A King's War

Chapter 9

VER

We were lucky enough not to run into any more dark hunters as we continued on. Raven had also seemed to relax some the longer we went without running into any more trouble.

There were large vines in front of us, weaving their way through the trees and creating a sort of winding and thick wall. Raven pulled her sword from her sheath and began slashing away at the vines, creating a path for us.

“After we make it through these vines,” She said as she swung her sword through a particularly thick one. “don’t touch anything.”

“Don’t touch what . . .” I trailed off as we came out of the vines and into an area of the forest that made it seem as if we’d stepped into a new land entirely. “Woah,” I said as I took everything in.

It was like we had stepped out of the Red Forest though I knew we hadn’t. There was grass covering the entire floor of the forest before us rather than the dirt and mud we’d been walking through since entering the Red Forest. The trunks of the trees were wrapped in vines and covered in flowers. Their flowers growing out of every vine as it snaked around rocks, across the ground, and up the trees. It looked as if we had just stepped into someone’s elaborate garden. The vines and flowers were a type of plant I had never seen before. The flowers were vibrant shades of just about every color and seemed to be emitting a faint glow.

Aila and Galen seemed to be as speechless as myself as we followed Raven further into this garden-like land. As we went further in, I started to notice some strange glowing orbs of light low from the trees above by some sort of pale green webbing of sorts.

“What are those?” I asked Raven as I took a few steps closer to one that was hovering directly in my line of vision.

She grabbed hold of my arm and kept me from approaching it. “Don’t touch them unless you want us to be in a world of trouble.”

“But what are they?” Aila questioned.

Raven shrugged. “I value my life enough to never find out,” She said simply before guiding us deeper.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Galen asked her.

Raven waved her hand around at the glow orbs hanging around us. “Those are bait, meant to lure in anyone or anything attracted to its glow.” She visibly shivered. “And you don’t want to know what’s using them as bait. So, don’t touch anything.”

I walked up beside her. “You know,” I told her. “I don’t recall us ever actually going through formal introductions.”

“You know my name and I know your name, your majesty,” She informed me as she continued on. “Your father spoke highly of you to me, Filverel. And I’ve learned theirs through their bickering.” She motioned over her shoulder to Galen and Aila who were indeed bickering between themselves.

I smiled as I watched them for a moment before looked back at her. “I prefer Ver,” I told her. “And I don’t wish to be called, majesty.”

She shrugged. “Whatever you say.”

She looked down at something on the grassy floor with a frown. She knelt down and wiped away some stray leaves to reveal a massive paw print underneath. She breathed out a sharp breath and cursed. She began looking all around our area, pulling her sword.

“Shadow wolf,” She muttered under her breath. Not that she needed to say it aloud.

I recognized the track. I knew what they were. Shadow wolves had been a problem for my kingdom for centuries. They usually only went after our livestock but occasionally, they’d attack a person. Of course, now that there was hardly any livestock to be found anywhere because of the dark hunters, shadow wolves now went for anything that moved. My father had had hells of a time trying to keep them out of the kingdom because there were a few problems with shadow wolves. One, they were massive, roughly twice as big as our horses which also made them faster and stronger, two, they could climb and would frequently climb over our kingdom walls to look for food, three, their coats of fur were so thick that most weapons couldn’t penetrate it and therefore would not slow them down, and four, they could turn invisible, camouflaging themselves wherever they went. You would not see them until their strike and by then it was already too late.

I pulled my own sword and placed my back against hers, turning with her. “Now those I’ve dealt with,” I said as I scanned the area in front of me. Aila and Galen copied our moves, with their backs pressing against our shoulders so that there was no area left uncovered by us.

“Yeah?” Raven questioned. “You wouldn’t happen to know a quick way to kill one, would you?”

“I figured you of all people would,” I replied.

“Nah,” She said. “I usually avoid them. They’re too hard for one person to kill.”

“What makes you think it’s still here?” Galen asked.

“Oh,” Raven replied with certainty. “It’s still here. None of those baited traps have been sprung if they’d had we’d know. The wolf probably got here just moments before we did.”

“So, which would be worse right now,” Aila spoke up. “fighting just a shadow wolf by ourselves or leaving the wolf to spring one of those traps and coming face to face with whatever monster set those up.”

“We’d rather deal with the wolf,” Raven said. “Trust me.”

There was a low and deep growl from my right and I turned in that direction just in time to see the shadow wolf appear right out of thin air about a wagon’s length away from us. Its head was just about as big as me, its teeth snapping threateningly at us, and its claws digging into the ground beneath it.

“Your wish is my command,” Galen said.

“Whatever you do,” Raven said as she took up a stance in front of the three of us. Her sword grasped in one hand and her staff in the other. “Don’t hit the orbs.”

We didn’t have a chance to respond to her because just then the snarling wolf charged at us. We all dove out of the way, rolling forward and landing back on your feet. I nearly rolled right into an orb but Raven caught the end of my cloak and pulled me back at the last possible moment.

“We can’t let that wolf hit one of the orbs,” She said as she watched Aila and Galen continue to dodge the wolf with ease whilst still trying to keep it from knocking into anything. She dropped the ground, set down her staff, and started using her sword to cut a length of vine. She coiled it up before tying a loop around on one end. She swung it over her head and then threw it at the wolf just as its jaws would have snapped down on Galen’s arm. The looped end wrapped around the jaws of the wolf and she pulled, snapping them shut and keeping the wolf from knocking into one of the orbs.

She dug her feet into the ground as it tried to pull free in a panic and I ran up behind her to help hold the vine. Aila and Galen rushed over to help.

“It’s going to knock into an orb,” Aila said as she pulled on the vine.

“We need to tie it down,” Raven responded but just then the vine snapped and we all fell backward on top of each other. The wolf rolled away some and struck two orbs.

We all looked at each other and then at Raven who looked scared. “Run,” She whispered before jumping to her feet. “Run!”

We didn’t waste a moment and took off after her. Something crashed through the trees overhead and hit the forest floor but I didn’t turn around to see what it was. I could hear the growls of the wolf as it began to fight with whatever the creature was. The growls then turned to howls of pain and still, we kept running even as I heard something coming after us. There were at least two of them, whatever they were, I could hear one still fighting the wolf and another speeding after us. It was gaining ground.

Raven abruptly stopped and turned toward as we ran past. I stopped and spun around just in time to see her swing the end of her staff into . . . something.

It was even worse to look at than the dark hunters. It was as big as the shadow wolf, with at least five legs on either side of its long, wide body. It had a long tail with some sort of spiked mass at the end of it and its skin was a dark green with some sort of slimy coating over it. It looked like some sort of bug, just way bigger than it should have been, and a thousand times more frightening. The entire back and front of the creature were covered in beady little black eyes, with one gaping hole of a mouth right in front.

The creature let out an inhuman shriek before striking out at Raven again with its spiked tail. She just barely managed to dodge it and knock it away with her staff.

“Go!” She shouted to us. “Get out of this area!”

The creature struck out again but this time I was aiming for me, Raven jumped in front, its tail wrapping around her staff as she held it out instead of me. The creature threw Raven to the ground and tossed her staff away before striking its tail out once more, this time aiming for Aila. I watched in horror as Raven jumped to her feet, threw herself into Aila, knocking her away and then getting caught by the creature herself.