Shane Elmsmund let out a groan as he was awakened by the familiar crowing of the farm’s rooster and the wonderful aroma of frying bacon. His mother always was an early riser.

“Wish Ma was cooking up that damn bird instead,” he mumbled to himself. Shane sleepily opened his eyes, only to immediately slam them shut against the bright sunlight that penetrated the gloom of his bedroom. The threadbare curtains that covered his windows offered him no respite.

Throwing the bed covers aside, he stood up with arms raised above his head, his whole body shaking at the morning stretch. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

“Rise and shine, it’s farmin’ time!” Shane’s father, Victor, burst into the the room with his usual morning greeting and grin. Victor’s broad shoulders and square head barely fit through the doorframe. Shane’s outstretched arms shot down to cover himself.

“Relax boy, nothin’ I haven’t seen before,” Victor chuckled. “But put on some clothes and let’s join your mother and sister for some breakfast and then get to work. Those fields won’t plough themselves!” Another of his dad’s favourite farming adages. Victor closed the door and descended the stairs to the kitchen. His work boots made an audible STOMP STOMP STOMP through the paper thin walls of the Elmsmund family home.

--------

“Daddy, look, I did it!” Ellanor came sprinting from the back porch of the house like a streaking bolt of energy, into the field where Victor and Shane were tilling soil. She stopped short of the farming duo. They saw her lips move and heard a barely audible incantation as she made a short but purposeful wave of her hand, followed by a flick of her wrist. A shower of harmless sparks erupted from her outstretched fingers and into the air.

“That’s my talented little Ellie!” Victor exclaimed with a proud smile. “Now, off you go to do your chores. You’ll have plenty of time to practice your magic at the Academy.” Ellie gave her biggest smile and skipped off towards the barn. Her black, curly locks bounced up and down in time to her movements.

“I still don’t think she should go Pa. Everybody in Balkana knows the ASF really runs that place!” Shane voiced his concerns but they fell on deaf ears.

“Son, we’ve been over this a dozen times! Your sister could actually get out of this city and put her talents to good use. And with everythin’ that’s been happenin’ around here. . . I just want the best for her.” Victor paused and put a hand on Shane’s shoulder. “For both of you.”

Shane met his father’s gaze and gave him a brief smile and a nod. “Alright Pa.”

Victor cleared his throat and broke eye contact with his son, motioning towards the northern end of the field and the vast woods behind it, “Come on, we can finish the field later this afternoon. I noticed part of the fence has been overtaken by the forest undergrowth. If you had trimmed it back like I had told you to, it wouldn’t take the two of us to do it now..”

“What are you talkin’ about, I cut that back to the treeline three days ago!” Shane explained defensively.

“Quit that bullshittin’ and go grab us some sickles from the barn. Before I lose my temper,” instructed Victor in a calm, but forceful tone. Shane knew that tone, his father’s ‘no more nonsense, end of discussion’ tone. Without another word, Shane broodily lumbered towards the barn. Shoulders almost as wide as Victor’s slumped in frustration at the dismissal of his claims. With two sickles in hand, Shane returned to his father, who now stood at the northern edge of their property inspecting a section of fence. Or at least, Shane thought it was a section of fence. It had been completely grown over by thick, thorny brambles and wispy sprouts of dried out, dead looking weeds. Curled, mossy vines had wrapped around the fence posts like some kind of venomous snake, ready to lash out at any second.

With slack jawed disbelief, Shane stared at the overgrowth as he handed a sickle to his father. “I swear it Pa, no less than three days ago I had this fence cleared and cut back damn near twenty feet right to the treeline! What kind of plant grows back that fast?”

“Apparently this kind.” That ‘no nonsense’ tone again as Victor brought his sickle down in a sweeping, practiced arc, cutting a two foot swath of brambles and vines away from one of the fence posts. Freed from its encumbrance, they could now clearly see a large split at the post’s base. As if something had pushed hard against it.

“Damn. Looks like this patch job will take longer than I thought. We’ll have to put in at least one new post, maybe more. And these damn brambles have twisted up in the fence wire” explained Victor.

“You think some animal was tryin’ to get through the fence? Maybe a wolf or bear tryin’ to get to the chickens?”

