Chapter 12_Escape!

Chapter Summary: Shouta tries to leave the forest, but the woods don't intend to let him. In fact they've decided to employ a new tactic to make sure NO ONE leaves ever again.

*Warning!: Character death and adult fear

The farewells were harder than Shouta thought. As he stood at the doorway of the cottage, the man realized that he never had to say goodbye to anyone in his life.
His parents just died, and with Hizashi it was always "see you later" goodbye. This kind of goodbye was one where Shouta didn't know if he was coming back. He didn't know what to say to convey everything he wanted to say. That he was grateful that they took him in and cared for him. He was glad to have been there. He would miss them. And that despite the woods of death, he didn't want to leave.
It had been only a month, but they had somehow made their own little family together in the woods. Shouta felt more at home in this little cottage than he did in all his years at the palace. If it wasn't for Hizashi, Shouta didn't think he'd ever want to leave. That… was an odd feeling, to say the least.
"I made some apple cobbler for breakfast," he said to the seven dwarfs who were all lined up with Cementoss. "It should tide you over till Chiyo arrives."
All the kids fidgeted where they stood, not daring to look up at him too long for fear of crying.
"Will you be okay?" Tsuyu asked. Shouta had no idea. He was going on a journey to a place he had never been to, to find a hero, that may or may not be real, to defeat a warlock king and his demon. The insanity of it all made his stomach turn.
Shouta doubted his chances greatly, but he wasn't going to tell the dwarfs that.
"I'll be fine," he assured them. "Just… take care of yourselves, alright?" The children sniffed but nodded, their fingers digging into their tunics.
"M-maybe we could walk with you for a bit?" Izuku suggested. "Just a little ways?" Shouta shook his head.
"You have to tend to your mines, don't you? And I'm going the opposite way."
"Oh…r-right…" Shouta felt he should say more. He wanted to say more, but what? What could he say? He didn't know.
"Right," he said. "Goodbye." Then he turned and started walking, each step harder than the last. He didn't look over his shoulder to see them one last time. He couldn't. So he kept walking until he vanished into the dark of the woods.

777

The forest was not happy.

In fact, as it watched the two parties part and it felt an anger surge through their roots. The human thought he was leaving? No. No one left the woods, no one!

They decided the moment he entered that he would die and feed their soil. And so he would. Tonight the human would be their meal, and so would those annoying dwarfs.

No more games. No more playing around. Cursed rune light or not, tonight the woods would feast upon them!

777

Shouta edged carefully through the forest. Even with the jewel's power to protect him, Shouta could not feel at ease. The hair on the back of his neck stood as a feeling of dread swam through his stomach. His hand ached from the death grip he had on the lantern he held, knowing that the forest would tear him apart like paper if something happened and he lost the jewel rune stone. Hopefully, he would find his way out soon so he wouldn't have to worry anymore. That was the only positive thing to this whole situation.

Cementoss had told him of the shortest route out of the forest and towards the mountains. Tenya had even lent him a compass they had lying around. Tenya claimed that they didn't need it anyway as they always knew where to go because of their stone sense.

Shouta felt guilty about taking more from the dwarfs but was glad he did; there wasn't even a path anymore. Instead, he found himself climbing over rocks and logs that he had no doubt would be attacking him if not for the rune. He worried he was going in the wrong direction but remembered what the dwarfs had said about how the woods liked to "move paths around." Honestly, he could not wait to get out of this accursed-

A creak echoed above him. His gaze shot upwards just in time to see a thick, dark branch fall towards him.

'Shit!'

He ducked out of the way and rolled, clutching the lamp to him. He looked once more and saw the tree above him slice through one of its own branches. It fell towards him like a guillotine. Shouta pushed himself up and started to run but tripped. The branch the fell hit his back hard enough to bruise, but fortunately, Shouta landed near a stone that caught enough of the tree to keep him from being crushed.

'Fuck!' It appeared that the forest found a loophole to the whole rune thing. And that was just perfect, wasn't it?! To make matters worse, the glass panels in his lantern shattered during the fall. The jewel had bounced out and was now rolling away from him.

