Chapter 7Forest for The Trees

  "You want us to leave here because you had a bad dream?"

  Deney was fixing Damon with a disbelieving gaze as they all sat around the waning campfire. Everyone had been awake for barely 10 minutes when the Lucifee had joined their sparse breakfast with this bewildering suggestion.

  "Yes! Well, no. I don't think it was a dream at all," expined Damon, scratching his head from the infectious doubt that was spreading. The concern in his sapphire eyes seemed sincere enough that Deney wanted to comfort and believe him, but Damon's words were still...less than convincing.

  "I mean, you were asleep when I got up for my shift,"

  Marrow voiced Deney's bubbling thoughts, his mouth half-full of leftover jerky.

  "Stress can give you some pretty messed up dreams. Last night I dreamt that the forest was an ocean and the trees became kraken tentacles. Stress dreams are crazy."

  "O...kay... But I definitely heard these voices before sleeping... Er... and also during..."

  Damon's confidence was faltering. Hearing himself expin, he understood why everyone else was skeptical. Yet, he only wanted to protect them.

  "Ah, hey, wait! Shouldn't you be on my side, Marrow?? You're the one who didn't want to come here in the first pce."

  "Well—"

  "Awwww, Damon!”

  Zoey interjected, quite confidently, before Marrow could answer.

  "You don't have to pretend to be scared just to make Willow feel better ~"

  She smiled brightly at her brother, beaming with pride and love. It didn't resonate well with the surmounting confusion emanating from her companions.

  "As much as I hate this pce, I have to agree,"

  Marrow finally responded, flipping Zoey off in the process.

  "I'm not the only person afraid of this pce. The Hounds, or anyone else we happen to piss off, won't be too excited to venture in here after us."

  The Phantom, while saying it was best to stay in the White Forest for the time being, still kept cautious of his surroundings... It felt like the woods were getting thicker and thicker every time he gnced around the group.

  "You're kidding, right? You of all people shouldn't be changing your opinion now!"

  Damon criticized Marrow's change of heart with the sort of exasperation commonly expressed by the concerned parent of a fickle toddler. But, upon observing his audience, the Lucifee knew he wouldn't get anywhere using that attitude. Although Deney was doing her best to understand, Marrow was stubborn as a mule, and the frequent inquisitive flicking of Zoey's ears showed she was clearly distracted.

  So, after a steadying breath, Damon tried again.

  "Look, I get it. It's not like what you're saying is wrong; if I thought that then I wouldn't have agreed to come here in the first pce. But something isn't right with this forest... What good is hiding from killers here if we meet a fate just as horrible? I dunno, we just ... only have one life. When a spooky voice is beckoning us to go farther in, I'd venture to say the smartest decision would be to run away, don't you think?"

  It was a sound argument. Damon made it clear that he cared about all of them and that he was only looking out for their safety.

  Or at least, that's how Deney viewed it. So after the ensuing silence tensed the air for a moment, the ginger stood up purposefully.

  "I think Damon has a point. This pce seemed like a good shelter for the night, and it filled that role pretty nicely. But it's getting more and more creepy, right? Like, by the moment. If this pce is becoming unsafe now, the smartest decision is to leave."

  "Uhhh, guys—"

  Zoey suddenly attempted to get everyone's attention, her gzed amber eyes staring bnkly in front of her as she apparently focused on her hearing.

  "Yes, exactly!"

  Damon agreed with Deney triumphantly, not noticing his sister's words.

  "That's what I'm trying to say — we have to adapt to survive."

  "Guyyyssss—”

  "And where was this attitude before we entered?"

  Chided Marrow. He was beginning to take offense to everyone switching sides the moment he decided to stay.

  "Is it just Opposite of Marrow Day and I forgot to mark it down??”

  "GUYS!!!"

  Zoey bellowed out a yell louder than her small body seemed capable of, finally drawing everyone's attention. Once the others had ceased bickering and looked at her with arm, Zoey grimaced at them.

  "Ahem! Am I the only one who's noticed that weird creaking noise?"

  "Creaking..?"

  Damon quirked his head curiously, his sleek bck ears swiveling about in the hopes of catching the sound.

  "I haven't noticed anything…”

  "Ugh, who cares? It's probably just the trees being trees," said Marrow, afraid that if the trees were in fact not being trees, he could no longer use fire magic since they were so deep into the woods. A forest fire, while consistent with their thus far luck, was less than desirable.

  "Let's just pack up our stuff and head back the way we came. Which… is… that way? No… That way. No, that’s not right either…"

  One good look at their surroundings and Marrow was confused, he couldn't seem to find the path they took to get to their campsite. Did he just forget what the trees looked like on that path? Granted, they all looked pretty simir… Were the trees moving around to mess with him…?

  "Wait ..."

  Damon seemed to be of the same mind as Marrow, looking back at where he was almost certain they had entered the forest from.

  "Weren't the trees... Farther apart..?"

  "Yeah… I mean, you could barely squeeze through these trunks, now... But I'm pretty sure that's where we came in from..."

  Deney's face soon grew clouded with the same devastating revetion that was creeping up all of their spines.

  A revetion which Zoey soon voiced.

