Eternal Forest: Savage Rising

by Joe Naff

  Killika thrust his hand forward, tossing Azalea to the ground on her back. Full of rage, she popped back to her feet with her arms outstretched. A small birch tree behind Killika suddenly snapped forward, wrapping one of its flexible branches around his neck. The soldiers around Azalea sprang towards her, but Killika raised a hand to stop them.

  Even though Killika was at her mercy, he seemed as calm and in control as ever, and it made Azalea’s rage burn even hotter. “Go on, kill me,” Killika taunted. “Squeeze the life from me. My dying thoughts will be of my fire demons ripping your friends apart.”

  Azalea lifted her hand towards him. It trembled wildly. She knew what she had to do, what she should do. Killika would kill her friends, but wouldn’t that be a worthy sacrifice to stop this monster? Swallowing her fear, she pulled her fingers closer together. The wooden noose around Killika’s neck began to tighten, yet she still saw no fear in his eyes.

  “They will do it slowly,” Killika continued. His voice was weaker from the obstruction of his airflow, but no less confident. “They’ll start with their flesh, burning it slowly like meat over a fire. They will cry out in agony as they are cooked alive. Their bones will be broken, one by one, letting them feel the full pain of each before the next is snapped. Their eyes will be burned right out of their heads.”

  A tear rolled down Azalea’s cheek and her hand shook even more violently. Her chest heaved with heavy breaths, but she did not loosen her magical grip upon the balisekt lord.

  Killika grasped at the branch around his neck, tugging at it in vain. “And I will save the human you fancy for last!” he shouted as loudly as he could manage. With a gasp, Azalea loosened the branch a little bit. Killika smiled. “Oh yes, I saw the way you two looked at each other. His suffering will be the greatest of all. And my demons will leave him alive as long as possible, letting him savor every last moment of complete agony.”

  It was more than her soul could bear. Azalea released her captive and dropped to her knees. Tears poured from her eyes and Killika rubbed his neck. Once he had his composure again, he violently slapped his hand across her face, sending her falling helplessly to her side on the forest floor.

  Killika took deep, hissy breaths as Azalea lifted her upper body off the ground. She was dizzy and her cheek felt numb from the impact. When she got to her knees, Killika grabbed her by the fabric of her sleeve and pulled her up to her feet with a violent jerk. He lifted her up until only her toes could touch the ground and looked angrily into her tear-soaked face. “Now, march,” he demanded.

  Chapter 21

  There were often times when Firefly would find her small size a hindrance. Like all faeries, her tiny form often left her at a great disadvantage when dealing with the larger tribes of the forest. However, for as often as she cursed her size for making her life more difficult, there were those few times when it felt like a blessing from the Lady herself.

  This was one of those times.

  The moment the balisekts snatched Azalea and dragged her out of the storehouse, Firefly zipped up and hid amongst the thick, wooden rafters that held up the ceiling. It wasn’t cowardice that sent her into hiding, even when her new friends were being taken captive; it was cunning. Against the might of the balisekt army, they would have no chance of victory, but if they still had a friend on the outside, working to help them without the enemy knowing, a small bit of hope would remain. As long as Killika’s soldiers didn’t know about her, they would never think to look.

  Once everyone had been captured, Firefly fluttered over to the wall. Clinging to the boards, she watched the events unfold upon the desolated earth from a knot pushed out of the wood. Hidden from sight, she witnessed the summoning of the fire demons, she listened to Killika’s plans for poor Azalea, and she heard his shocking reveal of her true identity.

  It pained her deeply to stay in hiding as Azalea was dragged away into the forest, but her only hope of saving Sunrise and their new friends was to wait until the bulk of the army was gone. As soon as only the fire demons remained, Firefly raced back through the storehouse and out into the marketplace as fast as her wings would carry her.

  With their trap sprung and the army on the march, the marketplace was now truly abandoned. The emptiness cast an eerie silence over the desolation. The high sun had an unnaturally red glow to it, making even the sky seem covered in blood. The dead bodies in the dust seemed even more still, and the smells of blood and smoke in the air was still thick.

  Firefly rose higher into the air and rested on the top of a leaning wooden pole. A length of rope hung limp at its side, trailing down to a singed end. A small gust of wind picked up the rope, making it wave gently in the air. She sighed. She and Sunrise had been visiting in Stonemouth for a couple of days now, and she could still vividly remember the long train of colorful flags that hung over the marketplace from this rope. It had brought such a festive, joyous feeling to the marketplace. Now, it was just another ghost of happier times that haunted the chaos.

  High up on her perch, she looked off towards the side of the mountain. She could still just barely make out the tall, stone structures of the city. Her heart hurt to think of all the surviving dwarves cowering in the buildings as the massive fire demon patrolled outside. Staying in the city had been a wonderful experience for her, though Sunrise seemed to have more than a few complaints. The dwarves were very hospitable, and their accommodations in the cliff-side metropolis had been excellent.

  Of course, the dwarves were hosting creatures from every tribe in the Lands of Order. Travelers had come many miles to the city of Stonemouth to take of the bounty and bring it back to their home territories. Even though she and Firefly had been sent for another purpose, she had enjoyed taking part in the festivities.

