Blood Emperor's Lazy Doctor [Under Revision]

Chapter 02: Disorienting Fever, Impatient Man (3)

This, The Forest of Rebirth, surrounds the city of ash, stretching its branches throughout the continent, carrying many mysteries locked behind its unusual visage. Standing before its might, the sight of its irregularities dazed many minds. From the highest point of the bark then down, the trees and plants look to be frozen in stone, coated in gray with nary a sign of life. But sprouting through and above this petrified bark, those gorgeous crowns of greens, yellows, reds, and every other color besides monotonous gray, beautifully paint its name, "The Forest of Rebirth." Ash's largest mystery, a dead forest full of life defying all forms of heavenly laws, standing strong through crisis and adversity.

Some say Medusa had walked these lands once as she came upon this world by pure chance. The sight of this land cloaked in beauty touched her heart, birthing the thought of never leaving. The tranquility conquered a petrified heart and this heart in a moment of greedy protection, petrified the forest to hide its beauty. Yet nearly through with the petrification, Medusa faltered and dropped her sight. She couldn't bear to see the flourishing life she once loved, glittering with golden sunshine, covered in stone. She wept and ran away, the swaying leaves bidding her farewell while her visage leapt through the sky and vanished.

What a lovely fairy tale? Yes, for children, those sweet innocent souls. Hiding behind those kind words and tall tales a darker more sinister version exists, spread even more fervently through word of mouth and used to scare mischievous children from wandering out late at night.

Why would this chilling witch be kind? Medusa did not love The Forest of Rebirth, she hated it, loathed it, wished for it to be the name of this world, raised to the ground and turned to ash. Unfortunately under her control was earth and not fire. So she petrified the lands with her heated gaze. The flourishing life turned quiet. The winds died down. Clouds began blocking out the sun and a dark haze swelled them with rain and lightning. Right when all the bark had turned gray, a blade slashes her neck, relieving the weight off her shoulders, silencing away that vile serpent hair from hissing at the world and the life despised in those chilling slit eyes. Emperor Jie and his four guards had descended upon the land, slaying Medusa where she stood.

Some say her head severed from her neck and her eyes burning with rage still exists somewhere in this forest of gray. Some say Emperor Jie destroyed it, scattering it to fertilize the land she hated, her eyes watching the world from every tree unable to close for all eternity. Some even say Emperor Jie and his guards ate her, utilizing her powers as their own to further build upon their empire.

Ah, how splendid the mind is. Conjuring the morbid out of a single line of thought with no connection whatsoever. But is there truly no connection, even in the gentlest of tales? In myth is there no truth?

Hong Luo ran through this forest for numerous miles without stopping, feeling eyes prickle the hairs on her arms. Her own eyes scan through the crown of shifting green and pouring rain. Peering birds shiver, squirrels peek through their tails, a family of bats barely staying airborne swooping pass, casting a glance her way before vanishing into the foliage.

"Not Medusa—– but small critters and their curious eyes? Ha, such silliness even I believed as a child." Hong Luo leapt off a large tree root half her size, covering that laughing smile on her lips with both hands. Letting the wind guide her she balls up her body and dives through a huckleberry bush hiding a large hole in the ground.

"My my, it's still here," she amusingly hums, her body sliding through the wet earthen hole without resistance. Several years have passed, yet this memory has not failed her yet. She supposes that loss and clouded mind muddling her ability of recollection had merely been——– a momentary symptom. One which has long since left her in the life before, or perhaps it never existed?