Fantasy Magic & Mayhem

[Krominel]

The Forests
​

The air was sticky that morning. Crunching footsteps made their way winding around the tight knit trees to a small clearing. Sunlight shone down through the overhead canopy of the forest flooding the area in a soft green light. Most hikers didn’t dare to come out this far. A local legend claimed that demons lived deep in the woods and if you lost your way, they would trick you and drag your soul to hell. But for Viggo those were just legends and the appeal of classifying a new sub species of mushroom that had the potential for countless new drugs was more than enough to bring him out there that morning. It helped that he had been out there on seven previous excursions to find this mushroom. This time felt different though, he had a good feeling about it.

Leaning against an old knotty tree trunk he grabbed the water bottle out of his pack. After a long swig he replaced the bottle and in a swift motion pulled his shoulder length mess of blond curls up into a half bun using the hair tie from his wrist. He sighed. The humidity clung to him making his thin tank top expose the lines of his well-toned upper body. Mosquitos bit as his legs as he pushed his way through the underbrush little by little checking every mushroom and collecting a few for later.

After about two hours he reached a point deep in the forest where the trees were so dense that they blocked out almost all of the sunlight from above. The ground was relatively clear due to the lack of light making travel much easier. Viggo pulled a flashlight out of his bag and flipped it on. This was the perfect place to find mushrooms.

The air was of thick with the scent of rotting vegetation. A small rabbit skittered across the forest floor. Pulling out his phone Viggo looked at the time, it was just past noon; he had no signal. It would take at least three hours to get back to his car. This was a new area that he had never been too before so it made him nervous to continue ahead, but he hadn’t come this far to go back now and he had enough supplies to last a couple days. He moved on, taking special note of his surroundings and placing small markers along the path to find his way back.

After several hours at a slow pace, he came to the opening of a small cave. There was a clearing just around the entrance that looked like a good place to set up camp for the night. Viggo opened his pack and pulled out a shovel, he scooped a small area for a fire. It didn’t take long to gather up some fire wood and unfurl his bed roll, fire crackled to life in the pit a few moments later.

Darkness swallowed the forest as night approached. The small fire kept a bubble of protective light around the entrance of the cave. Viggo sat by the fire, the cave seemed to beckon to him. He found himself staring at it until he finally fell asleep. It followed him into his dream, something felt familiar about this place but he couldn’t place it. In his dream an old man crawled out of the cave, he was completely naked and holding a baby. It looked like the man was screaming, but there was no sound only white noise. A moment later the man burst into flames. The baby was untouched by the blaze as the old man turned to ash. Then he woke up. The fire had gone out but the morning sun snuck through a small gap in the leaves and hit the top of the entrance to the cave.

Viggo felt heavy, a bad feeling waded around in the pit of his gut. The opening of the cave seemed to seep gloom into the spot of sun shining off the rock. The gloom drew him in, he approached the opening apprehensively. A breeze blew from the depths of the cave, the scent was of wet stone like after a hard rain. White noise echoed in his ears but he shook it off. That’s when he noticed a small patch of mushrooms growing by the opening. He rushed back to his pack and grabbed his kit to take samples. There appeared to be two different kinds of mushrooms growing in this patch, one he identified right away as a cloud funnel, grey cap and rancid smell, edible. However, the other was something different. He opened his notebook and flipped to the description of the mushroom that he had gotten from his colleague. It was a perfect match. Three caps appeared to be this variety, they sat slightly closer to the opening than the other ones. They had small stalks, round caps like a parasol mushrooms, they smelled slightly of mint and were deep purple brown in color. Viggo added them to his other samples, but wanted to see if there were more of them deeper in the cave. Grabbing his flashlight, he pushed down the bad feelings and made his way to the entrance. One deep breath and he started crawling into the cave.

The stone was covered in a slippery moss, it only took a moment for Viggo to lose his footing. He dropped his flashlight on his way down. Slamming against a rock, he caught himself. But in the dark he stumbled over a ledge and found himself free falling into the black abyss.

The fall lasted about three minutes, in the last ten seconds Viggo saw what appeared to be another forest. Then his head made contact with the ground and his mind faded into unconsciousness.

 

[StarryKnights]

The forest was always calm, free from the hustle and bustle of the nearby village. Kannes as it was called, was a meager little settlement. Its people were mostly farmers, who tilled their fields and sold their wares to the merchant trains that passed through. These in turn, would take their goods on to the royal city of Versailles.

The farmers were lucky to see half of what their produce would sell for, and that was being generous. Though who did not till the land scrapped by in their shops, selling all matters of things. Farming equipment, sundries, and of course, food.

