Cold wind blew through trees that towered high in the sky, the branches and leave rustled while many small creatures clung to them in a desperate attempt to stay safe, small droplets of water cascaded from the sky being carried by a strong gust; The trees intercepted and drank the rain that coated their leaves, as it built up it became a fine mist that spread below creating a mystifying scene, no animals were seen travelling on the ground as they'd hid in their nests and tunnels to stay away from the storm.
Mist-Sea Forest was a large area filled with trees that covered a few tens of kilometres of terrain, usually people strayed away from it since there was little value to be obtained from it as well as how hard it was to navigate, the mist that covered the area near constantly due to the severe weather patterns of the area was hard to see through even at the lightest of times, plus it was infused with the mana from the trees around it making mana-vision useless when trying to find your way around it, this combined with the repetitive pattern of trees made it a confusing area.
The trees that grew in this area were Mavena Trees, they never existed alone and all the trees in the area was linked together, they all germinated from the same seed and spread fairly quick, they grew more than 30 meters tall normally and some even reached over 50, they grew in areas where the mana saturation was fairly high and they usually grew near water-sources, but the erratic weather in this area which caused rain varying from light to heavy every other day allowed them to create this massive forest.
Anyone who encountered this place would assume it was a fairly desolate place, yet if you managed to make your way to the centre of this forest you would find a small village, while the trees surround it stood proud and tall as the others all of a sudden they would disperse at a certain area, there were many buildings all formed in a circular area around a larger one, it looked like a well-planned village and not one that popped up on the impulse of a small group of vagabonds that wanted to settle down.
There were three distinct layers, with each layer having larger fortifications than the last, the outer walls were made of well-constructed wooden towers and fortress walls with pits lined with wooden stakes surrounding them.
The light rain still fell upon the village and lights could be seen flickering from inside the different houses from time to time, but the mist seemed to disperse into a whirl above the place seemingly defying basic physics.
On the outer circle of the town there was a large tavern it was one of the bigger buildings and without a doubt one of the noisiest at this time, being the evening, a lot of the population were resting from a hard day of work, what would be better than to sit down and have a drink at the tavern?
… … …
"Heeeeey~ Barkeep another one over here, will you?!" A large drunk man yelled among the rowdy tavern while leaning on the back of his chair, he chugged the last of the beer in his wooden mug as he spoke with a slurred tone.
"Haven't you had enough Will? Don't you have patrol in the morning?" A smaller boy sitting next to him shook the large beer bellied Will on the shoulder and tried to warn him.
"Afh- Don't be such a spoil sport Reece, just one, maybe two… or three more will be fine!" Will replied with a face redder than a tomato, he had clearly already had more than his share of drinks for the night.
"You should listen to the youngen' William, you're getting on in age too much alcohol won't be good for yer' system!" The barkeep, Dom replied with a loud voice while giving him a side glance, he skilfully poured a handful of beers before sliding them across the counter towards the customers.
"Ahhhhhh, come on! My wife just gave birth so I'm in a good mood, I've finally got a son! A Son! Ahahahahahahahahahaha!" Will exclaimed ignoring all the warnings and laughed heartily.
Dom and Reece just sighed in response, they knew that Will had been on edge the entire time his wife was pregnant, so he finally had a lot of weight taken off his shoulders, in the end Dom filled up another mug and walked it over to the table they were sat around, in the end anyone successfully giving birth in this village was good news for everyone.
Humans had high fertility rate compared to the other races, this was the truth yet most of these children didn't even make it to their birth and became another forgotten memory, this village's population wasn't too large and it wasn't because they restricted their population, it was because simply expanding it was a hard task and was essentially a large gamble, but for the people here this was normal, it was how it has been their entire lives all the way until the oldest generation that live here.
"As long as you don't get yourself killed it doesn't matter how much you drink" A voice with a slight warning tone flew across from the counter, sitting there was a woman with striking red hair smirking in the drunkard's direction.
"Haha, sorry 'Miss Vice Captain' I'll be careful! It's not like there's much trouble around here anyway!" The barrel like man shrugged it off like nothing, the woman just shrugged and turned back before taking a sip of her beer.
"Hey! Miss Vanessa is just warning you! I told you before that something felt wrong in the forest recently…" Reece rebuked Will while bowing his head in the direction of the lady in apology.
"Isn't that just hearsay?" Will showed his doubt, he had heard some people saying something was happening in the forest, yet he didn't believe it since to him everything was normal.
"I don't think so, I feel like even the wolves are on edge whenever we go out on patrol, that isn't normal!" Reece replied under his breath, he didn't want to spread panic throughout the place, so he said it quietly, yet even if he did a lot of people felt the same thing already.
"Seriously?" Will doubted his ears and his face changed from that of a red drunkard to holding a slight ounce of seriousness before whispering: "I thought it was just some fearmongers wanting us on the guard to take our job more seriously"
'And you can say that with a straight face?' Reece though in his head completely exasperated, seeing his senior act like this he felt his efforts he had been putting in to training the wolves slightly useless.
Reece was one of the youngest of Mistveil's (The village's) guard, while there are others only slightly older than him he stood out among the crowd, one of the key skills of the guard was their ability to work with the Ghost Wolves that they raise in the village, they're wolves with fur as white as snow and eyes to match, they had a high sensitivity for life force and can mark the territory to easily find their way through the forest of mist, thus they're key companions.
