A tale was passed around the village, or perhaps it would be better to say it was a warning. From father to son, mother to daughter. Children sat on their fathers' knees or by their mothers' sides, each telling them one thing. That if they were to forget everything they had ever been told, remember this single phrase.

Do not enter the forest.

Although the lectures were never that short and sweet, they would sit and listen until the sun dipped past the treeline, repeated over and over. Warnings of a madman in the woods, a demon hunting children who wandered too far and let their curiosity get the best of them. Though it wasn't that easy, children were naive and curious by nature, and being told not to do something often led to the outcomes people wanted the least, but when one group of the village children daring each other to venture further and further came back crippled and haunted, flinching at the very wind itself, the others quickly started listening.

They cried of a demon, sent from the seven hells, turning the forest into a nightmare, turning nature itself against them to kill them all. They told of the wailing and the tortured screams throughout the forest, of the shaking earth and maze it became, thinking they would never see the outside of it again.

After the incident, no one dared to venture again. They tried to forget the horrors they had seen and heard and move on. A calm seemed to settle over the village and then just as the people began to forget, one nightmare was replaced by another.

"Beth I'm telling you we have to turn back!"

That exclamation was completely ignored; if anything, she ended up striding further ahead. This place had clearly not been trekked through often, it was becoming a pain to keep pushing aside the grass and vegetation, it was reaching above his waist. Buck hurried to catch up, his voice becoming tinged with a more frantic edge as they progressed further and further past the towering oaks and tall grass.

"This is too dangerous, we can come up with something else to help everyone, hells, we could just help everyone leave!" Buck getting more riled up as he spoke, but it wasn't something he could help. What is she thinking? Out of all the outlandish thoughts she's had over the years this has got to be the worst by far.

Beth suddenly stopped and spun, almost causing Buck to walk straight into her. "What other choice do we have?! Do you think I'm enjoying our walk? There isn't any other option. Unless you are willing to give out ideas. Besides, even if I could get everyone to up and leave the village, then what? We'd be leaving all our lively hoods here, it would just kill us slower!"

Her last words echoed throughout the forest, her chest rising and falling as she let out harsh breaths. Buck looked around despondently, not willing to look his sister in the eye, attempting to grasp any ideas from his surroundings.

They had already been dealing with increased theft and upstart bandits. The news from the odd trader or traveller that wandered through was that the whole land was in turmoil, they had certainly noticed that for themselves when their village seemed a lot less secure. Patrols from the local garrison wasn't exactly a frequent sight, but now they seemed to be as rare as a dragon roaming the sky.

It wasn't just them that caught onto that fact however, upstarts started declaring their need for "protection" payment, demanding goods or coin. The uglier ones even stole men's wives and fathers' daughters. The men of the village had rallied together and attempted to get everything and everyone back, however, were defeated while the lucky ones were brought back crippled. They had lost most of the food they had worked for and had fewer able-bodied people to help bring stock up back. With the livestock butchered or stolen and winter around the bend things were looking bleak.

They thought it was bad enough as it was, however, the news turned worse when they heard of men on horseback pillaging and raiding their way through all the settlements throughout the, big or small in the Riverlands. Rumours of them in plated armour and wielding castle-forged steel just hammered away the fact that they were doing the bidding of some lord with coin and supplies behind them. It was worse than some upstart bandits, and there wasn't anything they could do to stop it, abandoning would have left them with nothing, as Beth had said. They could only stay and pray to the Seven for mercy that maybe their village would be spared from the carnage.

Buck stepped back and placed his hands on her shoulders to steady her, he noted that for all her bravery in starting this quest of hers in the first place, she was terrified. His hands shook simply from the tremble of her shoulders.

"I know you don't think we have any way out of this, but this isn't an option either. It's the same as abandoning our home, but it won't be slow. Please, let's turn back. They might not even attack our village. I know almost everyone is praying as we speak, and have been doing so for days. I'm sure the gods will hear our pleas and grant mercy."

