Chapter 1

The faint thud of her tiny heartbeat against his chest. He could feel her sadness. Her panic. Her fear.

Chase kept running with his daughter Elise in his arms. The distant shouting of soldiers burning down his home haunted his mind, but he couldn't stop. Not yet, they were not safe yet. Elise was crying and screaming, burying her tear-stained face into his shoulder.

"Why did you leave mummy? I want mummy."

In-between his gasps for air he spoke words of comfort, "We're almost there," "Everything will be fine," "Mummy will catch up." Lies.

Despite that he kept running, he still had more to lose.

The vague outline of a forest formed in front of him, and he slowed down. Trees, tall enough to block out the sun and dense enough to smother out moonlight loomed over them, the closer they got, the more Chase doubted his decision.

The Forest. A woodland so large, a man could walk for twenty years and not find the other side. Other forests were given names because people had conquered and mapped them, the forest could not be mistaken, for it was a bastion that stood firm against the touch of humanity. The forest was not a name, it was a title.

Around him he could see the other villages with plumes of smoke over them. Even from here the waft of burning flesh made Chase sick to his stomach. He put Elise down and took a moment to catch his breath. He wanted to stay and rest more, but he could feel his legs giving out. He had to get away from the Holy Army, he had to hide somewhere they would never dare enter. A refuge for the dead, and desperate.

He walked along the beaten path with Elise on his back, the squelch of mud and dead leaves under his feet. As he ventured under the first trees at the edge, the sickening smell of seared skin was replaced with the scent of damp and decay. It would only get worse as he went further into the forest.

Everything was still relatively normal here; the birds sang and the sound of squirrels overhead could still be heard. The only human sounds were that of Chase's strained breath and Elise's muffled sobs.

Chase kept a watchful eye of the path, never daring to stray onto untrodden woodland. The path didn't lead to the interior and instead went around the forest, this was their only hope. They had to straddle the line between certain death, and a fate worse than it.

He grabbed a leaf on a nearby branch to check how far in he was. The veins were still growing symmetrically, they hadn't gone in too far yet. The danger was still manageable. Chase cursed under his breath, he didn't have time to grab his bow before he left, his only weapon was a small knife. Enough to pose a threat to a wolf, maybe two if he was lucky. But what if he came across a bear? Would he even be able to do anything?

The sound of something behind him made Chase pause, he slowly crouched and put down Elise, making sure to keep low.

"Dad?"

His hand covered her mouth, and he raised a finger for silence.

With measured movements he silently shuffled off the path with Elise, making sure not to lose sight of it. If they lost the path, they wouldn't be able to leave, not without a compass or a view of the sky.

At first, he heard the distinct timbre of hooves, there was definitely more than one as the regular rhythm of a single animal running wasn't present. The longer he listened the louder the sound got, and the more he could hear the voices of those riding their horses into the forest. Immediately his heart beat until he could hear it in his head.

Two knights trotted along the path partially into his vision, clearly slower than before. The crest of the Holy Army was draped over the saddle of the horses, and atop them were knights in full plate armour, stained in blood all the way up to the chest plate. Behind the gore was another symbol of some great noble house, but it was indiscernible under the red. One of the knights appeared to be no larger than a boy of eight, maybe ten years.

A husky voice muffled under the larger knight’s helmet could be heard, "Young master, are you sure you saw a person?"

"I'm telling you! I saw someone run into the forest; hair was bone white. No mistaking it."

"Did you have your visor on when you made this observation?"

"I know what I saw damn it!"

The horses shuffled around in discontent, protesting their advance into the forest.

"Come on, we've probably lost them by now either way and Maine isn't enjoying being this deep inside, are you Maine?" Maine let out a short snort.

After a moment of deliberation, the boy relented and turned around, following the trail out. After Chase couldn't see them anymore, he went back onto the path with Elise, letting out a long ragged breath. They hadn't been caught, not hiding their hair was an oversight on his part. He was so used to seeing the white and silver hair of his village that he forgot those from afar would notice it. Neither of them had a hood that they could use but walking without one would be a risk from now on.

Chase took a handful of mud and smeared it over his hair, painting it a murky brown. After a few handfuls he turned to Elise, "Come on dear, you too, we have to hide our hair."

Elise didn't question it and started taking little fistfuls of mud. Chase tried to help her along, but as he was about to get a second handful to cover the rest of her hair, a single fleck of mud, hardly more than a drop went into his daughter’s eye. He didn't know at the time, but this single drop of muddy water would change the course of their life.

Elise screeched at the top of her lungs, rubbing her eye in an attempt to get the mud out. She started crying, wailing from fright, pain, and shock. And no matter what Chase did, she wouldn't stop making sound. Once he finally managed to clear up her eye and calm her down, he heard the dreaded sound of hooves in the distance.

He picked Elise up on his back, "Elie, please, listen to me. Make sure you don't let go. Ok? Can you do that for me." Her arms tightened around his neck in silent affirmation, and he started to run down the path. At first trying to pace himself, but as he started to hear the clatter of armour, he ran more vigorously. His eyes always followed the path, never daring to deviate.

