Volume 1 Chapter 1 the Dream Forest

There is no GenAI content in this novel.

You may find unnatural phrases because English isn't my mother language, but I've tried my best to write without machine translation.

Chapter 1 the Dream Forest

I

In the northern part of Normania, there was a huge forest called Dream Forest. It was a place full of wonders and legends. Many fantastic creatures used to live in this forest, elves were one of them.

Elves were elegant residents of the forest created by great Sylvanus to protect the trees, rivers, grass, and all other things which belong to the world of nature. They were quite similar to humans in appearance, after all, it was said that the ancestors of elves were actually humans transformed by great Sylvanus.

At the centre of the forest lay a small village of elves. There used to be a lot of elves in that village, but the number of elves kept decreasing while humans were creating wonderful civilization, and now, there were only two elves left in the village, a mother and a daughter.

“ᚡᛆᛐᛐᚿᛂᛐ᛫ᛃᛆᚵ᛫ᛑᚱᛆᛍᚴ᛫ᛡᛆᛑᛂ᛫ᚠᚯᚱᚮᚱᛂᚿᛆᛐᛌ᛫ᛆᚡ᛫ᛑᛂᚿᚿᛆ᛫ᚵᚱᛆᛆ᛫ᚠᛆᛒᚱᛁᚴ᛫ᛆᚡ᛫ᛉᛅᚿᚿᛁᛌᚴᚮᚱ.ᚵᛁᚠᛐᛂᛐ᛫ᚴᚯᚱ᛫ᚵᛂᚿᚮᛉ᛫ᛆᛚᛚᛆ᛫ᛉᛁᚿᛆ᛫ᚡᛂᚿᛂᚱ.ᛃᛆᚵ᛫ᛐᚱᚮᚱ᛫ᛆᛐᛐ᛫ᛃᛆᚵ᛫ᛌᚴᛆ᛫ᛑᚯ.ᛑᚯᛑᛂᚿ᛫ᚡᛁᛚᛚ᛫ᛌᚴᚯᚱᛑᛆ᛫ᛉᛁᚿ᛫ᛌᛃᛅᛚ,” [The water I drank had been polluted by that Grey Factory of humans. The poison is running through all of my veins. I think I am dying, Aislina. Death is going to collect my soul soon,] coughed Brunhilda the mother in Elvish, lying weakly on her bed.

“ᛌᛅᚵᛆ᛫ᛁᚿᛐᛂ᛫ᛌᛅ.ᛑᚢ᛫ᛌᚴᛆ᛫ᛅᛐᛂᚱᛡᛅᛉᛐᛆ᛫ᛌᛁᚵ,ᛉᛆᛉᛆ,” [Don’t say that. You will recover, mom,] sobbed Aislina the daughter.

“...” [No, I won’t. I know it. I’ve been living in this world for over 500 years. I know when things will happen. It’s the time, Aislina. Death is always the destination of our lives, and we shall never be afraid of death,] sighed Brunhilda.

“...” [Please, mom, I don’t want to be alone …] begged Aislina.

“...” [You will never be alone. I will always be with you, Aislina. My bless will protect you even after I die,] Brunhilda reassured her.

“...” [It’s different, mom. I will never be able to talk to you and hug … I will be lonely,] murmured Aislina.

“...” [Solitude will be one of the easiest parts of your journey in the future, Aislina. After I leave this world, you’ll be the last elf in this world. We elves are the guardian of the forests. It’s our vocation to protect the world of greenness. I have known that you will live a meaningful life and turn the world around. You will change everything, Aislina,] Brunhilda stroking her daughter’s long azure hair weakly.

“...” [But how? Humans are too powerful. It’s impossible for us to stop them,] queried Aislina.

“...” [You will find out the answer on your own, Aislina. I know you will change everything. After all, you’re the last daughter of the wilderness, my child. May the spirits of Life be with you,] drawled Brunhilda. Letting her one last breath, her heart stopped beating and her life was gone.

“…” [Mom? Mom? Mom!] cried Aislina. However, no matter how loud she shouted, her mother would never come back.

Aislina walked out of her house. She could smell the scent of flowers, trees, grass and fresh air, but she could also sense a slight smell of death and corruption lingering in the air.

The whole world was withering and the power of Life in this world were dying quietly, at a speed that no one could perceive. All the things were dying, with hope fading into a lifeless numbness.

It is an extremely clear day today, and looking at north, Aislina could also see a grey pillar of smoke rose directly into the sky and the air there was blackened as if a bottle of black ink had been poured there.

