(Part 2)
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”
- C.S. Lewis
(11)
“I stood in the deep of an emerald sowed tomb. I did not feel comforted at all by the phantom lights. Amongst the darkness I found myself in, only hollow sounds filled the void, quiet and haunting they all were. They reached out, beckoning towards me. I could feel their pain now, encased in torment. Their very life and love and everything that made them themselves bleeding away into the foulness that imprisoned them. Was there anything I could do? Hope seemed so distant; a distance in which one fully believes that even old pony’s tales are true. I could not show signs of weakness. I had to keep going, head held high, I needed strength–strength I never had to begin with. It felt so surreal, all of this. It felt like a dream really, a nightmare. The emerald lights still haunt me today and I shall only find rest when my time ends. Which I know is coming quickly, very quickly indeed.”
Zack awoke upon a rock platform, listening to the voices echoing into the distant reaches of his mind. Then slowly, but surely, they dissipated into nothingness. The platform he found himself on was in fact a Panexus, and after a few moments of regaining his awareness, he realized he was no longer in the Royal Garden. Light trickled across his face as his brown hair felt warm upon his scalp. Such odd senses he felt over himself. His emotions were as calm as awakening in his own bed, but his body felt utterly lost. He opened his eyes and looked around where he had teleported himself to.
He was in a forest, or at least he hoped that he was in the right forest. He placed his palms on a very old and heavily damaged Panexus to push his body upwards. Thick tree roots had broken through the platform, and time and weather had stained the artifact. He wondered about it still being able to work in what condition it was in, and he soon rose finally to his feet. The weight of his belongings on his back came to and he hunched his equipment securely on his shoulders. The temperature was quite comfortable in the area he was in; a faint breeze even made his posture relax. He blinked a few times to focus the sunlight that came into his eyes and finally inspected his surroundings.
This was truly a magnificent forest, very old and very ancient. The trees were quite massive, much larger than the largest trees he had ever seen. With great trunks and sprawling branches, they dominated the sky above him. The trees were much larger than any sequoia back on Earth and their foliage blocked out the rays of the sun, turning the vibrant white light of the star into green, dancing hues. The leaves were even gigantic; a single leaf was large enough to roof an entire house. The seeds in which the trees bore were nothing he had ever seen before as well. Large, bulbous berry-like orbs with amber skin and a maroon cap. Like everything else in this forest, it too was big, massive enough for Zack to fit in standing upright. The plants were all new to him, and even the grass felt alien to his sense of touch when he bent over and felt it. Twisting, vivid weeds and flowers grew amidst the ground and grass. Outstretching and reaching petals and vines encompassed around the strange flowers. The pressing thought that this place was the eldest region in the known world was overwhelmingly staggering. Zack felt as if he was on an entirely different planet.
Though his surroundings were quite breathtaking, he soon was brought back to his current objective and why he was even here. He would have loved to stay in that one, a safe spot in the woods and look onward into its beauty, but the words of Luna and the Ivory Guard echoed through his mind. This forest was filled with danger and every ounce of his strength, dexterity, and wit would be tested. Zachary had no earthy idea what would test him or how exactly he would be tested, but he didn’t doubt the knowledge he had be given and soon his guard grew tenfold. The spellbinding effects of these mystical woods had started to flow away from his faltering mind as soon as his concentration returned; but nevertheless did they continually pester him.
He took in a large breath, as if he was about to dive into a deep pool and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. The majesty of the alien world he found himself in sent waves of vertigo throughout his being. It was sickeningly beautiful, almost hypnotic. He refocused his mind and snapped out of it. He figured that he would spend no more time admiring this bewitching wood around him and would try to make it to higher ground as fast as he could to see if he could spot the Equadeus Arx. According to the Ivory Guard, it could be easily seen, for it was atop the only mount in the sea of trees. He knew he could climb one of these outstretching trees to even see a small bit of the forest around him and be able to tell which way was which. The foliage of the giant trees even blocked the location of the sun which deluded his sense of direction. His hindsight mocked him when it reminded him that he had forgotten the key tool in adventuring–a damn compass. He narrowed his vision and spotted a tree not too far away with branches accessible to his height.
