Several hundred meters from the capital, there was a forest that looked menacing, especially at night.
A large forest where the trees stretched over several dozen square kilometers, facing seven people: Sarya, Kaas, Alta, the three knights, all fully armored, even covering their faces, armed with lances and the chariot's hooves.
Sarya was facing this forest while the others were much further away, making sure she got inside.
Knight No. 1: "Mr. Selron, it's not that I doubt your experience, but why not simply put her to sleep and release her in the middle of the forest? Why then do we risk leaving her awake so she can escape?"
The knight's comment caught the attention of several others, who also wondered why this person should be given such a chance, and who this woman was in particular.
Kaas: "This woman is far too dangerous for us to give her a chance to escape , Even if we had released her in the heart of the forest, there's a very good chance she could escape with the help of her acquaintances, so it was best for me to supervise her execution."
Kaas: "And also, to prevent the truth from being revealed, the people must remain under the authority of the royal family. If they were to learn that someone was executed without real evidence, it could lead to a revolt.
The mere fact that Sarya knew the truth about how the innocent were treated all this time already made her a danger to the royal family, since the country is governed by a monarchy."
Alta: "Let's just say that if we gave her a slim chance of survival by escaping, she risks spreading false rumors that could spark internal conflicts within the country."
It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. Sarya never sold drugs, never killed anyone, and never morally harassed children. But if she were to reveal the false accusations that were brought against her, in addition to the false evidence, the entire population would question the country's judicial system, and the abuse of power by the higher-ups would be exposed.
Sarya stood in front of the forest entrance, preparing to take a step forward.
Sarya: "If I run fast enough and climb a tree, I can survive the night, unless chimeras or other creatures can climb. In that case, I might have to dig a hole or find a tunnel, hoping that the next day people won't come looking for me to check if I'm dead or still alive." Alta: "Can you hurry up? You're slow."
Alta's comment slightly increased Sarya's heart rate. It could be annoying when someone told us to do something when we were about to do it.
But Sarya didn't have time to complain; she didn't have a second to lose. She moved first with her right foot, then her left, then her right foot again, and slowly entered the forest, passing through the bushes. The six people behind her made sure she didn't get any closer until they could no longer see her silhouette disappear behind the bushes. At the last second, Kaas yelled one last sentence.
Kaas: "Be aware that guards armed with bows will be ready to shoot the second they see someone come out of the forest, so don't hesitate to try to get back into the capital to make sure that even if you survive, at least we'll get rid of you."
Knight 2: "Why did you tell her we're supposed to be having fun?"
Kaas: "What do you mean, it was supposed to be a reminder, you didn't tell her?"
Knight 2: "No, it was up to you."
Everyone who heard this turned around to look at Kass, who had a look on his face that made you wonder if it was disappointment or simply disgust.
Kaas: "I really need to ask for a raise."
While you were still walking, her member slowly disappeared into the shadows between the trees of the forest until she was nowhere to be seen.
From Kaas's side:
Kaas: "Let's go, we're going to end up badly if we stay here any longer."
All members of the group returned to the wagons to head back into the capital.
Along the way, one of the knights displayed a nervous expression as he watched Kaas Selron, one of the best investigators and alchemists of the "Intellectuals of Truth," but not necessarily the most honest.
Kaas, noticing someone staring at him, decided to intervene to avoid any embarrassment.
Kaas: "If you have something to say, say it now or forever hold your peace."
Knight No. 3: "Mr. Selron."
The knight was surprised to know that he wasn't being discreet. He might have been from his point of view, but it was actually clearly visible on his face that he was interested in something.
Knight 3: "I might disappoint you, but I still have a question to ask to satisfy my curiosity."
Nearly half of the group members turned their heads toward the knight who had attracted attention.
Kaas: "Go ahead and ask me quickly."
Knight 3: "What kind of creature is found in this forest, and is there really a way to survive here?"
Knight 1: "???"
Knight 2: "???"
Alta: "???"
Kaas: "???"
