Meanwhile, Back in the Town of Hidden Tragedy...

[Lasair Anubail]

“Do you even know where you’re going anymore?”

“Of course I do! I’m going ahead dead, as the humans say it.”

Lasair turned her eyes from the path before her and focused on the flying form of her best friend. Well, the miniature version she made to represent her best friend in every single way. The pint sized Draconian was only around twelve inches tall, with a set of dark blue scaled wings adorning his back, a spear in his hand and a simple pair of pants and a vest on. He looked like Tristram is every way, except he was a tad bit on the cuter side and he was much more cuddly. Tristram wasn’t exactly someone she’d cuddle. He hugged her when she was feeling down and comforted her when she needed it, but he could also be quite mean to her when he thought she needed a swift kicking to.

Tristram merely sighed and shook his head, “It’s dead ahead, Lasair. Not ahead dead, that makes it sound like you’re leading us into certain death!”

She thought about that for a few seconds, narrowly missing a jutting root from the soft, ground of the forest surrounding her. “Hmm, no, I’m sure it’s not certain death. It could be a possible outcome though!” She said it a little too cheerfully for someone talking about their potential demise. But in her mind there was no point in dwelling on something like that. If she was going to die then she was going to die. Hopefully it would be quick and painless and not very messy either. Messy was never fun. Unless it was painting, oh, or digging for buried treasures. Both those were messy and they were a lot of fun.

All around her were the sounds of the forest, something that comforted her and reminded her greatly of home. Though some of the noises varied and the flora and fauna were not the same, it didn’t matter. It was still nature and peaceful and alive. The untouched beauty of it and the energy that radiated from here was something that perhaps her race appreciated more than others.

Concordia forest was definitely a place that Lasair found extraordinarily beautiful as well. It wasn’t Luthmor with it’s twisting trees, tall lush ferns, mist and heavy rains, but it had it’s own beauty. The trees grew tall, their branches reaching for the sky and creating a canopy of protection above her. It only allowed the light to filter through in small rays that danced upon the dried leaves and dead twigs. The greens were not as vibrant as they were in Luthmor, but their colours were still lovely to the eyes and she also noticed that some of the tree trunks had grey or even white bark instead of brown. It was quite fascinating. The biggest difference was the temperature. It was much colder in Corone than she was used to and Lasair often found herself shivering slightly when the wind weaved through the trees and created a symphony of sound.

“Can’t you just admit that you’re lost, Lasair?” Tristram asked, beginning to sound a little annoyed.

The plushie flew over and perched himself on her shoulder where he usually stayed. Avery, her other plushie, was currently sleeping in her Never-Ending rucksack. He tended to do that a lot. Whereas Tristram disliked being in the rucksack for long periods of time, Avery did not seem to mind so much. It didn’t bother her either way, just as long as he came out and helped her when she needed it.

“But I’m not lost.” She said to him. She didn’t understand why he was being so persistent with this. “I’m in Concordia and if I know where I am, I am therefore not lost.”

Her eyes scanned the path she was following, most likely some kind of animal trail as she occasionally nearly stepped in dodo, which was not a very pleasant experience when one was not wearing shoes. Concordia definitely had a lot more dead sticks and leaves in it than Luthmor did and they were starting to aggravate her feet. Nearly every time she stepped down something poked her or crunched and broke beneath her. It made walking quietly nearly impossible. If there were monsters around they’d know she was coming for a fifty-foot radius. Just as long as none of them decided she looked like a yummy treat everything would be fine though. Besides, Tristram would probably butt kick them.

“You’ll butt kick them, right Tristram?”

“Eh?” The plushie looked at her as if she’d gone mad. “Kick their butts and why, what are you talking about? Who’s ass am I kicking!?”

“No one’s!” She said cheerfully as she nearly tripped. Her long purple dress got snagged on an outstretched branch that seemed to want to keep her. With a few forceful tugs though, she’d freed herself.

