“There`s something in the woods” A long time ago I would have laughed at whoever told me that and then told them " I am the thing in the woods." Because there was no monster or animal in said woods, or any other woods for that matter, that wouldn't run away with its tail between its legs at the mere sight of me or one of my people. At least that´s what every child of our people has been told for untold generations and what I believed wholeheartedly, just like you I bet, at least until I was one faithful day proven wrong.Ah but I can see it in your eyes young one, you think I´m a rambling old crone with nothing better to do than torture you with one of her painfully long and inevitably pointless stories. Well deary you are right about one thing I am an old rambling crone with nothing better to do then bother you with a rather long story, BUT believe me at the end of it you will thank me for sharing my wisdom with you, just like all the other foolhardy youngsters before you have.

So how about it deary will you listen to my story or do you have somewhere to be? No? Well then sit down and grab yourself something to drink youngling for it is grand story time. 

Now this tale takes place a long long long long long time ago. So long ago in fact that back then I was only a child, if you can believe it, and like all children I had a tendency to ignore my parents warning about going to dangerous places. 

Which is why whenever I wanted to practice my sewing skills in peace I usually did that on a tree stump in the middle of a little clearing right next to the one place in a 10 kilometre radius around the quaint little town I called home that my parents had told me to stay away from. 

On that particular day I had made a little red dress for one of the discarded dolls that my father had made. Of course it wasn't anything special, but for a dress made by a child of that age it was pretty good if I do say so myself. Anyways I usually spent one or two hours in that clearing every other day, but on that day I was in that clearing for far longer than that. 

Why do you ask? Simply put, making a dress from scratch, even just for a doll, takes a lot longer than one would think, especially if you are inexperienced. But I´m not gonna bore you with my ramblings about the intricacies of dressmaking. 

Anyways it took me so long in fact that night was quickly approaching and when my parents noticed that I hadn´t returned yet they searched the entire town for me, like any good parents would. However when they couldn't find me in town, they gathered anyone willing to help and then searched the forest around the town with them. Of course they didn`t find me, mostly because the clearing wasn't in the search area. But also because I had covered my tracks well enough that it would need a at least decent hunter to follow my trail and all of those were currently too busy in other parts of the forest to search for me.

Well all except one old retired huntress, who just so happend to be my grandmother, because she had asked herself "If I was a child in its rebellious years that just wants to be alone where would I go." The answer to that question was of course the one place in a 10 kilometre radius around town that nobody ever went to, that also had a nice clearing right next to it and when she walked towards the clearing it of course didn't take her long to discover my tracks. Which led her right to the clearing just when I had finally finished the dress for the doll and once she saw me she did what most people would have done in that situation, she shouted my name. Now I wish that I could tell you that I didn't jump like a spooked jackalope or screamed like a damsel in distress that had just been kidnapped before falling off the tree stump, but sadly I can't. Anyways I of course got back onto my feet as quickly as possible to face whoever had just shouted my name and when I finally did I was honestly surprised to see my grandmother at the edge of the clearing. At Least until I noticed how low the sun already hung in the sky. At which point it became quite clear why she was here and in how much trouble I was. So I hurriedly stuffed all the sewing needles, scissors and pieces of cloth that I had brought with me back into my bag. Once that was done I looked for the doll that I had dropped when I fell off the tree stump, but no matter how hard I looked I couldn't find it anywhere near where I had fallen. Instead I spotted it below a tree just past the border of the reason why nobody besides me ever came to this clearing, a runic stone circle that had just one day appeared out of nowhere without anybody knowing how or why. Which of course lead to a lot of speculation among the residents of my village. Most of these theories reasoned that the only ones that could construct something like this in that short amount of time was either the godmother herself or another deity, while the rest believed that the stone circle was built by either a powerful mage or some noble family a long time ago and the reason why it had appeared so suddenly was because the spell that had hidden it for all this time had simply stopped working. But in the end those were just theories and to this day nobody really knows why the stone circle just appeared one day, but let's just say that people still debate why the circle showed