Reece has managed to develop a unique skill that helps a lot in this area, its suspected he has a trace of Lupus bloodline in his heritage thus he can easily communicate with the wolves and his degree and rate of training are way above the others, thus his skills are valued.
"It's true, I guess you haven't heard the news then?" Vanessa had stood up and walked over to their table before sitting comfortably on one of the remaining chairs and staring at the two, she had overheard what they were discussing and tried to join in.
""News?"" Both Will and Reece leaned in to listen once they realised something had happened already.
Vanessa looked at both of them before speaking "You know Redric, that old man?"
Reece could only cock his head In confusion.
"The eccentric? What about him?" Will knew who she was talking about even if Reece was in the dark, Redric was one of the older generation that never had any children, he refused to live within the confines of the village and lived alone on the outside with a family of Ghost Wolves he raised.
"When one of the guards were doing their usual patrol, they were going to drop by where he lived, they found nothing!" She revealed.
"Nothing? What do you mean, was he was gone? Isn't that normal for him?" Will said having doubts.
"Not just gone, his entire place was levelled to the ground, at most all they found was his little shack completely decimated and some fur from his wolves strewn everywhere…" A dark tone swept over her face as she revealed the truth.
Reece was still confused yet Will almost went white as a sheet understanding the implications, even though Redric was considered an eccentric among the village he was also known for his strength as a warrior, if something did him in or at least managed to drive him away it was something they should be worried about.
Will looked at the mug of beer in his hands before steadily placing it back on the table, the redness in his face had already receded by more than half "Maybe, I, uh, shouldn't be drinking so much" he said before letting out a small gulp from his throat.
Reece realised what was happened after seeing Will willingly stop drinking and he started to worry in his heart as he looked to Vanessa for help.
She saw his glance filled with worry and returned a small smile before trying to reassure him "It's fine, even if something happened, we will be able to deal with it, you don't need to worry Reece"
Reece tried to smile in reply, but his heart was still heavy, Vanessa then shook her head and stepped away back towards the bar, she picked up her mug and downed the remaining beer before slamming it on the bar and exhaling as if to get rid of the stress in her heart.
"I'm gonna' retire now, have to have a clear head for my shift in the morning, see you tomorrow" she said towards Dom who was stood behind the bar, he was already in the know since they were having a small discussion before about the same thing, he merely nodded before she pushed the two-way door out and stepped outside.
The cold air hit her face and her breath condensed into a fine mist as she breathed, looking at the sky which was quickly dimming she decided to make her way home.
This was Vanessa Cross, she was well known within the village and was the vice-captain of the guard, she was around 5''8 and wore a white cotton shirt with brown hide trousers and boots, her hair was a distinct red and waved slightly as it travelled to just past her shoulders, her eyes glimmered with a tangerine colour and gave off an aura of sharpness.
She travelled for a good 10 minutes before she arrived at a medium sized house still situated on the outer circle, most people in the guard resided here so they could react to any problems on the outside faster, she took out a small iron key and opened the simple wooden door to her house, walking in she scanned her simple living area, a bed with feathered pillows with a thin mattress made of wool, a large wardrobe and a knitted mat without much else, on the wall hung a longsword and next to it was a stand with some pieces of armour, other than that it was fairly empty with a couple of pieces of not-so-notable furniture here and there.
She quickly threw herself on to the bed and laid facing the ceiling in thought.
What she said in the bar was the truth but at the same time it wasn't the entirety of the truth, she had wanted to warn those there but didn't want to send them in to panic, the truth even gave her slight chills when she first heard it.
When the patrolling group arrived the first thing they saw was red, pools and scrapes of blood covering the entire area; They quickly found some remains of wolves and their pups strewn everywhere that they could see, claws, bones, teeth, fur and eyeballs carelessly chucked around like they'd been put through a blender half-assed, it was true that they couldn't 'find' Redric, but they were sure that the blood there belonged to him, they found some human finger bones and other smaller bones in the pools yet nothing else.
And yet, there was barely a trace of whatever caused it, based on the remains left behind it was assumed to be a large animal, obviously carnivorous yet no other leads could be found.
Tomorrow, they would be extending their range of patrol and their unit size will also be increased, two groups with her and the captain at the lead will be dispatched, thinking about it made her sigh.
She reached towards her chest and grabbed the necklace that was laid there hidden beneath her shirt, it hung from her hand and caught the moonlight that peeked in through the window behind her creating a prism like effect that covered the whole room.
It was a red gem attached to a chain, the colour was incredibly clear yet held a unique charm that drew one's eyes towards it, as the moonlight passed through it one could almost see a heartbeat pulsing from it.
Vanessa couldn't help but be enraptured by the sight every time she saw it, she always felt as if she had a unique connection or yearning for it yet she had no idea what it was made of, this necklace was something passed down through every generation of her family without fail, and she was the only one remaining after her parents passed away a few years back, she knew nothing else other than that.
Of course, she had an idea of its origins, this was one of her secrets she wouldn't tell anyone.
While others were worried about whatever caused this she had other thoughts, as she thought back to the disaster that the other patrol encountered a slight glow passed through her eyes, as she watched the gem spin in her sight her blood stirred, she was excited.
She couldn't help it, it was her innate nature, although she didn't know why she knew from her status, she had the blood of a Dragon flowing through her, one of the strongest and most isolated species in the world.