SECRETS OF EXOCLYUS

20: THE FORGOTTEN WOODS

  "DO NOT BE AFRAID, STELLA. I MUST CHANGE FORM TO WANDER THESE WOODS."

That was the only warning Stella got before Koma suddenly tossed off his jacket and his body began morphing into something other. She backed away as his bones shifted beneath his skin, pushing outwards as they snapped and remade themselves to create the large husky frame of the Nyxlian.

Thick black fur started growing out his body, as well as his scaled tail, his antlers, and his snout. The transformation process was accompanied by the painful sounds of his bones rearranging themselves until the man had now fully become beast.

Stella remained silent, slowly praying inwards that her racing heartbeat would slow to a halt so the monster standing infront of her wouldn't notice her presence despite her being directly beneath it.

It was still evening, the moon shouldn't be present even if she couldn't see it. Yet there was no mistaking that Koma had changed into the Nyxlian.

However, despite her paranoia, Koma's gaze gave no sign of malice or hunger, his mismatched eyes showed that that he was infact worried of the fear across her face. "STELLA, IT IS ME."

"But how?" She asked and it was clear he was as confused as he was.

"WE...I AM NOT CERTAIN. THIS IS HOME. I KNOW SO DESPITE NEVER HAVING COME HERE. INSIDE I SHALL FIND MORE ANSWERS, BUT FIRST..." Koma turned to the horses, that had strategically backed away, then growled a command. "FOLLOW IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO DIE."

The horses instantly moved forward, seemingly more frightened now than when they first saw the forest, but Stella was happy that they could keep all their equipment with them this time.

"WE MUST GO IN." Koma told her. "I FEEL SOMETHING TUGGING MY SOUL...OUR SOULS. GET ON MY BACK."

Before Stella could deny Koma's command his tail wrapped itself around her and placed her on his back, she expected the fur to be rough to the touch but instead was mesmerised by how soft it felt. His body was certainly muscular, but this midnight coloured fur soothed her enough to feel sleepy...until he proceeded to give her only one warning.

"HANG ON."

Koma stomped down his wooden paw into the snow and the trees responded by curving their barks to create a clear path for them, then after feeling Stella's grip tighten on his fur he dashed forward into the darkness which the forest canopy had created.

Stella held back little yelps as Koma traversed through the forest, leaping and running at a speed where the winds fought back against them. Fortunately she could still see with her eyes, using magic she could make outlines of everything around her, but it wasn't much use because everything around them was a blur.

She couldn't tell where they were going, even though she had a sense of vision it was still very disorienting. Koma took various turns and she wondered how the horses would find them, she was also worried about how Usgard and Pheruss were dealing with all this.

Usgard especially.

Their journey till this point was mostly fixated on Koma. He was the one dealing with a god and a set of spirits battling almost constantly for his mind, but Usgard was going through things too.

His whole village was crushed at the start of the moonless calamity by a dragon, he had nobody to explain all of his powers, he had nobody with him other than those he grew up with after the destruction of his village, and then he recently had to kill one of them because they betrayed the code that they were supposed to live by.

He had helped Stella through all this madness, and was basically her first solid friend in two years. She had more of a connection with Koma, but that didn't mean she should ignore what she had with Usgard. It's been due to his help that they had gotten here.