Click. Snap. Click.
Alisson's armor echoed throughout the quiet camp. Him and Celis were the only ones awake apart from a few early birds and the night watchmen. Alisson lifted his gauntleted hand to his face, twisting and clicking it tighter to his hand. Clenching and unclenching his hand, and satisfied with how it was affixed, he did the same with his other gauntlet.
Alisson checked over the entirety of his armor then, looking for any errors he'd made. Reassured that his armor wouldn't fall apart in the middle of a battle, he clipped on his cloak.
It feels nice to wear my cloak again...
He and Celis both had interchangeable cloaks, on the outside were their flashy and normal Sidonian side; but they could easily be flipped around to a duller and less attention-grabbing side in case they needed to.
Alisson, finished with his preparations, leaned down to the case that held Enhérejär. Alisson lifted the light blade out of its fancy case, affixing it to his hip. It's familiar weight endowed Alisson with confidence.
Alisson flashed a glance over at his apprentice. She was only a little bit behind him, slipping her gauntlets on. It amazed him how fast she'd become comfortable putting on and taking off armor. Only days before had she been much slower with the already time-consuming process.
We're probably not going to take off our armor anytime soon heading forward, we'll probably be sleeping in it just because it takes too long to put on and take off. So she'll have to get used to it as a second skin.
Alisson, in his centuries of experience, could slip on and out of most armors with extreme speed; having worn most everything the Sidonian smiths had to offer.
"Alright, say goodbye, because these Sidonians are the last fratello you'll see for a while."
...
Two steeds strode across a dirt road. The leading horse paused momentarily.
"This is the forest I mentioned yesterday; It's not dangerous if you're not stupid."
The trailing Celis, nodded her head vigorously, even though Alisson wasn't looking.
The two of them had now been on the move for almost two weeks. They were barely even at a fraction of the way up the continent despite their abnormally breakneck pace. They'd been hindered exclusively by the inability to make camp in the wilderness; in human territories, humans owned the land in name only. The real lords, were the monsters and beasts that roamed it.
Thanks to this, multiple detours to human pockets of civilization were needed for the restocking of supplies and rest for the horses.
But unlike other, more normal parties of travelers, Alisson did not fear physical threat in the slightest.
Bandits?
Alisson had no clue of any simple thieves that could match him in combat.
Beasts?
They were fortunate in the south of the continent, the monsters were much more sparse, but more individually stronger on average. Alisson's only real fear from beasts was being swarmed and overrun by them. Being ambushed was unlikely, Alisson was very proud of his instincts; And he was happy to have another pair of eyes and ears at his side.
So, the only real threats were logistical.
"Oh, Celis, extinguish that candlelight spell you have. We don't want any...unwanted...visitors in this forest."
Celis quietly snapped her fingers, a small light by her shoulder vanishing.
"Is it dangerous?"
Alisson's brow furrowed, pondering the question for a moment.
"Not necessarily..."
Alisson had, boldly, decided to take a shortcut in their route. There were two funnels of travel in Jedathari lands at a third the length of the continent:
The Jedathari capital, and a point directly far north of Alisson and Celis. The obstacle was of course the Lagrath river. It could only be crossed at a land bridge in the Jedathari capital which was on the eastern coast of Aleeze. There was also a part of the river that was thin enough to safely cross without the need of a full-blown ship which was in the west of Jedathari lands and very close to Lake Aleeze.
Going through the Jedathari capital was obviously a stupid idea. Even if they got over the security issue, Alisson and his apprentice would have to travel all the way to the eastern coast of Aleeze, a massive squeeze for time.
So, Alisson had formed a more off the grid route. They'd been traveling along the very edge of human civilization for the past two weeks, stopping to rest at small frontier towns. They'd soon pass through a large chunk of uninhabited land, a pseudo-Deadzone within Jedathari land.
It was the forest in front of them.
This was a large chunk of completely untouched land, any normal traveler would simply go around, but Alisson wanted to get north as quickly as possible, so they were going right through it.
This forest had such a dense canopy, that one usually wouldn't be able to tell if it were night or day. The trees here were very unique, they were tall, and had black bark. The under growth was thick with bushes and creeper vines.
That's all Alisson could see from the sunlight that weakly pierced the forest, he could only guess what else lay inside, impossible to be seen by human eyes.
Alisson had been here before. His sister had frequently taken him here for training; just dropping him in the middle of the forest alone that was. Alisson wouldn't exactly refer to this place as his backyard, but outside of Apophria he probably had the most time in this forest than any other Sidonian; despite it's relative closeness to Sidonian territory.
"We're...really going in there?"
Celis asked with a gulp.
"Yes. Now come on, this forest will take more than a full day to traverse, so I hope you don't have a fear of the dark."
Alisson slowly careened his head back at Celis with sharp eyes.
