The first thing Eryndor noticed after waking was the silence.
Not the peaceful kind.
The kind that made every breath feel too loud.
He opened his eyes.
The fire had gone out sometime during the night.
Kael was still asleep beneath the roots, one arm hanging over his face.
Aldren sat several steps away, his back against a tree.
He was awake.
“You heard it too,” Eryndor said.
Aldren nodded.
“Something moved.”
“Where?”
Aldren pointed into the darkness.
“That direction.”
Eryndor stood.
The forest looked unchanged.
Trees.
Roots.
Mist.
Nothing more.
But something had disturbed the soil near the edge of their shelter.
Three long marks crossed the ground.
They were not footprints.
They looked more like something had dragged itself through the earth.
Kael suddenly sat up.
“Why is everyone awake?”
Aldren looked at him.
“Because something was here.”
Kael immediately stood.
“Something dangerous?”
“We don’t know.”
Kael sighed.
“That’s becoming the most common sentence in this forest.”
Eryndor crouched beside the marks.
He touched the soil.
Cold.
Far colder than the surrounding earth.
Then he felt something.
A faint vibration.
It disappeared almost immediately.
Eryndor withdrew his hand.
“We’re leaving.”
Kael didn’t argue.
That alone told Aldren how serious the situation felt.
They packed quickly.
The wooden leaf remained inside Eryndor’s coat.
Its surface had changed during the night.
The word GO was gone.
There was no new word.
Instead, the leaf had become completely blank.
Kael noticed.
“Is that normal?”
“No.”
“Great.”
Eryndor ignored him.
They followed the path they had discovered the previous day.
But after less than an hour, Aldren stopped.
“This isn’t the same path.”
Eryndor looked around.
The trees were familiar.
The stones were familiar.
Yet something was wrong.
The path had split.
Yesterday there had been one route.
Now there were three.
Kael frowned.
“I don’t remember these.”
“Neither do I,” Eryndor said.
Aldren examined the ground.
“None of them have footprints.”
Kael looked at him.
“Then how do we know which one is real?”
“We don’t.”
Eryndor looked at the three paths.
The left path was covered in white flowers.
The middle path was surrounded by tall black trees.
The right path seemed ordinary.
Almost too ordinary.
Kael’s mark began to glow.
A thin line extended from it.
It pointed toward the middle path.
Aldren frowned.
“That’s convenient.”
“Too convenient,” Eryndor said.
Kael looked between them.
“So we don’t follow it?”
Eryndor studied the other two paths.
Then he looked at the middle one again.
“We follow it.”
Aldren raised an eyebrow.
“You just said it was suspicious.”
“Which is why I want to know where it leads.”
Kael sighed.
“That logic has gotten us into trouble several times.”
“And we’re still alive.”
“That isn’t always comforting.”
They entered the middle path.
The forest became darker almost immediately.
The sunlight disappeared behind the canopy.
The temperature dropped.
Even their footsteps sounded different.
After several minutes, Kael whispered:
“Do you hear that?”
Eryndor stopped.
“What?”
“Water.”
They continued forward.
Soon they found a river.
But it was flowing uphill.
Kael stared.
“I hate this place.”
Aldren walked toward the riverbank.
The water moved smoothly up the slope, disappearing into the trees above.
Eryndor looked beneath the surface.
There were buildings.
Kael saw them too.
“Is that…”
“A city,” Aldren finished.
The submerged city stretched beneath the river.
Ancient towers stood upside down beneath the flowing water.
Stone roads disappeared beneath layers of blue darkness.
Statues lined the streets.
And at the center of the city stood a massive gate.
Kael moved closer.
“Can we go inside?”
“No.”
Kael looked disappointed.
“Why?”
“Because we don’t know what’s inside.”
“That’s never stopped us before.”
“It should have.”
Aldren nodded.
“He’s right.”
Kael sighed.
“Fine.”
They moved on.
But Eryndor looked back once.
The city had not been there when they first crossed this area.
At least, he didn’t remember it.
And one of the statues beneath the water seemed to have changed position.
He said nothing.
The path eventually ended before a massive stone guardian.
It was shaped like a warrior.
Its head was bowed.
Its hands rested upon the pommel of a stone sword.
Three inscriptions were carved across its chest.
THOSE WHO ENTER MAY PROCEED.
THOSE WHO PROCEED MAY NOT RETURN.
Beneath those words was another line.
THREE ENTER.
Eryndor stared at it.
Then the guardian’s eyes opened.
Kael jumped backward.
The stone warrior spoke.
“One seeks.”
Its voice shook dust from the nearby trees.
“One follows.”
The three of them remained still.
Then the guardian said:
“One is followed.”
Silence.
Eryndor stepped forward.
“By whom?”
The guardian did not answer.
Its eyes closed.
The stone returned to silence.
Kael looked at Eryndor.
“I don’t think it likes questions.”
“Perhaps it doesn’t.”
“Then why put inscriptions everywhere?”
Eryndor had no answer.
They continued.
The forest changed again.
