>>Hael
Eldias walked beside as we ventured deeper into Hollow Woods. A light purple colored glow surrounded our bodies that was filtering the poison out of the air for us.
Night had lood over us and everything was dark in the forest. So we had an orb of light with us. It floated ahead, casting a gentle blue glow that pushed back the shadows and illuminated the path. The light revealed more of the desolate landscape: trees that stood like sentinels, their bark peeling and blackened; patches of earth where no grass or plants grew, only a sickly, grayish dirt that seed to drink in the light rather than reflect it.
The poisonous fog swirled around our legs, toxic vapors that made the air thick and difficult to breathe. I could feel its touch against my magical defenses, a constant, insidious pressure that seed to want to seep through any crack or weakness.
"Still no sign of the miasma source," Eldias said, his voice a low rumble in the otherwise silent forest.
"No," My breath ford small, misty clouds in the cold night air, "I doubt we’re going to find miasma here but it still doesn’t sit well with that the woods constricted sothing ominous."
Eldias nodded, his eyes scanning our surroundings with a thoughtful frown. "The king said soone sent back the ssage from here. I heard he used the last bit of his magic to send a mana bird out."
"Hmm,"
"Why would he be in this place though? There’s nothing to research here either."
"There’s nothing that would prove helpful," I replied, "But he might want to know how the forest ended up like this."
"Hollow Woods has been like this for centuries." Eldias answered.
"But it wasn’t always like this," I said and glanced at him, "A lot of people have tried to find out why it turned into this desolate place."
"But no one has ever found the answer." He said, "I don’t think he ca in for research."
"Then?" I asked
"I feel like sothing made him co in."
"Are you wondering what that old lady said?"
"No... But- Maybe-"
A sudden movent caught my eye, and I froze, raising a hand to signal Eldias to stop.
We both stood still in our path as sothing rattled and then the noise ceased.
The orb of light bobbed and wavered, casting its glow on a patch of ground where the fog seed thicker, more concentrated. Narrowing my eyes I focused on what had fallen down.
I noticed sothing falling and clattering on the ground.
I moved closer to where I saw the movent, letting the fog blocked view to beco clearer as the orb followed along. Eldias followed and we ca across an unsettling view.
A scattering of bones half-buried in the dry, cracked earth. They looked like they were stacked on top of each other and when they fell, they caught my eye.
I knelt to examine them, my orb casting a ghostly glow over the scene. They were animal bones, picked clean and bleached white,
"Animal bones," I said, rising to my feet.
Eldias and I spared each other a glance, "Why would animals be here?"
I thought about it, "I get it if one stumbled in the forest accidently," I folded my arms, "But to co this deep in..." Sothing was wrong. No animal is dumb enough to walk this deep into Hollow Woods.
"Right, it should have left the mont it noticed sothing was wrong in the air." He looked at .
"This ans sothing killed it, then ate it."
"Wait, are you saying sothing brought an animal from outside and ate it here?" He shook his head, "But what killed them? There’s no sign of predators." He looked around, "That’s not even possible. Another animal wouldn’t do this. It’s not possible for them to co this deep into the forest."
"Yes," Sothing was clicking in the back of my mind, "It should be impossible," I looked back at the bones, "And yet-" I paused, then knitted my eyebrows.
Eldias frowned, his eyes narrowing. "What is it?"
I waved my hand, making the ball of light move forward next to the ground.
And there it was, a little distance from these bones, were a stack of other bones. From the looks of it, they belonged to another kind of animal.
"Oh," The High Priest was surprised.
I tapped my finger on the side of my body, "There must be more here," I said as I began to walk again
"I do not want to agree with you." He followed, "But I get this feeling that you’re right."
"The Old Lady said the forest eats," My voice was low. Her words kept bothering .
"I keep thinking about her words too..." He sighed, "Maybe we should have stayed and listened to what she had to say."
"Has there been any animal that can resist poisoned air?" I asked as I glanced at him.
Eldias shook his head, "I have never heard of any, besides, Hollow Woods are known to be uninhabitable."
We kept walking when we stumbled upon another sight.
I kept the orb low to see if we could spot sothing else and unfortunately we did.
Except this ti, the bones were not of animals.
"Is that?" Eldias pointed at it. His question was solely because he wanted to deny seeing what he did. His expression turned grim and he zipped his lips as he grimaced.
"Yes," I replied as I crouched down, "These are human bones,"
"What the hell," Eldias couldn’t contain himself and though hearing a Priest speak like that is a bit weird but what we were seeing was definitely stranger, "This looks like a child’s skeleton."
"It does," It was small after all but other than it being human bones, what was unnerving was how the bones were stacked.
Each bone was placed with precision, the slender limbs forming the frawork, ribs creating the walls, and vertebrae interlocking like grotesque shingles. The skull, too small and fragile, rested atop the structure, its empty eye sockets staring out into the dark forest.
It was like soone had fun stacking these.
Eldias moved closer, his expression sour. "Soone or sothing did this," He said, his voice tight with controlled horror. "It’s almost ritualistic."
