Chapter 12: Chapter 11 – The Undead

My head hurts, I feel the banging throughout my brain, slowly eroding away at it. The smallest sounds of drums being played constantly. But as my eyes slowly open, a slit of light enters my pupil. My eyes jut open and I look around. I’m in the massive telt me and Rito set up with a couple others yesterday. It feels like I just woke up from another nightmare, my whole body feels cold, yet covered in sweat. I get up from the ground where my sleeping bag is curled up, I look around the tent for Rito, but his sleeping bag is empty. All the others are sleeping as well. I carefully tread past their sleeping bodies, and I go outside the tent. Feeling the cold breeze of the outside hit my lavender skin feels refreshing, but as I can see by the moon’s blue hue, it’s still night. I look around our camp, to see the small torches that have been placed around for lighting, and the still glowing charcoal we used to heat up our dinner last night, the small flicks of ember raised partially up, but they fizzled out before landing anywhere else. I direct my eyes around the camp, and I spot Rito, peeking from another tent. I slowly walk over, but Rito looks at me with a worried expression, he quickly takes his finger to his mouth, and quietly signs me to shush. And he then waves me off, he wants me to go back to the tent, I do a small ‘why’ gesture, but he just stares at me directly with eyes for daggers. I turn back not wanting to piss him off, but before I close the tent, I see Rito still peeking towards a lit campfire, he seems to be trying to listen to what they are saying. I dont bother to go back, and make Rito mad. So I lay myself down in my sleeping bag again, and as I slowly start to daze off, Rito enters the tent, he seems… Afraid, he is panting and sweating bullets, but at this point In trying to investigate what he was doing, I’ll just… ask… ask him in the mo-... Morning…

A shadowy mist covers my vision, I try my best to focus, what a mistake. I look as the dark gray stones dent inwards, the cracks of the broken stone, are lined up with ghostly crimson blood. An Ashiin man laying up against a wall, his ribs piercing through his chest, the rubbery organs spill out of his stomach, the orange flames light up his hollow eyes, just to look into. The orange skin of his cheeks are slowly losing color. His vivid short red hair flowing to the side. In front of the corpse stands a sinful man, his muted blonde hair no longer giving a shine, as his eyes only spoke of the void inside. His lips were crunchy and dry, and his skin was similar. As he stood there high and mighty, now towering over the minds of the presumed lesser beings, he scoffed and took a poor child with him. Though as he left the poor corpse to rest, the knights around it had a part of them stolen, a part that could never return.

“Soldiers up, meet at the central campfire!” Bangs throughout the camp, the echoes of the  My eyes slowly jitter open, and I quickly begin getting ready. The others in my Tent including Rito seem to be washing their hair. And I follow suit, each of us had a small wooden barrel, filled with clear water. I stick my hands in the cold water, and I slowly start to pull out the grease from my hair. I keep washing away, and right as I’m done, Rito throws me a Towel he brung, I wipe my hair clean till it puffs up, all nice and dry. I hand Rito his towel back, and I get my armor on. I am ready for today, I am ready to fight, I am ready to make my dad proud. I finally exit the tent, and I go towards the center campfire at the camp. A lot of people had already arrived, but I was early enough. I look out to the shore, the shiny water was climbing up against the soft sand we landed on, and the ship still took a large part in my vision. I turn my back, and I walk towards the campfire. I try to find Rito in the cluttering crowds of my fellow knights. I finally see Rito, and I stroll over to him, he seems to be standing at the very back of the crowd, he always seems to be the person at the front, eager to hear the orders of our commander. I position myself next to him.
“Heya Rito.” I whisper.
“Oh hey.” Rito whispers back.

“So why ya’ standing in the back? You're usually so intent on listening to orders.” I say jokingly.
“I just.. Want to keep my distance for now.”
“From who?”
“Them.” He slightly points towards Ryude and the special team standing at the front.
“What about them?” I ask.
“I’ll explain later.” Rito says. We look up to Ryude, his slightly crooked nose lit up by the blazing campfire.
“Soldiers! Today we will travel deeper into the sleeping forest.” Ryude yells out to his attentive recruits.