"That’s perfect,” he told himself, "this would be so much easier with the Ethereal Sabatons. Nevertheless, I have to work with what I have... I have to stay focused... This entire landscape is warping my vision it seems. I’m not sure if I’ll be even able to spot something out of place or something stalking me–”
At that very thought, Zack stopped his thought process, realizing he had missed out on something very important. The sounds of the forest, it was uncanny to his ears, yet he didn’t even realize it until now. There were no birds chirping at all, not a single distant coo of a dove or a hoot of an owl. From what he remembered, he didn’t even spot a bird or small animal yet. He looked towards his feet, knelt down over the Panexus and into the grass to see if he could find any sort of insect. Not one. Not a single living thing was in the forest from what he could tell. He thought that forests were suppose to be homes for critters and insects, why weren’t there any here? Something drove them away, he assumed. He figured it was something with great power, something evil that could drive away such innocent animals. On that note, he rose to his feet again and took his first steps off of the Panexus.
His first steps quickly turned into a jog and off he ran towards the tree that he spotted. With a hopping motion, he side stepped shrubbery, roots, and the sort to make his way towards the base of the trunk. In a burst of speed, he shimmed up the tree, reaching out towards one of the thick branches. He latched onto it and in one swift motion, rocked himself onto it. He stopped for a moment when he securely set himself atop the branch and looked upward, inspecting every other branch he would have to reach towards to climb his way up higher. With one hand, he searched through his backpack (which was still on his back) and took out one of the daggers Luna had given him. He did so again with his other hand and took out another, he now firmly gripped one in each hand. He realized that the further he would travel up, the larger the gap between each higher branch, so eventually he would have to climb the tree with his two daggers implanted into the bark. With weapons in hand, he ascended the massive arboreal giant. Higher and higher he climbed, sticking the daggers into the tree trunk and slowly making his way upward. He found it relatively easily to submerge each dagger firmly into the bark. He pondered that regularly it would be much more difficult forcing a blade into a tree, but did not dwell on the thought too long since he was in somewhat of a hurry. He just figured that his strength had nearly doubled in the six years and could force the weapons in with ease.
It was a grand climb for Zack; he found himself stopping and dangling from the face of the tree to catch his breath and regain his strength more than once. He tried not to look down, but presumed that falling from this height would surely kill him, though death was something he also tried not to think about. When he would finally regain his strength, he would preform his ascending actions again. He rocked his body side to side, gaining enough momentum to release the blade from inside the tree and then stabbed it higher into the bark in one swift motion; thus, gradually making his way further upward. He had to stop and catch his breath at least four times until he was near the top. The ascension took more than three hours until the end was in sight. Now he could see where the top branches split off and became the forest’s ceiling. He maneuvered his body upward and with both hands clasped a thin, rising branch.
He forced himself through the thick leaves and finally, after making his way through droves of great fronds, was blinded by the late afternoon sun. The sky’s royal blue could clearly be seen as he stood atop the tree. He smiled and raised his fists high; he had conquered the towering tree and felt he had made a grand achievement. He wobbled a little bit and soon found himself grasping onto the branch below him for dear life. He steadied himself and slowly arose again. Zack’s eyes went over the landscape in all directions, greenery could be seen even into the horizon. The land was relatively flat except for a few dipping and rising trees. He turned his body inspecting every corner of his eyesight, trying to spot the mount where the castle would be. Then, in the far distance, was a hill. A hill which stood out among the entire landscape, but was a mere dot from where Zack was.
It was very, very far away from Zachary’s location and he realized he would never reach it in time before sun down. The sky’s color and the sun’s location read to Zack that it was around four and in a few hours it would be night. He now faced another crisis, journeying through the woods in pitch darkness. Though he had ventured into the forest at night before in Equestria, he knew that this was going to much different than the Everfree. The subconscious luxury he had acquired from traveling with Pinkie Pie seemed dire in this lush sanctum. He believed it would have been better traversing this place with a fellow traveler, but he was alone and was going to be alone for the remainder of his stay in the Firelight Woods. Who knew what lurked in these ancient woods in the dark; he had a terrible feeling that only giant things treaded in giant woods, and that he was going to have to evade them or fight them off. He was tiny in these woods; a minuscule six and a half foot being.