up and what could possibly be inside of it, just like back then. Why do you ask? Well what else is there around here for people to talk about besides that mysterious stone circle that just appeared one day and that even the druids of the godmother know nothing about, or at least that's what they claim. Besides, everybody loves a good mystery. Anyways I had no Idea how the doll had gotten there, but at that moment I didn't really care I just wanted to grab it and then go home, before I got into any more trouble. So I just ran towards the doll as fast as my legs could carry me, but just when I was about to bend down and pick it up my grandmother once more shouted my name. However this time she didn't sound angry instead she sounded scared. Confused, I stood back up and turned around to look at her. Finding her coming towards me as fast as she could while gesturing for me to come to her. However the weird thing was that she wasn't looking at me but at something above me. So somewhat confused at her behavior I simply looked up and then flinched back, because my face was just a few inches away from a branch that I hadn't noticed until then. But when I looked at it again I noticed that it looked alot like a clawed hand and that realization caused a pit to form in my stomach. So I took a step back to get away from the branch, only for it to lunge at me. Which of course startled me quite a bit, causing me to trip over my own feet. But this was a blessing, because it made the claw miss its mark, causing it to hit a barrier that ran along the stone circle instead, giving me enough time to crawl backward fully out of the circle before it could grab my legs. Once outside my grandmother pulled me back onto my feet and then away from the barrier both of us just staring at the claw as it retreated into the forest quickly disappearing from view like it was never there to begin with. We kinda just stood there utterly motionless for a good few minutes waiting for something, you know like a roar, some movement or anything really but nothing ever came. But we knew that it was still there waiting for its chance to strike, because the doll was now sitting directly at the edge of the stone circle tempting me to just grab it and run. But before I could even think about that my grandmother grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the path to the village. I simply followed her, pausing only to grab my bag, but just before we left the clearing I did something that I would regret for the rest of my days I looked back and somehow directly into two eyes, as black as a starless night sky, that stared at me from within the foliage of the forest beyond the stone circle, because they would haunt my dreams for years to come. So needless to say I didn't come back to this clearing for quite a few years, until I was one day dragged back there against my will. This was quite a few years later, just a few months after I had become a tailor and opened my own store, after two nobles came to me to buy a dress for a ball. Minor ones but nobles nonetheless. I of course didn't have any dresses that were fit for nobility, because I obviously only made and fixed clothes for commoners. Besides that I had only made a dress for the wife of a somewhat high-ranking merchant. I of course told them that, at which point the young lady told me that she had seen the dress I had made for said merchant wife at one of the auction balls, the merchant guild held every month and that she wanted one just made from better materials for the upcoming ball. Now I wish I could tell you that I didn't just stand there open-mouthed for a good few seconds, until the young lady snapped her fingers in front of my face bringing me back to reality, but sadly I can't. Anyways once I had recovered I told her that I would love to make a dress for her, but since I didn't have the materials I sadly had to ask her to pay upfront so that I could buy the materials. Silently hoping the young lady would just dismissively wave her hand, before telling me that it was no issue, because this was way too good of a chance to just miss. However, instead the young lady told me that she had figured that I didn't have such fine materials in stock so she had brought them herself with the same big smile on her face that every noble seemed to wear when the difference in wealth between them and commoners came up. Which was of course annoying but as a commoner you just have to get used to it. So I just told her that this made things a lot easier and that I would take her measurements right away. Hoping to leave at least a decent expression on her. Sadly that didn't happen, not because I was rude or something, but because of the young master the young lady had brought along. Simply because he only paid attention to me and not to the young lady. Of course it was nothing more than just him talking to me about my profession or asking questions about it. But with how his eyes kept traveling to certain areas I could tell he was interested. Problem was if I could tell chances were so could the young lady. Thankfully he rather quickly noticed the rather annoyed reaction of the young lady and swiftly stopped. But the damage was already done and the young lady just kept glaring at me. So I just focused on my work, determined to convince her with my skills and to not