Leena Torthyra sat comfortably in her well-carved wooden chair with her left elbow on an oak desk with identical carvings, the desk filled with scrolls and papers stacked neatly. The desk was in the middle of a somewhat spacious room, with a fireplace lit and occasionally crackling on the wall to her left, stacks of books decorated the wall to her right. She focused on the paper in her hand, studying its contents with high concentration. She barely noticed the strands of her golden hair fall, tickling her rosy cheeks.
The door in front of her desk knocked several times, forcing her long pointy ears to twitch as it broke her focus before she laid back on the chair with her gaze still on the piece of paper. "come in" with a soft yet imposing voice she demanded. Moments passed before the door opened and a man covered in leather armor from shoulder to toe, long straight black hair almost reaching the end of his back, and charming face women will drool at the sight of it.
He saluted, sticking his legs together in a straight manner, and raised his fist to his chest while the other hand remained straight, aiming to the floor and waited. Leena took a glimpse towards him before resuming her reading. "Folen, I have told you many times that you don't have to keep doing that when we are alone" Folen kept his silence and remained in that position with his gaze in front of him, which caused Leena to sigh before casting the piece of paper aside. "so what is it?"
"a high magical pulse was detected this morning from the west south of our post in Wispwood forest." as she listened, her eyebrows narrowed, "that was fast, I don't recall any troop being posted near Wispwood, and could you relax? you're making ME nervous." Folen stood more naturally as he continued, "er... no one was posted near that location" the confusion on Leena's face became apparent "then who noticed the pulse?" as soon as she finished her question, Folen answered, "our post did."
Leena's body tensed as she heard his reply, and her eyes shot towards Folen "what do you mean our post? This is impossible. Even on a horse's fastest pace, it would take half a day to reach Wispwood from our position?" she said in disbelief. Doing her best not to lose her composure, she issued, "Take a squad and investigate the source immediately, report to me as soon as you return." Folen saluted again before leaving the room in a hurry and closing the door. One hour later, when the sun was highest, led by Folen, a squad of fourteen armed soldiers and fourteen horses rode west aiming for the forest of Wispwood.
After resting a couple of times and a somewhat fast pace, the journey took Folen and his squad a whole day before they reached the edge of Wispwood forest in the morning. Felon noticed his troop was fatigued from the long road as he commanded, "we will rest here before going any further into the woods."
As the party rests, one of the soldiers approaches Folen sitting next to him. He lies on a tree looking at the woods with weary expecting eyes offering him a waterskin, which Folen happily took. "Thank you, Nuvian. How is the rest?" Nuvian with his rough featured face gout-t. Pluck a piece of grass from the ground rolling it between his pale fingers as he replied, "they're tired, but it's nothing they can't handle," Folen nodded. A moment of silence went by before Nuvian looked at him and said, "so when are you going to ask Leena on a date? You know I'm betting on you." as Folen heard these words, his face turns red, "shut up!".
Folen is kind-hearted, sometimes even for his own good. He and Leena knew each other since they were children. The only reason he joined the military forces was to stay close to her. Everyone in their post knows... well, everyone but Leena. she does have a soft spot for Folen, but she always considered him a brother and a friend.
Nuvian laughed as he teased Felon, who turned away, trying to hide his face as it looked as red as a tomato, when suddenly screams and roars echoed from inside the forest, forcing all the troops on their feet with firm grips on their weapons. Folen's hand raises, signaling everyone that it was time to move. Within seconds every soldier has left his horse at the edge of the forest as they follow Folen deeper in.
As their steps go further in, a horrible odor starts creeping on them. This stench wasn't foreign to any of the soldiers as they know it all too well. It was the smell of blood and death. The closer they got, the stronger it became, so much it filled the air, it became unbearable and nauseating. "could it be demons?" Nuvian whispers low enough only for Felon to hear. "either way, we need to be sure before heading back to report, let's go further," he answers with a grave expression on his face.
The thick leaves make it hard for the light to reach, making the atmosphere dark and intimidating. As Folen's feet reach further, they stumble on something unfamiliar, squishy, and moist. As his eyes shot down, he discovers it to be an eyeball. Surprisingly he remains calm, pointing to it as he looks at Nuvian, who signals everyone to be on high alert.
