by Kyle West
AS I WAITED FOR MORNING to come during my watch, the sunlight did little to diminish the gloom of the forest. Even the fire had a hard time pushing back the darkness. The air was cool and damp, even with the desert not fifty miles southwest. Here in the forested highlands, what was left of winter clung on stubbornly, the thick gray clouds only adding to the dismal atmosphere.
We ate a light breakfast before packing up. We checked the opening of the Bunker one last time, but it was unchanged. I was sure Isaru was making a mental note of this place, so that he could come back later. I didn’t know when that chance would ever come, but it seemed like something Isaru would do.
For now, the priority was making it through the forest, and unfortunately, that meant doing a lot of backtracking today.
So, we set off down the trail we had come from, following its course over hills and down into marshy valleys where our every step squished on the xen beneath. The feeling of water sloshing in my boots and soaking my socks was not pleasant, and I could only hope we were out of this muck soon.
It became clear that the going back was not going to be as easy as the way going forward. It was as if new paths had formed in the trees while we had been asleep. The trail diverged at several points, and it was hard to tell which way was the right one. It made me mad that we had failed to take note of the junctures; in fact, I could have sworn that there was only a single trail yesterday, although it was possible we missed a few, especially considering we rarely took the time to look back.
Plus, another thing was bothering me. Trails meant people, or at least animals, but there seemed to be neither here, which was unsettling. The trail was too narrow for comfort, with branches often reaching out and brushing our shoulders, but at the same time, it was of a uniform width, except for where the occasional, gnarled root intruded. Guiding ourselves by the sun was impossible, given the thickness of the treetops. Even if we were going the correct direction, we were at the mercy of the trail itself, which might split into two more trails just a mile later.
In short, there was no telling what direction we were heading, and trying to backtrack was just as confusing. All we could hope for was an end to the forest, where we could reorient ourselves and hopefully not lose too much progress.
Isaru suddenly stopped in the middle of the trail. “We’ve been here before.”
I looked around. This stretch of forest looked the same as any other. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “It’s as if this place is trying to trick us.”
“We need to get some height,” I said. “Find out which direction to go.”
Isaru looked into the trees. “The canopy is so thick that I doubt I could squeeze my way through. We just need to find a break in the trees, or a hill to climb up...” He paused. “Actually, if we could find that Bunker again, we could try to find a way up the cliff it’s built into. That would be a sure way of getting a sense of direction.”
“Well, if you’re right in that we’ve been this way before, that would mean we would have to turn back, and that should lead us to the Bunker.”
Isaru’s shoulders sagged. “Yeah, as long as we don’t get the next few turns wrong.”
“Well, hopefully we’ll remember what we did. We should mark things from now on. That way if we come back, we’ll know we’ve been there before, and what direction we tried.”
We turned around and walked back the way we had come. It was long before we came to a fork in the trail. We picked the direction we believed to be correct, marking a nearby tree with an X before continuing on.
This place had a strange way of leading us astray, though. It seemed as if no matter what we tried, we were led into a darker, denser, and nastier part of the forest than we’d left behind, and trying to go back somehow only made it worse.
That was when the trail came to a dead end.
We stopped, just staring in disbelief. This was the first time a trail had done this, and the fact that it was doing so now meant we were probably in the most remote part of the forest. What was worse, it was dark – almost as dark as it had been yesterday evening, but it was still afternoon. Or at least, I thought it was afternoon.
I couldn’t imagine what it would be like in a few hours.
“Everything we try just makes it worse,” Isaru said. “Maybe we should just do the opposite of what we think is right.”
“If everything we try makes it worse, wouldn’t that make it worse, too?”
Isaru said nothing. He couldn’t argue with that logic.
“Come on,” I said. “We’ll get out of this. We’ve gotten out of much worse.”
The trees around us seemed to lean in oppressively. The boughs above had thickened, locking out most of the sunlight.
“I’m going to have to get out the torch,” Isaru said.
As he dug in his pack, I got a cold, familiar feeling that at first I couldn’t place. I was wondering where I’d felt it, when I realized it wasn’t a feeling at all, but rather the absence of feeling.
The only other time I’d sensed this was on the night we had entered the reversion. That was when the truth hit me.
“We’re in a reversion. There can be no other explanation.”
Isaru paused what he was doing. “I should have guessed. Something has felt off about this place all day...”
He trailed off, apparently not sure how to continue. Reversions had a way of draining the hope of the person who was in it, and in this case, it was compounded by the fact that we were truly in what seemed to be a hopeless situation. Reversions were like cancerous growths that were separate from the Xenofold, and they were highly dangerous.
That said, any life that might be lurking here might be hostile to us. Perhaps that included the trees, all of which seemed to exude an air of malevolence, which was strange, considering the fact that they were trees. Perhaps it wasn’t the trees themselves, but whatever force was behind the trees...
“Gather wood for a fire,” Isaru said. “I have some kindling in my pack. With luck, we can get a blaze going so we can at least see. We’ll light the torch and move on. And pray it can’t get any worse than this.”
