As I walked into the ancient foreboding forest a low groaning could be heard

It wasn't a threatening sound but it sounded as if something was buckling and being forcefully moved beyond its limits

Panicking I turned back to leave the forest only to find the plains gone, replaced by a thick fog that seemed to devour even the light that touched it

"hee, huuuu, heeeaa, heauuuu"

My breathing became faster and more panicked as I kept backing away frightened by the world that had changed behind me in a matter of seconds, I kept stumbling backwards until my foot caught a root

I toppled backwards slamming into the moist dirt and crackling leaves

Even then I only became more frightened as I scrambled backwards pressing my back against the unbending body of an ebony black tree

Unlike its counter parts this one was thinner, had healthier bark and held a lighter tone, almost a deep greyish black

I rested against the tree until I could feel myself calming down as my hand ran down the small cracks and rocky bark that seemed to resemble living stones

It felt reassuring to have such an ancient and powerful being watching over me as I tried to recover from my panic attack

'What should I do? I'm trapped in this forest without any hope of leaving it'

As I tried to think a loud cracking echoed throughout the forest before the sound of a high pitched creaking warned of the loud drum that shook the entire forest like an earthquake right afterwards, the shake ended the noises leaving the whole forest in a tense silence

'D-did a tree f-fall? What kind of c-creature could cause that!'

Just the fact that one of these strong, powerful trees toppled scared me to no end, but the fact that such a quake resounded across the entire forest and into its farthest edges caused me to shake with fear to no end

'P-please, someone. Someone save me!'

My pleading was the only thing that kept me from running into the fog that had swallowed up the peaceful plains and possibly disappearing like the plains had

As I curled up into a ball and pleaded for my life I quickly lost track of time, I didn't know how long I stayed in that position as even the forest didn't change its brightness

Maybe it had only been a couple of hours and the sun hadn't fallen, maybe the day had long passed and the trees simply blocked out all possibly moonlight. I didn't know

But after a long time beautiful lights appeared and darted between the trees as if exploring

I warily prepared to run away when they darted towards me but they seemed to only carefully inspect me as if they had found a lost pet

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

After thoroughly checking me out they started to slowly fly away, they were incomparably slower compared to earlier

'D-do they want me to follow?'

I carefully started following them which caused their lights to intensify for a few seconds before returning to normal

I knew they were excited I understood because they didn't make any attempt to fly faster or escape from me

I walked after the orbs of light stumbling and almost tripping from time to time from the sheer density of leaves and the hundreds of roots that seemed to snake their way through the wet dirt like clumps of veins

Every time I fell over the lights would slow down or even wait for me until I started walking again

This kept going on for what felt like hours

During that time I noticed something odd

I scrapped myself and bled, I was left with bruises from the hard falls I had taken but I never grew tired, sleepy or even ran out of stamina

It was like I had an endless well of energy to fuel myself

As I followed the glowing orbs I continued to think about why I had all of this energy and what exactly was going on

As far as I could recall I was in the clinic because I was paralyzed so John and Charlotte were looking after me. I think the doctor said something about mutating?

'Wait. Am I a mutant now?'

It made sense as to why I had so much energy and why I didn't feel tired even though I had been walking for so long

'So how did I get here? What are my abilities? Where is everyone?'

After finally coming up with an answer I had even more questions I needed answering

Just as I was about to test for my powers by doing a number of stupid ideas I noticed the orbs of light stop in front of me

It took me a few steps to come shoulder to shoulder to them

When I did I looked upon a massive clearing that seemed completely impossible within a forest made up of such unnatural and ancient monstrous trees

Much like the rest of the forest the clearing was covered in leaves so thick it hid the ground beneath it

The only difference was that the leaves weren't all brown, small and sucked of life, there were many different leaves on the ground

There were wide yellow leaves, thick orange leaves, graceful greenish leaves and a handful of captivating green leaves that looked as if they absorbed the suns light itself

As my eyes gazed upon the landscape I noticed a large stump in the middle, unlike the tree that might have been cut or knocked down earlier this stump stood taller than me but I could still see that it was a perfectly clean cut

It was the only perfectly flat and human like creation I had seen since coming here

It filled me with a hope that there was someone else here besides me

Running up to the base of the stump with the leaves crackling and popping underneath my feet I touched its rough surface

unexpectedly the hard ebony bark felt cold against my fingers

Looking closer I noticed large cracks running between the ebony bark revealing a deep black just beneath its outer layer

I wasn't sure if that was the woods color or the deep shadows the flowed within the indents but I ignored it for now

Forgetting my excitement I turned back to find the balls of light gone, they no longer floated at the outskirts of the clearing like they had done when we first arrived

A strange thought emerged in my mind

'Am I being guided here?'

It made sense if I thought about it

First I appeared here somehow, then I was forcefully pulled into this forest where fog cut off the only way for me to leave, then finally those orbs of light appeared and got me to follow them all the way here

After thinking about what had happened so far, a single horrifying thought entered my mind

'What could possibly be here that's so great I was forced to come to it?'

I didn't know what was going to be at the top of this stump but I could at least guess one thing, I would be no match for it in any type of fight

'Its' probably my only wait out of here though

Steeling my resolve I reached upwards and grasped onto a piece of the rough ebony bark before pulling stepping onto a few similar spiked pieces of bark

Using these bumpy parts of ebony bark I used them as hand holds and foot holds to slowly climb upwards

After what felt like an eternity I pushed my body away from the trees body ever so slightly and looked down

I was already too high for me to fall without hurting myself

casting my gaze upwards I sighed in a tired voice, I was only just reaching halfway up the stump

I still had a long climb ahead of me