The Magic Forest: A Tale Of Survival

Part 15: The Doll

☘️ "Good afternoon, young man. What brings you here today"
Kael started to sort out his thoughts. The goblin survivors mentioned that one of them left and never came back.
Against his will, he started imagining the scene: an eye-invaded goblin masacring the goblin and pulling one of its many eyes out, inyecting it into the chest of the corpse of the goblin, effectively turning it into a new eye-invaded.
He felt grossed out, but managed to get a hold of his imagination.
🗣️ "Hey Wise. I wanted to know if you had any relevant information regarding the goblin that left for food and didn't come back"
Wise Nature recalled in silence for a moment.
☘️ "Why yes, I did saw a goblin leave recently. She was scared, and even had a small doll with her. She left for the Titanic Hollow. Do as you wish with this information, but beware of the dangers that may arise"
Kael processed the information and returned to the group.
🐺 "What were you doing over there?"
👻 "Oh he was just talking with the trees"
🐺 "Funny comment, Connor"
🗣️ "Connor's right, though. I talk with that tree when I need advice. Aaand he told me that there could be a goblin on the Titanic Hollow. We have to go there to get to the Flame Canyon anyway, so let's investigate"
👻 "But what if we find the eye-invadeds again? You saw how it infected the ghost, and I'M a ghost"

The concern was valid, at this point everyone feared eye-invasors for plenty of reasons. But it is said that before the rainbow, comes the storm.
🗣️ "Let's stay vigilant for anything that comes our way"
The facade of confidence Kael had built up to that point of his life was about to become a problem.
As they set on their journey, the trio was skeptical of their surroundings. Through the Music Plains, however, there's not where to hide, so their fear diminished.
But as they got closer and closer to the Titanic Hollow's lush forest, their fear started to grow back. Although keeping a straight face, Kael was becoming anxious about a sudden attack. The whole group was ready in case things went south.
🐺 "Look! A doll" she said as she pointed to it.
There was only one reason why the goblin's doll was on the ground.
Celina went to pick up the doll, hoping to find the goblin to give it to her.

At last, the long awaited eye-invaded came out of a bush. It was feral, with quick body movements and its many eyes scanning every place possible.
It noticed the trio, and rushed at them in an instant.
Kael's mind started drowning with the still vivid memory of when Connor and him escaped from the two eye-invadeds three days ago. He was fearing the worst.
🗣️ (Breathe ... You've survived through worse ... This is fine, you need to keep a calm face) he thought to himself. His bodily instincts were telling him to run, but he needed to properly plan what to do first.
🗣️ "Brace yourselves" he said, ready for action, but he wasn't expecting what happened next. The eye-invaded suddenly halted. It looked at the doll Celina had on her hands, admiring it for a few seconds. Its frontal eyes were all locked onto the doll.
🗣️ "What's happening? Could ... could this be the goblin that left the town for supplies?"
The trio was standing still. Panic was settling, but their posture was rigid nonetheless.
🐺 "If it is the goblin, it may be remembering its connection to the doll. Do you think this could be a weakness?"
Kael's mind started rushing to come up with a plan of action. They needed to experiment, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
🗣️ (The doll... it had to mean something to the goblin, something the infection hadn’t erased. If I give it back, maybe... just maybe... it will distract it.) he thought to himself.
🗣️ "Celina, slowly pass me the doll, let's see if it follows it"
Celina wasn't trusting Kael's plan of action this time.
She was hesitant, and didn't move, fearing anything would alert the eye-invaded.
🗣️ "Please, trust me. It could help us understand these monsters"
The knowledge would undeniably be useful. Her hand tightened on the doll. She was ready for anything; going to her werewolf form shouldn't take that much time to be able to fight back or run. But alas, Kael's calmness managed to convince her into following his plan. She passed the doll to Kael, and the eye-invaded moved its eyes towards is, but without moving its body; it had eyes all over, after all.
As Kael picked it up, he wondered what would the eye-invaded do if it had the object connected to its past.
🗣️ "I'm gonna throw the doll to it, and that should buy us time to escape. There are some giant grass blades nearby, we could hide behind them"
👻 "Why-Why shouldn't we just run away instead?" Connor said with a shaky voice.
🗣️ "I need to see what it does with the doll. I know it's risky, but it could help us understand these monsters better."
Celina and Connor were fear-invaded. The eye-invasors alredy had a concept of being brutal, and they could easily become a new victim.

🗣️ "On my mark. Three. Two. One"
As Kael threw the doll towards the eye-invaded, the trio ran and dispersed, hiding behind different giant grass blades.
They peeked, wondering if the eye-invaded would do anything to the doll. What happened was a lot different.  The creature’s eyes bulged, growing larger and larger until they seemed ready to burst from its skull. Then, with a sickening pop, the first one exploded. Black, greasy fluid sprayed across the grass, followed by another pop, and another. Celina’s stomach churned, her hand flying to her mouth. It wasn’t just gross—it was wrong, unnatural in every way.
👻 "Fireworks!" - Connor forced a laugh. - "That was... not gross to behold ... At all." But even his attempt at humor couldn’t hide the shake in his voice.