Willowood

The cirsumstances are one of those "special cases" so Pyro and Karin, both set their eyes on what lays outside the 20 foot walls of Brookstone.

 I'm really glad at the response I'm getting for this story, it's awesome that you guys like it! XD
If you're on this chapter and have not read the past 2 chapters, please do that be up to speed with the story.

ADDON: I AM SO DAMN SORRY for not posting this sooner =-=;;, I've just started school again, got a new dog, lookin for a job, etc. etc.

And thank you to those marvellous critique's I got, I'm definitely going to pay very close attention to this chapter.

Note: There was a Lady bug crawling on my computer while typing this 8D

Underworld

Chapter 3: Willowood

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Pyro narration

My eyes opened to a sight I never thought I'd see, the other side of the Brookstone wall, and of course my little moment of recollection stopped when I realized my legs were killing me.

So then there was the moment of truth, what happened? Was everyone okay? Marian? Franc and Louise? Debbie...

But as always, my mindset digressed, where was Karin? I looked in the direction my awkwardly appointed legs were and saw Karin leaning against the trunk of a tree a few metres away.

"That didn't take too long..." Karin stated, sitting up and leaning in my direction, "I thought you were gonna be out for hours-"

"How long has it been?" I asked, leaning up on my elbow, feeling the pain in my legs suddenly subdue itself.

"About ten minutes, oh and I don't know why Debbie is always telling us how dangerous it is out here! The most dangerous thing I've seen since you broke my fall was a this really strange creature!" She explained.

'What was that she said about me breaking her fall?' "What did it look like?" I asked curiously, the pain in my legs becoming lesser, allowing me to sit up.

"I got to touch it! It had this weird rough skin, and 4 legs, and a huge tail! Being outside of Brookstone isn't that bad at all!" She smiled. It was that smile that gave me hope, if she could be this happy about being outside the walls, I could at least try, but her expression died down when she saw bumps on the visible side of my black trousers.

We both had a pretty clear idea of what it was, I bent over and pulled my right trouser legging upwards, and once again my skin was covered in these horrible black blotches. I saw Karin wondering to herself, as she stared at the blotches, "Do they hurt?" She asked observantly.

I shook my head, "Actually, my leg feels better now, allot better from when I woke up-"

"A few minutes ago... Pyro, do you think that these blotches heal your
injuries?" She asked, as I looked down at my leg and nodded in response.

Karin sighed, I could tell both of us figured out the source of these blotches, but the thing is, I had hurt myself many times in the past, why do they only appear now?

I knew she couldn't keep a puzzled face for very long; she just stared back at me and smiled innocently, "Now get some real sleep!" She chuckled.

I did it gladly, all this nonsense was enough for one day, but I couldn't help but feel a bit vulnerable, I mean, an elementalist, weakened with no abilities, and a human girl, on the edge of a forest right outside the wall of a town that was destroyed by a bunch of wolf people? I would expect whatever kind of threat lied beyond our view wouldn't pass the opportunity if they saw us, 'I'd better quickly teach myself how to sleep with one eye open...' I thought, as I peered over to Karin, who had the same worried look on her face as I did.

---

Third person narration

Beyond the town of Brookstone is the glorious forest of Willowood, also

known to the Anima tribes and the human's of Brookstone as the Vampires sanctuary.

---

Karin narration

I watched Pyro as he shot my own fear back at me, before closing his green eyes and emerged into slumber. He was weak, that was obvious and we were, for the first time since entering the town, outside of Brookstone. We shared a common lack of intellegence of the outside world, and it was freighting and exciting at the same time.

Unlike Pyro, who entered Brookstone at a young age, I was born there, and have lived there for a good 20 years, give or take a year or two, that's the thing with the current situation, age doesn't matter in a world of such unpredictability.

But I remember stories my step-sister would tell me, when Earth was Liberal, a sort-of enlightened age, she referred to it as that anyway. The thought of Debbie constantly ran through my mind, I knew she could defend herself, but I couldn't delude the fact that we were just attacked by a hoard of supernatural beasts, solely because of our Mayor's personal convictions against them.

Time for thinking was over, I could hear things, sounds, whispering among Willowood's famous haze, which could been seen all nights before the wall was built. I was suddenly struck with another sobering realisation, the haze was thick, I couldn't see beyond a few metres, even Pyro, sleeping near to me seemed a bit desolate in the shallow mist between us.

Crck.

I turned to my left, and got to my feet but stayed low, something was close; the noise messaged from the left of me, and began to sound further away, until it was messaged in front of me, behind Pyro. I wanted to scream; I could see dirty lanky hands, torn baggy pants, with nails alike, that were thick and very unappealing.

I began to step forward, 'He's vulnerable... not mention asleep, if I don’t do something now...' I thought, slowing crawling towards him, and doing such, the mist blocking my view of what was standing dangerously close to us, became clear, and I saw a horrifying smile, filled with rotting teeth, and two teeth alike, that stuck out on either side.

Vampires...

"Pyro!" I shouted, leaping forward, earning an abrupt awakening of my companion, and a quick drawback when the figure behind him had jumped.

