Forest of the night

( this series will be a set of 3-5 short stories from the forest of the mystics)

It was nearly midnight when it happened. As Nova wandered through the trails of the woods she had memorized, she heard a twig snap behind her. Instinctively, she turned around to face the source of the noise, seeing a large wolf like head staring at her, illuminated by the pale moonlight. It looked like a wolf, but Nova knew better, she knew it was no wolf. The creature stalking nova began to advance, revealing a withered, spindly insect like limb. At seeing the leg, Nova began to make a break for it, running down the familiar trails to try and escape the beast, twisting and darting through low hanging branches and fallen trees. Once Nova ran far enough and fast enough that she couldn't run anymore, and was sure she had escaped the creature, she collapsed on the ground. Panting heavily she laid on the ground. As Nova looked up at the pale moon once again, she sighed, getting back up and heading home. After about three miles of walking from her hiding place and her muscles were screaming in agony, but Nova trudged down the path anyway. As she reached the edge of the forest and end of her trail, she heard a haunting distorted howl. Accepting her fate, Nova looked back up to the moon one last time and let out a mournful cry. At dawn, all that was left of the small shadow fox was a clump of purple black fur, and bones. Nova had left behind her two young pups, orphaned in the den she had perished in front of.


Coal remembered his pack as he attempted to struggle free from the rubble he was trapped under. A landslide had occurred, and Coal had pushed his alpha out of the way in order to save her. It was the middle of the dry season and the sun was beating down on him. As Coal passed out from the heat, he saw the shadow of a death harpy's wings loom over him. About five hours later he woke to see a death harpy attempting to free the beta werewolf from the rubble, freeing his leg. As the beta limped off, the death harpy grabbed the beta, who was still in his canidae form, and flew off. After an hour of flying, the death harpy placed Coal on the ground near his pack's territory and flew off, leaving the beta to limp into the heart of his pack's territory and pass out. Once he woke up again, Coal saw food and a bowl of water. As he drank up, he was thankful that a sign of peril saved him.


Coca had been wandering through the forest, navigating the abnormal terrain. She had just barely escaped a Sudra attack, injuring the false mangrove harpy's wing severely. As she wandered, she saw things that she wouldn't otherwise have seen in the swamp. There were beautiful flowers blooming in the chunks of floating earth in various colors, shapes and sizes, and there were many beautiful creatures that wouldn't last in the dull murky swamp primarily due to their colors. The young false harpy knelt down and picked a wild lily growing in a small patch, placing it in her hair. As Coca continued to explore her new surroundings, she saw many different creatures, which from her point of view, looked odd. Coca had seen a water demon resting in a small pond that took refuge on one of the floating islands. A pack of werewolves in their wolf forms hunting a perilcat. A hytta(hi- tha) fighting to escape the hungry maw of a Masuna (ma-sue-na) An onata( oh-nah-ta) playing with two night fox cubs, guiding them away from a hungry atsuka ( uht-sue-kuh), and a anakade (ana-kay-de) flying past. As Coca settled on a branch, she saw a death harpy, chanting something the mangrove harpy couldn't hear, causing a clump of black and purple fur along with bones into the air. At the end of the end of the chant, a spirit of a night fox flew into the air. Coca sighed, knowing that the circle of life in her home continued.