Adjusting the traps of her rucksack, Lasair stopped for a moment, wondering where she should turn next. She couldn’t properly see the sun but she guessed it was mid-day, so she had plenty of time before she had to make camp. But she should probably find a place to stop and have a quick snack. Noticing a bit of a break in the trees that had a small grassy patch—and if her ears didn’t deceive her a stream—Lasair turned to the left and started heading off into that direction.

With only a few steps on her way there, the Fae experienced a sudden and drastic change in scenery. Almost all the colour seemed to fade from the trees and the surrounding area, turning everything grey and dead looking. Trees that had once looked so inviting now reached for her with twisting arms and fingers, mangled and grotesque. The sun disappeared behind a grey sky and all noise stopped. No birds chirped, no animals stirred and no wind played through the leaves. The entire place felt dead. Even the air felt dead and stale and hard to breathe. Whereas before Lasair could feel the life and the energy within the forest, now she only felt a darkness so cold it dug into her soul and chilled her to her very marrow.

Taking a few steps backward, the Fae managed to catch her foot on a root and send herself sprawling onto her behind. When she opened her eyes, the forest was once again returned to it’s normal self. The noises and smells assaulted her senses, calming the caged bird that was her heart.

“Are you all right?”

Looking in the direction of the voice, Lasair saw Tristram hovering a few inches in front of her face. “Yeah, I’m fine… that was just weird.”

He nodded in agreement.

Quickly getting to her feet, Lasair took a deep breath and once again headed in that direction. Like before the forest around her sudden shifted and changed as if she stepped into the mind of a twisted illusionist. Getting a bit of an idea, the tiny Fae stepped back again and was once again surrounded by the life of Concordia.

“Umm… Lasair, I don’t think you should be doing that…”

Ignoring him, Lasair smiled and took a jump forward, landing herself in darkness, then jumped back and ended up in the bright sunny daylight.

“Tristram this is so cool!”

Jumping forward again, Lasair giggled and jumped back once more only to slam into an unseen force and fall to the forest floor.

“Ow!”

Standing up and shaking her head, the tiny Fae placed her hands on the barrier and felt an extremely strong magic course through her fingers. Whatever it was there was no way her feeble magic could do anything to it. And on top of that it had trapped her on the scary side. Just perfect.

“I told you to stop…”

She just shrugged and stood up, brushing the dead leaves and twigs from her dress. “It’s fine, we’ll just do a little exploring. I’m sure we’ll find a way out.”

And that’s exactly what she did. Easily noticing a path that clearly led somewhere and was walked upon many times, Lasair headed off in that direction, hoping to come across something soon.

[Rok the Blade]

((Takes place the morning before An Angel Is Crying (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=7827)))

Mid day was always Rok's favorite time. It was when the beauty of day was at it's highest, the sun high above the world and throwing down rays of light that sliced through the high canopies of Concordia and brought light onto the forest ground below. It was the perfect time for a leisurely stroll.

Rokusho didn't know why he had brought all of his gear that day. His sword hung on his back and he was fully armored with his silver plate mail. He usually didn't take his things when he was just walking several miles from town. Being somewhat close to Underwood would give one that feeling of safety. But for some odd reason, the feeling of impending doom lingered in his mind. It not only made him fear for the moments to come, but for later that night as well. Some people might have told the knight to stay at home for the day if he felt those things, but being the practical and literal-thinking knight he was, he couldn't come to believe that his feelings had any real meaning. So he shook them off and took a walk.

After leaving at dawn and walking for hours, Rok still felt as he did when he woke up. Cool and refreshed with the help of the cool Concordian breeze that lofted through casually and cooled his warm self beneath all that armor as well as bring the fresh forest scent to his nostrils. His sword and armor usually didn't fatigue him at all unless he was actually using them, running and slashing, so a casual day's walk wouldn't tire him.