To his aid, I put my arm round his back and helped him up, "Are you alright?" I asked, dusting his back off.

He nodded quickly; stunned by the sighting of whatever that was behind him.

"This is too dangerous, we have to find I better place, maybe somewhere not shrouded with mist!" I asserted.

Pyro nodded, "Sounds good." He said quickly, nodding accordingly and staring at the ground as if he was looking at a dead puppy, "What exactly was it?
That thing behind me?" He asked, itching his arms... for some reason.

"Debbie told me stories; Willowood was famous for its mist..." I stated.

"Right..." He replied.

"-and the creatures that hide within it..." I concluded, and Pyro stared down at me, the same worried look that I showed him, just like before.

---

We had to remain swift and quiet, and with Pyro in his weak state, running silently like a pair of ninja's wasn't going to work, so I led the way swiftly, and he limply followed. We had reached a distorted formation of rocks about a mile southwest of or encounter with, what I was sure was, a rogue vampire. By that time our bodies couldn't take anymore walking, it was cold and dark, plus we were tired.

I helped Pyro onto a flat bed of rock, he groaned a bit from ongoing pains, which did seem odd, the black blotches from before made his injuries cease to ignite pain, but now it seemed he was hurting internally, and growing weaker. All I could do was sit at a higher rock next to his head, and watch over him. I was the strong one now.

"We're still in Willowood Pyro, don't forget that..." I said slanting slightly.

"But no mist..." Pyro said, short of breath, I stroked his head as he closed his eyes for the second time.

"But no mist..." I repeated, as I watched the horizon begin to blaze with the suns light.

'Not too long...' I repeated in my head, 'Not too long...' I knew we had to keep moving, my goal was to reach a place called the Hycho docks, I only knew that it was north, I had no idea how long we'd be travelling for, but the Hycho docks was a place I would read about all the time as a kid, it is believed to be a seaside sanctuary, where all intelligence, humans and 'demons' alike, were tolerant of each other, a place of peace, a trace of the old world, or at least it's virtues.

---

Midday.

I threw a jacket at Pyro, he woke up muttering and complaining, something I giggled at.

"Are you mad!? We're moving now!?" He shouted, pulling the black jacket over his arms.

I nodded, "Mhm! The faster we travel; the risk of being found by Willowood's 'demons' lowers!"

Pyro got up and staggered a bit. I grabbed his arm and helped him up the hill, ad he began to speak again, "How'd you even get these jackets?"

"Found them hanging on a tree, some poor travellers carelessly must have left them there~" I explained, continuing to pull him.

"That's terrible! It gets freezing at night!" He complained.

"Natural selection Pyro, the owners of these jackets were either caught by the 'demons' or stupid enough to leave them in the open! For now only the strongest, and smartest survive, got it?" I tried to remain lively and positive when I spoke, although the subject I just dabbled got even me under the weather, but coincidently I felt Pyro had no other choice but to agree with me.

We peeked over the hill, and saw the rest of Willowood’s dark green beauty, only; it was still shrouded with mist, reflecting near-divinely from the sunlight, making the forest look much more inviting than it doubtfully was.

Pyro knelt over on the slanting side of the hill leading to the forest, as I had found a stick and a patch of drying dirt, "So wh're we going anyway?" He asked, looking at my vaguely interesting dirt patch.

I began to draw a mediocre map with the stick I found, and put the letters 'B' and 'W' for our two covered terrains, I then put 'H' above both of them with to correlation to the map.

" 'H' ?" Pyro questioned, I instantly knew what he was thinking, "You can't be talking about Hycho? Karin, you know that it's just-"

"If you've got any better idea of where to go, please, enlighten me!" I debated, as Pyro sighed.

Pyro conceived, "... But what about Debbie?"

"Debbie will be fine!" I answered sternly, "You don't know her like I do you know?"

There was a pause, I wanted a response, I wanted to know if he'd go with me, Hycho was our last chance.

"Okay..."

I brightened up at that answer.

"We'll go to Hycho-"

He was cut off by me acting on impulse and leaping on him, and pretty sure these kinds of hugs were called 'glomps'.

"But..." He continued, sitting up a bit as I hurdled off him, "I take over the scouting."

I deadpanned, "You? You really think you're in a good enough condition to take the lead?"

"S-shut up..." He replied.

---

Night was approaching rapidly, and Willowood became deadly at night, we needed to get to another safe zone, Pyro was in no condition to handle the mist, physically, it was harmless, but there was some sort of disturbance, something that made all the happiness in my life seem like delusion, something far off and unreachable, it was a feeling I'd never want to experience again.

But we needed to stay strong, and keep moving forward, because the shrouds appeared in the distance of the forest, and were rapidly spreading in virus-like nature.

"-and there's like, a huge boat, run by sparkling vampires! And the guards
outside the docks, AWESOME, they lend you money, give you free food, it's just like heaven on Earth!" I ranted on, fantasising about Hycho.

Pyro cocked an eyebrow, "This place sounds cool and all, but don't you think you're getting a little too ahead of yourself? I mean, you've never been there."

"But I've read about it!" I replied.

