My hand moved on its own, reaching for my waist.
Empty.
I paused.
My fingers hovered there for a second before lowering slowly. No sword. No sheath. Even the rootlace Jason made me was gone, my only attire being a rough dark blue shirt that clung to me and worn gray joggers.
"...Right."
I exhaled lightly and lifted my head.
The forest stretched out in every direction.
Tall trees loomed over me, their branches swallowing the sky whole. Multicolored leaves swayed faintly above, shifting between colors that didn't feel natural. The air was cold… not biting, but heavy, like something pressing against my skin.
I stood still, my senses sharpening as I listened to everything around me. The feeling of being watched hadn't disappeared. If anything, it had only grown stronger beneath the weight of the silence.
I expected something to happen.
But nothing did.
No wind. No insects. No movement.
Itwas quiet.
Too quiet.
Then my nose twitched, catching something faint in the air.
Blood.
It lingered just enough to be real, metallic and sharp beneath the stillness, and my body tensed immediately as a sound followed, soft… but close. My eyes narrowed, scanning the trees, the shadows between the roots, the ground.
Then I saw it.
A small white rabbit, just sitting there.
Its red eyes locked onto mine, unmoving. Small black wings rested against its back, but they didn't look solid. More like smoke… shifting, curling slightly.
Something was off.
It didn't move. Didn't flinch. Its eyes bore into mine without blinking.
"Strange," I muttered.
Another sound snapped from behind me, this time sharper and closer.
I turned quickly in response, surveying the area in which the sound came from, only to be left with nothing.
Immediately, a sharp sting cut across my leg. I looked down, my breath catching slightly as I saw my blood slowly welling from a thin line carved into my skin. The cut was clean. Too clean. Precise, like something had sliced through me without hesitation.
My chest tightened.
I snapped my head back up.
The rabbit was gone and yet somehow it made no sound, left no prints, there was nothing.
Except for the blood leaking from my leg.
The air shifted, the temperature dropping just enough for me to feel it settle into my skin. It wasn't just cold anymore, it was heavier, like something unseen had stepped into the space around me. A slow, creeping sensation crawled up my spine, sharp and instinctual, setting every nerve in my body on edge.
Run.
The thought didn't feel like my own, but I didn't question it.The military training had taught me to trust my body before my mind, a rule and law that had saved me on numerous occasions. My body had already decided. Muscles tightened, breath steadied, and I moved without hesitation.
I dashed forward instantly, my feet crushing the azure colored grass, digging deep into the ground as I sprinted through the trees. My breathing stayed controlled, but every muscle, every nerve, was on edge at this moment as adrenaline rushed through every fiber of my body.
A shape came into view ahead.
A body.
I slowed just slightly as I passed.
A woman.
Slumped against a tree.
Her hair was matted with blood, strands clinging to her face and neck. Her body twitched faintly, barely holding together as blood soaked the ground beneath her. One of her arms was gone. The other hung limp at her side… six fingers, each one trembling weakly against the dirt.
One eye…
Missing.
The socket hollow and wet, blood trailing down the side of her face.
Her remaining eye snapped to me, wide and terrified. A look I had seen many times back home during the course of war, the look one adopted after fear nested deep within ones heart.
"R…ru…"
Her voice broke into a wet cough.
"Run…"
The tree behind her moved.
At first it was subtle, just a shift in the bark, like something beneath it was breathing.
Then the branches twisted, bending in ways they shouldn't, creaking as they coiled around her body. Tight. Too tight.
She thrashed weakly, with the little strength she had left as it spilled out in desperate, uneven movements. Her fingers clawed at the wood, nails scraping uselessly against the bark as the branches tightened further, digging into her skin.
She tried to scream.
A branch snapped forward, forcing itself over her mouth, pressing down hard, smothering the sound before it could leave her throat.
Her remaining eye widened.
Bulging, like it was about to pop out its socket.
Veins spiderwebbed across it, thin lines bursting as panic consumed her. Her body strained against the hold of the branches, muscles locking… trembling.
Then the branches began to glow.
A dull orange at first.
Then brighter.
Like that of when metal has been left too long in the jaws of a flame.
The creaking of her bones creeped out before being muffled by the grip of the branches around her body.
Immediately a heat radiated outward, the bark hissing faintly as it pressed into her flesh. A sickening sound filled the air, wet and hollow, like something being pulled deep from inside her.
Icould see the light from her eyes, from her flesh, being drained in milliseconds.
Her body jerked violently once, back arching against the tree as the glow intensified.
Then…Nothing.
She went still.
My heart stung, but all I could do was run.
A scream tore through the forest behind me.
Another followed.
Closer.
The ground shifted under my feet. Not enough to trip me, but enough to be able to feel that something was wrong.
I glanced back, my breath catching for a moment as my body instinctively slowed.
Deep crimson eyes met mine from the darkness, scattered throughout the forest in numbers I couldn't begin to count. They lingered between the trees, unmoving, locked onto me with an intensity that made my chest tighten.
Watching. Not searching. Not hunting blindly.
But like hunters studying their prey.
My jaw tightened as I forced myself to look away, turning forward.
Until suddenly something landed on my shoulder.