Shouta cried out in horror.

777

After saying goodbye to Mr. Aizawa, there was only one thing left to do; go to work. Cementoss came with them and was an asset. He not only managed to make the dwarfs feel safer just by being there, but he also managed to block the woods from view with his stone walls, which was nice.

The walk itself was quiet as no one was in the mood to chat or sing like they usually did. It was odd as the seven couldn't stand the silence.

Once they reached the mines, Cementoss was in awe just as Mr. Aizawa had been. He complimented the beauty of the jewels and their hard work when he saw the carts full of gems. The dwarfs appreciated this. Had the circumstances been different, the children would have been beaming at the praise.

Cementoss offered to clear away the rubble in the back of the cave but they refused. No one wanted to see what was behind there ever again.

The kids felt bad that they weren't able to be happy for the golem or be as welcoming as they were for Mr. Aizawa. After all, Cementoss was very sweet to them. He was kind, patient and he made them neat statuettes. He even told them new stories they had never heard before. The dwarfs liked him a lot, truly they really did.

It's just-he wasn't Mr. Aizawa.

Mr. Aizawa hadn't been there for a long, but in the time he was Mr. Aizawa had become a part of their family. The idea that he was gone now hurt. And while in their heads they understood the reason the fact he chose to leave hurt even more.

After some time Cementoss decided to go outside to look at the stones of the cave without the glitter of the jewels blinding him.

This left the dwarfs alone with their thoughts.

"Keep going, everybody! We mustn't allow ourselves to fall behind." Tenya called. Despite his words, no one was working really hard. The girls and Izuku were just barely tapping the stones with their picks while Ochaco found herself moving the same cart back and forth. Even Tenya found himself tapping the same sapphire over and over. Denki kicked at the diamond shards littered about before picking one up. In it, he stared at his reflection. And stared, and stared, until finally, he scowled.

"What's the point?" he muttered. Tenya let out an irritated sigh.

"Not this again..." he mumbles, slipping the gem in his hand into his pocket.

"YES, THIS AGAIN!" Denki yelled, throwing the diamond shard at the ground with all his strength. It let out a shattering crash as it smashed apart. "What's the point? We do the same thing every day, every frickin' day, and it's for nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

"We do it because it's our duty!" Tenya snapped back, teeth snarling. "Our ancestors-"

"Are dead! Buried, or charred!" Everyone took a sharp breath. Even though it had been years, no one ever said the word "dead" to describe their loss. It was silly, but it was like saying those words was like banging the final nail into the coffins.

"Denki…" Momo said softly.

Denki was crying, but he couldn't take it anymore! Enough was enough!

"They're dead! Dead, dead, dead!" he screeched. "They're not coming back! EVER!"

"That's all the more reason-"

"To what?! To dig up these stupid rocks and throw them in a room?!" Denki was in full tantrum mode as things that had been set in his mind came tumbling out. He even stomped his feet with every word. "Every. Single. Day we do this. And why?! Because THEY did it! They did this, they did that, so we try to do the same and for what?! Because of! Of what?! I hate it! I hate these stupid jewels! And this mine, too! And I hate digging and digging every fucking-"

"So what do you want then?!" Tenya shouted, just as loud. "You wanna just stop and give it all up!?" He was angry at Denki for saying all the things he tried to ignore for so long.

"Why not!"'

"Why not?! Because! Because! Because-! We can't just throw it all away!" Tenya's voice shook with tears, and his body trembled. He didn't know what emotions he felt, but whatever it was, it hurt. "It's all we have left… Everything… Everyone else is gone. If we give up on this, then we have nothing left. And you just wanna throw it away? I won't!"

