Chapter 1627: Story 1627: The Forest That Dreamed of Fire
The path ahead glowed faintly beneath their feet, a ribbon of golden moss winding through towering trees that had no right to exist. Their bark shimmered like glass, and their leaves burned with a soft inner light—half flame, half memory.
Zara and Damien moved in silence. The deeper they went, the quieter the world became, until even the wind dared not speak.
“This forest wasn’t here before,” Zara whispered.
“It wasn’t anywhere before,” Damien said. “It’s new. Like the world’s building itself while it remembers how.”
They walked for what felt like hours until the light began to change. It grew warmer, redder—shadows deepening into motion. The trees ahead started to bend toward them, their branches curling like claws. The air filled with a low hum, familiar yet wrong.
Zara stopped. “Do you hear that?”
Damien nodded. “It’s the same rhythm as the marrow god. But slower. Sleepier.”
Then the ground pulsed beneath them. The moss turned black.
From the soil, small flowers began to bloom—each one bearing an ember at its center. They opened in unison, releasing curls of smoke that twisted into shapes of screaming faces before fading into the canopy.
Zara covered her mouth. “They’re burning from the inside.”
Damien’s voice darkened. “They’re remembering.”
He knelt, pressing his hand into the earth. The golden veins under his skin flickered, syncing with the pulse below. For a heartbeat, he saw: visions of an older world—cities devoured by flame, skies dark with wings, rivers of molten gold carrying bones downstream.
When he opened his eyes, the forest was staring back. Literally. Every trunk, every leaf now bore faint impressions of faces—some human, some not.
“It’s watching us,” Zara breathed.
“No,” Damien said softly. “It’s dreaming us.”
A deep sound rolled through the forest like thunder turned to breath. The trees shifted, their glowing veins flaring brighter until they resembled the ribs of a massive, sleeping creature.
The hum became a voice—ancient and fragmented, echoing through their minds rather than the air.
“Children of the hollow light... Why do you wake what was meant to dream forever?”
Zara looked up toward the canopy, her voice shaking. “Because it won’t let us sleep. Because it’s still bleeding.”
The forest paused. Then, softly:
“Then you must cauterize the wound.”
A burst of golden spores erupted from the trees, surrounding them in a whirlwind of light. The forest seemed to sigh, retreating into stillness once more. When the glow faded, a massive tree stood before them—its trunk hollowed, its heart burning with a deep orange flame.
Damien stepped closer. “The source. The world’s heart.”
Zara frowned. “It’s beautiful... and it’s dying.”
He nodded. “Then we heal it.”
As they approached, the flame inside the tree flared violently, revealing shapes writhing within—beasts, faces, memories.
“Careful,” Damien warned. “Dreams don’t die quietly.”
Zara reached for the flame anyway. It did not burn her. It opened—and the forest exhaled.
Light flooded everything.
And in that brief, blinding instant, the world remembered fire.