Light. Small. I froze, every muscle locking as my eyes shifted enough just to see it. A tiny figure sat there, its wings fluttering softly, barely making a sound.
I began to realize that this was the second time something had got close enough to me that my senses hadn't picked up on it.
I was vulnerable.
Its form was delicate, almost fragile, glowing faintly against the dim light filtering through the trees. Its face was… beautiful. Calm.
Serene in a way that didn't match anything I had just seen.
Then its eyes snapped open, transforming into a bright yellow.
Its mouth stretched.
Too wide.
Far wider than anything that small should've been capable of, the skin along its face pulling, then splitting with a wet, tearing sound as it opened further and further.Rows of teeth revealed themselves, spiraling inward in a tightening pattern that seemed to go on farther than its size should allow, like a tunnel of jagged bone leading to nothing.
I moved.
My hand shot up instantly, whaling into it and knocking it off my shoulder. It let out a sharp disoriented shriek as it was sent away. Its small body twisting unnaturally in the air.
I stumbled, nearly losing my footing as I caught myself.
And that's when I saw it.
A knife. Lying just a few feet away, half hidden in the dirt.
"Yes!" I moved towards it, hand extending.
But then something hard and sharp slammed into me. The force drove into my side, knocking the air from my lungs as my body was thrown to the ground. Pain flared through my body, my vision shaking as I tried to recover.
I moved my eyes, vision focusing in the direction of where the hit came from.
And then I saw it.
The creature that had barely been the size of my hand had grown bigger. Its body stretched, mutated into something grotesque and wrong. Its torso was pale, unnaturally smooth, with a shape that was almost terrian.
Forming into a distorted feminine figure with a hollow, sunken chest that rose into subtle, unnatural curves.
Its skin thin, almost translucent, like something barely holding together over what lay beneath.
But everything else…
Was wrong.
Its wings had changed.
No longer soft or delicate, they had split apart into long, spiked tendrils that lashed outward like living weapons. They twisted through the air with a wet, snapping motion before wrapping around me, coiling tightly around my arms and torso.
The tendrils dug into my skin, their surfaces lined with jagged edges that pressed in just enough to threaten tearing through me completely. They constricted with unnatural strength, dragging me down into the dirt as the creature leaned over me, its massive, distorted form looming above.
Its face, if it could even be called that anymore, hung open. That spiraling maw was still stretching, still twisting, as if it was trying to pull me into it piece by piece.
A sound came from it.
Not a scream.
Not a voice.
Something in between.
Tones layered together, broken and wrong. Like keys from a piano being slammed in unison.
Its grip tightened, the breath from my lungs became trapped. The pain from the first hit intensified, my consciousness threatening to collapse from the pressure.
"No… I can't!"
I gritted my teeth and reached, fingers brushing against the metal.
"Agh!" I grunted, battling through the pain until finally… the knife greeted my hands with its cold metallic touch.
Without thinking, I drove it deep into its tendril.
A high-pitched shriek escaped from the creature's disgusting mouth, its grip loosened, allowing me to rip free.
I pushed myself up, and started running again.
The forest changed.
Not all at once, but fast enough that I felt it before I could process it. The voices grew louder, no longer just distant noise but something clearer, layered over itself in a way that made it hard to separate one from another.
Words formed between the sound, broken and overlapping, whispers brushing past my ears while others rose into sharp, ringing screams that cut straight through my head.
All at once.
The light above dimmed as the leaves shifted, their colors draining into a cold, lifeless blue that cast everything in a pale, unnatural glow. Behind me, the ground ignited in a sickly green flame, spreading rapidly across the forest floor, devouring everything it touched without smoke or heat, just a crawling, unnatural burn.
The path beneath my feet began to narrow. I felt it closing in as branches shot up from the ground without warning, twisting and reaching for me like hands clawing their way out of the earth. I weaved through them, my footing barely holding as the ground shifted beneath each step, roots and limbs snapping past me close enough to feel.
Bodies were everywhere.
Some were half swallowed by plants, their limbs sticking out at unnatural angles as thick vines tightened around them. Others hung from the trees, suspended by their torsos or necks, swaying slightly as if something had just let go.
I didn't look too long.
Something burst from the side.
A man.
Running straight toward me, his face twisted in panic.
"Help me-!"
His voice cracked as he reached out, stumbling forward. His skin bulged as he moved, shifting in uneven waves. Blisters pushed outward across his arms, his neck, his face, swelling rapidly, stretching his skin tight until it looked like it would tear.
Large.
Pulsing.
I didn't slow.
He got closer, his hand reaching for me…
And then his body gave out.
It ruptured.
A violent burst of blood and flesh tore outward in every direction, the force of it spraying across the ground and through the air in thick, wet fragments. Pieces of him scattered mid-motion, never even hitting the ground.
Something surged up from below.
The earth split just enough for a massive, circular maw to break through, rows of grinding teeth snapping shut as it swallowed everything in a single motion before sinking back beneath the surface like it had never been there at all.
I kept running.
Ahead of me, I noticed smoke in the sky.
My focus locked onto it, lungs burning, vision blurring slightly.