“As you may recall, we are hunting a rogue Necromancer. All you recruits have to manage, is to clear the Shriekers, we guess have been littered through the forest. I will fight the actual Necromancer, to keep you recruits safe of course. The special team will be set on another mission here, so they will not be present. Everyone go in line, two and two.” Ryude commands us in line, me and Rito are in the back, as we march up the steep. The tall skinny trees cover our path, as we travel deeper in the forest. 

Small frogs and insects climb atop my metal shoes, the small frogs quack as I rustle them off. I look past the edge of grass, down into the black sea. It resembles a sort of goo, not sloshing against the cliffside, but instead eating at it. The goo itself seems to be non-transparent, and it has a slight shine to it. I notice some of the trees on land, are a lot more wide, and don’t seem as ‘drained’. Though looking closer at the trees, I can see that instead of going straight up, their trunks twist up toward the sky. We march further on, coming across a bridge of some sort, not made of wood or planks, but made of the very island itself. Looking down I see the black goo slowly creeping up against the stone pillars that hold the bridge up, as they reach up and connect to the earth walkway. We walk across the wide path. Though I feel sort of uneasy, feeling as if it could crumble at any time. Finally we reach the main island, away from the shore, I look down again to see the large distance between land and sea, I kick a small pebble off. And as it hurls down, it plops down, and gets swallowed by the goo. 

“Soldiers, we’ve reached the main area of the Sleeping forest, be on your guard, monsters could be ahead.” Ryude yells out. We keep marching forward, making our way through the closest terrain, walls of earth make it impossible to see outside, Suddenly the lines stops up. I hear he slowly starts putting people into groups. He slowly gets closer to me and Rito.
“Vind, Fischer, you two will patrol in the lower ends of the sleeping forest, just travel over the wooden bridge ahead. It won’t be an issue.” Ryude Commands us.
“Aye sir!” We Say. We disconnect from the group and we hurry towards the bridge he was talking about. We climb up a steep mound of dirt, as I look upon the other side of the wall, I see a sort of, moving mushroom. Their bodies are the size of a giant pot, and they have a sort of weird yellow tag hanging from their scroomy head.
“Huh, forgot zombie scrooms were here. Rito says.
“What do you mean, I’ve never seen these weird things, have you?” I ask.
“I mean no, I just read somewhere, that zombie scrooms were only located deeper in the sleeping forest. Doesn’t matter anyway, let’s just cross the bridge.” Rito says, I nod and we slowly approach the bridge, Rito steps on it first, it whines and cracks from the pressure, only holding on by the dusty threads connecting it. I slowly step on as well, and I feel the planks bend a tiny bit. I see Rito quickly skipping over, and I follow suit. We quickly run over the dusty bridge. And right before the last plank, I jump over it. Landing on the wet and dark grass.
“What kind of imbeciles keep that bridge intact!” Rito yells out.
“I don’t think anyone does.” I reply to Rito's outrage.
“Yeah yeah I know, just weird how there are two towns nearby, and none of them seem to care about the environment.” Rito ends. I just nod and we slide down the bank. I look upon the terrain, small crevices and routes litter like mazes through the ground. As if you could get lost on just one island. I glance at the right, and I stare upon a cliffside. I see massive trees sprouting from the top of it.
“Weird how so much of this place is made of dirt right?” I ask Rito.
“Suppose it is. But if you look at it in a certain way, it’s probably the trees themselves that keep it up.” Rito replies looking at the trunks.

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“What do you mean?”

“Well, there are definitely roots connecting the trees to the ground, and they must be long, enough to cover most of the dirt in the area, and make it more rigid.”

“I guess that explains how the earth is so steady. But how do the trees hold up?” 

