I decided to dedicate the next trip to actually doing what these expedition were originally intended for; much to Alfred's excitement.
We were told by more leaves that the Scout wouldn't be following us for this one but he did give us a list of potential ares to go to. He labelled one list as safe and the other list as "proceed with caution."
Naturally, Alfred wanted to go to all the dangerous sounding ones. He kept saying he wanted to fight a dragon and he would point at whatever place sounded like it would have a dragon in it.
Dragons. Dragons. Dragons. Alfred kept repeating. I wasn't sure where this sudden desire came from but he's been really obsessed with dragons lately.
"Even if we knew where a dragon was, we wouldn't stand a chance," I told him, "maybe in the future when we get stronger, okay?"
I saw his shoulders drop as fast as his mood which was a bit cute to watch.
After further discussion with Cleric, we eventually picked a location.
...
-I-I-I-I-
…
The Harmless Forest
The trees appeared to be normal. Very normal. Compared to the ones we saw at the Blue Mountain, these trees looked as generic as they could be.
Their dark, clean, thick trunks complemented the perfectly light green leaves that covered their naked branches.
The first thing you'll notice when entering this forest is that none of the trees owned a shadow. Not a single one. Even though it was morning, the only shadows I saw were the ones that belonged to the few clouds in the sky.
We travelled through the forest in a straight line without ever turning left or right.
I carried Cleric while Alfred walked on his own in front.
Alfred was in his tiny form as he walked. He had his small sword drawn out, ready to strike at any moment. He was very excited for this. Since the Blue Mountain trip, this was practically the closest we had ever come to experiencing something that could be considered an "adventure."
He kept eyeing the trees carefully and for good reason. The Scout gave us all the information he knew about this place so we quite aware of the fact that this forest was far from a normal forest.
There was no path that existed here, just grass and the trees.
We reached a tiny clearing which gave all three of us the same idea.
We turned around and looked at the cluster of trees behind us. After taking a good look, we all turned away for a moment. We then looked back at the same group of trees and tried to find the difference. We were looking from a distance so it was almost hard to tell.
We repeated this action: constantly looking away and then back at the same group of trees. Half the reason we were doing this was just out of pure fascination.
There was a reason why this forest got its name. If you think about it more deeply, the name 'The Harmless Forest' carries an intriguing implication. After all, weren't all forests generally considered harmless? The dangers in most forests usually stemmed from the creatures that inhabited them, rather than the forests themselves.
Once again, we took a good look at the trees in the distance before looking away.
However this time, when we turned back to look, the trees in the distance that we had been keeping track of, were now standing directly in front of us. Despite not moving from where I stood, I could now reach out and touch the tree with my hand because of how close they had gotten to us.
That's right. Even though the trees are able to move, they pose no harm. That was how this forest got its name.
They can only move when unobserved or untouched by anything. How do they move remains a mystery. Many have attempted to uncover the secret behind their movement, but it is currently considered impossible to do so. They do not make a sound when they move. As soon as your gaze falls upon them, it will seem as if the tree had always been there.
This phenomenon becomes even more astounding when you think about the branches and the roots.
I looked up at the trees that had approached us and noticed that their branches and leaves were almost completely still like a statue, only swaying slightly in response to gentle gusts of wind.
I then looked down. The roots of this tree had deeply penetrated the ground. If my knights and I weren't paying attention earlier, it would've looked as if this tree had been growing in this spot for over a decade. Because of this detail, a group of curious adventurers once conducted an interesting experiment in order to answer one question: can you grow plants here? So they brought regular seeds into the forest and tried growing them. They concluded that even though the soil seemed perfectly healthy, plants will never grow in this location. Their observations stated that nothing unusual happens to the seeds, they just never grow no matter how well you take care of them.
This was why the forest looked incredibly empty since it only had grass and trees. There were also no creatures. If anything, the only 'creatures' present were the trees themselves.
The tiny clearing we were previously in was gone now. Since we were so focused on the trees that teleported in front of us, other trees took the chance to teleport behind us as well.
Despite their intimidating nature, these trees were indeed harmless.
If these trees were truly sentient like the rumours say: then they didn't seemed to be malicious or evil. Not once have they tried to block us from proceeding and when they surrounded us, there was always enough space between them to walk through.
I heard that even if you chop down these trees for wood, they still do not harm you. With that said, it's been reported that as soon as you take your eyes off the logs, they'll disappear so it's almost impossible to build anything with it.
But then again, why would anyone want a home made out of that material anyway?
