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I sighed as I sat down by the lingering fire, it’s been a long couple of weeks and I’m at my wit's end. I raised my wineskin and took a swig of cheap ale before passing it to the guy beside me and he took a quick swig as well,

“Ugh, I already hated this damn forest before I even stepped a foot into it, and now we have to stay here for another two days. I swear by the end of this my buttocks will freeze off,” said Dave in an exasperated tone.

I understand how he feels, this cursed forest already had a bad reputation and from what we have seen it wasn’t exaggerated. I sighed and took another swig before passing it back,

“Let us just hope we don’t run into any spirits,” I said,

“Amen to that my friend,” he responded.

With that final exchange, we resumed staring into the fire in silence while listening to its soft’s pops and hisses. Soon the wineskin ran dry and since I was the one that took the last drop, I had to refill it. I rose up and winced at the pain coursing through my knees before hobbling over to our last wineskin full of alcohol.

I fumbled through my bag until I found it but as I was walking back, I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I was no ranger, but I’ve been around the block enough to know I was being watched. I carefully scanned the trees and found nothing, but the feeling still wasn’t going away so I moved my gaze to the trees up above, and to my slight horror I found two glowing red eyes staring into my soul. I was unnerved and afraid now, the last time I saw a set of eyes such as these an entire town was reduced to flames and rubble. But I calmed down soon enough, I remember a local at the bar mentioning that death crows were a common sight within the forest, still pretty scary. I gave the eyes another glance before backing away, even if they were common that only means that death is common here.

As soon as our staring contest was blocked by a tent I turned and hastily walked back to my seat. I immediately took a long drink from the wineskin trying to ignore my encounter before going to pass it to Dave only to find that... He was gone. I stood up in a panic and frantically looked around, I was only gone for a minute at most, how did he disappear? Was it an attack, an animal, did the witch have friends that are trying to free her? I drew my dagger but didn’t call the alarm, Deadlaf loved his beauty sleep and he will skin me alive if I wake him up for potentially nothing. I quickly went over and began looking for evidence of struggle and thankfully that’s not what I found, I found a set of footprints leading into the forest, probably taking a leek or something, but I still needed to check in on him.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I sheathed my dagger and went back for my sword before grabbing a torch and following the staggering footsteps into the dark forest. I swear this bastard can barely hold his alcohol, yet he always seems to be drinking. After a little bit of walking, I realized I was way too deep into the forest. He shouldn’t have needed to go this far just to piss. I switched the torch to the off-hand and drew my sword, something was up, it had to be. I carefully looked around and found a pair of glowing red eyes staring at me again, damn it, I knew it had to be a sign. I turned and started sprinting back the way I came, but soon I noticed a problem, I couldn’t have had walked that long, only ten minutes at the very most, but at full sprint, I haven’t even been able to smell the smoke of the fire.

I couldn’t be that drunk could I, I mean I was no lightweight like Dave and I’ve only had half a wineskin of weak ale. I kept running and running but I just couldn’t seem to find camp, I couldn’t be lost though, I have been following my tracks this entire time. Soon I had to stop and catch my breath, I was really panicking now and the fact that my torch was rapidly going out was not helping. I looked back behind me and relief flooded through me followed by a bit of anger, there that stupid bastard stood with his head sticking out from behind a tree. I got up and started to walk over but I paused midway, something wasn’t right, something was very wrong. The night was completely silent, no insects or other nocturnal creatures, not even, the wind that was just was blowing a little bit ago, was moving.

I looked at Dave with a bit of fear now, the number one thing that we were warned about before entering this place was the silence. I picked up my pace now, we needed to get out of here, now. But as I neared Dave ducked back behind a tree and when I finally reached It and looked behind it my blood froze, and I had to stifle a scream. They're lying in the snow was Dave’s severed head. I backed up in a panic and looked around erratically for any hint of what did this but found nothing but then a thought struck me, in momentary clarity I realized, Dave has probably been dead ever since I stepped away from camp. I turned and went to run away when I spotted a terrible beast, on my trail sat a black hound with hair matted with blood. I took a step back and quickly regretted my decision when the snap of a small twig echoed out.