In a small camp made of tents of old cloth and leather, a large man with the appearance of a dog argued with other beings of similar appearance, while everyone looked at a torn and dirty map.

"My Lord! These lands are too dangerous! It is not wise to risk the lives of our people here!"

"I agree with Chanz, entering the forest is a idiotic act, the forest is dominated by monsters of all kinds, not to mention the forest itself isn't all friendly!"

All the canines creatures agreed that entering the forest was stupid, but there was one, the apparent leader, who had a wolf-like head and fur as black as night, who was determined not to give in.

"So What?! If isn't the falling forest, where else do you hope to find refuge?! Our lands have been dominated by black corruption, every good territory already has an owner, and we can't fight after what happened in Fringer. If we don't find a land soon to call our own, our people will only succumb one by one! Food is already scarce, weapons are worn out and old, the younger and the older cannot continue this kinde of life."

When his words fell everyone in the room had dark expressions, the black corruption, a strange and mysterious force that spread through the Earth, killing everything that was natural and corrupting the monsters that touched it, the only known way to end corruption was by pouring high amounts of divine power from the divine in the Earth, but the churches would never waste their resources in a land far from their domains.

"M-MY LORD, Even if it is true we can still find other solutions! The Scouts we sent to the forest reported that they found traces of unknown creatures, and the other day we lost one of our men after he ate a forest fruit! From the animals to the plants that surround us everything in this place seems to want to kill us!"

"That's because we are right in the middle of a poisonous forest! If we can get to the clearing at the bottom of the forest we could have a new beginning, and then we would be protected from invaders by the forest itself!"

"But at what Price My Lord!? We have already lost many in the conflict with that corrupted creature, and now every day someone dies of hunger, or food poisoning! And even if we manage to reach the clearing, it wouldn't mean that we are safe! Only that we're stuck here!"

"Cobby! We've already gone too far! We can't go back now! The Clearing is a quiet place in the middle of this hell, and if we managed to re-build our village on these lands we could even become the most powerful village in the region!"

Everyone seemed divided, on the one hand going back now was futile, but on the other hand continuing could be just suicide. There was nothing for them coming back, they could just keep wandering aimless until they died, or give themselves up to another village as slaves.

"Let's have a vote, those who wish to return raise their hands!"

After a brief moment of silence only 2 hands had been raised.

"Now whoever wants to continue to the clearing raise your hands!"

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This time more than 7 hands had been raised, and with that they goal was sealed.

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Life is cruel, I realized it from an early age, since I was a little cub I had to bring my own food, I had to work and hunt even if it was alone and unprepared i had several brothers and sisters, and I had to bury all of them, the difficulties made me what I am today, but if I could, I would prefer a place where the little cubs could live quietly and without hunger. As I grew up in our small village, surrounded by constant death and misery i became an experienced hunter, and soon I was appointed by the old village leader to become the new leader.

I never wanted to be a leader, but I thought if I was the leader I could bring more prosperity, I could end hunger and bring happiness to my people. So after several defeats against the old leader, I finally managed to defeat him in the rite of passage, and everyone accepted me as their leader, throughout my work I always tried to ensure that no one went hungry like I did when I was little, and that no one needed to be alone.

But life is very cruel.

Food was scarce, even before corruption came, and us the kobolds that were supost to be a united group, now were fighting among ourselves for a little of food, the younger ones were dying, the older ones too, and all that was left were the hungry, guilt-ridden people. And then when everything seemed that couldn't get worse, Black corruption began to plague our lands, at first it was imperceptible, small black dots that appeared on the Earth and plants dying without explanation, but soon the corruption spread, the small black dots became black spots with a toxic slime, which poisoned everything it touched, the animals, plants and people, and then it come to a point where the corrupted monsters, animals that didn't succumb to the black slime how became hideous creatures of black color and rotten appearance, attacked everyone without caring about death and soon all we could do was run to save ourselves.

We walked for days, weeks without stopping in search of a land to call our own, but all the nearby regions were already dominated, and no one wanted to give a piece of land to us.

Our only choice was to enter the fallen Forest and hope to find a place to call home. We knew from an old map that there was a clearing deep in the forest, but we never expected the whole place to be so deadly.

At first it was just a normal forest, with nothing to worry about, there were a few small and dangerous monsters that could be easily blown away. The problem came to about 2 days ago, when we entered the deepest part of the forest, the whole place began to change, the plants had a strange appearance, the land was dry and sandy, and the monsters-

They were monstrous.

Creatures of incredible size and power, who didn't have a shred of fear of facing us head on, there were insects that would crawl through your clothes to give you a deadly sting, plants that tried to trick you with a delicious meal, monsters that mixed themselves in the forest and many creatures made just to kill.

When we entered the forest our numbers reached in about 200, but now there is only a small group with just over 50, many are injured and hungry, if we can't get to the clearing soon this forest will eat us.

I was now going up to the largest group of people to announce our plans, we were going to continue, the clearing was close, just could be ,it shouldn't take so long to get through this damn forest.

"My leader! What did you and the Warriors decide? Will we continue with this torment?"

"My people! I know I failed as your leader, I as your leader should protect you and guide you to prosperity, but I couldn't prevent famine and war, now all I can do and watch as our numbers fall more and more, but I promise with my life at stake! That if we can get to the bottom of this forest, we can get back on our feet and never go hungry again!"

Everyone seemed saddened by the news that we would continue, but it was possible to see a ray of hope shining in their eyes, if their leader's words were true salvation was a few days away.

'The clearing has to be our salvation, really need! I can't let everyone die on my command! I cannot die as the mediocre leader who couldn't do nothing for his own people!'