"So you rather we die in this hell hole?!" Denki snapped. "Look around you! Every time we go outside, we have to deal with a monster forest that tries to kill us EVERY DAY! Hell, some of us have already died, remember?! Yet you want to stay here so the rest of us can die too?! That's bull shit…" Denki's voice finally faltered. His throat hurt and not just from yelling. Tears started to well up behind his eyes, so he looked away, biting his lip.
"I hate this place. I don't want to be here anymore." he whimpered. Tenya looked away as well, also biting his lip. He wanted to make Denki understand how important it was to stay here. To do the work that their families had done so diligently in life. But it was hard to do so when he didn't understand either. He just knew they had to because… Because!
The others watched in silence, not knowing what to do or say. On one hand they agreed with Tenya. This was their home and their mines, so they had to take care of it. It was a simple as that. But on the other hand, it was hard not to sympathize with Denki. Pretty gems or not, no one liked the idea they were working over their parents' grave surrounded by a demon forest. But even if they did leave, where would they go? What would they do? It was hard imagining things worse in the world outside of the forest. Yet, it was even harder to imagine that it was better.

Before anything more could be said, there was a violent shake. Some of the children screamed while others fell into shock.
"What's going on?!" Momo cried.
"The cave! It—It's shaking!" Tenya gasped.
"I-it's happening again! It's happening again!" Ochaco started to hyperventilate as memories began to resurface. Not far from her, Toru trembled as violently as the area around them.
"It—It can't! Why?!" Izuku froze completely, not moving an inch. Tsuyu had to yank him out of the way as a rock fell.
All their minds fell into a panic. No one thought about escape or why it was happening. All they thought about was getting to one another. Once they were gathered, the dwarfs all huddled together as stone rained upon them. They waited for the end, but it never came. They looked up and saw Cementoss had created a barrier over them.
"We need to get out of here! Quick!" he called. They didn't need to be told twice. The dwarfs all ran towards the exit. Cementoss created a ceiling over them all to shield them, but it cracked under the weight from above. Because of this, he couldn't follow the children out, having to stay behind so he could focus on protecting the dwarfs.
"Mr. Cementoss?!" Momo cried.

"Keep running! Get out of here! Now!" the golem called. Despite their concern and worry, the dwarfs their minds were frantic to argue, though they would regret their choice later.
They were near the exit when Izuku realized something; He doubled back.
"Izuku?!" Izuku didn't respond to the worried cries, only grabbing at the gems with the rune symbols on them. He only managed to grab two before Tenya took hold of his arm.
"COME ON!" Tenya then dragged Izuku out of the cave to where the others were.
They hoped to be safe once they were outside, but that hope was dashed in an instant. A tree log was launched at them. With high-pitched shouts, the children all ducked out of the way, but the tree still destroyed the entrance to the cave, collapsing it.
"Mr. Cementoss!" The children cried. They moved to dig him out, but before they could a boulder was tossed at them, followed by another. The children were left with no choice but to flee for their own lives.

"What's going on?!" Toru cried. "Why is all this happening?!"
Momo yelped as wood splinters rained. They left bruises and cuts when they hit the children. Tenya's heart was racing, but he still tried to snatch at what little control he could, despite the chaos.
"We need to get out of here! Now!" As he shouted, a long tree branch soared towards Tenya.
Without thinking, Denki raised his hands and blasted the tree. The tree exploded, splinters flying each and every way. The forest growled with rage. A tree aimed to crush the blond. Izuku dived forward and tackled him out of the way of the thick branch.
"Denki! Izuku! Are you okay?!" Ochaco and Tsuyu moved forward. Izuku winced as he pushed himself up, his arm bleeding from scraping it across the ground. Rather than cry out, he gritted his teeth.
"We need to get out of here!" he called. He helped Denki stand. The blast had taken a lot of him, but the blond's survivor mode kept him from falling into his usual dopey state. Instead, he just took short breaths and stared forward in a daze.
"Quick! Back to the cottage! We'll be safe there!" Momo yelled. They had to be. Because they were always safe there. If they weren't, then where would they be safe?
"But! Mr. Aizawa is still out there!" Ochaco cried out suddenly, her eyes wide. "If we're in trouble, so's he!"