This time, the trees were enormous.
Their roots rose from the ground like walls.
The path became narrow.
Then they found a house.
It was small.
Wooden.
Surrounded by a garden.
Smoke rose from its chimney.
An elderly woman sat outside.
Her eyes were covered by a strip of white cloth.
She was peeling an apple.
She didn’t look up.
“You took your time.”
Kael froze.
Eryndor studied her.
“Do we know you?”
“No.”
The woman smiled.
“That’s usually how it works.”
Aldren remained cautious.
“Who are you?”
“Mira.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Watching.”
“Watching what?”
“The forest.”
Kael looked around.
“Why?”
Mira took another piece of apple.
“Because someone has to.”
Eryndor glanced at the house.
“How long have you lived here?”
Mira smiled.
“A long time.”
“How long?”
“Long enough to stop counting.”
She tilted her head.
“You’ve been followed.”
Eryndor’s expression changed.
“By whom?”
Mira pointed toward the forest.
“Not them.”
Kael looked behind himself.
“There is nobody there.”
“There doesn’t need to be.”
Aldren stepped forward.
“Do you know about the creatures with the black marks?”
Mira’s expression became serious.
“Yes.”
“Who sent them?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
She placed the apple aside.
“That’s the problem.”
Eryndor frowned.
“What problem?”
“They aren’t one group.”
Kael looked confused.
“But they all have the same mark.”
“Marks can be copied.”
That answer made Eryndor pause.
Mira continued.
“Some of them hunt because they were ordered to.”
“Others?”
“They hunt because they are afraid.”
“And the rest?”
Mira smiled faintly.
“They don’t know why they’re hunting.”
Eryndor thought about the creatures from earlier.
The fear in their eyes.
Their hesitation.
The way some had attacked despite clearly not wanting to.
It suddenly made more sense.
Or perhaps less.
Mira reached beside her.
She picked up a small wooden leaf.
“Take this.”
Eryndor accepted it.
The moment it touched his palm—
Kael’s mark flared.
Mira immediately became still.
For the first time, her calm expression disappeared.
“What?”
She looked toward Kael.
Then toward Eryndor.
“Where did you get that?”
Eryndor looked at the wooden leaf.
“You gave it to me.”
“No.”
Mira slowly shook her head.
“I mean the other one.”
Eryndor’s eyes narrowed.
“The black leaf?”
Mira didn’t answer.
Kael’s mark continued glowing.
Mira stood.
“That’s enough.”
She reached for the wooden leaf.
Eryndor handed it back.
But when he looked down a moment later—
the leaf was still in his hand.
Mira was standing several feet away.
Kael noticed.
“Eryndor.”
Eryndor looked at her.
Mira stared at the leaf.
Then she whispered:
“You should run.”
The house disappeared.
The garden disappeared.
Mira disappeared.
Only the forest remained.
Kael stared.
“Where did she go?”
Eryndor looked around.
“I don’t know.”
Aldren examined the ground.
“There aren’t even footprints.”
The wooden leaf suddenly became warm.
Words appeared across its surface.
RUN.
Eryndor’s expression hardened.
“Move.”
They ran.
They didn’t stop until the trees became a blur behind them.
Kael eventually stumbled.
“Wait!”
Eryndor stopped.
Aldren turned.
“What?”
Kael pointed behind them.
Two enormous eyes were visible between the trees.
They were low to the ground.
Far too large to belong to any ordinary creature.
The eyes watched them.
Nothing else moved.
Kael whispered:
“What is that?”
Eryndor didn’t answer.
The creature stepped forward.
For one moment, they saw part of its face.
Dark fur.
Long horns.
And something resembling an old scar across its brow.
It did not attack.
It simply looked at them.
Then it turned away.
The eyes disappeared.
Kael slowly lowered his weapon.
“Why didn’t it attack?”
Aldren shook his head.
“Maybe it wasn’t hunting us.”
Eryndor looked at the wooden leaf.
The word RUN had disappeared.
A new word had appeared.
WAIT.
Kael stared.
“You’re joking.”
Eryndor looked back toward the place where the creature had vanished.
“No.”
Then they heard something else.
A distant sound.
Metal scraping against stone.
It came from beneath the forest.
All three turned toward the river.
Far away, beneath the rushing water, the ancient city’s enormous gates were moving.
Slowly.
Silently.
They opened.
Darkness waited beyond them.
Something inside moved.
A shadow passed through the entrance.
Then another.
Kael whispered:
“Is that what was making those sounds?”
Eryndor watched the submerged city.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because whatever is down there…”
He paused.
The wooden leaf trembled in his hand.
“…isn’t coming after us.”
The three of them stood in silence.
Deep beneath the river, something had awakened.
But it did not follow.
It simply waited.
As though it knew that sooner or later—
they would return.
And far deeper within Lunareth, beyond the paths they had yet to walk, something else had already noticed that they had survived.
Something much simpler than an ancient cosmic mystery.
Something that lived in the forest.
Something hungry.
End of Chapter 25 — The Forest That Remembers