“If it was, we’d better get this mended and check the rest of the fencin’ before nightfall.” Victor cast an agitated gaze past the overgrowth and broken fence post, letting it fall upon the forest he use to know so well as a child growing up on the farm. No recognition registered with him in that moment. Even in the middle of that bright afternoon, the forest looked dark and twisted. It cast an oppressive gloom that reached out with grasping tendrils that seemed to grow as quickly as the vines and brambles that now entangled his fence.

His uneasiness intensified and his knuckles turned bone white as his grip on the sickle involuntarily squeezed tighter. Among the trees, he saw a face with dark, sunken eyes and wooden, emotionless features. One more. Two more. Five more! Victor instinctively brought his hands up in front of him, his right hand held the sickle, while his left balled up into a massive fist.

“What is it Pa? Do you see somethin’ out there?” Victor quickly glanced at his son to see Shane mimicking his own defensive stance. His eyes darted back to the treeline to address the would be attackers, but none could be found. In their stead, gnarled, swirling tree knots shrouded in eerie shadows cast from the dense foliage above.

“Just. . . Just a deer,” lied Victor, as he slowly lowered his hands to his sides.

“Let’s go get it Pa! Surprise Ellie and Ma with a nice stew for dinner tonight!” Shane excitedly took a step towards the woods, ready to vault over the fence and into the thick overgrowth to give chase.

Victor quickly grabbed his son by the arm and pulled him back towards him, “No! No, son.” Regaining his composure, Victor continued, “We have too much work to do before nightfall.” Raising the sickle above his head again, Victor continued to clear the vines and brambles without another word. His son stared at his father for a quizzical second, then stooped over to start cutting away the rampant growth as well.

--------

Victor and his wife, Magdela, arrived at the town meeting just in time to see Jaylen Jolsby standing on a table at the back of the Leaky Giant tavern. With every movement, his tall, wiry frame gave him the appearance of a marionette made to dance on a stage. He raised hands on outstretched arms and addressed the crowd gathered at the tavern, “Quiet! QUIET! Everybody, please. I know you are all concerned about what’s been going on in Balkana. The sightings, the disappearances. Some of you are worried. Scared. Angry. I know you’re all familiar with our organization, Monsters Are People. We’re here to educate and help.”

“Screw MAP! Bring back the ASF! This s**t never would’ve happened if they were still in Pledge! Get our children back! ” yelled a man in the crowd. His outburst was met by a dozen cheers and plaudits from those around him. “There is something unnatural in those damn woods. It ain’t people, and it needs to be killed!” More approval from parts of the crowd.

“That’s ridiculous, there’s nothing out there you haven’t seen before!” interjected a short, brazen woman. Victor could just see the top of her head through the crowd, but he recognized her as one of his neighbors. Her shrill voice cut through the registrable uneasiness of the room. “There hasn’t been anything in those woods for a hundred and fifty years! The ASF saw to that. All these sightings of creatures are just hogwash, monsters are just a myth now!” she continued. Her claims were met by staunch assurances from more than half of the crowd.

Leaving his wife near the entrance of the tavern, Victor began to squeeze his massive body through the swath of people, towards the back of the tavern. Jaylen raised his arms again and beckoned for everybody to quiet down. “If there are creatures in those woods, they are creatures that need to be protected. I assure you, they will leave you alone as long as you leave them alone. The ASF’s brutal slaughter of monsters and their “destroy on sight” decree has been enforced for too long! There are other ways, we can coexist peacefully!”

“Peacefully?! How peaceful could it have been for my boy when he was ripped from his horse and dragged into the woods?!” yelled a haggard, sullen looking man near the front of the tavern. He swayed on his feet as he gestured aggressively, sloshing beer from his large mug onto the floor. “I can still hear him screaming for my help,” His layer of aggression quickly abated, leaving the raw, painful heartbreak beneath. Heartbreak that no amount of booze could ever fully dull.

“Sir, I’m sorry for what you’re going through, sorry for all those who lost somebody. But we can’t jump to conclusions about what has taken your children. Needless violence will not bring them back,” sympathized Jaylen.