There was only one doctor in this town, an over worked (and occasionally drunk) man by the name of Layne. Only the most desperate sought his council, as the sullen old man was cantankerous as can be, and his bedside manner left much to be desired.

This fact proved to be quite prosperous for Milton, the owner of a little shop called Bryer’s Hutch. Named for his late son, outwardly this store sold little more than traveler’s wares to the people fortunate enough to be passing through.

For those who lived in Kannes though, Bryer’s Hutch was less of a one-off stop, and more of a lifeline.

All thanks to Millicent, who was currently out trudging through the forest which surrounded the village.

She enjoyed the blanketing quiet the trees provided. This forest, known as Wren’s Woods, was a tranquil little spot where the apothecary could gather ingredients for her work. They were named after a local urban legend, which said that the spirit of a deceased child named Wren wandered the underbrush.

The locals of Kannes tended to avoid the dense patch of woods, which made it the perfect place for a renegade mage and novice apothecary to live and gather ingredients.

Millicent Brawen had dabbled in the art of potion crafting in her youth, as the meticulous craft was something her compartmentalized brain could grasp. Every ingredient had to be treated with care, each brew had a specific cook time, preparation and unique effect. You could create a thick corrosive liquid that would eat through shields, or you could craft a cure for the common cold.

The latter potions were what sold well at Bryer’s Hutch, as the villagers were more than willing to turn a blind eye to the king’s commands if it meant their children wouldn’t die from what ought to be a curable illness.

Under the current king’s rule, small settlements like Kannes were ignored and neglected. In their desperation, the people were willing to do whatever it took to survive. Including partake in the brews concocted by an outcast mage.

Of course, Milli had been an outcast before shit the fan. Before that crazy warlock had kidnapped the prince, no one knew what became of the babe, but the mage cursed his parents with his dying breath.

Their deaths ushered in an age of fear, mistrust and all out genocide against practicing mages. The Brawen family were engrained in palace life, with many family members serving the crown directly.

Milli’s father, Conrad, was a retired general in the army, and worked as a advisor to the king, her mother Ethel was apart of the Queen’s personal care team.
And her brother, Ames, he was training to be the new court wizard.

But now, he was off god only knew where, fighting against the tyranny brought in with the new king.

Milli had left the comforts of her noble blood behind her long ago, as far as she cared, everyone was now forced to live as she always had. On the edge of society. Trudging through the thick underbrush, a small sphere of white light hovered over her left shoulder, illuminating the dimness around her.

The thickness of the trees overhead blocked out much of the sunlight and allowed for some curious plants to grow in the shade.

Specifically, a curious plant with thorns and red tipped leaves known as Devil’s Tongue. It was the secret ingredient to Milli’s potion which acted as a cure to sore muscles. It produced a chemical which acted as a power pain reliever, but too much could cause permeant loss of feeling.

She didn’t need much to compete her last batch, then she’d be ready to send it off to Milton and it would be available for purchase.

From there, it was all just gold to the mage. Gold she’d been saving for some time now.

“Right then, where are you then?”, she spoke aloud, her voice carrying in the silence. Looking down, the orb of light followed her field of vision, moving lower to illuminate the forest floor. The hair which fell into her eyes was swiftly tucked behind one ear, though it never stayed there long.

As engrossed as she was with her task, she would’ve had to be blind, deaf and dumb not to sense the growing magic in the air. It wasn’t something that one could see normally, but magical energy surrounded people almost constantly. Skilled mages could see this energy and use it to gauge the skill level of fellow mages.

To Milli, the energy took the form of golden ribbons, which grew thicker, more defined and in numbers when said energy was highly concentrated.

As it was now, her attention was drawn up from the ground to the branches above, where a mass of this golden energy was coalescing.

Shielding her eyes, she squinted against the growing light, her own light ball fizzled out at her side.

The air above her rippled and hummed, the hair on the back of her neck stood up, Milli watched wide eyed and in awe as the space above her twisted and contorted, the magical energy ribbons forming a circular opening…which revealed a pitch darkness.

There was a distinct scent of musty water, and then suddenly a large shape tumbled through the opening.

Milli yelped, jumping backward the ting landed in a head where she’d previously been standing. As suddenly as the ordeal had happened, it vanished, the golden energy thread dissipated, leaving the forest as mundane as ever.

Millicent Brawen kept forward slowly, staring down in awe at what had arrived. It looked like person, there was a shock of blonde hair and…strange clothing, the likes of which she’d never seen.

