Hunter or hunted? (part 1)

It was late.
The moon had risen already, full as if to burst, and it's soft illumination broke through the air.
The forest stood softly in defiance of the oppresive cold and thin, wispy breaths of fog ran through the trunks.
The foilage did not move despite the light breeze however, it seemed as if it was frozen in stone.
Noodok's breath rose in short bursts of mist, dissipating rapidly back into the environment as quickly as he released it.
Tangled furls of ice crunched under his feet as he pushed forwards.

It had been 5 days since the river had run black. The encampment needed the water, but as they had attempted to drink it had made many of the soldiers ill. As the corp's scout he had been tasked by the General Valoran to find the source of the corruption, and he had followed it upstream into the woods.

He shivered. Not from the cold, but something else hung on the air in the same way as the frost. A deep melancholic essence, that of something powerful bound by the darkness.
A movement flicked in his peripheral view, and with uncanny speed he spun and released an arrow from his bow.
It hit a dark shape, which fell from a branch and made a small thud as it hit the ground.

Just a bird. He walked over to collect the arrow and was taken aback momentarily: the bird was already rotten, its feathers bedraggled and torn and the bones showing through.
He plucked the arrow sharply from its corpse and turned to leave, but as he turned away he heard the flutter of wings. He turned back to see the bird, still rotten, looking at him quizzically with a tilted head, before it flapped its wings and flew away.

Noodok grit his teeth. That level of corruption only occured in areas of dense magic. He was close then. Whatever had disturbed the branch of the river leading out of the forest must be near by.

It grew steadily colder as he walked, and the moons light begun to flicker as more fog hung over it.
A shuffling of dead leaves made him wheel about again, bow raised to strike, but the fog was too dense to see what had caused it. He placed the arrow back in his quiver and hung the bow over his back. It would be useless with such poor visibilty.

Just as he had done so a flicker of something shot between the rows of trees. Reacting quickly he dove into a roll and spun, unsheathing his blade in the same movement. He heard the a crunching blow hit the tree he had been standing near as he rose, and he spun just in time to watch it begin to fall. It hit the ground with a shuddering crash, reverberating shockwaves through the ground from it's impact.
But there was nothing there.

The forest had returned immediately to silence, the deep mist wrapping softly around everything.
Blast it. Something was out there with him.
He stood still, and closed his eyes to help him focus on listening. The soft sigh of wind through the trees met his ears and the creaking of the trees, but otherwise, nothing.

He glanced at the tree that had fallen and nearly cried out in surprise. The wood was bubbling softly, some sort of acid was burning its way through the surface of the bark.

He picked a small pebble from the ground and tossed it into the mixture experimentally but it was unaffected; the acid ate only the tree.
Some sort of organic toxin. Seemed to be the same stuff that was in the river.
Whatever had created it, he had never encountered one before, but it was clearly violent.
He always got the fun jobs.... he would have to remember to bring that up with Valoran once he got back to camp.

Hissing softly through gritted teeth, he left the melting wood and continued deeper into the collumns of trees that made the forest. If he got somewhere where the foilage was denser, there would be less angles of attack, and it would be easier to defend against whatever force unseen.
He wasn't sure what he was hunting for, but there was a pretty good chance it was hunting him.

(IMAGE SOURCE: by ReneAigner on DeviantArt.)

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