Into The Woods and The Beast

The sun raised high above the treetops and lit a ray of heat on Padans face. Padan awoke and looked around him. The depressing atmosphere that lingered last night was no longer there. The forest green shone with the light as birds chirped in the distance. Tree roots raised and lowered with Padans eyes as he looked around. A breeze picked up and moved the trees with it. The swaying of the trees made creaking noises. Padan closed his eyes again and allowed himself to be drawn in with the relaxing atmosphere around him.

"Hey, get up."

Padan became angry as he opened his eyes and stood up. "What did you do that for?"

"Get angry if you like, but we must keep moving, no time to sit around and enjoy the scenery." Said the Old Man as he went to poke at Harern.

Padan became even more frustrated at him. "Wait, why must we leave right now? The Qên must be gone. We can wait for Harern to wake. Please let him sleep; he had a rough night."

The Old Man ignored Padan's remark and stubbed Harern with his staff. "We must not waste time Padan, there is much road ahead of us, and if we are to get a good start on any of it, then we must wake early every morning and start walking."

Harern awoke startled. "Ah! What's going on? Are we under attack?"

"Calm down master wizard, the only thing that is under attack is your sleep schedule." The Old Man said sarcastically. "We must get on with our day; no man has ever changed the world with their eyes closed."

Harern groaned as he got up and grabbed his staff. Aithene stood near Padan as Padan walked toward the Old Man.

"Are we ready?" The old Man asked.

Padan nodded, and with that, they started walking.

Padan had never been this deep into the forest before. His father was always very strict with him. As Padan agreed, he should have been. Padan was nobility, and he was expected to be capable of very much. He always felt he could never meet his father's expectations. Ever since he was young, His father made sure to get him in a strict schedule of reading, sparring, and exercise. He never liked this strict teaching, but he understood why it was necessary. As Padan walked along, he thought about how he was never like the other nobles. His mother always did look down upon the lower classes when she still lived with him and his father. At a young age, she would try to get Padan to play with other noble kids but would find him later rolling around in the dirt with Aithene and Harern. He laughed to himself, none of that silly social structure mattered now. His real friends helped him get through the attack on his village. "Would the noble children help me the same way Aithene and Harern did?" Padan thought to himself.

As Padan was deep in thought, he wasn't paying attention to where he was stepping and pushed down on a strange colored rock with all of his weight. In a violent reaction, a powerful magic force burst from the rock and threw Padan against a tree knocking the wind out of him.

"Finally!" A voice came from the bushes. "I Have been waiting all day!" A tall, dark-haired man with a black brigandine on emerged from the brush. He picked up a large sword from the ground that would be too large to sheath. Aithene draws her daggers and prepares to lunge at the Man as Harern begins to draw magic from his crystal atop his staff.

"Wait!" the Old Man yelled, "We are not his prey."

The tall, dark-haired Man goes from excitement to confusion. "What are a bunch of kids and an old coot doing this deep in the woods?"

"None of your business," scowled Harern. Padan was too busy getting air back into his lungs to give a reasonable response. At the same time, Aithene was too focused on Padan.

"For a small kid, you spit venom," The dark-haired Man remarked. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure if your poison is tough enough to get you further into this forest."

"Where I go is none of your business."

"Actually, according to law, it is my business kid," the dark-haired man said, getting in Harerns face. "I've been hired by the kingdom to kill a monster in this area, and so I have the authority to say who goes where until I bring its head back to the nicely wealthy lord who hired me and I say you're not continuing until it's safe. Supposedly a dead kid on the report takes a large sum away from my reward."

"I'm not sure if you'll be getting a reward," Padan finally said with his voice returned to him. "Ingolsfell is under attack the Qên have somehow organized and have broken through the recently built defenses along the southern border. Our village was burnt to the ground." Harern looks away from his best friend and back to the dark-haired man. "Do not get in our way or-"

"Or what kid? You seriously think you can take on a Professional monster hunter?" The dark-haired man grinned.

"Yes, Yes, I do think this has gone on quite long enough," The Old Man said, waking himself up from leaning on his staff. "I suppose we have no choice but to help you remove this monster so we may continue."

