Fear fueling their feet, hearts sounding like the loud drums of the town criers, they made their way through the darkness of the forest. Blindly they pushed forward breaking their focus ahead occasionally, to see if their pursuers were any closer.
"They're over there!" Someone shouted.
"Get them!" Another screamed outrageously.
Hearing that made their feet move ever faster, so fast one of them tripped off a vine and crashed to the ground.
"My ankle!" She exclaimed.
The other swiftly turned back. Helping her up he carried the girl upon his shoulders, resuming the race. They were close to the cliff. The cliff? What was the plan here, where were they going, how were they going to escape once they reached the cliff? He got out of the marble-bark forest barely escaping an arrow that grazed his head and struck a tree nearby. Making their way to the edge of the cliff they turned, finally facing their pursuers for the second time.
One by one the mob emerged from the forest armed with pitchforks, touches, bows and arrows, hate painted their face like the stars painted the night sky. To think these were their fellow villagers, ready to have their heads and burn their bodies to the stake.
"We didn't do it!" The girl cried, "it wasn't our fault!"
They moved back slowly as the villagers kept getting closer.
"She died of her own accord, we did nothing wrong!" The boy exclaimed.
They were so close to the edge it seemed that they stood on the tip of the cliff. It was at that moment the villagers halted at the sound of a commanding voice. They cleared a path and out came a man, white bearded with the attire of a renowned warrior. He held up the touch, and with a smirk he said;
"Vanquished be the innocent born among the guilty. Surrender yourselves to punishment and I promise no harm will come to you."
"Liar!" The girl screamed.
"You have no choice!" He snapped, "there's no where else to run Aurelia, surrender and I'll make sure you and your brother get a fair judgement."
"Have you no shame?" asked her brother spitefully, "my sister rejected your proposal Tobias, let her be. If you have any dignity left, let us go!"
Tobias clicked his tongue, chuckling in a rather sinister way. Caressing his hair he exhaled, turning his back on them.
"Take them."
With those words the mob cheered, their touches up as they chanted his name. Two strong meat heads walked towards the screaming siblings. They grabbed Aurelia's legs and her brother's arm, trying to confine them but the resistance was tough. Both had made up their minds that if they were going down, then it would not be without a fight. For their mother and for their future.
Finally one of them was able to hold down Aurelia, but her brother made no room to be held down. He managed to hold his ground trying to push the man down the cliff, struggling arms against arms, their weight shook the ground and pieces of the cliff cracked off. For a young lad he had his fair share of abnormal strength, the other guy had sweat dripping down his face.
Suddenly, the crack within the cliff spread causing it to collapse. It took both the boy and the man down with it.
"Silko!" Aurelia cried out, her heart almost flying out of her mouth as she watched the boy fall into the darkness below.
Without a single after thought and with the sudden strength of a hundred lions she broke free, leaping after her brother into the darkness of the world below. The villagers cheered. Tobias growled, spitting to the ground whilst anger rested on his face. The first light of the rising sun fell upon the chipped cliff. Dawn had arrived, the mob returned to the village.
Legend and folklore passed from generation to generation by the people of Gandava, tells of the monstrosities that lie at the feet of the mountain on which their village sat. Evils that make your nightmares seem like sweet dreams. Giants that eat children and man-eating plants. Poisonous giant snakes and wandering cannibals seeking any unfortunate soul lost and in search of comfort.
The old men say the floor becomes molten lava at night, and the trees come alive, striding with their roots and hunting for flesh to nourish their bellies. Children are warned through bedtime stories never to venture beyond the boundary walls for fear they might fall into the forbidden valleys, swallowed by the ground, never to be seen again.
Aurelia gasped as her eyes swung wide open. She sat up slowly, her head banging like it had been hit by an Eldowud trunk. Her dress, disguised by the red flowers she laid on, was disfigured and partially threaded.
How am I still alive? She thought. A question she quickly forgot as soon as she remembered why she was there in the first place. She gasped looking around briskly, worried and frightened as she walked around like a little girl lost within the woods.
"Silko!" She called, "where are you. Silko?!"
Silko was out of sight, and with every step she took walking further into the woods she felt dizzy. Her exclaimed calls were getting brief as she tried catching her breath. Finally realizing she was lost she took a break sitting at the roots of what appeared to be a Woodwalk tree, then she took a proper look around.
Where are the man-eating giants? She thought, the flesh-eating trees? Liars, they're all liars! What made it worse was the confidence these people used to spawn such lies and tall tales about the forbidden valleys. Aurelia exhaled rising up once more to search for her brother, but immediately she stood up her head banged again, worse than the previous one.
Clutching her head in response to the pain she felt blood smeared on the back. She was loosing blood, no, she had lost blood enough to make her faint.
"That makes more sense." She said, crashing to the ground. Before loosing consciousness, she noticed a tall figure with a cudgel walking slowly to her.