Descent in Madness

[Fez_The_Kid]

Closed to Leaf.

Lindequalmë…

An enthralling name. One that would tote dread to even the mightiest veteran. A name that would send to the gallows, a name orators would fret uttering. They cannot be blamed. This place did not appear as macabre as he was told, however, it was something more akin to apocalypse; a portrait of the end of the world... the fatality of life.

It was the flat, bruised truth: this place existed, and was very real in its essence.

Raiaera, once one of the few commanding nations, was now but a land of shunned and forsaken ruins. It's an antique of the past, which had been particularly craved by many entities. In ancient times, its people would stand as one firm barrier, and fend off encroaching forces. Eventually they’d triumph in preserving their homeland.

Moonlight glimmered the ground, which shone so vividly that it seemed like he had found his path to Paradise, when ironically, he'd only found his path to Hell. Trees swayed ominously as gusts blew, moving on their bases like hoofers at a shindig. Their sanguine hue disturbed him horridly. But his purpose quickly re-gained him his grit. Ronrid walked with slow, yet purposeful steps, his hand on his sword’s helve, ready to parry against any assailant.

“Sir,” Poxsu emerged from Ronrid’s clothes, anxiety protuberant in his voice. “I do not like this… I do not like this at all.”

“I know,” Ronrid replied shakily. He could feel his little companion trembling, such ambience did not truly suit the squirrel. He felt defective, whatever adventure awaited, he would have never partook in this should he have known. Ronrid - in spite of his unease about this - was hysterical for whatever malice that lingered within. With each stride, the evening grew darker, and night steadily crawled in.

“Why are we here again?” the squirrel enquired dubiously.

“Adventures, Poxsu, adventures.” The youth attempted to conceal his true feelings, tuning down his voice seemed futile, specially when his emotions were distinct.

“Adventures? Sir, no offense to you, but how do you call this an adventure? You do realize we're being watched?”

“Watched?” Ron said with alarmingly.

“I feel it,” Poxsu paused, then swallowed. If this was the truth, then... so be it. Adventures were adventures, after all.

“I can’t leave now, Poxsu, not this far." They would probably end up lost, and he reckoned it might take them more than a day to find their way out. If that was not bad enough, “Poxsu…” There was a silence, “Poxsu?”

Ronrid shot a shocked glare at his formerly occupied shoulder, which where Poxsu was a moment past. The little coward left him!

“Poxsu!” he bellowed furiously, yet his calls were left unattended. Questions will be asked about this later. “Shit.”

Ronrid came to a halt, and turned on his heels. He must specify where he was exactly, otherwise his fears will curdle into the real world. He can’t be lost, impossible, he had reckoned he would get inside and out without trouble. How could this be?

Gardla drew his neckwarmer; this day was not going to turn out at its finest.

[Leaf]

Every leaf tainted red with the blood of victims and the sorrow of thousands of forgotten memories, the Red Forest was a treacherous place, terrible and nightmarish, but it also was the only place Leaf had ever heard of where he could find it.

In all his years, one fungus had consumed his thoughts. It had turned him from crop farmer into a forest-dweller, from a man many respected and knew, to a secretive father of piglets. His hooves had taken him from safe paths into terrible territory, with only his expert mind and damascus sickle to protect him. Unsteadily he waked the obsessive path of truffle-hunting, and now the oppurtunity had arisen for him to find that most illusive truffle of all - the Blood Tuber of Poddy.

A slight mis-translation on the human and faunish part had changed Podë into Poddy, but the danger of the fungus was still the same. It was said to dwell under Ruilserk, or the Blood Vine, something that Leaf knew very little about. For the most part he was relying on the small book in his possession that his sister Philomel had found in the Religious Private Library, called Flora and Fauna of the Death-Song; "Death-Song" being the literal translation of the elven name for the forest. He also had the three noses (or primarly Popsy's one nose) of his three pigs to guide him and warn him of any dangers. With them he felt safer, for his skill at melee fighting was not all the greatest yet. All this taken into consideration he still was nervous as he walked into the depths of the Red Forest, book in one hand and sickle in the other. All for the sake of that ruby red diamond of the kitchen.

As he strode as quietly as he could in the depths of the forest, amongst the red red trees he tried to keep observant for any sign of evilness. He had been warned - first by Philomel, then by her little half-imp friend, then by an old man with a beard on the ship over to Raiaera, then by an elf riding a giant elk - throughout his journey from Corone to Raiaera that his quest would only lead to death. But Leaf was a faun happily naive as the day was young, and as passionate about truffles as a dragon was about treasure. Truffles, after all, were his reason for life, and the reason why he had become the pseudo-father to three snuffling pigs.

Sniffle, snuffle, snuffle.

With Popsy taking the lead they crept through the undergrowth, tiny totters barely making any noise upon the moss and weeds. Leaf followed suit, reading from the book and waiting for something to jump out and attack them. Anything, from a killer wolf to a squelching snail. Anything would do it. But he was desperate enough to find this legendary truffle.

And so deeper into the Red Forest he crept, as the shadows grew darker and the ruby leaves became more vivid. As the plants turned carniverous and the roots starving. As the animals turned into twisted horrors and your thoughts into torturing hallucinations. The pigs kept their snouts to the ground, Leaf his eyes to the book. "On into the forest deep," it claimed, "There lies the red fungus you seek."