Speaking of which, there is a famous legend that comes with this forest that goes something like this: once upon a time, an old lumberjack stumbled into this forest and decided to build his home here. He was completely unaware that the trees could move and yet somehow, he successfully built a house out of the wood of these trees and actually lived in it for 6 days. On the 7th day, he went out to simply admire his hard work. But as soon as the man blinked, the house disappeared. When he saw that his house was gone, the lumberjack cried out "my house has been stolen!"
Given that the story concluded with a punchline, it's highly probable that it was fabricated by storytellers. But now that I was actually here, it was creepy to think about.
After gawking for another few minutes, my knights and I continued on our way.
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
The only danger this forest presented was the risk of getting lost, which was why the Scout recommended that we always walk in a straight line. If you walked in a straight line and then retraced your steps, you would eventually reach the forest's perimeter regardless of how much the trees move themselves. Why couldn't these trees extend beyond the boundaries of their own forest? That question has also remained unanswered since its discovery.
Another interesting detail was that some of the trees never moved at all. No matter how much we looked away, some trees always stayed in it's place. Were they just normal trees or were they deliberately choosing not to move? We had no way of answering that question.
I stopped walking when I felt Alfred tug at my leg. He was hungry again.
"Shall we take a break then?"
Besides the trees, nothing eventful had occurred. The past few hours has just been us aimlessly walking with no real destination in mind.
When looking at the list of areas to explore that the Scout gave us, I put a two factors into consideration:
Factor number 1: the safety of that area. Would it be dangerous for us to explore the area alone? Especially considering the Scout wasn't going to be with us this time.
Factor number 2: does that area have any significance to the originals? I initially always looked outside the walls of Bostina where I used to live because that was where most fakes gathered and I was more familiar with that area. This is mainly because that city is where most of the heroes started their journey hence it attracts a huge population of fakes.
But then it hit me: if I'm trying to find fakes who have changed their skill trees, shouldn't I look in places that have nothing to do with any of the original heroes? After all, a fake who changes their skill tree is basically a fake who has thrown away their desire to be like the original so it would make sense to find them in locations that weren't related to the originals.
That was my line of thinking, at least. But there was one factor I completely forgot to consider: there's literally no one here. No humans, no fakes, and no living things besides us and the trees. There weren't even any adventurers, most likely because, unlike dungeons and monsters caves, there wasn't any treasure to find. This forest is practically empty.
Well at the very least, my knights and I got to see something interesting.
I sat on the grass and placed down the backpack. Alfred practically dived into the bag to grab his food first while Cleric waited patiently in front of me.
It was a bit hard to grab Cleric's food when Alfred was literally swimming inside the backpack. When Alfred finally had his food, he popped his head out of the backpack and almost jumped in shock. He told us to look around.
It was the trees again.
While my knights and I were focused on getting food, a dozen or so trees had formed a perfect circle around us. We all stood still, as if we were expecting the trees to finally do something. But the trees offered no response like they always did. They simply did nothing.
Alfred tried offering them some of his food but once again, the trees did nothing.
Seconds later, Cleric started clapping for them.
Alfred and Cleric were very cautious of the trees at first. But as time went on, they just started having fun with the trees. As soon as they were done with their food, they would run off to play games with the trees. I was fine with it as long as they were still in my sight.
Their games basically involved them picking a spot and closing their eyes. Then they would look up to see whether any of the trees had moved or not. Every time a tree appeared right next to them, they would jump and clap as if the tree had just done a back flip. They would then distance themselves again and repeat. They couldn't seem to grow bored of it no matter how many times they saw it happen.
At one point, Alfred tried looking as fast as he could to see if he could catch the trees moving. But just like many before him, he could never catch them in the act.
"My knights are playing 'red light green light' with the trees." Now that was a string of words I never thought would ever leave my mouth. It was very amusement to watch.
They played again, only this time, the tree they were watching wasn't moving at all. It took a short moment for my knights to realise that the tree couldn't move because I was looking at them.
Stop looking at Tom. Said Alfred.
Tom? Did they really just give one of the trees a name?
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
"Have you been to the 'Harmless Forest' before?" One adventurer said to the other.
"Yes I have but that was a long time ago. It was quite boring though. There's literally nothing in it. Why you asking?"
"Apparently there have been recent reports of people going missing in that forest."
"Wait, seriously? Are you sure it's not just some clueless guys getting lost?"
"People who get lost in forests tend to return after a few days. However, the people in these reports have been missing for months apparently. Maybe even longer."
