A mephitic smell filled the teenagers’s noses as they entered the vegetal depth. The forest floor was a cemetery of rotting leaves and herbs. The green fragrances of bushes, flowers, and mushrooms spiced the heavy air. Each breath was a wave of chlorophyll.
Primitive trees surrounded them in every direction. Their colossal trunk reached for the green sea overlooking them. Their roots and branches constructed bridges and pathways where a man could have walked. Their bodies were adorned by chiselled crackles engraved by nature herself.
The two adventurers started exploring with timid steps. The vegetal labyrinth could hide anything, and Nikolai wanted to take every precaution possible. He opened his ears, listening to every sound, and was ready to react at the first sign of danger.
Eïrin was a bit less attentive. The young woman was left dazed by the beauty of the never-touched forest.
Passing by a large root, she jumped on it and started walking past an arch of branches. She reappeared walking on a long promenade hanging above the undergrowth.
The ink-haired girl saw herself like the elf in the old legends of her people. She felt right at home in the middle of the forest, and her last fears started to faint, replaced by the unconditional wonder.
Nikolai followed behind her. The overhead road was more accessible than the soil as a cacophony of bushes and roots blocked the pass. The trees had built a natural highway through the forest, and the new adventure abused it to venture further, trying to quell an ever-growing curiosity.
The many twisted oaks, as Eïrin named them, were not the only inhabitants of the woods. Fir trees covered with bright green needles could be seen here and there. The two teenagers kept away, warry of their venomous colour.
A few steps later, they spotted a first sign of life. A large scarab was venturing among the herbs, ignoring the two teenagers. His body was bright as a fire, and Nikolai could feel the heat when it spread his wings before flying away.
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They exchanged a glance and ran after the coleopter, stopping in their track when both heard a sound impossible to ignore. The low humming of water rolling over rocks, a melody to the thirty.
A smile going from one ear to the other, Eïrin crouched next to their discovery and watched her reflection in the clear water. A twenty-centimetres wide stream was sliding sluggishly on a rocky bed. The water was so clear they could see the bottom.
A concerto of birds surrounded the water, hundreds of them. They sang symphony for the two teenagers, welcoming them into the world. They had found a small shard of paradise.
“Are those plants in the water nenuphar?” asked Eïrin. “Why are they so long? I thought they were round…”
“Maybe the current reshaped them…” offered Nikolai, unconvinced by his idea.
The ink-haired girl glanced at the ferric landscape circularly before returning to the boy. She rubbed her hand on her knee and stood up.
“You know Nikolai… since I woke up… I feel like I’m in a fairy tale. This place it’s like…”
“We are in another world.”
He allowed the word to sink in his comrade and lowered himself to touch the water. It felt like he was at home, and, curling his hand, he took a bit of the divine liquid toward his mouth.
He had not even made half the distance before Eïrin smashed his hand.
“What are you doing?” yelled the girl, her forehead furrowed.
Nikolai gazed at her before rising.
“I was drinking, can’t you see?”
“Like that? You don’t even know if the water is safe. We need to boil it first!”
His face went blank as he had not even thought about this. Survival had never been a skill he was interested in, but the girl’s advice was wise.
“You are right. But we still need to drink.”
“Yes, but…”
Eïrin never finished her sentence. She froze as if she had seen the Medusa. The bird had gone mute, and silence had made his presence clear. A creeping dread slithered in both stomachs as on the other side of the water appeared what they first believed to be a wolf.
In both size and shape, they were similar. But a single glance was enough to know the difference. His face had nothing of a canine. His flat muzzle had two small breathing openings, and his eyes were human. The worst was his mouth. The cavernous opening was edged with a hundred daggers dripping with carmine blood.
The creature’s eyes met with Nikolai’s. A hyena-like laughter rolled out of the beast’s throat. Nikolai’s bone froze, and only one idea remained in his mind:
Run.
He needed to run.