give her any more reasons to be mad at me. Once I was finished she had one of her servants bring in the materials and told me that she expected the dress to be finished a week before the ball so that she still had time to get some accessoires if she had to, before turning to leave. I simply bowed my head while telling her that it would be no problem and then remained like this until she had left, before getting right to work on the dress. After all, the deadline was rather tight and honestly I was still hoping that I could impress the young lady at the very least enough that she was not mad at me anymore, because we both know that it's a bad Idea to get on a noble's bad side as a commoner. So I slaved away to make the best dress possible and, not to brag, succeeded. I even managed to finish it before the deadline. After which all I could do was for the young lady to return, because I had no way of contacting her. Thankfully I didn't have to wait that long for the sounds of a two horse carriage to announce her return, since she arrived right at the day of the deadline with a few of what I assumed to be her servants in tow, right when I was about to close for the day. Which somewhat surprised me, simply because I had expected her to arrive way earlier in the day like all my other clients. But simply put it down to her being just too busy to come any earlier. So I ignored that little oddity and gave her my best curtsy as she entered with her entourage, before hurriedly getting the mannequin that I had covered with a sheet into position. Then when I was sure that I had the young ladies full attention, because I really wanted to see her reaction, I pulled down the sheet and believe me that single moment made all the hard Work I had put into the dress worth it. Because as soon as she saw the dress her jaw hit the ground and remained there for a good moment or two, until she pulled herself together enough to cover her lower face with a hand fan that she produced from somewhere I couldn't see. Then she walked a few times around the dress taking in every little detail. Perhaps she did this to find some flaw with the dress and when she didn't even find a loose thread she had no choice but to compliment my work. Of course in the same conceited way that nobles usually complemented commoners. But I honestly didn't really care about that, because all that mattered was that she was satisfied with my Work. So I simply bowed to her and then said still bowing "Thank you milady, but I hardly deserve the praise seeing as how I couldn't have finished the dress without the inspiration your breath-taking beauty bestowed upon me." The young lady simply smiled haughtily, like all nobles when they got a compliment from a commoner and said " Talented and silver tongued, it's truly a shame that your journey ends here you could have made it quite far indeed." Caught off guard by her words I only managed to raise my head to just dumbfoundedly stare at her, before two of her servants grabbed me and dragged me out of my shop with the young lady following us. Once we were outside the young lady told another one of her servants, who had waited at the coach, to grab the dress and then put out all the lights in my shop. The servant simply bowed in response and then walked into the shop. Seemingly satisfied the young lady turned to walk towards the forest, gesturing for her servants to follow her as she did. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going to happen to me now does it, yet I didn't struggle the entire way, even when I noticed where we were going. Why do you ask? Simply because there was no way out for me, since I was neither strong nor quick enough to escape my captors and even if I was I would only bring death or worse upon those that dared to help me. So I simply accepted my fate and just let myself get dragged along, which had the somewhat unexpected, yet still appreciated, effect of clearly annoying the young lady. Petty I know but in a situation like this you too would do anything to lift your mood if only to keep your mind from sinking into despair for just a little while longer. Sadly this only really worked for me until we reached our destination, a clearing right next to the runic stone circle that I had avoided like the plague since that fateful day. I hadn't planned to ever return to this place, especially not like this, but it made sense why the young lady had brought me here after all pretty much everybody avoided this area meaning it was highly unlikely that anybody would find us here. However that was apparently still not good enough for the young lady, because she completely ignored the clearing and instead headed straight for the forest inside the rune circle. Which was of course the better choice if you wanted some privacy, but it didn't bode well for my survival chances after all there was no better place in a few miles radius to get rid of a body than this. Yet I didn't struggle, mostly out of sheer terror at first but when we crossed the rune circle's border it was because I was too busy taking in the raw wrongness of the forest we had just entered. I wish I could describe why it felt wrong to me, but I simply don't have the words to do so. All I can tell you is that it looked like a normal forest but something just seemed of about it, which wasn't helped by