The first and second knights looked at their colleagues with blank eyes. Alta was still going over the question in her head, and Kaas, to whom the question was addressed, was already thinking of an answer.
Knight 2: "Excuse me, sir, he's new."
Alta: "Sorry."
Knight 1: "No one took the time to explain to him how the hierarchy works in this forest. Let us deal with him later."
The second part of the sentence was spoken with a rather frightened tone, several question marks hovering around Knight 3's head. He hadn't understood what kind of mistake he had made or even if he had done the right thing by asking that question.
Kaas: "No, don't bother. I'll do it myself now so it's easier and it could serve as a reminder for everyone."
Kaas began to explain to them everything: this forest had grown due to the mutation of several monsters that had consumed a plant.
These monsters were called chimeras. After their death in this forest, their corpses decomposed, contaminating the surrounding plants.
These plants were then eaten by other normal animals, these animals then transformed into chimeras themselves.
The situation quickly became out of control, meaning that people who sometimes hunted in this forest no longer had a way to obtain meat or other exotic plants found inside.
Even members of the "Intellectuals of Truth" or the "Purity Hunters," due to the appearance of these monsters, did not have the ability to get rid of them easily.
However, some of them managed to be captured, which allowed them to study their species. Some zoologists or biologists (only men) were able to find potential weaknesses in these monsters.
Given that they hunt at night and their body temperature is higher, fire could be a way to repel them. One could also use any weapon, even if their skin was more resistant than that of normal animals, except for firearms such as revolvers, which could easily pierce the flesh of these chimeras. But there were also odors.
Animals are distinguished from each other by pheromones.
Altering their sense of smell could completely make them lose their means of location, which could allow them to be lured into a trap using any scent.
And finally, there was one last weakness to these creatures: poison, a lethal weapon against any form of life, whether human, animal, or plant, which was also the case with fire.
Immediately around Kaas, stunned to hear so much information in an alchemist's dish, the two knights stopped staring at their comrades, having understood for themselves that he didn't know much either.
Knight 3: "So what are this woman's chances of survival?"
Kaas had just finished answering one question when the knight asked another, which left the people around him speechless.
Kaas: "She's tired from not having to move her body for several weeks. Poison is still flowing through her body, and to release her in the middle of a forest in the middle of the night, I'd say a one in five hundred chance."
The knight was stunned by such thinking skills. He knew Sarya had a low chance of survival, but he didn't think it would be 0.2%.
Kaas: "But that would be if she were a normal person. This woman has knowledge of plant and animal toxins. This forest is known to be home to many mutant species , If she uses her knowledge, it could perhaps increase to a one in five chance."
Knight 3: "20% chance of survival."
On Sarya's side:
She, who was going deeper and deeper into the forest, decided to turn back for a moment to listen to a few words spoken by a certain blond-haired person giving her some very interesting information.
Sarya: "Fire, weapons, smell, and poison."
Sarya, and it's actually in a bush at theAt the edge of the forest, she had heard everything about the method of creating her creatures, their weaknesses, and especially their probability of survival.
Sarya: "A 20% chance of survival isn't bad."
Surprisingly, despite the fact that he was rather far away, she even heard that.
At that moment, an idea came to her: if she couldn't defeat her chimeras because she was too weak, she would just have to get rid of whatever was responsible for their proliferation.
Sarya: "It's time to make sparks, literally."
So she ran, she ran and ran, going deeper and deeper into the forest. Even though she was tired, she didn't know where all this energy was coming from. There came a point where you couldn't even see the torches of the capital lit up anymore; you couldn't even see stars in the sky anymore. But she slowed down little by little, hoping that no creature around her would hear her. Luckily, she was lucky enough not to stumble upon anything.
For now.
Sarya: "The floor of this rainforest, which means there's definitely a river or lake in the center that I can use as an escape point."
Sarya's plan was simple but dangerous. It simply consisted of lighting a flame and then releasing it into the forest to burn everything around it. She hadn't taken into account the water to make sure she was safe. The fact that chimeras could jump into the water to attack her or that flaming branches could fall on her.