But once he heard them shouting, he couldn't stop a jolt of fear passing through him. He looked back.

The two knights stared at him like predators. Chase just put one foot in front of the other, nothing else concerned him. The ring of swords being drawn behind him only made his desperation greater. His eyes darted around, looking for something that might help, anything. By now he could almost smell the telling scent of iron and decided that they had to take a risk.

Chase veered off the path making sure that he didn't lose track of the direction he was running in, he would try and return to the trail later. The roots were more numerous and forced him to slow down, but in the distance, he could see a tree with branches low enough to obstruct a knight. He grabbed a stick off the floor, almost stumbling over dangerously.

He could now hear the knights’ shouts, "We can't follow them anymore! Listen to me young master!"

"We almost have them." He said, a sense of bloodthirst in his voice.

Chase ran under the branch, looking back for the perfect moment. Just as the horse was going past, he threw the stick at it, startling the beast. The boy sat upright trying to steer the horse clumsily with one hand occupied by a sword. Then, with a reverberating thud, his head hit the low branch. Sending his head snapping back and his body rolling off the saddle in a sprawling heap.

"Master Xavier!"

The other knight ignored Chase and dismounted. A flood of relief washed over Chase when he couldn't hear them chasing after him. He didn't stop running until a few minutes later when he started feeling nauseous from the exertion. He stopped to catch his breath and head back towards the path, but the nausea and pounding in his head only seemed to get worse. He fell to his knees, scraping the skin on his shins against the roots beneath him.

Elise had gotten off his back but didn't seem to want to let go of him, her small muddy hand, held onto his tunic.

Chase started to retch uncontrollably, his body spasmed and relaxed until he started to feel lightheaded, the contractions in his stomach and throat made the blood rush to his head like nothing else. He could vaguely hear the sound of Elise crying and tugging at him, but everything seemed to become more distant until suddenly, it went black.

By the time Chase woke up, all he could see was the swaying of the trees above him. He felt like he could just go back to sleep, but something about the sight made his instincts flare up in alarm. The normally rhythmic back and forth swaying was replaced by something more erratic, almost insect like. As his eyes focused, the trees seemed to go back to swaying normally, as if they had always moved like that in the wind. However, this only made the alarming sensation worse.

"Dad, dad..." Elise kept sobbing, she had used her best effort and rolled him over after he fell face first into his own mess. Chase wiped his face with his sleeve, and wrapped his arms around her, trying to comfort her. Eventually she stopped crying, exhausted. He clung to her tiny frame for a moment longer before lifting her onto his back again.

Reorienting himself took some time, he tried to piece together which direction they had come from and set out, looking for signs of the trail. But the more he looked, the more unfamiliar everything became. All the leaves grew in an eerie asymmetry and there were sounds that at first, he thought were the birds, but for some reason he couldn't see any nests, there was no sight of them, but their calls persisted.

After some time, he felt that he'd made a mistake and went back to where he had collapsed. From there he went a different direction, looking for any places he recognised or any sign of the beaten mud that every hunter walked on. Again, he wasn't able to find it. After picking a new direction for the fourth time, a cold sinking feeling came over him. Chase ignored it and kept looking.

By now he was starting to feel thirsty. He could hear rushing water rushing water somewhere in the distance, beaconing for him to come closer.

Chase hesitated, should he go look for it? No, he had to find the trail. But the more he tried, the more he lost hope, he wanted to wail at the thought of being trapped in the forest, but he didn't want to wake up Elise. Eventually, he couldn't put it off anymore and walked towards the river, the thought of fresh water almost made him salivate. Unfortunately, all he got was a sensation akin to tanned leather rubbing against each other in his mouth.

When they finally arrived at the river, he woke Elise up to help her take a drink. After drinking until he was full, Chase cleaned himself up, trying his best not to get his clothes too wet. As he was cleaning his tunic an idea struck him. Maybe they could follow the river. There were at least several dozen rivers that went in and out of the forest. He might be able to leave if he followed it. With a renewed sense of hope they set off again. Elise, still tired from what happened, fell asleep again.

Chase kept walking, an hour, then two, then four. But only when he followed the river uphill did all the hairs on his body stand on end. The river was flowing uphill. Watching the water rush in the wrong direction made Chase lose his nerve, this wasn't like anything he'd seen near the edges of the forest. It was like the mad ravings of the few that managed to escape it.

He had to sit down. Elise groggily looked around her unsure of where they were. But Chase couldn't pay attention to her at the moment, his thoughts were a mess, and the fatigue and grief had long caught up with him, no matter how much he kept on trekking. His hands masked his face from Elise as all he could do was sob uncontrollably, at first, he shouted out in frustration startling Elise, but the fear for their lives left him only able to make muffled groans, tears flowing freely. Elise didn't know what to do and started crying again having only just woken up.

They cried together in the forest, praying that they were alone in there.

But everyone knows.

You're never alone in the forest.