Finally managing to shoulder his way to the makeshift podium, Victor turned to his fellow Balkanians. “I saw somethin’ in the woods this afternoon. Faces in the trees, hidin’ in the shadows.”

“See! I told you there weren’t any monsters! You know damn near everybody in town Victor, who were they?,” asked the shrill voiced woman.

“You don’t understand! They weren’t natural. They were blank, emotionless. And then they just vanished. . .” Victor tried to maintain his composure as his voice trailed off, but the fear he felt bled through every word. “There’s somethin’ else too. The forest is changin’. It’s darker, more dangerous lookin’.”

“He’s right about the woods changing,” confirmed a man in the crowd. His clothes were comprised of pelts from various animals and he stood with a bow slung across his body. Its string taut against his broad chest. Arrows fletched with black and red striped feathers protruded from the top of a leather quiver that was strapped to the man’s back. “I haven’t found a single track for any game in over a month. Their usual trails are overgrown with brambles and vines. Countless felled trees that look to have rotted from the inside out litter the forest floor.”

“So what? Plants grow, trees fall down. Clearly the real problem here is that a group of people are out in the woods, probably wearing some kind of masks, and are taking our children!” Victor’s neighbor continued to protest their dubious assumptions of unnatural woods. “Why won’t the King and Queen do anything about this? Why haven’t they sent some of the royal guard to help us?” Her questions were echoed by the concerned townsfolk. The anger at the lack of support from the royal family was one thing that all Balkanians agreed on.

“You all know as well as I do that we’re on our own out here. Anything north of Jaipul doesn’t get any attention from the royals,” Jaylen answered the woman’s questions despite their rhetorical nature. “My fellow MAP members and I will organize a search party tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that. For as many days as it takes. We will scour those woods for your missing children, and for any culprits that may be responsible for their disappearance. Be they man or beast. We look after our own in Balkana.” Silent nods of approval throughout the crowd at Jaylen’s last remarks. “Now, in the meantime, we can set some safety parameters for the town.

Such as: stay as far away from the woods as you can, avoid walking around town at night or at least stay in pairs or larger groups if you have to, talk to your neighbors about creating safe places to go in the event of an emergency. All common sense in practice, but still very important. I see that a lot of you are carrying weapons with you tonight. I get that they can offer a sense of comfort, but please try to refrain from excessive armament. Too easily, it can lead to accidental injury or even death in extreme circumstances.”

Grumbles and tightened grips around the handles of axes, pitchforks and knives demonstrated the disapproval from the people who carried weapons.

“The search party will meet outside the Leaky Giant just after first light. We welcome any volunteers, but we will not be taking any weapons into the woods. Thank you all for coming, I assure you, MAP will find your children. It’s nearly sundown, so let’s all get home safe before dark,” Jaylen stepped down from his makeshift podium. Several people from the crowd hurriedly pushed past Victor and walked up to him. Victor saw them all shake hands with Jaylen and briefly overheard them exchange sentiments of their full support of MAP. Before he could hear more, he was approached by his own supporter with a hand held out.

“Victor, right? Oliver Oxenfurt. Can we maybe step outside to talk?” the man with the bow had lagged behind as the crowd filtered out of the tavern so he could speak to Victor.

“Right, Victor Elmsmund,” Victor confirmed as he gripped Oliver’s hand and gave it a hard shake. “Come on, my wife is waiting for me.” As the men turned to leave, Victor briefly looked at Jaylen. His supporters were still speaking to him, but Jaylen shot a glance past them and caught Victor’s eye, giving him a curt nod. Then both men turned away from each other, Jaylen back to his supporters and handshakes, Victor back to his new acquaintance. A puzzled expression swept across his face at Jaylen’s interest in him.

“You ok? You’ve got a funny look on your face,” observed Oliver.

Victor stuck a thumb over his shoulder at Jaylen as the two men joined his wife, who had been waiting at the entrance of the tavern. “If that mouthpiece over there thinks I’m plannin’ to join up with him and his namby-pamby MAP buddies, he’ll be sorely disappointed.”

“Victor please. They mean well and genuinely want to help the town. That’s more than anybody can say for the royals. Or the ASF,” rebuked Magdela as she gave her husband a soft slap on the arm.

