that it was hard for me and probably wondered why I decided to care about her more than anyone else. My gut tells me that if Alza dies, then nothing good should be expected in the future. Where did this instinct come from and why does it push me so hard? I just couldn’t understand it.
«She must survive... she just must survive, that’s all.»
That’s what I decided for myself, but it seems everyone else didn’t agree with the choice of my actions, which is why Khan suddenly came up to me and snatched the girl from my hands, and he himself threw an equally heavy spear into my hands, which I could barely hold in my hands .
“I see that it’s hard for you, if we’re delayed because of you, then all I can do is leave one of you two.”
"Hey!"
The princess shouted.
"Do not say that! We won’t leave anyone here, do you understand?!”
"Little fool."
Khan snorted.
“As if we care about you now.”
“W-what?”
The princess couldn’t believe her ears, her eyes wide open.
“H-how dare you talk to me like that?”
“Don’t pretend to be brave, princess, I’m already tired of falling asleep to your sobs every night. It was you who decided to go through the poisonous forest, you decided to choose this path, which means it is your fault that all these people died in this damned forest. We all followed you only because we didn’t want to be killed by the Imperials, and in the end we all ended up in a more terrible place than any of us could have imagined, and all because of you!”
"Han, that's enough."
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Zaden intervened, standing between the princess and the angry soldier.
“She wasn’t the only one who made this decision, am I right, Your Highness?”
The princess, however, did not answer, she bowed down upon hearing Khan's words. Now he didn’t value her at all, and from the realization of this, the girl was in shock, not daring to utter even one word, and nevertheless Zaden decided to protect her even despite the fact that he did not receive the proper answer from the princess.
“Don’t blame all the troubles of the world on her alone, we ourselves decided to follow her and we ourselves understood that it would not be an easy path ahead of us. We risked our lives and hope that at least we can get to the east."
"I understood you."
Khan said sternly and, turning away, began to squish through the water with his feet, moving south with Alza in his arms.
“If I could only turn back time, I would never let this happen. Fucking unfair world."
Everyone followed Khan and thought about a lot. Now I began to feel worse, because I really could turn back time, but I could not properly curb this power given to me by my great mother.
«Why?»
I wondered.
«Why do I only see the future where I die? Why no other future, but this one? Why did you do this, great mother? Why do I have to relive my own death every time?»
From not knowing my gift or curse, I could only continue to live, hoping that with each new return to the past I could correct the destinies in which I was wrong, but what would happen if the Antigonians did not kill me, but took me prisoner? Then I will not see the future, I will not return to the past and I will not be able to correct the disastrous mistake. This made me feel even worse, because if the Antigonians find out why they haven’t really been able to catch us yet, they will definitely decide not to kill me and then the whole journey, full of trials, will be completely in vain.
***
Despite the rain, everything seemed to stop, it was too calm as we made our way through the vegetation further south. We ascended to some flat hill, where the water was no longer knee-deep, thanks to which Khan let go of Alza and she could move on her own legs. This time she lived through the last day, but I still don’t know whether she will live this day too or whether death will overtake her.
«Why do I worry about her more than anyone else?»
I asked myself this question, and every time I asked it, I could not find the answer I needed, as if this was a feeling from a very distant future, which I cannot even comprehend and which I cannot even imagine. Maybe I'm even in love with her? What nonsense, she had a husband and a child, of course they died at the hands of imperial bastards, and she is unlikely to find a replacement for her dear husband and give birth to a new child. She will need time to put aside her past love and go looking for a new one.
What if I had these feelings because I loved her? What should I do in this case? Should I admit this to Alza or try to push these thoughts aside? I don't know. I think that if because of the Antigonians I die today, then perhaps I should now try and confess my love to her even if she does not accept these feelings. In this case, Ripun from the past simply will not repeat the same thing as me.
«What nonsense? What am I thinking about? We need to survive, and not think about some maid.»
