CHAPTER 01: AMONG DEATHWORMS
The night here was thin and quiet compared to the depths of the forest I called home. I had strayed farther than I should on a hunt that had already slipped from my grasp, and I wasn't ready to face Father with empty hands. Now, only after accepting defeat, did I stumble across an opportunity I hadn't earned.
Anyone who wandered this far should have known the law of the forest. Step lightly, take little, leave quickly. Yet the foolish rarely understood the balance here… not until the forest claimed its due.
I watched them from my perch in the canopy above. Another group of adventurers ready to brave the Dark Forest's depths, eager for fame, glory, and riches. The fools were only steps away from death. I could never understand why they would willingly enter a place so full of danger and darkness only to chase after some impossible goal.
The rules here were simple. Setting foot into the forest was an invitation to die, but so long as you were not greedy, so long as you stayed to the outer edges, the Lord of the Forest was not likely to take notice of you. If you gave in to your greed or pride, if you dared to march into the deeper forest after rumors of treasure or pursuing the false justice of the church, if you ran headlong to your doom with the faint hope of saving your lost loved ones—then you were his.
The Lord of the Forest harbored no compassion, no remorse, no pity, and no forgiveness. Those who came to disturb the solitude of his ancient home found but a single welcome: hunger without end, and a death that did not care for prayers.
The fools below could not have gotten this far without understanding the peril they faced, and yet they continued on in a straight line, directly for the castle. It was the most unlikely of flukes that they had made it so far as to reach me, even as far out as I was venturing this evening. Like them, I was not supposed to be so far into the forest, but I differed strongly in how prepared I was to navigate the enchanted place.
The haunting confusion and misdirection saturating the deep woods would turn anyone in circles here, even if they were to somehow have a map. The four souls below me carried only a crystal hanging from a string for guidance, glowing toward the strongest source of mana nearby. I watched them each stagger every few steps as their instincts told them to turn back or follow a false trail. Every one of their senses worked to turn them away from their course, but they ignored it to follow the glow of the crystal directly toward the Nexus. The convergence of five ley lines that met under the castle in the center of the Dark Forest.
I had not met many adventurers, but even I could tell at a glance that these were not Church zealots. They were no assassins or thieves either; their loud, careless steps and blazing torches announced their presence to every creature within a hundred feet. Nor did they wear the gilded armor of high-tier adventurers on some glorious quest. That left only one final type of would-be heroes.
With the grace of a cat, I slipped down from my perch and dropped to the ground below.
"You should not go that way. You will die." My voice was flat and calm, as I conveyed a simple fact. I would not be upset if they were to take those next fateful steps, and I was sure they could understand that from my words.
They all spun, weapons raised, but froze when they saw me. I was not a very threatening person to look at. I carried a sword, I was no fool, but my leather pants and boots were the simple, durable kind that anyone might wear to protect themselves from thick vegetation, and my blouse was lacking in any armor. My long, dark hair was tied back, and while my skin was as pale as anyone who spent too much time in darkness, it only made my youth stand out more.
Before me stood three men and a woman. The largest of the men appeared to be their leader, wearing heavy armor and carrying a silver-coated sword that was far too large to fight effectively within this dense forest. One of his companions looked to be a scout, his bow half drawn when he'd spun and aimed it at me, and another, a mage in odd, split robes, holding a staff in one hand and the guiding crystal in the other.
The woman was with them but didn't quite seem to fit as part of the group. The way she stood just far enough away from them made her look out of place. She was older and, so far as I could tell, was some sort of rogue. She was near my height of five feet, seven inches, still small next to her companions, and she looked like she very much did not want to be here. The warrior from the front took one step toward me in anger before stopping with a bark of laughter.
"Are you some newbie adventurer? Did your party get in over their heads? Get out of here, girl. This isn't the place for you."
I gave a single nod, "You are correct. This is not where I am meant to be. But you are walking to your doom. Why are you here?"
The scout answered before his leader could, "We're after the missing girls from Angelshade, on the border with Aranthor. Have you heard of them? Seven young maidens, taken hours before their debut. Did you see them or their captor pass through?"
I raised an eyebrow at him in confusion, "I am the only maiden in this forest. You have come here for nothing."
"Mind your words, girl," their leader cut back in. "Don't be so arrogant to assume that just because you haven't seen something, it ain't there."
"My name is Mirela, not Girl, and I have no reason to lie to you."
The ranger spoke then, "This is the only place they could be. The Lord of the Forest is known to have an appetite for young girls. You should leave while you still can."
