The trees shouldn’t have been moving.

But they were.

I watched, frozen, as the gnarled branches twisted and curled like fingers clawing at the sky. The bark shimmered faintly, like the surface of water catching the light, and the leaves pulsed with a strange, rhythmic glow.

“This place… isn’t right,” I muttered. My voice sounded small, swallowed by the vastness of the forest.

Kiera didn’t stop walking. She moved ahead of me with quick, confident steps, her sword drawn and held low at her side.

“It’s Aetherion,” she said over her shoulder. “Nothing here is ‘right.’”

The ground beneath my feet was slick and uneven, shifting slightly with each step. It felt alive, like it might move out from under me if I let my guard down.

“You said the forest reacts to people,” I said, keeping my voice low. “What does that mean?”

Kiera didn’t answer immediately. She crouched, examining the faint tracks left in the soft dirt—too small for the creatures we’d fought before but still unnatural. Finally, she stood, glancing at me with a faint smirk.

“Exactly what it sounds like. The more we’re here, the more it notices us.”

“That’s… not reassuring.”

“It’s not supposed to be.”

The air around us grew colder as we moved deeper into the forest. The light flickered constantly, shifting from bright to dim as though the sun itself couldn’t decide what time it was.

I felt disoriented, my head spinning with each step. There was no wind, no sound except for the crunch of our footsteps, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched.

The trees weren’t just moving—they were growing. I watched in stunned silence as a sapling at the edge of my vision sprouted from the ground, its branches stretching skyward. Within seconds, it withered, its bark cracking and falling away, leaving behind only a pile of ash.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Did you see that?” I asked, my voice tight.

Kiera stopped, glancing back at me. “See what?”

“The tree—it just… grew and died. Right in front of me.”

She shrugged, turning back toward the path. “It happens. Get used to it.”

Her casual tone made me bristle, but I didn’t argue. The longer we were here, the more certain I became that this place wasn’t just dangerous—it was wrong.

“Close,” Kiera said as we approached a clearing. “And don’t touch anything you don’t have to.”

I nodded, gripping the shard of glass tighter in my hand. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was all I had.

The clearing was bathed in an eerie light, its center dominated by a massive, gnarled tree. Its roots spread out like veins across the ground, and its bark was covered in strange carvings—symbols that seemed to shift and shimmer when I looked at them.

“What is this place?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Old magic,” Kiera said simply. “You’ll find a lot of it in Aetherion. No one knows where it came from—or why it’s here.”

I stepped closer to the tree, drawn to the glow of the symbols. The air around it felt thick, heavy, like something was pressing down on my chest.

“Don’t.”

Kiera’s voice was sharp, cutting through my trance. I stopped, turning to find her watching me with a cold, unreadable expression.

“It’s not your business,” she said. “Let’s keep moving.”

I hesitated, glancing back at the tree. The carvings seemed to pulse faintly, as though they were alive.

Something about them felt… familiar.

“Hey.”

Kiera’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. She was already several paces ahead, waiting at the edge of the clearing.

“Right,” I said, shaking my head and hurrying to catch up.

As we left the clearing behind, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’d left something important behind—something I was supposed to understand.

The whispers started not long after that.

Faint at first, barely more than the rustling of leaves, but growing louder with each step. They didn’t form words, but I could feel their meaning pressing against the edges of my mind, like an itch I couldn’t scratch.

Kiera didn’t seem to notice. She kept her eyes on the path ahead, her sword glinting faintly in the shifting light.

But I noticed. And the more I heard, the harder it was to ignore.

“Do you hear that?” I asked finally.

“Hear what?”

“The… the whispers. They’re everywhere.”

She glanced at me, her brow furrowed. “No. And if you keep talking, you’ll attract something that *does* hear you.”

I fell silent, but the voice didn’t stop. If anything, they grew louder, the sound twisting and overlapping until I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

I clenched my fists, forcing myself to focus on the path ahead.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that the forest wasn’t just watching us.

It was waiting.