Stomp.

So you need to find the “people”.

Stomp.

But you don’t know where they are.

Stomp.

But you know the Forest kills them.

Stomp.

So it has the means to find them.

Stomp.

I leaned against the neck of my stony steed, scowling to myself. “So that means all I have to do is follow them long enough, and they’ll take me to people.” I’d figured out the correct balance several ages ago. The colossus that I was currently perched on didn’t even seem to notice me as it trundled through the Dark Forest. Not that I had expected it to notice me. In fact, I’d been counting on that very fact when I picked one as my means of conveyance. 

Stomp.

It sure was loud though. It’s amazing these things were able to kill anyone, but I suppose there’s no accounting for the creature’s natural ability to forestwalk. Teleportation will make anything stealthy, as proven by the massive size of most of the Forest’s guardians. My current mount was around 40 feet tall, covered in a mossy shell, and had a long equine neck with horns that made it very easy to hold on to. From the blackened moss around the mouth, I’d wager it also breathed fire, though I doubted it could actually use the rocky wings that parted its back. It was a far cry from the dragon of the Rootways, and for that I was grateful. Even if this thing decided it didn’t want me around, I could vanish back into the Forest before it even noticed I was gone.

Stomp.

I was officially bored. At this point I would have taken a nap on its back if it wasn’t for the heavy footfalls keeping me awake. I’d even tried blinking a few times to allow the creature to forestwalk, just in case my presence was the problem. But no… it seemed it was just another slow night.

“I’m going to name you Genghis Khan.” The construct didn’t respond.

“You’re not going to kill the things you find right?” I hung off of an engraved ridge on its head, staring into its gigantic eye. It blinked at me, unfocused. At this point I wasn’t even sure if the guardians could see me, though the various colossi were a bad test group to gather data from. Even if they did see me, I doubted these things would react more than to change direction. And despite all this, the question was rhetorical; I already knew the answer. There was no doubt that Genghis would crush anyone it saw. I’d been wandering with it for long enough to know it. The first victim I’d seen came to mind, little more than a pulpy smear flattened into the dirt. “But you’d never do that to me, right Genghis?”

Stomp.

“Well… it’s not enough to find them, I need to save them too.”

Stomp.

“You’re really bad at dialogue.”

Stomp.

“Whatever.” I chose a particularly mossy patch of the creature’s back and sat down. “Guess we have time to come up with a plan.”

The first human was devoured by spiders and strung from the canopy.

The second was squashed by Genghis while running from a pack of 10-foot-tall wolves.

The third was harpooned by a plant which my book had labeled as a “razorroot” and dragged into its gaping maw.

And the fourth saw Genghis shrug aside the canopy and she immediately died of a heart attack.

All that and I still didn’t have a plan. The problem had shifted from “find them” to “keep them alive”, and it turns out that the Forest is far better at killing people than I gave it credit for. Unlike me, it didn’t have to rely on finding the intruders; in several cases I found them seconds before they discovered their own death. The four I’d seen tonight weren’t outliers, they were the average. That was a problem. I stroked my chin, wondering how they lived outside of the Dark Forest. My paradoxical knowledge kicked in and reminded me that overall, humans were just as good at killing each other. What made them truly special was that they were always thinking of new ways to kill each other, and that was what allowed them to survive. Weapons. I frowned, rolling back and forth on Genghis’ moss-covered hide, trying to rattle ideas through my skull.. “Can I find a weapon for them? No, nothing I can make could come remotely close to harming the guardians.“ I reached out a hand, patting the stone. With my ashsight on I saw the sparks that flowed through the armor. They strained against the bonds the monster’s form placed upon them, yearning to return to the ash they were formed from. Similar, lesser sparks traveled through my hands.

And then it hit me. Maybe I didn’t NEED to arm the humans. Maybe I could kill the Dark Forest creatures myself. I’d never actually tried to kill anything. Even that dragon had only been hurt, put to sleep and dragged off. But maybe it was possible to control them, like I controlled the other sparks in the world?

I hopped up, steeling myself for the next THWUMP as the golem took another step. “You’re going to be my lab rat Genghis.” I clambered up to its head and stared it deep in the eye. For the first test, I needed to know how strong my control was. I put my hand on its brow and, without speaking, urged the thing to stop. This time it was different from my other attempts to control the sparks. I felt the familiar sense of something resisting me, but unlike last time there was something else here, in the Forest. And it was watching me.

What do you think you’re doing?

