The morning mist clung to the trees like cobwebs, heavy and still. Erwin walked at the front, hand resting on the sword at his hip, a blade he had forged himself, a weapon shaped not for show, but to survive days like this.
Behind him trailed five recruits in a crooked line, boots crunching damp leaves. Three of them were barely out of boyhood, two were nearer his age, though none carried the weight of experience. They weren't soldiers, they were dreamers.
It was already the second day of the trial, and right now their group was hungry and cold. They had not encountered any recruits wanting to kill them, but they were also in a worse situation than the remaining recruits.
Unlike the others who had experienced people leading them, none of them had any. They had only been eating berries and tree bark, but that wasn't enough.
The only thing they had hunted was that glacier hare they killed yesterday, and they could not consume monster meat. They needed to find proper food quickly, or they would die under the snow.
That was not the kind of death they wanted. They had dreamed of glorious adventure, of battles that would make their names resound throughout the kingdom. If they were to die, they didn't want to die from hunger, but in battle.
They had not come all the way here for this kind of ending. Some of them even bet the entirety of what they had to come to this place.
"If any of you feel like you can no longer go on, it would be best to crush the rune-engraved stone." Erwin suddenly suggested. There was a moment of silence in the group, but then one of the young men spoke.
"... I can't back down now... This is where my dreams led me."
"The lad is right. I gave up my job to chase my dreams. To me, I either die here or achieve my dreams." One of the older men who was near Erwin's age spoke.
The others nodded in agreement with what was said. Erwin looked at the determined faces of everyone present.
"I understand you more than you think. We all came here for almost the same reasons, for a dream we once had, or a dream that had just sprouted. Still, if you die now, you will never be able to achieve anything. The dream you had will only be that, a dream."
Erwin's voice echoed in their ears. Some were starting to waver, but then one of the young men spoke.
"How about you? Why do you continue?"
"Like I said, because like you, I too follow that foolish dream."
"Then why stop us?" Another youth asked.
"Unlike me, and a few of you here. This might be my final chance to reach that dream. You and the others, on the other hand, are still young. You will have other chances."
When they heard Erwin's answer, the young men and the old ones finally understood why he told them to quit.
"He's right, lads. We old men have this final chance, so it's this or death for us. But it's not for you." One of the middle-aged men spoke to the three young men.
"... If I walk away now, it'll feel like I ran from my own dream. You say I'll have other chances, but I want this one to matter."
The second that young man said those words, the eyes of the others started to reignite with a passion. Erwin couldn't help but sigh as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Fine. Then we live together or die together, chasing the same damn dream." Erwin spoke with a slight smile on his face. "First, we need to find food."
***
While Erwin's group was trying their best to survive, the other groups were doing the same, except for four recruits and those with them.
Bram, despite not leading the people with him, just his presence alone had raised the chances of their survival.
Veronica, on the other hand, led the recruits that were with her to a perfect spot to hold their ground for these two days. It was near a water source, and they had hunted a few birds. They were also willing to eat a few bugs to survive.
As for Thrall and Daniel, they had no one with them and only had to worry about themselves.
Thrall had hunted monster after monster, and unlike the others, he was able to eat monster meat due to his natural resistance to poison.
Daniel, on the other hand, only moved when necessary. If he were thirsty, he would go to the nearby lake for water. If he were hungry, he would simply catch a few birds to eat. As for the monsters he encounters, most of the time he would easily avoid their detection, and if he couldn't, he would kill them.
***
The forest had shifted. None of them noticed at first, only that the cold bit deeper and the wind carried less sound than before. The usual scatter of lesser beasts had vanished; no birds in the branches, no glacier hares darting through the snow. The silence pressed in, too heavy, too deliberate.
Erwin's group moved north, following faint hoofprints through the frost. Hunger had them chasing any sign of meat, no matter how small.
Every step deeper into the forest felt like a choice, but in truth, there was only one path left open, the others blocked by fallen trees, monster packs, steep drops, or a sense subtle but insistent that something waited there in the dark.
Bram's small band, weary from a night of watching one another more than the monsters, turned east at the sound of running water. A stream meant life, clean enough to drink, cold enough to keep.
Veronica's recruits left their makeshift camp at dawn. They had food, enough for another day, but the ground had trembled in the night, once, like something vast had moved beneath it. She didn't like the feel of it, open ground, limited cover, the wrong place to fight if something big found them.
She led them toward higher ground, where the trees thinned and sightlines widened. Better to see death coming than let it crawl up on them.
Thrall stalked the smell of blood. It cut through the air, sharp, hot, it was not beast, not man, but that of a monster. He was the predator in this forest, so he decided to hunt down his next prey. For original chapters go to novèlfire.net
Daniel woke when the wind shifted. He didn't know why, only that his skin prickled and the birds had gone quiet. His instincts that had always led him to the right path were telling him to move.
He yawned, dusted the snow off his shoulders, and wandered after the same pull that tugged at all the others, not knowing he was following footprints already laid.
***
Lucen, who was watching each of their movements in the new Thornefang HQ with Harlik a few members of Thornefang noticed that slowly but surely each group was getting closer to one another.
'Now, that's weird... It's like something is guiding them to a single area.' Lucen frowned as he sensed that something was wrong.
"Harlik, tell the others to prepare for battle. We'll depart as soon as possible for the monster forest."
Harlik was about to question why they were going there, but when he saw the expression on Lucen's face, he stopped himself.
"As you command, little leader." Harlik then left the room.
***
The forest opened into a hollow, a wide, unnatural clearing where the snow lay untouched, like no beast or bird dared step there.
Erwin's group stumbled into it first, driven by hunger and the faint hope of a hunt. He halted, hand on his sword, eyes narrowing. No tracks but theirs. No sound but breath and boots, it felt wrong, so very wrong.
Not long after, Bram's band broke through the tree line opposite them. Steel hissed free at the sudden sight of strangers, tension sparking like flint. For a heartbeat, no one moved.
Unlike Erwin's group, Bram's group had experienced what happened in the night, recruits turning on recruits. Knowing this, trust was as brittle as ice.
Then Veronica appeared with her recruits, spear in hand, eyes scanning the clearing like a soldier walking into a trap. Her group fanned slightly behind her, warier still at the sight of two other groups already drawn tight as bowstrings.
"As if this cursed mess wasn't enough," Bram muttered to himself. "Now more damned fools have arrived."
"Stay sharp," Veronica warned her group. "We don't know who's desperate enough to try something."
In the standstill, everyone heard branches crack, which made them unconsciously point their weapons towards the sound.
Thrall landed on the ground, blood still smeared across his knuckles, dragging a monster carcass behind him like a hunter returning from war. The sight of him froze half the recruits on the spot.
It was at that moment when the tension was at its highest, like he'd wandered into the wrong story entirely, that Daniel emerged from the trees, half-asleep. He was eating a bird's meat, blinking at the crowd, feeling exhausted to find company.
The five groups had now converged in one spot. It was at this moment that most of them felt like something was wrong. They all appeared in the same spot, almost at the same time. It was like they were guided there.
Bram clicked his tongue in annoyance that he didn't notice that he was being led around. Veronica gave a few commands to those of her group to form a tight formation. Seeing what Veronica was doing, Erwin did the same.
Thrall had let go of the carcass he was dragging and was also getting ready for battle. His eyes were looking around the surrounding area, his nose twitching as if he was trying to catch the scent of whatever was out there.
On the other hand, Daniel was sighing while finishing the bird's meat in his hand. He really wanted to leave and find a spot to nap in, but he knew that it was already too late for that.