When the dawn came, Ethan and the team packed their tents and moved silently through the forest, ignoring the bustling town of Triant and the murmurings of confusion from its people.

They were wondering where their valiant ‘patrolmen’ had gotten to.

The journey through the forest of Triant was eerily quiet, the air thick with the scent of damp earth and moss. The towering trees of Westerweald stretched ever higher, their canopies blotting out the sun, leaving the ground cloaked in shadows. The river Nelvin meandered alongside their path, its soft gurgles the only sound breaking the stillness of the forest.

Ethan led the group, his Salamandrike form skittering effortlessly over rocks and roots. Behind him, his companions moved in near silence, the weight of their recent journey pressing down on them. The quiet was not the easy kind, but the tense, watchful silence of travelers in unfamiliar, possibly hostile territory. Even with the Archon at their head, and even with the Lightborn out of commission, Klax had reminded them that they couldn’t ever let their guard down. This was their world – the human world. And in this world, evil found a way to make its mark.

If he was being honest, Ethan shared a piece of their trepidation. He could hide it well enough, but Lamphrey’s words last night had sparked new thoughts in him.

Becoming a God, eh? he chuckled to himself. Could I really do it?

Finally, Lamphrey broke the silence. The lizardwoman mage spoke in her usual calm, measured tone, her voice carrying just enough to reach the others. "We are nearing the edges of Triant’s forest. Beyond lies the coast, and a city—Sentinel."

Tara perked up, her feline ears twitching. "A city? You mean actual buildings and civilization?" Her tail flicked as she grinned. "Finally, I can sleep in a bed that doesn’t smell like Klax’s fur."

The wolfman growled low, but there was no real menace behind it. "The scent of a warrior is not for you to judge, rogue."

"Nor anyone else, thankfully," Tara shot back with a smirk.

Ethan chuckled. “What I wouldn’t give to see you march right up to an inn, slam your paws down on the front desk, and demand an ocean view room.”

“Ensuite,” the Minxit corrected. “With free room service.”

The trio giggled among themselves, but Fauna wasn’t so easily distracted. Her rabbit ears twitched, and she fixed her gaze on Lamphrey.

"How do you know about this city? Sentinel, you called it?"

Lamphrey turned her head slightly, her reptilian eyes unblinking as they met Fauna’s. "I have my ways, little mage."

Fauna’s nose twitched, her gaze narrowing. "Oneiromancy?"

"Indeed," Lamphrey replied without hesitation. "The bandits we encountered on the King’s Road knew much about the lands ahead. Their dreams betrayed their knowledge to me."

Fauna sniffed, her whiskers bristling. "It must be convenient to use the minds of others for your purposes."

The tension between the two mages was palpable, like the crackle of lightning before a storm. Ethan sighed, pausing mid-step and turning to face them.

"Alright," he said, raising his hands. "Let’s calm down before someone throws a fireball, or a dream spell, or whatever it is you two do these days."

The group halted, and Ethan twirled his Onixia blade in the air, its blue, flame-like sheen catching the dim light that filtered through the trees. The weapon glinted like a shard of a star, its presence a reminder of their hard-won strength.

"Look at this beauty," Ethan said with a grin. "With Greybane here, I don’t see anything stopping us. We’re stronger now than we’ve ever been. So, can we all just take a deep breath and keep moving? The faster we get to this Sentinel place, the sooner we can charter a boat and be on our way."

Lamphrey inclined her head, her expression unreadable. Fauna, for her part, sighed and adjusted her staff, murmuring, "Fine."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Satisfied, Ethan continued down the path, the others falling in behind him. The tension eased slightly, though it still lingered like a faint shadow among them.

As they pressed on, the forest began to change. The trees grew denser, their trunks gnarled and twisted, as though writhing in pain. The air grew cooler, and the once lively sounds of the forest faded into an oppressive silence. Even the river Nelvin, which had been a constant companion, seemed subdued, its waters running darker and slower.

Tara shivered, her tail twitching nervously. "Is it just me, or is this forest getting… creepier?"

Klax sniffed the air, his sharp senses on high alert. "It is not just you. Something is wrong here. The trees… they feel alive."

Ethan glanced around, his scythe-like tail swishing as he considered their surroundings. "Alive how? Like... they’re watching us?"

Klax nodded grimly. "Exactly."

Fauna clutched her staff a little tighter, her ears flat against her head. "I don’t like this."