“You’re right about the royals, but everybody knows they’re the ones who keep the ASF out of the province. I don’t doubt for a second that they’d be here helping if they could be,” as he replied to his wife,

Victor motioned for the three of them to continue outside. The late afternoon had turned to early evening. The trio could see the setting orange-red sun, almost three quarters past the horizon, westward towards Infernum Isle.

Magdela turned to Oliver and offered him her hand, “Do pardon my manners, Victor sure can get me in a huff when he sets his mind to it. I’m Magdela.”

“No apology necessary Mrs. Elmsmund, it is I who have forgotten my manners. When you spend most of your time alone in the wilderness, as I do, social niceties tend to fall by the wayside,” Oliver took Magdela’s hand in his and greeted her with a slight bow that seemed to come as naturally and habitually as a nobleman’s might.

“I see not all of them are forgotten,” Magdela smiled and returned Oliver’s bow with a clumsy curtsy. “And please, call me Maggie.”

“What is it you wanted to talk to me about?” inquired Victor.

Oliver spoke in a hushed tone and leaned in towards Victor and Magdela, “What you saw in the woods, I’ve seen them too. Or rather, felt them. I’ve never gotten quite as good a look at them as it sounds like you have. Only ever seen them out of the corner of my eye. And when I turn to look, nothing. Not a sound, not a track. Just overgrown vegetation and the trees. Whatever they are, they are definitely not people.” Victor nodded as Oliver continued, “Even though I haven’t been able to properly track them, I’ve mapped out every encounter I’ve had.” Pulling out a folded piece of parchment marked with roughly two dozen black X’s, Oliver brandished a hand made map of the woods that bordered the northern edge of Balkana’s town limits.

Victor examined the detailed map, recognizing the labelled landmarks drawn along the map’s treeline. His farm being one of them. “If these X’s are the sightings, than what are these six circles? They’re marked much closer to town, away from the woods.”

“Based on what I’ve been able to glean from the gossip around town, without drawing too much attention to myself,” Oliver continued to explain, “Those are the approximate abduction sites of each missing child. I’m here to find them. The King and Queen have sent me, I’m part of the royal guard.” His hushed tone shrank to a whisper as he mentioned his connection to the rulers of the province of Pledge.

“No need to whisper I reckon, looks like pretty near everybody has cleared out. You should’ve spoken up in there about the royals, you could be leadin’ the search party tomorrow,” Victor posited.

“I am to maintain a low profile to suss out the culprits and bring them to justice,” Oliver recited his royal instructions by rote. “Those are my orders.”

Magdela nodded in understanding, “If it was someone, or a group of someones, who lived in town, announcing yourself to be looking for them would surely mean the culprits go to ground. The children might never be found if that happened.” Victor smiled at his wife’s sharp insight. She was always good at peeling back the surface layers and sussing out one’s true intent.

“I’m glad you’re here to help, but I still don’t get what you’re telling me this for,” Victor studied the map again as he waited for Oliver to elaborate.

“Look at the pattern of the X’s. They start to cluster closest to here, and here,” Oliver tapped his finger on two scribbled rectangles. One labelled “The Monastery” and the other “Elmsmund Farm”.

“I think you’re in danger from whatever is out there. The monks at the monastery as well. I’m going there right now to try and warn them. Based on the previous abductions, these things seem to be more opportunistic than aggressive, but it may be prudent for you two to leave the property until this gets figured out.”

Rolling up the map, Victor handed it back to Oliver defiantly, “Appreciate the information, but this farm is our livelihood. Been in the family four generations. And it’ll be five when I pass it down to my boy. Good luck at the monastery. And I hope you find those kids.” Victor took Magdela’s hand in his as he turned away from Oliver and the Leaky Giant, walking towards home. Magdela’s expression showed nothing but steadfast support for her husband as she gave Oliver a polite nod.

Unfurling, and then folding, his parchment map, Oliver sighed to himself, “That man’s as stubborn as Dad is. He’d probably make a good King.” Smiling at this last thought, Oliver pocketed his map and headed off in the direction of the monastery.