The smoke came from the Grey Factory built by humans. Like most elves, Aislina hated humans, but she could do nothing against them.

Humans were too powerful to defeat. Elves possessed the power of magic, but humans possessed the power of necrology, which was much stronger and much more lethal.

Aislina sighed slightly, her heart gripped by sorrow as well as anger. Now she was the last elf left on this world. Elves would extinct after she died. Perhaps it was the end of one era and the beginning of another. Perhaps the era of life and nature was coming to an end.

Wind was blowing heavily through the trees. The leaves were dancing, letting out weird sounds as if the whole forest were crying, mourning the lament for the death of one of its protectors.

Aislina was always told by her parents that the spirits existed in every part of the world. Trees, flowers, and even stones contained the spirits of greenness. Aislina could sense them, use them and even transform them to magical power, but they would never relieve her loneliness.

She could feel an emotion of emptiness stirring inside her heart as if she were becoming something hollow. She knew that ahead of her was an endless journey of solitude and she had no idea where the road of life would led her to and what her future would be like.

But there was one thing she felt certain about: she would protect her beloved forest until her last breath.

II

One month after.

In the shadow of Dream Forest, a pair of siblings were adventuring in search of a herb which could cure their father’s illness.

“Have you found the right way?” asked Yanni the brother.

“I’m sorry, Yanni, seemingly we have been lost. I have no idea where we’re now,” answered Floria the sister.

It was not the first time of the siblings playing in Dream Forest. They always adventured in the forest searching for mystic creatures though nothing had been found by them yet.

However, the forest had changed. It used to be a paradise-like place but now, they could feel that the forest had changed. Fishes were dying in the rivers and the air was becoming more and more choking.

They knew that this was caused by the emission of the Grey Factory of them humans, but they could do nothing about it. To humans, including them, the pollution was a cost for a grander civilization.

The forest was turning into a creepy place which seemingly didn’t welcome them anymore, and now they were lost, failing to find the direction. This forest was a natural labyrinth. Once they were lost, they would never find the right path out.

“What shall we do now? Maybe we can wait for the night. Perhaps Polaris can help us find the direction,” suggested Yanni.

“No, it won’t work. The Grey Factory has produced too much necrological smoke into the sky and the necrological smoke have veiled the stars, and thus we cannot see any stars in the night sky anymore,” opposed Floria.

“Maybe Starsha will find us,” speculated Yanni.

“Starsha isn’t smart enough to find us,” Floria shook her head in frustration.

Sun began to set down. As the last ray of the twilight faded at west, night came.

The blackness of the night soon covered the whole forest. The pale moon gave faint lights, casting slim shadows of trees. There were no stars they could see. The sky was empty as if someone had erased all the stars, leaving only a violet background with a solitary moon and grimly grey clouds.

Dusk ended, and night came.

“Night is coming. There are many legends about supernatural beings living in Dream Wood. Some of them are benevolent and some of them are malevolent, but both don’t like us humans. If they really exist, we shall be careful,” proposed Floria.

“Come on, sis, It is not a good time for horror stories,” compliant Yanni.

“I am not talking about fictional stories, Yanni. I’m serious. Maybe those things really exist. By the way, I have a feeling that we’re always walking on a wrong direction. So we’d best stop walking, stay put and spend the night here,” suggested Floria.

“That’s true. Shall we set up a campfire or something? The night in the forest can be very cold,” advised Yanni.

“Campfire, that’s a good idea. The only problem is that both you and I have no idea how to set up a campfire, right?” sighed Floria.

“Yes … that’s bad,” mumbled Yanni.

Then the siblings sat down beside a giant tree, holding hands.

The forest at night was not silent at all. There were lots of weird noises around Yanni and Floria, which belonged to creatures that they had never seen. They were mourning sad laments as if something had died in the forest.

Dream Forest got its name because it inspired the imagination of lots of poets and bards. Dreams of fantasy were woven within this forest, which used to be a place full of life and vigour. But now, it was withering and at the edge of death. The whole forest was mourning …

The air was becoming cold as well. Freezing wind passed by slightly, and the siblings were chilling.

Fear commenced to seize their hearts. Yanni was only twelve years old while Floria was only fifteen. Both of them were too young to keep calm and find a solution to save their lives. They had no idea what they should do and they didn’t know whether they would be saved.

Their mother had passed away since a long time ago and their father had been confined to bed because of a terminal disease. They had been abandoned by this whole world. Maybe they would be left in this enormous forest and starve to death.