"Nobody does, Faun," Ethan said. "But we don’t have much of a choice. Unless you want to turn back?"

The mage shook her head, and they continued deeper into the forest. The light grew dimmer, the air heavier. Every step seemed to carry them further into a realm untouched by the sun, a place where even time felt uncertain.

As they walked, Lamphrey’s voice cut through the gloom. "Sentinel is not far now. It lies on the coast, dominated by its great lighthouse. The port there will allow us passage across the ocean, provided we secure a ship."

"That’s assuming they don’t try to kill us first," Tara muttered. "Humans aren’t exactly fond of hybrids, last I checked."

"She’s not wrong," Ethan said.

"We may simply have to adapt," Lamphrey said simply.

Ethan sighed, glancing at the ominous trees around them. "Right. Let’s just hope we don’t have to fight our way to a boat. I’ve had enough of forests for a lifetime."

The group pressed on, the foreboding atmosphere of the Triant forest closing in around them. The path grew narrower, the trees more twisted, and the shadows seemed to stretch and reach for them. Every step felt heavier, as though the forest itself resisted their passage.

Ethan couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. Not by humans, not by animals, but by something older, something tied to the land itself. It was a feeling that settled deep in his gut, gnawing at the edges of his thoughts.

"Keep your guard up," he said softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

The others nodded, their weapons ready as they continued toward the unknown. Ahead, the river Nelvin glimmered faintly in the growing darkness, a thread of light guiding them through the oppressive woods. Sentinel lay beyond, a beacon of hope on the horizon. But Ethan couldn’t shake the feeling that the forest of Triant held more secrets than it was willing to reveal.

But little did he know it wasn’t the trees they had to fear, but the earth itself.

The ground beneath their feet began to tremble, a faint vibration that quickly grew into a deep, resonant rumble. Ethan froze mid-step, his tail flicking in alarm as he glanced at his companions.

"Uh, please tell me someone else felt that," Tara said, her ears flattening against her head as she looked around nervously.

"It’s not just you," Klax growled, his hackles rising. His claws dug into the dirt as the trembling intensified. "Stay sharp."

Fauna clutched her staff tightly, her breathing quickening. "What’s happening? Is it an earthquake?"

Before anyone could answer, the ground beneath them cracked open with a deafening roar. Chasms split the earth, gaping like jagged mouths. Ethan leaped back, his Salamandrike form skittering to safety just as a section of the path collapsed into a dark abyss.

"What the hell?!" Ethan shouted, his voice echoing over the rumbling chaos.

Lamphrey hissed in alarm, her serpentine eyes darting toward the fissures. "This is no natural tremor. Something…is coming."

As if to confirm her words, dark tendrils of earth and root began to emerge from the cracks. They writhed and twisted like living things, reaching for the group with an unnatural hunger. The tendrils gleamed with an oily sheen, and the air around them grew thick with the scent of decay.

"Move!" Ethan yelled, darting to the side as one of the tendrils lashed out at him, narrowly missing his leg.

Klax was already in motion, slashing through one of the roots with his claws. The severed tendril writhed on the ground like a dying snake before dissolving into black sludge.

"Stay together!" Fauna shouted, summoning a barrier of shimmering light to block an incoming strike from another tendril. The barrier held for a moment before cracking under the force, forcing her to leap back.

“Klax!” Tara yelped. “Let go of my foot!”

“Tara…that’s not my hand.”

The entire party looked down to see what had just emerged from a crack in the ground – a writhing, bloody hand stitched sewn together from different pieces of gored flesh, nails like pincers stabbing at the Minxit’s feet.

“What the FUCK!” she screamed as she slashed at the thing. But her efforts were in vain. Even as she stabbed at the grasping appendage with all her crazed speed and strength, still the thing held firm, puncturing her leg.

“Move!” Ethan shouted.

The whole forest seemed to gasp as Ethan brought Greybane to bear, slicing clean through the corpse-claw and burning its dead flesh to cinders. It fell away as an ashen cloud, its dusty remains crumbling as its arm retreated back into the black void beneath the party’s feet.

And then a dull, deathly growl emanated from the pit:

“Archon…Archon…Archon…”

Ethan looked down.

And he saw the glinting rows of eyes that were gazing up at him from the dark depths of the earth.

It wasn’t the forest that was attacking them.

It was something far worse.