Meanwhile, we continued to walk through the dense trees. Khan walked ahead of everyone, looking around, he clearly already suspected something, tightly gripping the spear in his hands. Zaden did not lag behind and also made a remark about what was happening:
“I think there is someone here. It’s too quiet here.”
“You’re not the only one who sees things like this.”
Khan said.
“The victim can always feel how they are surrounded.”
And as soon as he said this, the vegetation around rustled, the clanging of heavy armor and the ringing of blades was heard, and Antigonians ran out from behind the trees with swords at the ready, dressed in elegant white armor tightly covering their bodies. Dozens, no, hundreds of Antigonians suddenly surrounded us, putting their weapons forward, ready to kill us all at any moment.
«Oh no!»
I was scared, not at all expecting the sudden appearance of the Imperials.
Khan panicked, horror showing on his face. Even though he knew that we were all surrounded, but even he did not expect that we would be attacked so unexpectedly, and this prompted him to take an unexpected action: he put his spear in front of him and rushed forward.
"DIE!"
Khan shouted furiously, trying to kill Antigonian.
He barely had time to take two swift steps, picking up speed, when the Antigonian in front of him almost instantly swung his sword, cutting Khan’s body somewhere in the stomach area. The spear slipped out of Khan’s hands, and he himself fell to his knees, already dead, as blood flowed from his stomach, followed by intestines. After another moment, he collapsed with his whole body into the dirty water and would never be able to move again.
Khan died.
Alza screamed loudly when she saw how quickly Khan was killed:
“Khan! No!"
She rushed forward, but I grabbed her wrist, holding her in place. I wouldn't want her to die after him. I had to wrap my arms around her, engulfing her in a tight hug while Alza was shaking in horror and sobbing. Niana and Zaden also clung to each other while the Antigonians with slow steps tightened the encirclement. Zaden had to throw his spear, because he did not want a similar fate as Khan.
There was nowhere to run, we were trapped and it looked like they weren’t going to kill us yet, but the Antigonians around us laughed and did it as if they had just caught an easy prey. One of them came closer to us and pulled Niana out, grabbing her by the hair, and when Zaden tried to intercede for her, his hand was cut off in one quick and easy movement.
“A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a~!!!”
Hunched over and holding his left hand, Zaden screamed painfully while blood gushed from his hand, and Alza, hearing his painful cries, huddled closer to me, still trembling strongly from fear, cold and horror.
"S-s-scary."
She said in a trembling voice.
“I-I don’t want... I don’t want to die. Ripun, don’t let me go... please.”
«Forgive me, but... nothing will work.»
We were all quickly separated, our hands were tied behind our backs, we were beaten for fun, and they began to take us under a tree branch. The Antigonians were in no hurry to leave the place where they captured us, but for some reason continued to search everything around. I didn’t understand what they were doing and why, and I didn’t try to go into details, I just waited for my death while comforting Alza and thinking about what I needed to do to prevent a similar outcome, and this time I realized that I couldn’t do anything.
«If they kill me tomorrow, then I will see the prophecy right here the moment I am captured... and I... I will be doomed to experience the same death forever until I get out of this vicious circle.»
This fate scared me to the core: endlessly dying in the same cycle over and over again, without the opportunity to somehow fix anything. Right now, only a miracle could save us, but I didn't understand how exactly that would happen. What needs to happen to avoid all this? I didn’t know what to do, my heart was beating wildly, the ground disappeared from under my feet... It seemed like it was the end.
«Endless...death.»
We were put in a grove while the Antigonians scoured around, continuing to search every bush that turned up and a flooded ravine with a rapid stream. I still don’t understand what they are doing, and a little later, shouts were heard somewhere behind the trees and almost all the paladins ran there.
«What's going on?»
Zaden wanted to ask the same thing, but the Antigonian guard who was guarding us found something offensive in the words of the royal soldier, and with a ringing sound he drew his sword and in one movement cut off his head.
"NO! ZADEN!”
