A voice echoed through the dense forest, loud and full of excitement.
"Hold on tight, it's gonna be a wild ride!"
Up ahead, caravan drivers pulled hard on their reins, steering their enormous, enchanted horses through the thick woods.
Each beast was a towering, five metre tall creature draped in glowing armour. Their muscles bulged under their skin, showing off the immense strength they possessed.
They obeyed their riders' commands without hesitation, pulling rune marked caravans across the bumpy, uneven forest floor.
Although the path had been paved many years ago and was once well travelled, it had fallen out of regular use over time.
Now, only merchant caravans looking to save time by cutting through the forest dared to take this route.
The caravans themselves were an impressive sight—each was wrapped in sturdy, enchanted wood, etched with ancient carvings that glowed in the dim forest light as they moved.
They were like sturdy, mobile fortresses as they glided through the green sea of trees.
Underneath one of the caravans, a sixteen year old boy stifled a laugh, his eyes glinting with mischievous glee as he peeked out cautiously.
The young stowaway had been hiding here for hours, waiting for his chance.
He had smuggled himself under their caravan back at the town, and they had conveniently taken him to his destination without even having to pay a single coin!
This was of course, on the premise that they didn't find out. Since he had already reached his destination, he had been looking for an opportunity to escape the caravan but hadn't found one.
He wanted it to be as clean as possible. Anything less and he would be in big trouble.
He also couldn't outrun the guards if he was found out as they were warriors.
As the caravan bumped over the uneven forest floor, he found his moment.
When no one was looking, he slithered out from beneath it, melting into the shadows of the trees in one fluid, graceful move. The caravan rolled on, completely unaware that their secret passenger was gone.
They didn't even suspect a thing!
With practiced ease, the young man disappeared into the sea of trees while thinking, 'Thanks for the ride!'
This young boy's name was Creed Walden and he had successfully managed to smuggle himself to the great Okidu Forest.
Several minutes later, Creed was strolling through the dense forest alone, mumbling to himself in frustration.
"A hidden gem in nature's crown, covered by green but not by sound," he read aloud from a piece of parchment he kept glancing at.
He frowned, squinting around at his surroundings, 'Covered by green but not by sound… what's that supposed to mean?'
"Does that mean I'll hear it before I see it?"
Every few paces, he checked the parchment, as if hoping the riddle would magically become clearer.
After what felt like endless hours of wandering, ducking branches, and cursing at confusing clues, his eyes lit up.
He could hear the steady sound of a water flowing nearby!
Based on his earlier deduction, Creed guessed that this mist be the location the poem was hinting at. Now all he had to do was follow the sound.
After following the sound of water for some minutes, he finally stumbled upon a small sunlit clearing, exactly as described in the clue.
The place seemed untouched, a quiet sanctuary hidden within the forest. There was a small stream that passed through the clearing and sloped down and into the forest. This was the source of the water sound he had heard.
He scanned the clearing carefully, searching for any trace of where he was meant to dig.
His gaze stopped on a small, barely noticeable mark on a stone—something that would mean nothing to anyone else, but to Creed, it was unmistakable. It was the symbol his father had always used, a mark only he would recognise.
Grinning triumphantly, Creed swung his bag around and pulled out a worn shovel, gripping it with determination as he began to dig with everything he had.
Hours later, with sweat running down his face and a blister on his palm, his shovel finally struck something hard. His heart thumped as he cleared the remaining dirt, revealing an old, coppery-red chest, weathered but intact.
A soft, almost nostalgic smile crept onto his face as he whispered, "Finally… let's see what was so important that it was the last thing you said to me and not goodbye."
Creed's father had vanished years ago, leaving behind this cryptic clue on the morning he disappeared.
It had taken Creed years to decipher, but after painstaking effort, he'd unraveled it to coordinates, a riddle, and one last word: dig.
The chest creaked open easily, and inside, lying on a bed of old cloth, was a ring made of vibrant red coral.
Its intricate, fiery design twisted like flames encased in copper, strange and beautiful. But there was no sign of anything else—no notes, no secret compartments, nothing to explain it.
He picked it up, puzzled. 'A ring?' There was nothing obviously magical about it—no inscription, no jewels, just smooth, carved coral.
He tilted it in his hand, wondering.
'Well... only one way to find out,' he thought, slipping it onto his finger.
As he slid the ring onto his finger, there was a flash of blinding light, and he vanished.
When his vision cleared, Creed found himself standing on a high mountain peak.
The sky was a sickly red, and a huge, ominous blood moon loomed overhead, casting an eerie light across the barren landscape.
Creed's mouth dropped open as he realised what had happened. He had been transported to a another place!
In a panic, he remembered a poem his father had drilled into him as a child, a strange rhyme that had always unsettled him.
"A sky of blood, a moon unkind,
Where shadows lurk and mountains grind.
The air is thick, the rivers black,
In hell's own land, there's no way back.
A realm of beasts, a land of sin,
Beware the world you might fall in."
The demon realm.
His stomach lurched with dread as the truth sank in: the ring hadn't just transported him anywhere—it had brought him straight into the demon realm itself.
The stories, the warnings, everything he'd heard whispered all his life… this was it.
Growl!
A deep, menacing growl broke the silence behind him, and Creed slowly turned, heart pounding...
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