His mind snapped back to his goal and Zack pushed those nasty thoughts out of his head. Though after doing so, another thought came to him, something he again overlooked. He now had to descend the tree alive, something he wasn’t looking forward to. Despite that, he had to; he had to make it to that castle as fast as he could and made a mental note in which direction the castle was. After that, he slowly, but surely, began descending the giant tree. Blindly, he followed his hands along the bark of the branch sloping gradually downward. The giant leaves and swatting branches made his descent visually impaired for a moment until he was under the brush.
Finally, he had broken through the thick foliage of the tree and unintentionally peered over the edge. A sudden jolt of fear came over him when his foot slipped on something as he firmly grasped hold of the branch below him. He realized he had slipped on some form of thick, sappy liquid which dripped from one of the large berries above his branch. The noticed it was of the same amber-colored berries he saw when first inspecting Firelight Woods. He breathed a sigh of relief and regained his balance, still keeping one hand firmly on the branch below him to steady himself in case he slipped again.
Zack saw a firm, thick branch on the other side of the tree about a meter and a half lower than the branch he was on and decided to swing down to it. He carefully knelt down and grasped the branch below him tight, ready to sway himself to the lower branch. He gripped the bark below him, buried his fingernails into it and jumped; making sure his feet would land center on the branch. He was successful as he wobbled his arms to steady his body again.
Another, late signal shot off in his brain that something was wrong again. After a brief moment of backtrack thinking, he realized that when he landed on the branch, the wood beneath his feet sounded nothing like wood. It sounded more like jumping atop a large rock than onto wood. He was surprised at how well his brain picked up on these slightest details, but his conscious quickly went back to why it was wrong. He looked over to see if the branch was different than the rest and eventually knelt over to give it a closer inspection.
The branch was surely different, but at the same time, very alike the others. The gray and brown designs regularly found on the tree seemed off on this branch, the singular pattern was larger than average and with a few taps of Zack’s foot, sounded harder than wood. He placed his hand on the face of the odd branch, it felt cold and flat with no feeling like average bark whatsoever. Zack then, being the incredibly strange human he is, placed his ear against the object below him. He knocked the branch a few times with his knuckles to hear if it would sound like wood, though it made no sound. He did hear something he didn’t expect emit from the rock face–a long, deep breath.
His eyes widened and hastily he moved his head away from the branch. As soon as he did, the impostor limb of the tree moved a bit beneath him and he found himself grasping onto the sides of the thing. Something from the corner of his eye caught Zack’s attention and he turned his head over towards it. It appeared at first like a long branch swaying in the foliage, but curled awkwardly around towards Zack. A sudden pit in his stomach grew as his heart sank when he discovered it appeared more like a neck than a branch. He followed the scaled neck upward and discovered that it wasn’t a tree, but something far worse. It looked down at him with stinging blue eyes like ghostly embers. Its jaw bent like a bird’s, but it was surely a large land mammal of some sort. Its nostrils huffed Zack as he felt its warm breath gust past him, almost making him lose his balance again. The back end of its head protruded outward, narrowing the front of its skull where its face and maw was. Spiked scales like horns jagged outward from this back protrusion and gave the beast an even more fierce appearance. This creature, from what Zack could tell, was some large snake that coiled itself around the branch it was on; it bore a natural camouflage that placed it high among the predators of Firelight Woods.
The serpent looked to see what was on its back and slowly maneuvered its head closer to inspect the nuisance Zack was. It could have easily eaten Zack whole in that moment, but instead looked over him curiously. Zack remained frozen in utter terror, holding his breath for fear he might make it angry. It then stopped looking over Zack and met him face to face. The head of the beast was larger than Zack both in length and height, which made him all the more nervous. The pattern on the creature’s back had veiled its body, but it was a hunting camouflage it could control and it slowly faded into its natural, dark maroon red coat of scales. The scales itself were like plates of armor which greatly resembled Om’s hide, excluding the color variation of it and how it could change color and pattern to whatever it desired.
Zack finally took a breath after holding it for so long; at that moment, the beast opened its maw gradually to reveal rows upon rows of teeth the size of Zack’s forearms and larger. Four prominent rows of fangs made themselves known as they slid from the gums of the monster. The tongue of the creature (from what Zack could see) looked as if it could crush him if he laid underneath it. Everything about this ultimate predator of the woods was horrifyingly intimidating. Zack gulped at the tremendous sight of it all; death reeked from this beast as it widened its jaw fully for one swift, deadly attack.
