Early in the morning, the kids woke up to the deafening sound of their father’s scream.

It wasn’t because of an attack or anything, he just loved tormenting them.

“Wake up, children!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, so hard even a flock of birds flew off their nest.

Why can’t I have a normal father like everyone else? I'll even take the priest…

They entered the woods with no delay. Alden in front, Edwin in middle, and Lucius in the back, sword in hand.

At first, nothing stands out to Ed, just a normal forest, a seemingly unending sea of trees like the one he loves to play in back in the village.

The more they enter, the harder the ground becomes to walk through, the more lifeless the place looks.

Before, they could hear the occasional chirp or see the odd rabbit running past. But now, after a long walk, the only sound was that of dead leaves and dry wood breaking beneath them as they made their way.

“Stop! take a good look and listen very well to what I’m about to say,"

Alden grabbed his ax and moved towards a tree.

Whoa! I think I’ve never seen one like this. How come I didn’t notice it was there?

A white tree, completely white, from roots to branches, almost all the bark was of an almost unnatural white color, the leaves were a deep black, as well as the bloodlike sap it sprouted from the trunk as if it were a living being losing blood from an open, gaping wound, the sap slowly but surely fell towards the floor creating a small black pond in the dirt.

What a sweet smell….

But something was wrong. Even at his young age, something was telling Ed, screaming not to get close, death’s call often was the sweetest one of them all.

“This is the reason behind why this is a black forest” he then, pointed towards the three “this is a black sap tree… why it’s called that should be pretty obvious so don’t make me say it… the important thing is that the sap from this tree is highly fucking dangerous, it’s a potent venom that can kill very fast if your skin enters in contact with it, that’s why it’s so calm in here, normal animals don’t live in places where these trees grow”

“And if you were to accidentally touch the sap?” Lucius asked

“Then you probably die, so try not to or I’ll get chewed out by your moms and I will never hear the end of it, yes? But in case you do, there’s another tree that grows nearby, the leaves from that one can be used to neutralize the poison, you can make tea or just rubbing it against your skin might do the trick in a hurry but it’s not a sure thing, odds are you will die a very painful death so please stay away,”

“I think I saw one of those when we came through. It was the one with the rabbit hole, right? I watched a deer rubbing its hide against the trunk,"

“Was there? I didn’t see it,”

“That’s 'cause you’re not paying attention. If you keep that way, you might stumble to your death,”

“That’s not true, I am paying attention!”

“Stop it you two, and yes, we did come across it, you can recognize it because animals like to roam around it, they set their nest close so they can eat the leaves or rub their skins against the bark to gain immunity against the black sap, but it’s up to luck, some may become immune, most won't, that’s nature for you,”

The party searched all over the place by following the strict orders from Alden:

Never go far away.

always together.

scream loudly if you see something, even if it’s a dangerous animal or a creature they’ve never seen before.

never to go anywhere near a white tree.

And, of course, do not touch the black sap if they did get close to one of those trees.

But the deadly species seemed to become more and more prevalent the deeper into the forest they got, as If nature itself told them that humans didn’t belong there, living things, in general, didn’t belong in their white woods. The black forest.

“This place is scary, isn’t it, Lucius?”

“Yes, now get behind me, and don’t touch me, okay?”

Well, you don’t have to be so rude, idiot

“And what kind of thing are we looking for, exactly? I don’t know what a nest looks like or what signs we should be looking for. There doesn’t seem to be anything around here. This place is dead," Luc complained, kicking leaves and branches while Ed walked slowly behind him.

Alden was close by, seemingly looking at something on the ground.

“Don’t worry about it, if you found a Lehwen nest you will know, not a pretty sight, this kind of trees are found more to the west too, near Edgewater there’s a big fucking forest that’s said to be nothing but white tree’s all the way, where only the nastiest of beast live, this one is nearly dead, you can only find Lehwens around here and while they are dangerous, they’re like small defenseless cubs compared to some of the shit that roams around those woods”

“Did you ever fight one of them?” Ran asked with interest.

“Not really, I’ve never been west of Ostara. You can ask Joanne when she gets here. She was born somewhere over there. I’ve fought a desert terror once,"

“What’s that?”

“it’s like a worm, but it has rows upon rows of sharp teeth’s and it’s rumored to be over a kilometer long,”

“So, the biggest thing dad fought was a big worm?”

“Well, if you want to go for biggest, then yes, I guess the biggest I’ve fought was indeed a big worm,”

“That’s so lame, dad…”

“Hey! You tell me when you’ve fought something bigger, besides never said it was the most dangerous thing,”

“And what was that?”

“Your mother,” He laughed. “Don’t tell her I said that, to neither of them, women can be scary kids. Soon you’ll learn that truth. I’m sure Ran will faint when he finds the one”

“No, I won’t!”

Hours passed, Edwin followed his father’s lead at all times, they talked and joked around, at some point their voices was all they could hear, they never found any nest of any kind, at one point the white trees started to become so prevalent Alden ordered to retreat and find a clear place where they could set up camp for the night, eventually they managed to find a perfect place, and set everything before the sun fell.