Five days.

  They had been walking for five full days, but Mira swore by all the stars in the sky that she had just passed the same crooked tree for the tenth time.

  The tree had roots that protruded like the swollen knees of an old man, covered in brown moss that pulsed slowly. Mira remembered it because ten hours ago, she had kicked it in frustration.

  “This forest is hungry,” Meir'Dea said, breaking the silence, responding to Mira, who looked increasingly frustrated. “These old trees, the pines, the ironwoods, the black oaks... they live for light. Given that there is very little light in the northern region at the end of the year, they often move to get it. Although we never realize it, they are like a living labyrinth.”

  “What do you mean?” Mira furrowed her brow in confusion; she already looked eager to leave the forest.

  “I mean, they need light. Whatever it is between the two of you, there must be something attracting them.” Meir’Dea glanced alternately at Mira and Kars.

  Mira swallowed hard. She understood what that meant now. The two entities inside her body were what were drawing these trees toward them. “So they want to eat us?” Mira asked to confirm.

  “They want to embrace you,” Meir'Dea corrected gently. “They want to absorb the Intian within your body until you are dry and become one with their roots. A peaceful death, actually.”

  “I prefer a noisy life to a peaceful death, thank you,” Mira replied in a tone that tried to sound brave, but her voice trembled.

  Meir'Dea suddenly realized something, and she turned to the two people following her. “We must lead them.”

  “Lead them?”

  “They chase the light.” Meir'Dea summoned her staff from the void, a two-meter-long curved branch. At the end of the staff hung dozens of small bells made from the bones of birds and squirrels. "Be their sun, and I will be their keeper.

  Meir'Dea spun the staff in the air, then slammed it into the ground with surprising force.

  A strange vibration rippled through the ground. The bone bells did not ring, but emitted a low hum, a low-frequency resonance that made Mira's inner ears hurt.

  The forest responded.

  Around them, hundreds of giant trees began to groan. The sound of cracking wood, breaking bark, and giant roots being forcibly pulled from the ground was deafening. The ground rumbled violently as if there was a local earthquake.

  Mira watched in horror as a three-meter-diameter Blood-Oak tree to her left began to twist its trunk. Its roots burst out of the ground, spraying mud, moving like the legs of a giant spider.

  The tree was alive. And it was leaning toward them.

  “Now, Mira!” Meir'Dea shouted. Her voice was suddenly sharp, full of the authority of the wild. "Light your Intian! Don't hold back! Don't compress it! Make it as bright as possible! Be the light!"

  “But Kars said I should conserve my In—”

  “Forget conservation!” Kars cut in, already preparing to do something to be on the safe side. “Do what she says, or we'll die crushed by the wood!”

  Mira didn't ask any more questions. She closed her eyes, searching for the hot core in her chest that she had been training to control. This time, she released all her safety valves.

  Out. Everything.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She raised her right hand high into the air. A burst of white light began to emerge from Mira's body. But before long, the explosion shattered into pieces like shards of glass.

  Mira opened her eyes, panic flooding her.

  Kars, who saw this, immediately took action. He emitted light throughout his body until he looked like a walking lantern. The shadows in the forest disappeared instantly, driven away by the intensity of the dazzling light.

  The reaction from the forest was terrifying.

  The scene in front of them was like a nightmare. The giant trees in front of them, which had been blocking the path, suddenly leaned to the side. The trunks, as thick as houses, bent dramatically, trying to bring their leaves closer to Kars, to the source of the light.

  As the trees on the left moved to the left and the trees on the right moved to the right, the center of the forest was now wide open.

  A straight corridor formed. The ground in the corridor was destroyed by the shifting roots, but it was a path.

  “Run straight ahead, don't let your light go out.” Meir'Dea started running, followed by two people behind her.

  Mira sped up. She ran in the middle with Kars behind her. The man's hand was raised high like a torch that emitted a continuous light.

  On the left and right sides, the living wooden walls moved along with them. Giant branches lashed at the air, trying to grab them. Roots tried to trip their feet.

  Meir'Dea did not run like a human; she glided. Her feet jumped from one moving root to another with extraordinary balance. Every time a tree branch tried to grab Kars, Meir'Dea hit the branch with her stick.

  The sound of the bone bell on the stick made the tree convulse and retreat for a moment, giving them a chance to pass.

  Kars' lungs felt like they were on fire, his feet tripped over roots, but he rolled over and started running again without turning off his light.

  “Almost there!” Meir'Dea shouted.

  The closer they got to the edge of the forest, the more desperate the trees became. They knew their prey was about to escape. The trees behind began to crash into the trees in front, creating a giant wooden domino effect. The forest canopy seemed to collapse, showering them with branches and leaves.

  At the end of the corridor formed by the shifting of the crazy trees, Mira saw something she hadn't seen in a long time—a different shade of blue, a pale blue. The sky was open and very clear.

  Real sunlight. More than she had received in the forest so far.

  “Jump!” Meir'Dea shouted.

  The path in front of them ended abruptly—it was a cliff.

  Mira had no brakes; she had no choice. With her last remaining strength, she plunged downward.

  Kars, still behind her, pumped the light in his hands even harder to blind the trees at the finish line, then threw his body into the empty air.

  Gravity took over.

  The damp, stuffy, and foul smell of the forest instantly disappeared, as if cut by a knife. A cool, dry breeze slapped their faces.

  Mira hit the grassy ground, rolled over four times, and ended up lying on her back, staring at the vast blue sky.

  Mira's breath was ragged, her heart beating so fast that her ears were ringing.

  Slowly, Mira got up and turned around.

  The Jangberg Forest towered in front of her like a giant green fortress wall. But now, the forest was silent. The trees that had been chasing her were now frozen stiff, becoming ordinary, calm plants, as if the crazy chase had never happened.

  Not far from where Mira stood, Meir’Dea was walking back toward the forest. That naked woman’s body seemed to glow brighter than before.

  “Why... did it take five days?” Mira asked, still panting.

  “I left the forest based on my nature instinct, but with you two, I felt like I was trapped too,” Meir’Dea continued walking without looking back. “I just realized it, but the important thing is that I kept my promise.”

  “But we passed the same tree over and over again.” Mira’s chest was still rising and falling rapidly; she was extremely exhausted.

  “That’s why the Jangberg Forest is called a living labyrinth. We’re not turning in circles, but they are moving.”

  Meir’Dea vanished just like that, as if absorbed by the low cliff at the border between the forest and the grassland.

  “She… she merged with the cliff?” Mira asked, looking at her with an expression of disbelief.

  Kars, who had been standing to Mira's right, brushed the leaves from his gray robe and combed his messy hair back. “He is the guardian of the forest,” Kars replied briefly.

  Mira looked up at Kars. She squinted slightly as the sunlight was brighter than in the forest.

  Kars turned around and walked to the edge of the grassy field. “Stand up.”

  Mira forced her trembling legs to stand, and she walked unsteadily to Kars' side.

  Below the grassy hill where they stood, the world stretched out before them.

  No longer was it a suffocating forest. Below was a vast valley dotted with newly harvested fields, winding paths, and in the distance, smoke rising from the chimneys of a small walled town.

  Further away, on the horizon, the blue sea sparkled in the afternoon sun.

  “That's Port Jang,” said Kars. “The place where we will sail away from this island.”

  Mira grinned, even though her lips were cracked and bleeding. She breathed in the free air deeply, feeling the flow of Intian and blood in her body flowing slowly.

  “First, we’ll find some good food,” Mira murmured, her eyes sparkling. “The rest can wait.”