"But isn't it called the Harmless forest?"
"That name might be outdated now. Rumours say that some weird monster must've taken refuge in it or something."
"What kind of monster?"
"No one knows. The people who do know are probably the same ones who went missing."
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
We stumbled across a large opening in the forest. A very colourful opening.
Flowers.
They were everywhere. Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. Every single colour I could think of was there. The flowers came in all sort of eccentric shapes and yet they all synergised really well to create this beautiful view.
This was more than a flower bed. This was an entire field made purely out of flowers.
That's strange. I thought regular plants couldn't grow in this forest. Perhaps these weren't regular flowers.
Cleric went ahead of us. I told him to be careful as he knelt down and took a closer look at the flowers to admire them. He gently tapped their petals, afraid he might break it. Cleric was about the size of a human toddler and yet the flowers were taller than him.
Alfred wanted me to throw him so he could cannon ball into the field but I sternly refused.
I wasn't sure what to make of this. It was beautiful but odd. Wild flowers usually grew in random spots, however, this particular field of flowers had formed a perfect circle within the opening of these harmless trees. The trees still moved whenever we didn't look but they never entered this opening. it was as if there was an invisible wall around the flowers that prevented the trees from entering.
I walked over to Cleric who was kneeling at the very edge of the circle made of flowers.
That's when I saw her.
Cleric was too short to look over the flowers to notice but she was there. Laying on her back directly in the centre of the flower field was... an Elizabeth fake?
She was staring directly at me.
We instantly made eye contact when I spotted her. So instantly, that an unsettling sensation in my stomach suggested that she had been watching me amidst the flowers long before I even noticed her.
We were facing the direction of her head so she had her neck stretched upwards to look at us. In other words, all we could see was the upside down view of her face and unblinking eyes.
I picked up Cleric out of caution. Once my two knights had also spotted the Elizabeth fake, they too were slightly creeped out.
"Hello?" I called out.
No response. A stroke of silence fell upon us. I stared at my knights who simply shrugged back at me.
This situation. This view. So many questions plagued my mind all at once. We were just casually exploring this forest only for all of our expectations to be blown out of the waters by this single sight. Flowers? An Elizabeth fake? Here? Of all places? Wait, but wasn't this exactly what I've been looking for?
I slowly walked to the side, her eyes followed me. Her eyes were stuck to mine like the eyes you see in a mirror.
"Are you okay?"
No response. She continued to silently stare at me.
I looked down at the flowers. Despite forming a perfect circle, there was room to put your foot in.
"Mind if come closer?"
No response.
Finally, we cautiously started approaching. As we did, her eyes continued to follow us. She didn't blink once.
My foot accidentally stepped on a flower and I froze. But nothing happened. The fake continued to stare at me. Nothing happened except awkward silence washing over us.
The more closer we got, the more empty her eyes seemed. But she was smiling.
Each step I took felt like an entire hour, but finally, we found ourselves standing right beside her.
As always, she was still staring at me with a blank smile.
Now that I was this close, there was one more detail I noticed.
Only her upper body was visible.
Her entire lower body was completely buried in flowers. When I tried looking under the flowers, all I could see was pitch black darkness.
It was as if she had been chopped in half.
"Hi," My voice stuttered, "Umm... I'm a Summoner. This is Alfred and Cleric."
My two knights waved.
No response.
The Elizabeth fake never blinked and her eyes never moved unless I moved.
Usually if this was some random human or creature I would be more cautious. But she was definitely a fake like me, she wore the clothing that almost every Elizabeth wears when they come into existence. 6616 was her number and it was located near her left shoulder.
There was the possibility that this was indeed a monster that was disguising itself to lure me into a false sense of security. I'll admit that approaching her was a reckless move. However, despite the fact that I was literally kneeling right beside her, this Elizabeth fake remained completely motionless. If this truly was a monster trying to lure me in, they would've easily gotten me by now.
She just kept staring at me. The longer we sat there, the more creepier her stare became.
She had a smile on her face. Not a wide smile. It wasn't a small one. It wasn't a warm one. It wasn't a fake one either.
It was just a normal smile. That's all I could say about it. But just like her staring, her smile grew more eerie the longer I looked even though her expression never moved a muscle.
While I was distracted by the staring, Alfred approached the Elizabeth's face and started pressing his tiny hands into the fake's cheek.
No response. I pulled him away just in case.