She didn’t know what the hell had happened…but whatever this thing was…

It might have something valuable on it. Crouching down, she reached out hesitantly, unsure of what might happen when she touched the thing.

As her fingers brushed what was definitely skin and she didn’t explode, she smirked.

“Jackpot”, she began riffling through the stranger’s things, on the hunt of anything remotely valuably or interesting. There was a caravan due in a few days, perhaps she’d find something to have Milton trade for her.

 

[Krominel]

23 Years Ago ​

Headline from a newspaper read “Naked Florida Man Tries to Sell Baby”. Some catching highlights from the article “Man was seen coming out of a nearby mangrove swamp holding a baby.” “Baby’s origin unknown, no leads to find parents” “Man disappeared from police custody on Monday, experts are baffled.”

The baby was handed over to child protective services, but due to how fast the article spread he was quickly adopted by a fairly wealthy family from Canada. He was named Viggo Shannon Kimball, of the glass manufacturing Kimballs.

He was a quite inquisitive boy. He excelled in all of his classes and was pushed through school, starting his college career at the tender age of 15. Graduated with a bachelors in biology at 19, went on to complete an internship and started working for a drug company that was researching compounds found naturally in a very specific type of mushroom. Mushrooms weren’t really his specialty, but the company was paying for his masters degree so he went along with it.

He just had his 24th birthday, which he celebrated with his sister, Sophie, by getting black out drunk and watching kids' TV shows like a real winner. During his childhood he spent all of his free time in the forest behind his parents’ house so he missed out on a lot of social development meaning his sister was his best friend and he had never been on a date. Something that Sophie was actively trying to change.

Current Timeline ​

“Listen, he’s adopted so it’s not like he’s my biological brother, so it would be totally not weird for you to date him,” Sophie explained into her phone. “Have you even seen him though? He’s a catch. Hot bod, too awkward to cheat.” “No, like I think he’s hot platonically. I can acknowledge that he’s attractive without making it incestual.” “The plants aren’t that bad, you get used to them. He’s named them so they’re kinda like his pets.” “I’m putting you on speaker cause I’m watering his plants while he’s on that research trip for his job.”

A voice on the phone crackled through the speaker, “You spend all of your time with him, and call him hot, and you don’t think that’s a little weird?”

Sophie sighs, “Why do you think I’m trying to set him up on a date? He needs someone more in his life than just me and as the older sister it’s my responsibility to make sure he doesn’t end up alone.”

“You’re not his mom Sophie,” a long silence follows. “Ugh, fine, send me a pic of him and I’ll decide if I want to go on a date on my own, okay?”

“Sent! What do you think?” Sophie giggled.

“Hang on, it’s loading... Oh! Fuck.”

Sophie spun around to face her phone, “WHAT IS ‘Oh! Fuck.’ SUPPOSED TO MEAN?”

A groan came from the other end, “It means he’s hot. His eyes though, feels like they’re staring into my soul.”

“It’s because they’re so dark they look almost black unless you see them in bright lighting, and with his blond hair it throws people off. But I promise he can’t stare into souls,” she explained.

“I’ll go on one date, but I don’t get my new work schedule until Friday so I’ll let you know then when I’m available,” her friend replied.

“Great, I’ll let him know when he gets back tomorrow,” Sophie smiled victoriously and hung up the phone. She was only about halfway through watering the plants and filling out their days to be watered charts. He’s such a nerd, he better not screw this up. She thought to herself.

------​

A sharp pain pulsed through Viggo’s head. He winced and brought his hand up to rub his temple. Groaning his eyes fluttered open to the surprise of his life, a woman was poised over his body.

He let out a startled scream before scurrying away as quickly as he could, but his ankle was twisted so he only made it a couple feet away before falling back to the ground.

“FUCK!” was the first coherent word from his mouth. He was looking around himself in a panicked haze. The forest was different, the air was different, the soil, and sky were different. He looked back at the woman, maybe she knew where he was?

“Where am I? How long have I been out? Who are you?” rapid fire questions followed by “Fuck! Where are my mushrooms?”

 

[StarryKnights]

Now, Milli didn’t know who or what this thing was, and honestly she didn’t care. As she pat down the sides and investigated pockets, she discovered that it was, in fact, a human male. The long blonde hair had confused her, but there was no denying it.
She was straddling the man, bent down she patted down his pockets, but wasn’t finding anything of interest.
Given how he’d fallen on his head, she didn’t expect him to wake anytime soon. The universe however loved to dash her expectations.