Beth's face became angry towards the end of his statement and my hands on her shoulders stopped moving. She took a step back out of his reach, tone furious, "Do you think that the others didn't try the same? Do you think they didn't beg to all the gods for mercy and help? We need something els-!"

Buck interjected, his voice raising to match hers, "Maybe they weren't truly faithful! I know the people here, they are kind and good! True devouts that the gods smile upon! We have not only started looking up at them in our times of need!"

Throughout his impassioned rebuttal, he had stepped closer to his sister. She had to see reason, the people of their home would be spared, and they would be safe. They had done no wrongs, not by the gods anyhow. He certainly hoped they didn't count calling Old Mag the Old Hag behind her back with his friends, it wasn't exactly a lie.

"It's times like these when faith is truly shown. It is easy to believe when you have little at stake, this is why we are challenged, this is all to prove our faith. This is simply a test. One that we must all overcome together!"

She looked at him in disgust, "I refuse to believe all the others were simply worse than us. If you don't want to help fine. But I am going, and I will curse you to all your Seven Hells if you try to stop me."

With that final statement, she turned around and set off.

Buck stood there for a moment stunned. His face quickly went from anger to resignation. He wished this would all turn out well, he wished he could hold no doubts in his heart, though even he knew there was perhaps a grain of truth in her words. If he could barely convince himself, what hope did he have of convincing her? For all he wished to stop her, he knew it would only be a delay. She was stubborn, more than anyone else he knew. If he could say with certainty that he could stop her and make sure she never wandered into this forest he would, Seven Hells be damned. However, he couldn't so he blew out a breath and followed behind her, watching the trees and keeping an eye out for whatever sort of demon lurked in the dark.

By this point, the sun had set and Beth could reasonably say that she was scared, though knew to keep it to herself. They had left just after the sun had peaked, and how they were still in the forest was a mystery. She had navigated through places such as these all of her life with her brother and father, whether it was helping to gather wood or joining them while they foraged. She knew to mark her way and keep an eye out for any noticeable shapes to keep a sense of direction but it was no use. It was as if the very forest itself was playing tricks on them, and they were quickly becoming tired. She hadn't asked her brother for any support in this task, and they were starting to feel thirsty and hungry.

Maybe this was a mistake, we might end up dying of thirst, with nothing but each other and the trees to bare witness.

She couldn't help but feel guilty for bringing her brother along, she could have gone alone and made sure he didn't follow, but when she told him her plan and went off, she couldn't help but be happy he had followed, perhaps not with the same intentions initially. Thinking about it all now, putting aside the righteous fury she had felt earlier she could admit something.

She was scared. No, scratch that, she was terrified.

Terrified for her home, which had felt less and less in recent memory, terrified for her parents, of her loving and caring Ma. Of her Pa, who had seemed like a knight from songs, always there to protect her. Now her Ma just looked hollow and haunted, and her Pa had withered and distanced himself, being crippled attempting to defend the village and now unable to toil in the fields or do any sort of labour, wallowing at home staring into the fields

No.

It didn't matter how she felt now.

She hadn't been able to do anything then, but now it was different, it wouldn't matter who came their way, and no bandit or lord would ever be able to hurt her family or friends again.

Because what better way is there to fight evil in the world than with an evil of their own?

The forest was only lit up by the moon hung high in the sky by the time they found something that didn't match up to the repetitive towering trees. It was an ugly misshapen thing, as if someone asked a child not even five name-days old to draw a keep in the dirt with a stick. Incomplete walls of bark with faces seemingly etched onto it, mouths open in torment and agony. Branches and spikes of wood speared out from the ground, curled almost as if they were trying to reach out to something.

It was a massive area, she had no idea how they could have missed it. Walls of bark interlocking with tens of trees. The ground and vegetation piled upon eachother, all seemingly trying to cover whatever was inside, though there was no rhyme or reason to any of it, it simply looked as if it was a mess.