the silence that reigned in this place and I was not the only one that noticed this, seeing as the young ladies lackeys had become a lot less confident since crossing the rune circles border. The only one that didn't seem to notice or simply didn't care about it was the young lady, who just kept on walking without a care in the world like she was just taking a little walk through her gardens. Thankfully we didn't have to walk before we reached another much smaller clearing where the young lady stopped spread her arms and theatrically turned around to face me. And let me tell you the smile she wore as she did I will never forget. It was a smile so utterly cruel and sadistic that it transformed her beautiful features into something that I could only describe as truly demonic, making her completely unrecognizable like she had become a whole another person. And with that smile on her lips she pulled a thin knife out of her sleeve and then said "Now I know it's been quite a trip, but I have the feeling that it will be all worth it in the end. Don't you think so too bo..." only for her to abruptly stop and then point at one of her men and ask confusedly "Weren't there five of you?" The man in question simply blinked a few times, clearly caught off guard by the question and then he, his companions as well as myself did a quick headcount. The result that we all came to was that there was one person missing. This of course caused the rest of the men to start looking around for their missing companion and shouting his name, indirectly answering the young ladies question quite clearly, who in turn then asked "Did he get left behind?" to which one of the men answered "No milady, he was right behind me just a few minutes ago." The young lady was just about to ask the obvious question of "Then where is he?" but before she could she was interrupted by a loud caw that sounded a lot louder than it had actually been thanks to how quiet the clearing had been until that point causing all of us to turn towards the sound out of sheer fright and when we did we found out where the missing man had been. He was hanging in the crown of one of the trees that lined the edge of the clearing, held aloft there by the branches he had been impaled upon. A raven was sitting on one of them that had went through his stomach and was eating his guts. All of that was terrifying but it paled in comparison to his face, because it bore a expression of such agony and fear that it haunts me to this very day, making me wish more than once that our people didn't possess such good night vision. Yet I found that I couldn't look away from it no matter how hard I tried, until the sound of someone screaming in alarm behind me scared me so much that I turned to look at where he was pointing without thinking. Where I found another one of the young ladies men impaled upon the branches of one of the trees, just like the first one. Left there by something in these woods that could move so quietly that an entire group of people, made up entirely of a race known for their keen senses, hadn't noticed that it had grabbed one of them. Which of course caused the men to panic and grab whatever weapons they had, except for the clearly highest ranking of the men who managed to remain calm. Unfortunately for me that meant that, unlike his companion, he didn't let go of me. Not that he had to, since I knew that without a distraction running away would lead to me being the next one to be impaled upon some tree branches. So I simply didn't move, intending to wait for an opportunity to escape. Sadly the young lady also knew that if she wanted to get out of this alive she needed a distraction. So she turned

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to her highest ranking minion and said "Throw her into the forest" with a cruel smile on her face that was soon mirrored by the man, before he turned to his companions and said "Alright you heard h...". But as soon as he had fully turned around he found that there was no one in the clearing besides him, me and the young lady. Cursing under his breath he pulled me to my feet and then pushed me towards the edge of the clearing. Caught completely by surprise I stumbled forward a few steps, before I tripped over my own feet and fell to the ground. Where remained motionlessly for a good minute or two, expecting to be grabbed and impaled upon the branches of a tree just like the men before me. But nothing happend. Somewhat confused, I raised my head and looked around the clearing, looking for any movement. Yet the only thing I found was the location of the two missing men and nothing else. Which was of course weird after all this was a forest so there should have been some movement that I should have been able to perceive. But I didn't get to ponder this stillness, because something burst from the treeline with such speed that I could only see a blur heading straight for the young lady and her henchman. The later barely got a chance to react before the thing rammed him and threw him through the air, like he weighed nothing, right into the crown of a tree where he met the same fate as his companions. Not that I stuck around long enough to confirm that he was dead, because as soon as he got impaled I got on my feet as fast as I could and ran away as fast as my legs could carry me, sparing