The Apprentice of Ouroboros [Monster Evo LitRPG Adventure]

The Sarpathi Expanse, outskirts of the Whispering Woods...

The sound of metal running over tanned grain echoed across Lorrin’s field, his scythe swinging with even, steady strokes at the same height every time. His two younger boys grabbed the fallen wheat and put it into bundles on a small cart that one of his oxen slowly pulled forward, working their way across the field of billowing grains.

Summertime was ending, of that, Lorrin knew for certain. It was already September, and the days were getting shorter and chillier, the kind of pleasant weather where you left the windows open after a warm day to let cool air inside at night. Sweat beaded on his weathered skin, and his breath was a steady rhythm, swinging his scythe and cutting the grain with self-assured precision.

No machine was going to replace him. You couldn’t get this kind of precision without an expensive magitech device or someone without the right Class. Some might consider being a farmer to be beneath them, but Lorrin knew who had the real power.

The answer was quite simple: those who kept bellies fed and various alchemical plants growing annually would always be needed.

He’d told his boys that for every soldier out there, there were two farmers and their helpers behind his back, keeping him supported.

One lad stumbled, dropping the gathered grain. Lorrin sighed and set his scythe down for a second. “William, Oh, William. You do the job right and go a little slower. How are we to keep pace when you’re rushing and fumbling and nearly cutting off an arm with your scythe? You know it takes two hands to use one, right?"

The boy stammered an apology. “Sorry, pa. Why can’t Maddie help? She’s big enough to help us get this into the silo for storage now!”

The man let out a chuckle, taking off his wide-brimmed hat and wiping a trickle of sweat away from his eyes. “Son, your sister is gonna be a healer or a mage or someone special someday. She’s got no business running around cutting grain and getting all weathered and jerky-like, baking in the sun. That’s our job.”

“But Pa, she gets more playtime!” his son, William, protested. “C’mon, the sun's going down, and it’s lower than the titan trees. That means it's almost time to call it a day!”

The attentive farmer glanced at the trees to their north. Those imposing and majestic trees stood twice as high as the tallest trees in the verdant forest bordering his farm. Some in the deep forest, just past some low hills, were rumored to reach almost a thousand feet. At night, they were close enough that he could even see the veins of mana spiderwebbed across the barky surface, even from miles away.

“Alright. Five minutes, then we’ll meet Ma and get dinner. Hope she got the rolls baked.” He resumed his rhythmic practice, the cart now packed with grain that would soon be separated from the stalks by one of his neighbors, then shipped to the mill for further processing.

He was doing his part for the war, which felt so far away. No monsters roved about, burning fields or murdering folk where they stood in the street. The biggest danger was maybe an occasional shadowcat coming crawling out of the forest. Still, everyone knew what they looked like, and everyone had luminary bulbs growing at the periphery of their homes. That simple remedy had made the creatures avoid every settlement.

He paused when he thought of all the extra farmhands he used to have. This was only the second year he deemed his sons were old enough to assist him in the harvest. It was tough work, and they’d long since bronzed their skin in the sun from the effort. Callouses formed on their youthful hands for their efforts. It built character; it displayed their labor for everyone to see, so everyone knew their work didn’t go unrecognized.

All the extra farmboys were gone, now, all summoned to war. He had two this year, not four like last year, or five before that. Just two. How many would he have next year?

He let out a sigh and set his scythe into the back of the cart before hopping on, and motioned to his sons. “Alright, time to wrap up then, I guess.”

Half an hour later, they had finished putting everything away and fed the cattle outside, and the boys took turns washing in the cool water from the pump spigot near the house, a wood-and-trimmed-brick structure with a large harvest barn and an attached grain silo.

His father had been a father like him; his grandfather had been a farmer, and likely, his own sons would be farmers, too. It wouldn’t be their only choice for a class, most likely, but it would be the one they’d be most comfortable with. His grandfather had added the silo, and the ancestor he had never met had laid the stone foundation for the back half of the farmhouse. He’d never travelled the world like some of the eager lads. Not when he had a view like this of the trees taller than some hills, bountiful harvests, and relatively low dangers.

He kissed his wife, a thickset woman with just as much muscle as he, and her blonde hair wrapped in a handkerchief, crows' feet faintly tracing the corners of her eyes. “Roselie, how are ya, love?”

“Worried you’re gonna work yourself into a grave, you dolt! You should have been back a half hour ago!’ she called out, eyes flashing at him with playful banter. “You’re gonna break your boys' little bodies too while you’re at it!”

Lorrin laughed, with his wife giving him the stink-eye. “Good, a little hard work builds character!”

“And graves. Come sit down and have dinner. Maddie! Go set the table!”

“Yes, ma.” A little girl with dark brown hair like her father, woven into a simple braid, set plates and silverware down. She stashed her notebook she’d been writing in on one of the chairs in the main room, then hurried back. “Pa, how did the fields look? Was the grain harvest good?”

“Good enough for the market. Once we get it all processed and sent out to the mill, we’ll get our cut.” He sounded sure of himself; it was just another ordinary harvest season.