--------

The last sliver of sun disappeared behind the skyline of Balkana as the Elmsmund farmhouse came into view at the end of Lillywood Lane. Victor and Magdela walked with linked arms like they use to when they were teenagers sneaking off into the trees to be alone. The woods were inviting then, the memories brought a smile to Vicor’s face. It was short lived, however.

“Vic! VIC!” The Elmsmunds turned to see Jaylen bounding down the road in their direction. His long stride made short work of the distance between them. In a second, Jaylen had skidded to a halt before them. One hand clasped onto Victor’s shoulder for support, the other on his own knee as Jaylen doubled over to catch his breath. “Phew! I thought I’d never catch up to you!” Oblivious of the deepening scowl that crept across Victor’s face, Jaylen stood upright with a wide grin. “Glad to see you two made it to the meeting. If I had known you wanted to speak, Vic, I would’ve given you an introduction! Not that you need one around here.”

“What do you want, Jaylen?” growled Victor.

Jaylen’s grin never wavered. “You need to help me Vic. I want you to aid me in leading the search efforts. Those people know you and they trust you. Whether or not you support MAP doesn’t matter. The only thing that does is finding those kids.”

“He’s right. We need to help in anyway that we can,” Magdela looked at him with soft, compassionate eyes as she echoed Jaylen’s sentiment. “Come on Vic.” A sly smirk formed at the corner of her mouth as she accentuated his newly dubbed nickname.

Victor’s scowl softened as he struggled to hold back a smirk of his own. “Alri-” His words were cut short by a piercing, high pitched scream that startled all three of them. Victor’s head snapped towards the origin of the scream, his body quickly following, as he broke into a sprint towards the farmhouse. His sudden departure kicked up large dust clouds from the dirt road that made up Lillywood Lane. These clouds only grew thicker when Magdela and Jaylen kicked up some of their own as they followed Victor half a second later. Ahead of them, Victor neared the fence that lined the perimeter of the property line. He ignored the gate and vaulted clear over the four foot high section of razorwire. He disappeared from sight as he rounded the corner of the farmhouse, heading to the barn at the back of the property.

“SHANE, HELP!” A second scream echoed through the air.

Using the fence gate, Magdela and Jaylen followed Victor’s path around the farmhouse. They turned the corner to see Victor running towards Shane, roughly one hundred twenty feet away. He was on his knees with one hand held up to his face. Thirty feet beyond Shane, a shower of sparks shot into the air, illuminating a tall figure stepping over the remains of a destroyed section of fencing. The figure had Ellanor slung over it’s shoulder and was crossing the shadowed treeline. The sparks fizzled out, shrouding Ellie and her captor in the darkness of dusk once more. Ellie let out a third scream as they vanished into the woods.

Jaylen and Magdela caught up to Victor as he was hoisting Shane to his feet and ushering him towards the barn. “What the hell happened son? Be quick!”

“ I don’t know Pa! Ellie was out here practicin’ her magic while I was bringin’ the cows into the barn for the night. I heard her scream and I came rushing out to see somebody takin’ her! I tried to get her back Pa, I swear I did. When I got close I got hit hard in the face. I think he was carryin’ a switch or somethin’.” Shane pulled his hand away from his face to show his father. He looked behind him to see Jaylen and his mother closely following them to the barn. Magdela let out a short gasp at the long, bloody gash that ran across Shane’s right cheek, just stopping short of his right eye.

The foursome reached the open doors of the barn where Victor let go of Shane’s arm and stepped over the threshold. He returned with an armful of equipment: three sickles, two lanterns and a length of rope. Shane immediately took a lantern from his father and lit the candle inside, then eagerly grabbed one of the sickles.

Victor offered a second sickle to Jaylen. “I’m happy to help you, but I won’t be needing that.”

“Fine, then take the damn lantern. And the rope.” Victor thrust the light source into Jaylen’s hands and took a sickle into each of his own.

“Rope?” asked Jaylen, as he put his arm through the coil of rope and brought one end over his head so it draped across his body.

“When we catch the b*****d, we’ll need somethin’ to restrain him with. Maggie, you need to get into the house and lock the doors, there could be more of them still. If we’re not back by sunup, you need to find Oxenfurt. I’ll make sure we leave a trail that he can follow.” Mindful of the sickles, Victor gave her a quick embrace as he pressed his lips to hers.