"N-no sir!"
Alisson lightly kicked his horse, and it set off into a trot toward the void of light in front of him.
As the two horses were engulfed by the forest, so was the light that once surrounded them; it simply ceased to exist.
...
This forest...now I realize why it seemed so ominous.
There wasn’t a single bird chirping.
Not a cricket.
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Not even a breeze of air is flowing through here.
I look desperately around, I can only see in a few meter radius…figures and shadows cross the edges of my vision, I know they’re just logs and vines but…
The bright day of the outside has been replaced, by this darkness. The only sounds I can hear, are those of dead leaves crunching under the horse’s hooves. Then, I hear something that makes me physically flinch.
Roars.
Distant, and very deep sounding.
“Is that…dangerous?”
I ask, gulping, my eyes locking on the direction the distant screeches came from.
“Well…whatever made those sounds may not be real…the word ‘who’ is not used very often in this forest, it’s not applicable.”
W-what the hell is that supposed to mean Alisson?!
Well, he’s not paying much mind to it, so, I guess it’s not something worth looking out for.
Despite my reason, my gaze lay locked on the spot where the roars came from.
W-what if…
I turn my gaze backwards.
Nothing.
On all sides of my body, prickling needles of paranoia assault me. Before I know it, I’m stealing glances all around me; crazily wanting to know for sure that nothing would expose itself from the darkness.
Yeah, real brave, Celis...top graduate, and you're scared of the dark. Ugh. I'm not a kid! This place is just so...dead. I can't stop myself from thinking that there's some huge monster just a few inches out of my vision...
…
It’s quiet. Nice and peaceful.
Despite Alisson’s knowledge of this forest and his logical self begging him to be on alert, Alisson was oddly relishing the silence. You didn’t get this amount of pure soundlessness anywhere else.
However, his apprentice, definitely did not look as though she shared his feelings. She kept her head on a swivel, and her eyes were narrow like a cat’s.
He’d seen it time and time again, how people were paranoid of a lack of information and conformation. The few times he’d been in the caverns and tunnels beneath the earth, even his 51st suffered from fear. He’d watched as his beloved teammates had quickly went insane, looking forward and backward in the tunnels, unable to think or act properly, too wrapped up in paranoia.
The thought of Celis’s face, terror stricken and crazed, flitted across his mind.
A rock fell in Alisson’s stomach.
“Celis. There’s nothing there. Calm yourself.”
A couple hours had passed in silence since they entered the forest, Celis simply stared at Alisson with wide eyes. After a moment of silence, her eyes slowly peeled away from Alisson, turning to the corner of her vision.
Alisson quietly sighed.
If only Alisson were more social, this place wouldn’t be so silent and overbearing for his apprentice. Alisson silently cursed at his own ineptitude.
“W-well you know Celis…”
Alisson attempted to strike up some talk; perhaps it’d take his apprentice’s mind off of this place.
“My older sister took me for training when I was her apprentice...”
“Were you scared?”
Celis replied instantly, leaping to converse.
“Well…of course I was. I mean, I didn’t even move the first time my sister abandoned me in the middle of this place. I was just curled up in a ball, alone...”
“That sounds horrible!”
Alisson jumped. Celis hadn’t ever been that loud before, and especially was she loud in a place like this.
There was something else however, something alien about the speech that reached his ears…he hadn’t ever heard that kind of concern directed at him before. This feeling, this external care, it dragged on him. It made him feel uncomfortable.
So he attempted to push it away.
“Ha, pathetic isn’t it? The apprentice of Serendipity, getting scared by the dark,-“
“N-not at all! I-! I’m…I’m scared here too.”
Alisson jumped again. More of that foreign feeling assaulted him. Someone…sharing in his experience?
“You don’t look or sound scared at all! That’s amazing!”
Alisson yelped.
His breathing quickened.
W-what the hell? A compliment?
That feeling heated his body, he felt as though he were going dizzy.
Alisson shook his head. A river of cooling logic and thought flooded into him.
Celis is only…she’s only scared, that’s why she’s talking like that…y-yeah, that’s all it is. I can’t believe I got so worked up over a third-party emotion.
Alisson’s horse slowed and came side by side with Celis. Alisson silently leaned over and gave Celis a light karate chop to the top of her head.
Celis’s body exploded. Almost falling off of the horse, she scrambled to stay atop it. She clutched the top of her head, as if Alisson’s chop had hurt.
“W-w-what did I do…?”
Celis mumbled as Alisson took the lead once more.
“Please don’t let fear drive you, especially on something so frivolous as conversing.”
Alisson said perhaps a little too sharply. Alisson felt guilty for being harsh but, if he didn’t steel his apprentice to fear early, he’d have a coward on his hands.
Celis, did not reply.
Silence followed.
