"WHAT?! It's so boring! I thought we'd be seeing all sorts of animals and whatnot..." Whined a young woman named Katlyn. She was the loud mouth of our class and to a degree, not exactly unbearable. She got away with a lot because she was both gorgeous and somewhat smart. To be honest, I doubt there's anyone out there who wouldn't want to date her and I was no exception but I had self-restrain. We were friends and it was best to not ruin it.
We were on a field trip to a biodiversity park few miles away from the city. Because the trip was going to be long and arduous, our teacher had only allowed somewhat fit students to join in on the trip so there were fourteen of us.
"If you keep shouting, you'll scare them away even more." I whispered to Katlyn but all I got was defeated groan in return.
"Alright, the sun is setting, so we rest in the nearby cabin." Our teacher said as he scanned the map. "One is about five minutes from here."
"This place is actually massive." I said in awe. We have been hiking for about five hours and even then we had barely covered the ground. As far I remembered, the radius was in acres.
"If anyone wants to take a break, there are portable toilets." The teacher announced as he pointed to the toilets. These were the worst. They weren't attached to the ground so anyone with enough strength could shake them and I just knew whoever makes the mistake of entering this thing will not be coming out clean.
I relayed my issue to the teacher before entering one of the toilets. He should be able to keep others in check but once I lowered my pants, I heard screams coming from outside. I quickly pulled up my pants but instead of leaving, I thought about what could even be happening outside. There shouldn't be any dangerous animals here.
I slowly opened the door and exited the toilet only to find myself in middle of a dense forest. At first I just froze. I turned my head to look at the toilet that was now gone. I scanned what was in front of me before turning back and things looked different. Did the trees move? I wondered. I looked up at the sky and a single moon was there. Unmoving. I then looked down again and now there was a route in front of me. Should I continue on this route? If I look away, this might also disappear. Is the moon still there? How can I confirm it? I had phone. I quickly pulled it out and turned on the camera app and aimed it at the route before looking up. The moon at least wasn't acting up. But upon looking down, the route was there. So camera counted?! But now I knew at least moon was not part of an illusion so I had a source to follow. Only if I reach the end of this forest.
Making my way through the forest wasn't easy. I was a guy who was born and raised in middle of a city. Forests were a far cry from what I was used to but I didn't know it would be this difficult. Wet trees and puddles on the ground revealed it must have rained earlier. It was a big issue because that meant campfire might be impossible for the time being. But how do I even start a fire in the first place? I had watched enough videos but that didn't mean I could start a fire anyways. My only option now was to reach the edge of the forest no matter what.
I had walked for about half an hour and heard next to no noises that could be dangerous at least. Because I was in middle of a forest, my sense were heightened maybe because of adrenaline.
But just then I heard a laughter echo through the forest. Shit... If I look away even for an instant, I'll lose this path.
I kept moving forward but the laughter kept getting closer by the minute. I can't stop. I mustn't stop. The sense of dread... this wasn't right. In middle of the night and in middle of such dense forest, I wasn't alone. There was a group of individuals who were causing a ruckus. If they were making their presence known this bad then they must not be scared of anything inside this forest.
...
After treading for god knows how long, I reached an open area. The moon was much clearer. It seemed like I could look around at least. A checkpoint maybe? I fell on my butt from all the tiredness catching up.
"Where... am I? Maybe I should climb a tree and see how big this forest even is..." I got up and looked around for a thick enough tree. I sized one up before climbing. Upon reaching the top, all I could see was forest reaching to the horizon. Great. So basically I'll be dying in middle of nowhere?
While grieving my fate, I heard a faint snap of a twig. Someone was nearby but hiding behind the trees.
"I'm not here to fight! I'm not your enemy!" I knew I was caught so it was best to take my chances and declare I wasn't hostile.
What emerged from behind the trees were humanoid beings I didn't recognize. Aliens? Were we abducted? The beings had rabbit like head and ragged clothes with makeshift ornaments made from random rocks and ropes. They can't be aliens. Their clothes... they don't look sci-fi enough.
"A human...? What are you doing here?" One of the rabbit-person spoke as they aimed their spikes at me.
"I don't know! I just appeared here out of nowhere!" I said as I quickly raised my hands to imply I wasn't carrying weapons.
"Appeared...?" The rabbit-person sounded confused but decided to lower their weapon. "Come with us, human. If you are not carrying weapons, then you can stay in our village."
"How do you navigate this forest?" I asked and the rabbit-person pointed at the sky. "The blood moon princess guides us. The villagers here are blessed by her majesty and her eternal protection keeps us safe." The person said.
Eternal protection? Then wouldn't that mean it shouldn't have let me enter the forest altogether? Was I supposed to be here?
For now I followed them to a small village with a few dozen buildings. There wasn't anything special about the village on surface. The houses were made out of wood and leaves. And held together using ropes. The ropes themselves were made of fibers of wood it seemed. They seemed rather primitive.
"Could you please come with me?" The rabbit-person who had been talking up until now asked and took me to a rather bigger building. Maybe the town hall of sorts.
We sat on the ground in front of three older looking rabbit-people.
"We are Viggo, Rurik and Yngvar. We are the elders of this village of Eira. Tonight, our goddess of the blood moon will appear and bestow us with the strength to live for yet another 156 years. Your appearance is not a coincidence. Her majesty wanted you here so you must participate in the festivities for tonight!" Viggo cheered with Rurik and Yngvar agreeing to him.
"My.. apologies but can you give me an exposition?" I asked hesitantly as to not provoke them.
"Ah... I assume you're new to this forest? Or perhaps this world. You see there are few titans who rule over our planet, Sansar. Five to be precise. But there are three Gods who rule over everything. Namely, Princess Selene who provides us with eternal safety and life, Prince Epos who provides us with knowledge and power and Micthtelan who is the god of death and chaos. Princess selene gifted our ancestors this forest when she first fell in love with one of our ancestors. Even if the love never came to fruition, she kept protecting us. This is the forest of delusion and wonder. People who come in are instantly thrown out. That is a rule and this rule doesn't change under any circumstance. One of the foolish young ones tried... they tried to bring humans in and failed. So it is a law that this forest belongs solely to us, Arnebians." Rurik explained.
"A lot of information... But I suppose I get the gist of it. If tonight is blood moon then I suppose we can get answers. Does princess selene come down herself or is it like a metaphor?" I asked.
"She comes down herself." Rurik answered.
...
I was asked to rest in a hut nearby and so I did. I was definitely tired. In a few hours the festivities would begin but would I even receive answers? I'm not even on Earth. It's a planet named Sansar. It is going to be difficult from hereon.