Chapter 1

Jace hacked at the dense vines with his hand axe, cursing as the blade caught on unraveling strands. Among the teenage boys in the village, he was one of the most experienced in the woods. But these weren’t the ordinary woods of his childhood.

“Hurry up, boy. You can't be tired, you eat enough of my food to feed a horse.” His uncle Timur's voice came from behind him. The other older men in the gathering party laughed.

Jace gritted his teeth, but kept swinging. After his parents had died of illness, his uncle and aunt had taken him in. Except for constantly reminding Jace that he was an extra burden, they didn't mistreat him. It wasn't fun being given these thankless jobs either, but somebody had to do it. At least he hadn't encountered anything thorny or poisonous yet.

Jace finally cleared an opening large enough for adult men to pass easily. As he pushed through, the rest of the party followed on his heels.

Jace lived in an ordinary village on the northern continent. It was close enough to the kingdom's main road that peddlers made regular visits(on the way to actual towns), but it was hardly bustling. They farmed crops and hunted game in the woods.

Then everything had changed. A new jungle forest sprang up overnight a short distance from the village. Trees unlike any the villagers had seen before, towering over with canopies that blocked the light. According to the few books and peddlers’s hearsay available to the village, they were native to the unexplored southern continent

Some brave few had wandered in and came out bearing unusual plants. These turned out to have extremely valuable medicinal properties. The villagers started harvesting from the jungle regularly to sell them. They decided not to tell the royal army about the jungle, wanting to keep the new wealth for themselves.

One old man did not agree. He constantly ranted about stories he’d heard, about a legendary monster that came in the wake of strange trees appearing. But no one listened.

Jace wiped sweat off his face. It was hot and humid. They were already further in the mysterious jungle than any party before. A small clearing opened up and Jace stepped forward, the others spreading out behind him.

A small spring of shining water and bushes covered in vivid purple and gold flowers and fruits was in the center. Jace instinctively started for the water, feeling his parched throat.

A deer-like creature jumped out and blocked his path. It was covered in feathers instead of fur. Jace flinched and held his axe at the ready. Some of the previous parties had mentioned animals attacking them with strange powers.

It looked at him with wide golden eyes, but made no aggressive move.

"What are you waiting for? Use your axe. We can get some game along with whatever those flowers are." Timur sounded impatient.

Something inside told Jace they should leave the animal alone. "Uncle, maybe we shouldn't-"

His uncle pushed past him and unlimbered his bow. The deer-thing didn't react.

Timur loosed an arrow and it fell to the ground.

The deer thing's blood trickled into the spring water. Jace felt a chill as the clearing seemed to darken. A rustling sound came from all directions.

A black tentacle lashed out from the treetops and speared Timur through the chest. He coughed blood in surprise. Then it yanked him into the treetops.

As the men started to scream and run, more tentacles started snatching them up.

Jace fled the clearing. He came to a stop at where he had cleared the vines, gasping for air.

What's happening? What do I do? Uncle and the others are all dead…

He wasn't able to consider for long. The ground lurched underneath him and Jace staggered. He held onto the tree as it started moving. It felt to him like the entire jungle was moving in one direction.

Jace started running through the moving trees in a panic, blindly retracing his steps in the direction of the village. The ground kept shifting below him, but he kept his footing.

He burst through the treeline, expecting to see the path back to his village…

Then the ground vanished.

Only spectacular reflexes saved him. He twisted and caught hold of the…cliff?

Jace scrambled up on his belly, trying to make sense of everything. He looked back down.

He saw an expanse of black scales. As he looked further, he saw what looked like the back of a snake's head.

Jace looked left and right, realizing what he thought was a jungle was growing on some massive monster’s back. The "ground" was soil encrusting a tortoise shell on the snake's back. A shell that could have covered a city.

Jace watched in horror as he saw the snake's head plow through his village. Then he saw the ruined houses surging toward him.The snake-tortoise was diving back into the earth. Jace screamed as darkness enveloped him.

No trace of the jungle remained on the surface. Only the devastated village marked the divine beast's passage.