SECRETS OF EXOCLYUS

9: THE BATTLE WITHIN

  Nevcram forest was...different.

  Stella and Usgard arrived in the daytime so they wouldn't have issues finding Koma but when they arrived they were met by a storm looming over the forest and casting everything in its shadow.

  "Why is there a lightning storm in the middle of winter?" Usgard asked, not expecting an answer but Stella spoke up because she knew exactly what was going on.

  "It's the voice." She explained.

  Usgard frowned at the thunder rumbling threateningly in the distance. "Is it the one that are many or the other one?"

  "The one that are many are calmed the whispers." She told him. "Atleast that's what I call them, and they speak for the forest, this one seems to speak for the storm."

  Usgard was still a bit confused about everything, but considering she was the one who could hear them and he couldn't he simply nodded and went with it. "Okay, whispers are for the forest, this nameless one is for the storm...but why is it here?"

  "It's inside Koma." She said. "Some kind of possession. And it's very dangerous. We need to find him."

  Stella got off her horse and started heading to the forest, Usgard followed but only after giving the storm clouds a middle finger. Together they reached the trees, last time they were here Stella hesitated on entry, but this time she led the charge.

  She quickly moved through the forest while Usgard tailed behind with axe in hand and ears perked, everytime thunder boomed he would do a quick check on their surroundings but kept discovering nothing.

  "Why couldn't he pick somewhere brighter to live?" He complained. "Like a sunny field? Or a vineyard? Or a pasture? Or a garden?"

  Stella ignored his grumbling and concentrated on navigating them through the forest, she wasn't completely certain of his location but she speculated he would be at the shrine area trying to learn what happened to him.

  However this place was vast, and the little light that pierced through the clouds didn't aid in identifying their surroundings. To be honest Stella had stumbled upon the shrine in an act to survive, she wasn't really marking out the exact path she took to reach there.

  "Are we there yet?" Usgard probed, ruining her concentration. "We've been walking for a while and I'm pretty we would've bumped into him by now."

  Stella rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. He was right, not about the latter but of the first part. She expected they would see some sort of sign that she had left when dragging the two men out but nothing was around.

  Then she realised she did have a guide of sorts.

  "Where is he?" She asked while facing a tree.

  "I thought you were finding him?" Usgard responded with a perplexed expression.

  "Not talking to you." She hissed. "Talking to them. Now hush."

  Usgard obeyed and for a moment the only sound around them was thunder until Stella felt a little cold brush her skin followed by the voices she was hoping for.

  Lost...

  Confused...

  Taken from us...

  "What are they saying?" Usgard requested. "Are they still calling me the enemy?"

  "They're saying he's been taking from them." She told him. "And now he's lost."

  "I'm guessing it's the second voice that has him." Usgard summed up. "Do we have to fight him?"

  He will kill you...