The wind howled as the first rift tore open in the sky, bleeding shadows into the realm of the Bookborn. Like spilled ink, they slithered across the parchment hills, erasing everything they touched — stories, memories, even entire landscapes. The air reeked of forgotten things: broken lullabies, unfinished dreams, and once-loved characters now turned monstrous.
Mira stood at the edge of the oncoming dark, quill trembling in her hand.
Behind her, the Bookborn braced themselves, forming protective circles of glyphs and light, chanting languages long lost to time. But it wasn't enough. The shadows were too many — stories so deeply abandoned they no longer obeyed the rules of ink and reason.
One shadow lunged at Mira.
Instinctively, she raised the quill but fear overtook focus, and her inner energy surged wildly. Her fingers glowed, veins lit like roots under her skin, and suddenly
She was no longer human.
Her legs thickened into strong bark-covered limbs, her arms elongated into vines with fingers of twisting ivy. Her hair became leaves, fluttering in the wind, her eyes glowed emerald — deep and ancient.
Mira had shapeshifted — not by spell, but by instinct — into something older than any book.
An Earth Dryad.
The ground responded instantly. Tremors rippled from her feet. Roots shot up from beneath, snaring the shadow in place. With a cry that echoed like wind through a forest, Mira struck the ground with her vine-covered hand — and a massive thorned wall rose between the Bookborn and the invaders.
The shadows shrieked, recoiling from the life-force.
She had not just defended — she had rewritten the battlefield.
But with power came chaos. She felt the raw energy surging — unpredictable, wild, tied to stories of nature and fury. She wasn't sure how to control it.
"Mira!" shouted the braided Bookborn. "Return to yourself — or you'll lose your voice in the vines!"
But the shadow wasn't done yet. One final, massive creature rose from the ink — shaped like a forgotten hero but twisted into rage.
And Mira, now the Dryad, stepped forward.
The war had begun.
(Fun stories by Gabrielle Ehi).