“Hm, well look up.” Rito says, pointing up towards the dark canopies.
“Even though it's dark, you can still make out that the leaves and trees up there, twist around each other, the trees themselves hold each other up. Like a ‘Hivemind’ of sorts.”

“Huh, that’s weird, how’d you think they became like that. No way they just grew naturally like that.” I ask Rito.
“No idea.” He says. As soon as Rito ends his sentence, I hear a growl.
I quickly take my hand to my sword, Rito does the same, I look around frantically. We step off the plateau we were on, and down to the lower floor. I hear the growls growing closer, I signal Rito to get in position, he nods. He takes his back to mine, as we go in circle. I then look to a bush in front of me. And a gray creature jumps out. Its eyes completely void of any light, and its body stitched together from what seems to be different pieces of… people. Its mouth is also sewn shut, but a small thread had come loose, so it could make loud noises. It leaps forwards against me. Tilting around on the ground, it was nearly crawling. I quickly look back at Rito, it seems he’s also dealing with one. I look back at the growling beast, as it limps frantically towards me. It tries to strike me with its arm. Quickly feeling the rush in my arm, I pull out my sword, and I brutishly swing in it, my blade is stuck in its arm, I try to move it, seeing as it prepares its second arm for an attack. I pull my sword to the right, and I rip its arm off. It doesn’t seem fazed by the pain, just directly back into fighting. I prepare again, as it tries to use both arms, only the right arm reaches me, I hold the arm up with my sword, as its cut off arm tries to reach me. I quickly raise my leg, and I kick it to the ground. Hammering my foot into its chest. Now laying on the ground. The monster desperately tries to get up. I quickly jumped on it. Raising my sword. As it reaches for me again. I hold my sword in reverse, while I try to get closer to its head. It tries and tries to hold my sword back. And suddenly it uses its thin legs to kick me back. I quickly roll back up, as I ready my stance. I envision a campfire being lit up, its embers lighting up a dark night. But, my sword doesn’t produce a flame. The creature is already nearing me, I give up on the charges.
“Rito, you doing good!” I quickly yell out.
“I’m doing fine, worry about your own fight!” Rito yells back as he protects himself. I see the gray fiend sprawling closer. I take my blade in a wider stance. As it claws towards me, I swing my sword above my head, I slam down my sword, I make a clean cut down, and its arms flies off. I quickly take my sword in reverse grip, and I pull upwards, slicing it apart. It falls down on the grass with a thump. I look at Rito as he graciously swings his blade around all fancy like.
“C'mon you dweeb, just get it over with.” I tease Rito. He grunts slightly, and then cleanly cuts the beast's head off. He turns around and seethes his blade.
“Easy nough.” Rito smiles.
“What were those?” I ask Rito
“Shriekers. Thought you would have guessed that by now.”
“I guess not.”
“Hm, something was a bit off though, it was like it got weaker after you defeated the other shrieker, maybe they are just stronger in pacts?”
“There’s a chance, but anyway, let's keep it moving.” I say, Rito nods and we traverse further in.

We come across a small underpass, covered in vines and plants.
“Should we go in?” Rito asks
“Why not, maybe we can find the Necromancer.” I say as we push the vines apart. The darkness of the small cave is infuriating, we push through and through, not a shred of light comes through. Rito is at the front, he seems very determined to get through. Finally as the light peers through the leaves, and hits Rito’s face, he stops in his tracks. I look upon his lightened face, as it contorts into a look of pure horror. His eyes are visibly shaking, and his arm is shakingly trying to reach for his sword. I try to see what it is he’s looking at. A person is lying on the ground, their face is completely ripped up, and eyeball to the side, and torn apart shrieker parts litter around. Above the dead person, stands a tall, menacing man in dark armor. He has a helmet resembling a monster of some sort, with bare teeth and a gaping mouth. A Wraith knight was standing in front of us. I feel that pressure again, as he turns to look at us. His pinpoint eyes behind the holes in his helmet lock onto us. As he turns,

I feel the very impression of death being laid upon me.

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