But the people who thought of this kind of precaution were those whose lives weren't in danger.
Even if no one in their right mind would go around burning down an entire forest to get rid of the creatures inside.
She didn't know if she was lucky or if this chimera simply didn't exist after two hours of walking and realizing that in reality, in her life, she had been extremely lucky.
Almost in the center of the forest was a circular lake with a radius of about fifty meters, and at its center was a small island that looked like a pile of earth facing a puddle.
How could she see it when it was so dark simply because the moonlight was strong enough to illuminate the small details?
The idea was to set fire to the forest and then swim to the island of land, unfortunately, this plan It had two difficulties: the first was making a fire, and the second was having enough energy to swim.
She found herself on the edge of the bank facing the water; to her left was a piece of dry, hollow wood.
Sarya: "All we need to do is find some twigs and flat branches."
Even though the country was developed enough for some to use lighters, or even gas for some aristocrats, the method of lighting wood by friction was not forgotten; on the contrary, it was even taught to children as a survival method in case they got lost in any space.
*Crack*.
Sarya: "!!! ".*A sound of cracking wood was heard on the bank.
Behind her, a silhouette appeared, four legs, dark gray skin with white stripes, and yellow eyes.
It was much too big to be a cat and much too small to be a bear.
Sarya: "A WOLF."
It was a chimera wolf, a wolf that had mutated into a monster. It was larger than life and certainly stronger. It was there at the edge of the bank, staring at Sarya from behind her.
It certainly had abilities that weren't unique to its species.
It was about twenty meters from her.
Sarya: "I need to quickly find a branch of wood to make a fire. I need to get rid of this monstrosity behind me."
We didn't know if it was luck or a simple coincidence. Just in front of it, look at her feet, there was a stick of wood that was dry enough, and finally enough to light a fire.
The The beast behind her slowly advanced, still hidden by the darkness.
She gently grabbed the wooden stick, placed it on the slightly curved board , and then began to turn it, turning it again and again, hurrying. She was in a hurry and risked dying if she didn't.
The only weakness the chimeras currently had was fire. She had to hurry to generate some in order to use this source to get rid of this monstrosity behind her, which was getting closer and closer. It was now 15 meters away.
Her heart was racing, a drop of sweat fell from her forehead, her heart rate accelerated, and her breathing too.
She turned the stick, turned Na, turned.
Then she saw a spark growing into a small flame.
She had succeeded, she had made a fire, she hurried to blow on it to increase the intensity by gathering leaves around it to give it something to burn so that the flame would grow even bigger.
Sarya: "I SUCCEEDED."
Without realizing it, she spoke too loudly, which caught the beast's attention, making it understand that it had been spotted, and so she decided to charge at it.
She grabbed the piece of wood that had grown large enough and began waving it as if it were a sword, turning around to surprise the people who rushed towards her.
When it was only five meters away, the wolf was surprised, revealing its appearance thanks to the light of the flame. We could now clearly see a monster with black fur and vertical white stripes, yellow eyes and claws each as long as a finger covered in blood like its fangs, it had two tails, we could wonder where the second one came from certainly due to the mutation, it was bigger than a normal wolf maybe the size of a tiger but it was afraid of flame one of its weak points perhaps because its fur had a substance that made it flammable or perhaps like any life form it avoided what could destroy it.
Sarya: "GO AWAY YOU MONSTER DON'T COME NEAR ME."
Sarya brandished the flaming stick as if it were a sword or rather an axe given the way she held it, she gradually approached the beast waving the flame, this same beast that was slowly retreating into the forest. This was the perfect moment.
Right next to Sarya was a tree that was connected to another tree, which was connected to an entire forest. All she had to do was reach that spot and touch the trunk with her stick, and her plan would have been a success.
She just had to hurry and run fast enough to reach the small island to be safe, where no branch could fall on her, and where no trunk could crush her. When she was close enough to a tree to burn it, triggering the start of a large fire.