The heavy knight crunched with each step, his booted feet breaking twigs and fallen branches with each stride. Concordia was usually that type of forest, the one with thick green canopies above and a brown forest floor below due to all the fallen stuff from the trees, mixed with the dancing shadows that the sun's rays created.

Rokusho took a new path that day. Usually he took a well-known and well-trodden path, but that day he decided to take a new turn and explore some more of Concordia that he hadn't seen before. The path he was on was barely a path, but he could tell that it had been traveled on before so it couldn't have been some random jaunt through the forest. Even if it was, he knew which direction he came from so if he felt lost he could always go back easily. His strides were slow and steady, the walk of an aimless wanderer. He had nowhere to be at any specific time so he might as well walk slow and enjoy it.

"I figure I should turn back soon..." Rok thought quietly to himself, looking straight ahead. "If it took me half the day to get here, it'll take the other half to get back. Just a bit farther." He sighed deeply, the calm quietude of the forest surrounding him put his soul to rest. His soul wanted to build a house out there and live there for the rest of his days. But his adventurous heart said otherwise. He shut his eyes after looking ahead and seeing the open path ahead, nothing obstructing it. Tilting his head up, the bright sunshine that broke through the wall of leaves ahead pierced his eyelids in sporadic intervals, as he passed beneath shadow to shadow. He ignored the crunching sound of his stroll and focused more on the sounds of nature, listening to various birds singing as they got ready for the rest of the day and hearing the cracks as dead branches broke from the huge oak Concordian trees under their own weight and fell to the forest floor.

But all of a sudden, everything stopped.

The birds' singing died, the falling branches suddenly seemed to get stronger and stopped breaking on themselves. The sporadic light that he could see passing through his eyelids suddenly dulled to a constant muddy-yellow light.

The sudden change made Rokusho open his eyes. All of a sudden, the forest seemed dead. Dead, gray trees littered the surroundings, all of the dead branches seemed to stay on somehow, showing the dead, grass-less forest floor beneath. It was... Dirt. The path ahead of him seemed more distinct, and when he looked back it was the same, as if he'd been walking on that path, in the same dead forest, for miles, it extended out of his sight. Was he in Concordia still? he couldn't tell. The change in environment suddenly killed his craving for walking. He wanted to get back to Underwood. It wasn't fear, as some might have perceived it, but he suddenly felt that his strange feelings of impending doom were coming to life.

Rok turned around and took a couple of steps forward, but his robust chest immediately bumped into an unseen force which made him stumble back a step.

"What on Althanas?!" He exclaimed, instantly weirded out. His deep blue eyes widened beneath that dirty blond hair of his as he reached out with his hand to touch the barrier that kept him locked in the Twilight Concordia. It was indeed an invisible wall... The first thought that popped into his mind was to test the wall out with his holy Redeemer. He hefted the sword off of his back with both hands, took a step back and bashed the wall with the blade. The sword stopped immediately on impact, sending a hurtful vibration through the hilt and into his armored arms. He didn't drop Redeemer, but he certainly felt like he wanted to. After the clang that erupted from the sword-on-wall impact, everything fell silent again.

Uuuuuuuuuuugh.

He heard a low groan from behind, which sounded a little more like a hostile growl. Rokusho whirled around to meet the beast, but nothing was there. Just a barren path. But if there was something there, he didn't want to wait for it.

"I guess there's no going back just yet." Rok said out loud. He sheathed his greatsword and began to walk forward, into nothingness.

[Bullet Witch]

Early morning had brought about the return of the sunshine, and it was comforting to Leigh, who had been fearing the darkness lately. Even though the Cleanser had not show up again, nor had his darkness or minions, she had been on edge ever since that fateful day she had encountered the beast and his minions had attacked her and the magus Shu at the camp. And for good reason: the pair of them nearly had been killed.

And so, on this early morning, she walked cautiously, her boots crunching on dead branches and leaves. At her hip was her trusted katana, and her other hand was poised to summon her other weapon, the one that had gotten her out of over a dozen situations, her trusty pistol/crossbow hybrid Heresy. Even so, she had a feeling that she wasn't ready, in case something did happen, and she slightly shivered in the cool morning air.

