Into the Forest
Mrs. Milhaud went and opened the door to see who knocked at their residence. A face shrouded in fog appeared in front of her. The fog exposed only some parts of the figure's body. It had long brown hair and hardly discernible blue eyes. Its height was around 170 cm.
"Good morning, Mrs. Milhaud," the figure spoke with a womanly, delicate sound.
"Oh! It's you, Louise. How are you?"
"I am fine, thank you for asking. Is Eugene here?" The girl bowed a little and cut right to the chase.
"So that's what brings you here. He's in his room." She looked at the upper parts of the stairs leading to the attic,"Eugene! Louise is here!"
"I'm coming, mom!" Another sound came from upstairs.
"Wait for him inside."
"Thank you, but I will be fine here."
After a minute or two, a young man around 18 years old descended the stairs in a hurry. His face, like that of Louise, was shrouded in a thick fog that could feature only some parts. He had eyes with blue hue but with more concentration of black. He was around 175 cm. It was Eugene.
"Did I keep you waiting?" he smiled at Louise.
"No, I just got here. But you need to make haste. The others must be in our meeting spot already."
"Aren't you going to have your breakfast?" his mother asked.
"No, mom. I'll have it when I return. I'm in a hurry right now. Let's go, Louise!" he held her hands and ran for the door.
After they left the Milhauds residence, they ran by the side of Willard Street and arrived at Hart Square after seven minutes. Brumeaux didn't have much of a population. With a population of 2000 people utmost, the city had three boroughs. The first borough, Sydenham borough, was situated in the middle of the city. The important figures of the city, like the Chieftain of the city, the elders, members with high position in the Expedition Unit, and those with good economy, lived there.
The second borough, Midville borough, was situated surrounding all of Sydenham borough except for some parts of the eastern borders of the central borough where Sydenham borough and Faubourg borough's borders met. It consisted of people who had permanent jobs and a relatively good economy. The last borough, Faubourg borough, had hunters and private explorers living in it. Those people made a living by hunting in the suburbs of the Sylve forest. Beside the hunters, Faubourg was popular for its abundant farmlands. Almost all of the food that Midville and Sydenham used was from farmlands in Faubourg. The forest surrounded Brumeaux entirely, leaving only some space for Denail River to go through it after the river comes flowing from the center of the city.
To date, no one has discovered a way to leave the forest. The forest was thicker and denser around the southern parts of the city. Some edible animals and plant species lived in the areas of Sylve which were closer to Faubourg borough. People there hunted the animals and collected edible vegetables and fruits to sell them for the citizens of the city.
"You haven't had your breakfast; do you want to buy something to eat on the way?" Louise asked nonchalantly.
"Meh- It's fine. I can stay for a whole day without eating," Eugene grinned and scratched the back of his head.
"It's all your fault for not being ready in time."
"I had to stay late studying the maps we had gathered the other day. We surely need to gather more information available before we venture into the forest."
"Well, did you find anything new?" she looked at him while running.
"I am more familiar with the area now. Plus, I've gathered some historical documents on those areas. I couldn't find anything regarding the ruins we have found in the documents the Expedition Unit has made official," the lusters in his eyes dimmed as he looked down.
"Maybe they did find it but didn't make it official..." she tried to cheer him up.
"Do you think that place is dangerous?"
"Duh, of course it is! Why do you think all the people who tried to explore Sylve forest and ventured deeper have never returned, their location unknown?" she raised her sound a bit higher than the usual, and for a moment, she was the cynosure of all eyes. Because of the fog that shrouded them, no one could tell what kind of expression they had on their faces unless they gave it a more scrutinizing look. Even if they did, they wouldn't get much of an information except for slight expressions of emotion.
Eugene neither replied nor did he look back at the passersby. He ignored them and continued running with a decreasing pace. Silence reigned for some minutes, and when he was about to speak, he saw his friends waving their hands at him and Louise. They were three. All of them were shrouded in a thick fog that exuded a mysterious aura. They finally reached the southern entrance to Faubourg!
One of the figures was tall and wore a panama. He had blue eyes and a pale skin color. His long, black hair was hardly discernible under his hat. The other one wore a cloth made of parched hide. He had bright-blue eyes and short, black hair similar to that of the boy who wore a panama. The third one was the shortest of them all. She wore a stretchable hat that could fit all her hair inside. Combined with some of her long hair strands that were out, the hat was octopuslike. Some relatively short blond hair strands went down the sides of her face. They were Marcus, Bruke, and Joelle, respectively.
"Are you guys ready?" Marcus asked with an eager expression.
"I guess so," Eugene replied with some hesitation.
"You always say that! Try to be a bit confident about yourself, dude," Marcus smiled at him and tapped him twice on his back.
"We don't have much time; let's go now. We have to return when the sun sets, ok?" Louise looked at everyone.
"Ah- We know that already! You don't have to tell us thrice. Sheesh," Bruke was enraged with how cautious Louise was.
"What did you say, you half-wit?" Louise couldn't hold back her anger.
"Hey, hey, now, what do you think you are doing. There's a long day before us. Save your energies for later use," Joelle interrupted them and led the way.
Everyone followed her and they departed from the southern entrance of Midville borough. After an hour of walking through Faubourg borough, they finally reached at the entrance of the city. They passed through the only way in the south that let out and in the people of Faubourg borough to the forest.
Except for that giant door with two lookouts as tall as the door itself, the whole of southern, southeastern ,and southwestern borders of Faubourg were blocked by a cement wall. The thickness of the wall was a metre and its height was 20 metres.
The wall was built 800 years ago. The royal family back then believed that Sylve forest was full of evil spirits and cursed existences that roamed in the fog. Lest they be eradicated by those unknown existences, the royal family built those walls to protect themselves.
