She looked at me as if I were something foul—something less than human.
A monster.
It was the same look I had seen my whole life.
Everywhere I went, people judged me by my face, by the whispers that followed me: the boy who killed his parents. Most of Azeria knew the story, though I myself didn't even remember what happened that night.
And now—her eyes.
The same judgment. The same hatred. Did she know about me too?
Her voice was sharp, ringing with authority.
"We draids are the guardians of this forest. I won't allow someone like you inside. Someone carrying a void within. Humans come here seeking our power, the secrets of Temps Forest, and none leave alive. Even if you're just a child, I will show no mercy. I will kill you without hesitation."
My throat locked. I wanted to speak, but terror gripped me so hard no sound escaped. I stood frozen, my whole body trembling.
"Leave this place now, boy," she commanded.
The path behind me reappeared in a sudden shimmer of light.
I could leave. I should leave.
But for the first time in my life, I didn't want to run away. For the first time, I wanted to do something.
Before I could answer, another voice echoed from my right.
"Kyla, what are you doing?"
I turned, startled, as another woman stepped out from the trees. She looked almost identical to the first—same long golden hair, same white dress laced with vines—but her face was different, sharper, colder.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Why are you hesitating? Because he's a child? Every human who enters this forest must die. You know that."
The first woman—Kyla. So that was her name.
She remained silent, her expression caught between defiance and doubt.
The second one stepped closer, her presence heavy and suffocating.
"Do you remember what happened last time? And still you're treating him nicely? Don't be a fool. Do your job like you should."
Nice?
If that was mercy, I didn't want to know what cruelty looked like.
Kyla finally muttered back, her voice low.
"Chris, I know what I'm doing."
Chris's eyes sharpened.
"Do you really? Or do you want another calamity like the one a hundred years ago? When this forest burned, when our kin were slaughtered, when the draids were nearly wiped out by selfish, bloodthirsty humans, a day when almost everything ended?"
At those words, I saw it—fear flickering across Kyla's face. She had gone pale. Her lips trembled.
"That… that will never happen again," she whispered. "I'll never let it happen again."
The forest itself seemed to tighten around us. The path behind me vanished once more. The air grew heavy, pressing down on my chest, suffocating me as Chris's killing intent thickened.
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.
Desperation clawed at me.
"Wait!" I screamed, thrusting out my palm. The strange arrow-mark gleamed there, black and sharp against my skin.
"I came here only by following this! I don't know why it's pointing toward this forest—I don't even know why it's on my hand!"
Kyla froze.
Her eyes locked on the mark, and the hatred in her flickered, then vanished. Her expression shifted into something unreadable. Not anger, not scorn—something far stranger.
She whispered, almost to herself.
"That mark… after all these years…"
For the first time, someone wasn't looking at me like a monster.
---
I Kyla my vision suddenly blurred, as my mind slipped back a century.
Temps Forest had been alive back then—vast, radiant, full of light. Until the night the humans came.
They had arrived smiling, pretending to be allies and we treated them as our guests. But soon, the smiles twisted into cruelty. They burned trees, butchered creatures, slaughtered animals, Draids, Faries and magical beasts alike. Their laughter filled the night as screams echoed everywhere.
At that time I was just a child. I remembered hiding, wedged between two massive rocks covered in vines, trembling so violently I thought my bones might shatter. I pressed my eyes shut, I covered my ears,closed my eyes and prayed they would never find me.
But the screams didn't stop. The smell of blood thickened. My people—my family—died around me.
Until suddenly, silence.
A hand reached into my hiding place. A human hand.
When I looked up, someone stood there,but I can't see his face. Tears dripped onto my skin as he whispered, "I'm sorry. I'm late. I should have been here to protect you… to protect my people."
On his hand burned the same arrow-mark. But his was darker, sharper, gleaming like the hand of a clock.
And then—darkness, maybe from the relief I suddenly fainted. I remembered nothing else.
---
"Kyla!" Chris's voice snapped her back to the present. She was glaring at me now, but her expression wasn't hatred anymore—it was confusion, it looks like she want to know something.
I stood frozen, not understanding, heart pounding.
Her lips parted. Her voice trembled.
"Who… are you?"