It was a beautiful morning, but Leigh had never been one to appreciate beauty. She had learned that when you stopped long enough to appreciate something, you go killed, so she wasted no time in stopping to listen to the cheerful chirpping of the birds nor smell the sweet scent of the dew in the trees. They simply did not matter to her.

That is, until, they were gone. She had been walking, lost in her own thoughts, when Leigh suddenly noticed that the birds had stopped chirrping. The sky had turned a dull grayish, and even the trees looked more lifeless.

This is no coincidence...Leigh gritted her teeth as she instinctively summoned Heresy into her right hand, the dark dimensional warp depositing it straight there, and it automatically locked and loaded itself with a CLICK! that echoed throughout the now silent forest.

Walking forward a little bit, she found that she bumped into something invisible. Startled, she backed up and immediately pulled the trigger on her gun/bow, but the bolt simply bounced off the invisible wall. Leigh stood there for a couple moments as she considered the wall. Must be some kind of sealing spell...She finally decided, dragging her gloved fingers across the invisible surface as she frowned.

She was calm for the fact that this was not the Cleanser's work. It was too subtle, whereas he and his minions were anything but. However, the next sound she heard made her question the decision she had come to, as she had heard the same sound come from many an undead enemy.

It was a low, long moan, one that bespoke a torturous existence. She had heard the same sound come from creatures with arms that seemed to be fused to their bodies and acidic blood spilling out in gallons.

She and her fellow Witches had often refered to these creatures as "small fry" as they usually were minions, but at Leigh's current state she felt that even though its power was low, she would be in trouble if she met another. The last time she did, she had had to sacrifice a perfectly good sword that she had intended to sell.

Running off in the distance to where she had heard the moan, she heard another sound: the clanking of armor combined with footsteps. Shit, Ghost Knights? Was her thoughts as she began chanting the spell that would allow her arrow to be enchanted with the power of ice.

[Bohemia]

Jonathon King wiped sweat and little splinters of wood from his forehead as he dashed deeper into Concordia forest, back bent so his head was low. If he was trying to sneak away, he was doing an honestly lousy job at it; crashing through brush, he crushed dozens of sticks under his shoes, the snapping of them like clipped tuneless birdcalls shooting off into the leaves. From his back pocket, he pulled a cap, and fit to his head before untangling the sleeves of a worn leather jacket tied to his waist.

Being poor sucked shit, but honestly, so did the work. He still drank cheap wine out of jelly jars marred with the glue of the label, still came home to a lumpy mattress and a tattered sheet and blanket. With autumn coming, the cold was began to seep through the creaking wood of his little shack apartment, and in turn seeping into his body so his bones ached. He didn't seem to be clever enough to succeed as a writer as he'd been struggling to do, so he'd signed up for work with a lumber company that was working on the Concordia forest.

It was a terrible fucking mistake.

The other bastards leered at him and they thought they could break him. Swinging the axe against the bodies of the trees made his arms and shoulders ache after a time, and when they finally hacked down a tree, they'd toss him giant chunks of it to see him sweat and collapse under the effort of carrying it away. 'I hope the cocksuckers get crushed under a tree,' he thought gleefully as he began to slow his pace.

They'd sent the men out to pick off some of the smaller trees by themselves. The foreman was known for not even bothering to check each man's workload, so Jon had run off into the darker, thicker parts of the window, intending to drink and smoke and sit about. The quiet would be pleasant; the loud, boisterous tales and jokes of the other men pissed him off something terrible.