Princess Niana screamed at what she saw and tried to somehow turn away from the sight of Zaden’s head falling on the grass, but the Antigonian did not allow her to do so, holding her by the hair and forcing her to look at the severed head of her faithful subordinate.
"Haretik."
The Antigonian said something with a spit and a grin and sheathed his sword.
Soon all the imperials around began to run behind those trees and Zaden’s killer decided to get us to our feet by taking us to that place, simultaneously pushing and kicking us so that we would hurry up.
«I must die as soon as possible to prevent this.»
Meanwhile, I was thinking, practically not paying attention to everything.”
«But when the prophet sees the prophecy, what should he do? There is no way to prevent all this! What should I do?»
After some time, we found ourselves in another groove where hundreds of Antigonians surrounded a strange humanoid bush that seemed to be holding its hands up. I didn’t imagine it and this bush really moved, but not under gusts of wind, but as if it were a living creature. The Antigonians and I were perplexed and clearly asked the same question:
«What is this? Some kind of monster? Can he really live in a poisonous forest?»
The imperial fanatics didn’t even know what to do, they simply placed all their weapons around the monster. One Antigonian decided to come closer, but not to draw his sword, and when he did, the monster lowered its limbs, but continued to stand in place. It seems that the Antigonian man and the monster were communicating, I heard a mixture of two strange languages, one in Antigonian and the other in the language of this monster.
«Can monsters talk? If this is a talking monster, then it cannot be a monster. Then who is it? And how can it live in a poisonous forest?»
The appearance of the creature indicated that it was some kind of living plant. Maybe it took on a human form to lure prey, or maybe to show other inhabitants of this forest or its guests that they are not so scary and should not be feared. The Antigonians were clearly frightened, for they did not know what they saw before their eyes.
"Dryad."
Niana said, for which she received a blow to the head from the imperial geek.
“Ay~! Mmmm~..."
The words she said made me think:
«Dryad? A fabulous creature, a spirit from ancient legends. They say that they protect the forest from threats and help people find their way home. Is this really a dryad?»
It seems that Princess Niana really thought so, but I was in no hurry to trust her guess. Dryads are described as girls who were born along with trees and merged with plants, but nowhere was it said that they would look like bushes more than people, and this monster spoke words in a male voice.
The fanatical Antigonians, who believe only in Sod, worship only a single deity, clearly do not know this, and therefore most likely consider these dryads to be monsters, even if they speak. It seems that they decided so when the Antigonian who approached the dryad took out his sword and put it in front of the forest spirit, and the Antigonians, meanwhile, lowered their weapons and began to grin, waiting for the moment when this daredevil would cut down the monster.
The dryad herself picked up some object - a strange black curved stick with a hole - and pointed this thing towards the Imperial. The Antigonians around just laughed more than ever, not expecting that the dryads could pose any danger to their lives, but I knew from those tales about dryads that they are extremely strong when it comes to fighting in their domains and now the Antigonians were literally in the forest full poisons and plants.
There may be not just one dryad, but many, and none of these fanatics thought about what an attack on the forest spirit might pose to them, because for them the dryad is just a monster. The Antigonian swung his blade and tried to cut off the dryad's limb, but the next moment something strange happened.
A brief, momentarily bright flash of thunder merged with the noise, and after that the paladin, barely having time to swing his blade, fell with a splash on his back onto the dirty water.
«What?»
I was surprised, not understanding what happened.
The dryad stood in place, lowering the object down, and then another Antigonian ran up to the fallen one, examining the body of the fallen imperial, after which he said something, causing the rest of the Antigonians to fall silent for a moment. An oppressive, evil silence hung around, broken only by the sound of endless rain. The dryad said something in a male voice, and then the terrible thing began.
Massacre.