not even a single glance back even when the young ladies screams reached my ears. I tried my best to run in the rough direction of where we had entered from, but found that the forest now wasn't as easy to traverse as before to the point where it felt like the forest was trying to stop me from escaping. Yet I pressed on nonetheless through the uncooperative flora, earning myself quite a few cuts and bruises for my troubles. However despite my efforts I didn't manage to get to the rune circle, instead I found myself in another clearing. Which shouldn't surprise you, even one of our people can lose their sense of direction quite easily when in Fear's grasp like I had been. Not helped by how often the forest had barred my path forcing me to take another route, making me feel more than once like I was being herded somewhere. That feeling returned stronger than ever before when I reached that little clearing, because under a tree that stood alone as if the other tree's were afraid to grow next to it, stood a familiar doll wearing a little red dress , clearly made by a talented childs hands. It stood ,propped up by a few branches, on one of the tree's roots pointing at a shovel that was resting against the tree trunk. This made me realise with a cold certainty that I had been led here. For what purpose I did not know, but I didn't want to find out either. But before I could run away a voice said from behind me loudly and clearly "DIG". I froze, because I knew that voice and its owner shouldn't have been able to speak anymore. Yet when I turned around I found the young lady standing a metre or two behind me pointing at the shovel. But when I took a closer look at her I nearly fainted, because the young ladies eyes were utterly lifeless and a wooden spike protruded from where her heart would have been, making it quite clear that she was rather dead. Meaning that whatever had killed her was somehow using her as a puppet to communicate with me. Utterly confused, I asked without thinking "Dig where?". To which the corpse of the young lady answered "X marks the spot" and pointed at another point behind me. Still confused, I turned back around to find that while I was looking away the doll had jumped down from the root it had been standing on to draw a crude X into the ground below the tree. I was still confused but knew that my chances of survival were better if I simply did what it wanted. So I grabbed the shovel and began digging even though I was utterly exhausted from my mad dash from the clearing. Thankfully I didn't have to dig for too long, because after maybe ten minutes of digging I hit something not made of wood, stone or metal. So to not damage it,out of fear of what that thing might do to me if I did, I got on my knees and began to dig with my hands. Which was of course a lot harder and slower than digging with a shovel, but when I finally held in my hands what I had been digging for I was happy that I did, because it turned out to be a book. Oh now you are interested hm? hehehe. Anyways after removing the dirt from it I couldn't help but notice two Things about this leatherbound book. First of all it had no title and secondly that even after hitting it with a shovel it was still in a almost flawless condition. Which meant that someone had a rather powerful spell on it to make sure that the book could survive not only the vagaries of time but also being buried in the ground for who knows how long without decomposing, something no ordinary mage could achieve. Yet they had hidden it here in a part of the forest nobody really ever visited, pretty much ensuring that nobody would ever find it. Which was quite foreboding, but I was in no position to really ask any questions. So I just climbed out of the hole I had dug and then presented the book to the corpse of the young lady. But the corpse just said "Read" while pointing at the book. Confused, I asked " Um read what? The entire book?". "No" the corpse answered, simply leaving me even more confused, causing me to ask "Then what am I supposed to read?" I regretted asking that quit quickly because it made what was controlling the corpse of the young lady step into the clearing. At first it almost looked like a tree had come to life and even when it had stepped into the clearing it took me a while to figure out what I was even looking at. Because at first it looked to be just a large elk, but when it came closer I noticed the pieces of wood that cover its body like armor and were seemingly grafted to its skin. Which then made me notice that it didn't have any fur or skin to speak of instead it looked like it had been flayed alive. Worst of all though were its eyes, because where they should have been was only darkness, making it somewhat to tell if its eyes were simply just entirely black or if the eye sockets were actually empty, and the more I looked into it the more I not only felt like I had seen them before but also like it gazed back into me. As if something inside the darkness that were the elk's eyes had noticed me. Besides that it had a maw filled with sharp teeth, clawed feet instead of hooves, wore a mask that looked like the skull of an elk and its antlers seemed to be made out of branches, that I swear were at the ends were shaped like grasping hands. It was such a terrifying sight that I almost didn't notice