Zack was not a religious man, but the words he expressed were truly from his heart as he said aloud, “Dear God, help me...”
The serpent lunged its neck forward at speeds which Zack believed to be impossible for the large beast to possess. He fortunately had plenty of time to ready himself beforehand when studying the monster’s stance of offense and threw himself off of the beast’s back. He knew this wasn’t going to end well, but had to risk the jump to save his own life from the jaws of the leviathan.
He fell towards the forest floor, hitting and trying to grab onto any branch he could. He had little time to do so before slamming into the ground and tried to slow his fall the best ways he could think of. He luckily found one of the tree’s large berry like seeds and landed on top of it. The force in which he hit the giant fruit was enough to slow him down enough, but he couldn’t firmly grab on to the smooth, rounded object, so he slid off of the berry after it had lowered enough to make a safe landing towards the ground. Zack tucked his body and rolled safely onto the forest floor. The fall only gave Zachary a few minor scratches from the branches he hit and was ready to hop back up on his feet from the adrenaline the fall gave him. He withdrew the Prevailer and madly searched above for the beast. He spotted the serpent looking down at him from the same branch it coiled around, keeping a keen eye on its prey.
Zack smiled and shouted towards the beast, “Ha! Catch me now!” He now possessed high confidence in his abilities to evade the creature since they were now at such a great distance apart. He thought that he could most likely outrun the creature since he was much smaller and more mobile than any snake. In a change of expression soon afterwards, Zack’s smile turned to a curious, grave look of dread.
The best began to uncoil itself from the tree. Though from the underside of the branch, instead of a serpent’s body, it broke into four massive legs which were still in their camouflaged appearances. A tail broke off from the tree and the beast turned its body around, now facing Zachary. This was clearly no longer a serpent, but a giant lizard with an elongated neck. The powerful legs of the monster perched itself atop the branch and bent in preparation to jump.
Zack thought, “Jumping from a height like that would surely injure it... It wouldn’t jump... It knows it can’t survive an impact like that.”
The monster then gave Zack another surprise. The shield-like scales on the creature’s back began to separate, revealing that they were only covers for something much more devastating. A pair of thick, grey wings, much like an hawks, unfolded and spread above the beast. The wing’s size could easily lift the massive creature and now Zack was preparing his mind and body for the sprint of his life. The creature screeched outward, its lungs bellowing a high pitch scream which was nearly deafening to Zack. The fearsome cry filled the Firelight Woods across miles and miles as the monster plummeted towards Zack location. It threw open its claws as it flew down in a dive bomb approach. When Zack saw this happening, the only two words that he could produce were ones in which now sunk his measly amount of courage and confidence he had mustered up.
He breathed heavily, “Oh hell...”
He immediately took flight into a mad dash and ran as fast as he could away from the monster. The lizard beast slammed its body towards the ground only mere meters away from Zack’s previous location. The vibrations from its landing pulsated through the ground, sending shock-waves past Zack and up the trees around him, shaking them vigorously. The beast, seeing that it didn’t crush Zack underneath its feet, let out another piercing screech and began to pursue its target.
Zachary raced through the forest, not wanting to look back towards the creature. He hopped and jumped and ran through all sorts of bushes, ferns and thorns to try to escape the massive predator. He could feel the vibrations of each step the creature made behind him, he could feel its hot breath rush over him and even blow plants and branches in front of him; he could even hear the monster breaking through the twisted forest Zack was dodging in order to take down the human. He had no idea how exactly he could fight this beast and was at his wit’s end on how to even evade it since it was efficiently mowing down the forest behind it with ease.
A powerful flap from the lizard’s wings ascended the creature above to towering foliage in mere seconds and was now invisible to Zack’s sight. Zack turned to see where it had gone off to, but didn’t know where as he searched every corner of his vision for the beast. He breathed heavily, trying his best to recuperate his breath and strength for what was to come. He now stood in the silent forest alone; it was maddeningly quiet. The only sounds he could hear was his own heart beating intensely and the falling of oversized leaves around him.
