Iden and the Blood Forest

(just a warning, this is a little intense, it isn't like, oh the kid walked into the creepy forest and then walked out again cause it was creepy. it's defiantly a little bloody, so for those of you with low terror tolerance, be aware. and to anybody reading this, sensitive or not, please consume responsibly. thank you.)

Iden walks through the forest of old shriveled trees, the sky a dark ominous gray above her. A large crow has been following her for the past hour. She doesn't bother worrying over it, she has bigger issues to deal with. 

As she walks deeper into the forest, the trees start looking odd, well more odd than they had. Their leaves were now nonexistent, they seemed paler, and even more noticeable, they looked carved. no longer shrived, broken branched trees, these were even more perfect, flawless, beautiful, and purer white the farther she went. They must have been carved from marble, she suspected, marble or bone. . .

she stepped into a ring of trees, and looked up. The crow fluttered to a branch and cocked it's head at her, an evil glint in it's eye. She walked around the circle, running her hands along the tree's trunks. As she approached the biggest tree in the ring, she noticed a stream out of the corner of her eye. It's waters were darker than a normal stream, and as she breathed in, she caught a waif of a thick coppery scent. Iden looked back at the tree, and saw a large, dark puddle at it's roots. She walked around the puddle, and found a small gash in the side of the tree, that was, bleeding? She reached her hand out and dipped her finger in it, it was thick and warm, and she was hit with that same coppery scent she had smelled earlier. She licked her finger. And confirmed what she already knew, it was blood. 

'Well,' she thought, wiping her finger on her black cotton pants, 'I suppose they don't call it the bloody forest for nothing.' 

The crow cawed loudly, as if it had read her mind.

She looked up at and grinned, "Well who do we have here?" she asked, feigning surprise, her hand slowly sliding to her hip, pulling out her large silver knife witch glinted strangely in the dim lighting.

The crow's eyes changed, before they had looked arrogant and cocky, now they looked terrified.

She grinned, she could feel it's terror. She hesitated, for a half a second, but then she threw the knife, letting it sink deeply into the crow's right shoulder. The crow fell, carried backwards off the branch by the knife's momentum. as it fell, it turned into a boy, thin and lanky, more bone than skin, with shiny black feathers braided into his dirty matted hair. He looked up at her, those same eyes, full of pain and silent pleading, "Please," he said, his voice raspy from lack of use, "Please, kill me now."

Her smile faded. She hadn't expected a male, much less a boy. Almost all shape shifter's were female, and children were very rarely trained to be one at such a young age. She stepped forward, and the boy turned his head, eyes clenched shut in anticipation. She laid a gentle hand on his uninjured shoulder, "I will not kill you." she said "I could not take the life of one so young, so fresh, so new to life. I may have been trained to be harsh, but I am not merciless." 

The boy's head turned, and his eyes opened, this time they were wide with disbelief, "But, but you hurt me, leaving me here would kill me even if you didn't, therefore my life would still be on your head." 

Iden rolled her eyes, "I know that. I'm not stupid, like some people." she gave him a meaningful glare, "Your coming with me, even though you will only slow me down."

He quailed under her anger, and for some reason found the idea of going with her more intimidating than the thought of her leaving him here. She turned away from him, studying the tree with blood stream. As soon as her back was turned he struggled upwards, carelessly he put his left arm out to support himself, and cried out in pain. Iden whirled around, and her frown deepened as he slumped back down again. 

"You really are stupid." she said placing her left hand beside the knife in his shoulder, and her right hand on the handle, "Hold still, otherwise this might kill you." He let out a tiny whimper and nodded. As she muttered under her breath, "It might kill you Anyways." his face went white and he tried to wriggle free, she let go of the handle, and placed her right boot on his chest to hold him still, and then quickly pulled out the knife. The boy made an awful screeching noise, that sent a jolt of pain and fear through her. She was amazed by this, she had never experienced such a thing.

But she had very little time to think about that, due to the fact that she was now dealing with an open wound, a lot of blood, and a screaming kid. She quickly pulled her stash of bandages from one of her many concealed pant's pockets, tugged off the boy's filthy, blood spattered shirt and wrapped his shoulder, her hands going faster and faster, doing their best to stop the inferior flow of blood, with clean white cotton. 

                                                                                       ten years later
Iden chuckled, "Stop being such a chicken." 

"Shut up Iden." Corbin muttered, 

"And get your head out of the dirt, you look like an ostrich!" She said, full out belly laughing 

"I said, shut up!" He yelled. "That one didn't even make sense!"

Iden still hadn't lost her carjeering expression, she kept glancing upwards out of the corner of her eye trying to make eye contact, but Corbin refused to look at her. So they just kept walking, Iden's smile fading as they slowly drew nearer to the ring of trees, and the thick coppery scent of blood.

"Corbin?" She asked hesitantly 

"What?" 

"Do you, do you remember that day?" 

Corbin, smiled a little. "Yeah." He smiled a little more "Your still as stubborn, and confusing as ever."

"And your still as stupid."

He looked at her, his eyes dancing "I know." 


 

Inkpaw

VT

18 years old

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