  A small gust of wind forced her to grip tightly to the poll. She took another quick look around at her surroundings. Confident she was truly alone, she leaped off the top of the pole and raced through the air towards the city. Her tiny body zipped quickly passed overturned carts, over bloody bodies, and under partially collapsed awnings.

  The closer she flew to the city, the more sounds began to rise from the silence. She could hear the soldiers in the distance, hissing and clicking as they conversed between each other in this calm between battles. There was a low grumble, too. A deep, powerful rumbling rolled through the air and crawled eerily across her skin.

  She knew what it was, though the thought made her cringe. As she and Sunrise escaped into the northern Wilds, she’d seen a glimpse of the large fire demon as it trampled the marketplace and anyone in its path. Even after they reached the safety of the trees, the terrible sounds it made echoed through the forest.

  Truthfully, she wasn’t heading into the city with any kind of plan. Her friends were captured and she was their only hope, but she didn’t know what to do to save them. All she did know was that she could do nothing by herself, and the dwarves in Stonemouth were her only chance to find assistance. She wasn’t worried about getting into the city undetected; faeries were quite good at coming and going secretly in the world of the large creatures. It was convincing anyone to help her that had her worried.

  Firefly lowered her altitude as the first of the balisekt soldiers came into her view. There were two of them, backs turned to her, talking calmly like old friends around a campfire. She was about to pass around them, but curiosity compelled her to land softly on a nearby tree branch and spy on them. She grasped onto a small twig and watched the two soldiers silently.

  Unable to understand balisekt tongue, she had no idea the topic of their conversation. It was the eerie familiarity of the scene perplexing her. The Savage Lands were home to all manner of terrible creatures. They were an endless wilderness, filled with brutal monsters that lived like wild beasts. They had no civilization, no order, no law, or so she thought. With all the chaos of the attack, these were oddities she’d never paused to consider until now.

  These could be a pair of humans exchanging friendly banter as they w
atched their herd in the fields. This could be two dwarves bartering the prices of their smith-made goods. This could even be two faeries talking over tea. In this one moment of reflection, the balisekts seemed just as civilized, just as orderly, as any other creature she’d ever met.

  Then the beast roared again.

  Now so close to the city, the mighty cry of the fire demon echoed off the stone surfaces, amplifying it to a near deafening volume. Firefly was forced to cover her ears with her hands, but the soldiers didn’t seem fazed by it. This was what she needed to see to snap her from her moment of contemplation. The balisekts may have been more orderly than anyone could have expected, but they were still the enemy. They still meant to do harm to those she loved, and she had a job to do.

  Firefly lifted off the branch and zipped through the air. She was now at the base of the cliff. The tall, stone structures carved from its face were massive enough for the larger races, let alone a tiny faerie. Long, rectangular sheets of polished granite rose from the forest floor and up the side of the mountain like blocks stacked by a giant. Along the smooth surfaces, square windows and entryways had been carved out. The city rose higher than her tiny eyes could see, but Sunrise had also mentioned being unable to see the spire from the ground when standing this close.

  The forest floor at the base of the mountain was littered with soldiers, but far fewer than the massive army that had entered the city. They were all standing around as calmly as the two she’d observed from the tree. This was clearly not a fighting force. No, these were left behind to ensure the dwarves behaved themselves in the absence of their new master, and should they try to rise together and overpower their prison guards, the fire demon would ensure their rebellion was a short one.

  She finally saw the beast again out of the corner of her eye. The demon lay on the ground with its legs tucked under it like a large cat. Its head was up and alert and its flaming tail whipped slowly from side to side along the ground, kicking up cinders into the air with each swipe. The ground around it looked like the remains of a massive campfire. All the vegetation was turned to ash and any small twigs around were reduced to crumbling sticks of charcoal. It breathed as loudly as a dragon, with low grumbles echoing off the city walls with each exhale.

  Like the smaller demons holding Sunrise and their new friends prisoner, this massive beast seemed to be sitting idly by, waiting for telepathic instructions from its master. With all of the demonic creatures behaving so mildly, Firefly could only deduce that things were going in the Balisekt Lord’s favor down in the elven territories, and it filled her with worry.

  Firefly followed a nearby butterfly soaring through the air towards the nearest building. She mimicked its movements until she reached the window, trying to keep the nearby soldiers from taking a second look. After a quick aerial dash, she soared up the side of the cliff and landed on the stone windowsill of a building several stories up. Positive she had not been detected, she hopped down into the structure.

  As impressive as the stone buildings were from the outside, their true wonders lay within. The homes were cut deep into the mountain, deep enough to require pillars of stone to be left intact to prevent the mountain from collapsing. Most dwellings were simple, with low ceilings and small doors between rooms, though all the rooms were arranged in a row so they could face the cliff and let in light. These homes at the base of the cliff were filled with simple furnishings like wood-carved tables and chairs with no ornate decorations. Woven rugs offered dwarven feet relief from the rough, stone floors.

