The name caused the forest around them to go eerily silent. It seemed this area was less intensely blanketed by the complete silence they had felt along the periphery of the forest, but that name seemed to let it creep in.
Taln's jaw was clenched so hard it looked as if it might burst. Below his deeply furrowed brow, dark eyes blazed with hatred. Siv had stopped eating and was looking from one of the men to the other. A chill crept up his back.
He tried to speak, but the silence seemed to be pressing his voice back into his throat. Finally, he managed some guttural noise through his mouth. He gasped after, a profoud relief washing over him. That silence had been almost sentient, forcing its way into his mouth and filling his lungs with glass. The other two seemed to have had felt the same suppression, but broke it comparatively easily.
Feeling a bit ill, Siv asked: "What is that?" He could not make his throat say its name.
Taln was now reaching for the meat over the fire with his knife. "A Profane Beast. One that, by the feel of this oppressive silence, has taken authority of the forest from Eiranhal, wherever the bastard ran off to."
"Are you gonna kill it?" Siv asked.
Taln glowered more. "We must, if we hope to leave the forest." He was glaring at Ilrien. "Ilrien, you bastard son of a whore. You could've told us before we entered the forest."
Ilrien grinned. "I'm afraid you've been long in it's hunting territory. It has been taking forays out into the countryside, snatching up wayward travelers. Though, I imagine it did not dare approach your chains." He gestured vaguely to Taln's tattoos. "And also, I would've let you enter anyway, because I can't kill the damned thing alone."
Siv looked to Ilrien. "So what's its deal? Can't Taln just grind it up?"
"It is a tricky creature. It has likely been watching you from the moment you entered proximity of the forest. But, most of all, it has a hunger so bottomless that if we left it to it's own devices, it would eat every elf, human, animal, and even eventually tree that was here in the forest. Eiranhal likely fled when it came from below the Glades. He is powerful, but that creature would rip him to shreds."
Ilrien was eating now, his mood more somber but characteristic grin plastered on his face. "They're ugly bastards, long and spindly. When Taln and I served together, it took us a decade to hunt it down." He sighed. "Luckily, or unluckily, it has bound itself to the heart of the forest. So if we go there, it will surely try to stop us."
Taln was back to his usual look. "The last one we killed was alive and feeding uninhibited for decades. This one must be significantly less powerful."
"Why's it sticking elves to trees? Can we set a trap for it, like a big pit of spikes?" Siv asked.
Ilrien let out a long laugh. "Ah, if only. The only way to fight one of these creatures is unprepared. They have a wicked intelligence, and will attack when all the advantage lies with them." He continued. "As for the elves, they are born only of consecration. Therefore, the foul creature lets rot set in to their flesh before it consumes them. I imagine otherwise he gets an upset stomach." He let out a hollow chuckle.
"So how about I stay here, and you guys go kill him?" Siv said. He was under no illusions of his own usefulness. While his progress with his weapon had been fast, it would be of no use against the horror of the forest. Other than that, he figured he'd just end up as a tasty snack for the creature.
"I'm afraid you'd be snatched up as soon as we left you behind, and you will not be able to leave the hunting grounds." Ilrien said to the boy. "You will have to come with us."
...
After their meal, the three had laid out their bedrolls in the little elven cabin and slept. Well, the other two did. Siv would feel a growing dread as the silence mounted. His heart would pound in his ears and he would sink deeper under his blanket as the long minutes dragged on without any noise. Eventually, his heart would nearly explode out of hsi chest at the smallest noise that would break the horrid stillness of the forest. It continued on like this for hours, until a little past midnight.
A rustle of leaves could be heard. Siv's heart pounded. His blood grew hot, and he itched to run somewhere, anywhere.
Again, barely a few seconds after the first. Leaves rustled and wood cracked. Siv shot up to a sitting position, putting his back against the wall and staring with wide eyes towards the deep dark of the forest. The noise was coming from the direction that led deeper in.
Again. He felt reverberations through the wood of the cabin. Tearing his petrified gaze from the forest, he looked to the other two men, who were sound asleep on the other side of the cabin. They did not stir at the noise. In fact, they looked to be having the most peaceful sleep of their lives.
The reverberations came closer still. Siv felt a pressure coming from that side of the forest. Panic set in his mind. He wanted to run, to hide from this thing. He stood no chance.
Heart pounding, blanket drawn to his chin, Siv waited as the noises came ever closer. He could not make a noise, fear dampening every desire he may have ever had. The other two men still slept deeply.
The reverberations were coming from barely ten meters away now. His eyes tried desperately to see through the dark night. He reached into the open box next to him, feeling the cold, reassuring metal of his chains.
He heard a huff, and a wash of hot air blew over him. He dared not make a noise.
Suddenly, a warm red, almost pink, light shone over him. He saw a twisting structure of bone white shining the soft light. It illuminated the cabin in a gentle cascade. Siv's mouth dropped open in slack jawed awe.
The bone white structure were.. antlers. They were massive, about 10 meters from the far end of one to the other. The stag's eyes were the same color as the light, and they looked into Siv's own. Just one of the beautiful eyes was the size of Siv's own head. The stag's fur was pur white, spotless and without any dirt marring its surface.
Most breathtaking of all was the willow tree growing from the stag's back. It was not as big as a full grown willow, but the trunk was entirely black, with cracks running along its surface. The same gentle pink light shone from the cracks, illuminating the leaves which were, again, the same light red color of his other accents.
The stag was breathtaking. It must have been as tall as two stories at the shoulder, and even larger at the height of the willow tree. Its face was bent down to Siv's own, with one pale crimson eye a few feet from Siv's face.
