082 Treasure Found

Damn!

He had too high an expectation on her speed. He should have known! She was certainly NOT as strong as he was, and it only weakened her faster because she had less magic to fill the forest's appetite!

Erebus turned around, heading for the opposite direction without hesitation, and that was when --

"Ouch!"

Erebus felt a sharp pain on his arm, as if a knife just cut his skin right open with his first step leaving the circle, but it was not him who made the yelp--

"Kitty!" Erebus didn't pay much attention to the pain he felt on his arm when he heard that familiar voice. It was his kitten from right behind him somewhere but really close!

He ran towards the voice, and found Kitty by the foot of one of the dark ancient trees with sweat all over her face.

"Oh my God! Thank God I found you!" Erebus couldn't keep his cool anymore, "Are you alright??? Are you hurt?!"

Just when he was consumed by desperation, thinking she was lost in this blood sucking forest, he found her right by his side!

"I'm okay..." Kitty mumbled with a shocked face, as in disbelief seeing him here as Erebus checking out for visible injuries. There didn't seem to be any.

"You yelled 'ouch' just now, what happened?" Erebus won't let it slide easily.

"Ohh, it's nothing. Must be because I moved without noticing." Kitty shrugged.

"What do you mean? You can't move now?!" Erebus asked in surprise.

"Well... technically, I can." Kitty gave him a bitter smile, "only within the circle of the trees. If I go outside of the circle any further, I feel cuts on me, but there won't be any wound left."

"I see..." Erebus nodded, noticing that the cut he felt on him also didn't leave any trace, "How long have you been stuck here?"

"Longgg... I feel like." Kitty sighed, "It was a longggg way up here in the first place. But I couldn't go anywhere else. I felt dizzy and there was knifes all over this place anywhere I go. Later I found out that 'it' wanted me to follow the flowers, and that led me here."

Exactly like how Erebus's deduction.

"What do you mean 'it'?" He asked.

"I feel like the forest has its own will, so I said 'it'. I felt like something, or, some 'will', wanted people to come here." Kitty answered.

They looked at each other in silence, and the shock of seeing each other here finally sank in as they remembered the horrible incident last time they were together--

Kitty: "Are you mad at me--"

Erebus: "I'm sorry--"

They both opened their mouths and both shut up at the same time.

"Of course I'm not mad at you!" Erebus was the first one to snap out of the awkwardness and answered her hesitated question.

"Why are YOU sorry?" Kitty was genuinely confused. Wasn't SHE the one who acted out unreasonably and got herself in this mess and apparently dragged Erebus into this as well?

"I'm sorry I didn't provide a better answer when you walked in on me and Allura." Erebus took the chance to amend for his stupid answer the other day, "What I said to you wasn't an excuse, and even if, IF it was an excuse, she certainly wasn't the reason why I need one."

"Thanks for explaining yourself to me..." Kitty said with her cheeks scarlet red for the genuineness in Erebus's tone. He didn't have to explain himself to her in the first place, and him doing so made she felt cared about, "I guess you don't really own me an explanation--"

"It's not about right or wrong. I want you to know, and that's why I explain." Erebus sat down by her side and cut her awkward apology off softly.

"I'm sorry I got you into this mess..." Kitty sighed, turning to look up at him.

"No, you didn't. This is the last thing you should be apologizing for." Erebus shook his head, "This one is my fault. I should have protected you better from Allura."

"Pretty sure I ran out on my own." Kitty let out a light laugh.

"It's okay--" Erebus started to comfort her.

"And now you are stuck here. You saw the dead people, right?" Kitty hinted him with a sad face, "Guess there's no point in trying to get out and die under the invisible knife."

"There will be a way out. We will figure something out. Don't lose faith now." His voice was soft, but with the alpha tone, Kitty felt a shred of hope rose in her body at his command even though she wasn't a wolf in his pack.

"Well, there IS a way. I just don't know if it's a better one." Kitty sighed.

"What way?" Erebus rose his eyebrows in surprise.

"Eat this." Kitty opened her palm, and there lied a small red stone, "But I'm not sure what would happen after that."

"Why? What is it?" Erebus took the red stone and looked at it closely.

"It appeared from thin air after I stepped into the circle of the trees." Kitty explained, "You can hear a whisper when you hold it. Did you hear?"

"Yes." Erebus closed his eyes to listen to that voice of death from ancient times:

Flower of life lives in death;

Sacrifice made is not taken;

Freedom of the Blood Moon,

Is only by who took it given;

What builds you, destroy you;

What locks you, frees you.

"I think the freedom is to be out of the forest, right?" Kitty sighed, "But apparently, they all failed."

It all made sense now.

Those people, they all ate the seed of the rose themselves, but the "pure flower" drained them before they could get out of the edge, and the rose died with them.

But there was never a witch who had survived this forest, even if there was, there wasn't a tale left of that. So what is the standard of this "purified heart"? What determined who gets to leave?

"I'll try." Erebus said and put the seed back in Kitty's hand.

"I'm not so sure about--" Kitty stood up, but Erebus already stepped into the circle of the trees.

Nothing happened.