The forest swallowed Group 1 whole the moment they crossed the treeline.
At first, the wilderness felt ordinary enough. Branches overhead, roots underfoot, the distant murmur of the temporary camp fading behind them with each step. Ruru kept his pace measured, his spear held loosely at his side, his eyes moving in a steady rhythm tree, shadow, ground, sky.
Ten minutes in, the city had vanished entirely behind the dense canopy above. No rooftops visible. No sounds of life drifting through the trees. Just the forest, pressing in on all sides.
They kept walking.
By the thirty-minute mark, one of the soldiers near the back slowed his step. Ruru noticed him tilt his head slightly, like a man straining to hear something just unreachable.
"Commander," the soldier said quietly.
Ruru had already noticed.
The forest had gone completely silent.
No insects. No rustling birds startled by their approach. Not even the low hum of wind moving through leaves. The kind of silence that didn't belong to nature, the kind that meant nature had decided to hold its breath.
Ruru raised a fist. The group halted instantly, not a word spoken.
He stood still and listened.
Nothing.
"Keep moving," he said, his voice low. "Stay tight."
They pressed on.
Ten minutes later, it started.
The hairs on the back of Ruru's neck rose. Beside him, he heard the quiet sound of a soldier adjusting his grip on his weapon. Someone else's breathing had gone shallow.
They were being watched.
Ruru kept his expression neutral, and kept his pace unchanged, but every instinct he had sharpened to a single point. He scanned the treeline without turning his head, using only his peripheral vision. Shadows between trunks. The stillness of undergrowth that should have moved in the faint breeze.
Nothing he could see. Nothing he could point to.
But it was there.
'Stay calm,' he told himself.
Ten more minutes passed, each step feeling heavier than the last, the silence wrapping tighter around the group like something deliberate.
Then the trees broke open.
They stepped into a wide clearing, the canopy pulling back to reveal a pale grey sky overhead. Open ground stretched before them the designated turnaround point. They had reached it.
Ruru stopped at the edge of the clearing and turned to signal the group to hold position.
That was when it changed.
Before, the feeling had been a single point of attention, one pair of eyes, or the impression of one. Now it multiplied. It didn't come from one direction. It came from every direction. From the treeline ahead, from the left flank, from somewhere behind them, from places Ruru couldn't locate at all.
Not one presence.
Many.
Several of his soldiers had gone rigid. One had his hand hovering near the warning horn at his belt without even realizing it.
Ruru's jaw tightened.
We're surrounded. Or close to it.
He kept his voice perfectly even when he spoke.
"Hold your positions. Do not reach for your weapons. Do not run."
One minute passed.
Then two.
Ruru stood at the clearing, spear in hand, watching the treeline. Around him, his soldiers held their positions in silence, no one moving, no one speaking. The feeling of being watched hadn't faded; if anything, it had settled deeper, like something pressing slowly against the chest.
But nothing came.
No movement. No sound. No shape stepping out from between the trees.
Five minutes.
A few of the soldiers exchanged glances. Ruru caught it but said nothing. He kept his eyes on the forest, kept his breathing steady, and kept every outward sign of himself completely controlled.
Seven minutes.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Still nothing.
Ruru exhaled slowly through his nose. Whatever was out there, whatever they were, they weren't moving. He wasn't going to stand in an open clearing and wait for that to change.
"We're done here," he said quietly. "Form up. We're heading back."
The relief that moved through the group, shoulders dropping, grips on weapons loosening slightly. The soldiers turned and began forming up for the return march.
Ruru turned as well.
And stopped.
The feeling hit him like a hand pressed flat against his back. There was someone directly behind him.
He spun around.
Nothing.
Open clearing. Empty treeline. Grey sky above.
He stared at the space in front of him, chest tightening.
Then the voice came not through his ears, not from any direction he could locate but from somewhere inside his skull, sharp and sudden as a blade.
YOU ARE THE CURSED ONE.
He flinched. Just barely. Just enough that his grip on his spear went white-knuckled for a moment.
YOU ARE THE CURSED ONE.
Again. The exact same voice, the exact same words, with the exact same weight behind them like something repeating not out of habit but out of intention. Like it wanted to make sure he understood.
YOU ARE THE CURSED ONE.
YOU ARE THE CURSED ONE.
"Who are you," Ruru said under his breath, barely moving his lips. "What are you."
Silence. No answer. Only the voice continuing its loop, indifferent to his question.
YOU ARE THE CURSED ONE.
"Commander?"
Ruru blinked. One of his soldiers a young one, stationed near the back was watching him with uncertain eyes. A few others had turned as well, picking up on something in his posture, in the stillness of him.
Ruru straightened immediately.
"It's nothing," he said, his voice level. He turned fully to face the group and swept his gaze across them with the same measured authority he always carried. "Something caught my attention. It's fine." A short pause. "Move out."
The soldiers held his gaze for a moment longer, then turned and began the march back.
Ruru moved to the front and led them back into the forest.
The return path was clear. Nothing blocked their way. No strange figures. No sounds.
But the gazes followed them the whole way back.
Ruru could feel eyes on them with every single step, all the way through the forest. Only when they finally stepped out of the trees and back onto open ground did that feeling disappear.
The soldiers seemed fine.
But Ruru was not.
The voice hadn't stopped even once during the entire return journey.
YOU ARE THE CURSED ONE.
YOU ARE THE CURSED ONE.
Over and over, all the way back to camp.
By the time the camp came into view, Ruru's head was pounding.
The moment Ruru stepped out of the wilderness, the voice stopped.
Just like that. Clean silence. Like someone had cut a thread.
He stood still for a second, waiting to see if it would come back. It didn't.
He let out a slow breath and looked around.
Most of the groups were already back. Soldiers were standing around in small clusters, some drinking water, some just catching their breath. Ruru scanned the area quickly, counting the groups.
They were the second last to return.
One group was still missing.
Ruru didn't say anything. He moved to a spot where he could watch the wilderness exit clearly and waited.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
Thirty.
No one came out.
Ruru's eyes stayed on the treeline.
"Commander." One of his soldiers stepped up beside him. "It's been thirty minutes."
"I know," Ruru said quietly.
He waited another moment, then turned around to face the assembled soldiers.
"Did anyone encounter anything out there?" he asked, keeping his voice steady. "Anything unusual. Speak freely."
A few soldiers exchanged glances. Then one from group three raised his hand slightly.
"The forest went quiet, sir. No birds, no insects. Nothing."
A few others nodded. Similar murmurs came from different groups.
"Same for us."
"Our whole group noticed it."
"Went silent about twenty minutes in."
Ruru listened carefully. Then he asked the next question.
"Did anyone feel like they were being watched?"
Silence.
He looked around the group slowly.
No one answered. No nodding this time. Just blank or confused faces looking back at him.
So it was only his group.
He filed that away quietly and kept his expression neutral.
"Anything else? Anyone see anything, hear anything out of the ordinary?"
Nothing came back.
Ruru nodded once.
"Alright." He turned back toward the treeline.
"Alright." He turned back toward the treeline. "We wait. Thirty more minutes."
He looked at the group leaders standing among the soldiers.
"If they are not back by then, every group leader including myself will form a team and enter the forest from group three's entry point. We find them and we bring them back."
"Yes sir," the group leaders replied.
Ruru turned back toward the treeline and waited.
The wilderness stayed silent and empty.