Falling Star.

Echo Forest

Aleksander had seen so little of the world he inhabited, and he was acutely unaware of this fact until he made it past the fields, he had grown up cultivating. As he crossed over the top of that hill that was just past the corn fields he took in the view before him...
Just before him was the Forest of Echoes, a nightmare that had troubled many back at home and travelers coming through as well, a lot of them spoke about how the forest had a way of toying with your mind, but never spoke of any further details.
Aleksander knew one way or another he had his work cut out for him, that was never in question, but as he stared not only at the forest... But the path past it, doubt did find a foothold in the back of his mind. No, he wasn't going to get Eveline back thinking that way, he reached up to his forearm and pinched, wincing a bit at the pain. It did the trick though, it snapped him back into the moment and he began his trek downhill, heading towards the forest.
While atop the hill he'd weighed the pros and cons of going through the forest or going around, but he knew he'd have to go through no matter what. Going through was a day's journey at least, but going around..
That could add one- maybe even two days to the trip, and Eveline didn't have that kind of time.
It took only a few minutes to get to the edge of the forest, and he did not waste long with procrastinating before heading right inside. His hand did not leave the hilt of his blade, not when he walked in and not for the next two hours that followed as he made his way through the forest.
For all intents and purposes the forest almost seemed normal at forest, or atleast as normal as a forest in the dreaming world can be. The things that differentiated it from normal though would be the webbing that covered much of the floor of the forest, the trees, and even the leaves and branches at the top of the forest. It was absurd- and it wasn't long that Aleksander made it into the forest that Aleksander had heard.. Her.

He could've sworn it was Eveline, it sounded like her but.. Wrong. He first heard her scream, in the distance. He'd ran towards the source of the sound when he heard it, but all he managed to do was get himself lost. Then he heard it again and.. Got himself even further lost, he didn't know whether it was his sister or the forest by the third scream, so he continued on his path he'd chosen, not following the sound.
Her screams got more frequent after that, and closer for that matter.
Around every half hour, there would be a scream that got closer.. and closer... and...
Hour 10, the scream was right beside him. He turned to see the source, and was met with nothing. Though- he heard something shuffling around, just outside of his peripheral. Something WAS here, and from his brief glimpse of it.. It was not Eveline.
He gripped, his sword, trying to listen and look around to try and find the source of the screams, and after about ten seconds of silence...
Behind you!
Aleksander's eyes widened, not having time to wonder where the warning had come. He ripped his sword out of it's sheath and dodged to the side, turning to meet the face of whatever had snuck up behind him.
Spider. A GIANT, spider.
As big as the cart they'd spend most of their life riding back and forth from the fields in, but there was something.. Wrong with this creature, it was covered in lumps, and within each of those lumps was the vague shape of a face.
It let out a horrible scream, and when it did each of those faces curled into a horrible scream as well, echoing throughout the forest.
He couldn't spend much time taking this in, as he'd turned the spider had been stabbing towards him with one of it's pointed legs, and Aleksander had only just barely managed to dodge.

Aleksander held his sword in both hands, steeling himself as best he could manage. As he searched for his bravery, preparing himself for the fight, he could swear he saw his blade light up further in response.
Idiot, SWING!
It was as if his body moved on it's own then, he felt his muscles tense as he lunged forward, planting his foot down right before the spider and swinging with all of his might, though not fast enough to actually strike the beast. It jumped up right before he made contact, narrowly avoiding the hit.
Though- something interesting happened with this swing. Where Aleksander had sliced through the air, it had left a.. Cut of light in the air, that shot forward at light speed just as he finished his strike. It hit quite a few of the trees in it's path, even knocking the first one it hit down and leaving a burning pit in the other trees.
"Wh- did I do that? What even-" started Aleksander, looking down at the blade for a moment before it flashed with light again.
"WE did that pal, now get your head in the game or you're gonna get-
WATCH OUT."
The voice in the back of Aleksanders head was right, his gaze shot upwards as the Spider lunged towards him. Aleksander rolled out of the way, just barely avoiding it's hulking form as it crashed into the tangle of roots he'd been standing in a moment before. As Aleksander had dodged, his foot had caught on a root and tripped him up. He fell on his ass, almost losing his grip on his sword in the process but only just managing to keep hold. The spider recovered quicker than he did, it turned to strike towards him as he lay there on the ground looking dumb, and as Aleksander brought the sword up to shield himself up, he heard it again, "CLOSE YOUR EYES!"

