“Holy shite…Did that tree just…move?”

- Orion Cadet (Moments before death)

“We need to move,” Asuriz stated after nearly an hour of our cramped silence. He hummed a strange note, his voice clear and surprisingly confident. The blue tiefling rose to his feet as he sang the layered tone. The bush recoiled around him, and he exited with ease. We all watched, squatting and dumbfounded, as our impromptu guide disappeared before us. A second later, the tall cadet grunted something in his native tongue then called out to us.

“It’s clear, if you’re wondering. And just do an overtone to get out.” We heard his footsteps recede from the giant bush.

“Overtones?” I asked, his explanation unhelpful in the extreme.

“It’s safe? Thank Zadalk!” Lysandra squealed. She adjusted her glasses and hummed loudly, but her voice didn’t contain that eerie duality Azuris’ had. She walked straight into the iron bars of our fibrous cage and yelped in pain as a limb scratched her chin and spectacles.

“Overtones!” Azuris yelled out to us as if that was all the clarification we needed. “Don’t you redbloods know how to—nevermind. Coming in.” A moment later, Azuris rejoined us as he was deposited into our midst. He shook his head in silent disappointment, then did the strange hum he’d used a moment before. This time, we all followed tightly behind him, all decorum gone as none of us wanted to be left behind a second time.

The sight of Jarl’s body was as abrupt as it was brutal. Frost coated the wound where Gavin’s sword gouged out his innards. The blank look of shock that lingered in the dead man’s gaze reminded me of just who we were up against.

“Gavin did this,” I intoned somberly. Lysandra nodded her head, but Azuris tilted his head at me. “The guy I beat in the circle a while back.”

“He was the one our dear old James had to amputate to save the rest of his hand,” Lysandra explained further, and Azuris nodded his head once. It was curt, but not rude somehow. It was like he genuinely didn’t know how to be polite. That, or he just didn’t care for our feelings. I went with the latter.

“We need to head deeper,” Azuris said, changing the subject.

“Wait, what? Isn’t that dangerous?” Lysandra asked, suddenly alert to her surroundings as she swiveled about. We all stared at her blankly. “Right. We’re on a hunt. In the Wilds. Got it.” I swallowed my chuckle, but the others didn’t manage to the same level of decorum.

“Does anyone have any aspirations of grandeur, or can we just focus on surviving and getting our kills as quickly as possible?” Azuris inquired of the team, his eyes locked on the tree line around our small clearing. His pointed ears twitched and his gaze never seemed to remain on any one thing for more than a heartbeat.

“Wait, since when did you become leader?” I planted my hands against my hips and waited for Azuris’ reply. He slowly stood from where he crouched and turned to me.

“I gathered this team. I gave Gwynneth the rights to the first kill. I promised Elio I would honor his Shadow Lord in combat. What have you given up for them, Vena?” His words were ice, but his glare was what chilled me to the bone. There was a hardness about him that screamed of barely restrained malice.

“They’re my friends,” I tried, but knew it was futile the moment I said it.

“This is my wilderness, girl.” He walked past me, his cloak snagging slightly on the lip of my pack. He yanked it free with a violent tug and pushed through the foliage. My friends followed him, each giving me their version of a commiserating smile. Lysandra was the last to leave, relacing her boot quickly so that it was more snug against her calves. She mouthed ‘sorry’ and then strode past me to join the others.

“Well, at least I don’t have antlers that get stuck in branches,” I muttered in bitter defeat before I trailed behind my party. Azuris led us deeper into the forest, careful to avoid various packs of monsters that he said laid claim to these areas. I inquired why we didn’t just take them then and there, but he shut me up with another glare. We encountered several more teams, some of whom fought monsters with vicious efficiency, but we ignored them all as we dove deeper into the woods.

The more hours that passed, the more my nerves grew raw and grated. It wasn’t just the sweat that turned my tunic rank under the humid air of the woods. It wasn’t just the lack of conversation between me and my allies. It was the unspoken threat that loomed over us. Gavin, and apparently several other teams, were actively seeking us out. And from whatever Prince James had said to those grouped up at the beginning, I knew that the monsters weren’t the only things hunted in these trees.

Azuris knew it too, by the way he pressed us forward. We didn’t stop for another three hours, and only did when Lysandra nearly twisted her ankle in an obscured hole.

“We rest,” Azuris barked before he wandered off like some wraith of the night. I sighed as my pack slammed against the dirt and I withdrew my water flask. We didn’t speak. Errant beams of sunlight pierced the veil of leaves above us and illuminated a cluster of wildflowers. I smirked quietly when I realized they were the same kind Azuris had picked. A pair of Pufflemurs exited the hole that had nearly twisted Lizzy’s ankle and stared up at us, their amber eyes catching the light with prismatic wonder.

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One of them hobbled up to me and began to purr in the hypnotic fashion they were famous for. My mind eased at the sound and contact. I shuffled through my pack until I found a short strip of dried fruit and tossed it to the cute little beast. It jumped for the morsel and missed by over a foot. I laughed and drew the attention of my friends. I pointed as if by explanation, but then realized that if I tried to put it into words, it would lose all of its humor. We rested like that for several more minutes, awaiting the return of our oh-so-noble leader. When he did, I almost wished he hadn’t.