"But we don't know where he is!" Tsuyu exclaimed. "And even if we did, we might not find him in time!"
"We can't just let him die!" Toru argued. "Right?" They turned to Tenya, who usually had the last word on these things, but he didn't respond.
It was too much. Everything was raining down on them, and the runes were just barely keeping them safe. Tenya couldn't focus, couldn't breathe.
With time running out and hell raining down upon them, Izuku took in a gulp of air and made the choice instead.
"We have to save Mr. Aizawa!" He turned to Momo. "Momo! Can you make a compass?"
"Y-Yes! I can!" She created a compass from her palm. Momo had studied the other compass and remembered the components well enough to make an exact copy—or as close as she could, given the circumstances. She wasn't sure it would work, but it was all they had.
"Which way's south?" Izuku asked when it was formed. Momo glanced at it and pointed. "That way!"
Izuku nodded.
"He was heading south, so we are too! Hopefully, we'll run into him along the way! Come on!"
The freckled dwarf ran off, and after just a moment of hesitation, the others followed.

777

The human lunged forward just in time to grab the rune before it had gotten too far away. Once it was in his cold, clammy grip, he stood, but he wasn't on his feet two seconds before something dropped on him. After a few seconds of frantic struggling, Shouta realized that it was a skeleton. He let out a sound of disgust as he fought to untangle himself. He stumbled out of the lifeless hold, only to collide with another that appeared behind him. Soon the area was filled with the jangle of bones as more and skeletons fell, and not all of them human. When he was surrounded, he saw vines entangle the bones and their limbs. The skeletons clattered their jaws in soundless laughter before they were all swung at him. Shouta was startled but quickly realized that he was being toyed with. The woods were enjoying seeing him scared!

He growled. Fuck everything! Shouta swore that after everything was over, he was going to become a lumberjack and hack down every tree in this bloody forest! Till then, it was going to take more than a couple of dead puppets to—Shit!

A branch had chopped itself just enough to swing towards him. It smashed into his side, sending the man flying back. As he did so, Shouta lost his grip on the jewel.

'No!' Shouta was flung from the runes light and on the ground. He tried to crawl back towards it, but roots shot up like spears around him. He cried out as his limbs were cut, spared by less than an inch from being pierced. In front of him, twigs entangled to create a cage to block him from the rune, blocking out the light entirely.

"Shit!" Somehow he managed to scramble up and jump back just as a large rock nearly fell and crushed him.

"Oh, come the fuck on!" he cried before leaping to the side to avoid another. This motion made him fall into the brambles, which started to slither around his arms like snakes. Shouta struggled to pull away and after a sharp pain in his eyes managed to do so. He tried to run, but something snagged around his legs. Shouta was then yanked into the air, hanging like the skeletons from the branches. As he hung there, a tree nearly cracked itself in half to reveal a jagged row of wooden teeth that grinned viciously. Shouta struggled as it opened its maw to swallow him. Just as he was about to be eaten, lightning blasted the vines holding him, dropping him to the ground.

'What the-'

"Mr. Aizawa!" Shouta blinked in startled surprise to see the dwarfs running towards him, Tenya carrying Denki on his back.

"Are you okay?!" Momo asked.

"What are you-?!" Twigs branched out to grab them, but Izuku held up the rune just in time to save them. Shouta cursed. Shit! There was no time for anything! "Never mind! We have to get out of here! Come on!" No one needed to be told twice. Making sure that all the dwarfs were accounted for, Shouta and the children all started to run.

Boulders fell like rain around them, Shouta having to yank Ochaco back once to save her from being crushed. The skeletons fell in their path again, but this time the human just shoved past them. Tenya and Denki let out yelps from behind him. Shouta turned and saw Tenya had tripped on the vines. Pain filled his eyes, but Shouta still went back to help them up, not realizing that the vines were already backing off. After he set him on their feet, a boulder hit a tree. The whole thing fell towards them. Shouta managed to toss them to one side while leaping back. A branch yanked at his hair as he did so.

"Mr. Aizawa!" Izuku tossed Shouta a gem. The branch recoiled instantly. Shouta regrouped with the others, relieved to see Tenya and Denki already standing with them. They continued their escape. All of them had just one thought in mind; they had to get out!

This thought carried them onward despite the burning in their lungs and the cries of their muscles.

Finally, their efforts were rewarded.