I started. This was the first time I’d heard the voice since I’d come up with this plan. Eyes locked on Genghis’ massive orb, I muttered, “If I can control it, I can save people.”

You want to save people?

“Of course I do. I need them to get to the Campgrounds.”

Are you sure that’s all?

“They can get there and I can’t. There isn’t anything else to say.”

The Forest was quiet. It took me a couple moments to realize that Genghis had completely stopped moving. Deep within that eye, I saw something staring back, burning with a familiar lilac flame. I squinted. It felt like I was falling into a deep hole, and I didn’t know if I could get back up. The sides of the hole constricted, twisting and tightening around me. Suddenly it wasn’t a hole, but the esophagus of some gigantic nightmare. The fire at the end still burned, and I tried to crawl towards it. My body began to dissolve, coming away in mushy flakes of ash. I began to scream, but digestive fluid filled my mouth.

Then, Genghis blinked, and a familiar thud shuddered the outcrop beneath me. I was back, shaken up but unharmed.

You’re insane.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t know what to say.

Stomp.

Two more humans died before I worked up the courage to try again. I didn’t know what had happened or what it was that I’d experienced and I wasn’t eager to learn more, but I needed to do this if I was going to stop other guardians. Once more, I placed my hand on the back of the beast’s head and began to speak.

“Tree crusher and killer of man,

On this action I place a ban.

Not a step, a jump, a footfall,

Not even the slightest crawl.

Should you move to harm another,

By these words I’ll make you suffer.

Death will come, quick and true.

And you will begin your life anew.”   

This time, the reaction was immediate. Genghis froze, and I was almost flung off its head. I stretched out a hand and grabbed a carved spike, halting my own movements. Then the other mind hit me like a hammer on an anvil. When before it had eventually relented its control, this time it seized my own and yanked on me. I had the strange sensation that I was stretching, torn between two separate locations as it dug talons of doubt directly into my psyche.

Oh, you shouldn’t have done that.

“SHUT UP!” I could feel my face twisting in agony as the alien presence rifled through my thoughts. My eyes began to blur, and I saw the world from many different eyes, heard the screams of people dying and the familiar growls of hundreds of beasts. They were here, all around me. And yet I was nowhere, lost in the torrent of leaves that scattered my perception across the Dark Forest itself.

“Make it stop! I promise I won’t do it again!”

But it didn’t stop. The massive psyche swam through me and around me. I finally gained the smallest understanding of exactly what it was. It was massive, nearly infinite, and it was angry, violent and most dangerously BORED. It wanted something to happen, something NEW and THAT THING won’t allow it! Thoughts deeper than oceans flooded into my skull, drowning my own. It was the Dark Forest itself, and I had broken one of its laws.

Hunt down all humans before they make it to the Campgrounds.

“But I didn’t!”

But you will. My own voice echoed back to me, its stability breaking through the other entity’s torrent. I could feel a gentle laughter in it. Intent doesn’t matter as much as results, and you were about to get the worst one yet.

The Forest entity roiled, and I could feel its ionic attention swimming through my chest like a summer storm. Entropic tendrils pulsated through my core, diving deeper, eroding my soul and my body, searching for truth to my words. And then it reached the quintessential part of me: my burning heart. It recoiled, and my mind snapped back with enough whiplash that I felt abandoned. “Nooo…!” I moaned, keenly aware of the eyes that I could no longer see through, throats I could no longer speak through and muscles I could not move.

I lay on the ground, my head cavernously empty of thoughts. One last thought rebounded through the empty space of my mind. How could I ever be the same again?

I never saw Genghis again. When I woke up I found that the creature had disappeared, though I wasn’t exactly surprised. I finally understood just how big the Dark Forest actually was, and the burden it placed on its toys. Because that’s what we were to it: toys. And it shackled us with unbreakable laws to make us do its bidding.

But why didn’t it break you? What made it stop? It could have shattered you in an instant, and it was clearly in the mood to do so.

I placed a hand on my bare chest. “It touched my spark…”

And it KNEW you.

“The dragon knew me too. It even called out my name.”

Was it your name? Or just the name you took?

I raised my other hand to my face, feeling my horns. “What… AM I? I’m not a person, and I’m not a guardian. I have all of this power, but can’t use it.”

You’re a prisoner.

That thought stopped me. “A prisoner…” As I said it, the word felt right. I wanted to know what was outside the Dark Forest. And more importantly, I wanted away from that thing.

That was when I heard the cries for help.