He hesitated as he lifted a cigarette to his mouth. The morning had been crisp and bitingly cold, but had warmed into the afternoon, the sun turning the sky a bright shade of blue that had made his eyes sting when he'd looked up at it. But the sky and the forest had changed. The trees that surrounded him now were black barked, and stretched like pikes into the air, so high that he could barely see their lowest branches. A strange blued gray fog clotted the sky and hid the canopy. It was silent too; not even the slightest sound of a trickling creek, the tinkling of a birdsong, or the far off snap of a twig under the hoof or paw of wildlife. Sparking a match on the side of a box he produced from his pocket, Jon drew a deep pull from the burning cigarette, and shuddered.

He had the sensation that he had been swallowed by a great beast.

Fingers of ice played Bach up his spine. Exhaling a light plume of smoke from his nostrils, Jon scowled, and tightened his grip on the wood axe he'd been issued upon reporting for work. There was no sound but for his own breath, but alarms were roaring in his head. He felt threatened, closed in. He wanted to lash out. Only once had he been in Concordia before this; and that had been when he had awoken to this life of brief excitement, then poverty. That day, the woods had seemed so warm and welcoming in the world that he had regretted leaving them to go to the city.

Now he felt like he had stumbled into a Necropolis. Golgotha. Elm Street. Camp Crystal Lake. His skin crawled across his bones in an unpleasant and nerve pinching feeling, and he felt goose bumps crop up across skin, speckling his arms.

Breathless, unnerved, and lost, Jonathon King pressed ahead.

[Zerith]

“We’ll be together forever, won’t we?”

“Of course. Not even death will separate us. I promise”

The halberdier spun around in an instant, his blue eyes searching for people. He could have sworn he heard people talking right behind him, but know since he didn’t see anyone he assumed he was just imagining it. There was just no evidence to prove that there were people nearby. Other than the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and the gentle stream he was crouching over, he heard nothing else.

Turning back around, Zerith cupped his hands together and took a drink from the stream. The water was refreshing, making the halberdier happy he had found it here in Concordia. He placed his hands under the water again and watched as they were filled with the cool, clear liquid. Bending forward, he closed his eyes and splashed the water on his face. When he opened his eyes again, he was shocked to see that the forest around him suddenly changed.

Everything faded, all the vibrant colour disappeared and left only shades of grey behind. The once tall, trees that were full of life now looked dead. All sound disappeared, the twisted branches didn’t sway back and forth with the wind. Even the stream in front of him didn’t make a single sound. Suddenly he heard a male voice call out in the distance and through the thick fog that surrounded the halberdier.

“Wait Rhyliss! Come back!”

Zerith had only blinked his eyes once after he heard the voice when the forest suddenly turned back to normal. The colours were back, the fog was gone and the sounds of a normal, healthy forest flooded his ears and gave him a sense of comfort. Everything was just the way Zerith remembered until he suddenly spotted a woman in the distance, running through the forest and laughing.

“Hey! Wait! Underwood isn’t in that direction.”

Picking up his halberd quickly, Zerith ran after the girl. Darting around trees, jumping over logs. The way the woman laughed made the halberdier wonder if she thought she was playing some sort of game. Her beige knee-length dress must of hampered her movement, for Zerith was quickly catching up. Through the strange thing was that even though she must have heard him catching up to her, she never looked back to see who was chasing her. She just continued that eerie, enchanting laugh.

“What the hell are you running from?” Zerith asked as he stretched his left arm forward in an attempt to reach her shoulder. When his hand finally did grab onto her he spun her around to face him, but what he saw was definitely not the bright, cheerly face he thought he would see. Instead he was greeted with something more disturbing.

He was crouched over, pinning someone to the ground. The forest around him went back into that dark, dead state again. The muscles in his arms tightened and both of his hands were gripping the neck of the person beneath him so tightly they hurt. His eyes widened with shock as they stared helpless at the face of the woman he was chasing. Her cold, dead eyes stared back at him with such emptiness. Her mouth was open, as if she had either tried to scream for help or fight for her last breath. Either way, she was dead. But her voice still spoke to him.

“You said we would be together forever. So why did you kill me?”