Zack stood his ground with sword in hands; he oscillated his body continually, making sure he wouldn’t get surprise attacked from any angle. Through the silence of the forest, Zack could now hear a new noise, two in fact. First, a steady drum beat, a beat too synchronized for nature to produce alone. It echoed along the forest heights and bounced off of the trees themselves. A steady beat, a quick beat, a rhythm which made Zack’s fear rise again. It started off quiet, but progressively grew louder and louder. The other noise Zack could hear grew with the beating of the distant drums were chanting sounds. It was uncanny and strange to Zachary, but chants they were. He couldn’t tell what exactly they were saying, but they were saying it over and over again, in perfect tempo with the four-beat drum. The voices grew louder and from all directions, he wasn’t sure where it was coming from and saw nothing out of the ordinary he had seen before the beats and chants began. As the chants grew, he realized what they were saying, or thought they were saying.
The voices rang through the forest in deep tones repeating, “Var-Ra! Mar-Ra! Var-Ra! Mar-Ra...”
Zachary whispered unto himself, “Vara... Mara... Varamara...”
As soon as he did this, the canopy of the forest broke open and the sun’s light poured down into the hidden woods. The monster fell through, diving towards Zachary while yelling its death scream. Shrapnel from branches, berries and leaves fell with it. Zack raised the Prevailer and felt its magic flow through him. He focused and ceased the falling debris in midair above him. Large leaves and massive shards of broken wood and bark floated above him, but the lizard clashed ahead of him, shaking Zack almost off of his feet. Even from the shaking of the monster’s plummet, Zachary maintained his focus. The leviathan of a creature abruptly charged Zack and he had little time to figure what he was planning to do with the debris above his head.
He retained his energy along with his magic, pressed the fallen debris into a large ball of sharp wood and massive splinters, and threw the ball into the front of the monster. It broke apart upon impact, leaving bits of sharp wood immersed into the creature’s face. One stuck into its eye and partially blinded the lizard. It stopped its charge and tried to shake the shrapnel that was lodged in his body out, but to no effective use. Zack saw this moment of opportunity to preform another maneuver he had little faith in. He held the Prevailer over his head and focused as much magical energy as he could into the blade itself. He had no sure idea what was going to happen, but did so anyways. The magic he forced from his body into the blade was painful, but did so without regret while producing a shout to relieve the built up tension.
With full force, he released the magic stored from his body into the blade and the Prevailer emitted a blinding, blood red light throughout the forest. No shadow or dark place was safe from the magical light as it spread itself throughout the forest in front of Zack. The monster, scared of what had just happened, let out a shriek and swatted aimlessly in front of itself, trying to claw at Zack. Zack knew it was blind from its erratic movements and lowered the blade, ceasing the light and giving back some of his magic he didn’t use up. Zack dodged and evaded his foe’s swiping claws and with an eager prediction of where the creature was going to swipe next, Zachary slashed his sword with full force towards the coming claws and sliced through the scales of the foot with ease. Whether by his own strength he did this or with the help of is new found magic into the blade, he was uncertain. He was glad it worked out in his favor as the creature soon felt the rising pain from its severed limb. The cut off foot flew through the air and plummeted behind the two with a rolling thud.
The lizard was in great agony as it tried to limp away from Zachary. The bloody and severed limb served to be a problem for the lizard as it slipped and tripped about it. Zack smiled, knowing that now it would be an easy kill for him. He rose his sword again and stepped into his offensive position. Though before he attacked, the creature rose its damaged leg in front of himself and watched the blood drip from the stump. It screamed once again and in a few moments it grew back another foot from the chopped off limb, claws and all. Zack was astonished and now was once again wondering how he could defeat such a formidable foe of Firelight Woods. The creature now rested its new foot down upon the ground and rose upwards to once again fight Zachary. Zack’s elated spirits were extinguished and he found himself again running through the woods away from the monster.
The beast pursued his target as Zack used his magic to aid in his escape. His magical aura lit his right hand in front of him while his other was holding his sword. Whenever he would pass a large boulder he could lift with his magic or a twisted, broken limb of a tree, he would levitate the object and throw it behind him towards the creature. The lizard wouldn’t even stop its pursuit of Zack; blow after blow the creature would take, it would fight through the pain and its rage would build. The more its rage built, the faster and swifter it would become, violently swiping Zachary at every attempt it was close to him.