what was on it's back or to be more precise fused to it's back. It was seemingly one of our people fused by the hip to the elk and much like it, he had no skin or eyes to speak of nor did he wear anything besides a set of wooden armor, with a fitting skull shaped helmet. However the thing my eyes were drawn to the most were his arms, not only because seemed to be made entirely out of wood but also since they were so long that they almost dragged across the ground when he let them hang at his side and also because at the end of one of them hung the corpse of the young lady. All in all it was a utterly terrifying creature that seemed to have crawled out of the deepest pits of hell. Yet here it was coming ever closer to me and despite that I didn't move nor did I scream. I simply stood there frozen in terror on shaking legs and stared into the yawning abyss that was the eyes of the thing on the elks back. Until it stopped just an arms length away from me and extended one of its claw-like hands towards me, making me shift my attention towards it. At which point I realised that it was the same clawed hand that had tried to grab me all those years ago, causing my legs to shake even harder and me to close my eyes, brazing myself for a blow that didn't come. Instead I felt something pulling on the book I had been hugging tightly without realising and when I opened my eyes I saw that it was unsurprisingly the only other probably living thing in this cursed clearing. Somewhat surprised I kinda just stared at the clawed hand as it tried to pull the book from my grasp for a minute or two, until he lost his patience and used the corpse of the young lady to say " Let go". That at this point somewhat unsurprisingly startled me enough to comply without really thinking and once he had the book in his claws, he placed it in the hands of the corpse of the young lady using it to turn the pages, until he had found the right page. Then he took the book again to hold it out to me and said once more through the corpse of the young lady "Read". I somewhat hesitantly took the offered book and looked down at the pages, intending to do as I was told, but quickly found that I couldn't. So I slowly looked back up into the eyes of the thing on the elks back and said "I c.c.can't read this" and that was no lie, because whoever had written this book was clearly a utter madman. The first page I looked at was covered with what I can only guess were suppose to be sketches of the very creature in front of me, but their quality was so bad that I am to this day convinced that a child could have done a better job and whatever space was left was filled with what I assume to be notes about the thing in the drawings seeing as some had arrows next to them pointing at some of it's anatomy. However that was nothing in comparison to the other page, because it was almost completely filled with symbols and runes all not only written down with the same bad penmanship as everything on the first page, but also often written down so close to one another that they often blended into each other making to whole page utterly unreadable. Yet the thing simply waved his clawed hand dismissively and said through the corpse of the young lady "Just focus on them". That once more confused me, because I had expected him to be well at the very least annoyed at this point. Yet judging by his calm demeanor he hasn't and honestly I'm to this day not quite sure why. Anyways despite that confusion I still did as I was told and focused on the contents of the page and before I knew it my mouth opened without my say-so to let out noises that I never knew I could make. I tried to stop, but I just couldn't, in fact I found that I couldn't control my body at all. It was as if something was controlling me like a puppet and judging by how my eyes darted from symbol to symbol while my mouth spew out ever weirder sounds I quickly realised that it was the words that were somehow controlling me forcing my voice to go as deep as it possibly could as well as at multiple points nearly unhinging my jaw so that I could speak them correctly. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the entire process was rather unpleasant. But all I could do was endure it all. Somewhat mercifully the pain wasn't too bad but got worse the longer this went on and to make matters worse I noticed after a while that the words spilled out so quickly that I barely got a chance to breathe and of course slowly suffocating made the entire thing ten times worse. Thankfully it was over in a few minutes, although it had felt a lot longer to me. So when I finally could control my Body again the first thing I did was throw the book back into the hole before I had to cough so hard that I coughed up blood and then I turned towards the creature finding him looking at the result of the spell the words had forced me to cast. But didn't even have to follow his gaze to find what he was looking at, because it is somewhat hard to overlook a gateway to what can only be described as the darkest of voids and no I'm being overdramatic or exaggerating for the sake of the story. Just imagine a Portal where on the other side of it is nothing but darkness that seems to spill out of it to devour all light around it and you'll know what it looked like. Anyways it was quite clear to me that I had