Forests of Koreen

By P.B. Thompson

Francor, the creation of the Dark Children, is on the march with his army raised from the dead. His destination? The second crystal that Kaleb and Shen seek. It is hidden deep within the Forests of Koreen, a forest that feeds off of pure evil from the living, and the monster carries the only other thing that can release it.
The race is on to retrieve the crystal to help prevent the raising of the Dark Children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ferret Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Sep 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311341563

Book preview

Forests of koreen

Chapter One

The monster marches on

The rumble of thousands of feet pounding the ground at a trot was the first indication of the trouble to come. Then a low knocking or clicking sound. Sounds unfamiliar to the quiet village of Rouche.

Their everyday sounds were of chickens and cows and farmers ploughing the surrounding fields. The sounds that were about to fill the villagers minds stayed with them for the rest of their lives. Lives that had little time left.

The dust cloud came ever closer until finally a vision of horror came in to view. A monster so vile that the first villager to see it vomited the breakfast he had just finished.

It stood three metres tall with a pale face and a hair lip that touched its nose revealing rotting teeth and a rasping sound every time it breathed in. The nose itself was pointy as were the ears and every inch of its face was scarred from cuts made by its own knife.

It was dressed in an armour of bones that had been blessed by the Dark Children themselves, for this creature was an instrument of the Dark Children.

Following close behind the ungodly vision was an army raised from the ground. Children of the dead with fleshless bones that knocked against each other in an orchestra of sound that was the precursor to the destruction of anything that got in their way.

Some carried shields and swords pillaged from former villages that now lay in dust. Some carried spears and hammers. Each weapon sported the same decoration. The blood of its last victim.

The horde ploughed through the village like a vampire thirsting for blood. No lives were spared. A small pack from the horde peeled off and ensured there were no survivors in the fields. This was a massacre for the fun of killing. For the motivation that drove Francor had twisted his mind.

The many centuries he had in his cave to plot the downfall of the Changelings had warped his already skewed perception of the world. Now the time had come to take his revenge he wanted anything in his path to feel the rage he had inside him. A rage that could only be tempered by the ending of the Changeling race.

As the knocking sound gradually faded into the distance the village was at peace again. A peace that could not be enjoyed by a living soul as the slaughter had been finite. Every man, woman, child and animal were left to rot on the ground.

***

‘What do you know of the Forests of Koreen, Shen? I have not heard of them before.’

Kaleb had given up his normal communication method with Shen as she could only communicate mentally, although she could understand when people spoke to her. As Kaleb was now only in her company he spoke to her through his mind.

‘Has the Staff not explained the nature of the forests to you?’

Kaleb looked at the Staff of Xandra tucked into the saddle of his horse. He was learning its intricacies slowly, but all information about where the remaining crystals were located were restricted to just that. No explanations of the areas in which they were held was forthcoming. It was as though the Staff had only that detail and nothing else.

‘The details of the forests and the other areas that hold the crystals are missing. I only have their locations and directions.’

Shen looked up at Kaleb from her walking position with a curious look on her face. Or what Kaleb read as curious from the years that he had known her. For Shen was a Changeling. One of a small group that had inhabited Trygor for as long as any creature could remember.

They could take any form and emotions were not part of their make-up. They were at one with nature around them. But Kaleb had lived among them since he was a kid. Spending most of his time with Shen, who had picked up subtle emotional looks, from the human, and implemented them, on occasions, to emphasise the moment when she felt the time was right.

‘I find that strange.’ Shen paused as she pondered the news. ‘I have not personally been to the Forests, but the collective mind gives me all the information as though I have been there first hand. Koreen is an area of great beauty, famed for its spectacular countrysides and mountains. The peace it imbues in anyone who visits there is something that has been treasured for centuries.

This peace has been allowed to cultivate because of the Forests of Koreen. The forests seem to have captured all the evil from the surrounding areas and locked it in to the very trees themselves. There are many dangers deep within the outer forest. Dangers that my own kind have never dared to tangle with and so we are limited in knowledge of this area.

The outer forest surrounds the inner forest, of which I have only hear-say of its make-up. The vilest of creatures to be found on Trygor are found here, or so it is said. Even the very earth that you step on is corrupted with the evil and can rise up in any form to devour its victim.’

‘As good a place as any to hide a crystal, I suppose,’ said Kaleb. ‘Why has such a place grown?’

Again, Shen looked over to Kaleb with a subtle look of confusion as if he had questioned something so fundamentally obvious.

‘Nature is nature. Its reasons are wide and varied and the way things are.’

Kaleb left it at that. He had learned many things from the Changelings in his time with them, but to understand nature the way they do would take him ten lifetimes.

In the distance Kaleb spotted signs of habitation close by.

‘Let’s make for that village ahead. The sun will be down in an hour or so. It will be good to sleep in a soft bed for a change.’

‘Very well,’ replied Shen.

The two made a slight change in their course and headed for the settlement.

Chapter Two

Gruesome discovery

As the two passed by the semi ploughed fields, Kaleb was filled with a sense of foreboding. He looked around him and spotted something in the middle of one of the fields.

‘Do you see that, Shen?’

Shen had the same feeling as Kaleb and had already spotted the same scene in two other fields. In her form as half human, half horse, she galloped in to the nearest field to investigate. When she returned she sent,

‘We must be on our guard. Something terrible has happened here. Let us get to the village quickly.’

Kaleb didn’t hesitate and kicked at the side of his horse and they both set off at a sprint.

The village had no defined boundaries. It was a sprawl of small dwellings arranged in no particular order. Single story high and made from mud and wood. Each dwelling was intact and complete as the day they were built. But the human carnage was brutal.

Mutilated corpses lay everywhere. Limbs were hacked off, eyes were gouged out, skin was flayed from bones and left hanging from its owners. Kaleb had never witnessed such a sight before.

He’d spent many years fighting the Skeggs and more recently Ogres and Ogrettes, but they never took the same pleasure in the killing as was on display in this village.

The two slowed to a walk as they picked their way through, hoping to find survivors, but deep down knowing there would be none.

‘Who could have