"How old are the books?"

Dimming a bit, I replied reluctantly, "12...."

"12 what? Months? Years?" Pyro questioned.

".... Maybe 13."

---

 

Night, the mist had appeared, and we had found a slope of grass elevating from ground level to sit on, but Pyro was getting hungry, so mentally, he wouldn't be able to handle the mist again, going into it for a light snack. So I decided to quickly nip in, when he was asleep and I wouldn't get scolded or lectured for doing some "irrational" but hey, who knows, perhaps I'd stumble upon some sort of house with a few bowls of un-eaten porridge, and maybe a chair to rest in, a bed or two to sleep on.

I slowly crept away from our little half-camp site, but thought to myself that I needed to leave Pyro a message in case he woke up and started worrying, so I got picked up a rock and carved 'Gone to get food' into the tree trunk situated beside us.

'What am I thinking?' I thought to myself, walking into the mist, for some reason seeing Pyro in his condition made me want to do all I could to help, even if it wasn't really justified, but funnily enough, there was a tree with strange-looking green fruits about 20 metres away from our ground, and it was very early in the morning, so the creatures would all be asleep right?

The fruit tasted divine, so I picked a bunch and began to make my way back, for some reason, the mist had little effect on me right now, and the slope was in sight, how lucky I am tonight, apart from the annoying scuffling in the bushes not too far away from me.

Unfortunately, my luck for the day had run out.

 

---

Pyro narration

At my wake, I heard complete silence, Karin had a tendency to snore, so it was awfully odd that she wasn't, but I noticed she had disappeared, with a message carved in the wood saying 'GUG T(two unknown letters) GEG FUD' I spent a good while decoding it, but I looked down, and mist had thickened, and I heard Karin grunting in the difference.

"Karin! You alright?" I shouted, I felt as if as the moment I blinked I would have fallen back to sleep again, so I refrained from blinking, which on made
me want to blink more.

"Shhh!" She hissed, and I remembered our situation.

I heard scuffling in the trees near to where her voice sounded, "Karin!" I whispered... loudly, "Something’s coming!" I warned, as I heard her hiss back, "I know!"

Suddenly, I heard Karin scream, and saw a tree fall over, and familiar cries were sounded through the terrain, so I reluctantly leaped into the mist, and Saw her constricted to the group in vine-like ropes, "Karin! Are you okay? Your head!" I fretted, seeing a trickle of dark blood fall from behind, but that wasn't her blood, it was dark, and cold.

"P...Pyro..." Her voice shook, it only added to the unsettling situation, and I began to feel the mist get to me, again, and then, another drop of blood, fell past my face, I looked up, and heard a light growl, sitting above us, was familiar figure, his face covered, locks of silver hair could be seen, and that sickening, malicious grin, and then, darkness.

---

 

Thank you for reading this far, and if you didn’t.... read it... now o_O!

Well guys, chapter marks the “end of the beginning” from here on out is where the story sets in motion.

Author's Note

Im sooooooooooooooo sorry for posting this so late! as always, your opinions and crticisms will be taken onboard! :3

Reviews

[Meat of Dog]

Ooh I was looking forward to this. I'm glad that you made them unconscious for at least a little while. It's a little thing, but I refused to believe a person would be perfectly alright after free falling 20ft. Also, the black blotches are very intriguing; they seem to have a weird pain healing property, leaving me curious if the young anima cursed Pyro, or infected him somehow.

The narration switches were interesting, but the transitions seemed a little sudden and awkward, maybe because they were so short. Were they style tests? Your description of the vampire as it crept up on them was very chilling. I liked it a lot, and could vividly imagine that horror in the dark. I’m really interested to see Hycho, I can feel Karin’s urgency to reach it, and I hope that she does get some solace there with Pyro. I do feel tense, though, after her admittance that the books about Hycho were old. There’s a suspense built that maybe it wont be what she thinks.

I like how despite his weakened state, Pyro maintains his personality and need to be in control of the situation. This holds his character firm because up to this point he seemed like the one in control as he led Karin out of the city and over the wall (even though it was her idea to begin with).

Karin’s reference to GoldyLocks made me laugh. Your description of the forest is very vivid, and kept me feeling as alert as they were. There is a real feeling of urgent travel, couple with fear and inexperience.

other suggestions:

-"I did it gladly, all this nonsense was enough for one day," this sentence threw me off a little, only because 'nonsense' seems a little light for describing the death of your friends and destruction of your home town. Also, using recourses like trees to leave a note was a really cool idea; I’ve never seen it done before. You ended this chapter with a wonderful cliff hanger as well! I’m on the edge of my seat, so I hope you update again soon!

-"emerged into slumber" Emerge indicates coming back from something (or in the case of sleep, waking up). I would use a different word here.

-“You don't know her like I do you know?" put a coma after ‘I do’

-“ He was cut off by me acting on impulse and leaping on him, and pretty sure these kinds of hugs were called 'glomps'.” I’m nitpicking here, but I wouldn’t use the term ‘glomp’. If someone picked this up on a bookshelf and didn’t have a firm background on the internet, they wouldn’t get it.