  "I think... The trees closed us in…”

  "I fucking told you!" Marrow excimed for all the forest to hear. No more holding back resentment now. Seemed rather moot at this point.

  "Better put that sword to good use, because unless you want me to burn this pce down around us, it looks like we're stuck here.”

  "Wait, that noise—"

  Shhhhck!

  Almost as if responding to Marrow's threats, a white birch trunk shot up out of ground with remarkable speed and violence. It seemed like it was trying to skewer the phantom with it's rather sharp looking tip, and it only just barely missed him thanks to Zoey's ears and quick thinking. The cat girl had managed to grab Marrow's shirt and pull him out of the way just in the knick of time.

  "Gah!" Marrow cried out from the sudden jerking. He did not weigh much. Help him, he may as well have been crumpled paper within the cat’s paws.

  "What the... can they hear us??"

  The phantom scrambled to his feet before looking over to Deney and Damon. But when he did, the view of them was already covered up by many sprouting branches.

  "They're making a wall... it's trying to divide us!”

  "Ngh— Not good..."

  Damon moved into a drawing stance, about to ready his katana.

  "Stand back, it isn't safe! I have the range, so don't worry, I'll —"

  "No, don't hurt her!"

  As soon as Damon heard the click of his katana separating from its sheath, the strange voice echoed through his being again. His whole body froze as if he was dropped into an ice bath, and his bde never made it any farther towards the accumuting tree trunks.

  Who was...—

  "Damon!?"

  "Hey, look out!!"

  Within milliseconds of his hesitation, before he or anyone else could react, the wall of birch exploded to life!

  Almost instantaneously it was nearly as tall as the other trees surrounding them, sharp branches shooting out from all sides to push the duos away.

  Damon nded safely upon the grass on one side, nearly on top of Deney, who had misjudged the amount of force needed to wrench the Lucifee away from the branches.

  Meanwhile, Marrow was grabbing at the branches on the opposite side, trying to pry them apart so he and Zoey could reunite with Damon and Deney. But as, Marrow was all bone, and very little muscle. His pull on the birch may well have been a passing breeze.

  "Damn! Stupid Forest... Stupid Trees! If you were corpses I'd string your souls and make you tango!”

  "So that's your idea of a punishment?"

  Zoey teased the phantom with a sardonic smirk. She then approached the Tree Wall carefully, her tail flicking cautiously behind her.

  "Hey, Damon! Are you alright?!"

  "Ah, yeah, I'm okay..."

  Damon's voice rang from the other side.

  "I'm fine too, not that anyone cares apparently,"

  Deney added sourly.

  "Here, I'll cut it down. Talking like this is annoying,"

  Zoey immediately grabbed one of her sickles and used it to ssh at the tree trunks. However, as soon as the bde broke the bark, a nearby branch shot out at breakneck speed. It grazed Zoey's arm, causing her to yelp from the slice it left.

  "Zoey!"

  Both Damon and Deney called out when they heard their companion cry in pain, her sickle cttering to the ground.

  "Gods... get away from there!"

  Marrow returned the favor Zoey did to him by pulling her away from the branchy barrier before she could get hurt any more.

  "It's no use…” he said. “This is more bite than bark… Hey, are you-"

  Marrow would turn his back on the barrier to look at Zoey, but his eyes would widen at the sight of her freshly bleeding arm.

  He was still, fingers twitching as he did his best not to salivate. While he was still sane, and maintaining it rather well, such a temptation was a sweet summer breeze to his house of cards.

  "I... you're…”

  "I'm...hurt?"

  Zoey's ears quirked curiously as she raised an eyebrow at Marrow's reaction. She held her bleeding arm tightly, nowhere near as perturbed by the pain as Marrow seemed to be by the image.

  "Yeah, it really stings too..."

  "Hey, Marrow!"

  Deney's voice suddenly called over, drawing their attention.

  "I don't know about you guys, but we're completely surrounded by trees except for one direction. It looks like we have no choice but to go farther into the forest…”

  "Ah... yeah..."

  Deney's voice helped Marrow cling onto his humanity for a while longer, and he made note not to look at Zoey's injury for the time being.

  "Yeah... now that you mention it, we've only got one way to go as well... I guess we'll meet up with you when we can?”

  Damon grimaced on the other side of the wall as Deney sighed in anxious defeat.

  "Right ... Guess that's our only choice," The ginger grumbled.

  "You two better not get lost, alright? We're going to find a way to regroup!"

  "Hey, Marrow. You better keep my sister safe," Damon's tone was dramatically serious.

  "We'll definitely make it back together.”

  "And you better keep my apprentice safe!"

  Marrow really only said that to have a retort at Damon. Granted, he was warming up to Deney quite a bit.

  "C'mon, Zoey. Don't sh out at any more trees... yet.”

  "Yet?"

  Zoey snorted in amusement as she walked away from the wall.

  "C'mon, you just said that to sound dramatic."

  She didn't have any parting words for her brother, be they of hope or determination. She didn't need words to convey the amount of trust she had in him.

  Meanwhile, Damon walked away from the wall with a heavy sigh.

  "....Those two are going to kill each other, aren't they?”