This, The Forest of Rebirth, surrounds the city of ash, stretching its branches throughout the continent, carrying many mysteries locked behind its unusual visage. Standing before its might, the sight of its irregularities dazed many minds. From the highest point of the bark then down, the trees and plants look to be frozen in stone, coated in gray with nary a sign of life. But sprouting through and above this petrified bark, those gorgeous crowns of greens, yellows, reds, and every other color besides monotonous gray, beautifully paint its name, “The Forest of Rebirth.” Ash’s largest mystery, a dead forest full of life defying all forms of heavenly laws, standing strong through crisis and adversity.

Some say Medusa had walked these lands once as she came upon this world by pure chance. The sight of this land cloaked in beauty touched her heart, birthing the thought of never leaving. The tranquility conquered a petrified heart and this heart in a moment of greedy protection, petrified the forest to hide its beauty. Yet nearly through with the petrification, Medusa faltered and dropped her sight. She couldn’t bear to see the flourishing life she once loved, glittering with golden sunshine, covered in stone. She wept and ran away, the swaying leaves bidding her farewell while her visage leapt through the sky and vanished.

What a lovely fairy tale? Yes, for children, those sweet innocent souls. Hiding behind those kind words and tall tales a darker more sinister version exists, spread even more fervently through word of mouth and used to scare mischievous children from wandering out late at night.

Why would this chilling witch be kind? Medusa did not love The Forest of Rebirth, she hated it, loathed it, wished for it to be the name of this world, raised to the ground and turned to ash. Unfortunately under her control was earth and not fire. So she petrified the lands with her heated gaze. The flourishing life turned quiet. The winds died down. Clouds began blocking out the sun and a dark haze swelled them with rain and lightning. Right when all the bark had turned gray, a blade slashes her neck, relieving the weight off her shoulders, silencing away that vile serpent hair from hissing at the world and the life despised in those chilling slit eyes. Emperor Jie and his four guards had descended upon the land, slaying Medusa where she stood.

Some say her head severed from her neck and her eyes burning with rage still exists somewhere in this forest of gray. Some say Emperor Jie destroyed it, scattering it to fertilize the land she hated, her eyes watching the world from every tree unable to close for all eternity. Some even say Emperor Jie and his guards ate her, utilizing her powers as their own to further build upon their empire. 

Ah, how splendid the mind is. Conjuring the morbid out of a single line of thought with no connection whatsoever. But is there truly no connection, even in the gentlest of tales? In myth is there no truth?

Hong Luo ran through this forest for numerous miles without stopping, feeling eyes prickle the hairs on her arms. Her own eyes scan through the crown of shifting green and pouring rain. Peering birds shiver, squirrels peek through their tails, a family of bats barely staying airborne swooping pass, casting a glance her way before vanishing into the foliage.

“Not Medusa—– but small critters and their curious eyes? Ha, such silliness even I believed as a child.” Hong Luo leapt off a large tree root half her size, covering that laughing smile on her lips with both hands. Letting the wind guide her she balls up her body and dives through a huckleberry bush hiding a large hole in the ground.

“My my, it’s still here,” she amusingly hums, her body sliding through the wet earthen hole without resistance. Several years have passed, yet this memory has not failed her yet. She supposes that loss and clouded mind muddling her ability of recollection had merely been——– a momentary symptom. One which has long since left her in the life before, or perhaps it never existed?

“Good, very good!” She exclaims, letting her body slide through the never ending path of twist and turns. 

It felt like it’d never end. No light, just darkness and slurping sound of mud against the back. For more than an hour she let her body slide through the endless tunnel. Reaching a high point a glint of light could be seen, and almost immediately after, her body flung out into the sky, mud covering her backside, her dirty wet face brighter than the sun hidden by clouds. Her eyes muddled with fever glimmer full of rainwater and green foliage. Hong Luo pulls her legs to her chest, pinching her nose and eyes tight. Moments later her body falls through the air splashing through a large rapid river. 

Her closed eyes open. Dozens of golden eyes meet a single pair of gray. A curious minnow blows a kiss on Hong Luo’s nose. In the next moment a bubble of air escapes her mouth, the minnows scatter and Hong Luo follows their movement. Twisting in the water she remains still for a moment, only breaking through the surface for air after all minnows were out of sight.

