This place brought back a lot of memories.
We weren’t as high up as back then, but this was where the three of us – me, Fisk, and Eyssa – had snuck off to find that bush to help with my sleeping mat. We hadn’t known at the time that while the leaves were normally harmless, crushing them would irritate the skin and set me itching. A lot of miserable baths later, and it still gave me nightmares.
Back when I had nightmares, anyway.
It had been many turns of the season since then, and we were all much older now. Adults, at last, and then some. We hadn’t set out on our journey right away upon reaching adulthood, but everyone involved had waited until each had reached at least level 5 in their Primary Class.
Or, in my case, level 5 in my [Flux Speaker] class.
My other class refused to go beyond level 1, for some reason. The only change to it was just last Move, when I had awakened to find the strange and confusing description replaced with something that was more like the other classes we all knew.
I hadn’t told anyone about the new description. For one thing, some of the words were ones I could understand the meaning of – because this was my class – but that we didn’t really have words for in our language. Usually, when that happened, I’d heard that the elders would sit down and work out the meaning, then come up with a word in our own tongue to match it. The menu would always adjust to use our words if possible, but sometimes something incomprehensible still appeared, and we had to rely on instinct to grasp it.
I didn’t know why it had changed, but the impressions left by my other self gave me some knowledge of where to go to find out. Since Eyssa wanted to go somewhere but wasn’t sure where, I was happy to provide direction… and that led us here, to the old familiar slope.
We weren’t nearly as high as before, since we were working our way around the side. The remnants of an old path took us most of the way around, but our clan never came this way anymore. We’d asked what lay beyond the rocky slopes, but the [Lorekeeper] of our clan didn’t know. One of his assistants had heard one of the old tales, though, and she told us some of what to expect… but the stories were murky and uncertain.
All we did know was that the rains that came about once a year – the ones that created the roaring waters and forced us up to the slopes to begin with – lived over here. We didn’t know what made the clouds make their yearly journey across the mountains into our lands, but who could know the thoughts of clouds?
So we knew that the land beyond would be wet. We also knew that it would have much more mana than where we roamed. The small band of Sylen elves we sometimes traded with passed through here infrequently, and most of our knowledge came from them. They had said the mana in this region could be wild and untamed. That matched the stories about why our clan did not travel here.
Not only was the trek across the mountains difficult for so many people, but this was a dangerous area filled with strange creatures. It was going to be dangerous – we all knew that – but Fisk had grown into a surprisingly careful leader. He had brought more than just Eyssa, myself, and him. There were four more young adults with us, each with skills to help fight, hunt, and forage.
I tightened my grip on my spear and sighed. Eyssa’s [Horizon Bearer] class made it easy for her to clamber down the opposite slope, but the rest of us were taking a much more careful approach. I wrinkled my snout as I caught another faint hint of what lay ahead of us.
When we finally rounded the curve of the slope and began heading downward, we caught glimpses of what lay beyond… and it had looked surprisingly welcoming, at first. A vast expanse of green stretched out before us, the canopy of trees thick and bright. But they weren’t any trees I was familiar with.
Worse was the stench that drifted up the mountain, more and more often as we descended. It made me want to gag. It smelled of rot and sickness, a cloying, heavy scent that turned the stomach. And now that we were getting closer, I could even feel the mingling of Aqua and Entropic mana that this place was steeped in.
I had found a source of Aqua mana once before… a great cluster of it deep within the earth that we had tapped to nourish our campsite. I suspected that a similar mass of Entropic mana was somewhere within that forest. I’d doubted it at first, since the canopy looked so lush and green, but as we neared the foothills of the mountain, it became clear that the green was wrong… strange, and too intense.
Eyssa understood this as well as anyone. She had stopped before entering the strange forest and lifted her hand in a sign of caution. The rest of us slowed, with only Fisk stepping forward to speak to her.
He had matured a lot over the last several Moves and no longer got annoyed when Eyssa told him what to do while she was exploring. Apparently, he now considered delegation to be part of being a good leader.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I was still close enough to hear them speaking, and I perked my ears to try to make out the conversation.
“The footing here just isn’t safe,” Eyssa was saying. “It looks like the roots are buried into the ground just like in the forests we know, but the ground isn’t just a covering of moss – it’s soft. And not soft like mud. It’s soft like stew. We could sink into it if we’re not careful.”
Fisk’s ears dipped back in annoyance. “Can you find us a safe route through?”
Eyssa gave a slight flick of her tail in affirmation. “Of course I can,” she replied. “But it will take time, and we’ll have to be careful. We know there are dangerous animals here of some kind. You’ll have to follow close behind me in case I run into one.”
I didn’t hear his response to that, but I saw him turn around and motion for us to come closer.
“Keep close to Eyssa,” Fisk said, “but give her room to do her thing. She’s our guide through here, and you’re to follow the path she shows you exactly.” He looked hard at Vedas. “Don’t wander off.”
Vedas, only a little older than me, still managed to look abashed with his ears drooping. He had already wandered off twice on our way from the encampment to this place.
