CHAPTER 4 - FOREST OF ISOLDE
Soon the sun would rise and give birth to another date. Bring new possibilties and chances of greatness. Blessing us all with warm light.
Our protagonist get's up on his feet. The soldiers are still sleeping, only Sinbad remained on guard near the fire.
His body is clearly tired. It served as evidence of the harsh conditions that rule this forrest.
Tiredness marked his Body. His focus seemed at the limit and every minute could he fall asleep. However caution forced him to stay awake, as every moment of carelessness could be their last one.
It was a hard night for those soldiers. The soldiers could't calm down during the night in this cursed forest. The forest was scaring them and robbing them of their sleep. The forrest seemed to just wait for them to fall asleep, to think they are safe, to put their swords aside and sleep. Then to just devour them at a moment of negligence. Ultimately, never to be seen again.
Our protagnist took a seat near him. The campfire igneted somekind of instinctual fear somewhat scared him. He didn't know where this strange phobia came from, in his former life he enjoyed the warmth of fire and was entertained by the way it moved with dignity, it was like a graceful dance for him.
Dark woods were still surrounding their camp. Soon the sun would rise up and illuminate the forest.
They sat there, enjoying the sound of burning wood and the wind rustling to the leaves from nearby trees.
After a while Sinbad broke the silence between them and opened up a conversation:
''You should consider yourself lucky, not many survive this deep inside this strange forest. The Monsters here are strange. Without example, brutal and cruel. This forest may fool you with it's beauty, but here is a place where many brave men lost their brave blood.
I'm not going to question you here on how you came here or wich way you want to go, but I advise you to come with us to a nearby town. If you go alone you will most likely. No scrap that, you will definitly die.
We will avoid any of those strange Monsters. You surely met some of those strange beasts that roam this forest, so I surely won't have to explain to you, why we want to avoid any of those.
Remember, Nobody is going to try to help you, if you decide to play hero.
Now make yourself ready. If you take to long we may leave you.''
Rough and stoic was his voice. Even tough he wasn't young anymore, anybody who would only hear his voice, would think that he would be older than he looks like. It was the the voice of an experienced man that does not want to deal with banalities.
Our Protagonist understanding that this conversation was over, answered him with a silent nod and they both returned to silence.
A few minutes later Sinbad's troop woke up from their unsteady and unsatisfying slumber. Our protagonist helped them to clean up their camp. After that Sinbad called everybody over to plan their way back.
Over a big treestump was a map rolled over. Even though he was what seems to be in an medievil timeline, the depictions of this map was of remarkable quality. The various letter and symbols were easily recognizable on the rough surface of this paper.
The Alphabet in this world seemed remarkably similar to the World our Protagonist came from (with some, but little variation). So was the the letter ''S'' for example more akin to the number ''5'' or the the number ''3'' looked more like a ''E''.
Their location was marked by a red button.
There were three possible way to get to the destination.
The first route is through the south, near a lake called ''grave of Eurydike''.
The lake was represented by a big dirty blue blob with the drawings of small waves. Over It were small ''¿'' with 5 skull and bones pictured to the right of the ''¿''. He guessed that this means it was largely unknown what lies inside this lake (for the residents of this world, because he has already seen what was inside this lake through the eyeholes of his companian) . This route would be the shortest route to their destination, but they would take a large detour to the east to get to their destination, because a large mountaines region blocks their path. Silently but with sincere gratefulness, our Protagonist was thankful not to meet the sea-monster again.
In the east were the ''fields of Inferno''.
Seemingly endless blackness stretched across a large eastern portion of the map, while the map depicted several small flames over the entire field. Altough it seems this field is constantly on fire, there small pictures of small red humanoids with horns. There also was also a symbol what looked like a yellow colored egg, the undead thought what that this could mean and the only association that made sense was sulfur. It was likely this whole field was populated by heat-resistand humanoids and that the Sulfur was responsible for the fire that was depicted by the map.
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With their current equipment it would be impossible to traverse the fields.
Through the west was the ''forrest of Isolde''.