When he stirred she let out a little yelp and jumped back. The stranger followed suit, though he didn’t get far. He stumbled to his feet only to fall back on his ass, likely due to an injury sustained during the fall.
For a moment, Milli simply stared at the man, her mind raced in an attempt to come up with a plausible excuse. After all, she couldn’t just admit to trying to rob him.
Her eyes darted around the scene, completely ignoring the man’s questions.
There was a clear spot in the foliage where he’d landed, and there were some faded depressions in the dirt.

“I-I saved your life”, she blurted out. “There was a viscous beast, a dire bear! And I chased it off for you”.

Dire bear? Maybe pull it back a bit there Milli.

She crossed her arms and frowned at the man. “I was merely trying to assess your condition when you woke....”.
She took a hesitant step forward.

“All things considered, you don’t seem to be worse for wear”. Considering he’d fallen out of the sky through a black hole, he was remarkably healthy. She could sense all kinds of strange magic with this man, though she didn’t see the usual golden ribbons.

There was something off here, and Milli needed time to get to the bottom of it.
She couldn’t have this guy wandering off to gods only knew where.

“Right then”, she offered the man a hand. “Get up, we should get moving before that thing comes back”.

She flashed a small smile, showing off the dimples on her cheeks. With her auburn curls and red light eyes, she was quite the sight. She’d been considered very beautiful growing up, though she’d paid no mind to such things.
She had no time for frivolous relationships, nor had she ever met anyone remotely interesting enough to start one.
Her brother used to tease her for her solitary preferences, but Millicent had always brushed it off.
Now though, she somewhat missed his playful teasing.

 

[Krominel]

Viggo stopped, he looked at the woman as she spoke and his thoughts began to ramble. What the fuck is a dire bear. Bears, bears... Grizzlies, black, polar, there was that sun bear online... Wait, isn’t a dire bear that bear from my sister’s video game? Is she larping right now, or is she just fucking with me? Wait, I was just in a cave in the woods, but now I’m in the woods and there’s no cave... How the fuck did I get here? Shit, what was she saying just now? He was still a little dazed from hitting his head.

She extended a hand to him; he took it as she helped him up. She was actually quite pretty, and the first girl that Viggo had ever noticed in that way. He usually spent too much time in his head focused on his work to notice any beautiful women that might of been around him including every woman his sister ever set him up with. But this woman was different, she felt as different as the woods around him.

He rolled his ankle around and cracked it back into place before stamping it down testing his weight on it. Seemed good enough to walk on, just a bit sore.

She hadn’t answered any of his questions, and as he realized this it occurred to him that perhaps he had imagined the cave and this woman had kidnapped him for whatever reason and now was ‘befriending’ him in an effort to manipulate him into thinking he wasn’t actually kidnapped. At least those were his conclusions until he noticed his small container filled with mushrooms. It had fallen off into some brush that was around the small clearing they were standing in and the sun had hit it just right to catch his eye.

Walking over to the container, he picked it up. All of the contents including those from the cave were present. He decided to stand his ground against this woman, he wasn’t about to go galivanting through the woods with some stranger after all.

Turning back to her he asserted himself, “I’m not leaving here until you tell me what’s going on. The bear is obviously a rouse, and I’m not that gullible. There are no recent tracks here outside of yours.... and mine. But mine are.... did I fall from the sky?” He looked around the clearing and then looked back at the woman with his question.

Viggo had spent enough time in the woods to identify tracks. It helped him avoid animals he would rather not tangle with. He had even done some research on tracking to help him during his trips. That resulted in the men in his family constantly trying to take him on hunting trips. Which was a mild annoyance.

Now those skills noticed one set of tracks heading into the clearing, smaller feet, the woman’s, obviously. Also, some larger animal tracks that looked to be about a week old, and the markings of some birds and other small animals. But he saw neither his own prints entering or drag marks from him being pulled into the clearing. If he had been carried, there would’ve been another set of prints, or the woman’s prints would’ve been much deeper into the earth and he had doubts that she would’ve been able to carry him very far, if at all. The indent from his landing was the only sign of how he got there and it looked like he had fallen pretty hard. It didn’t make sense, but it was the only possible conclusion he could come to, he had ruled everything else out.

He let out a sigh, nothing was adding up. “How about this, we’ll start with something easy. My name is Viggo, what’s yours?”

 

[StarryKnights]

Millicent frowned; it seemed this man wasn’t a common fool. That didn’t explain why he fell from the sky, seemingly through a hole in the very dimension she inhabited. Milli had questions, lots of them. But before she could attend to all of that, she needed to deal with this stranger’s questions.