I spoke up then, adding my own warning. “This place has a lot of Entropic mana.” I gestured to the trees. “That’s why it smells so bad. If anyone gets hurt, be sure to see Dashe immediately.”
The young man in question nodded seriously. He was quiet and solemn, which was unusual for a healer, but the one time I had seen him get serious – when Eyssa had broken her hand – he had thrown himself into the task with an intensity I rarely saw from anyone. It had been an easy choice to request that he join us on this exploration.
Fisk twitched an ear but then pointed toward me. “She has a good point.”
That was all the acknowledgment he seemed to think it needed. It wasn’t that Fisk disliked me, but lately I felt as though my abilities were something he wasn’t quite sure how to deal with. I could sort of understand that. His job was to make sure everyone’s talents were used properly, but he didn’t really understand mine, so he didn’t know what to do with me. It was easier for him to just think of me as a normal [Flux Speaker]. Not that we had many of those in the clan, but at least he knew what one was supposed to do.
Entering the marsh – for that’s what it truly was – proved to be a slow and nerve-wracking experience. Eyssa found us a solid path, but even then, our toes sank into the ground like we were walking on a thick layer of mud. The only bright spot was that the moss really was moss; rather than coating our feet in muck, it usually sprang back into place after we passed.
She tried to keep us walking on the roots of the trees whenever possible, and that helped. Elves were good at keeping their balance on roots and branches, and all of us had excellent footing. That was just part of being a Calen elf.
The stench didn’t let up, and as we entered the bog, the canopy above us cut the light off completely. Dashe and I both filled the crystal spear tips we carried with some Lumen mana by casting a simple light spell we both knew. The drain on my internal mana was insignificant by this point… [Flux Speakers] had impressive mana stores even at my level, and my Lumen affinity had risen thanks to my [Soul Keeper] class.
Unfortunately, the extra light didn’t help much with the unfamiliar shapes around us. The trees were gnarled and twisted, with strange, knobby growths upon them. Eyssa, being the curious sort, stared at one of the growths and reached out toward it… but withdrew her hand a moment later with a shake of her head.
If even she was unwilling to touch one, I wanted no part of it.
We were all very silent as we moved through the unfamiliar marsh. It made me uneasy, because the marsh itself was also silent. I didn’t see any small animals – no birds, not even many insects. A few buzzed around, perhaps drawn by the rotting smell, but I didn’t see anything that was actually rotting. The trees, though sickly and twisted, certainly seemed alive enough.
The place was so saturated with the stench that it was hard to pin down its source. If I had to guess, it was either the marsh beneath our feet or the strange growths we kept seeing. They were rough and pitted, about the size of my head, and I wondered if they might be eggs of some sort… but that would mean the entire marsh was full of eggs, with nothing that had laid them. The thought made me uneasy.
What unsettled me even more was that, on the way here, none of the impressions I’d received during sleep had hinted that this place would feel so wrong.
It took us hours to crawl through the marsh, but over time we grew better at picking our steps. Our pace improved, though it was still agonizingly slow. As we went deeper, Dashe and I dismissed our light spells. The trees themselves had begun to emit a faint, strangely comforting glow. I sensed Lumen essence within them, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Were the plants themselves converting another essence into Lumen? I’d never heard of that before, but I knew some animals could do it – and elves definitely could – so maybe trees could as well. It was a question for another time. For now, at least, we had light to travel by.
By the end of the day, there were still no signs of leaving the marsh. Eyssa called a halt and said there were some larger trees nearby. The ground was too soft and yielding to camp on, but it wouldn’t be the first time we had slept in the branches.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Fisk asked once we’d begun climbing up to rest for the night. We’d found a few trees that didn’t have any growths on them – or at least none near where we intended to sleep – and we were making the most of it.
I shouldered my pack, a large leather carrying sack instead of the woven plant fibers our clothing was usually made from, and pulled out some dried jerky. “I’m sure this is the way,” I said, “but I don’t know what we’ll be facing. I know that after this, we’ll have to pass through a barren land… but what we’re looking for is in a forest not unlike the one we left.”
“I hope most of the trip isn’t like this,” Eyssa murmured, wrapping her tail around one leg. “I like finding new places, and I leveled up once we started walking in here, but this place doesn’t feel right to me.” She hesitated. “It makes sense that we never came here. There’s nothing to even hunt, is there?”
“Nothing we’ve seen,” Solen said from the tree next to ours, letting out a sigh. “Every story we’ve heard said there were dangerous animals here. Maybe they’ve migrated away for some reason… but I think that just worries me more.”
Fisk’s tail twitched in acknowledgment. Solen was the only pure [Hunter] in our group, and he trusted her judgment about wild game and predators. “I think we should assume something dangerous is here somewhere,” he said. “We’ll keep at least one of us awake after nightfall and rotate who’s on watch.”
“That’s a good idea,” Eyssa agreed. “Maybe what’s dangerous here only comes out at night. Or maybe we’re just not in the right season for it.”
“I doubt that,” Fisk said, propping his pack against the trunk and leaning back. “Do you think this is just going to be a long walk, Tastka?”
I sighed. “No. I think we’re just getting started.”
Diamon