Ragged. Tired. Hungry. Those were the three words Sadia would choose to describe her life for the last few days. Their march was long, and the days were hot, and the food they had dwindled with each passing moment. So did her will, in fact. During the day, she had to bear with the saronites, during the night, she would lie in wait, ensuring no one was actually following them. Such a routine would take a toll on anyone, but especially on her. Every night, she would question just how the hell did she once manage to fulfill this journey with her old friend. And, the sleep? It was the worst part. Closing her eyes, she always knew there was a chance of never waking up again. That fear gnawed at her. Kept her afraid, kept her awake until the point of exhaustion.
By the time they reached that godsforsaken forest, Danse and Cyra grew awfully quiet. Crimson Dawn didn't fare much better either, sticking close to her but not speaking much. The knight didn't know what he was getting himself into by following them, or he didn't care. Why was he still with them?
As for Sadia, her stomach sank at the first sight of seeing that green sea they would have to brave. A horrid place, one she thought she'd never have to revisit. She could already feel her left elbow aching. The jagged outline of the woods seemed to be sneering at Sadia, their shadows leering with great hunger at her and her companions. A green mass against the backdrop of a sky that bled hues of crimson orange, splintered by shades of pristine blue.
Dark clouds choked up the sky overhead with gray and white, promising to leave them soaked before long. The wind was blowing warmly, carrying nothing except for dry dust and the smell of rugged earth. By evening, they set up camp, no more than a few hours march from their goal.
Cyra kept her head down the whole evening, seemingly in deep meditation or prayer. Crimson Dawn did the opposite, he spent most of the evening glaring at the starless sky. Danse was somewhere in between but still lost in thought.
"A night devoid of light, eh?", Danse spoke, sitting by the fire, blade across his lap, wiping at it with an oily cloth.
"So it seems.", Sadia watched as thin strands of oil raced down the blade, running crimson in the light of their fire. "May I have some of that as well?".
He reached for his pack, pulling out a small vial and tossing it to Sadia without much thought.
"An ill omen.", Cyra muttered, sitting cross-legged, her eyes closed, hands clasped on her lap. Danse nodded without responding. Sadia had already pulled out her blade. It wasn't as elegant as Danse's but it wasn't rusty. Nor would she allow it to be. It needed to be ready for a lot of work come tomorrow. So she undid the stopper, dripping the dark liquid on her steel, spreading it somewhat neatly.
The paladin picked up his blade with both hands, inspecting it through half-closed eyes. The light of the flames bounced off the steel with fierce sharpness. A clean blade for a clean man. The same couldn't be said about Sadia and her sword. She wiped at it with the end of her sleeve, the metal remaining dark and frothy.
Danse turned his weapon slowly, "Say, Sadia. Do you know what you have gotten yourself into?". Sadia knew just enough, she lived through all of this once. She still shook her head in denial. "Great. Tomorrow, we will be walking into quite the unpleasant ordeal. You see, just beyond this darkness lies something way worse. It is said that Saron himself came here once, and Dawn here is to walk in his shadow."
He put his sword down before speaking again, eyes shining darkly in the firelight. "It is said that Saron spent time here, sitting in prayer, attuning himself to the dark spirits that roam this land. Do you know what this means?".
Yes, she did. "No.", she responded, looking down at her blade.
"This place is dangerous, very much so. So, upon entering the woods, please listen to my commands.", he leered at her with heavy eyes. He wasn't asking. "If any one of us should fall, there won't even be enough time to retrieve their corpse. So, keep your eyes open and your wits about you.".
"What exactly is waiting for us?", Dawn finally broke his silence. He looked ragged. Clutching the wreath tightly in one hand, keeping it by his side.
"Well, you know the legend, right?", Danse continued, his lips cracking into a smile for the first time in this evening. "You know of the path. You know what Saron sought and what he encountered.".
"Y-yes but...", his words were caught in his throat for a moment, "Is it as literal as the books make it?".
Danse and Cyra nodded in unison. Two idiots with one mind, it seemed. Truth be told, no legend could prepare them for what lies deeper into those dark woods. Dawn wasn't ready and that made Sadia even more nervous than she already was.