Through the intensity of it all, he had completely forgotten about the noise the monster made while plowing through the forest. He veered his head back and slowed his pace down to a halt when he realized it was once again gone from his sight. He had no time to rest, knowing that this cunning creature would surprise him again. He lowered his sword and held it at his waist, ready to strike his enemy. Through the forest, he could continually hear the beat of the drums still and the chants as if they followed him, but a new sound occurred to him as well. The beast was surely around him now he figured from the new noises he heard throughout the forest. A shuffling and tearing through the trees, the beast was hiding itself, but where exactly Zack could not tell.
The stinging eyes of the lizard burned through the forest towards Zack as he finally spotted the creature a split second before its attack. It had once again camouflaged its scales to the foliage and bark of the surrounding tree towers and now knowing that it had been spotted, lunged towards Zack. He decided to stand his ground and face the monster head on. No more running, it was time to fight. The beast surprisingly landed only a mere meter from Zack’s position and the force of its fall shook Zack off of his feet and onto his backside. He tried to quickly recuperate from his fall, but the monster bent its arm around and slammed the backside of its paw over Zack, sending his body flailing through the brush of the forest. He spun wildly through between the trees and finally stopped cold once his body had nicked a few trees. He forcefully came to a thud on a rough patch of earth. Zack was in immense pain, but he knew he had to keep pushing through it to survive. In a few seconds, he was back on his feet and running the opposite direction from where the monstrous lizard was.
He could feel his stamina fleeting with each new step and hop. Running as fast as he could through the warm forest began to take its toll on him. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this overgrown lizard-bird-animal off of him and his courage as well as his strength seemed to now elude him. The monster, whom quickly caught up to his prey, could even tell that his victim’s movements were becoming sloppy, which gave it a more vigorous burst of adrenaline knowing that it wouldn’t take too much longer until it could feast upon Zack. To this beast, this opportunity was not only a chance to survive itself, but a game. A game in which he had only been toying with his prey; but now the excitement had built up too much inside of it and it was ready to make its final pounce.
Zack, in a hurried-limping fashion, ran into an area of the forest where the trees grew much higher it seemed and the foliage ceiling stretched on much longer. This larger opening also revealed an incredibly large and white boulder which he was running straight towards. The giant stone seemed halfway submerged in the ground, though its wide face which wasn’t underground was impressively smooth and thick. The massive rock trumped both him and the beast chasing after him as it sat in the forest watching one trail the other. Zack found himself cornered against the rock and the beast; the lizard wasted no time to slow down and attack him. Zack halted against the stone face, trying his best to think of a way to escape this death trap.
A sudden, yet brilliant idea formed in his mind and he soon began to rummage through his belongings, searching for a special tool Luna had given him. The monster proceeded to bend its knees and leap towards Zachary at a great distance with its wings unfolded and claws pointed towards him. It volleyed itself towards Zachary at gaining speeds with the help of its enormous wingspan. Zack finally found the object he was looking for and turned towards the boulder. He quickly and awkwardly pressed the Marauder’s Key towards the stone wall, hoping that what Luna said of its powers were true. It luckily began to glow a golden light and the object suddenly sunk into the rock face. A rectangular indention formed in the wall in front of him and the cut stone hinged open into a dark room. Zachary swiftly jumped into the unknown and the stone door closed behind him and disappeared back into the boulder.
The lizard beast saw this, but couldn’t stop his assault in time bashing its head into the massive boulder. The collision shook the foundations of the forest. Dead limbs, large berries and plenty of foliage fell around the sight of the impact. The boulder cracked through and fell apart into rubble and debris around the beast. The only remnant of the rock that stayed true to its foundation was a rectangular stone slab. A smaller indention of a rectangle faded through the rock and it opened up like a door once more. Zack peaked his head through and saw nothing but white and brown clouds of dust and dirt. When the haze cleared, he looked upon the beast which had collided with the boulder. It lay on its belly, its eyes shut and possibly dead. Zack slowly stepped out of the stone door and as soon as he did, it closed behind him once more. The last large, standing rock from the boulder then crumbled away and in its remains Zachary spotted the metal shimmer of the Marauder’s key. He bent over, took it and placed it back in his traveler’s bag. He looked over and stepped towards the beast now, thoroughly examining it to see what condition it was in.
"It’s still breathing," he said mentally whilst watching the monster’s nostrils slowly take air in and out. After seeing this, he too took a large breath of relief and sat himself down on a large, chipped piece of the boulder. While watching the beast slumber, he took out a water sack from his bag and drank heartily from it. Zack then wiped his mouth and placed the water sack back in his bag.
