Thin strings spread out to different directions from Sunny the moment he held the sword. Noises filled his ears, as though he was personally in all locations of the smoking woods.
He heard multiple people conversing, some screams, others talking to themselves as though they had descended into madness, others calling out to allies with no answers.
Sunny also heard a battle ensuing between creatures of the smoking woods and some men.
He fell to one knee, using the sword to support himself. The noise crowded his mind, as though he was standing in a crowd right under a hundred active engines.
He felt as though his mind was about to burst, and for a moment, it almost did.
The next moment, the noise stopped, leaving his ears ringing and head spinning.
He caught his breath, looking at the strings. They somehow connected him with the others in the woods.
Instantly, Sunny remembered how the spider had stated that it was connected with the woods. Was this the same thing it had mentioned? He wondered.
In the silence, Sunny looked at all the threads. They were multicolored, each a differing shade of whatever color it was. Majority of them were a similar dark shade, with the exception of one, which had a heavy black color with shadows dancing about it stretching to the direction he was headed.
Luna, he immediately said, remembering the attire of dancing darkness that she wore when dealing with anomalies.
Another dark one was moving from it direction rapidly approaching Luna's.
Moonlight? He was unsure, there were multiple of a similar shade, and he never did see Moonlight in anything that would prove the need for him to believe it was her. But still, he connected her name with the night and concluded her string would be dark.
Still, it was a stretch.
With a deep breath, he gripped the sword and continued on a sprint, following the darkest lonesome string with darkness dancing about it.
After a while, Sunny stopped, the strings shifting, showing he was about to get past a number of figures.
True to how he translated it, Sunny saw a hopeless battle in the distance. There were three of the bannermen, holding flaming torches and weapons, making noise and waving the torches trying to scare away a number of creatures.
The creatures were blind, what was fire going to do? With the amount of noise they were making they were basically being magnets of their own demise. This battle was very much determined. Anyone with a brain could figure that out.
While assessing the situation, Sunny realised the creatures of the smoking woods each had the same color thread– grey– while people had different colored threads.
From the edge of his eye, Sunny noticed a mass of grey threads approaching the scene.
They were quite a strong magnet with their noise.
Sunny looked down at his sword then back at the people fighting for their lives.
Areste was amongst them. He had fear all over his face. Sunny would've bet that he had wet his pants or even soiled them.
The others, Sunny remembered them from Moonlight's party but he did not know them too well, only from seeing them once.
Gripping his sword, Sunny bit his lip.
He could help them– no he couldn't. Even if he could, he wouldn't.
Sunny wasn't that stupid. He had done perfectly fine on his own up to now, why would he go taking unnecessary risks?
With that, he turned and went back on his trail, following the black thread and ignoring the others.
He was thankful, for their noise would attract any near creature and leave an open path for him.
They weren't real anyways, just part of a dream-like world.
In the midst of his thoughts, Sunny gazed back at the threads. The one approaching Luna's was getting closer, it had a similar color to all the other creatures.
However, it never deviated from it's path towards Luna. Sunny wondered, was it the Detested Deceiving Beast, the spider, or Moonlight?
It was least likely Moonlight.
With this, Sunny slowed his pace, avoiding suddenly running into something that would end him on the spot for his recklessness.
Still, Areste and the other two wouldn't last that many creatures long to finish off. They weren't fat!
Of all times for that arch priest Bilhon to not be around! He would've bought Sunny almost a whole two hours!
Even with the spider's blood still on him, Sunny didn't want to be amongst a hundred creatures that are upset because stronger ones stole their meal for the day. They might decide to act illogically, contrary to their senses.
Then he'd be done for.
With that, he decided to hasten his pace, and hasten he did.
Suddenly, Sunny noticed a grey thread entering his range. Before he could hide, a snake erupted from the ground, it's girth similar to one of the trees and majority of it's length underground.
Like the spider, it was faceless, a contortion of molted flesh covered it's face, with a mouth dripping of a viscous smoking goo.
For a moment, they remained in a standstill, Sunny fearing that any movement might make the sound required for the snake to pinpoint his position.
Sunny's stomach growled, alerting to the snake.
"Ah, fuck."
Sunny knew running was out of the question now.
Fighting also should have been out of the question; whatever this creature was, it had to be quite strong to have the courage to approach him directly while he was smeared in the spider's scent.
Unless–
Sunny immediately jumped through a bush, emerging out the other side, ready to flee the scene.
The snake's tail was in the way, emerging from the ground before diving into it again, like a tailors thread.
Sunny couldn't run back the opposite direction, partially because the other creatures would be done with Areste's trio and partially because the snake's head was now in the way, getting ready to attack.
Sunny stepped to the side.
Immediately, his theory was proven right by the snake. It lacked both smell and hearing, and relied on the vibrations caused by his feet on the ground.
Sunny gripped the smoking sword in his hand. He didn't want to believe the situation he was in, but he simply had to fight or accept death.