This idea seemed to spark excitement inside Padan, who, since the fight back on his old estate, has been itching for another one. "Yeah!" Padan said with a bit of uncontrollable excitement. "If you aren't going to let us through by ourselves, then the next best thing to do is help you. Turning back isn't an option."

A puzzled look began to form on the dark-haired man's face but was pushed aside and replaced again with one of humor. "Oh, because that will go over well back at the GuildHouse, I'm sure I'll get tons of praise from my other guildmates when they hear the tales of myself followed by a bunch of prepubescent wanna-be soldiers who just found their swords yesterday." The Dark Haired Man chuckled to himself as he finished his sentence. "Maybe they'll even promote me for my new gained valor!"

"Look," Padan says with growing impatience, "I am a son of a Ranger in the Varngian, I've been training to fight since I could crawl. My father has sat on the war council with King Trajunus Prior to the split of the Empire. I can fight. I've been doing it all my life."

The dark-haired Man used to speak so much and clearly to everyone around him, so often, he was caught off guard. He took a second to collect his thoughts. "Alright, soldier boy," said the Man after awhile. "Prove it to me beyond a doubt, and I'll let you and your friends come with me to track this beast, And I'm sure a prodige to the King's elite guard can handle himself. Not to mention the social leap up I'd be making by being around someone of your birth! Definitely, worth the trouble, I'd be getting into by allowing you to help me."

"Not a problem I have my-" Padan froze for a second then freakishly searched his pockets. "No-No-No-No-No!"

Aithene rushed up to Padan with annoyance, "What? What is the matter?"

"I lost it!" Cried Padan. "The armband you're supposed to wear, it's not where I left it!" Padan began to sniffle and hold back tears in his eye.

"That's a sign of status! I can't believe you lost it" Aithene rolled her eyes.

"That was the last thing I had left!" Padan, by this point, was utterly breaking down. "He's gone, and I might never see him again, and he told me never to lose that armband; it is a sign of honor, and what do I do? I forget it! He's not even here, and I'm disappointing him. I may never make it up to him because I don't even know if I'll see him again!" Padans worst thoughts were those he didn't speak out loud. Since they first left Kirkja, he promised himself he would try and be the rock for the group. He could tell what they went through had changed all of them Aithene, had been colder than usual to him. He didn't know what he did to deserve such treatment when all he was trying to do was be there for her and love her. He didn't want to strike out with anger back at her but it was hard sometimes to control himself. While Harern, once gentle, kind, and caring, had become angry and sometimes irrational with a snake poison for a tongue. Padan felt he needed to keep his friends together and wanted to be a leader, a strong one at that. Still, right now, he thought that not only has he let his father down, but he has also let his friends down by not being able to control himself. Suddenly a gentle and warm touch came upon Padans shoulder and out of his ear he heard.

"Sadness truly is the greatest expression of gratitude, no?"

Padan looked over to see the Old Man smiling. "Do not think lowly of yourself for having a moment of weakness. It is that pain that lets you know that you are alive, that you are human!" the old Man pokes Padan in the rib with the end of his staff. Padan suddenly came overwhelmed with a sense of love and care which snapped him back into the moment. He looked around and into the eyes of his friends. He looked deeply into Aithenes blue eyes that seemed to reflect the beauty of the wood around her. Then he looked back at Harern and for a second in a long while Harerns face did not show pain or sorrow, but concern for a life long friend. Then Padans attention shifted to the Man with dark hair who now looked uncomfortable instead of snarky like he previously did.

Now realizing that Padans eyes fell upon him, the man with dark hair hid his expression and had a moment of self-reflection. He then walked over to Padan with a welcoming smile and said. "Hey, it appears you've been through a lot. I can't let you go through, but I can turn my back on you to go take a leak on that tree over there and be completely unaware of what's going on around me, eh?" the Man then winked.

Just as the man turned around and started to prepare himself, a shriek rose from the bellow of the wood. The Man then perked up and turned around "Oh gods it's here everyone get ready!" the man then ran back to grab his sword then rushed down to join his new allies in battle.

Padan wiped his tears and unsheathed his sword while getting into a defensive position Aithene got behind Padan with her hands on her dagger hilts nodding to Harern, who was now next to his best friend whispering into his crystal on top of his staff with a glowing light coming out of it.