When they were about to pass the southern entrance, one of the four guards on the lookouts signaled them to stop. It took him about four minutes to get down from the lookout and reach where Eugene and company were. He sized them up for a couple of seconds and asked some probing questions.
Since almost all of them were eighteen and above, they looked like people in their twenties. If it weren't for that pro, the guard wouldn't let them pass and would ask for their parents permission. Even if their parents agreed, he wouldn't let them pass unless they got a sufficient reason.
Luck being on their side, they looked like adults from Faubourg, so he let them pass. After taking a few more steps, all of them relaxed their tense muscles and sighed, excluding Bruke, who acted as if nothing had happened. They redirected their thoughts into their journey and entered Sylve.
***
The deeper they ventured through the forest, the thicker the fog became. The number of wildanimals that could be seen decreased with every step taken. The trees that exuded the aura of life were being replaced by trees that appeared to have lived hundreds of years, observing the history of Brumeaux from high above. The trees became taller and taller as the number of branches in the lower parts of the stems decreased.
Their bark was dry and starting to get peeled off with the passage of time. They rose high above, blocking the sunlight and creating a completely gloomy environment with a scary aura to it.
"Starting from here, be careful where you are stepping and where you are going. We have already left the safe zone permitted for citizens," Eugene couldn't help but warn his friends.
He knew how dangerous these areas could be more than anyone since he made lots of researches. No one ventured deeper than 200m into the forest, and as for those who did, none of them returned home.
Their current location was 190m into the Sylve forest. He didn't want to lose any of his friends. Since Joelle was interested in such matters, he wanted to use this opportunity to spend more time with her. Eugene was someone that could be considered good at history, doing research and archeology. He studied all the books his father kept in his study ever since he was a kid. Joelle, the girl he wanted to propose to, being a history enthusiast was nothing but a windfall for him.
Louise and Marcus knew about this matter and wanted to help him. Louise gestured at Eugene with her hands, informing him not to worry. Seeing this, Eugene's mind eased up a little and he kept walking forward with constant speed.
"Ok! Hear me out now. We are already here. We'll be at the ruins 20m from here. We aren't gon' be able to see each other even though being 2m apart from here on out. If something happens to either one of us, we ain't gon' be able to communicate. Shouting for help won't favor us. It'll be like telling other existences around us that we are here, in their very own den. I have already got a solution for this. If there's somethin' you want to change about the plan or if you have any better idea, raise it after I finish explaining," Bruke whispered, fearing some unwanted creature would hear what he said.
"Let's hear it!" Marcus replied with a low but eager tone.
"I considered using strong threads to connect us, but it'd be uncomfortable to move when we need to move.
We can use lanterns to show each other exactly where we are, but we might as well expose our location. Plus, the lanterns' light wouldn't reach any farther than 4-5m radius. The best solution I can think of is this: we will snap our fingers ever so slightly every ten seconds to identify our location. If you feel like you have drifted from the group, try to follow the location whence the sound comes. If you are in danger, snap your fingers 3 times in a row. If we are forced to move rapidly, we can't just wait ten seconds. It will make a lot of distance between us until we hear the next snap, so we will be snapping our fingers every five seconds. When we reach at the ruins, we'll snap seven times rapidly and top it off with a belated hard snap at the end.
Do you have anything to add or change?"
All of them shook their heads, agreeing to his plan. Seeing that everyone has agreed, he gestured a sign to move forward.
One metre, two metres, three metres... Suddenly, the fog got thicker that none of them could see each other. Eight seconds, nine seconds... Clustered sounds of snapping sounded in the forest and the next instant, they stopped as if they disappeared into the abyss.
When they were about to snap for the seventh time, Marcus stumbled in the fog and fell on the ground. The nearest one to him, Eugene, snapped two times with haste and two with a slow pace. After a second, two snaps echoed in his ears. He walked faster with heed and reached where Marcus was. He was following the sound of the snaps!
These snaps weren't something that the group agreed to use when communicating in the fog. Rather, Marcus and Eugene agreed on using them since they were walking close to each other.
"Sorry I made you worry, I think I have sprained my ankle," Marcus looked at Eugene with a sheepish face, a smile put on it.
"We don't have time for that. Can you walk?"
"Let me see... Oh shit, it freaking hurts!"
"C'mon, I'll help you stand up," Eugene let Marcus rest his whole body on his shoulders.
After six steps, debris started to appear scattered on the ground. They were at the ruins. Suddenly, all of them, including the injured Marcus, started snapping seven times with great haste. After waiting for two seconds, they snapped the last snap and started to gather.
Faces that looked as if they appeared from folklores that were told to children, their purpose, to scare started to come out alive from inside the thick fog.
Louise and Bruke were all right. Joelle was trembling slightly out of fear.
Damn! This was my chance... Eugene looked at Joelle and cursed inwardly. Seeing this, Marcus tried to stand up arduously. Louise hurried to them and gave Marcus a potion. It was a regenerative potion that Louise bought from the old apothecary in Paradis district in northwest of Midland.
"That apothecary sure does wonders!" Marcus looked at his healing joint and expressed his astonishment. He soon got up, and they started walking into the ruins, being so close to each other.
The moment they took the next step, everyone felt as though they were being observed by an unknown existence. All of them turned around and tried to see who was watching them out of instinct, but ultimately, there was nothing behind them.
The soil was getting more and more moist, making it hard to move.
Joelle trembled even more and fell to the ground on her knees. Eugene hurried to her and held her shoulder. He tried to sober her up as much as he could. Joelle turned around and looked at him with a grim smile.
"I-I can't take it anymore. It is driving me crazy!" sentences mixed with laughter, madness and eeriness came out of her mouth. She held her head with both of her arms and started to scream.