“Did Nadia return from her alchemical foraging in the woods?” Maddie asked quietly. “I saw her collecting a basket filled with some herbs and mushrooms, but it's still there.”

“It’s not quite dark yet. I’m sure she’s just chasing down truffles or some other magical cure-all," her father assured her. Yet, a worry nagged at him.

Last month, Borvin’s son had gone into the woods, saying he was chasing lights. Lorrin had thought he was chasing the summer night bugs that lit up the grassy fields and forests during the season, except for one problem.

Borvin’s son hadn’t come back. No one had seen him. All they found was a bug-catching net.

“Maddie, I’m sure she’ll be fine. The worst thing out there is shadowcats, and everyone carries luminary bulbs or silverite dust on them at all times. Those critters are now skittish about being anywhere near town.”

Dinner was a quieter affair that night. He thought he’d put fears to rest. He hadn’t. He kept thinking what would happen next summer, if there were no more farmhands to pitch in? Or if his sons were recruited?

He tossed and turned in bed, drawing a rebuke from his wife. "Stop worrying, Lorrin. Get some rest."

Lorrin resolved to stop at the garrison after he went to the mill to grind down the harvest for long-term storage of flour and to supply the local bakers. What should have been a simple day was anything but that, and now, he glanced at the looming trees and wondered if something was out there, with two disappearances within a month.

No. Just one. It was only one for now; maybe Nadia got lost. Surely that must be the case. They’d send out hunters and find her sheltering in a hollowed-out tree like a smart girl would to hide from the nighttime predators.

“Lorrin, did you hear a word I said?” the guardsman asked after he arrived at the garrison. The yong man looked worn down and sweaty; likely, they were running extra training drills. “I said that it’s starting to look bad. Seekers came into town yesterday, and they were jumpy as soon as they arrived, all antsy and anxious and questioning everyone in town. They say that the woods are now cursed. Load of shit. Someone sneezes too loudly, and they think it’s demons possessing people.”

“Look, just do me this favor and send out a good tracker to find Nadia, okay?” he asked. “Maddie’s gonna freak out the second she finds out Nadia didn’t come home last night. First, Borin’s kid Joshua up and vanishes, now Nadia. Two kids.”

“Could’ve run away, you know. I heard from a traveller from Davin’s Creek that kids are gonna get drafted soon, and Nadia is almost of age.”

“Nadia, maybe, but she’d never leave her mum! And Joshua was ten, Grant! They aren’t recruiting boys whose balls haven’t dropped to throw them into the meat grinder just yet!” Lorrin snapped. “How could you say that?”

“Sorry, Lorrin. I ferget meself,” the guard apologized. “Weird thing about Joshua: they didn’t find anything except for his bug-catching kit. Though…one of the trackers, Nallis, says he heard a lute in the woods. But wrong, like the sound was all warped and devilish, a sound that sounded like it might scrape the inside of yer skull. He never found the source of that sound.”

Lorrin had heard every tall tale of the forest. That fey creatures roamed Whispering Woods, redcaps and pixies and fey, dancing to their evil tunes and luring children into the deeper growth, never to be seen again. In some tales, the trees were alive, and lumberjacks who harvested too greedily were, in turn, harvested themselves.

Superstition, of course. The closest they had to fey out here were the elven, and Nadia was at least half, on account of her father. Lorrin worried more about the plantlife and the real monsters out there, aside from oversized bugs, wolves, wargs, and the occasional goblin dumb enough to try to trek through the overgrown paths. About the only evidence of goblins poking their bulbous nose around was bones of humanoids on the game paths.

“You know what the scary part was, Lorrin?” the guard leaned in, sweating in the bright morning sun. “Joshua’s father swears on the Divines old and new; it was his son’s lute he heard.”

“Look, I get it, they don't have any closure. You pray a kid like that got lost in the woods or just ran away. I’m more concerned about the man-eating plants creeping in that could swallow a cow whole, and leave nothing but dissolved bones,” Lorrin said warily. “They used to be in the deeper groves, where the titan trees reside. Now they’re spreading."

The guardsman known as Grant sighed. “I know, I know. That ain’t the only thing worrying me either. Things are only getting worse at the front. The Varadur are massing north of Peolein. Nobody’s sure what they’re up to, but there hasn’t been a massing like this since the assault on Rivilat, when they pushed through two full defensive lines and made a bull rush for the plateau and the Academy.”

The farmer mulled this information. Peolein was further east and north. The Varadur had avoided the threshold forest ever since those creatures appeared. Even then, the woods were a foreboding place, wild and untapped. And, perhaps a deterrent, as well. “I just hope the damn Seekers don’t ‘volunteer’ either of my boys. I’m gonna tell them to stay out of sight of the road in case their men come by my farm,” Lorrin said. “Anything else?”

“Nah, just some weird bit of news. Apparently, they got rid of a well-buried monster den or something near what’s left of the Arcesti Hills. A bunch of Awakened cleaned it out.”

Lorrin scoffed. “Awakened. They’re a step away from monsters.”