I slowly shook my head, "I am already on my way home. But I can tell you with sincerity that the Lord of the Forest would not bother to go so far as Angelshade to steal a few girls. There are always adventurers of some sort here. He has no need. You should not continue on."
Their leader let out a grunt of disgust, "Enough of this. Get home, girl."
He spat on the ground to punctuate his words before turning and continuing in the direction he had been going at a stomping gait. The ranger and mage both turned, quickly following after him, and the woman spared me an apologetic smile before joining them. I was not offended, though, and I only stood watching in fascination.
He kicked through the brush line into the small clearing with his companions stumbling after. His quiet grumbling came to a sudden stop when the first deathworm broke through the ground, darting directly up at him from below with the force of a thrust spear. The monster was as thick around as my forearm, and with how the big man hopped before crumbling to the ground, I could tell there was no armor between his legs.
Within seconds, the worm was already digging up through his torso, and his wild convulsions did nothing to save him. The ranger was there beside him almost as soon as he hit the ground, hands trying to grip the monster as it bore deeper into their leader, but it was a hopeless endeavor. The monster was already at least a foot deep into the man, and its slick body was strong. Even if they were to pull it free, they would need a cleric to save him.
That mattered little as the second worm slammed into the ranger's lower back, sending him forward, where another worm crashed into his face. The mage started stumbling back, chanting out something, when another worm took him from the side. His ribs were no match for the magical maw that tore through them, and he was dead before he reached the ground.
Only the older woman managed to tumble out of the nest, and the rippling lines of rising earth racing toward her made it clear she was already being hunted. She saw them too and turned to run.
I was not foolish enough to remain on the ground beside a deathworm nest, so I hauled myself back into my tree. The woman spotted me, eyes wide with desperation, and ran toward me with her hands outstretched in a silent plea. I blinked at her, shrugged, and when she leapt to reach me, I caught her hand and pulled her up with ease.
"We must climb higher. Some of them can be up to ten feet long, but they will not leave the earth entirely."
I did not wait to see if she would listen this time. I simply turned and began to climb. When I was at a spot where I knew I'd be safe, I sat down, one leg over either side of the thick branch that was my perch, and leaned back against the tree to watch the feast below. There were seven or eight of the worms pulling the fallen adventurers apart. The woman pulled herself up in front of me, sitting and turning to see what I was watching on the ground.
"You knew they were there." Her voice was dull and hollow.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you warn us?"
It was a ridiculous question, but there was some accusation to it, and I felt that was unwarranted.
"I did warn you. I was very specific. I said, You should not go that way. You will die. Your leader chose to ignore me." I looked away from the feast below long enough to ask her, "Miss, why are you here? You did not show the same emotion as those men. You know those girls aren't in the Forest."
She only shook her head, watching as her former companions were consumed, dragged piece by piece under the earth. "I didn't have much of an option. I was the only one in the town who knew the safe paths to get this deep. I warned them what would happen if we came, but they dragged me out here anyway. They thought they were justified, but I knew this was suicide."
I only nodded. "Yes. Do you think you are trespassing, then? To come so deep unwillingly. Does it violate the law of the forest?"
Her back stiffened, and she was silent for some time. "The law has no provisions that I've ever heard of… but I suspect you know that."
I hummed, "Yes, I do. But Father did not make his laws to be a monster. He made them to be left alone. I know how you adventurers talk about him. He cares far less than you think about the outside world."
"So you are not here to kill us? Me?"
"No. Finding you all here was only a bit of luck. I was out exploring. I almost made it to the edge of the forest this time. Honestly, I am not supposed to even be this far from the Castle. But it is nearly my eighteenth birthday, and unlike my father, I am curious. I want to know what happens outside our home."
She relaxed slightly, "Will you let me go?"
I thought about it for a moment. I knew the law, but I had an opportunity. "I will make a deal. You have violated the law. For your penance, you will tell me about Angelshade. I want to know what a human town is like. And you will feed me. Enough that I am no longer hungry, but not so much that you cannot make your way home."
"I –" she began, but I didn't need her acceptance or consent. My fangs pierced through her shoulder and neck, and my venom immediately caused her muscles to lock into place. Her blood was sweet. The blood of someone who ate well and practiced magic, and I drank deep. I could not remember ever drinking blood that tasted as fresh and powerful as hers. As she began to sag against me, I considered finishing her off. I didn't need to, but I didn't need to stop, either. If only she didn't have information I wanted… but she did.
