Word count: ~1400
Light poured from the Heartwood in a trembling arc, bathing the entire clearing in a warm, blinding glow that felt ancient enough to swallow time itself. Elara shielded her eyes, but she could not look away. The energy didn't burn—it enveloped her like warm water, sinking into her bones.
Behind her, Riven shouted her name.
"Elara! Don't step closer!"
But she wasn't moving. The ground was moving her.
Roots curled beneath her feet in slow, deliberate coils, pulling her toward the massive trunk as if guiding a lost child home.
Eli stumbled backward, fear shaking through his voice. "Riven, do something!"
Riven tried—he lunged forward, but the earth split again, forming a jagged trench between him and Elara. Vines lashed upward like serpents and wrapped around his arms, pinning him in place. He snarled and fought them, muscles straining, but the vines tightened like living iron.
"Elara!" His voice cracked with desperation. "Listen to me! Fight it!"
But she couldn't—not yet.
The voice inside her mind returned, clearer than before.
"Child of the lost lineage… you carry what was stolen."
Elara trembled. Stolen? She didn't understand, yet the words burrowed into her, stirring memories she didn't know she possessed.
The Heartwood pulsed again, and her surroundings dissolved into swirling color. Shapes morphed. Shadows expanded. Then the light snapped—and she wasn't in the clearing anymore.
She stood inside a vast cavern of roots, ancient and spiraled like ribs of an enormous creature. Warm golden veins pulsed across the walls, carrying energy like blood. The air hummed with a low rhythmic beat—like the heartbeat of the forest itself.
Elara whispered, "Where am I…?"
A figure stepped out from behind a root column.
Not human. Not beast. Something in between.
A towering silhouette with bark-like skin, glowing amber eyes, and vines draped across its shoulders like a cloak. Its face was carved with age, yet alive—like the forest given breath.
Elara's breath tightened. "You're… a guardian."
The creature tilted its head. Its voice echoed not through the air, but directly into her skull.
"I am the memory of this land."
"The one who keeps what remains."
"Elara!" Riven's voice faintly echoed from the waking world, distant and muffled.
She stepped forward. "Why did you call me here?"
The guardian's glowing eyes intensified.
"Because you are the missing heir."
Elara's heart stuttered. "Heir? I—I'm not even from this forest. I barely know my past. I don't know my family. I don't even—"
"Your blood does."
Images slammed into her mind—too fast, too bright.
A woman with eyes like hers running through the woods, clutching a small child.
A fortress burning.
Men chasing with torches and iron blades.
The woman hiding the baby within the roots of the Heartwood.
A final whisper: Live.
Then darkness.
Elara gasped, stumbling back. "No… that wasn't real. It can't be."
"Your mother was the last vessel of the Heartwood," the guardian said.
"The bridge between our world and yours."
Her voice broke. "And me?"
"You are what she protected. The seed she carried away."
Elara shook her head violently. "If this is true, why send Echo to kill me? Why didn't the forest protect her?"
A heavy silence followed.
Then—
"Because not all roots grow in harmony."
"Some became corrupted."
The air darkened, the golden veins flickering like dying fireflies.
"Echo was once a chosen child as well."
"But he was twisted by the shadows that dwell beneath the Heartwood."
Elara swallowed hard. "He wants my power."
"He wants to replace you. To take your lineage, your right, your role."
A cold wave of fear washed through her.
"What… role?"
The guardian stepped closer, towering over her but not threatening.
"To awaken the forest fully."
"To choose its destiny."
Elara could barely breathe. "But I never asked for this!"
The guardian lowered its voice, now almost gentle.
"Destiny does not ask."
"It waits."
A deep vibration shook the cavern. The vision flickered. The real world tugged at her consciousness.
"Elara!"
Riven's voice was clearer now—panicked, breaking.
The guardian's tone shifted.
"You are not ready, but time is no longer your ally."
Roots began pulling away from the walls, curling toward her, weaving into symbols across the floor.
"Take the Heartwood's mark."
Her pulse hammered. "What does it do?"
"It binds you to the forest."
"It reveals your power."
"…and it shows your enemies who you truly are."
The air cracked. The vision began collapsing.
"Elara! Come back to me!" Riven shouted.
She hesitated—terrified, trembling, torn.
The guardian extended a hand formed of glowing bark.
"Choose, child."
"Run from your lineage, and doom will follow."
"Claim it… and you may yet survive what comes."
The cavern walls split apart, light flooding in.
Riven's voice reached her like an outstretched hand.
"Elara! Don't leave me!"
Her heart twisted painfully.
She looked at the guardian. Then at the light cracking open the vision.
And she whispered:
"I choose—"
The world shattered.
Light devoured everything.