Grant scowled. “Hey, now. I got a cousin who was cut down at the front line, and they brought him back as a…I think it was some bull monster. His mind and soul survived the process, and he’s still fighting. Do you want to be someone who desperately needs their help, only for no one to come?”

“Humanity has stood the test of time for thousands of years. We’ll weather this storm, like we always have, without cutting up our souls in the process.” Lorrin turned to leave, noting the clouds building, the air cooling as they advanced from the north, going south. He frowned as he felt the air also getting damp. One of the mages specializing in weather forecasts said they weren’t due for rain for a few days.

It only got worse from there as he made his way back to the farm, with the clouds descending and an eerie mist slowly billowing out of the forests, shrouding the higher hills in minutes.

Lorrin scrunched down on the wooden, unpadded seat of his cart, a lump of lead settling in his stomach. Something in the air felt unnatural. Eerie. Even with Classes, there were strange phenomena in the world that few people could rightly explain. The way the mist began seeping over the farm just as he arrived made it feel like an unwelcome interloper. That cooling mist felt unwelcome now and was no relief from the summer heat.

"Pa! Pa, we need help!"

His head snapped up from his ruminations. His two sons rushed over to him, out of breath as he reached the barn to stable the ox. “Pa, Maddie went into the woods to look for Nadia. Then this mist blew in, we followed her along the path to the creek up around the bend, and the mist grew thick and…she vanished!”

Lorrin’s heart clenched, and he stumbled off the wagon, only taking care to keep the oxen in the barn. “Boys, stay close!” He grabbed his bow off the back of the cart, something he kept at all times, and he rushed onto the forest path, mist practically choking the air and billowing out of the woods.

The chill of the mist burned away as he sped along the path, his sons panting and trying to keep up. “Maddie!” he screamed out. “Maddie, follow my voice!”

No reply came. Nothing but the mist drifting by his face so thickly that he couldn’t see more than fifty feet in any direction. “Boys, stay close,” he warned them. “Maddiiiiie!”

The only response he heard was his echo bouncing off the trees. He kept moving, hoping that she would stay put.

Then he heard a sound that froze him on the spot, and his head jerked to the side, listening for the source. An eerie, stringed instrument echoed through the mists, and he kept his bow up, arrow resting on the string.

“Pa, we should get the hunters; this mist ain’t natural. We can’t find Maddie if we get lost out here, too!” William whispered, hatchet in hand. It wasn’t a real weapon, just a farm tool. But it was better than nothing

“Vick! Don’t you wander either!" Lorrin called out as they slowly advanced. He heard running water splashing over rocks just ahead of them–the creek out back, though this mist made the area almost unrecognizable, even as well as he knew it.

The small bridge leading out to the woods of old moss-covered stone and wooden planks lay ahead, and the path narrowed as it cut through the dense foliage. He could hear something in the distance, a soft voice whispering in the mist.

“Pa–”

He saw it lying on the ground, a small mound of fabric and stuffing. He dashed over to it, picking up the dirt-streaked, stuffed toy snake that Maddie adored.

She never would let it go. Not for anything.

The whispers continued in a taunting tone, and Lorrin gripped the stuffed toy, kneeling on the ground. Tears formed as he screamed Maddie's name. The words dissipated into whispers of giggling children filling the air.

“Hush little child, don't you cry.

The Wild Hunt shall soar on by.

With faerie wings and guiding wisps,

The monarch lord shall send his gifts.

The monsters ere roar, tooth and claw

Honor your tribute, spare the maw.

To titan spires, we shall call,

The tribute of youth, oh, so small.

Pa…pa! What do we do?!” William pleaded, shaking his father. Lorrin's breath was ragged as tears welled up in his eyes. He didn’t know what to do.

That cursed nursery rhyme was something he'd heard the old wives and grannies use to scare children into behaving, or the Wild Hunt would take them for their wicked deeds, joining their spectral riders. His own mam had sung it, cackling at the end as she'd tickled him before putting him into bed, then assuring him he was a good son, and he should never fear the fey.

Maddie was gone, and his lungs burned from exertion, clutching the doll. The forest and its denizens had taken her.

Just like they had likely taken Nadia and Joshua.

“Dad, what about the witch? The one you told us about, who cursed the Monarch and fought back the fey? She could help! She could put a stop to this, get back Maddie!” Vick tugged on his arm. It was the first words that brought Lorrin to his senses, and he choked back tears, staggering to his feet.

“Son,” he rasped, “It was a long time ago. She’s long gone.”

William and Vick glanced at each other, expressions hardened. “We need a witch, pa. And Risha Aksen saved this village once. One of the guards said a snake wearing a witch hat and casting witch spells cleared out that entire damn instance out near Rivilat. We need the academy, or we’re never finding Maddie.”

He glanced at the mists, hearing soft giggles and the scampering of footsteps in the fallen leaves, small blurs always at the corners of his vision. He felt all the hope seeping from his body, his limbs like lead. “What’s a snake got anything to do with it, and how’s a monster going to help us?!”

“They said her name is Neska Aksen.”