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After waking fully rested, I took my time getting geared up. The bracers and shin guards fit snugly, their rough edges smoothed down after last night’s work. The twin blades sat comfortably at my hips, their faint green veins glowing softly in the dim morning light. Everything felt balanced, almost like an extension of myself.
“Alright,” I muttered, tightening the straps on my pack. “Let’s see where this thing wants me to go.”
The runic fragment had been quiet during my sleep, but as soon as I touched it this morning, the familiar pull returned—a subtle tug in the back of my mind, guiding me like an invisible compass. It was faint but insistent, pointing me toward the forest.
The trees loomed ahead, their twisted shapes silhouetted against the pale, colorless sky. I’d seen plenty of strange landscapes in my time, but there was something distinctly… wrong about this one.
The air felt heavier, charged with an energy I couldn’t quite place.
Stepping into the forest, I immediately noticed the strange flora. The trees were unlike anything I’d seen before: their bark was a muted, ashen gray, while their leaves were an unnatural shade of red that seemed to pulse faintly in the corners of my vision.
I crouched near one of the taller trees, placing a hand against its bark. The surface was rough and cold, but as I pressed harder, I could feel its strength—it was dense, unnaturally so, like stone masquerading as wood.
Pulling out a knife, I tested the tree, making a shallow cut along the bark. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a bright blue liquid began to seep from the wound, pooling in the crevices of the bark.
“Interesting…” I muttered, leaning in for a closer look.
That was when my instincts screamed at me.
Without thinking, I rolled to the side, the movement jerky and instinctive. A split second later, the ground where I’d been crouching erupted as a thick root burst through the soil, twisting upward with startling speed.
Heart pounding, I scrambled to my feet, summoning my swords in a flash of green light. The hum of their enchantments filled the air as I crouched low, blades at the ready. The root was motionless now, its jagged surface coated in dirt and remnants of the blue liquid from the tree.
I waited. My muscles tensed as the seconds dragged on, each one feeling like an eternity. The forest was deathly silent, the usual hum of insects or rustling leaves conspicuously absent.
When nothing happened, I grabbed a nearby rock and hurled it toward the root. It struck with a dull thud, bouncing off and landing in the dirt. Still, there was no reaction.
“Alright, just a fucking tree…and probably a defense mechanism…” I said under my breath, keeping my swords raised as I took a cautious step forward.
The root remained still. Slowly, I approached the tree again, this time reaching out with deliberate care. My fingers brushed against the bark. Still nothing.
Finally, I let out a long sigh as the root began to retreat, sinking back into the earth as though it had never been there.
“So they have a very faint consciousness,” I muttered, stepping back and watching the last of the roots vanish beneath the soil. “And limited response. That’s both oddly satisfying and horrifying.”
It wasn’t every day you ran into trees that could actively try to kill you, after all.
I glanced back at the bright blue liquid still oozing from the bark, its glow faint but hypnotic. There was no telling what it could do—healing properties, maybe? Or something more volatile? Either way, it could’ve been useful.
“Unlucky me,” I said with a bitter laugh, patting my pack. “Nothing to store it with. Typical.”
Shaking my head, I turned my attention to the path ahead. The deeper I moved into the forest, the stranger it became. The dense foliage seemed to twist and writhe in ways that didn’t quite make sense, almost as though the trees and plants were caught in some eternal struggle against reality itself.
This place is giving me the heebie jeebies…
Leaves curled in spirals that defied natural growth patterns, and vines hung like stretched sinews, their textures more reminiscent of flesh than plant matter. The air grew thicker the farther I went, heavy with a strange, metallic tang that clung to the back of my throat.
“It’s not just the visuals,” I muttered, glancing around as an uneasy feeling settled in my chest. “There’s something… wrong here. Deeper than what I’m seeing.”
The forest pulsed with an almost imperceptible energy, a faint hum at the edge of my awareness. It wasn’t Exira—it didn’t have that warm, fluid quality I’d grown used to. This was something else. Something cold and foreign.
I stopped for a moment, placing a hand on the hilt of one of my blades.
The pull from the runic fragment was still leading me deep into the forest, urging me forward, but every instinct I had told me to tread carefully.