With great reluctance, I drew my fangs from her neck, exhaling a sigh of equal parts contentment and longing. I held her there for a moment, letting her rest against me as I basked in the afterglow of feeding while listening to the lovely rhythm of her shallow breaths and racing heart. When I judged I'd lingered long enough, I nicked my left palm with a nail and let a few drops of my blood fall onto her tongue—just enough to close the wounds and ease her recovery from the venom and blood loss.
Unlike the other vampires I'd met, my venom was not a deadly toxin. It was a paralytic, but it didn't slowly kill my prey if I left them alive. This was the first human I hadn't finished off while feeding since I was a child, and I'd never known what became of the survivors my father carried away in those years. I only learned the small fact because I'd once overheard him marvel at it in his laboratory. I was a little curious, but I had an eternity to experiment with something so mundane.
Even with the healing nature of my blood, another unique trait, it took her a few minutes before she began to move again. I cradled her against me to ensure she didn't fall to the worms below as I waited. If anyone would be finishing this delicious human off, it would be me. She didn't move much at first. She was very weak, and her healing would take some time. When she finally did look back at me, it was in awe as much as terror.
"Take your time. But not too much. I do not wish to be outside the castle when the sun rises, and I want to know everything about the town."
Her tale began slowly, and the longer it went on, the more confident it became. I hadn't expected a story, but it was far more captivating than someone listing away details. Instead, she told a tale of a village that grew up in the shadow of evil to become a famous and wealthy town. From just a few farmers to a burgeoning center of trade and adventure. Children across the kingdom were told stories of the heroes who made the town their home and their desperate struggle to hold the forest and its monsters at bay. Adventurers would brave the forest to cull the monsters and bring home magical treasures and reagents, but there would always be a cost.
I could actually feel those foreign emotions of pain and sorrow stirring within me as she painted her tapestry of grief: the widows, the mothers, the children, all paying an endless toll for the souls the darkness had claimed. Yet it had not always been so bleak. In the beginning, this place was little more than a town hall and a few humble buildings behind a wooden palisade, guarded by a modest garrison on the kingdom's edge.
But as time passed, the palisade became a wall, and when that wall could no longer hold the village, the people simply grew beyond it and built anew. The town now stood behind three walls, and if its growth continued, it would soon become a city with a fourth. I saw the people in her tale pushing back against the endless night, working tirelessly through each day, never losing hope as they labored side by side to make their home flourish.
As she spoke, I watched her wide-eyed, leaning in so I wouldn't miss a single word. Her storytelling had to be a Skill, and a high-tier one at that. I had never heard anyone weave a tale in such a way, and it was delightful to listen to. Of course, I recognized that much of it was nonsense. The Dark Forest was full of monsters, many of them intentionally cultivated, but it was rare for any of them to wander beyond its borders. Still, considering how powerful some of those creatures were, I supposed I could understand why people believed the forest itself was attacking during those rare incidents.
The place sounded fascinating, at least through the lens of how they viewed the world and how they thrived within it. When the woman finished her tale of the town's origins, she shifted to painting a vivid picture of what life there was like, weaving a dreamscape of the wonders that made it special. She spoke of the Adventurer's Guild, as much tavern and inn as it was an administrative hub, always overflowing with laughter and bravado as hopeful heroes planned their glorious futures. Then came the Market District, alive from dawn until dusk, where hawkers sold anything one could imagine and enchanted trinkets glittered from nearly every stall.
But when the insects began their haunting chorus, I knew our time was over. Their song was as much a warning as it was part of the forest's rhythm, and if I waited any longer, I'd be cutting it close to sunrise. The woman, now fully recovered, would need to hurry before the predators of the deep woods awoke.
I could tell from how she moved her hands that she was about to move on to another story, and I took the opportunity to interrupt.
"Our time has come to an end. The dawn-song has begun. I must return home, and so must you. The most dangerous monsters in the forest will awaken soon."
She stared at me in confusion, clearly not expecting me to honor my word. Truthfully, the thought of breaking that promise hadn't crossed my mind since her story began. I already found myself entertaining the notion of visiting her town one day to hear more. A silly fantasy, perhaps, but a pleasant one.
Fear lingered in her posture, yet when I rose, she stood as well, eyes darting downward as if expecting the deathworms to strike the moment she moved. They were still there, of course, but I took her hand and drew her with me as I stepped into the shadows. Three strides through the Shade carried us to the edge of the deep woods, where I stopped and pointed her toward the path home.
"You will need to run if you want to be out of the forest before they catch your scent." I turned, stepping back into the forest and heading for home.
"Thank you," she called after me.
I turned back to look at her in confusion, but she was already running.
TO BE CONTINUED...