Whispers of the Forgotten

The Whispers

The aftermath of the battle left us all breathless. My chest was heaving with exertion and adrenaline was still coursing through my veins. As we took stock of our injuries and tended to the few wounds we traded, a somber silence hung heavy in the air. It was broken only by the occasional rustle of leaves and the distant cries of forest creatures. Caspian moved amongst us, checking for any serious injuries. Bryn, her face streaked with blood and dirt, offered him words of comfort. Janus stood sentinel over the clearing, sword in hand and his gaze, vigilant. Eamon's fiery aura was now subdued. He knelt beside a fallen goblin, his expression a mix of curiosity and anger.

The vision I had the night before was out of my mind as I collected my breath and handed rations to everyone. The sun was high in the bright blue cloudless sky. Everyone was eating or using water skins to wash the goblins' crimson stains off of them. It would have been a nice, warm day if it wasn't for the corpses that littered the ground around us.

"Maybe we should head home," I broke the silence.

"Shouldn't we see if there are more out here?" Eamon asked me.

"We can come back. I want to learn more about the runes we have seen."

"This is a huge army. Where there are few, there is bound to be many."

"Knowledge may be our best weapon right now. Maybe someone knows more about goblins than us and can help us to find and vanquish them later."

"We can't afford to underestimate the goblins," Janus spoke up, his voice low but firm. "If there are more of them lurking in these woods, we need to know." Caspian nodded in agreement; his brow furrowed with concern. "But we also need to consider our own safety. We've taken a beating, and we're in no shape to face another onslaught right now."

Bryn, her hands still stained with dirt and blood, cast a worried glance at the surrounding forest. "I hate to admit it, but they're right. We need to regroup and come up with a plan."

Eamon, ever the fiery spirit, looked torn between the desire for vengeance and the need for caution. "I understand the risks, but we can't just let them continue to threaten our lands. We have to do something."

I weighed their words carefully, feeling the weight of responsibility settling squarely on my shoulders. "We'll gather what information we can before we leave," I decided, my voice steady despite the turmoil churning within me. "But our priority right now is to tend to our wounds and make it back to town safely. We can't help anyone if we're not in any shape to fight." With a collective nod of agreement, we set about the task of packing up our camp and preparing to leave the clearing behind. Eamon and I took out paper, ink, and pens to make note of the strange symbols and the happenings while we were in the wood.

As we moved through the forest, I couldn't shake the feeling that our encounter with the goblins was just the beginning of something much larger and more dangerous than any of us had anticipated. But for now, all we could do was focus on getting home in one piece and pray that we had the strength and courage to face whatever challenges lay ahead.

The forest seemed to close in around us as we made our way through the dense undergrowth, the tangled branches casting long shadows across our path. Eamon and I paused at intervals to inspect the strange symbols etched into the trees, our pens scratching furiously as we transcribed every detail onto parchment. The runes glowed faintly in the dappled sunlight, casting an eerie glow that sent shivers down my spine.

"Whatever these symbols mean, they're certainly not of natural origin," Eamon muttered, his brow furrowed in concentration. "I've never seen anything like them before." I nodded in agreement, my mind racing with questions and possibilities. Who carved these runes, and why? As we continued our journey, the forest began to thin, giving way to open fields and winding dirt paths that led back to town. With each step, the tension in our group began to ease, replaced by a sense of weary relief that we had survived another day. As we finally reached the safety of the town gates, I made a silent vow to myself and my companions. I would not rest until we had uncovered the truth behind the goblins' presence.

We all went through the gates, ready to greet our families and sleep in beds that were not made of dirt. All I wanted to do was to go to my father's library to see if I could find anything resembling the glowing symbols we saw. As everyone was being questioned by family and friends, and our party entertained the small crowd with stories of exaggerated victories, I pulled away from it. I slunk into the shadows that grew as the sun set to sneak away into my father's house through the small garden in the back. As I opened the door to the royal home, I heard a rustling behind me. The recent events led me to stoop down by the stairs quickly and draw my dagger in anticipation of danger.

Eamon turned the corner, searching the shadows for something, "Neolynn?" he said barely above a whisper. I stood, putting my dagger away, and stepped out of my hiding spot, relieved. As Eamon stepped into the dimly lit garden, his eyes met mine, reflecting the same mixture of exhaustion and determination that I felt.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in a hushed tone, motioning for him to follow me inside.

"I couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right," he replied, falling into step beside me as we made our way through the familiar halls of my father's house. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."

I offered him a grateful smile, touched by his concern despite the dangers that lurked outside the walls of our realm. "I'm fine," I reassured him, though the weight of the day's events hung heavy on my shoulders. "But I couldn't shake the feeling that there's more to those runes than meets the eye and I wanted to look at my father's library." Eamon nodded in agreement; his expression serious. As we entered the dimly lit library, the air thick with the scent of old books and parchment, I felt a surge of anticipation mixed with apprehension. This was where I had spent countless hours as a child, lost in the pages of dusty tomes and ancient scrolls.

Together, Eamon and I began to search the shelves, pulling down book after book in search of any mention of the strange symbols we had seen in the forest. Hours passed in a blur as we pored over the intricate text, our eyes growing weary with fatigue. We found a tome that told us all about goblins and their encampments. There were five missing pages that seemed to have been torn out. There were no clues on the other pages depicting what may have been in them. We put the missing pages out of our mind as we continued to search for the symbols. We were growing weary and exhausted. And then, just as we were beginning to lose hope, Eamon's hand closed around a weathered tome tucked away in a dark corner of the library. With trembling hands, he flipped through the pages until he found what we were looking for.

"There," he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he pointed to a passage illuminated by the flickering candlelight. "It's a warning. A warning about an ancient God that has long been forgotten." My heart pounded in my chest as I read the words, my mind reeling with the implications of what we had discovered. We read the passage on the symbols over and over until it was committed to memory.

As we delved deeper into the passage, a chill swept through the air, causing the flames of the candles to flicker ominously. The words painted a grim picture of an ancient deity, imprisoned by dark forces in a bid to harness its power for their own nefarious purposes. Eamon and I exchanged uneasy glances, the weight of our discovery settling heavily upon us. If the symbols we had encountered were indeed linked to this imprisoned god, then the implications were staggering. What role did the goblins play in all of this? And what did it mean for our own safety and the safety of our realm?

"We need to find out more," I said, my voice barely above a whisper as I traced my fingers over the faded text. "We need to uncover the truth behind these symbols, and the role they play in the grand scheme of things."

Eamon nodded in agreement, his expression grave. "But how? We have no idea where to start, and time is not on our side."

I bit my lip, my mind racing with possibilities. "We'll start by talking to the elders," I decided, determination burning in my chest. "They may hold the key to unlocking this mystery, and they may have knowledge that has been passed down through the ages." With renewed purpose, we set about the task of seeking out the elders, our hearts heavy with the weight of the knowledge we carried. "At worst, if they know nothing, we can warn them and create a plan to protect us from whatever seems to be coming."

Together, Eamon and I stepped out into the dappled sunlight, our minds ablaze with the promise of adventure. With the weight of my world upon our shoulders, we set out into the unknown, ready to face whatever challenges lay in wait, and to uncover the secrets that lay hidden in the shadows of our realm. I was just grateful I was not alone.