CHAPTER624Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZa2BxbT620
THREE624Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf9dIizWp1T
Damian squished and trudged his feet with through the tall and unkempt grass and the thick mud blanketing the ground. The grass grew taller and the mud kept on getting thicker as Damian ventured farther from the large city walls and towards a group of trees, The trees were fairly spaced so Damian decided to investigate.624Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuZoEYpZcTI
Behind him he could hear the clamoring of people at the castle gate, church folk. Damian sneaked a look back after hiding in the tall grass; the guards were restraining the nuts from leaving the city. Damian knew that this was buying time, as the guards were busy restraining the crowd that had escalated into a riot. Damian also knew that the crowd would soon overwhelm the guards and search the forest.624Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7m2DvjmXE4
Without another thought Damian dashed into the forest, when he entered it almost seem like that it was already night, the tall treetops blocked out the sun only letting little beams of golden light hit the mossy forest floor. Damian knew the faster he could get out of the forest better, he out his backpack in the ground and grabbed a compass he had packed earlier.
He would walk towards the north, where the capital city of the siren’s was located, along the way he would have to either venture through a couple city’s and colonies or face treacherous mountains that boasted blistering cold blizzards and creatures of unknown horror. As Damian held his compass with one hand he noticed that the trees he was going to mark were already marked with a cross with an X over it. He knew that this meant he was wandering around in witch territory; the witches had dedicated themselves to taking down god and to take his place.
Whether it was day outside the forest or not soon became irrelevant as the forest became nearly pitch black, and the forest’s eerie noises of chirping and buzzing of insects sent chills down his spine and the unknown darkness unleashed butterflies in his stomach.
Damian felt around feeling the mossy bark on the side of the trees, until he reached an opening lighted by a swarm of fireflies that lit unstable light on a small watering hole. The lights that flew around sporadically reflecting on the small watering pool with a flickering orange light, Damian sat down at the edge of the inset watering pool, hanging his feet off the rocky edge.
Fireflies fluttered around his head as he took out a metal canteen encased with mammoth hair and began to fill it from the watering hole, and discovered holes in the side of watering hole walls. The holes were occupied with dozens of fireflies.
Because of this it appeared as if the fireflies arose magically from the pond. Realizing that he had packed an oil lamp, he grabbed it out of his backpack and he attempted to light the lamp but couldn’t. Click, click, click. The fire wouldn’t start.
He had to think of a way to create a light source fast, he couldn’t stay in one place for forever, plus this place was giving him the creeps. With the fireflies buzzing around his head he came up with a brilliant idea, he knocked out the gas mechanism in the lamp and held it up to the hole in the watering pool, and fireflies fluttered on.
Quickly he closed the door in the side of the lamp, and huzzah, he had the equivalent to an oil lamp. Without any warning Damian felt extremely thirsty, his throat felt scratchy and dry and he began breathing heavily. He was beginning to become dehydrated at an extremely fast rate. Without a single second of restraint, he dove his head into the watering hole; it was quiet underneath the water and all there was to see was the bright blue hue of the water and the bubbles that he breathed out of his nose.
Damian held his head underneath the water for an unusually long length of time, quenching his thirst. The calm of being underwater soon turned to panic as the water streaming into his gaping mouth turned a caramel color like that of a hearty mug of beer.
He quickly withdrew his head from the pond and breathed heavily in a panic, his vision was blurred before being restored as if nothing ever happened. He calmly gathered the contents of the backpack and slung it over his shoulder and held the lamp in front of his face carefully guiding himself through the forest that seemed to speak to him.
A light fog had developed and a distinctly moist scent developed that also reeked of raw meat like how a slaughterhouse would smell after the butcher had just butchered several dozens of pigs and other animals. Tiny little whispers floated through the air, not saying the stereotypical things ghosts would say in a child’s bedtime story.
Occasionally Damian would turn his head to the side towards what he thought was the sound of someone running through the forest, little children playing, and oddest of all the sounds of auctions bidding off things like the latest bowling hat that could flatten with the flick of a wrist. Sold for a good fifty Copen. Good deal.
Despite all the noises that surrounded him he felt so alone, was this all in his mind or if there is really was more than meets the eye about this forest. His vision began to blur once more, he was almost blind, only seeing everything as a blur and slight colors. He heard a distinct whisper that seemed to nullify all the others, it was one of a little girl, about Damian’s age.
The whispers were too quiet to distinguish what the little girl was saying. Without any sort of warning, Damian’s vision was restored; he kept the lantern directly in front of him as he walked towards the quiet whispering. The sound led him to a large tree with long tangling arms that twisted up towards the night sky and branched into more branches.
He walked towards the tree, and slowly began to decipher the rapid whispering that seemed to come from behind the monstrous tree. He decided not to go behind but only try and understand as much as possible by putting his ear up to the tree, knowing that this tree was probably hollow because of witches harvested the inside wood and sap.
“I think he’s close, Iggy.” Said the voice on the other side of the tree, a deep set of grunts and growls responded. “Oh I know Iggy, mother wants him…. But… I think he’s sort of…. cute.” The little girl spread a faint white grin across her face, but it soon dissipated after the creature let out a loud bark that was loud but had tried to be quiet.
Damian stood there leaned against the tree, frozen in fear. He couldn’t do anything but draw the dagger from the back of his pants and wait. Damian turned his head toward the sound of a snapped branch and tiny footsteps wading through fallen leaves.
What Damian saw was in no way sinister, but almost depressing. The girl wore a blue dress that was tight and laced together at the torso, her sleeves gently embraced around her wrists. A golden lace held it together around her neck, revealing most of her back down to the waist. The dress all ended with a mini skirt that ended in wavy fabric right above the knees. She kept her face down and twiddled with the dirt with the tip of her toe, he arms held behind her back. This all gave off the vibe that she was shy and lost.