Cleric was more interested in why this Elizabeth fake was missing half of her body. He had finish checking the condition of her upper body which seemed to be fine. He wanted to see whether her lower body was also okay or not. Cleric wanted to dive into the darkness beneath the flowers, the place where her lower body should be located, but I restrained the small healer.
Alfred wanted to start a staring contest with the fake but got annoyed when the Elizabeth fake was only staring at me.
I expected something would've happened by now, but so far, nothing has occurred.
"Umm, we come from a village of fakes called Fake Town and..."
Was this a good idea? I wondered. Would it be safe to bring her back? She didn't seem hostile. But what would even happen if I ripped her out of her position? It was very clear that this woman was not your typical Elizabeth fake, anyone in my shoes would know that just from a single glance. Her skills probably revolved around flowers and the flowers themselves didn't seem to be poisonous or anything.
I think I was more focused on her rather than my explanation of Fake town. I concluded weakly, "Would you like to come with us?"
I wanted to see how she responded first. There was always the high chance that she wasn't interested in moving anyway.
No response.
I wasn't sure what I expecting. No matter what I said and no matter how many times my knights waved their hands, this Elizabeth fake never moved and just kept staring-
She moved.
Alfred and Cleric instinctively hugged me out of reflex. We were so used to her not moving that when she did, it gave us all a fright.
For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Elizabeth6616 looked away from me and turned her head in the opposite direction. She then raised her hand and pointed in that direction before freezing completely.
My knights and I looked at what she was pointing. All we saw was just more trees.
Still filled with confusion, I mustered the courage to ask, "Do you... want us to go that way?"
She didn't move and she didn't say anything.
"Is there something over there?" I asked.
Still no response.
I looked at my knights and they just shrugged at me.
"Umm... okay, we ah... we'll go check it out then. Please, excuse us."
I picked up both my knights and slowly started heading in the direction that Elizabeth was pointing to. Alfred and Cleric kept looking at her over my shoulder.
I treaded slowly, carefully making sure I didn't step on any of the flowers-
"You can trust her."
I flinched as I almost jumped out of my own body. My legs lost their balance which caused me to fall over and land on the flowers. It didn't hurt but I was more worried for my knights and the beautiful flowers that I had squashed.
That voice. That was definitely the voice of an Elizabeth fake.
Elizabeth6616 hadn't move. She waa still pointing in the same direction but now she was looking back at me again.
"What?" I asked.
"You can trust her."
"Trust who?"
"You can trust her." She repeated.
Her unblinking eyes were still staring directly at me. Her arm remained rigid and still despite being raised for quite some time.
No matter what I said, she would repeat that exact same phrase: 'you can trust her'.
Alfred tried saying something as well, although, he must've completely forgotten that he doesn't have a voice so only Cleric and I knew what he was saying.
After an awkward farewell, I hesitantly walked towards the direction she was pointing to. As I walked away with my knights in my arms, I looked back. I never took my eyes off that field of colourful flowers until the view was completely buried by the trees and no longer visible.
...
-I-I-I-I-
...
It was a house.
A house: literally one of the last things you expect to see when exploring a place like this.
it was a large yet dilapidated house. The windows were void of any glass, cracks littered the outside walls, and unlike the field of flowers we saw earlier, there was barely any colours on it.
Just dark, worn-out wood with countless of holes and gaps in it. The house itself seemed to contain two stories and was quite large according my own standards. Despite it's broken state, this house was still leagues above the huts we have back at Fake Town
Looking through the windows, I could see the interior was almost just as decrepit as the outside. But I could see the outline of fancy looking furniture such as tables with clothes, cabinets, drawers, and even plates. But it all looked abandoned as mountains of dust and spider webs covered them all.
This might have been my first time actually seeing a so-called 'haunted house' that I often heard adventurers talk about.
Once the overall shock of finding a house calmed down, I checked the reaction of my two knights. They were both shaking but for two different reasons.
Alfred was shaking out of excitement. He was ecstatic, starving for adventurer and filled with unending curiosity. If I wasn't holding him back, he quite literally would have charged straight in.
Cleric on the other hand was shaking out of fear. He was so terrified that he buried his face in my shirt.
I hugged them both tightly as I observed the house and weighed my options.
Should I investigate? Would that be foolish to do? Every possible red flag was visible on this house. Would it be dangerous? If the Scout was here, I would've had more confidence or at the very least, I could've asked for his advice.
Travelling all the way back just for advice might be a waste of effort and there was no guarantee that we'll be able to find this place again.