I didn’t know what else to do, so I went to the side of the trail to gather wood. Everything I found, however, was far from suitable – damp, moss-covered, and decaying. Isaru had worked miracles before, though, and he needed to work one now more than ever.
I set it on the ground, arranging the logs and sticks, still mostly green, side by side. Isaru retrieved his tinderbox and was immediately showering sparks into his small pile of precious, dry kindling. That kindling was our only hope of battling the encroaching darkness.
Within a seconds, a small blaze had caught, which Isaru fed patiently with small twigs that took forever to light properly. In time, the fire seemed stronger, dancing upwards, and it was at this point that Isaru started feeding it the smaller logs I’d gathered. The flame crackled and sizzled as it blazed against the wet wood, and always, Isaru was feeding it the smaller sticks. Soon, the flames illuminated our dark surroundings, the firelight dancing against the hundreds of tree trunks. The shifting shadows made the forest seem all the more menacing.
It was only when the fire was going strong that Isaru stepped back, keeping a hand on the hilt of his blade.
And within the shade of the trees, a figure stepped out.
Isaru and I drew our swords, but this person, too – whoever he was – had his sword drawn as well. More than that, the outline of a crossbow on his back was visible. I knew then exactly who it was: the same man who had saved us in the canyon over a week ago. He wore his usual duster with that black hat pulled low, while it looked like he didn’t have a face at all. Apparently, he was still wearing black face paint, though the light of the flames made his eyes appear bright.
I couldn’t get past the shock that his man had followed us all the way here without either of us knowing it.
Even as Isaru stepped forward, placing himself between the man and me, the man broke the
silence. “This Forest is trying to kill you, and I’m here to lend a sword.” His voice came out deep, and menacing. It felt more as if he were threatening us than offering to help. “At any moment, demons will be swarming this trail. I suggest you do whatever you can to get ready.”
“What do you mean, demons?” Isaru asked. “What is the meaning of this? Why are you following us?”
The man came closer, holding up a hand in a placating gesture. That didn’t make either Isaru, or me, lower our blades.
“You followed us...” I said. “This entire time! Who...?”
“There is no time for any of that. I have traveled these woods before. I had hoped...well, none of that matters. Answers will come later. Just know the Forest of Mazes kills all who do not know how to cross it.”
And then, something rushed out of the trees, just beyond vision of the firelight.
“Fight for your lives!” the man shouted, turning to engage whatever it was that had entered the trail.
It was hard to see, but whatever this thing was, it was quite large and ran on multiple legs. It rushed forward, and by the light of fire, I could see that it was a monster in the truest sense of the word. It looked like the creature from Mia’s dreams, the one her parents transformed into...
A crawler.
I had little time to react, instead running forward to help the stranger. While he fought off the monster directly, it gave me the opportunity to run around to its side. Somehow, I knew beneath that shell was a soft underbelly, and that it was the only way to down it.
As such, I knelt and stabbed upward, burying the length of my blade deep inside its guts. As it gave a high shriek, another crawler burst from the trees, attacking Isaru with a long tail reminiscent of a scorpion’s which he only barely managed to flail off with his blade. The stranger turned his attention to the new threat, plunging his blade in a narrow gap in the creature’s shell.
And then, there were more, scuttling from ahead. There was no choice, now; I assumed Silence, and instantly, all went still, and my senses heightened. All the same, the darkness would make the fight incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
Only one form would work in this situation, a form designed to flow based off instinct rather than input from the senses. It was difficult to pull off, but nothing else would work.
So, I entered Sightform. Even so, the form wasn’t perfect; it had been engineered for human opponents. Immediately, I became aware of every sensation. The darkness was nearly complete, so I could only go based off intuition.
By the time I had fully entered the form, another one of those monsters charged. Even with the aid of the trance, I couldn’t avoid the creature’s tackle; in fact, something told me to eat that tackle rather than trying to dodge it – an example of how Sightform urged its user to do something counterintuitive. The tackle really didn’t do much, and I was able to fall somewhat gracefully, redirecting the energy to roll and find my feet again – right below another of the monsters, which I disemboweled from underneath. I paid little attention to the disgusting innards that rained down, instead focusing on the next threat.
Now standing, though, there was little I could do but defend, and I erred toward dodging attacks more than directly parrying them. There were a lot of attacks to account for, in the darkness, and I was in the thick of all of the crawlers. In fact, they seemed to be going only after me.
Multiple sets of three eyes, all white and glowing, stared back at me from the darkness, always moving. Had I been trusting my senses, I would have been disoriented within seconds. All I could do was keep them focused on me; I doubted Isaru could execute Sightform, and for all this stranger’s skill, I doubted he could, either. If I could distract them, it would give them opportunities to do the actual work of killing.
The tail of the crawlers directly in front of me arched back to strike. I ducked only just in time for it to stab the bark, which rained chips of wood on my shoulders. I attempted to slash its soft underbelly, but it turned just in time for my blade to glance off its armored side harmlessly.
