Lineage: The Legend of The Red Riding Hood

Chapter 08: Where the Wild Flowers Grow

Silence...

A cold refreshing breeze of wind gently swept through the night. The peace the forest was exuding was unearthly. In a beautiful part of this woodland madness, a patch of field where danger coincides with beauty. Yellow tulips, bluebells, violet pansy, and at the middle are red roses. Wild berries, thorny vines, poisonous plants growing in harmony with ornamental flowers, all neatly placed and intertwined in an aesthetic fashion.

Eerily blending well with this magical garden are a pile of bones and decomposing carcass scattered over the place, as if serving as fertilizers for the vegetation.

One of the recently added bones has been resting for 3 days slightly beneath the surface of the flowers. It stayed this way for 8 more hours.

The fog covering the tree tops lifted, reveling a brilliant star coated skies with the full moon at its peak, shining its pale white light to the flower fields. Soon, steam began to emanate from that particular set of bones. The steam got hotter and hotter, the ground where it rest began to shift. The bones then started to twitch.

Flesh starts to materialize in the bones, muscle strands wrapping around the skeletal frame. Organs forming after a solid muscle foundation has been formed. Veins stretching in all sides, blood raising, hair growing, facial features showing. The entire human body finally reconstructed, with the brain live and active, her revival was signaled by the first beat of her heart that woke the forest.

A long and loud gasp for air was the first sound she makes. Completely naked and on her knees, covered in bodily fluids while sitting on the rich soil. A few red flower petal attached themselves on her sticky body, covering some of her parts.

Coraline looks around, her head twitching and body shaking, still in shock as to how she ended up in this bizarre Foliage like cemetery. She slowly phased herself as she tried to stood up, her knees shaking and muscles trembling, she fell down a couple of times before finally standing on her feet. It's like a newborn trying to take their first step.

It didn't take long for muscle memory to kick in. Coraline starts regaining control of her body again. Groaning with every step she takes, her body feels very hot and mildly sore.

Taking a wide path, she finds herself in a forked trail. One leading to a narrow path while the other to a desolated area filled with burrows and trees uprooted from the ground.

That's probably where it went. Coraline thought, taking the narrow path. That wretched Dreadmire... She followed the trail, steering clear of trees and soft ground. It was a long walk, making it even longer as she reached another road that separates. She sighed, too exhausted and hungry to think. Shaking her head, she's beginning to think that she might be hearing things.

The sound of gentle bells with a mix of sweet whispering tunes starts to fill the air. Coraline looks up and saw beautiful blue lights floating above her.

"Will-o'-the-wisp." Coraline's voice sounded teary, like she's suppressing herself from crying. "Can you help me?" she asked, watching the blue orbs of light playfully float around her legs. "Can you show me the way out?" one of the blue orbs rested itself on Coraline's palm, it felt warm, it was nice. The Will-o'-the-wisp then floats away, leaving the rest of the group.

Not sure if it understands her or not, Coraline was left with no other choice but to follow the blue spirit. It lead her to many suspicious looking paths, she tiptoed her way through a swamp that homed a swarm of leech bats while still trying to keep up with the wisp. She had to swim murky waters, her legs getting snagged many times by a branch or a vine under the waters which leads her to stumble a lot, submerging herself and having to feel the unpleasant mushy and icky mud underneath with her feet.