Something brushed against my skin, faint yellow particles drifting through the air like dust caught in light. They clung to me as I ran, slipping into my breath, and for a moment my head felt light, a dull dizziness creeping in at the edges of my vision. But my body… my breathing steadied faster than it should have, evening out almost instantly despite the strain.
Too fast. The cut on my leg was gone, not even a trace left behind. I noticed, but there was no time to think about it. Not now.
The trees began to thin, the suffocating weight of the forest easing just enough for something ahead to come into view. A stone stood there, tall and carved, its surface etched with faintly glowing blue runes. Words were set into it.
Starfall Hollow.
A totem hung from the stone, a crescent moon with its eyes closed in a quiet, sleeping expression. Golden butterflies drifted lazily around it, their soft glow tracing a narrow path beyond.
I slowed for half a second.
Something moved behind me.
Fast.
I turned, swinging the knife on instinct. The impact rang through my arm as metal met something just as hard, a sharp screech cutting through the air as the creature lunged into view.
Its body was wrong, limbs shaped like blades, its head missing entirely. In its chest, a single massive eye locked onto me.
The force of it threw me sideways. I stumbled, losing my balance as my feet crossed past the stone.
And everything stopped.
Silence.
Warm air replaced the suffocating cold, brushing against my skin like I had stepped into something entirely different.
I turned slightly, breath uneven
The forest behind me was gone.
"I …What… the fuck…"
My chest rose and fell as I looked down at myself. No wounds. No blood. Just the knife in my hand, its edge chipped and worn, barely holding together.
One more hit like that…
I exhaled slowly, but even that felt off. My breathing steadied again far too quickly, like my body was skipping steps it should have needed. I noticed, filed it away, and pushed it aside.
I looked ahead.
The path stretched forward, calm and undisturbed. Butterflies drifted through the air, their movements slow and weightless. Insects crawled along the ground, larger than they should have been but harmless, and somewhere in the distance, birds chirped softly.
Peaceful.
Tightened my grip on the knife and started walking.
The smell of fire reached me.
Food. Voices. The smell reached me first, warm and real, a breeze of cinnamon tickled my nose and before I realized it my pace quickened. The path widened ahead, the suffocating press of the forest easing as the trees gave way, and a village came into view.
Not small.
It was built into the land itself, not placed on top of it. Homes were carved into the trunks of massive trees and shaped into the surrounding stone, their structures smooth and intentional, as if they had grown that way over time. Soft lights glowed along the edges of pathways and doorways, casting a warm, steady glow that felt completely out of place compared to what lay behind me.
People moved through the streets.
At a glance, they looked normal, but the differences stood out the longer I looked. Long ears, slightly tapered at the ends. Animal-like tails that moved subtly behind them. Their faces were refined, almost too perfect, their features smooth and composed in a way that didn't feel natural. Some walked calmly along the paths, speaking quietly among themselves, while others hovered above the ground in circular constructs, rings of energy spinning around them as they floated with controlled, effortless movement.
My eyes moved, taking it all in, trying to process the shift, the sudden change from chaos to something ordered.
"Hey, you over there."
I turned.
A man approached, his steps measured and unhurried. He wore white and gold robes that hung cleanly from his frame, the fabric untouched by dirt or wear. His long hair fell neatly down his back, and his expression was calm, welcoming in a way that immediately put me on edge.
"Welcome," he said with a small smile. "You must be one of the travelers."
"…Where is this?" I asked.
He gestured lightly around us.
"Starfall Hollow. The home of Velkyn."
His tone was easy. Relaxed. Like there was nothing strange about any of this.
"Others like you have arrived," he continued. "We've gathered them."
"Come," he said, already turning. "I'll take you to them."
I followed, my grip still tight around the knife, my eyes moving, watching everything.
"…Outside," I said after a moment. "That forest."
"The goddess protects us," he replied, nodding toward a nearby totem. "Her light keeps the darkness away."
My gaze flicked to it.
The same crescent moon.
Eyes closed.
Sleeping.
"What do they call it?"
He paused.
Just slightly.
Then his smile returned, unchanged. "Elysgrave."
The word settled heavier than it should have.
"The land of nightmares."
We reached a wide clearing filled with people.
Survivors.
Some sat. Some stood. Some spoke in low voices, others stared blankly ahead. My eyes scanned through them, moving from face to face until they stopped.
The girl who had been one of the other two selected from my world fell into my gaze.
She spotted me immediately, raising her hand with a grin.
I walked over.
"…How is everyone here?" I asked.
She shrugged.
"No idea."
I glanced at the royal who stood nearby.
"You?"
He shook his head.
A voice rose above the crowd, cutting through the low murmurs.
An old man stood on a raised platform, his posture straight, his presence calm but commanding.
"Please," he called out. "There is no need for fear."
The crowd quieted.
"You are safe here," he continued, a gentle smile resting on his wrinkled face.
"Everything will be explained in time."
I stood there, watching. listening.
Taking it in.
The warmth. The calm. The order.
My grip tightened around the knife, the chipped edge pressing against my palm as my eyes lifted slightly.
Above us, the symbol of the sleeping moon hung quietly, unmoving.