A shaggy blonde mop of hair stuck up from the tall, lush grass of Domino Valley, giggling, shrieking with excitement as the figure connected to it hurried away from a smaller pursuer.
"Joeeeey! Wait up! Mum said not to go this far!" called out the voice of a small girl, maybe six or seven years old.
"She'll never even know, Ren! Besides, don't you wanna see if it's true? It's a dragon!" yelled the boy, stopping for a moment to let his sister catch up with him. "And I'm gonna kill it so we can be rich and go live in the city!" he said, grinning.
The girl, about two feet high with a mess of auburn hair just reaching her shoulder blades stared at him as if he were insane. "Joey, that isn't a job for you! You're only ten. I'm gonna tell Mom if you don't come home with me! Now!" she said, a large pair of frightened green eyes darting towards the forest that they had been headed towards.
Joey groaned. "Aw, c'mon Ren! If old Solomon can kill a dragon, so can I! Besides, I made a bet with Duke! I gotta at lease SEE it, or I'll have to pay him two whole bronze coins!" he said, looking at the small girl pleadingly.
Serenity watched him and started breathing a little quicker, her lip quivering in fear as she nodded, doubtfully. "O-okay, butI don't wanna go in the forest." she said, crossing her arms.
Joey laughed and nodded. "You're such a girl, Ren. C'mon, let's go! If we don't hurry it'll be night before we get back and Mom'll be mad." he said, taking the girl's wrist and pulling her towards the forest, stumbling at first but quickly matching her brother's pace.
As they broke out of the tall grass, they were met almost immediately with the gnarled branches of one of the dead parts of the forest where the king's men had attempted to burn it down to get to the dragon, only to have it go right back out again as soon as it had sucked the life out of the trees it had touched, along with the men who had set the fire.
It was an old tale, and Joey wasn't really sure if he believed it or not. A lot of it was garbled, and there were a lot of different versions of it, like the one where the dragon itself had set the fire to kill the king's men, or the one where the king's men disappeared into the forest and the dragon started the fire to keep them from getting back out again. But while he wasn't entirely certain of the truthfulness of the story, he did know that this part of the forest always sent chills down his spine, even looking at it from far away. Now, only a good three meters from the first clawed branches, he wasn't so sure about going in to see this dragon.
Serenity whimpered and hid behind him. "J-Joey... Something moved..." she said quietly.
Joey swallowed and then smiled. "It was just the wind Ren. Relax!" he said, moving forward, even though his knees were shaking. He frowned and forced his feet to keep moving, reassuring himself that he would be fine so long as he didn't go doing anything stupid like the knights had in that story. He was here to see a dragon, dammit, and that was what he was going to do!
Serenity stayed back, watching her brother creep forward. "Maybe we should just go home, Joey..." she said, looking towards the place where she'd seen the movement. It had been in the upper branches of a tree near the front of the forest. A bird, maybe, but definitely not the wind, and she didn't know if she wanted to trust that anything in this forest, small or otherwise, wouldn't just snap their necks.
Joey looked back at her anxiously. "We've come this far! I have to see the dragon! You know I don't have two bronze, Ren, and Id sooner face a dragon horde than owe Duke anything!" he said, his voice and stature suddenly filled with determination as he imagined the other boy smirking at him, gloating and reminding him every chance he got that Joey owed him.
Serenity looked from her brother to the forest and whimpered. She didn't want to go in the forest, but she didn't want to stay there all alone either... Plus, who knew what kind of trouble her brother would snag himself into without her there? Joey probably couldn't tell a bee from a bat, much less know to stay away from both. She swallowed and dashed forward to hug her brother's arm, nervously. "O-okay." she said, quietly.
Joey grinned. "'Atta girl." he said before creeping forwards again. He had no clue how the midday sun could disappear so fast, replaced with the foggy, dusk like gloom of the forest. There was no telling what time it was, as the canopy overhead, dead as it was, covered all traces of the sky within minutes. He glanced behind them, their entrance a small blot of white in the distance, barely visible through the tree branches.
A twig snapped somewhere near them and Serenity flinched and whimpered, moving behind Joey and watching the direction the noise had come from anxiously. Joey tugged her in the opposite direction, his gut screaming at him to run as fast as he could back out into the valley, but his brain telling him that if he did he would have to admit to Duke that he hadn't seen the dragon, and he didn't have any money to pay off his bet.
He clenched his legs and tensed his arms, shakily moving them to the area in front of his chest as he walked on, not daring to turn his back to that spot. Serenity pinched his arm to catch his attention and he glanced down at her, staring fearfully behind them. He looked over his shoulder just in time to see the branch of a pointy leafed bush swing back into place where something had moved it only moments ago.
A whimper rose up in his throat, but he choked it down and uncurled his fists, moving to grab Serenity by her shoulders and lead her away from the bush, further into the forest.
And then, he heard something. At first, he thought it might have been his imagination as it was so quiet, but as they kept walking and his ears kept straining to hear anything in the oddly silent trees, he noticed it. Whistling? Maybe a hunter had ventured into the forest to chase a deer or rabbit? he glanced around him and immediately discarded that explanation. No hunter in their sane mind would go this deep into the forest for a rabbit, and besides, they hadn't seen anything that could even remotely be prey for humans since entering the forest. No, if anything was prey here, it was them. He glanced down to Serenity, his gut clenching. Why had he brought her here? She looked terrified, and he felt horrible for forcing her to come with him. he should have brought Tristan, or that asshole, Duke. Teach him a thing or two.
He stood rooted to the ground, scared out of his wits and wracked with guilt as the whistling seemed to only grow closer and closer. Finally, something large taking a step near them and snapping quite a few twigs made his decision for him. "Re, let's get out of here!" he whispered, pushing her shoulder to turn her back to the path they had come from.
Serenity seemed all too eager to oblige, and ran a few feet ahead of him, sidestepping all the branches and rocks that Joey had nearly tripped on getting there. As the boy ran behind her, he felt an odd presence behind him. It felt dark, evil, and definitely predatory. His breath hitches as a cold breeze fluttered around his ankles and he noticed that Serenity was considerably further ahead than he was. She'd never been faster than him before though. Had fear pumped her adrenaline so high that she could run so fast, or was he just slowing down for some reason?
He willed his legs to move forward, his heart sinking as he realized the trees around him were passing by slowly, as if he were walking at a normal pace. he didn't dare look behind him, and felt like sobbing as the cold breeze seemed to snake up his ankles and to his knees like tendrils. His heart was racing and he reached out for a branch, pulling himself forward a bit faster. He raised his voice in an attempt to call out to his little sister, then stopped himself. She couldn't help him. Calling out to her, and making her come towards him would only bring her death as well as his own. He clenched his mouth shut and shivered as he felt hot tears slide down his cheeks.
What had he done to deserve this? He'd gone to church with his parents and sister every Sunday, wearing his best trousers and shoes, and his only stain free shirt. He'd protected his little sister, now quite literally, he thought, with his life.
Had he sinned, and he just didn't know about it yet?
Then another thought came to mind. Maybe this darkness, this terrifying cold, was beyond anything holy. maybe he was beyond protection? He willed Serenity to go faster, and his legs stopped moving altogether as he collapsed onto the forest floor, staring wide-eyed at the base of a gnarled and half rotten tree, the horrible cold sneaking up his thighs, hips and stomach.
He hoped whatever had him would leave Serenity alone just before he blacked out, taking note of one last noise. It was a strange noise, a little like a feral snarl followed by the angry hiss of some other creature.