2. Chapter 2 #3
“Not enough,” Grillo said. “And the ones around us aren’t quite mature enough yet, which is why we’re heading deeper. Our trees grow faster than those outside the Shadow Lands, but we must still be vigilant and adhere to careful coppicing. How the trees are cut ensures for better, faster regrowth.”
Levi nodded. He’d devoured every book and subject Braxton could supply to him. His swiftness in reading and learning was something Braxton often praised him for, however much he might chide him for other things. Levi had not learned much of woodcutting, however.
“What of the stone?” Levi asked. “We have no quarries, do we?”
“Some stone can be found in the hills and near the Black Lake. Thankfully, a good stone structure can last for centuries, so we’ve rarely needed to repair or replace them.
New structures, however, are often wood, since that is what we have in abundance.
But the more our people grow and spread, the less we have to work with.
” Grillo sounded sad, Levi thought—resigned.
“Master Braxton is working on a solution. He’ll find the answer.”
The comment caused a curl of Grillo’s lips. “If anyone can, it’s Brax.”
Another rustle of the trees made Levi look up in search of the glider monkey, wondering if it had decided to follow them, but the trees ahead were still. He paused, peering cautiously behind them. No higher branches were wavering there either.
“G-Grillo—”
“Boo!” A small figure lunged at Levi from out of the shadows, and Levi dropped the handle of the cart, skittering backward.
“ Kenner ,” Grillo scolded in a low, parental tone, wiping the smile from the boy’s face. “You know better than to traipse into the wood alone!”
Kenner’s arms, which had been up like a playful mimic of a monster with claws, sagged to his sides. Well, like a monster with sharper claws than the boy.
“I wasn’t alone!” Kenner defended. “I followed you .”
“And we will purposely be getting near the barrier. Do you understand? I will be safe thanks to Levi and the warding crystals, but you—”
“I can keep an eye on Kenner,” Levi said, causing father and son to stare at him in equal surprise.
Perhaps it was the rapport Levi and Kenner had already formed, or simply that it eased Levi to know that even a boy could make it through the wood unharmed.
“Would that not be safer than him heading back alone?”
Grillo’s brow furrowed at the suggestion. “I suppose that’s true. But do not think for a second this is a prize for disobedience.” He centered on his son. “You will have no sweets after dinner for being so reckless. Understood?”
Kenner nodded emphatically, clearly happier to have his way now, even at the cost of something later.
“You stick to Levi like planks nailed to a wall and watch the crystal just as vigilantly.”
Kenner nodded again.
“Come on then.” Grillo faced forward, and a smile lit up Kenner’s face as he scurried to Levi’s side.
With Levi pulling the cart once more, the three walked in close formation, the crystal held outward in Levi’s free hand.
“Did you think me the demon?” Kenner asked, his voice a whisper, though they were far too close to Grillo for anything to be kept secret.
“Or a dangerous animal,” Levi admitted, keeping his voice low too. “You believe in the demon? That it lives in the wood?”
“Of course!”
“Yet you boldly entered it?”
“After you and Father. I know I’m safe,” Kenner said without falter.
A quiet snort came from Grillo, but he said nothing.
“Then you are braver than me.” Levi glanced around at the glittering trees and the all too silent dark. “I always thought the wood comforting—from afar. Being amidst the trees, I feel less certain.”
“I’ll protect you,” Kenner declared more loudly. “I’m really strong. I’m gonna be strong like Father, and with, um… procession like Mother!”
Levi stared at the boy in thought. “Precision?”
“Yes, that! She’s the best hunter in all the Dark Kingdom, you know.”
“So I have heard. What does the demon look like, do you think? I haven’t read many stories about it, other than basic accounts of the curse.”
“You don’t know the whole story? There are tons of them! Mostly the same though.”
And mostly by Klarent, apparently. “I know a demon cursed the old prince, who was lost,” Levi said, “and King Ashmedai, who wasn’t king at the time, defeated it and took over after everyone turned into monsters.”
“But did you know the prince summoned the demon?”
“He did? Why?”
“Some think for more magic, but others say the old prince would never have done that, that he didn’t care about power. Some think it was so he could pass the kingdom to someone else, since he didn’t want to be king and no one else did either. He thought a demon was his only choice.”
“What happened?” Levi asked.
“The demon tricked him, what else? He killed the prince for his, um… humorous?”
“Hubris,” Grillo supplied.