The blue-skinned jerk flew through the air and landed hard against the trunk of a tree right where we lounged. He grunted and tried to rise from his feet, but his clothes were soaking wet.

“What in the—” Lysandra started, but a spear of water cut through the bushes and lanced toward our tiefling. He ducked and rolled, narrowly avoiding the killshot, but unable to miss the shrapnel of bark as the projectile smashed into the tree. A deep moan, near inaudible to my ears, rumbled through the earth.

“RUN!” Azuris yelled at us. Our stupor was removed like a curtain drawn back to banish the darkness with morning’s light. My pack was on my back and I raced to lift Azuris up as we fled.

“Get them!” A man’s voice called out. I glanced back and was greeted with the face of none other than Cassius, the brother of the man I’d nearly rescued those months ago in the arena. Surprise turned to guilt, which burned away into fear as he drew his hand back and hurled another spear of azure liquid toward us with incredible force.

“I will find you, Thea Shade! I swear on my brother’s grave! You will die for what you did, you COWARD!” Cassius bellowed after us. His team was hot on his heels, but my party was faster. We raced through the forest like ghouls escaping their master’s clutches, Azuris taking the lead as he passed each of us, even Elio. Without warning, the tree we’d lounged around ripped its roots up and caught the feet of our pursuers. The wound on its trunk pulsed with greenish light from where Cassius’ spear had destroyed it. They screamed and I slowed as morbid fascination got the better of me. Around the large tree, other plants began to move as well. It was more sluggish than the one attacking our new enemies, but it was undeniable.

The forest was moving.

“We need to go!” Elio called out to me. I nodded but was hesitant to take my sight from the ludicrous situation.

“The trees,” I whispered, and he merely nodded. “You knew?”

“I’ll explain what I know later, my fellow pugilist! Now, we must away! Glory and a good fight awaits us not here, but in our future!” Elio replied with a cheeky smile and a hard tug on the straps of my pack to get me moving.

“The görnaching trees moved, guys,” I repeated, but my pace finally quickened. We flew through the woods until we reached a sizable creek and paused.

“Over this and we enter the second fold,” Azuris explained. I studied where he pointed, and noticed the slightest shimmer of magic that ended on the opposite bank. Several dark forms slunk through the shadows that gathered there. “We need to go. Now.” He began to make his way across the creek, but this time, none of us followed.

“We could skirt around this creek until we lost our pursuers,” Lizzy offered helpfully. “I don’t think we can deal with the rares and above that are in there. Better to find an isolated uncommon or something over here, where we won’t die immediately.”

“I don’t know, my honorable team, the second fold is where the true foes lie. I say we follow our ally there. He knows this terrain far better than we do,” Elio answered, but I could tell even he had his doubts.

“I want to kill more than Bramblekins and Sootsprites,” Gwynneth commented. She had one tomahawk in each hand and looked ready to murder some monsters.

“Can you guarantee us you know what you’re doing?” I demanded of the tiefling from where he balanced between two boulders in the creek’s rapids. He hesitated.

“We don’t have the time to debate this. We cross, none of them will know and we’ll be safe from those racist bastards. Linger, they’ll find and follow us,” Azuris said instead.

“Racist?” I asked with a scoff.

“You think they’re hunting me because I offended them in some fashion, like you? No, they hunt me because of my horns—because of my family and what they think we did.” His answer resounded with bitterness and anger.

“They hunt both of us,” I replied as levelly as I could manage. My friends shifted toward us, and looks of alarm and concern flashed across their faces. “But we should be tactical. If we stay in the first fold, we can get weaker monsters more quickly and then leave this place before the true threats find us and slay us in our sleep.” Gwynneth’s shoulders slumped but she nodded slowly. Azuris groaned and started to make his way back across the creek.

“You cowards,” a man called out from behind us, and we all whirled to find Cassius and three of his teammates nearly upon us. One of his eyes was swollen shut, but the other burned with fury. “You flee when you should fight. I shouldn’t have expected more from the likes of you, though, Thea Shade.” He glared down at me, a shimmering lance of water in his hands. “We protected you, and how did you repay us? You fled. Only that tiefling bastard truly helped in slaying the monster who ate my brother, but that was only because you shoved him into harm’s way, isn’t that right?” Cassius took a threatening step forward. “Isn’t that right?”

“You—protected me?” I asked, and the guilt I felt at seeing his face again redoubled as it fermented in the pit of my stomach. He scoffed and took another step toward us. My fingers itched to conjure my gauntlets, but I knew that would herald war if I did.

“You didn’t even notice? You had nothing but that measly knife on you, and so my brother and I drew the attention of that Azurethorn Kraken. It raced toward you—” He pointed his spear at my face. “And so we stepped in. We called for aid. But did you come to ours? When it proved to be a greater threat than we expected? No. You ran. And when you picked up another’s legacy, you barely tried to help. You are honorless, Thea Shade. And so for my brother’s death, I claim your life as mine. Die now, so that he may rest.”

With his words, he drew a familiar knife from a sheath on his belt.

My father’s old hunting knife.

My knife.