Padan turned to the man, "What is it exactly that we are fighting?"

The Man responded, "You ever hear of a Nenegin?"

Padan shook his head.

"Well, it's a monster that forms from the death of a wife by her spouse."

Another shriek fills the wood this time closer.

"They say that if a husband kills his wife, the corpse doesn't stay dead; rather, it contorts and rots for days in the grave, and then on the anniversary of its death, it will claw itself out of its grave and hunt the local village."

All of a sudden, a foul smell of rotting flesh and swamp fills the air. Aithene gags while Harern has to take a moment from preparing his spells.

A rustling comes from in front of the party out of the corner of his eye Padan spots a figure approaching them. When he turns his head to look his enemy in the eye, he has to stop himself from throwing up. The beast walks in front of everyone with a confidence that does not match its looks. The Nenegin takes the shape of a short, frail woman on all fours with her body facing the sky while her hands and feet are rotated, so the front faces the group. The head stares Padan dead in the eye with the scalp facing the ground. Padan could see into the rotting throat and notice the maggots eating away at the now pale flesh. The Nenegin no longer had all of its previous teeth. Obvious gaps laid between one tooth from another while some were chipped almost as if this horror was eating something hard. It wore a white dress that had dirt marks and blood painted in splats all across it but nothing else. In the places, it still had hair; it was long, thin, and dark.

"What the fuck," Aithene whispered, trying not to look away from what disturbed her.

As soon as Aithene was able to speak, the Nenegin looked directly at her and jumped tremendously in the air, similarly to a horse.

Padan took this opportunity to strike at the underbelly, but the Nenegin took no notice to Padan, almost perfect hit. Chunks of flesh flew off the body leaving behind the bare bone. Unbothered, the Nenegin tackled Aithene to the ground and began to swipe at her face with its long nails tearing away at her flesh. Padan began to jab his sword into the skin frantically, hoping for some sort of result.

"It's no use," said the Man rushing over. "It doesn't feel pain; you need to try and cut off its limbs!"

"I can't get a clear opening if I swing for its arms or legs I risk hitting Aithene!"

Just then, Padan felt a powerful force knock him on his back, falling he looked over to Aithene and the monster to see the beast get hit by a blue ball throwing it off Aithene and having it hit a nearby rock with an audible smack of skin against the stone. Taking this opportunity, the man raises his sword above his head and levies it down upon the Nenegins neck disconnecting its head from its body. The now headless corpse thrashes around for a few seconds before collapsing onto the forest bed. The once silent forest then comes alive with the sounds of insects and birds singing their daily prayers.

The Man picked up the head of the now slain beast to see it still attempting to lunge at him and chew him. "It can only be killed through magical means since it's considered undead. I'll have to take it to a wizard in town and pay him to officially kill it." The Man then turned his head in the directions of groans. Aithene was cut profoundly, and her blood covered the forest floor. Padan was hunched over her trying desperately to cover the wound. The Old Man walked over to Padan and kneeled, "We can't do anything for her right now; she needs a doctor or a holy man from the Goddess Naekil."

The dark-haired man ran over applying pressure to one of the cuts "There's a village nearby if the Goddess cant heal her then maybe one of the wizards can help"

Padan was about to push the Old Man off of Aithene, but he stopped himself. He was angry but felt that making the situation worse wouldn't help, nor would it make anything better. He was about to lose this internal battle with himself when Harern did it for him.

"Why didn't you help? We could have all died if I had not nearly just killed myself casting that spell." Harern was clearly out of breath and extremely pale. His words could not exemplify the anger he intended to present to the old Man. Once he finished his sentence, Harern continued to lean on his staff and cough as if something had crawled in his throat and laid its young there.

"I wanted to help, but I'm a strict pacifist under no circumstances will I allow myself to fight and kill, Living or dead." The old Man then calmly turned back to attempting to cover aithenes wounds the best he could.

Padan wanted to join his friend in criticizing what he believed was this old fool, but the groaning of Aithene distracted him. "We can argue about this later; we need to get her help immediately. He then picked her up and carried her in her arms, despite being near death's door Aithene couldn't look happier almost as if she were to die right now she'd be ok with it.