Branches of Life

The forest lived up to the nickname I'd made up in my head; the dark forest. Was it the most creative nickname? No, but it was accurate. Darkness stretched from the shadows as night fully descended. The light from Wyatt's crystal—he swore up and down that the amount of energy it gave off was negligible—was less effective than it was in the cave. Almost like the darkness was its own entity and was trying to smother the light.

Not only were the trees ominous and creepy as hell, but they were alive. We learned that lesson the hard way. For the first twenty minutes or so, they played possum, luring us into dismissing them as normal trees. That way when they attacked, I was unprepared and got sliced in the arm. Other than staring at the trees for a few seconds and telling me to wrap up the wound, Wyatt gave no reaction to this new development. He hadn't been real chatty during our trek through the forest. The only time he spoke to us, was when he had us change out of our blood-soaked clothes and leave them behind. We tried our best to wipe the kraken blood from our faces and hands with a damp towel.

Harmony was applying a salve to my arm that would help cover the smell, when a blood-chilling wailing began. "What was that?" She asked, squeezing my arm in a near-bruising hold.

A gust of icy air blew through the trees, lifting loose strands of my hair as a cold shiver of awareness raced down my spine. The kind that appeared when someone was watching you from afar. It sort of reminded me of the days leading up to when I met Rowan in the woods. With Rowan, it hadn't felt sinister or like I was in danger. I think that was why I had been so quick to write off the feeling and assumed I was being paranoid.

That wasn't the case now, the sensation was filled with a sinister edge that had goosebumps lining my arms and an uncomfortable prickling sensation at the back of my neck. My attention swiveled around the trees as I used all my available senses to find the culprit.

"I'm assuming it's the trapped souls of the humans killed here," Wyatt said, dodging a branch.

Harmony paused her motions of wrapping my arm, horror written across her face. "There are humans in this realm?"

"These creatures were created for the sole purpose of hunting and killing. And with living in the human realm, humans quickly became their favorite prey. Moving realms hasn't changed that. The only difference now is that they lure humans into this realm, to be hunted and then killed. It's how I found the rift the first time." The wails grew louder and Wyatt glanced over his shoulder. "They don't sound too close, but we should still try and get as far away as possible. I am unsure what they're capable of, nor do I know if they can cause us harm."

"On my list of: Ways I'm okay with dying, getting killed by spirits is nowhere to be seen," Ari said as we picked up our pace. Ari wasn't making a joke about this list like many others did. She legitimately had a list, one she started when she was twelve. A little morbid in my opinion, but we all had our oddities. I had a list of people I wanted to push out a window.

Now that we knew the trees were alive, they now actively tried to beat the shit out of us and knock us on our asses.

Eventually, the wailing faded into the distance, the low noise now barely louder than a hum. The unnerving feeling of being watched hadn't lessened. My body was in a perpetual fight or flight mode. I didn't know if it came from the shifting darkness or the trees themselves. All I knew was that we were far from safe.

A shaft of silver moonlight broke up some of the darkness, adding some much-needed light, especially when the tree roots started trying to trip us. Wyatt didn't feel the same about the moonlight, cussing as he stared up. Following his lead, I shot a glance up at the sky through the moving and tangled branches. Unlike the apparent lack of sun in this realm, there was a moon. A full moon. Fucking shit.

"Please tell me the werewolves live in another region," I begged, my voice dropping to a whisper. Almost in answer to my words, a piercing howl echoed through the trees. To make matters worse, a chorus of howls shortly followed, way too close to us.

"That would be a no," Ari whispered back, equally as quiet as she pressed closer to me.

As if we'd been fighting together all of our lives, we pulled our weapons as we formed a compact circle, facing the surrounding trees. The silence of the forest didn't last long. More howls came, getting closer by the second. Soon the howls were accompanied by the crunch of the dead grass and the thwack of the tree branches. Nice to know the trees tried maiming them as well.

The trees around us attempted to use our distraction against us. A branch sliced at my head, forcing me to drop to the ground, where another branch waited and whacked the shit out of my back. A surge of blinding pain radiated from my upper back, but I couldn't focus on it, not with the werewolves approaching.

"We need to make a run for it, we're at—" Ander's words were cut off by another howl. This one came from my left, unlike all the others that had come from my right.

Muttered swears came from each of us, as even more howls answered from all directions. My ears rung from the blaring sounds. Did they have to keep howling? Was it necessary? It seemed obnoxious, and felt like they were doing so in an attempt at scaring us.

The crunching of grass ceased as did the howls, in favor of low rumbling growls. They remained hidden in the trees and darkness, watching us with weighted, dark ominous stares. Waiting for something.

My wolf spirit rose, having sensed the werewolves nearby and the quickening of my heartbeats. It took nearly all of my willpower and focus to force back the surge of energy. Her anger and frustration beat against my senses and I couldn't blame her. I too was pissed I couldn't accept her energy. But no matter how much I wanted to, I knew better than to go against a sorcerer's wishes.

To my left a werewolf broke through the tree line, stepping into the moonlight. His clothes were tattered and dingy, straining over his fur-covered body. His features were more akin to a wolf than a human. With light gray fur, pointed ears, and a long snout full of sharp teeth. His body shape remained relatively humanoid, allowing him to walk on his hind legs, his body tensed and ready to attack at a moment's notice. Brown eyes swept over us until they landed on Rowan. Black lips peeled back as he sniffed the air and then growled.