Sarya's flaming branch touched the trunk of a tree, even if it wasn't burning. Now she had to buy enough time. Even though wood is a flame conductor, it's not a material that can ignite at the slightest spark, like oil or gas.
Sarya: "Come on, hurry up, burn."
And that's what happened after about ten seconds, the tree trunk caught fire, and as the flames rose upward, they quickly spread to the rest of the tree, even touching the branches of a few other trees above.
Dangerously, the flames spread faster than expected, perhaps because of the wind or perhaps simply because it was in a forest where the trunks were relatively dry.
The flame, which was far too large, surprised the wolf.
But in the opposite direction.
He was afraid, he was fleeing.
He didn't know who this human was now behind him; he didn't know who was the one who managed to hold a weapon capable of destroying everything in her hands; he was just afraid of HER.
Sarya: "IT'S MY LUCK."
Even though she was still tired, she only had a few more efforts to make. Just fifty meters away from her was water separating her from the small islet in the center of the lake.
All she had to do was swim to the other shore and wait all night for this horrible forest that had fueled nightmares for years to finally disappear.
But she still wondered.
Sarya: "Why hadn't anyone thought of this before me?"
But she didn't have time to think about that. She put one foot in the water, then the other, then the lower part of her body, then the upper part, and began to swim. Surprisingly, she knew how to swim despite the fact that no one had taught her. She just had to watch how others did it, to imitate what they did, even though you could also learn to swim by watching how animals, like dogs or horses, do it.
After a minute, she had managed to cover about half the distance, twenty-five meters to be precise. She was tired, so she decided to swim on her back.
She no longer needed the moonlight because now there was a large flame ravaging the forest. It had already contaminated more than fifty trees, and Sarya wondered if it was even visible from the capital.
After three minutes, fatigue had built up, but she had made it. She had reached the other end of the riverbank. She wanted to fall asleep, but she still decided to take a look at the massacre she was creating.
Sarya: "What a mess."No one prepares for revenge, don't even watch its first act."
She returns to her head and lives a nightmare for any monster watching, but it was also a spectacle for all those who were afraid of these chimeras.
The flames were ravaging the forest, birds were coming out of the trees and flying into the sky, animals were running in all directions, the trees were falling, one by one the pine cones bursting in all directions like the resin from the trees that could be used as fuel.
The flames were so powerful and so high that they could be seen against the reflection of the water.
Sarya: "Okay, now I can pass out."
Which she did the second she finished her sentence, her head had fallen to the ground and she was breathing properly and her body temperature was dropping.
If one day someone had told her that she would be sleeping while a fire ravaged an entire forest, she would never have. raw.
But now she thought maybe this could happen more times than she could imagine.
Meanwhile, at midnight in the capital:
Apart from a few drunks, the streets were rather quiet; some people were laughing, others were sleeping.
At the end of one of the capital's main streets stood a large gray palace where the royal family lived, as well as other aristocrats, rulers, military personnel, and even ministers.
The castle consisted of a large courtyard surrounded by walls and turrets serving as a guard post, as well as a main building with a brown-tiled roof and secondary buildings that could be used as a forge, a kitchen, a living quarters for servants, or even a training hall for knights.
And precisely between midnight and 1 a.m., in this castle, a young man with fair skin, gray hair, blue eyes, and a top hat walked the corridors.
He was a member of the Orion family. The royal family.
This man was the second prince of the land of Thelkar.
LUCAS ORION
???: "Your Highness."
Lucas: "What's wrong?"
???: "You should go to bed, you have a meeting tomorrow."
Lucas: "Thank you for worrying about me, Marie, but I still have time."
Marie is the second prince's main maid. Every member of the royal family is a servant, except for the older ones, pregnant women, and the king, who can have more than one.
Marie: "Your Highness, be aware that it is past midnight. See for yourself."
Marie is a maid, yet she wore a classic outfit. She had long light brown hair, blue eyes, and a beauty mark under her left eye, but the rest of her body couldn't be seen because she was entirely covered in fabric.