Zerith blinked again, and suddenly he was standing alone and on a dirt path. The woman was gone, leaving the halberdier alone in the darkness that still surrounded him. Then suddenly in the distance he heard a ghostly, feminine laugh that sent shivers down his spine. Slowly, he took one step forward. Followed by another...

And before he knew it, he was following the dirt path and heading into the unknown.

[Lasair Anubail]

The air was stale. The smells of the forest having abandoned it, leaving only the smell of dirt and something stagnant and rotting. It filled her lungs but left her feeling winded and breathing heavily, as if it were choking her. No matter what she did she felt breathless and no amount of deep breathing was allowing her to catch her breath.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh?”

Lasair looked over at the worried expression of Tristram, but only smiled assuredly at her friend. “Nothing.” He was worrying needlessly. She didn’t want to hide anything from him, but she didn’t want him worrying over her for nothing either. She was just used to the fresh, clean air of Luthmor rather than whatever this was turning into. Perhaps it would get better if she could find a way out of this forest, or even passed that little magical barrier. Strange that there would be such a powerful barrier like that in the middle of Concordia. She couldn’t really see a reason for it after all. Barriers were good at two things, keeping stuff in and keeping people out. This one appeared to be doing a little more than that though as the forest within it was not the same one she had been walking through before.

Pushing aside the thoughts, her eyes scanned the closely growing trees, looking for something, anything. But all she saw were the twisted and shrivelled branches that reached outwards her like mangled hands, forever grasping and searching for something to tear into. Hollows in the trees stared back as screaming, gaping holes in an endless cycle of misery, looking for that simple relief of rotting away. There were no sounds other than her own feet, crunching down on dry twigs and snapping them beneath her lightweight. It reminded her of the telltale sound of bones breaking and echoing in the silence.

A branch broke in the distance. The sound reverberating throughout her body and sending her heart skipping. She spun around expecting to see someone or even perhaps something, but there was nothing there.

“Did you hear that, Tristram?” For some reason her words came out as a whisper, even though she hadn’t wanted them to.

“I didn’t hear anything…” He grunted sounding more than a little annoyed with her.

The sound echoed throughout the forest again. It was closer to her this time. And followed by a series of steps upon the ground, as if someone were running…in her direction. Then silence followed. Her mind began to feel fear for the first time in a long time. Another broke, the sound so close to her that it made Lasair jump and any resolve left within her body flee. Turning, she did the same thing and fled. The tiny Fae didn’t even know where she was running to and she didn’t care, just as long as she got away from it. Whatever it was. Branches pulled at her dress, catching the hem and ripping the material. They lashed out at her skin, scraping along its sensitive surface, creating red welts and small wells of silver blood.

Her heart was racing within the confines of her chest, fluttering around and trying to keep up with her body as she pushed herself. Her lungs were burning as she desperately tried to breathe in the necessary air they wanted, but couldn’t seem able to keep up. Sparing a glance behind her, the Fae saw nothing but the empty path, yet still she kept running away. Just as she was about to turn around, her body slammed into something, knocking the air from her lungs from her and causing her to fall back onto her butt and smash her head on the ground.

Shaking the fuzzy feeling that over came her senses, she sat up and looked ahead of her. Instead of seeing the trunk of a large tree before her, Lasair saw the body of a man swaying lifeless before her. His bruised and sunken eyes were closed, but his mouth was hanging open and around his neck was a rope connected to the tree branch high above him. His arms hung lifelessly at his sides and ripped and torn clothing covered his white and decaying and bloody body.

Clasping her hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming, she scrambled to her feet as fast as she possibly could and ran.

“Lasair, stop! There’s nothing there!”

“I don’t believe you!”

She tore through the trees, not even caring if Tristram was keeping up. Her instincts were telling her to run, the face of a dead man was telling her to run and she was going to listen to them and not him! He was the one saying there was nothing there. Was he blind? There had been a dead man hanging from a tree, how could he have not seen it?