  This was not a home for dwarven nobility. The upper class lived much higher on the cliff. Down here, near the base of the mountain, was where the common folk lived. This was an apartment for a single family. There was a sleeping room as well as a common room. An iron stove stood in the corner next to a small, oak table. It was around this table she saw the family of dwarves sitting together. There were three of them: a husband and wife along with their young girl.

  The chairs were huddled together, letting the family sit as closely together as possible. Their hands were interlocked and their heads were bowed. The girl was young, no older than five, and crying softly into her mother’s chest. The parents were mostly silent, save for a few childlike whimpers and sighs. This was a family living in fear, huddled around their table and silently praying to the Lady to save them.

  Firefly glided through the room and landed in the middle of the table. The father noticed her presence first, looking down at her with a puzzled expression as he tapped his wife on the shoulder.

  “A faerie?” the wife said. The child immediately poked her head up. Her face was soaked from hours of crying.

  “Who are you?” the child asked before sniffing loudly.

  “I’m Firefly.”

  “I’ve seen you before,” the husband said. “You and that elf from the Temple have been about the market.”

  “You’re an acolyte, aren’t you?” the wife questioned. “I’ve seen those robes before.”

  Firefly nodded. She was technically an acolyte in training, but she didn’t see the need to correct her. “The elf you saw with me is Sunrise. We are from the Temple at Tranquility.”

  “It seems Her fortune smiles on you if you survived the attack,” the husband said. “Was your companion as fortunate?”

  “He is alive, but he was captured,” she answered.

  “Captured?” the wife questioned. “The balisekts are taking prisoners now?”

  Firefly wasn’t sure what to say. It was a rather unique set of circumstances. “You don’t understand. We were with the Sorceress and…”

  “The balisekts have our Sorceress?!” the wife asked in alarm.

  With a heavy sigh, Firefly nodded.

  “Where have they taken her?” the husband inquired.

  “To the south,” Firefly said. “Into elven territory.”

  “No doubt to continue their conquest,” the wife said. “Lady, help us all.”

  “Why won’t she?” the little girl asked Firefly.

  Firefly was puzzled. She took a few steps across the table, making her way over to the child. “What do you mean?”

  The girl wiped tears from her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Why won’t the Lady help us?” she asked. “We pray and pray for her to save us, to make the monsters go away, but she doesn’t help.”

  Firefly’s heart hurt. She had no answer for this child, no words to soothe her soul. In truth, she had been wondering the same thing, and it made her wonder if Sunrise had been right about her all along. She too had been praying silently, as she had been taught at the Temple. Her mentor’s words haunted her mind. She didn’t want him to be right, but she couldn’t deny that her faith was weak in this moment.

  “You said your friends were being held captive,” the wife said. “Are they with the Sorceress?”

  “No,” she responded with a shake of her head. “They’re being held by four more fire demons south of the market.”

  “More demons?!” the little girl squealed as she buried her face in her mother’s chest, her tears returning.

  The husband slammed his hand down on the table, rocking it under Firefly’s tiny feet like an earthquake. Her flapping wings caught her before she fell over and she hovered just above the surface until the tremor stopped. “Can’t they see we’re terrified enough?!” he bellowed. “Soldiers patrol the base of the mountain; wander our corridors within the city. No one is allowed to leave. We are prisoners in our own homes.”

  “Held only by a few hundred soldiers,” Firefly responded. “There are still thousands of dwarves in the city. There are elves, faeries, and centaurs as well. We can take the guards that patrol the city and swarm the force on ground. Rise together and you can overpower them.”

  “But not the demon,” the husband reminded her. “The creature will crush anything in its path. I saw what it did in the marketplace.”

  “The demon is a spirit of death,” Firefly said. “It is the enemy of the Lady, and the
Lady will help us defeat it.”

  “How do you know that?” the wife asked. “How can you possibly know that?”

  Firefly searched her mind, searched her faith, trying to answer that question. She needed an answer, not just for these frightened dwarves, but also for herself. Fortunately, the Lady finally came through, and Firefly found her faith once again, in the distant rumbling of thunder echoing in from the south.

  Chapter 22

  “They were a sight unlike any other, as though the trees and shrubs themselves stepped out of the ground, taking up weapons to fight the Lady’s battle. Shimmer had described the dryads to us, but seeing them for myself was beyond anything my imagination had crafted.”

  Valdin’s notes from the Battle of Tranquility

  The army stopped when the rains came. The downpour had begun in the evening, and didn’t let up for the rest of the night. Azalea wasn’t sure if Killika had intended to rest his army for the night, or if the rain altered his plans to march on the elves under cover of darkness. Either way, it meant a long, sleepless night under a driving rain with no shelter.

  She’d sat there all night, resting her back against the trunk of a maple tree. She had no more tears left to cry, so it seemed the Lady Herself wept for her through the sky, and weep She did. It had been months since the Lands of Order saw such a downpour. The droplets were large and numerous, and the sound of them beating against the leaves above were louder than her own thoughts.

  It was just before dawn when the storm finally moved on to the north. The morning shed its light on a revitalized forest, but Azalea found no joy in the rejuvenation. She knew what horrors the day would bring.