An Animated Ambush

The air in the forest was thick with the smell of damp earth and pine, a scent that usually soothed my restless explorer’s soul. But today, it was a premonition. We were deep in what used to be the Black Forest, a place whispered about in hushed tones even before the world started to twist into its new, garish form. Now, it was a graveyard of once-majestic trees, their bark peeling like sunburnt skin, their leaves frozen in a perpetual, unnatural green.

Niku walked beside me, his massive frame a comforting, if somewhat anxious, presence. He was still new to this, to the grim reality of the Soul-Hunters. His eyes, usually so bright and full of life, darted nervously from shadow to shadow. “You think they’ll show, Eli?” he rumbled, his voice a low vibration against the unnatural silence.

I adjusted the strange, dark gloves on my hands. They felt like a second skin now, a part of me. “They always show, Niku. It’s what they do.” My own gaze swept over the ranks of Soul-Hunters marching ahead of us. A hundred of them, a grim collection of all ages and desperate faces, armed with weapons that glinted with the cool, mineral sheen that could, just barely, keep the animated at bay. Commander Valerius, a woman whose face seemed carved from granite, led the vanguard, her gaze fixed ahead, unwavering.