Following behind the humans with the forest god, I began to understand the severity of the problems at hand. This forest god is too noble. It doesn’t seem to mind martyring itself in providing for a group of humans who, for the most part, despise its mere existence. Why is it doing this? I wonder who is in second command here. There has to be someone the forest god communicates with. The biggest immediate problem that I can see is not being able to communicate with the creature. It seems to understand my words, but I have no idea what it is thinking or doing. I can only vaguely guess its intentions through its actions. I really hope that their is someone who understands the creature, or I might be going up a creek without a paddle. For now, I will just follow behind, and see what it does. Maybe I can think of a new idea. Following the group of humans, they seem to break off almost immediately once they enter the forest and walk towards the group of cultists kneeling and worshiping at the effigy of Ishar.
Taking a closer look at the effigy, I felt a cold spot shoot up my spine as I noticed what exactly was encased in the tempered glass. Inside the glass mural was a scene depicting the death of the forest god. It was depicted as a group of humans cutting the beast open by her stomach and pulling out what appeared to be smaller versions of the Christian and Muslim gods. This is not good. Looking at the group, it is obvious what I am looking at, but the group is making no attempt to hide or do anything while I am looking at concrete evidence that they are attempting to kill their savior. Looking at the group that arguably should have already been killed, I couldn’t hold myself back from asking the older man in the front, “Why are you trying to destroy the only entity that has helped your group in this world? Do you not realize that if you were in any other being's territory, you would have already been killed? This isn’t even my territory, but even I am even struggling not to kill you all here for the sake of the forest god.”
Looking up at me in fear and anger, the old man almost collapsed as he held desperately to his cane, praying for strength to not waver. Standing with his eyes closed for a few moments, the old man opened his eyes, regrouped and focused, and began to speak. “Terrible demon! Do not attempt to lead us astray with your devilish words and mischievous tongue. We have already discerned your evil plans, and we will not let you succeed! We know that at the end of days, a mighty and terrible being comes from the sea to destroy us. Be gone, Leviathan! Leave God's children unmolested and leave, for we are his chosen! You came to stop us from rescuing our savior from the belly of the beast! That is why, neither it, nor you, can touch or destroy us! Hahahaha!” Having used up most of his strength, the old man turned bright red and was sweating profusely. After thinking for a moment, I finally put the pieces together in my mind. “Oh, ok, you think that this is the end of the world according to the Christian Bible?" Almost immediately, I heard another older man in a smaller group of humans with the women wearing punjabs, covering their entire bodies and faces, while speaking in Arabic. They seemed to be screaming at me about Jinn.
Seeing the two sets of people, I thought I understood the underlying psyche of what was happening with the people here. However, there were still a few other groups that were not participating in the previous fighting, and had just come out from under the houses; some had even hid deep in the forests in caves and pits that they had dug. Many of these people were very young, their leaders barely being 18 or younger. These groups did not seem to have the crazed religious fervor in their eyes that other groups did, and they only seemed to have fear and despair while watching the world through a thousand-yard stare. Though once they came to the surface and saw the majority of the area still alive and in decent shape, they seemed relieved and looked much less miserable. While I was examining the younger humans in the forest, I noticed that the vegetation in this forest was abnormal. For instance, I noticed a few apple trees close to the town, where the humans were would eat them in their passing, but more people were eating from the tree than the tree had original apples. Watching the tree in front of me, I noticed the tree's roots produced a soft type of light that I had seen coming from the forest god. I don’t think the people here can see the light though. The light began at the forest god, and he passes it to the root system of the forest. From there, it is drawn to the apple tree, supplementing the humans over consumption of the apples. I don’t know if it is doing it on purpose, or if it is like a program where the forest needs to be in a constant balance. Maybe if I can figure out a way to tip the balance, I could force the god to fight back for itself. Though, if it doesn’t fight back when its destruction is apparent, then I do not know what would trigger its defense.
Walking through the forest, I can feel the threads of magic flowing everywhere underneath me. If I could figure out how it uses its magic this well, I’m sure my strength would rise considerably. I could use the roots like my ligaments, and the trees like my muscles, allowing for much higher tensile strength. Walking through the forest, I am able to find an assortment of wild animals. This is the first time that I have seen this many animals on earth since coming here. Just this, is a minor miracle in, and of itself. Walking farther into the heart of the medium-sized forest, I began to hear the beating of a lone drum. Following the drum farther into the wilderness, I came across a horrifically deformed man, wearing a shaman’s headdress and smoking a long tobacco pipe, while he was playing on his drum. He sat, playing with the drum outside of a traditional tepee, while he stared into the fire. The man looked young, and old, at the same time, and had a massive hump on his back, with a big and strong right arm, and a weak and shriveled left. He was exceptionally disfigured, with a stunted left leg and a missing left eye. The remaining eye that he had appeared pale and white. It was unknown how much he could even see with the remaining eye. Standing in silence while I looked at the man, he held his pipe out and asked in a calm voice, Have you come to join me, Spirit?