The trees were shaking, signalling that something dangerous was approaching: just when they were about to pass out because of tiredness and coldness, Floria heard something moving towards them. No matter what that was, it was moving pretty fast and obviously, it wasn’t something friendly.

“Did you hear that? There are something moving towards us,” asked Floria.

“I haven’t heard anything. Maybe you’re being too imaginative，” replied Yanni.

“No, my sensation won’t fool me. I have a bad feeling,” argued Floria.

Just at this moment, something black and big leaped out of the grass around Floria and lunged towards her. Floria dodged the attack of that thing, who then looked fiercely at her with its eight scarlet eyes: it was a spider, a monstrously giant one. It looked exactly like normal spiders, but it was far bigger in size.

Many people were extremely afraid of spiders, even normal small spiders. Those eight-leg creatures were false creations to them. They’re arachnophobias. In fact, the gene of arachnophobia existed in the blood of everyone. And now, this gene of fear was awakening inside the veins of the siblings.

“What the hell is it. Is it a spider?” screamed Yanni.

“Run, Yanni, run! Like I said, this forest is dangerous!” yelled Floria.

They commenced to run. However, they only had two legs, but that spider had eight legs. Besides that, this abominable spider was much more familiar with this forest than them. They wouldn’t win this running race.

“We must get rid of that spider! Do you have any plan?” queried Yanni, his voice trembling.

Just at this moment, Floria spotted a small cave.

“Wait, there’s a cave there, let’s go inside it. The entrance is too small for that giant spider to get inside, but big enough for us,” advised Floria.

“Good ideas!” consented Yanni, nodding his head.

The monster shot out a long line of spider silk from its spinneret, but luckily, the siblings ran pretty fast and the spider missed its targets.

Yanni and Floria squashed into the narrow cave. To their surprise, although the entrance of the cave was small, inside the cave there were a pretty big space.

The spider screamed and looked wrathfully at its preys. Soon, Floria realized that something had gone wrong. The spider commenced to vomit and some kind of green liquid kept coming out of its mouth.

That green liquid looked horrible. There were some grass growing inside the cave and when it was touched by the green liquid vomited by the giant spider, it turned to lifeless ashes: that green liquid was acidic and the spider wanted to kill them with it.

The acidic liquid was flowing in the cave quickly and soon it would fill the whole cave and destroy everything inside the cave. The siblings wouldn’t escape from it. Soon they would be eaten into fragmentary skeletons by the acid coming out of the mouth of that gigantic spider.

“We’re going to die here, Yanni,” purred Floria, her voice trembling, “I’m sorry that I sometimes argued with you in the past, Yanni. I love you.”

“I love you too, sis,” murmured Yanni, preparing for the upcoming moment of death.

The siblings held hands, waiting for their end, but suddenly, something strange happened. Some vines came out of the ground and wound themselves round that gigantic spider. The spider tried to break the vines using its acid vomit. However, it failed and was soon squeezed by the vines into pieces of flesh.

It let out a deafening scream and died.

The moonlight was shining upon the ground, under which a strange girl came out of nowhere and walked towards them. There were faint green flickering particles of light with some sort of magical energy dancing between her fingers.

She was about Yanni’s age and had long azure hair. Her eyes were as blue as sapphire crystals and her beauty was stunning.

Obviously, it was that girl who saved them from that monstrous spider.

“Thank you for saving us, uh …” stuttered Yanni, his eyes wide in surprise.

“Who are you two? You two look like humans. Do you come from that Grey Factory?” interrogated the girl, her expression cold as ice.

“No, we come from the Wildshadow Tribe,” answered Floria.

“What are you two doing in my forest?” pressed the girl. Clearly, there’re some anger in her voice.

“Your forest? Wait, I know! You’re an elf, Aren’t you? You elves are the guardian of this forest …” exclaimed Yanni.

“Yes, I am, and you humans are not welcome in my forest, Your factory has poured so much wastewater into the river that animals are suffering because of it, and some of them have even mutated into aggressive monster. That spider was only one of them,” drawled the elf girl.

“I’m sorry,” muttered Yanni.

“Apology means nothing. Anyway, leave my forest now, or the forest will not show you any mercy. Like I said, humans are not welcome here,” demanded the elf girl.

“But we’re lost in this forest and we don’t know the way back home,” pleaded Floria.

“Since that, I will show you the way, but you two shall promise that you will never come back to this forest ever again,” insisted the elf girl.

“Yes, we promised to you,” concurred the siblings.

“Well, since that, follow me please,” commanded the elf.