His eyes slammed shut immediately, and not even a second later he felt... Heat on his face, and even through his eyelids he saw a bright flash of light. When it faded, he opened his eyes and saw the spider clawing at its own face. It's beaded black eyes were now small pits, each letting out small plumes of smoke from them. It was too busy dealing with it's eyes to notice as Aleksander gripped the sword and got to his feet, letting out a loud yell as he ran forward and thrust his sword straight into the spiders face.
This cut the scream short, but not Aleksanders yell. He wasn't done yet, he had not forgot this creature toying with his head and using his sisters screams to distract him. His yell intensify's, and so does the light from his blade as he pushes it all the way inside of the spider, sinking it in to the hilt as the light grows brighter and brighter. Once the entire blade was inside, the light began to shoot out through cracks in the spider, and within two seconds.. It exploded in a burst of light, not even leaving a body behind.
This left only Aleksander behind, panting heavily from the battle. It wasn't long before the trees near him began to.. Peel away, as if pages from a book, they would peel away and leave only white behind, all over the trees, the ground, the leaves.. Until in a sudden burst of light, everything around him faded. In those seconds after the burst where he floated in that white space, a vision came to him. It was the face of a young girl, not too unlike Eveline in appearance.
Was this what the Venatia he'd spoken to had been talking about- flashes of the dreaming whom the nightmare had come from? It must have been, and just as she began to fade away.. He swore that she looked up at him, and smiled.
As color came back to the world, he sat in an empty clearing, the forest he had been in only a minute ago now gone entirely. It was a strange feeling, having completely wiped away a forest he'd grown up fearing and steering clear from, and not only that. HE had been the one to do it,

him, this little gatherer from Craters Edge. And how had he known how to fight like that- sure, he knew basic fighting skills from his father, but nothing like what he did against that nightmare.
"Well, I don't want to take TOO much credit pal, but I'm just saying-maybe you should give me some props too, eh?" Said the voice at the back of Aleksanders mind once again, causing him to look around in alarm.
"Who are you? WHERE are you?" Aleksander called out in reply, looking around frantically for the source.
"Buddy, look down, I've been with you the entire fight." And it was with that sentence that realization dawned on Aleksander, and he looked down at the blade in his hand. "Hey there pal." Aleksander dropped the sword in that moment, which we'll give him credit and say was probably the normal thing to do. The voice disappeared when he did this, and he took almost a minute before hesitantly picking up the sword again.
"NOW THAT was rude. Here I am- giving you a little more KNOW HOW on how to fight and help you take down that creepy crawly and you go and drop me on the ground- REALLY?" His sword says, anger in it's tone.
"Hey hey I'm sorry! Give me a second to process here- I had no idea my sword was able to.. To TALK."
"Yeah yeah, well get past that quick pal because we got business to attend to, this forest is nothing compared to what we got ahead of us. Me and my last partner, the fella you took me and that necklace off of, we travelled the long way to get to town. He was a good hunter, but he was getting on in years, he wasn't as quick as you are now. We ran through each of the nightmares to get here, including.. The Meteor Fields, so that means we got the advantage, we know what's coming."

Aleksander listens, not interrupting his blade until that last part, where he replies, "So- if you knew what was ahead, you couldn't have.. Given me a warning that there was a giant spider that wanted me dead waiting in the forest?"
A few seconds of pause after this question, before he swore he heard the sword clear it's throat and say, "Well, mister, our connection was still finalizing. It wasn't strong enough for us to communicate how we are now, but now we can talk like this, so that issue won't pop back up again.. Hopefully."
Aleksander rolled his eyes at this, setting down the sword after this and readjusting the sheath from his back to his side. It would make it much easier for him to draw, and it would also make it to where he could keep his hand on the hilt, listening to what the sword had to say whenever he needed.
As he picked up the sword to put it in it's sheath he asked it, "Do you have a- name, or something I can call you? Calling you swordy seems a bit childish after all."
It chimed up quickly at this question, glowing a little brighter and replying, "Well- my last partner gave me a name, you can call me Glaer.
At your service partner- and no you don't have to introduce yourself Aleksander, we're bonded now, I know you. We're in this together, I'm going to help you get your sister back, and that's a promise. Let's get going."
Aleksander had no complaints, after taking a breather for another ten minutes he steeled himself and continued forward, knowing there was only more to come.