Shouta could see the light before him, a light he hadn't seen in a long time. They were almost there! They were almost out!
Then, just like that, it was stolen. Twigs from the trees wove together to try and wall them in. The ex prince growled. No! They were all getting out of this cursed place once and for all!
"Denki! Try to blast a hole through that!" he yelled. Denki gulped, panting heavily on Tenya's back.
"I don't think-!"
"DO IT!"
Denki swallowed. Tenya set him down so he could have a better shot and Denki raised his hands. His body hurt, every muscle screaming agony, while his brain threatened to shut down at any moment. Despite all this, he released the biggest blast he could. He was rolled back and caught by the human. Shouta watched the stream of lightning race forward, lighting the dark. When it hit the wall of twigs, a horrid screech echoed around them as a hole appeared.
"Everyone! Try to get through!" Shouta called out.
They raced towards the hole where they each took a grand leap. The trees tried to close the exit, but Shouta used the rune in his hand to keep them at bay as the others climbed through, still holding Denki in one arm. When all seven were out, Shouta turned to run with them.

None of them dared to slow for a long time. It was only when their legs could no longer move, and their lungs burned like an inferno did they all fall to the ground, gasping. Even Shouta could no longer support himself.
He couldn't believe it; they were out.
The man glanced up and looked at the dwarfs.
"Is everyone okay?" he asked. After a glance, he realized that was a stupid question. All of them, including himself, were covered in injuries; scrapes, cuts, and bruised. Denki seemed to have the worst of it as he definitely out of it, babbling in a low voice. Unlike the last time he overused his magic, his face was blank rather than goofy. This was more troubling.
The dwarfs were all crying, probably overwhelmed by all that had happened.
"M-Mr. Cementoss…" Ochaco whimpered. "He didn't make it…" Shouta's heart fell to hear that. Even though he had only known the golem for a day, he knew that he was a good person and deserved better than to die in the woods.
"Our mines are gone too." Tenya cried. "Our family's mines… We were supposed to take care of it. Now everything… everything's gone."
Shouta didn't know how to handle so much despair at once. He understood these feelings, though. He felt the same way before he met the dwarfs.
"...I know a lot was lost today. And it hurts," he said slowly, trying to find the right words. "But not everything is gone. You still have each other… and I'm here too."
Shouta was scared he said the wrong thing when they broke into sobs, but then Tsuyu raced forward and embraced him, quickly followed by the others. They all wailed loudly as they clung to him. Shouta didn't say or do anything. He sat there and just held them until they were better.
But for now, at the very least, it was enough.

{To be Continued...}

A/N:

*Who's sad to be out of the forest, hm? Not me!
*I did not plan on writing an action chapter after the last, but what are you going to do?
*It is SO hard not to write Aizawa kicking everything's ass like the badass he is. However, in this AU, he was raised as a scullery slave, so it wouldn't fit. Even if Hizashi trained him a little, it still wouldn't make sense for him to be his usual Aizawa level. I'm trying to keep loyal to the character, but also to the environment he was raised in. I hope I didn't make him too much of a damsel, though. (To be fair, in the manga he gets in trouble a lot despite being hardcore as hell.)
*I am so glad to have everyone out of the woods. Writing evil trees is hard without having them kill everyone.
**I like that it was Denki who got them all out of the woods at the end. It wasn't planned, but I always imagined Denki hated the woods more than anyone else. The others hated being there as well, but as long as they had each other they were willing to adapt. Plus, the idea of abandoning the only thing left of their families hurt too much. Denki on the other hand was always unhappy. The woods scared him and he hated the threat of death and vocalized it daily. He stayed because he was too scared to leave on his own and he didn't want to leave the others.

Meta Notes:
*This is the end of the first arc. In this arc, I wanted to set up the stakes and Shouta's relationship with the dwarfs and Hizashi. The latter was a bit harder considering the two had to separate, so I overcompensated by making Shouta a nervous nelly the whole time.
*To anyone wondering why the woods never did the assault in the first place, there's a couple of reasons;
1: They're trees. It's hard for them to think in general, much less get creative. It literally took a hundred years for them to get the idea for their plan.
2: Narrative manipulation.