Most people would be cautious and stay away. I would've done the same to be honest. But there was one thing that was stopping me from turning around: an Elizabeth fake led us here.
If it was a human or monster who had led us here, perhaps I would avoid this place at all cost. But she was a fake, just like me. Are my instincts correct or am I simply putting too much faith and trust in my own kind?
There's always the possibility that maybe this forest creates illusions that we trust in order to lure us in. I've heard too many stories like that from eavesdropping on adventurers.
I asked my two knight for their opinions. Alfred wanted to go in while Cleric said he wanted to go wherever I go. So in the end, it was still my decision to make.
I was a bit torn. It looked dangerous to approach yet at the same time, I didn't want to leave. My indecisiveness was slowly killing me and so I did what I could only describe as a mental coin flip in my head.
"Sorry Cleric. You can stay close to me if you want."
Tightly holding onto both my small knights, I slowly walked forward. I stopped as soon as I was one step away from touching the steps of the veranda. The shadow of the house was completely over me now. The only sound I could hear was the wind and Cleric's shivering. The air smelt like damp, moist wood.
I raised my foot... and stepped on the verandah, which triggered a loud creaking noise.
The sound of a chair sliding across the floor inside the house made me freeze. I had assumed it was abandoned but there was definitely someone inside.
The next thing I heard were footsteps. Rapid footsteps. It got louder and louder like an incoming horse and the house vibrated at the sudden movement.
It sounded like they were initially on the second floor but by the time I could even process the sounds, the door swung opened and something lunged towards me.
I threw my two knights to the side before I was roughly tackled to the ground. My back hit the dirt and I felt the weight of something seat on top of me. Two solid-like hands started pinching my cheeks.
I opened my eyes, looked up and saw ... glass-like eyes?
Alfred transformed into his larger form and was ready to swing his sword but I quickly told him to stop.
This person who was on top of me right now was doing nothing except pinching my cheeks.
This person's face... resembled the face of an Elizabeth fake. But at the same time, it was different. She did not look human despite having similar features.
This Elizabeth fake had physically changed their body. But how? Due to the curse of the demon lord, such changes shouldn't even be possible for a fake, unless..
Her skin was rigid and resembled man made material rather than natural human skin. There were balls of plastic where her finger joints should be which gave her hands an artificial appearance. Her hair, though synthetic, appeared dirty and unkempt. I could see a reflection of myself in her eyes as if gazing into the crystal clear lake of Fake Town.
Every time she moved, her body made a faint creaking sound.
However, the most noticeable feature was her mouth which had been fused with her jaw. Unlike regular human mouth, her mouth held a rectangular shape and it opened up like a drawer. She constantly opened and closed her mouth, creating a repetitive "Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!" noise.
She was an Elizabeth Fake
But she was not a villainess.
She was a Puppet.
Red text briefly appeared above her head:
Elizabeth0466: The Misguided Marionette
Rank B
...
...
End Chapter
...
...
A/N
I RECEIVED MY FIRST EVER PAYPAL DONATION! I won't say their name in case I accidentally dox them or something but if that person is reading this, thank you so much! You're an actual legend! That was so much more than I expected so thank you mate! You should've seen how hyped I was when I got the notification, I was running around the room and everything XDD so thank you so much for the donation and I hope you continue to enjoy the story. :D
And thank you to everyone who has read this far and especially for those who have left comments. Sorry, it took so long to get these two chapters out. I haven't been able to go back to fix earlier chapters cause I've been busy but I hope to return to that eventually.
Also, I was reading back at my older chapters of this story and noticed a few inconsistencies that I'll point out right now: if you remember, there's a funny wholesome scene of Julie pointing out stars in the sky and giving them silly names. I'm not sure how but when writing that cute scene, I must've completely forgotten that Julie is suppose to be blind. I'll go back to fix that later. One more thing, in the earlier chapter, there was a line where the Reaper said "the Scout was mute" and he's definitely not. He just only talks to those he's comfortable with. Back then, I didn't have a clear idea of the Scout's character so I'll go back to fix that. I'm planning on making more changes but I'll let you know as I make them.
Also, my uni classes are starting in about 1 or 2 weeks which means I'll have less time to write. Hopefully I'll be able to finish one chapter before classes start but I'll see. Friendly reminder that if you want to check my progress on future chapters or ask me anything directly, I have a discord sever which should be on my profile page. It's pretty dead so you're free to just lurk around if you do join.
That's all, thanks so much for reading and see you in the next one.
This chapter was finished on the 16/07/2023
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