"Don't worry, Dawn.", Cyra spoke without looking at him. "You aren't alone. We are here to see this through alongside you. For better or worse.". She scowled towards Sadia, eyes heavy with annoyance. Cyra saw her as dangerous, wild and uncouth, but Sadia cared not. She had bigger things to worry about. And, hey, should Cyra be the one to fall, she sure as shit won't be trying to drag her corpse along.
They did their best to sleep through the night. Sadia was first to wake, beside the strange knight. She found him staring at the forest shortly after opening her eyes and getting her bearings. For the first time since they met, the man with a bucket for a helmet looked lost in thought. He gazed upon the empty that lay before the woods. Mere plains of yellow grass, earth rising and falling every few meters, looking like the waves of an unruly ocean.
She stood shoulder to shoulder with the knight, scanning him up and down. Muddy and aged plate under torn rags of white and black cloth. He looked like a vagrant of some kind. A very well-off vagrant, given his armour, but a vagrant nonetheless.
"Today will be a long day. Some of us might not make it out alive. Hope you made your peace with that.", she quipped, not really expecting an answer.
The knight turned to face her, the slits of his helm drowned in inky blackness. Hollow. Much akin to the empty orbits of a freshly cleaned skull. He nodded in approval, bumping her on her arm before walking away with the same sluggish pace everyone had come to expect of him.
The trees looked welcoming enough from the outside, and the weather had cleaned up a bit since yesterday. The sun shone down with tender warmth through a canopy of scattered, dark clouds, seemingly beckoning them into the woods. It didn't look like they were marching straight into their doom. But, Sadia knew that appearances are always deceiving. It wasn't the outside that worried her. It was what lay waiting in between those trees that made her furrow her brow constantly.
Danse led them down a footpath, leading the march, Cyra just behind him. Dawn was in the middle, Sadia keeping close to him, fingers tapping on the pommel of her blade. The knight was their rearguard. With each step, Sadia felt the need to turn around and gaze about the trees, not really trusting the knight with keeping his eyes open. Any time she did so, nothing was there. Just countless brown trunks, bushes all about, grass grown out of control and the odd boulder. And it was quiet. Damned quiet. Sadia could hear everyone breathing.
Trees on the right. Trees on the left. A bush here and a bush there. Roots across the path, moss on boulders and trunks. The air? Damp and humid. No wind. Their steps rang out against the quiet, muffled as they shuffled on dirt. Nothing. No one. For a second, all seemed well. Sadia could feel herself ease, right before remembering what happened the last time she became so complacent. Oh, how her elbow pained her in remembrance. She shook her head, slapping both hands on either side of her face, Dawn stealing a glance at her while she did so. He smiled as he turned away, very much struggling to keep up with the pace set by his peers.
By midday, they reached what Sadia could consider the point of no return. A large gash cut into the earth, a valley carved through the forest. Its entrance, a mess of torn trees around a large boulder. They would have to pass through it, earth rising like a mound on both sides, squeezing them tight, roots reaching outwards from the dirt and snagging on their clothes as they moved by. A bizarre sight, one Sadia did well to remember. Ansel lost his hat around there. She gazed up as they marched, trying to catch the thing she dreaded so much, that shape amongst the trees. She looked on, glaring at the shadows with great anticipation. Sadia could feel sweat slowly trail down her back with every passing moment.
By this point, Crimson Dawn witnessed her nerves wracking in real time. He put a hand on her shoulder only for her to slap it away. Sadia's leer was stuck fast to the trees above. His words also fell on deaf ears. Nothing he said even seemed to register. All she could hear was the steady beating of her own heart. It was tiny at first, only for it to grow to thundering while they advanced. The path felt endless, each step bringing them closer to a boundless horizon, one made up of brown trunks and green leaves and nothing good. Still, she stumbled from time to time, feet snagging on roots, tripping amongst the rockier parts, her gaze never daring to cease scanning their surroundings. And yet, that thing was yet to show itself. But it will. It had to. It wasn't this patient before.
Everyone else seemed a lot more at ease. No wonder about that. It's easy to relax when you don't know what is waiting for you. Then again, maybe she was the only one stirring up her nerves. Maybe, the thing saw how many of them there were, and decided that their group was not worth the effort. Who knew? Sadia clearly didn't. And she was tired of stressing over it. She let out the quietest sigh she could muster, hand resting on the pommel of her steel.
