Wine Red (TordTom)

The Forest

Patryck looked deep in thought after Paul's question. He simply shrugged. Paul sighed.

"Maybe it's nothing. Maybe they didn't notice," Paul looked to the man walking in front of him, "Maybe."

Tord breathed out the chemicals from his cigarette. He continued walking as he looked up into the sky. He didn't know where his feet were taking him, he had his thoughts on something- or rather, someone else.

There was just something about the blue hooded mage that awed him and interested him. Questions arose in his head. Why did he cover his face? Who killed his father? If Tord really had killed his father, he didn't remember. A simple mortal's death didn't compare to an entire village.

Tord snapped out of his thoughts as water lapped at his feet. He looked around at their surroundings. The group was back at what used to be the pond they emerged from. All that was left was a giant footprint from the cyclops and the small puddles from what used to be the pond.

"Well then," Tord started as he stared down at the water, "I guess we'll just have to go the long way."

Paul looked over to Patryck, who also had the same expression of surprise and worry. The only other way back was through the gates of Hell, which was miles away. Paul turned back to their leader, whose expression was sanguine as he walked towards the forest.

"Well, we've got no time to lose," Tord called from the edge of the trees. Following that, he ran into the dark.

"Why is he so stupid," Paul asked in a deadpan tone. Patryck only shrugged as they ran off into the forest after their leader.

•••

The inside of the forest was darker than it had seemed outside in the illumination of the full moon. Paul and Patryck had stumbled once or twice while searching for Tord, even though they could barely see each other. Every now and then, there would be growling and the pair would slowly and quietly head in the opposite direction.

Tord, on the other hand, killed whatever came at him, whether it be a bear or a squirrel. He only hid the physical characteristics of being a demon, not the supernatural abilities of strength or the black arts. Usually, if you weren't born with magic something of worth would have to be given up, whether it be eyes, an arm or even strength. Luckily, Tord was born with it, and his family's magic was strong.

He kept walking in the dark forest, holding onto the tree bark to maintain his balance if he tripped on a root. As Tord kept walking, he noticed something in the distance; little glowing dots of blue and green and dim lines of purple that would appear now and then. The closer he got, the bigger the glowing lights got.

Tord wondered if his soldiers had found the lights too, or if they had even followed him into the threatening forest. Either way, he didn't care.

He continued to creep towards the glowing lights. They were far, as it had been a few minutes from when he first saw them, which meant they were bright too, he realized. He squinted and shaded his eyes with his hand as the all the lights became blinding.

He blinked. One second, all the green, blue and purple lights had been mixing together to make a blinding concoction of colors. The next second, the purple light had dramatically dimmed and only the blue one remained as bright as it was before, except it was rapidly flickering. The green light had disappeared.

Tord hastened his pace in curiosity to what had happened. The forest opened to a very small clearing where black spikes stuck out of the grass and trees. There was a giant creature that looked like every pore was oozing a black goo and its eyeballs rolled around in it. There had to be at least seven of the crimson orbs. It slouched as it looked down at the other figures, one was hunched over the other while another one seemed to be gasping for air.

Tord suddenly had a slight feeling of dread as he recognized the group. The healer, the warrior and the mage from before.

The giant ooze creature suddenly shot out a blob towards the opposite direction of Tord. He saw Paul and Patryck dodge out of the way in time, before the blob solidified into spikes where it had hit the trees. So they did follow him into the woods.

Tord glanced back at the beastly creation and was startled. All of the eyes rolled over to face Tord and the goo rippled as a low chitter emanated from it.

There was a sudden shout and a wave of blue light. It knocked Tord back into a tree and even though it hurt, he was grateful he wasn't impaled on one of the spikes that suddenly grew on the other trees.

When his vision cleared, he noticed that the goo monster had separated into nine small creatures that looked like girls. Tord started to stumble towards the clearing. He saw the healer, Edd in a small pool of blood as Matt tried to help him as Tom tried to distract the gooey monsterettes. It was visible that he was getting hurt in the process due to blood dripping down the shadow that hid his eyes.

Tord heard a sickening crack. He looked to his left and saw Patryck holding the snapped neck of one the monsterettes, while Paul killed another. Tom sliced his hand through the air, sending another, smaller wave towards three of the monsterettes, cutting them in half on contact.

Tord managed to kill two while Matt killed another due to coming too close to Edd, who was barely coming to. He had a deep scar on his side that was covered in bandages that Matt had put on. Both Tom and Matt ran over to him, seeing as he was awake.

Tord walked over to Paul and Patryck who somehow seemed to be communicating despite Patryck being mute.

"Ah, so you did follow me, I thought you would've been a coward," Tord sneered, his words aimed slightly at Patryck. Paul glared at Tord.

No one noticed the ninth monsterette scampering back into the trees.

Edd's head lolled around as he felt dizzy for losing blood. His eyes landed on Tord.

"Well, speak of the devil and he shall arrive."

Author's Note

WHO ELSE IS IN AN EMOTIONAL MESS AFTER 'HIS FAVORITE'????? CUZ I SURE AM!!!!
My entirety of today/March 30 xx18 was just depressing and me listening to sad music, sad quotes, sad stories and my ugly drawings made it worse! 😂😂