“Twisted forest,” I said aloud, my voice barely more than a whisper. “ yeah that's an apt name…going in my bestiary for sure…”
A branch creaked overhead, its sound unnervingly similar to a low groan. I tightened my grip on my sword and continued forward, each step slower and more deliberate than the last.
The deeper I went, the more distorted the forest became. Trees bent at impossible angles, their trunks contorted into spirals and knots that made my eyes ache just looking at them. Some of the leaves seemed to shimmer, shifting between shades of red and black in a way that felt almost alive.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched, though every time I turned around, there was nothing but the silent, twisted forest staring back at me.
I kept walking, my ears tuned to the faint gurgle of the river flowing somewhere to my right. It was far enough away that I couldn’t see it through the dense foliage, but the sound served as a reliable marker, a reassuring constant in the shifting madness of the forest.
At Least the river is to my right…in case I lose my way then there’s that…
The path, if it could even be called that, was uneven and unpredictable. The roots of the gnarled trees jutted out from the ground like the limbs of some buried creature, ready to trip me with every careless step.
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Still, I managed to make steady progress, occasionally stopping to scavenge what I could from the strange flora around me.
A cluster of small, berry-like fruits caught my attention first—dark purple with faint specks of red, their surface smooth and shiny under the filtered light. They looked harmless enough, but looks were deceiving. For all I knew, they could be laced with enough poison to knock me flat within seconds.
“Berries, check,” I muttered, plucking a handful and stashing them in my pouch. “Not eating you anytime soon, though.”
Next, I came across a round fruit that resembled an orange, though its skin was rougher and a darker shade of yellow. I gave it a tentative sniff, catching a faint citrusy tang beneath the earthy smell.
“Potentially edible,” I said to myself, pocketing it in my ring with the same caution.
The last find was a cluster of thick, knotted roots poking out of the soil. They had an earthy, almost spicy smell, reminding me of ginseng or ginger. If nothing else, they could be useful for brewing something, assuming I didn’t accidentally poison myself in the process.
By the time I was done scavenging, my pack was considerably heavier, stuffed with all sorts of odds and ends. Still, I hadn’t dared to taste any of it. The risk of poisoning was bad enough, but there was a far more horrifying thought lingering at the back of my mind: constipation.
“Look,” I muttered, glancing around at the oppressive forest. “Shitting in a cave was one thing. No one cares. But here? God knows what might jump out of a bush if I’m too distracted. No, thank you.”
Almost as if the forest had a sense of humor, the bushes up ahead rustled faintly.
I froze, crouching low as my body went still. My hand moved instinctively to my blade, but I didn’t draw it just yet. Instead, I reached inward, channeling Exira to level one—a light but effective boost that sharpened my senses. The familiar warmth spread through me, and the sounds around me seemed to come into sharper focus.
I tilted my head, listening carefully. Faint but steady… a pulse of life, weak and singular, coming from the direction of the disturbance. Whatever it was, it wasn’t large or particularly threatening, but that didn’t mean I could afford to be careless.
Keeping low, I moved forward slowly, the effects of my armor kicking in as I transitioned into a stealthier approach. My steps were silent, my movements fluid as I closed the distance between myself and the source of the noise.
When I finally reached the spot, I pushed aside a branch gently, peering through the tangled undergrowth.
There, just a few feet away, was the culprit—a small creature, its head buried in the grass as it munched on the greenery. Its body was roughly the size of a large dog, covered in short, silvery fur that shimmered faintly under the dappled light. Its face was vaguely deer-like, though its elongated ears twitched constantly as if listening for the slightest sound.
What caught my attention most, though, was its behavior. It wasn’t just eating grass; it was going after the same berries and fruits I’d been collecting earlier, pulling them from the bushes with surprising dexterity.
My eyes stayed locked on the deer-like creature, its head still buried in the grass as it grazed. Each slow movement of its body was deliberate, oblivious to the fact that I was watching it from the shadows. Drawing in a deep breath, I extended my senses outward with Exira, feeling the energy spread like a quiet pulse around me.