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In surprise, I decided not to be rude and went to sit down next to the strange man. Sitting down, the man passed me his pipe, to which I accepted, weary of being rude. Puffing on the tiny pipe, I could still somewhat taste the tobacco, though I fear I emptied the poor man’s bowl. In my attempt at hospitality, I reached into my pouch, took out two barrels of beer, and placed the man’s beer next to him. Feeling the weight of the barrel hitting the floor next to him, I think he realized my size, as he began to laugh, as I opened his barrel for him. Sitting next to eachother, we drank. For some reason, I felt like I had known the stranger my whole life. It was not awkward, and there was no forced dialogue between us. After sitting for a while, I finally asked the man who he was and why he was here, and he responded by telling me he has lived here his entire life, though the forest used to be much larger and it never used to stay in one spot for very long. When I asked for him to clarify, he did a strange thing and took a walnut that he had on him, cracked it in his hands, and pulled the two halves apart. Looking at me, he said nothing else as we drank, deepening my confusion.
After questioning his actions for a moment longer, I finally pushed those thoughts aside and asked why he was not with the other humans. He responded, “I have everything that I cherish in this world with me at this very moment.” Looking at the malformed man in front of me, I could not help but feel that he was the wisest and best-formed human being that I had ever seen. We continued to talk for a few more hours, and I promised to come back and visit, and he promised he would find a bigger pipe for me, so I left. I did not return to the human camp, though, as I kept searching the area, going further towards the opposite border that I came in from. As I went farther to the border, the trees and vegetation began to thin out, and I saw fewer and fewer animals. On this border, I ran into a small group of humans trying to make a life in a corroded and blown-out old van on the side of the border. They put down dead branches and even attempted to bury their sleeping quarters to not let others notice their presence. I was curious why they weren’t trying to stay inside the forest, as that is where the food and water were. Thinking for a moment, I slipped on the ring that was given to me by Athena and thought of an average human male. BZZZT! The ring quickly changed my appearance and perspective to that of an adult male, 30 years old, with a big bushy beard and a thick head of hair. I appeared to be bulky and chose to wear a toga, remembering how flattering it made my part, “Father." I also had the ring, a pair of sandals, and carried a big bag of food and a few cases of beer. I’m glad Kristina put a bunch of random human junk in my pouch, as I can now use them as meeting gifts.
Walking towards the small family’s van, I was spotted by the young son and daughter, who immediately began to scream and yell, Skinners! Skinners! DAD Help, the Skinners are back! I could hear the man rushing back from what I assumed was his well or garden. However, even before he made it to me, I put my hands up and shouted towards the family. I am not a "skinner," and I mean your group no harm. I was simply passing by the area and noticed your group. I was hoping you might be able to tell me about the area. Finally making it to the van and seeing me with my arms up and holding no weapon, he began to partially relax. However, he still did not seem to like outsiders and liked taking risks even less. This was when I pulled out my secret weapon and told him that I had bartered with a group not long ago and had procured a good amount of food and even a case of beer. If he and his family would be so indulgent and let me know the area, I would be happy to share this with his family. I sealed the deal by mentioning that the canned food I procured also had meat in it. Seeing the family’s eyes light up at the sound of meat, I knew that they had come around.
The man’s name was Terry, and his wife’s name was Janet. The two kids were not theirs biologically, but they had found them alone and starving together in some small city and had taken them in. Their parents had either died or abandoned them. They were too young to know what was going on and only remember their parents asking them to wait for them before they heard an explosion. They waited at the spot for almost a week, until they were found by Janet. They explained that they had moved to the forest long ago, before the wars and deaths, and that their entire family used to live inside the old village in the forest. Terry explained the circumstances leading to everything with a sad look in his eyes. "That whole town used to be like a paradise, until the children disappeared." "The disappearances were always preceeded by bizarre weather patterns and crop circles, and they always happened on the full moon." "Every full moon, another young boy or girl would go missing." "We tried everything, from calling in the feds to putting up surveillance cameras in every inch of the town." "We spent a fortune on new police drones that flew around and looked for anything, but nothing worked." "We pumped everything into the police force to hire new people, and follow up on every lead from the disappearances, but they all just ended up going nowhere."
"Panic set in the town, and families began to move out." "Everyone with a family was terrified that they would be next." "We didn’t know it at the time, but we were playing right into their hands." "The panic caused the families to sell cheap, and lead to new people buying out the homes." "It didn't take long to figure out, these were not people you would want as your neighbors." Looking solemnly into his meal, Terry continued his story. "There were more and more reports of people in black hoods and robes prowling the neighborhood's, and it's parks and schools." "They were everywhere." "The more people panicked, the easier it was to let the group grow." "We didn’t know it at the time, but we were being invaded, and they knew exactly what they were doing and what they wanted." "They wanted to steal a god!"