I remember the next moments with the deafening sounds of thunder and flashes, some kind of smoke appeared, filling the entire grove, and the entire crowd of Antigonians ran towards the dryad with war cries, but fell, loudly screaming painfully in agony. Barely, but I noticed how blood was gushing out of the Imperials, as if something faster than the flight of an arrow and of small size crashed into the armor of the Imperials, piercing them right through. Neither their enormous speed nor the heavy white armor that completely enveloped their bodies and reliably protected them saved them.
As I expected, the dryad was not alone, there were several of them and they all released from behind themselves, or rather from long black sticks, fiery rays that passed through the bodies of the Antigonians, instantly killing them. The Antigonians fell one after another, and soon, when the grove was covered with a carpet of corpses, the Antigonians tried to escape.
“Oh great mother! What's happening?!"
The princess screamed in panic, squinting her eyes, afraid to open them.
The Antigonian man who accompanied us tried to run behind a tree and as soon as he flashed his heels a couple of times, his head exploded like a fountain, and his body fell lifelessly onto a root. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was the same miracle that I had been looking for for so long, an opportunity to escape and finally get out of this nightmare destructive forest.
We were lucky that the dryads did not attack us, but their fiery rays whistled past us, which seemed to us an omen of quick death. Soon I noticed how the Antigonian nevertheless overtook one dryad and killed her with one blow, forcing her to scream. That Antigonian died soon after his blow when a fiery ray pierced his heart through, but now one thing became clear to everyone: dryads are mortal and can also die, and for this a swing of the blade is quite enough. The Antigonians around were inspired by this discovery and tried in one wave, shouting in the name of Sod, to attack the dryads at once, trying to crush them in numbers.
It was a monstrous massacre: corpses fell one after another, meat, blood, screams were heard everywhere, there was agony all around, and a deadly stench was felt in the nose. Ultimately, the firestorm ended and what I saw around me were the dead bodies of what had once been some of the most powerful warriors of the Empire, the paladins of the order.
I can’t believe that the dryads killed so many people so easily and didn’t seem to want to stop there. A couple of dryads descended on the dead relative, examining his body with their limbs and strange magical objects, and another dryad was heading towards us with a long black object in its limbs.
Soon the dryad stopped and pointed the thin part with the hole of this object in our direction, and at that moment I realized: he was going to kill us. Not only I understood this, but also Niana and Alza. Both rose to their feet and tried to beg the dryads for mercy:
"Don't kill us."
Niana said, followed by Alza.
"W-we don't want to hurt you."
"Shut up fucking bitches!"
The dryad said in a male voice and the last thing I saw was a bright flash before I was enveloped in monstrous pain.
***
It happens again, as if I suddenly remember the nightmare I just had, maybe it was, but I know for sure that it was a prediction, the worst outcome of a possible future that I must prevent. From that Ripun came a prediction that it would soon come true and I would have to decide how to avoid it, and again this prediction was so clear and so monstrous.
“Ripun, are you dead?”
Alza said, seeing my shaking body, which continued to feel the pain of the past death, or rather the death that will never happen again.
That’s right, we were walking right now and the next day we will go out to that grove where the Antigonians will surround us.
"Yes."
I answered the girl.
"The Antigonians have overtaken us, again."
“Tch!”
Khan snorted.
“We’re not even at a rest stop and what do you suggest we do?”
"Good question."
I answered and thought about it. One question really bothered me at this moment:
«Why did the dryads kill us? They attacked the Antigonians only because they themselves tried to attack, but why did they kill us?»
The answer to this question surfaced quite quickly.
«They did not distinguish which people were which, and thought that we came with the Imperials. This means we need to try to show that we are not with them and then they will spare us and at the same time get rid of the Antigonians.»
A smile spread across my face. Finally, I waited for the very miracle that I had been waiting for so long and we had the long-awaited opportunity to survive. We can only hope that those dryads do not kill everyone, but only those who try to harm them.
"What's so funny?"
Zaden asked me with dissatisfaction in his voice.
“We will meet someone ahead. We must do everything we can to avoid death. First of all, Zaden, listen to what I tell you..."