Prologue

There exists a place that just the very whisper of its name brought life itself to a standstill. The very thought of what dwelled within caused ongoing nightmares. Breaching the threshold of that forest was a fool’s endeavor, not that of the brave. For most, there were just too many unknowns and too many orifices for the smallest creatures invade. As for the large beings, well, no man could hold up against anything that took up residence there.

The stories of what had possibly happened to those who hadn’t returned were many and stomach turning.

One man told a story of a body he’d found near the border of the woodlands. He described it as being cut down the center from throat to his privates. He explained that the insides had been eaten clean; so clean that it was dry of any blood’ the blood that had almost certainly quenched this fiend’s thirst. The body was beginning to deteriorate but it was clear that a monster of catastrophic proportions was responsible for this. Some beast had had its way with this person and then thrown the scraps away, full from its feast.

 The atmosphere was also cause for fear. It didn’t abide by the laws of physics like the rest of the world. It could go through the seasons in a month. Sometimes you could see the white coating of the tops of the tall trees that towered into the sky, thick with leaves that mostly blocked out the sun and left any intruder no way of really knowing the time of day.

As if the blocked sky wasn’t enough, the forest floor was not all that much better; the different variety of bush and brush and things that crawled and clung with its wooden claws. Escape was futile once inside. Running was pointless. It’s as though the forest was actually in cahoots with the ghouls.

The Uldarian forest was definitely a place most avoided. Whatever treasure might lie within, that abhorrent place wasn’t worth the risk. Even the wind blowing through the trees was said to give off a whistle unheard but human ears; a whistle that called forth ideas to the mind that sent beads of sweat sliding down one’s back. However, yet again, no one ever lived to tell about it. So how could it be that people knew of these horrible creatures?

Uldarian had its terrible and most unappealing, but the worst was believed to be a girl. Still, how could she withstand the perils of that forest? Had she been transformed and become her own form of inhuman? Did she somehow have command over all life forms that inhabited? No matter, for she attacked anyone who infringed on her territory, even set one foot on Uldarian soil. Criminals ran back to the villages quite close to death but none as close as anyone who worked for the kingdom. Any worker of the King was an automatic enemy of hers. Soldiers feared the place.

On the other hand, some began to question that such a person could exist. A young girl with such power at her disposal was unheard of. People considered it so absurd that she quickly faded into the things of fables and ballads. She was more of an apparition than a real person.

A lot of people assumed she’d died within the first week of her being there. No child could survive that forest. Something was there but it was no human and most assuredly no girl. Not an aggressive child. She didn’t exist. People were making a legend of a dead girl. Doubt was strong in the people who lived nearby.

But every so often, in the middle of the night, a premature scream would ring out loud enough for all to hear. A scream that sent a chill down your back, raised every hair on your body, and affirmed her authenticity; a child’s cry for her father.