It was the sortest of the three ways while also with the most meager amount of information. The were just a lot of depictions of trees while depicting also several ''¿'' throughout the whole forest. Next to the ¿ were 4 and a half skull and bones.
After a few seconds Sinbad rumbles his throat and begins to speak in his loud and rough voice
''We will take the route through the forrest of Isolde. We don't know what kind of abominations we will meet there. Remember you don't have to act careless. You are all brave soldiers of brave blood, sons of nobles. We will all come back home alive, don't waste your lives in this god forsaken place!''
Like a machine doing it's daily routine, everyone of them got on their knees, folded their hands and started praying, hoping a god would take pity on them and protecting them from evil. They ignored the faulty imitation of our protagonist, they were too busy or too polite to say something.
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After an hour there were at their destination. The sky was covered in an never ending sea of dark clouds, wich seemingly didn't care that it was still morning. Every light that tried to break through them was devoured without a trace left, leaving a stench of hopelesness in the atmosphere that one could suffocate from. They were waiting, silently obeserving The 5 men like they were watching a play and forewarned them of danger like prophets of doom.
Birds were singing dark songs of scorn at the fools, who even dared setting a foot inside this forest. Like a audience of an comedy club they laughed endlessly, seemingly taking a piss at the soon to be dead and their future meals.
It was dark and gloomy. the darkness scared them and brought fear inside their heart. They feared they would never see those again wich makes the fight worth fighting for. Obviously this sinister aura wasn't natural at all. No amount of clouds would create such darkness, wich disturbed the 4 natives. Some of them throwing concernd glances at our protagonist seemingly fearless demeanor. They couldn't know that while this forest resembled the darkest of nights for them, seemingly send from the devil himself to snatch them away, it for our protagonist just slightly darker was.
After a moment to gather courage they began to enter the forest. For the first few steps the world seemed to stop every sound it made, seemingly in awe at the lion-hearted or rather insane decision to really enter this forest. This didn't stop their legs though. Their march resumed, ignoring the deafening silence.
After a while the birds started singing again. Their chanting seemed to ridicule them behind their backs. With every step taken it seemed louder and louder, never stopping. The demon came nearer and nearer like a tiger wich sneaked upon it's prey.
The chanting of the birds seemed to come nearer and nearer like death itself, until every one could hear a feminin voice, whispering, cruel like a abused harp and that was put out of tune, inside their right ear.
''Will you save him?''
The voice of an unfeminin female filles their ear. somehow Lovely, affectoniate like it was, it spoke in a gentle manner, as if to caress their very ears. After the voice ended though the voice just left an hopeless impression, like a tragic hero without any possibility of meeting his love.
The 5 men turn around with cold sweat pouring down their backs, just to find an ... empty forest. Relieve filled their faces, just to find an empty forest. In this world, It was often times better to find nothing than something in places like this.
Not even our undead protagonist was spared from this ungodly fear
Their march continued, everyone was on edge and their mind were stressed from the constant stimulus.
It was after a while, the voice came back. Every second it came nearer.
'' She will not come''
A cruel and lying voice entered their ears, spreading lies and doubt in their heart. Filling their very hearts with fear.
''Stop it !Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!Stop it !Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!Stop it !Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!Stop it !Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!Stop it !Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it !Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! StOp It! sToP iT! StOp It! STOP IT!
Suddenly one of Sinbads soldiers with the name of Tristan started screaming and rambling these two simple words. He just stood there mumbling these two words over and over, his words had the sound of a tortured soul on them, while his eyes, who had a sense of insanity inside them, stared into the nothingness of the forrest. The rest of them looked at their companian with an shooked expression. They feared he had gone mad or worse. Sinbad immediatly regained his focus and started to grip his subordinate by the shoulders and tried to call him down.
Tristan was like a feral bull, it seemed impossible to calm him down
Seeing that it didn't help, Sinbad took a big breath and knooked him out cold with an big punch. The soldier lost conciousness and sacked into Sinbad arms.
Two other of Sinbad soldiers immediatly reacted and took on shoulder each.
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