The man, his wide-brimmed hat low, fought like someone possessed by the light of the fire. He seemed to know exactly where to gut these creatures, because his blade found the right spots to stab and slash seemingly without effort. Any monster that challenged him was soon twitching into lifelessness on the ground. There were but a few left, but already, I was tiring; Sightform was unfamiliar to me, despite me having accidentally used it in the Spring Tournament. Forms that were unfamiliar drained more resources, and this was no exception.
However, it was enough to keep me alive before I was rescued by the stranger, who stabbed deeply into the crawler fighting me. The monster gave a loud squeal before sinking to the ground its eyes closing.
There were two left, now. Together, the stranger and I faced off with them, with Isaru circling around for an opportunity to strike at their flanks. However, with twin screeches, the crawlers screeched and turned, dashing into the trees.
What remained was a scene of chaos. There were about ten twitching monster corpses, their glowing white eyes fading into death. Whether they were insect, or reptile, I couldn’t decide.
“Crawlers,” Isaru said. “There were swarms of them during the Mindless Wars, when reversions plagued most of the Red Wild. I never thought them to exist in numbers like this.”
The stranger nodded to confirm this. “Believe me, the world will learn a painful lesson regarding them in the coming months.”
Until now, I had only seen the single one in real life; on the way to the Sanctum, we had seen a dead one floating south on the Colorado. It had spooked the Askaleen quite a bit. Other than that, I had only seen the creatures in dreams. In one of those dreams, Anna had the ability to tame one, or perhaps that one had already been tamed.
One thing I knew for sure was that this stranger was the only reason we were still alive, and his appearance was all too convenient. Isaru had hit the mark: he had probably been following us this entire time.
The only question was why.
I cleaned the gunk off my blade on a nearby tree, wishing for a stream I could wash in. I was covered head to toe in monster blood and guts. I sheathed the blade, only to notice that the stranger was already walking down the trail, in the direction we had come from.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”
He paused, then turned back. “Follow if you want to stay alive.”
“You know the way out?" Isaru asked.
The man was quiet for a moment. “I’ve made it through this place once before. With a little luck, we’ll make it through this time, too.”
Isaru and I caught up with him. I had a million questions.
“How does the forest change its paths? We came here, and when we turned back, the trail we were on had disappeared.”
I noticed, for the first time, that the man was smaller than I first gave him credit for; his loose garb had a way of making him seem larger than he actually was.
“It’s the trees. They can rise out of the xen without making a single sound. They do it when you’re not watching.”
I suppressed a chill. Just the thought alone gave me the creeps.
“How much longer until we’re out?” I asked.
“We are in the heart of the forest. Always, the trees lead you to the heart. There, they use the crawlers to kill you once all goes dark.” He paused. “That fire panicked them, so they attacked sooner. I lost your trail for a while; I’m a good tracker, but this place makes all my skill for naught. It was only your fire that allowed me to find you.”
The man’s strange, black-painted face made him all but unrecognizable in the gloom, while the hat was pulled so low that his eyes were completely hidden. This stranger was almost as unnerving as the trees.
“Who are you, and why are you following us?” I asked. When the man didn’t answer, I added, “What do you know about us?”
I meant, did he know where we were going, and did he have some stake in it
.
“As I said before, in the canyon, I can say little other than it is in my interest that you succeed. I am neither your friend nor your enemy. I have my own reasons for helping. Reasons that you will never know. So only accept my help, and when you are out of these woods, our paths will then separate.”
“Will they, truly?” Isaru asked. “From the looks of things, you’re just going to follow us again.”
On this point, the man was silent.
“Do you have a name?” I asked.
The man hesitated, as if he were debating whether he’d be spending long enough to warrant giving us a name. “You may call me Hasar.”
I got the feeling that “Hasar” wasn’t his real name, but I wasn’t going to argue it. There was an initiate in the Sanctum named Hasar, so I thought perhaps he might be Elekai. Certainly, he had the blade for it.
To my surprise, the trail had returned. If what Hasar said about the trees was true, and they really did want us dead, I didn’t understand why they didn’t all just spring out of the ground to trap us.
As if reading my thoughts, Hasar explained. “As much as they hate you, they also fear you. But more than they fear you, they fear what you carry.”
Isaru looked at the torch, our only source of light. “I should have built that fire bigger.”
“No,” the man said. “You did right, even if you didn’t know what you were doing. There is a difference between a little fear and a lot. With a lot of fear, they might have lashed out, despite the rules of this place?”
“What rules?” I asked.
When Hasar answered, his voice was quiet. “For you to not to see your death, even as it happened. The trees do not want to be seen moving, for whatever reason.”
On impulse, I turned my head around to see if I could catch any of the trees moving. But they looked the same as they had before.
Hasar continued. “We are near the heart of the reversion, and this forest feeds off it. It has been so for decades now...there is a village not far to the east of here where they told me a bit about it, after I made it through. From the bleeding heart of this forest, it spreads like a cancer across the Wild, getting a little larger each year.”