The light of the moon faded, and they were left almost in complete darkness. She felt the hair on her arms rise, and her body shuddered involuntarily. For how natural this all seemed she couldn't shake how unnatural it all felt, as if she was never supposed to be witnessed by the likes of her.

She was shaking and saw her brother do the same beside her as an uneasiness settled into their bones. This was a mistake, she knew that for certain now, this intent and bloodlust she could taste on her tongue was so strong even she had no issues recognising it. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking, and her feet refused to take a step backwards. She couldn't move, couldn't think aside from how wrong it all felt, it was unnatural, tainted, and wrongwrongwrongwrongwrongwron-

"So this is it?" Buck let out a shuddering breath at the end of his remark and it managed to snap Beth out of whatever trance had taken hold of her. She looked around at Buck and moved towards him slowly, noting that she was finally able to get her legs to work as she wished.

As she came to his side he looked down at her beside him and muttered quietly.

"What is the plan now? We've made it this far, I hope you have the next move planned because at this point if we try to leave we'll die of thirst."

She looked down to the ground at that, voice barely audible above the winds that started to pick up. "I don't know, I thought we could convince it to fight others, help it out of this place for the protection of our village."

Buck's eyes widened as he gasped. After a moment he closed his eyes, seemingly trying to compose himself. "I can feel its hatred from here, the entire place feels like a blight, cursed by the gods themselves." Buck let out a sigh, though it was drowned out by the wind which was increasing in noise and speed. He opened his and looked at the structure ahead, avoiding eye contact.

"You would have doomed more than just the people against us if you let this thing out." Her brother's voice started to increase in volume, getting angry as he continued, "You would have let so many others fall to this curse! Letting it out of here, how could you even consider such a thing, even if you don't value anything I say or think fine! But think of Ma, think of Pa!"

His voice was steadily drowned out by the howling winds. Which reached a pitch so high they had both abruptly stopped their argument. They looked back towards the mishappen trees, the faces etched into the bark seemingly screaming with mouths opened unnaturally wide, raging in harmony with the wind. Their eyes seemed to glow a brilliant gold before it turned blood red, lighting up the entire area in the hue.

Branches flew off nearby trees and vegetation and flew into them, Beth only barely raised her arm in time to stop one from striking her in the face. Wincing from the fresh cut and tattered sleeve she looked around wildly for anything that could offer respite.

It was then she spotted it, again the golden glow seemed to pulse from an opening in the wood, washing away doubts, she felt light, whole and somehow happy. In this horrifying situation, in this haunted forest, she felt at peace.

She grabbed her brother and moved forward.

She was stopped before she even made the first step, the most horrific and natural sound pierced her ears and she instinctively covered them to try and drown the sound out, but it was no use. The divine light was drowned out by the blood-red light and her determination faded away. It wasn't simply a scream, it was despair, fear, anger, hate, sorrow, loss and so many more things she couldn't name rolled into one. Her face felt wet, and she assumed she had been assaulted by another piece of wood, however, she realised it was something else.

She was crying.

Somewhere, distantly, away from the horror she was currently facing, and all the despair that was worming its way into her heart and soul she felt one emotion rise above all others. As the wind whipped and her body was covered in more and more cuts and bruises she felt one thing stand out, crying out, more than anything else.

Sadness.

She was mourning. What? She had no idea, but whatever evil she wanted to find, she didn't feel. This felt like her Ma after seeing Pa wither away, becoming a husk of himself. Of her friends waiting for families to be reunited and to be bitterly crushed when they weren't. Of the unspoken prayers of now widows and men having to raise their children alone.

She was suddenly thrust back into the world around her with an audible gasp. She tightened her grip on her brother's hand and didn't just step forward but leapt towards the red glow. She lowered her arms and ran towards a small opening in the bark, one that had seemingly not been there previously and pulled her stumbling brother forward and then herself inside.