The Forest Part I
 

The village was inside the thickest forest in the world. No matter how high you went up, you could not see any other villages out there. The people in the village weren’t ordinary people. There’s a legend that they go by.
A long time ago 7 guardians were created. They all were different than each other. They divided into two groups. Natural and Immortal. The Natural group contained: Water, Fire, and Earth. The Immortal group contained: Shadow, Light, and Spirit. Each guardian was assigned to protect their element from the others. They all knew something bad will happen if all the elements collide. Later in time conflict happened between the groups.
The seventh guardian was not part of Natural, nor Immortal. The seventh was Time.The guardian of Time never got involved in the conflict. Day after day, Time started to slow down. A war began as Time faded away. The water stopped running. The trees never moved. Flame never moved. As for the Immortal, Shadow fought with Light, while spirit was etched away due to the conflict.
They all got tired of fighting, and agreed never to fight again. They all went in several directions, and never met again. They ruled their own lands.
The guardian of the Earth made trees grow wherever he looked. Out of the soil he created his version of man. Strong hands for climbing trees, and their eyes could see miles away in the dark. When the guardian decided it was time for his rest he gave three gifts to man. A weapon that could cut through the beasts in the wood, a staff that could heal, and a gemstone no one knew what it did.

*  *  * 

Kage was lost. She only remembered one thing when she woke up. Everyone from her clan were killed by monsters. She saw the creatures come out of the ground, kill her friends, family, and enemies. They shredded them to pieces, had them die long slow deaths, and some were taken elsewhere. She walked through the woods that seemed never ending.
She was hungry and tired. The fog in the woods got thicker. The trees seemed to get wider. Is this the end? Am I going to die here? she thought. She fell on the wet cold ground. She could hear voices in the distance. “Hey there it is! I see it, Teddy! Let’s go!” A little boy was running straight towards her. A little boy with big hands and bare feet stood in front of her. An animal was on his shoulder. Where she was from there were no animals, things like minor demons lived around, but no living things. It was strange to her that her memories came to her when needed.
“Who are you, you’re not who I’m looking for… What are you?” the boy said.
Kage’s feet didn’t respond to her at all. She stood up, then almost fell on the boy, which scared him.
“My name is Kage, Kage Yami. I’m sorry, but do you have any food on you, I’ve been walking and I have no idea where am I.”
“I do actually, but it’s for a friend that got lost in these woods and we never saw him for a week now.” He slipped off his backpack, digged through it and pulled out a loaf of bread with berries in it.
“Here take it, it was made today. You shouldn’t stay out here when it’s foggy like this.”
“Why?” she said to him, “You’re out here as well… is there a village or a town nearby? I can’t remember anything.”
“There’s a village, but-” He instantly stopped talking, and ran into a nearby hollow tree stump. He signaled her to come over there. The first thing that came to her mind was demons. Hiding in a tree stump wasn’t going to keep them away at all. But she did so anyway.
“Keep quiet and stay still, do you see that over there,” he pointed to a shadow. It walked slowly. It was a person, but walked wobbly and groined. She could only see the outline of it, no details.
“We need to get out of here now, and fast, or there won't be a tomorrow for us.” he whispered.
They ran as fast as their legs could. Kage ate her bread on the way. She assumed she was going somewhere safe. Something crunched under her feet as she ran. Frost. The ground was solid and the trees were bare.
“This is bad, if it sees our footprints in the frost, there’s no point of running. Hey, are you good at climbing?” he looked at her with fear.
“I-I don’t know. What is that thing, what's happening?” Kage was terrified. She remembered how the demons attacked her village, but that shadow wasn’t a demon. She was shaking.
“Start climbing, I’ll tell you on the way.” They both climbed. Kage seemed good at climbing, like she was trained every day for it. They both hopped from tree to tree. “That thing over there is literally a monster you could say. There’s a name for them, but no one will tell me in our village because they believe it’s bad luck to even think about it. I like to call them The Fallen, like fallen soldiers in war that came back to life. You can’t kill them at all, our village tried everything. No matter how many times we punch and kick them, they still live and try to kill. The village’s population went down by 60% because of those monsters.”
Kage noticed she dropped her bread from the tree. The boy cursed. They both heard heavy steps coming close, running. It looked like a normal man, but something was different. It looked like it was made out of stone. The eyes were glowing orange, bright orange, and they looked directly at her.
“Don’t worry, I’ll knock it out for now. By the way, my name is Taff Green. C’mon Teddy!” The animal on his shoulder had a long soft looking tail and big floppy ears. Dog, she thought, it was a dog!
Taff reached in his pocket and pulled out a bottle of some sort of red ink. Tapped his finger in it, and stroked the finger down a stripe on the dog that went from it’s head to it’s tail. The dog transformed into a beast. From a little puppy to a giant dog with sharp claws and fangs. Taff gave an order and the dog jumped down and bit the Fallen. A black inky substance oozed out of it, but showed no weakness. Seconds went by, then minutes. The dog was getting tired.
Kage remembered something from her past. She remembered practicing something that only her people knew. Some sort of self defense. They would control shadows and use them as weapons. Kage wondered it she was a success at it, or a failure. It didn’t matter she needed to help Taff.
She jumped down and got the Fallen’s attention.
“Are you trying to get killed! Get back up here now!” Taff yelled.
Kage stood and focused on the shadows. It worked somehow. They listened to her as if she was their master. She thought left, and they went left. Forward, and they went forward. She made them go right under the Fallen. More shadows collided under it. It was sinking into the shadows, as if it were quicksand.
“Who are you,” Taff yelled at her. “You can’t be trusted, Teddy get her!”

To Be Continued