The long stretch of river water is still lukewarm from the beautiful day that was and the cold rain water with a trace of sleet powders the malnourished girl’s inflamed forehead, running across the wounds on her face, and through her messy hair. A melancholy sight filled with many strange colors of bewilderment. Or at least that’s what the dying man resting by the riverside and leaning against driftwood felt. 

His death ensuing eyes cloud over in mist. A hand reaches for his chest while the other one, broken in more than one place, lays limp on the driftwood washed up on shore. Suddenly a shock runs through his body and a series of coughs has him hacking up handfuls of black blood. This sound caught the attention of the girl floating in the river, her sight shot in his direction, momentarily silencing his coughing. Those soul piercing eyes which no one could ignore startled him greatly, even enough to calm his fit. 

Unfortunately not long after, those coughs started up once more and his body topples over on itself, right into the mud below him. He simply could not keep himself upright. All his strength gone, the only trace left is the last bit keeping his lungs breathing and his heart beating.

His good hand slams into the ground. How infuriating, he grumbles. Today ‘was’ a good day to die. Why did it have to rain? He hates the rain. He loathes the rain. If the weather called for rain why couldn’t it be snow? Yet after that thought crosses his mind, his heart cracks. No snow. He hates those frozen puffs of water just as much as rain, if not more. Ah, he sighed, he really was dead set on dying in rage, wasn’t he? His clouded eyes focus on the wet earth before him and his ear on the water rustling closer and closer.

His head moves and his eyes look forward, a small boney and scar covered hand touch the shore. Finally his dilated pupils constrict, revealing aged amber eyes, ones that have long lost their spark of life, clouded over in darkness. What came next was a knee covered in white cloth, then a small foot just as scarred as that hand. Finally the person kneels, patting his body with hands stingingly warm.

He tries to speak but only cracking air answers. He tries again and again, until he’s startled by a laughing sigh that lands on his shoulders, along with one of those hands patting him in reassurance. 

“Enough, I know, have patience. If you can’t speak then leave your words for later.”

After placating the impatient man, Hong Luo’s smile fell, mentally calculating. Multiple rib fractures. Right arm, broken in four places and fractured in one. Two in the ulna, one in the radius, a break and fracture in the humerus. No movement in the legs, possible spinal damage? She feels along his spinal cord, a trace of intangible energy wrapping her palm and entering inside through his skin. Once reaching the tail bone she shakes her head, ruling out that possibility. She runs her fingers through his hair feeling sticky substance. There she finds a bloody gash in the back of his head, from the bottom of his left ear up to the tip of his right ear. 

To be able to do as he did, with a body like this? Her heart constricted, but her smiling face hid the ache, the man needed none of her excess emotions, he needed rationality and care. “Alright,” she slaps her knees, pushing herself up to a stand.

A ripping sound startles the man. He drags his head looking up with all his effort and what he sees has his mouth gaping wide in shock. Both of the mysterious girl’s sleeves were ripped off with little to no effort. And just like the sleeves the bottom half of her robe was ripped like wet paper, being torn in ribbons, strip by strip. 

Unaware that she had just given the man a frightening surprise, Hong Luo walked off looking for sturdy twigs. Nothing good, she inwardly grumbled. She tiredly kicks away stones in her frustration. She huffs, drops the twigs and sits her butt on a large stone. There she used two of her shreds of cloth to tie the twigs together.

The mysterious girl’s strange movements stir the man’s curiosity. He squints, watching her combine all the pieces of cloth together, then in one fluid action, she runs her pinched hand under the cloth. Water pours out from the end of her hand, right along the pinky and down the palm. The water only stops once her hand fully leaves the combined cloth. In a fast motion she flicks her wrist. Not a single drop of water is left, the cloth dry.

How magical this sight is to the newly born eye but to this man it wasn’t so. Unusual, but not magical. Merely a commonly used skill even the smallest of ants use in their daily life.

Ah, universes. Aren’t they such fascinating existences? In a basic level the same but the layers building the foundation are oh so different that other universes will only look on in awe. Such a fantasy! They exclaim. Dreams of the hopeless, such wonderful wishes for the yearning! 