“You get our little girl back,” she half pleaded, half demanded.

Nodding, Victor said, “Come on, they have enough of a head start as it is.” Victor and Jaylen turned towards the woods and advanced in the direction of Ellie’s captor.

Shane paused only to give his own goodbye to his mother as she took his face in her hands and kissed him on the forehead. “Look after your father.” Shane mimicked his father’s nod of confirmation and ran to catch up to Jaylen and Victor as they reached the broken section of the fence. One of the fence posts had been snapped, its splintered trunk left sticking out of the ground. The trio entered the woods, lanterns held high, casting an aura of yellow-orange light that reached no more than twenty feet in any direction. Beyond that, complete black, as the forest seemed to swallow up any refuge from the oppressive darkness. Another scream from Ellie and a shower of sparks momentarily showed them the way.

“We’re comin’ Ellie, keep sparkin’ for Daddy!” bellowed Victor. Spurred on by the magical breadcrumbs Ellie was leaving for them, they moved forward as quickly as possible without stumbling over the strange abundance of upturned roots. Every thirty or forty steps they took, Victor would lash out with one of his sickles, cutting roots, slashing bushes, slicing the bark of a tree. Anything to leave a visible trail that could easily be tracked in the daylight.

Ellie shot out another spray of sparks, this time off to the far left of the course they were currently on. They seemed to be closing the distance between themselves and Ellie. Veering in the direction of her latest spark signal, they heard her yell again. “Daddy, hurry! It’s hurting me, please!” Victor and Shane let out an angry yell in unison, outraged by her cries. Recklessly charging forward, Shane shot in front of his father and Jaylen, quickly outpacing them. He was desperate to redeem himself for not being able to protect his little sister.

“Let go of my sister you piece of s**t!” Shane screamed in a blind rage that fueled his pursuit. CRACK. Shane looked to his right in time to see a thick section of tree trunk enter the edge of his lantern light, the top of the tree hidden by the darkness outside of his view. It fell at a forty five degree angle across Shane’s path, forcing him to dive to his left or be crushed by the falling lumber. His left shoulder slammed into the ground as he performed a desperate roll and a slide that slowed him down just enough to avoid getting crushed. Instead, he came to an abrupt stop as he slammed into the felled tree that now lay across the forest floor. His lantern was flung from his grasp, landing somewhere in the thicket of trees and extinguishing on impact.

Another of Ellie’s screams jolted Shane from the daze of his impromptu acrobatics. Still holding onto the sickle in his right hand, he got to his feet as Victor and Jaylen caught up to him. Shane’s left arm hung limply at his side, he was unable to move it.

“Damn it boy! Are you alright?” asked Victor, as he motioned for Jaylen to bring their one remaining lantern closer to Shane so he could take a look at him.

“I’m fine Pa, let’s keep goin’!” Shane urged.

“Quickly, and carefully. This tree didn’t just happen to fall on you. I’ve herded enough cattle to know when I’m being lead by the hand.” Victor peered into the surrounding darkness as he said this. “Now come on, your sister put out some sparks to the right of us.” The three of them climbed over the downed tree and continued after Ellie.

“They’re herding us? You’ve got to be kidding.” Jaylen balked at Victor’s incredulous assumptions.

“You think they’d really let Ellie keep on yellin’ and sparkin’ like that if they didn’t want us to follow them somewhere?”

“And we’re going to do exactly what they want us to do?!”

“Either that or let ‘em take my Ellie. And that is not an option. Just know, that when the time comes for us to have to fight, you better be ready. Standin’ idly by and doin’ nothin’ makes you as guilty as these fuckers in the woods.” Victor stopped abruptly and turned to Jaylen, looking him right in the eyes. He used one of his sickles to menacingly point at the coil of rope Jaylen carried. “And if somethin’ happens to my daughter, I’ll hang every guilty party with that rope myself.” Victor started after Ellie again, immediately followed by Jaylen as he held the lantern high to cast enough light for Victor to navigate by.