Fifty meters—enough to scan for any hidden surprises. My instincts wouldn’t let me relax until I was sure the area was clear. Slowly, the forest revealed itself to me through the Exira pulse. No other life signs emerged. Just the faint heartbeat of the creature in front of me, steady and alone.
“Perfect,” I muttered, quiet as a breath.
I stilled my breathing, keeping it slow and controlled as I pulled the bowstring back, the arrow nocked and ready. Exira channeled into the arrow as I drew the string to its peak, the energy flowing like an invisible current along the shaft. My hands were steady, my focus sharp.
“Alright,” I whispered, smirking faintly as I lined up the shot. “Time to see if I’ve still got it.”
The arrow sailed silently through the air, a streak of focused energy aimed perfectly at the creature's flank. But just before it struck, the creature reacted with an almost supernatural speed, spinning on its hooves in a blur of motion.
Steam puffed from its nostrils as it locked eyes with me, its posture tense and defensive.
"Well," I murmured, already nocking a second arrow. "You’re faster than you look. Noted."
The creature tensed, muscles coiling as it prepared to dart away into the shadows of the forest. But I wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Haha,” I said, drawing back the bowstring again with deliberate precision, the second arrow humming with energy. “Who said I’ll play fair?”
Before it could move, I released the shot. The arrow streaked forward, piercing cleanly through the creature’s skull. Its head snapped back with a sharp, jerking motion, and the body crumpled to the ground in a lifeless heap.
“Gotcha!” I said, letting out a satisfied laugh.
Finally—fresh meat. It had been far too long since I’d had anything remotely edible, let alone something I’d hunted myself. Humming a quiet tune, I slung my bow over my shoulder and made my way toward the kill.
The creature’s body lay still, its silvery fur almost shimmering under the strange red light filtering through the twisted canopy. For a brief moment, I felt a pang of regret. The thing was beautiful, in its own strange way. But survival wasn’t about sentiment.
"Not bad I’ll have a feast at night," I muttered, crouching down to inspect the kill.
That was when my senses flared.
It was like a cold dagger pressed against my neck, a primal warning that set every nerve in my body on edge.
Before I could react, something shot out of the shadows—a long, bony appendage that moved faster than my eyes could track.
The limb pierced the corpse of the creature with a sickening crunch, lifting it off the ground in one brutal motion. My body froze as I watched the appendage drag the corpse upward, vanishing into the dark canopy above.
“What the—” I tried to move, to draw my blades, but I couldn’t.
A wave of pure, unrelenting fear washed over me, rooting me to the spot. My breath caught in my throat, and sweat began to bead on my forehead, dripping down my temple.
I forced myself to channel Exira, pushing it to peak level 1. The warmth coursed through me like a jolt of electricity, snapping me out of the paralysis. I stumbled back a step, my hands shaking as I summoned my swords.
The forest around me was silent.
And then I heard it.
The weird insects like clicking noises.
They were faint at first, like the soft tapping of bone against stone, but they grew louder with each passing second. The sound reverberated through the unnatural quiet of the forest, magnified by the oppressive silence that surrounded me.
It was then that I realized what had been bothering me about this place from the start: there was no ambient noise. No birds, no insects, no rustling leaves. Just an endless, suffocating silence.
The clicking grew closer, sharper, each sound like nails dragging across my skull. My grip on the swords tightened as I stared up at the canopy, my heart pounding in my chest.
And then it came into view.
The monster descended slowly, its elongated limbs gripping the tree trunk as it crawled downward with unnerving grace. Its body was massive, its form hidden beneath plates of bone-like armor that gleamed faintly in the dim light. Its legs were spindly but strong, ending in jagged tips that scraped against the bark.
Its head was grotesque, an elongated, insectoid shape with too many eyes—glassy, black orbs that seemed to pierce through me.
The clicking noises came from its jaws, which opened and closed in rhythmic, almost deliberate movements, revealing rows of serrated teeth.
My body tensed, the familiar weight of my blades grounding me as I crouched low, preparing for whatever this nightmare had in store.
The monster paused, its many eyes locking onto mine. The air seemed to grow colder, heavier, as though the forest itself was holding its breath.
The silence shattered as it let out a guttural, clicking screech that echoed through the trees.
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