In such seemingly ordinary universes, when ones full of magic, full of creatures like themselves are able to control nature itself, feelings of wander bloom and jealousy rots the seeds wishing to germinate. 

Oh, if only they knew. These wonders dreamed about were wrought out of the darkest of histories striving for the most basic instincts…survival. Such savagery. Life at the bottom of the food chain in a world ravaged by nature controlling beast, is an ugly picture painted upon the canvas. A cruel, very real picture that had indeed happened. In this particular place.

This universe adapted to survive. The weak creatures evolved into what they are now and humans of course were not left behind, in fact they flourished alongside the other strong races competing for dominance. Bodies brimming with elemental energies, utilized for whatever they see fit. 

Water essence? His eyes squint. At an elementary stage but still water essence. What an odd but simple method of use. His scrunched up brows relax, then he uses his good arm to push his body up. 

Crack! Suddenly a crisp sound of breaking twigs startles him into stopping. With figurative eyes on the back of her head, Hong Luo’s body twists. She comes to a stand, glaring down at this man who was even more restless than she assumed him to be. Hadn’t she just told him to have patience in less time then it would take to steep tea?! She must have remembered wrongly, truly, honestly! 

The man had surprisingly jolted when he lifted his sight to her. One of her disorderly eyebrows rose, she fists her hip and points to the ground, watching him closely, her eyes ordering him to park his rump back down. 

Pleasantly surprised, he listened, slowly going back down without a fuss. Her eyes relaxed, becoming gentle once more. Yes, her memory did not betray her. Good.

“Alright let's patch you up.” Smilingly she walks back over and crouches down, bringing everything together, and wrapping up all his wounds, realigning his broken bones, and stinting his arm with the bound twigs. She takes her sleeves and wraps them around his head, secures his cloak, tightening the hood over his head.

Half an hour passed. The rain became heavier, completely cooling off the river and the mist blurring the surroundings decreased by more than half. All around the area signs of life have all vanished, and the little light there was dimmed significantly. The time, four hours until sunset.

“There,” Hong Luo pats the reeds and cloth tying the man to her back. She had little to no faith in her own strength, and without something as insurance, she would not dare carry him haphazardly. With a few pats in reassurance. “My home shouldn’t be too far. I’ll get us there as swiftly as my legs can carry us. Worry not, I’ll have you all patched up and eager to go home with a smile, never wanting a doctor’s visit again.” 

The man looks down, coming face to face with her smiling eyes. Gentle gray meets stoic amber. A cold heart unfazed by the warm heart seeking to melt it, fully swallowed in a cloud of death. Tiredly his chin rests on her head, letting the girl do as she pleases, his full weight against her back, his wasting life in her small hands.

She holds both the man’s long legs under her arms. Hong Luo stands up, or at least tries to. Her small frame not at all used to the strain, fights against the weight until her struggling eyes burst open. Those gray eyes that should have been full of determination are strangely full of confusion instead. 

The ground is…melting? The dirt below her feet sizzles and pops, the reaction strange, so bizarre. Locked on this sight her mind runs laps through her memories, replaying them all in seconds over and over. ‘When did that get there?’

The surroundings froze, the colors vanish into grays. Everything inside her mind rewinds seconds after Hong Luo leaps out from the runoff tunnel. The colors stayed muted and only certain details retain their natural shade. There Hong Luo is, slowly falling into the water when briefly her eyes land on the water’s surface. In the water's reflection the man’s elongated image is seen. She focuses less on him but the ground below him.

Nothing, just normal dirt, the shades all one color with no distinction of any abnormality. 

Her eyes close. Water splashes. Her head breaks the surface tension and the sound of coughing catches her off guard dragging her eyes to the man on the shore. The memory of the man coughing up blood comes to a halt, right where there was nothing now sits a small puddle of blood, the exact same place as the melting ground.

With a jolt her eyes burst open, back into the present. A rush of air leaves her lungs into a silent cough. She raises her shoulder to wipe away some hair off her chin. Her sight runs across the gray green forest, and a relaxed smile lifts those chapped lips. Obviously very satisfied, even whistling tunes along with her airy mood, she happily trotted forward.