They followed Ellie’s sparks in silence, being led in a zig zag pattern through the thickest parts of the wilderness. All the while Victor and Shane hacked at bushes and tree trunks, leaving signs of their passage. An hour of chasing them. Two hours. Ellie’s sparks seemed to be getting dimmer, weaker. Flashing in the darkness at longer and longer intervals. Repeatedly, they would come within ten yards of Ellie. The flashes briefly showed her panicked, haggard, and exhausted little face. Her arms weakly reached out for her father and brother. Victor and Shane would sprint into the darkness to close the gap between them and Ellie. Their attempts thwarted every time by another felled tree in their path, or they’d suddenly find themselves barreling into a dense crop of trees right where Ellie should have been. Forcing them to slow, and squeeze through gaps between the tree trunks barely large enough to allow them to wrest their way to the other side.

“Pa,” Shane paused briefly between heaving breaths, “They’re goin’ to run us ‘til we drop!” They had sprinted ahead again to catch Ellie. The first sparks they had seen in more than ten minutes. CRACK! CRACK! Stopping short at the now familiar sound of falling trees, the trio waited for two trees to crash down in front of them, criss crossing as they landed, before vaulting the twelve inch thick trunks. Instead of landing in more overgrowth and brush, their feet came down on soft, packed dirt. To their right, more dense forest like they had been traversing since they gave chase to Ellie’s abductor. To their left, the lantern light revealed a manicured, incongruous path carved through the wild and unkempt forest. It looked as though it originated from where they stood, a seemingly random spot in the woods.

“Well where the hell does this go to?” asked Jaylen.

“I’ll venture a guess it leads to nowhere good.” Directly in front of them, a pair of eyes briefly shimmered green as a fur clad man stepped in the lantern’s light.

“Oxenfurt! I told Maggie to find you at daybreak, what are you doing here?” Victor asked in surprise.

“I haven’t spoken to Magdela since we parted at the tavern,” Oliver explained, “I was at the monastery trying to warn the monks, like I told you. Their grounds back right onto the forest, where I saw a lantern light streaking through the dark. What are you doing out here in the middle of the night? Why would you need to send your wife to find me?” He glanced at Shane. Even in the low, orange glow of the lantern, Oliver could see the resemblance between Victor and his son. His eyes flitted to Jaylen, surprised to find him with Victor.

Motioning for everybody to keep moving, Victor led them down the newfound path as he explained to Oliver. “One of them took my daughter. We’ve been chasin’ them for hours, leavin’ a trail behind us. Maggie was to get you at daybreak if we hadn’t come back.”

Before Oliver could ask how they were able to track Ellie’s abductor, she conjured another burst of sparks. They had grown so dim, the men could barely see them despite their juxtaposed intensity against the looming darkness. Sprinting a hundred feet down the clear dirt path, they seemed to gain ground on their quarry as the forest opened up on either side of them. The lantern light no longer revealed anything, giving way to darkness as they entered a clearing, slowing to a stop.

“S**t, which way now Pa? I can’t see trees anymore!” Shane proclaimed.

“We’re in a clearing, about eighty feet across. Looks man made, like the path we were on. I can see the treeline, but no sign of Ellie. Looks like the path continues to our right though,” Oliver pointed into the darkness and turned towards Victor. The lantern light angled across his face as he did so, causing his eyes to briefly flash green again. “Darkvision. I can see in the dark as if I by low lantern light,” Oliver explained as he read the confused expressions on the other men’s faces. “I’ll lead you to the opening, this way.”

Oliver took one step and abruptly stopped, bewildered. “It’s, it’s gone. The path opening is gone!” He whirled around to where they had come from. “The way we came is closed too! Oh god, prepare yourselves, we’re surrounded! I can see shadowy figures moving in from the treeline.” Oliver grabbed the bow draped across his chest in his left hand, and pulled it over his head. His right deftly notching an arrow that he shot into the darkness. The bowstring let out an audible TWANG as the arrow took flight. He repeated this three more times. Behind them. TWANG. To the right of them. TWANG. In front of them. TWANG. Each time they could hear the THWACK of the arrows hitting wood.

“Talk to us Oxenfurt, what’s out there?!” Victor had both sickles ready to lash out the second an attacker came into the area that the lantern revealed.

