MJ, Liam and Jamal had set out from Elenova at first light, heading through the edge of Ludendron Forest to deliver supplies to outlying homesteads. What should’ve been half a day’s ride turned endless fast. The trees grew thicker, their branches weaving together so tight they blotted out most of the sky. Paths they’d taken before just… vanished. The wind died completely, leaving the woods unnaturally quiet.
By late afternoon they realised they were properly turned around.
“Wait—this rock looks exactly like the one we passed an hour ago,” Liam said, stopping dead and tightening his grip on the hilt of his sword. “We’re walking in circles.”
Jamal stepped up onto a fallen log to get a better look, but the ground under his boots suddenly shifted. Roots shot upward out of nowhere, coiling around his ankles and dragging him backward into the deeper gloom.
“Jamal!” MJ yelled, and his power flared bright blue all around him—blasting roots apart, throwing shadowy shapes back—but the moment the light faded, Jamal was already gone. His voice echoed faint and distant: “Keep going! Find safety first—!” before it was swallowed whole by the trees.
They ran, they called out, they tore through every thicket and clearing nearby. Nothing. No tracks, no trace, no sound but their own heavy breathing. Night began to creep in, and strange glowing eyes started to peek out from behind every trunk.
“We can’t stay here,” Liam said, pulling MJ back when he tried to bolt deeper in. “It’s getting dangerous. Jamal’s tough—he knows how to survive. We head for the Barren Lands first, find help, then come back with numbers. That’s the only way we’ll find him.”
MJ’s hands were still shaking, his blue power flickering restless at his fingertips. He hated leaving him. Hated it more than anything. But he knew Liam was right.
Together they turned their backs on the woods that had swallowed their friend whole, and kept moving forward toward open ground, both of them already carrying that heavy fear: they had no idea where Jamal had been taken… or that the trail would eventually lead them all the way to Necrokeep.