“What’s that mean?”
“It means the prince was prideful,” Grillo explained, “overconfident, and because of it, he caused tragedy. Like a little boy wandering into the wood when he knows he shouldn’t.”
Kenner ducked his head, otherwise ignoring the comment.
“Anyway, the demon cursed everyone using the Source Crystal, which used to be a symbol for the Amethyst Kingdom. Nothing can destroy it, and people have tried. Or used to try. It’s what keeps the barrier up.
And if anyone crosses it, the demon waits in the wood to eat them. ”
“Eat them?” Levi said as his stomach dropped. “I thought people disappeared if they crossed the barrier?”
“Well, yeah, coz he eats them. Oh! He’s big with bat wings, claws, horns, a tail, and tons of scary teeth.
His skin is so dark you can’t see him in the shadows until he smiles and shows all his fangs, or when his eyes glow.
And when he wants to eat someone, his mouth gets so big, he can swallow them whole. ”
In many ways, that description shouldn’t be scary. It wasn’t exactly like one person in the Dark Kingdom, but its pieces were definitely present in various people.
Yet still, the image filled Levi with dread, and he couldn’t shake the sensation of being watched from the shadows. When the people first saw the demon, none of them had been monsters yet, none of them had ever seen a monster, so it must have been terrifying.
Wait….
“Have other people seen the demon?” Levi asked. “I thought only Braxton and the king were present.”
“Others were there after the prince died. Then Ash and Brax chased the demon into the wood. Almost everyone saw it then. Right, Father?”
Grillo was about to answer when a flicker from the warding crystal lit up the expanse around them.
In the distance, they could see the perimeter of crystals faintly glowing too, though a few were clearly missing or had gone out.
“Time to head left,” Grillo said, taking his son’s shoulder to steer him. “Levi?”
Levi shivered as he stared at the flickering crystal in his palm.
The thought that some unknown beast waited just beyond the barrier made a lump form in his throat, but he had a job to do.
Slowly, he approached the barrier and replaced the missing or unlit crystals with ones from his bag, and then chose a new crystal to carry in his hand.
Across the barrier was seemingly more darkness, but with a shimmer in the air almost impossible to notice. The shadows were watching them—animals, like the glider monkey. Levi hoped that’s all it was, and not foolish highwaymen willing to press their luck by crossing over. Or something worse.
He hurried back to keep pace with Grillo and Kenner, and after a few strides heading left, the new crystal he held went dormant.
The next time they hit a spot where the crystal flickered, Levi did the same, and that was where they stopped. Grillo would be taking the trees from just before the line of the perimeter, as many as could fit on the cart after they were felled and trimmed.
“Kenner, you don’t get even close to that line of crystals. Understood?”
“Yes, Father. I don’t want to get eaten.”
Much as Levi felt differently about the wood now, so deep in its ominous embrace, that feeling of being watched never became more than that—a feeling.
Grillo chopped trees, Levi and Kenner helped stack the lumber, and when there was hardly any room left in the cart and Grillo announced one more tree should do it, Kenner darted farther into the safe zone, beckoning Levi to give chase.
The line of crystals was behind them, with Grillo still in sight without any shout of reprimand, so Levi complied.
He even conjured a few more fairies to chase after Kenner as they ran between the trees, this way and that.
Kenner always stayed one step ahead of Levi.
Most of the trees were skinny and difficult to hide behind unless there was a cluster, but there was one just wide enough that when Kenner dashed behind it, he disappeared .
A different boy emerged from the other side.
“Slowpoke!” he called.
Levi froze. The boy was an elf. A half-elf maybe?
With pale skin and red hair.
“Levi?”
Levi blinked and Kenner was in front of him— right in front of him, peering up at Levi with concern in his eyes.
“Why are you crying? Did you stub a toe?”
Levi’s hands went to his cheeks. They were wet. “I… I must have. I’m fine now.”
“Time to head back!” Grillo called, hefting the final tree into the cart.
Levi scrubbed away his tears, smiling at Kenner and then beginning to chase him once more back toward Grillo.
He’d lied though. He had no idea why he’d been crying.
Ashmedai
“ Ash .” Dreya’s tone was both reprimanding and playful, pulling Ashmedai’s attention back from the path leading to the wood.
While his people all knew to forego formalities with him, only his advisors were comfortable admonishing him—Dreya most often, despite being the youngest.
Perhaps because of that.