“They’re all over but I’m only hitting damn trees! It’s like the things sprout up right in front of them!” Oliver let fly another volley of three arrows. This time, the attackers returned fire as they struck at their light source. Two thin, eight inch long wooden needles flew through the air, letting out a whistle as they did. One struck the lantern, shattering the glass cover and snuffing out the candle within. The other impaled Jaylen’s left shoulder, entering just above his armpit and sticking out the back of his shoulder blade. Blood dribbled out of the protruding tip, the needle’s hollow center collecting a sample of blood as it tore through Jaylen’s muscle and tendons. He let out a painful and surprised scream as the impact sent him spinning to the ground.

In the darkness, Victor felt a hand clasp his shoulder and heard Oliver chant a short string of words that sounded like gibberish to him. The hand on his shoulder glowed a bright green, then abruptly went out. Victor could suddenly see Oliver standing in front of him. He could see Jaylen sprawled on the ground, clutching his wounded shoulder, sobbing. He could see Shane gripping his sickle in a defensive stance, crouched low and ready to attack. Everything was gray and colourless, details still difficult to make out, but he could distinctly count more than a dozen figures advancing from the treeline. Oliver’s barrage of arrows did nothing to slow their advance.

“Oxenfurt, help Shane see!” Victor cried out for Oliver to give his boy the same advantage he had been bestowed with, but his words were drowned out as Jaylen’s wounded sobs became terrified screams. Outstretched vines crawled across the ground like a tangle of snakes and wrapped themselves around Jaylen’s abdomen, pinning his arms in the process. Victor tried to take a step towards him to help, but his feet had become entangled by his own cluster of vines. They were wrapping further and further up his legs, to his knees, to his thighs. Victor began slashing at the thick vines with both sickles, desperate to free himself.

“Pa! Somethin’s got me, it’s wrappin’ me up!” Shane had also started slashing at his living bindings, blindly, frantically cutting away the vines. In the darkness, Shane swung his sickle low, trying to free his ankles. The blade easily cut through the mossy vines and dug deep into his shin bone. He howled in pain and collapsed to the dirt. The vines wrapped around both of his wrists and pulled taught. He was forced to his back, limbs being pulled in four directions.

All the while Oliver was still firing his arrows as fast as he could. TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG TWANG. Another of the attacker’s wooden needles whistled through the air, piercing Oliver’s right bicep as he was drawing back another arrow. One more needle emitted it’s brief tune of motion before impaling Oliver’s right thigh with enough force to crack his femur. He too, collapsed with a bloody, painful thud.

Victor, the last man standing, was now constricted up to his waist. He placed one of his sickles flat against his stomach and sucked in, creating a brief void before the vines tightened. At the same time he slid the sickle down, all the way to his leg, slicing away the vines momentarily. He let out a yell of triumph and began cutting away at his other leg, peeling back the layer of vines like the skin of an orange. He was almost free when he felt the sharp sting of four slashes bite into the back of his right shoulder and down the length of his back. He staggered forward as hot blood poured from his wounds. Another four slashes, this time on his left shoulder, sliced down his back. Despite the grievous blows, Victor stayed on his feet. He tried to face his attacker, but the vines were on him again, his feet rooted in place.

“You fuckers! I’ll kill every last one of you!” Victor screamed and flailed his arms behind him, lashing out with his sickles. One found purchase and slammed into something hard, getting stuck. Armed with only one sickle now, Victor chopped at the vines, once again trying to free himself from their tireless grasp. His efforts were stunted by another attack as Victor was stabbed by whatever weapon had shredded the flesh on his back. He felt a four pronged pressure in his back and chest as his right lung was punctured. Victor gasped for air, coughing up blood, as he fell to the ground, landing in a mass of squirming vines. The vines wrap around his neck and squeezed. Victor clawed at the vines, tried to get his fingers in between them and his neck. The vines continued to wrap around him, his face, his entire body. Engulfing him in a constricting chrysalis, his transformation taking the form of crushed bones and ruptured organs. As unconsciousness loomed closer and the edges of his vision darkened, despite Oliver’s magic, Victor saw past the edge of the clearing, far off among the trees, the dim flash of sparks.













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