Few thoughts followed his interaction with Celis. The only thing that he thought about was the weird feeling that Celis’s words had incited in him. Just what the hell was that feeling? Alisson needed to eliminate whatever that was, if it happened in a battle, he wouldn’t be able to think straight.
Minutes passed. As minutes were about to turn to hours however, the silence between Alisson and Celis was interrupted, with a light from behind him
Alisson knew instantly where the light had came from. His apprentice had just cast a candlelight spell, in complete violation of his orders. This, combined with her earlier outburst, Alisson’s anger flared.
“Celis! What the hell are you think-!?”
He turned, angrily at his apprentice. However, at the sight before him, all of Alisson’s emotion drained out of his face.
The candlelight spell that was cast, had illuminated a creature.
The creature was so big the light of the spell did not fully light it up. From the spell’s light, Alisson could only see numerous, thin and white sickly legs, piercing the ground. Atop the visible array of dozens of appendages, was a cylindrical dome. The entire thing was sickly and sleekly white like other monsters, it didn’t seem to have any visible eyes.
Like a statue Celis turned at Alisson, eyes wide.
“Alisson…”
She said slowly, as if she we’re begging for him to tell her that the massive thing, standing only feet behind her, wasn’t real. At the sight of her pleading face, Alisson’s mind clicked robotically; he pushed his fear, his doubt and his hesitation out of his head as his training overtook him.
“Scatter!”
Celis, just like Alisson, robotically flicked away her emotions as her body prepared to do the only thing it need to do to survive: Follow orders.
She leapt off her horse, Alisson did the same, the darkness re-enveloping him as he jumped out of the range of the candlelight spell. The horses sped away. The abomination of appendages crashed down upon the spot where Alisson and Celis were only a heartbeat before with a thunderous screech.
Alisson raised his hand and cast half a dozen candlelight spells. He swiped his arm, the balls of light shooting out and illuminating the area. On instinct, he drew his rapier, and sunk into his stance.
Though upon seeing the scale of the creature before him, he instantly despaired.
If Alisson were to guess, the spiderlike creature in front of him had to be at least 15 meters tall, though it was much wider thanks to all of it’s legs; numbering in the hundreds. Something of this scale, Alisson couldn’t hope to quickly defeat. He was an anti-personal expert, a simple weapon used by Sidonia to kill humans. He was no human adventurer, taking down house sized creatures for a career. Sure, his weapon was sharp and could kill, but it was too small. He could stab that thing all day he’d barley be able to take out a fatal enough chunk to wound it.
They needed to flee.
Alisson laughed at himself. He ditched the horses thinking he’d be able to kill this thing only to change his mind right away.
Tch! This isn’t the time to beat myself up! Where is Celis!?
Thanks to his light spells he’d cast, he spotted her instantly.
Alright. I put down as much power as I can and try to make an escape in the confusion.
He started running toward Celis, in as large an arc away from the creature as he could. He lifted his blade, Enhérejär, toward it.
He launched off a dozen or so Pictun spells. They crashed in the creature, and although some of the legs were severed or recoiled, the mass itself did not budge an inch.
He was about to call out to Celis to order her to unload some spells into it herself, but it seemed like she’d taken the initiative.
“Pict!”
A massive stream of yellow bolts flurried from Celis, crashing into the creature. He slid to a stop next to Celis, staring in awe at the amount of firepower she’d just put down.
Wow…that had to be more than a few dozen spells…so she really does have a massive mana pool like a human huh? It’s a shame she can only use such a weak spell.
They stood silently as the dust and dirt settled from Celis’s barrage.
The creature, was unharmed. It was bleeding in some places, but overall, it seemed to have just gotten a few mosquito bites.
Celis gasped and lifted her hands for another barrage. Though Alisson raised his arm in front of her.
“We need to run. Come on!”
He turned away from the creature and toward the darkness, slightly tapping Celis on the shoulder. He and Celis broke into a run. Within seconds, the light of Alisson’s candlelight spells faded, and they were once again surrounded by the dark.
Crashing followed them. Hundreds of explosions rang in Alisson’s ears as the house like creature pursued them.
…
Alisson wasn’t tired in the slightest from the nearly quarter hour chase, the only thing that coursed though his body was fear of being caught; and adrenaline of course.
But it seemed, that’d they’d successfully escaped.
The thundering footsteps had faded, and silence befell the pair. Alisson and Celis sat on the grassy floor, catching their breaths.
They were now stuck within this forest, horseless.
“W-what…” Celis exhaled, “…do we…do now?”
Alisson blinked, the difference between having his eyes shut and open being nonexistent.
“We have to wait. Our horses will return to us. For now, let’s get a fire going. It’s risky, but, I think it’s worth showing the whole forest where we are if our horses can find us.”
“Sounds…sounds good.”
Celis replied after breathing for a moment.
***