“Hello. What’s your name?” Damian asked trying to grasp her attention, but she kept her long blonde hair over her face, her hair was in a bun in the back and more loose and edgy towards the front. Damian asked again “Gorgeous?” Damian hadn’t meant to say that but the truth kinda just burst out of his mouth without him consciously knowing until he said it.
Responding to the inappropriately flirty response, the girl lifted her head, now it was getting strange. She wore a white grin across her face and her nose short and angular looked like it could cut through metal. Her oblong eyes glowed an intense golden color that only the sun could rival in intensity. Her bright eyes cut through the darkness like headlights on the front of a midnight train.
“Hello Damian I’m going to keep it honest, I’m here to take you to my mother. Come compliantly and it won’t take long at all… “ She said in a smart tone with a grin stretched across her face, she put one of her hands on her hips and used the other to snap her fingers. A swirl of dark string swirled around to the side of her head until it formed the giant silhouette of a bat. She looked me dead in the eye and said in a slightly darker tone that seemed to have an echo of it’s own, “Or I’ll tell iggy to go for that dapper face of yours, and it would be quite a long night for you.”
Damian responded by putting his dagger in front of him in a defensive stance ready to parry yet unsure how he would fend off a giant bat that loomed over her with it’s expansive wings flapping to keep it in the air.
“Please let me pass, my intentions are noble and before you know it you’ll feel the full force of the Empire’s might!” yelled Damian trying to sound threatening, not being sure if he was succeeding or not.
The girl smirked and then chuckled in the same echoed voice, “Okay, prince nobility is a quite honorable endeavor…” she held her hand out and black strands formed in her hand in the form of a large scythe. “We’ll dual for it, you kill me, you may pass, I kill you, I’ll bring you back to life, and well you know what happens then. Well, come at me boy.” She laughed before saying, “I’m Ana and by the way so nice to meet you.” She said with a grin, before snapping her fingers causing the bat to break up into the same shadowy tendrils that it was formed by.
After a long stand-off, Ana let out a devilish chuckle and jumped high up in the air maneuvering her scythe in a figure-eight motion and quickly brought the blade down to the earth. Damian dove out of the way, getting splattered with dirt from the scythe being driven forcibly into the ground.
Ana struggled to take the scythe out of the mud and dirt, leaving Damian a small window of opportunity to strike with his ill-matched dagger, Damian dashed toward Ana and charged his knife towards Ana, who let go of the scythe and with an enraged shout kicked Damian with such tremendous force that the tree he collided with was now splinters.
Ana felt her blue dress her side felt moist, she looked down to see the dress was stained with a dark red color. Blood.
Damian struggled to stand up, splinters were stuck in his skin and knowing that taking them it would cause bleeding he grabbed his knife from the ground beside him, standing up and snapping his neck and back. It hurt to breathe, the kick to the chest made it harder to breathe.
“You stained it! Mama will have you pay!” whined the girl, who clenched her fists and sprinted towards Damian. Damian did the same and dove to her feet and tackled her. He readied his fists and reeled one fist back while the other held her down. He launched his fist down towards her face before he just simply couldn’t. Not that he didn’t want to, but because he physically couldn’t.
“Tsk, Tsk, Tsk,” said the girl playful manner, who didn’t even seem to feel under strain anymore, she felt more relaxed only stressed about her stained skirt. “You wouldn’t hit a girl now would you?” again in the same playful tone but still with the creepy echo to her voice. Her eyes glowed even more intensely, Damian tried to back away but the force held him there. Helpless.
With some sort of telekinetic force she pushed Damian back on the muddy forest floor. She rose up, no, not with her feet, but with the same telekinetic force, and laughed before descending back on her feet and charging toward Damian with a flurry of fists, throwing them left and right, while Damian easily dodged each one by simply leaning to the other side while walking backwards.
Finally the relentless flurry of fists caught Damian down on the face cutting his forehead. Damian had it, he lunged the twisting blade of the knife into her stomach, he then proceeded to twist the knife, hearing her scream in agony, as she fell back and lay in her own pool of blood. Her breath grew heavy now feeling how it felt to not be able to breath, She panted out words begging for mercy.
Damian was confused about how he felt; he was prideful yet a stinging pain in his stomach told him that this was horrible. He ignored that pain as he did the crushed chest. He felt so strong and empowered; yet, was too cowardly not to finish the job. He grabbed Ana by the collar and lifted her barely alive body off the ground, only to receive a weak kick to the chest.
Damian gasped for air; even though it was weak his chest was so weak it was extremely painful. In return he punched her in the stomach, she let out a weak cry , as that’s all she could muster. “You know I just might kill a girl though.” Said Damian triumphantly as he put her on her knees in front of him, “Any last words girl?”
“Mama will have your head.” She said before spitting a wad of blood at his feet.
“Right then.” He said calmly before poking his knife up against his throat, pulling at the skin delicately, as if pondering something. Then as if making up his mind he slid his knife across her throat causing a wall of red to pour down her neck and she gagged choking on her own blood. “Shame. You were so pre-“ Damian gasped for breath, he needed to get back to civilization fast, it was getting harder to breath.
He let Ana’s lifeless body hit the floor, and picked his backpack up, slinging over his shoulder and holding the lantern in front of him as he struggled to walk through the forest. He grew weaker as his breathing became more heavy and slowed. He collapsed to the ground, grasping the skin of his chest. He dropped the lantern and watched as the fireflies dance as they ascended into the night and out of sight.
He tried to drag himself forward with his hands but he was growing weak. It was getting darker, and darker. Complete Darkness as Damian collapsed on the floor. Motionless.624Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfKWgMf4wa8