“I’m not a doctor,” he said with regaining strength, “but I’d say this little fella’ is stone cold out.” A delayed chuckle rose up from Zack as he repeated his corny joke, “Heh, stone cold... boulder... heh...”
He sat up after regaining a bit of stamina from his resting spot and decided he should continue through the forest some more before nightfall. The blood-colored rays of the sun shot through the trees beyond him, night was soon on approach as he could tell from the sunset’s beams. Before exiting the place where the monster rested, he looked back and wondered if should kill the creature, just to make sure it wouldn’t harm him again. Though he knew he could easily slit its throat and be done with his problems, he almost pitied the beast in its condition. He figured that it tried to kill him, but from what he saw before when entering the Firelight Woods, he was the only reasonably prey to fill a giant lizard’s stomach. So Zachary let his hand go from his hilt and walked away from the beast.
In only a few short minutes, he found himself in a small opening in the woods. Zack could clearly see the now pink and purple sky over watching him. The towering trees on the edge of the opening still were tremendously high; he viewed them more as cliffs of wood than anything else relating to a natural forest; then again, this was about as natural as a forest could get. He soon realized why this was an opening and from the edge of it he saw a bending and twining creek. Knowing this, he could now hear the faint trickle of water running through the river stones and he began to limp his way towards it. He purposely fell down at the edge of the bank and dipped his fingers into the clear waters, feeling for the temperature. Zack then gracefully cupped some water into his hands and washed his face from sweat, dirt and the blood from his cuts.
He had a small slice in his wrist from when he fell off of the tree and immediately felt a tingling sensation overcome that area of his body. He looked over it and saw that the wound slowly sealed itself up and was no more. The water possessed healing properties he soon noticed and began dipping all of his wounds in the creek. Though the water couldn’t heal his internal injuries, he was satisfied of the little bit of healing it could deal. He finally drank of the water and began to feel his energy returning to him. He emptied his water pouch and refilled it with this magic water. He took a few moments to inspect the creek further, seeing if there was something physically different about it; but judging from the water’s surface to the creek bed itself, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Before leaving the comforts of the creek, he did spy something in the water. A strange formation could be seen engraved into the creek bed’s edge. He dipped his hand down into it to feel it out. It was small, about the sized of his curled fist, but was lightly indented in the bed itself. It was old and practically part of the creek floor. He continued to feel it out and realized what the curved shape of it was. He was a little taken back by this; he was sure it was a hoof print and nothing else. It was smoothed out and knew it couldn’t have been a natural formation. He began to think of how it got there when taking his hand out of the water to dry it off. As he rose back up on his feet, stared down into the water and continually looked upon the hoof mark below, lost in thought as to how it got there.
In a rapid moment, a sudden and violent pain surged through Zachary’s body, starting from his right shoulder blade. The force took him entirely off guard and almost threw him into the creek. He held himself over the water to stop the force, but the pain only escalated in his shoulder. He peered down to see what had happened and soon saw where this agony birthed from. An immensely long arrow was stabbed through his shoulder and the point of it came a foot out of the other side of him. He had to lie down from keeping his arm from hurting so much and tried in one forceful movement to remove the bolt. He couldn’t turn around to see who had shot him with it, but continued to pull out the arrow. The pain was too much for Zack and he left it in. The tip of the arrow was made of some purple, jagged gem and it dripped of his blood onto the grass below.
Zachary’s vision began to blur and his strength and consciousness was receding quickly. Waves of pain came over him and continually sapped him of his energy. He mustered up enough power to keep himself awake and to lightly turn his body over to see who had shot him. His vision was now darkening, but he saw a blurry silhouette of a bipedal being walking towards him from the forest’s edge. He could make out some colors the creature was adorned in, but had no idea what it was. It walked upright, it had appeared to have long arms, a long torso and short legs. It was wearing something on its head, like rows of horns or spikes, though Zack couldn’t tell exactly. Zack tried to speak, but he was too tired and his words slurred to moans, he fell unconscious and into blackness. The last thing he heard was from the creature itself which spoke in a foreign tongue to his.
It spoke, "Elnoirel raka, seravcuno sel Varamara..."