His jaw was still open in shock, eyes wide with the beauty of the creature. It huffed again, warm air washing over Siv.
It moved its snout forward, within a food of Siv's face. He tentatively put out a hand, and the stag pressed its snout against it. Siv felt a warm vitality flowing from him to the stag, and back again. The stag's eyes closed in quiet enjoyment of the sensation, and Siv was dumbfounded at the feeling.
Eventually, the stag opened its eyes and pulled back, before turning to the side and lowering its antlers. It seemed to want him to grab on.
The antlers were colossal, as thick at the base as a full grown man's torso. Even halfway down their length, they were still about as half as thick. Hesitating, Siv grabbed his weapon from its box. Siv grabbed onto one of the antlers , pulling himself up. He sat himself on it with the chains on his lap, and held another branching part that was slightly above him. They emitted a soothing warmth. Eiranhal rose from the ground, lifting Siv high into the air. He cast a glance at the two sleeping men.
Eiranhal must have put them to a deep sleep somehow, because they had not stirred at all. The warm crimson glow still illuminated the forest around them, and Eiranhal lumbered forward. He weighed so much that the ground shook slightly under each step.
As he continued forward, Siv was astounded to notice that space itself seemed to warp to allow the massive stag's passage. Impossibly tight fits between colossal trees seemed to stretch to allow for Eiranhal to pass through.
Siv looked back at the willow tree growing from the stag's back. The shroud of pink leaves swayed slightly in the wind. The trunk, unlike Eiranhal's antlers, was twisted and gnarled, with the cracks having a slightly more sinister cast to their glow. It looked almost... corrupted.
Siv looked forward again. The stag traveled leisurely, although in each step it covered many times that which a human would. So, their progress was swift and they winded deeper and deeper into the forest. As they did, the trees grew ever more massive. The largest he saw dwarfed even the castle walls, stretching high into the sky and with a thickness that dwarfed even Eiranhal's length from tip to tail.
They rode for about another hour. Occasionally, Siv felt that the crimson light would flicker, and he could see a dark shape moving amidst the trees. He did not fear, however. The stag had an incredible power to it that Siv felt nothing could threaten. Even the oppressive silence gave way to the majesty of the Great Stag.
They came to a cliffside. The sound of rushing water could be heard, and from the faint light, Siv could see the bottom of a waterfall. It stretched as far as the light illuminated it, and Siv knew that it was truly colossal. Eiranhal waded into the water at its base. It came up to his shoulders, but the stag could still touch the ground. Siv was far away from the water, still. He marveled at the beautiful crimson light illuminating and reflecting off the water. The stag stopped a ways from the waterfall. Siv could feel the droplets stinging his skin as they were launched from the impact.
The stag paused a bit longer, and Siv realized that it probably wanted him to move to a different spot. He looked around, and his eyes rested on the tree. He clambered down the antlers to Eiranhal's head, then walked down his back under the tree's canopy. He looked up, wondering at the ethereal shroud of leaves that seemed to be isolated from the outside world.
He walked to the trunk, sitting down on Eiranhal's back. The sound of water was louder now, but no droplets stung his face. Looking into the trunk's cracks, he craned his eyes into the eerie glow. It was different from the light that emitted from the stag's antlers, more sinister.
He squinted, trying to look deeper into the cracks. A chill ran down his back. He could not see anything, but it felt as if something was looking back at him from that eerie light. He repositioned himself away from the crack, looking off the side of the stag. He could still see the water below, illuminated by the light.
They passed under the thundering strength of the water. Much like the trees had, the waterfall seemed to bend around the space Eiranhal occupied, making way for the king. Stray droplets did not drip on Siv's head, unable to penetrate the canopy of the willow tree. They passed under it, and Siv felt the stag's back go up at an angle as he seemed to climb up a slope of some sort.
Entering the hollow behind the waterfall, a crimson glow covered all the area that Siv could see. He stood now, and walked out from the willow tree onto Eiranhal's uncovered neck. He held onto the fur as he sat, mouth agape at the sights.
They were in a huge cavern, which was lit up by crystals extending from the ceiling. There were countless colors. Green, blue, purple, and some that Siv could not even name. The ground was covered in flowers that matched the color of the crimson light that Eiranhal exuded. A lazy river of impossibly clear water meandered through the gently sloped, flower covered ground, making its way towards the mouth of the cavern.
The silence of the outside forest did not exist here. Siv could see bunnies, foxes, and a myriad of other creatures bounding around amidst the flowers.
Ahead, Siv saw another willow tree. This one was impossibly massive, dwarfing Eiranhal. The leaves were light blue. He could not quite see the trunk yet. They had the same gentle light of Eiranhal's, except of course blue. Eiranhal lumbered over to it, passing through the rich canopy. Leaves brushed past Siv's face, and the long tendrils of softly glowing foliage made for an impossibly beautiful sight.
Having passed through the exterior of the canopy, Siv saw a large expanse of beautiful green grass stretching out in front of him. The river passed under the tree as well, lazily winding its way among the willow's roots and the green grass. The trunk of the tree was, unlike Eiranhal's, unmarred and a beautiful grey color that complimented the blue of the leaves.
The area was huge, with the canopy far above Siv's head. It felt open, smelled clean and crisp, and generally had a sense of peace.
Eiranhal lowered his head now, about 30 meters from the trunk. Siv made his way to the antlers, then dropped to the ground from a height that probably would have broken the legs of a normal person. Siv felt a slight ache, but nothing more.
Casting his gaze at the trunk, Siv walked forward through the ankle deep grass. Ahead, at the trunk, he could see a figure standing and looking back at him.
She had straight, waist length raven black hair, and pointed ears that poked through it.