It was the next day after the earthquake hit the world. The royal capital was still trying to calm down the chaos and couldn't send out messengers to the nobles for the draft.

Reginald woke up alone in a dark room. He sat up and kissed his wife's painting on his nightstand. "I'm sorry, I've got to break my promise to you today. He needs to know." He knew he was speaking to an inanimate object, but it made him feel better. He set down the painting and got dressed. When he got outside, a maid was waiting. They walked together to Thomas's room.

"You're looking better than you've been in a long time," The maid said. "What happened to you?"

"I got some much-needed sleep." Reginald said. "Did he go outside or give up?" He combed his graying hair into the neatness he lost over a decade ago. Each step was firm and taken with purpose.

"Thomas hasn't said anything. He just stayed in his room all night. I'm sorry my lord."

"You did no wrong. You've practically been a mother to that boy for as long as I can remember. You've made no mistakes." 'And no right choices either.' When they arrived, Reginald knocked and said, "Thomas, are you there?" There was no response. "Thomas?" Again, silence. Reginald leaned over to the maid and whispered, "Go get Jameson." The maid hurried off as Reginald kept knocking and pleading with Thomas to open the door. By the time the maid returned, his knuckles were red and bleeding. "Where's Jameson?" Reginald asked the lone maid.

"I'm sorry sir, he's gone."

Reginald cursed, "Go get a guard to knock this door down and send out search parties for both Thomas and Jameson. I want Jameson punished for what he's done."

"What has he done?" The curious maid foolishly asked.

"Opened his mouth." Reginald punched the door. "And said something he shouldn't have."

...

Doevm and Frey woke up. For blankets, they had taken the clean parts of the raider's jackets and wrapped them around themselves. They didn't dare to start a fire, or else everyone in the woods would know of their presence. That, and they didn't want to give their position away.

"Why do we have to go through these woods anyway?" Frey wiped the fallen red leaves off himself. "Can't we just go around?"

Doevm shook his head, "Our destination is inside. The place we are in is called the Blood Forest. In the center, there is a small town that has a blacksmith. I've met with him a couple of times. He can be crazy at the most important times and sane when you least need him to be."

"I know why this place is called the Blood Forest," Frey whispered as he picked up some of the fallen leaves. "But why is everything red?"

"I'll show you." Doevm walked back to where the raider corpses were. "Long ago, this place was a battlefield between a Lich and its Undead army and a couple of high elves." He closed his eyes. He could still imagine the rush he felt when he destroyed them and took their magic for himself. That day, he learned how to control dead plants, like the ones he used against the Lava Boar. "The high elves lost, and blood covered this entire plain. Their magic used plants and trees as weapons. The Lich took the dead plants for himself and left the rest. The leftover plants grew off of the blood of their summoners and turned red. Even their children turned red, and thus the name came to be." Doevm and Frey returned to the spot they had been ambushed to find the corpses of the raiders covered in vines.

Their eyeballs had been the first to go. Red spores grew out of them and spread with the wind. Their blood vessels beat like they were still alive, but that was because their internal organs were being sucked up for additional nutrients. All the blood had been sucked dry. They were being mummified.

"If you get cut here, you have to leave before the plants devour you." Doevm pulled Frey away. "This world is cruel. Life always finds ways to survive, even under the harshest conditions. The plants leftover from the battle with the Lich were supposed to die, but they lived on through drinking their own masters' blood. If the trees smell your blood, they'll attack you until you become like these corpses.

"Why would anyone choose to live here?" Frey asked. "This place is terrible."

"The blacksmith chooses to live here because of the massive metal deposits at the center of the forest." Doevm climbed up one of the blood trees to the top, where he could direct himself using the sun. "All the blood is not absorbed by the trees. There are some things that poison the soil. Those are pushed either to the outside of the forest by the trees or to the inside." He climbed down and led Frey past the corpses.

"The blacksmith mines the ore up himself, refines it, then turns it into weapons. He's good too. He's been doing it for over two hundred years."

"Over two hundred years?" Frey gasped. "Is he even human?"

"Well no, he's a Dwarf."

"A dwarf?" Frey gasped even louder. "I've never met a Dwarf before."

"Have you ever read a book?" Doevm scolded. Frey shook his head and Doevm facepalmed. "The blacksmith is always a Dwarf. The only time the blacksmith is human is when it's the main character."

"I've still never met a Dwarf." Frey mumbled.

...

At the southern edge of Petal Town, two people stood together, looking down underneath the biggest tree in the area. On the tree's trunk, was: R & E crudely carved inside of a heart.

"Here she is." Jameson stood over an unnaturally flat marble rock in the ground. Carved on it was the name: "Emma Virility." Underneath the name, the inscription read: "She was loved dearly by her husband, and passed away giving birth to her beloved son, Thomas."

"So her name was Emma?" Thomas asked. "I finally know her name after all my life."

"You're just a kid, shut up about all your life." Jameson tried to make a joke to lighten the mood. He frowned: "So do you really want to know everything about her? I'm not sure I'll be employed by the end of my story, but I won't stop you from the truth. It's wrong to keep it from you."

"I'm sorry Jameson. I know you're risking a lot for me, but I need to know."

"It's OK," Jameson sighed. "Telling you settles my debt to her anyway."

"Your debt?" Thomas asked. "Is that why you were captain of my father's guards for so long?"

"No," Jameson sat down. "I'm captain of the guards because your father and me are friends. The reason I owe your mother a great debt is because I failed to save her, and nearly got you killed. I was selfish. Sit, this is going to be a long story."

Thomas sat down and waited for Jameson's next words like a kid listening to one of his grandfather's stories.

Author's notes:

Because the Author's thoughts have a limit on words, I must put them here. So, tomorrow, I am only going to release one chapter. With this series, I am spending 3-4 hours a day writing, but I don't have time to look back on what I've written or do any edits. Tomorrow, I'm going to upload a normal chapter, and spend an hour and a half to two hours editing and removing any possible plot holes. I'll do this every Saturday from now on. If I make any drastic changes, I'll be sure to notify you guys inside of future chapters. Don't worry, you won't have to reread this entire series. I do.