“Aren’t you the clever one?”, she arched an eyebrow. “The bear is a lie…and you…you uh”, she glanced upwards toward the space he’d fallen through, frowning. It was giving off an eerie magical vibe, one that Millicent didn’t like.

This one reeked of trouble, and Millicent wanted no part of it. She ought to leave him out here and see how he felt when an actual dire bear showed up.

“…For lack of a better phrase, yes, you did fall from the sky”.

She looked the man up and down before turning her back to him. She was in no rush to introduce herself to this stranger.

“Your welcome to linger in the woods and see what turns up, I for one am leaving”. She wanted no part in this, this stranger would bring her nothing but trouble, Millicent could feel it. But leaving him alone…was almost certainly a death sentence, because he’d be killed by local wildlife.

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. “My name is Shandra” she lied; giving him the name she’d given Milton. Better to be safe than sorry when it came to dealing with strangers, especially those who literally fell from the sky.

“And if you don’t wish to encounter a real dire bear, I suggest you follow me”. She’d take him to the village; from there he could handle himself. His ankle wasn’t too bad off, a simple potion would have it all fixed. Of course, she wouldn’t give her wares away for free, but they could work something out.

“Quickly now, Viggo”.

Such a strange name.

She started to walk through the undergrowth at a slightly brisk pace, wondering if the man would be wise enough to follow her or not.

Part of her almost wished he wouldn’t so she could avoid the hassle of dealing with the bizarre stranger.

 

[Krominel]

Fell from the sky? Really? I mean I had guessed as much but HOW?? He thought. She likely didn’t have an answer for that one, and she didn’t seem inclined to stick around and chat about the subject either. ​

​

She introduced herself as Shandra. The name didn’t seem to suit her and the way she said it didn’t feel right. But Viggo had nothing else to call her, so he ran with it. It didn’t matter if it was fake, he didn’t intend to stick around very long anyway. ​

​

For the time being however, he was in the middle of the wood, essentially lost, and she was the only way back to civilization. From there he figured he could take a bus depending on how far away he was from home. If he was close enough, he could even call his sister to pick him up. One way or another this would all be figured out, but he had no choice except to follow this Shandra woman. ​

​

Real dire bear though? He distrusted her, something in the pit of his stomach still had an unease about the situation. She believed what she was saying, and that made her information even more questionable. If it was a larp, she was taking it too far. If it wasn’t, she might not be in her right mind. As he was thinking about it, it brought him back to his youth. He remembered when he first encountered the article about his origins. The crazed man trying to sell him. Why did he always have to attract the unusual? ​

​

She urged him onward as she left the clearing. Viggo followed. He clutched his container of mushrooms; it was all he had after all. ​

​

“So, Shandra, where exactly are we going?” he asked. She hadn’t actually clarified that bit. “And what were you doing out here anyway if it’s as dangerous as you say?” ​

​

As they travelled the wood changed. The trees grew less dense and the light shone through the leaves revealing what looked to be an evening sky. It was beautiful. The air was fresh with a hint of sweet lilac floating on the breeze. It was so familiar and yet completely foreign to Viggo. Where did he know this from? ​

​

 

[StarryKnights]

For a displaced stranger in a hostile land, this Viggo was very chatty. Millicent glanced back at him, smirking.

“This land is only dangerous to untrained fools like you. As for what I was doing…”, her gaze flickered to his container. “I was gathering ingredients to be used for medicinal purposes”.

She looked ahead once again, opting not to share that she’d be making potions out of the materials. She didn’t trust this man; he could be some kind of spy sent by the king…or the rebel mage forces. Either way, she couldn’t be certain of his trustworthiness.

Millicent would see him back to the town, and from there what he did was on him. She didn’t need him interfering with her business. If he caused trouble for the town’s folk she’d likely have to intervene, if he disrupted her buyers then that would undercut her profits for the month.

“We’re returning to Kannes, there’s not much to the place but I’m sure you can find some kind of shelter”. She glanced up toward the sky, it had gotten late.

She reached into her pocket and fished out a single brass key, which she’d use to unlock the back door of the shop.

“Your free to take your leave once we reach there, but until then it’s best you don’t wander off. All manners of creatures inherit these woods, most are dangerous enough to kill a man”.

Dire bears might be some of the biggest, but Millicent found it was the tiny threats you had to worry about. A dire bear could only do so much to hide. Poisonious insects and miniature predators, those were the little monsters you had to watch out for.

Snapping the fingers on her her free hand, a small fire ball flickered to life, given it had grown dark the need to illuminate the area was second nature. The moment it crackled into being though Millicent swore.

“…You had best not tell anyone about this outsider”, she glanced back at the man, a frown on her face.