opened a portal to the creature's home and there was only one reason that I could think of one reason as to why he would want to do that which was to invade our World. Panic filled my entire being as I realised that I might have doomed my people so I turned towards the hole I had dug intending to retrieve the book and use it to somehow close the gate. But a loud wet THUMP made spin around in pure fright, before I could do that. Only to find that the sound had been caused by the corpse of the young lady hitting the Trunk of a Tree with great Force and that the Creature was now walking towards the Portal, which seemed to cause it to transform more and more the closer he got to it. Now when I say transforme you might have some expectations about how the Transformation worked and well looked. So you might have been just as horrified as me when the elk half of the creature split in half from head to rear with the wet squelch of parting meat, before both head and the rear end began to sink into the torso, accompanied by the sound of a few dozen bones snapping, melting into the flesh to reform the leg into a new shape, before shrinking it down until it fit proportionally to the upper body, while the wooden armor that seemingly had been grafted to his body turned to dust. Quite a bit different from the transformations you are used to right? Anyways that entire process left me utterly shocked and more than a little sick leaving me pretty much unable to do anything but stare at the thing. Thankfully the transformation didn't take too long and soon the creature stood in front of the portal, though it is hard to call him that now. For you see at this point he looked a lot like one of our people, sure he was quite a bit broader built and had round ears instead of pointed ones, but he had the same grace as us which made him different from the likes of the dwarves. Anyways he simply stood in front of the portal for a moment, before he turned to me and said "Thank you for freeing me, I have told the forest to show you the way out, but before you go please either burn or bury the book it is too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands. "Now goodbye." Then he stepped through the portal and it closed after him, leaving me all by myself. At first I just kinda sat there, because what had just happened hadn't fully sunk in yet, but after a minute or two it finally had and I just couldn't help but smile when I realised that I had survived. If I had been anywhere else I probably would have danced a bit, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched by something. So I quickly filled up the hole, grabbed the doll and then left that cursed forest as quickly as I could. Now this is where I wish the story would end, but it sadly doesn't, because at the end of the day my shop had been the last place a member of the nobility had been seen so I quickly went to the guards and foolishly told them everything. Of course they didn't believe me but that wasn't the problem, because when I led them to the rune circle we found the corpses of the young lady and her henchmen impaled upon the branches of some trees just inside the circle. Of course the guards tried to get them down, but every time they tried, whoever was unfortunate enough to be chosen to retrieve the corpses ended up meeting the same gruesome end as them. Fortunately that meant I was off the hook, because I lacked both the magical talent and knowledge to cast a spell powerful enough that it could influence an entire part of the forest like that. However, like I said that wasn't the problem. No the problem was that I had also told the guards about the book, because that lead to the story getting spread around and I don't think I have to tell you what happens when people hear about a mysterious book that one can use to summon powerful monsters all without having to use spell components or needing to be magically talented right? After all, isn't that the reason you are here? To get your hands on that damned book? Just like all the other fools before you. Then I will give you the same advice that I gave all of them. Forget about the book and go home because no one that has ever set foot into that cursed forest ever even got close to the book or managed to come back alive. I don't know what he did to it, but it certainly turned the forest quite vicious and even if by some miracle you managed to actually get your Hands on the book and escape the forest alife you will probably be killed by someone who is also after the book as well or your employer to make sure as few people as possible know that he has the book in his possession, if the the contents of the book don't make you go insane first. Believe me it almost happened to me when I tried to remember the symbols I said that day too hard and no I'm not telling you this because I want the book for myself. No I am doing this because I am the one responsible for this mess as well as for all that were killed, might have not killed them myself but their blood is on my hands nonetheless and that's why I tell everyone that searches for the book that they should stay away from it, to maybe save at least a few of them. But if all of that still hasn't convinced you then all that I have left to say to you is this abandon all hope ye who enter because there's something in the Woods.