The Second Chapter of Aarni’s Story

It is my last day in Nila, the village of magical fighters. The people here have been really generous and I have learned a lot in only two days, but it is time to continue my journey tomorrow.

As I was packing my bags ready for morning, Otso, the man I met in the forest a few days ago, came to me and told that the village was having a feast tonight and I was invited too. I was flattered and promised I’d be there.

As the dusk arrived, a huge bonfire was set and large log tables were carried outside. Soon different scents filled my nose when food was brought to the tables. Lively chatter was everywhere and kids danced around the fire. I sat at the table next to Otso and his family of four. His oldest daughter was one of the magical fighters and always training, but it was nice to see her relaxing and laughing for once.

The night was falling and the smallest of children already fell asleep. The mood was getting more serene and I was thinking of going to sleep too, but my attention was drawn to a conversation between an older man and some teens.

“Please tell us the tale of the Fallen Fighters, we are old enough now!”

The old man sighed, but gave a smile.

“I guess it is time. But promise me you won’t get any nightmares or your parents will be mad at me.”

The teens nodded and gathered around the man. I was curious to hear the story too and sat down with them.

“It has been long since the incident, but my grandfather told me about it when I was your age. We all know how our forest is unique. It is a sacred burial ground and it provides us plenty of food, but it has its cost. Sometimes just a sacrifice from a hunt is all that is needed, sometimes it wants more. All children of Nila know not to go to the forest alone, because it might swallow you as it has done to many others, dead or alive. But even though death of a young spirit is horrible, even worse is when they come back from the dead.

It was time after the war. The master magicians Oula and Vieno sacrificed themselves to create us a powerful ally by enchanting the forest during the war, and it had finally brought us to victory. The celebration was bittersweet, as we had lost so many good fighters and had only a handful of people with magical abilities. Slowly, the life started to turn to normal, but we felt something was off. The forest felt restless whenever we were hunting and it rumbled under our feet when we gathered berries.

It was a quiet night like this, when one of the guards saw something moving in the forest. Uncanny creature with torn clothes, skull-like face and pale eyes gleaming in the moonlight. And not only one. Dozens. They were climbing out of the forest moss one by one. They were our friends, our spouses, our children. But they weren’t the same anymore. The spirit they had once in their life had disappeared and now they were just empty shells of the past.

Soon the forest was full of these fallen fighters, slowly approaching the village. We gathered all the people who were ready to fight and hid the children in the stone tower with some of the magicians who tried to study the books left from Oula and Vieno to find a solution. Things looked bad. There were so many fallen fighters, that even though they were slow, they started to reach the gates as a horde and managed to break through. One after another, the fallen started to eat the living and they got closer and closer to the stone tower…”

“What happened next? How did they defeat them?”

One of the teens asked eagerly when the old man stopped. I was curious too. They must have found some powerful spell to stop the fallen fighters from destroying everyone in the village.

“The fire. Someone in the tower had enough of reading and decided to grab a burning log from the fireplace and threw it in the middle of the horde. Some of the fallen’s clothes caught fire and it caused havoc in the other fallen fighters.”

“That’s it? Not anything cooler?”

The teens looked rather disappointed.

“Unfortunately. But it was a good discovery, and the fallen were banished from the village by setting them on fire. Would have been easier fight if even one magician had known how to cast a fireball back then…”

The old man chuckled and shook his head.

“However, we learned that the forest had been restless because of the sudden end of the war and it still craved sacrifices. The villagers decided, that with every hunt, the biggest catch goes to the forest and the ceremonial burials were held in the forest rather than in the village’s graveyard, even though it had been a war zone. It helped, because nowadays the forest is calm and friendly towards us, even though it still might try to consume an unsuspecting traveller.”

Everyone turned to me and I cleared my throat.

“I think I learned my lesson of not being so careless on my travels. From now on, I will pay attention on my surroundings more.”