I straightened up and waved my hand again. The orb of light moved, showing more bones stacked in the exact sa way.
...
The sight made both of us pause. We stood there for a few seconds without a word while the orb moved around the small clearing.
"I see adult bones too," I noticed them
"More of children," He muttered, his voice barely more than a whisper. "What happened here?"
This was far more confusing than I could have imagined, because this just didn’t make any sense. Animals can’t co this far in, they’d die. So who stacked these bones? No animal is clever enough to do sothing like this.
...
Eldias’ face was ashen, his composure strained. "There’s sothing very wrong in this forest."
"This makes think that old lady might not be senile," I brought the light orb back to us,
He let out a nervous chuckle, "I think the sa..." Then he paused, tilting his head slightly as if straining to catch the elusive noise.
His eyes went wide and he shot his body around. I looked at him, "What?"
After a mont, he nodded slowly. "I heard sothing," He looked at , his face looking pale in the light blue hue. "It’s... unnerving."
!!
Did he hear it?
"A chittering sound?" I asked
"Yes!" His eyes went wide again, "Was that what you heard before?"
I nodded, "I didn’t hear it this ti though," I looked around, "And so far I haven’t heard anything more in this place."
"..." Eldias looked around as well, "There wouldn’t be anything alive here to move around. We’ve encountered nothing else but bones." He then looked at , "Then what is that sound?"
I shook my head, "I don’t know," I looked at the bones, "So far, I only have one theory and it doesn’t explain that sound,"
"What?" He asked.
"Soone might be using this place as a burial sight to get away from his cris." I said,
"Wait," He frowned, "Are you saying a serial killer could have done this?" That was the only plausible answer since there were so many skeletons here.
We began to walk again.
"The way the bones are stacked makes believe it. It might serve as his or her trophy."
"And no one would ever think about coming here," He let out a sigh, "It’s plausible. If the killer has a lot of mana, he can easily do this."
We both agreed but neither of us said anything about how that theory didn’t sit right with either of us. But other than this theory, there was no other explanation, even though the theory itself had a lot of flaws.
No normal person would risk coming in here. The poison in these woods is too strong. One single mistake and it will kill a man. Moreover, this place is too far away from cities. There’s only one town near it. If soone from afar was using this place, they’d be teleporting in and out of the city which will cause them to be out of mana most of the ti. Teleportation is the only option to bring a body out multiple tis without getting detected and it’s the kind of magic that uses a lot of mana. Only a rare few are capable of teleportation.
...
The silence was oppressive, broken only by our cautious footfalls and the occasional rustle of the brittle undergrowth. The fog seed to cling to us, its toxic presence a constant reminder of the danger we faced.
"According to so reports," Eldias began,"There’s supposed to be a rift sowhere in these woods." We were seeing a number of skeletons as we kept walking and he simply stopped looking at the ground.
"A rift...?"
"In the ground. The fog is thick so people don’t see and a few researchers who ca here ended up falling in it," He replied, his eyes scanning the darkened forest
"If we don’t run blindly, I’m sure we’ll see it if we co across it."
"Hmm,"
I brought the orb back up. We had co across too many bones and there was no point in seeing them again and again.
"That’s better," He said once the light floated above our heads and obscured the view around our feet.
We pressed on, the silence heavy around us.
The orb of light flickered, making look at it as I kept walking, its glow barely penetrating the thickening fog.
Why did it flicker? I’m giving it a lot of mana, it shouldn’t flicker.
Then, I felt it – a shift in the air, an unsettling stillness that made my skin prickle. An airy sound, like the wind approaching through distant canyons, began to rise. I turned my head, trying to pinpoint the source, but it seed to co from all around us.
"Eldias, do you hear that?" I asked
Before he could respond, the sound grew strong and we turned to look in two different directions. I barely saw it, a dark cloud materialized from the depths of the forest, moving with an unnatural speed.
!!!
What!!??
The black misty storm roared towards us, a churning mass of toxic vapors that was engulfing everything in its path.
It ca in so fast I barely got the ti to fortify the barrier around my body, the magical shield flaring to life with a bright, protective glow as the storm hit like a tidal wave, the black clouds slamming into my barrier with trendous force.
The pressure was imnse, forcing to duck and brace myself against the onslaught. The air grew thick and heavy, the poisonous fog swirling around us in a chaotic dance. I could feel the corrosive touch pressing against my defenses, a constant, gnawing pressure that tested the limits of my magic.
But most of all, it seed familiar
Miasma...?
No, how? Where did it co from?! There was no sign of it before!!
The miasma clouds surged past us, the light orb got swallowed by the dark fog. In an instant, everything went pitch black.
It lasted for a mont and then the pressure went still as the clouds stopped moving after engulfing everything.
The eerie silence returned,and I let out a breath, then straightened up to look around but it was pitch black everywhere.
"Eldias, are you alright?" I called out but didn’t get an answer back, "Eldias?"
No sound or voice ca back to as I stood amidst the heavy clouds of miasma which ca out of nowhere
"Eldias?" I called his na again but my call was returned with only silence.
The silence which was broken only by the faint, eerie chittering that seed to echo from all around .
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