But as if this wasn't enough to put them on their toes, more pieces emerged with every approach. Limbs and insides scattering on the grass, tainting it with blood. At first, they had their doubts, but now it is certain. It was not just a body or two. They must have seen about a dozen at this point, and they just keep coming, "what kind of beast can kill so many? And what's more, they seem somewhat fresh", to their amazement, the dismantled corpses turned into small piles. And the surprise was that in the middle of all this massacre, a figure stood between the corpses. This character didn't seem that huge in monstrous. In fact, it didn't even look anything like a fearsome beast, and it was more of a humanoid figure.
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Folen observed it, although it was holding an ax and a sword. He couldn't make out if it were an old man or a youngster from the way it hunched forward, almost as if it is about to fall on its face from a simple breeze. What terrified them all was that the figure is covered from head to toe in blood "-did he do all this ?-".
The soldiers slowly surrounded what seemed to be the culprit of this massacre, and one of them steps closer. As the soldier got closer with the sword at hand,"-these corpses are all goblins, why would they...!!!-" Folen had a bad feeling. Sending charges of ice down his spine, suddenly grasping what might have happened, he Shouts, "PRIVATE FALL BACK !!!" but that warning came a little late.
The moment the soldier turned his sight at Folen in confusion, he felt a sharp pain in his arm, as he quickly looks back. Half of his arm, along with his sword, flew by him, scraping his cheek, and if it wasn't for Nuvian's quick thinking and parrying the second attack and kicking the boy away, his head would have fallen as well.
The boy rolled in the air, tapping the ground with his ax, and lightly stands on his two feet in the same hunched position. Other than Folen, the rest of the troop pulls their weapon, ready to engage this assailant, "SHEATH YOUR WEAPONS !!" The one who spoke was Felon. "but commander he attacked us..." a soldier holding his rapier spoke but was firmly interrupted. "THAT IS AN ORDER !!!" after hesitating briefly, Nuvian sheathed his sword, and the other followed.
"Someone tends to his wound. "Folen points to the injured soldier before shifting his attention to Nuvian, "Nuvian, what do you see?" not sure what Folen is getting at, he complies, looking around then he answers "dead bodies and corpses," "of what?" Folen asks a question that intrigued even the others. As Nuvian looked around again, his eyes widened, "goblins, but what does that matter?"
Folen moves forward towards the young boy covered in blood " goblins are bandits, and they rely heavily on numbers to overwhelm their victims..." as he approaches the kid more, Folen lifts his arms, showing his palms.
" This boy you see here is one of these victims. It could be that they killed the group he was with, and by the sheer force will to live, he managed to survive this long..." Folen is now standing face to face with the Crimson statue, and he was still not harmed nor attacked.
"I guess, as a way of defending himself, he only reacts to armed individuals but ignores everything else..." Folen slowly wraps his arms around him, and once he did the boy collapses, throwing his weight at Folen. "This boy was unconscious the whole time."
He moved back to the soldiers as he carries the unconscious, bloody ragdoll." search for any other survivors or anything suspicious. If nothing occurs, we will return to the post".
As he took the boy looking at him, he noticed two things about the boy. The first is that he was human, and the second was a tattoo on his chest. Foreign letters form two fist-sized circles inside each other, and similar letters form an infinity symbol inside the inner circles. After hours of searching other than the piles of goblin corpses, nothing else was found, and the squad headed back to the post, which took them another day.
As the troop reached the camp, their exhaustion was apparent on them. Folen made his way to Leena, who was standing at the gates to meet them, as she got word of the troop's approach. She noticed the soldier with the lost arm as Folen ordered the others to take in the healing chamber. He saluted her as usual then followed her to her office, "trouble?" she said as she leaned on the desk facing Folen, who replied "an incident" quickly, she cast that subject aside with another question. "so what's the report?". Folen explained what they encountered as they ventured into Wispwood forest, and Leena listened with close attention to every word he said till she heard the word human.
"put him in the dungeon and interrogate him till we know how he infiltrated elven territory" Folen knows Leena despised humans, so he wasn't surprised by her response, "he's just a young boy not older than 20 years old. He can't be a spy" still aiming to change her opinion.
"We can't be sure till he tells us everything he knows" Leena was not going to be persuaded easily, "then I'll take full responsibility for the boy," Folen responded.
Leena gazed at him momentarily before replying, "Fine, but you will keep an eye on him at all times, and he stays in the upper cells" overjoyed with her answer, Folen salutes as he turns to leave.
"And Folen, if I deemed him dangerous in any way, shape, or form, he will be put down immediately" Leena's words did not have a hint of jest in them, but the exact opposite "understood."