Then, from the corner of her eye, Sadia caught a glimpse of movement. A shadow amongst the tree line. Sadia saw it. It lay there, just beyond what she could clearly make out. It lay low, crouching in the shadows, slithering around the trunks and inching ever closer, moving parallel to them all the while. She saw it, and that was the only thing that kept it from advancing. As soon as she would turn around, it was bound to pounce on them from behind. Then, an even worse realisation came to her. She saw it. It clearly saw them. It lost the element of surprise. Then, it bolted.
"Oh, fuck. Run!", she pushed Dawn so hard he almost fell. Catching and pulling him to his feet, they ran like madmen, the knight following suit, each step causing his plate to jingle coldly. Cyra glanced back only to curse and bolt after them. Danse did too. Sadia was very confident in her running, not so much in Dawn's. He was slowly losing steam, and she had to slow down to keep pace with him. Cyra sprinted like a woman possessed, passing them while screaming a long list of what must have been curses in a tongue Sadia didn't understand. Danse kept at the back, sword already drawn. Ahead, a break in the trees appeared. But Dawn couldn't keep up. What was worse was that it was catching up to them. Sadia could hear it, the sound of countless feet on dirt, beating just like a war drum. Images of countless mangled limbs working together in unison, pulling the thing forward, that flashed in her psyche, her hair standing up on every end. She didn't dare look back. She had not the courage to.
And the drum was growing louder. And louder. Closer. And closer. Cyra broke through the woods, vanishing from their line of sight. The sound of running was almost deafening. They were bound to be caught, unless Dawn picked up the pace. But he couldn't. He looked just about ready to drop dead of a heart attack at any moment. It was truly a miracle that he hadn't tripped already. They were to be caught. Caught and torn to pieces. Caught and torn limb from limb. Quartered, blood spewing everywhere, entrails taken and spread around the crowns of the trees like morbid vestiges, Sadia could already see all of it.
Then, just when they were to be got, the knight sprang forth. He took Dawn from behind, cradling the young man in his arms while running with speed that was ill-fitting for a man of his sluggish nature. They made a break for the light. Countless hands reaching after them.
They ran like their lives depended on it, the light growing stronger by the second. The knight was the first to arrive, followed by Sadia, sprinting with all the vigour she still had left. Then, light. Her feet wobbled in the air as she left the ground behind. The world spun around her as she fell, catching a glimpse of Danse jumping after her, sword still in hand. Then, cold. Wet. Water rushing in her mouth, in her ears, in her nostrils, squeezing the little life she still had out of her. Legs thrashing, arms fluttering uselessly against the stream, Sadia couldn't tell which way was which, her body spent following her fervour. Luckily, the knight pulled her out before she drowned. He dragged Sadia by the collar, dropping her on the bank of the river.
Danse was sitting, breathing heavily. Cyra stood, arms crossed. She didn't look spent, but she wasn't looking pleased either. Just like a wet cat, something seemed to weigh heavily on her mind. Dawn looked just about ready to die, lying on his back and looking up with tired eyes.
Danse stood up slowly, "Well, let us never do that again.". In spite of everything, Danse was smiling from the corners of his mouth.
"What was that?", was all Dawn could muster.
"Truth be told, I don't know.", Danse smirked as he spoke, all the worry he showed seeming to vanish in an instant, "Some call it an evil spirit. Others think it a being from the plains of Nevermore. Saron called it Gertrude.".
Fucking Gertrude, the stuff of nightmares. "Why are we here to begin with? What is Dawn supposed to accomplish?", Sadia spoke in between ragged gasps.
"Dawn will be a witness. That is all there is to it. With that said. I never knew you to be so urgent, Cyra. What happened? Weren't you eager to finally walk the path.". His casual tone returned. The bastard knew what was going to happen. He knew, and he refused to explain it in detail. Now, here he was. Smiling with satisfaction after seeing everyone's reaction. All they could follow him into deeper into the forest, deeper into the shadows.
Into the crooked maw of the past.