In the hallway Lucas and Marie were walking down, there was a clock hanging on the wall. The minute hand was set to eleven and the hour hand was set to The number zero indicated that it was midnight and fifty minutes.
Lucas: "Well, it doesn't matter, I still have three hours."
Marie: "Out of the question, you're going to sleep now. Your mother assigned me the responsibility of monitoring your sleep hours."
Lucas: "It's possible to negotiate with—"
Marie: "No."
Prince Lucas hadn't had time to finish his sentence before she was interrupted by a negative response. The fact that he wasn't in bed at this hour was either because he couldn't sleep or because he had other things to do.
In either case, it was surprising that the palace lamps remained lit, certainly to let the home automation work at night or so that the guards could make their way around to monitor the corridors.
The lamps that illuminated the corridor were indeed electric bulbs; they were powered by electric motors located in the basement of the castle, which themselves were powered by steam engines.
The royal family, being the highest rank of aristocracy, comparable to the duke and duchess, were also those who had the most expensive lifestyle.
However, as Lucas returned to his room accompanied by Marie, who was watching over him, an alarm sounded.
*DDDDDRRRRRRIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG*.
The noise startled everyone, waking those who were sleeping, and even some of the guards jumped.
They wondered where the alarm was coming from. Even though they knew it was coming from the loudspeaker attached to the top of one of the towers surrounding the castle, the question they should have been asking was why it was sounding.
Lucas: "Let's go see what it is."
After a nod from Marie, they both ran towards the main hall where the royal throne was located.
After several minutes, they arrived.
Facing a metal door about two and a half meters high, they crossed the eastern door and entered a large hall, a room with a red carpet, pillars on the sides to support the ceiling, and opposite, two thrones, one for the king and one for the queen.
Lucas and Marie noticed upon entering the room that many other people were inside, the minister's guards, the knights, or even other members of the royal family
And none of them knew what was happening, why this alarm had sounded.
What worried them most was that other alarms had sounded outside the palace all over the city. Everyone had heard it, and it turned out that there was panic outside.
When everyone had arrived, two minutes after the bell rang, a guard entered the main hall and announced the news.
Guard: "Everyone, listen to me. This is not a drill. The king and queen have already urgently evacuated the castle, and you must do the same."
Minister 1: "You're implying that we're being attacked and that the castle will fall into ruin."
Guard: "No, the castle will not fall into ruin, but you must still leave to escape the soot caused by the flames."
Soot is a compound released by flames. It's simply the black smoke released during a fire. It appears when a material hasn't finished burning and impurities are released. It can be highly toxic.
Minister No. 2: "What soot and what fire are you talking about? You're implying that the castle is on fire and that we owe you the fact that it was temporarily in the city."
Guard: "YOU REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON OUTSIDE. LOOK OUT THE WINDOW, FOR GOD'S SAKE."
This comment caught everyone in the room's attention, wondering how a simple guard could speak like that to such high-ranking members of society.
But Lucas was taken aback because what was happening outside was happening. He approached one of the windows and pulled back a curtain to see what was happening.
And there was a frightening sight. and beautiful, something that could represent a danger to nature, but which is also a way to get rid of a problem that has frightened them for years.
Minister No. 2: "Your Highness, what's going on outside?"
Several dozen guards, ministers, and knights pointed their gaze in the direction of the prince, wondering what he would say.
Lucas: "YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON."
Suddenly, Lucas drew the large curtains that stretched across the room, revealing to everyone inside what was happening outside.
No one was able to speak; some were sweating, and some people's heartbeats accelerated.
But one person managed to remain calm and clarify the situation properly. It was Lucas, who kept his cool.
By his very nature, as a member of the royal family, he must take care of his people when they are in danger. This is the role of a Chief.
Lucas: "THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING! THE EASTERN FOREST IS BURNING. WE ALL NEED TO EVACUATE TO THE WEST."
CHAPTER 4: THE END