𝒍𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 : 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒏

Chapter 3: i see you

The heavy smell of damp soil was overwhelming, clogging up his airway as his body moved about on its own.

The darkness around him held and uneasy feeling, a tingle in the back of his head that told him to run or at least keep an open eye as he walked around. The outlines of the timber trees around him felt more like a crowd of people rather than just as they were, trees. They had eyes, burning their glares into him as he walked around with no direction.

The sounds around him, the growing of those humanoid trees as they swayed in the light wind above, the rustle of fallen leaves a few feet away, the crack of a twig in the far off distance, they all felt so loud. Renjun could hear every little sound and beat of movement around him.

Everything felt so unnatural, like he wasn't meant to be here in that moment, he wasn't welcome there. The grown trees glared and told him to leave, the wind felt angry at his presence, the earth seemed to beg him to leave. But his feet wouldn't budge at his will, they walked on their own. He had no control.

He stepped over fallen branches, scraping his ankles on the thorns of bushes and twigs, it hurt but he couldn't step around them to avoid the pain, he had no control.

He felt sick, he wasn't there in his body, he was watching over his shoulder.

The light from above the tree breaks onto the forest ground, illuminating it just enough for him to make out the area better, but not the best. He was still blind and confused. Where was he?

In this strange area with no control, he was so lost.

Suddenly the area in from of him is brighter, visible for a short distance, like their a torch above thats beaming around the soil. While it should bring him joy, it fills him with terror instead. It's a small clearing in the thick overgrown trees home, formed into a perfect circle with the trees surrounding the blank area being stripped completely of bark, the pale meat of the timber is such a stark contrast that it startles him a bit. But inside scares him, fills him with such dread. The wind is screaming at him now.

There's bodies. Skins pale in the moons light, sickly looking and rotting. Human and animal. A sick mixture that makes it look more like an art piece than anything else, dried blood is splattered on the ground and on the sides of those debarked trees. Words and symbols as well, not that his mind can read them.

The smell hits him too, the rotting stench that turns his stomach and makes him want to vomit on his own feet. But the retching never starts, there's no reaction from his body at all, his eyes just stay forward. But his vision his blurring, darkening at the edge pixel by pixel.

There's now a presence behind him, he can feel the hot puffs of breath on his neck, the stench of the breath that smells just like the rotting corpses in front of him now. It's there just standing, leaning into his personal space. Breathing and letting out a low growl.

His body turns, whatever is controlling him is more curious than himself because he doesn't want to see whatever is behind him. But his eyes track from the corpses. Across the trees and dirt, but everything is getting darker, his vision his fading at an alarming rate. Whatever is behind him, he won't get to see, he knows that, he's thankful for that.

But the growl is getting louder, more and more menacing as he continues to turn towards the being.

Then theres hot puffs of air on his face, the smell is choking him, making his blind eyes water.

Then, everything is gone. Everything thing seems to freeze, or disappear, he's not sure. But suddenly there's nothing but himself, and even that he can barely feel. The growling is silent, the wind his not screaming, the earth is calm. Until there's voice, its soft, just above a whisper. It's repeating something, it's begging him. He wants to speak, ask what's wrong or to speak up, he can't hear what's wrong of what the voice is saying. It's so soft and mumbled that its blurring together and incomprehensible. But there's not confirmation for him, only a rough push to his shoulders.