A growl of my own rumbled through my chest before I could stop it, and part of me suspected it came from my wolf spirit. No surprise, this brought the werewolf's attention right to me. His eyes, a strange and unsettling mixture of human and wolf gave me a once-over as he scented the air again. "Wolf summoner." His voice was human but also animalistic, so much so that I almost hadn't been able to understand his words.

None of us moved a muscle, waiting for either him or the surrounding werewolves to attack. From the sounds of shifting feet and their near-silent breaths, I knew there had to be at least a dozen. I also knew this wasn't the full scope of all the werewolves, there was no way.

I had no clue what their hierarchy was here, none of us did, but I imagined they didn't all live and hunt together with no problems. Werewolves weren't known for having a good temperament, or rational thoughts. It was honestly surprising they hadn't straight-up attacked us yet.

His focus didn't stay away from Rowan long. Spit flew from his mouth as he snarled at her. One she answered with one of her own, before speaking into my mind. 'He's trying to distract us. There are over a dozen surrounding us and more are on the way. When I attack, go for the ones in the trees.'

I didn't question how she knew more were coming when I couldn't sense them, instead, my eyes met Ari's before flicking towards Rowan and then the trees. She gave a subtle nod, turning toward Ander to relay the message.

'Three, two, one!' Rowan leaped toward the werewolf, catching him off guard. At the same time, I let the throwing knife in my hand fly, aiming where I assumed a werewolf was. Without waiting to hear if I hit my mark, I threw another and another. I didn't attempt breaching the darkness where they hid, deciding it was best to remain in the light.

Violent snarls came from both Rowan and the werewolf—I assumed he was a leader of sorts for them—as they snapped and clawed at each other. I didn't look over my shoulder to see who had the upper hand, because another werewolf emerged from the tree line. This one had brown fur, with near nonexistent clothes. He didn't even make it two steps before an arrow buried itself in his chest. A thump barely audible over the fighting sounded as he flopped face-first onto the ground.

Taking his place, two more came charging into the moonlight. One of them headed directly for me. He dodged my thrown dagger and swiped his deadly sharp claws at my neck. I threw myself to the side in a swift roll, but not fast enough to stop his claws from grazing my neck. As I finished my roll, I pulled another knife from my harness and let it loose. My aim had been a little off, hitting him in the middle of his chest. Pissing him off in the process.

He charged again, growling as he did so. I blocked another swipe and grabbed the handle of the knife still lodged in his chest, yanking it free only to stab him again. The light in his blue eyes died as he collapsed.

The dickish trees wanted in on the fight, attempting to whack the shit out of us while we were distracted. And not just us, but the werewolves too. A root snaked across the ground, attempting to wrap around my ankle. I leaped back, stomping on the root as I did so. "Fucking asshole trees!"

A sharp sting flared in the back of my shoulder when I failed to notice the werewolf sneaking up behind me. Gritting my teeth, I spun around ready to make this fucker sorry for ever attacking me. Only to find Koa holding the asshole up by his throat. Using one hand, he snapped their neck with ease. Koa discarded the body, turning around to face me. His chest heaved with quick and heavy breaths, but not in the I just ran ten miles kind of heavy. More like, he was trying and failing at keeping his temper in check. Waves of anger rolled off of him.

A scan of our surroundings showed almost twenty dead werewolves scattered around us. Unfortunately, they didn't turn to ash like vampires. Other than a few scrapes, everyone else appeared unscathed. The scratch on my right shoulder was the worst injury any of us sustained. We'd been lucky, but that didn't mean we were out of danger.

Ari handed me my discarded daggers, which if not for her, I probably would've left behind.

"We need to keep moving, more are probably on their way," Wyatt said, slowly scanning the swaying trees while sheathing his curved blades. To punctuate his point, a chorus of wails, shrieks, and howls filled the air in the distance.

Needing no encouragement, we took off with Wyatt in the lead. We jumped over exposed roots and ducked under thrashing branches as we sprinted through the woods. It was almost like the trees sensed our urgency, their attempts at tripping us becoming more aggressive and frequent. Harmony was knocked over, Ander got the shit smacked out of his shoulder, and Starling was nearly tripped. Even Wyatt hadn't been able to avoid being struck.

I wished I brought an axe. I would've chopped one of these fuckers down and set it on fire in front of the others.

Howls followed us for some time. There were a couple of moments, I was so sure they'd catch up to us and we'd have to fight again. It wasn't until they faded into background noise, that we slowed our sprint down to a brisk jog.

Time blurred as we ran. I had no idea how long it had been, the scenery stayed the same the entire time. The only indications of time were the stitches forming in my side and the fast pace of my breaths. Eventually, Wyatt slowed to a stop. Lifting his hand, signaling us to stay quiet.

I bit down on the inside of my cheek, keeping my urge to ask questions in check as I waited not so patiently. All of Wyatt's attention was on a towering tree. The branches were suspiciously still, making me nervous. He held his hand out in front of the tree, keeping his movements slow and measured. Before his hand made contact, a ripple of red energy appeared, distorting the image of the tree.

"Here goes nothing," Wyatt murmured before pushing through the energy barrier and disappearing from sight.

Did I want to go through some unknown barrier spell? Not really, but the other option was staying out in this fucking forest at night. With sentient trees and creatures, that would love nothing more than to tear us apart. After a deep breath, I followed Ander through the barrier. A ripple of cool and tingling energy buzzed over my skin as I passed through. Hopefully, the lack of malignant energy was a good sign, and we weren't making a colossal mistake.