They ran.
Roots tore up the ground in heaving waves, snapping through the soil like breaking bones. Every step was a fight—ankles caught, boots sucked into the wet loam—while above them, branches writhed and slammed downward like the limbs of some monstrous marionette.
Kaelen ducked under a whipping vine, only for another to lash across his shoulder, searing his skin with acid. He hissed, but didn't stop.
Elyra was at the front, hacking a path with her blade, each strike sending splashes of burning sap into the air. "Keep moving! Don't stop, don't look back!"
Of course, Kaelen looked back.
The bark-and-bone creatures were faster now, moving in lunges rather than dragging themselves. They didn't stumble, didn't falter—every movement was smooth, deliberate, like they could already see the path the group would take.
"They're learning," he shouted over the chaos.
Sylvi shot an arrow into one's chest. It hit, splintering bark and bone, but the creature simply tore the shaft out and kept coming.
Then, the whisper began.
It wasn't from the creatures—it was in the trees themselves. A soft, rasping voice, so low Kaelen almost thought it was his own thoughts turning on him:
Stay. Stay. Stay.
The girl they'd rescued screamed. "Don't listen! That's the lure—if you stop, you'll never move again!"
The ground convulsed, throwing them into a shallow gully. Lior slammed into a rock, dazed, but Kaelen grabbed his arm and yanked him up. Around them, the gully walls began to close—roots knitting together into a living trap.
Kaelen's eyes darted, searching for a way out. And then—he saw it. A patch of light, faint but steady, glimmering through a narrow gap in the root wall.
"There!" He pointed. "Go!"
They scrambled toward it, cutting, shoving, bleeding. The forest screamed—a high, keening sound that made Kaelen's teeth ache—and the gap began to shrink.
They burst through just as the roots slammed shut behind them.
Gasping, covered in sap and blood, they collapsed in a small clearing where the air felt cleaner.
No one spoke for a long time.
Finally, the girl whispered, "You crossed its edge. That's the only reason you're alive. But…" Her voice broke. "It knows your scent now."