for @hotjvstlikefire
Peter could feel his heart racing as he wondered deeper and deeper into the forest, passing the cut-off point that any of his village dared venture into and now in what they called the ‘Forbidden Forest’. That name was given mostly because of who ruled over it, a powerful magic user that some believed to be a witch or some kind of necromancer who had dominion over all plant life, both alive and very much dead. Powerful as they were dangerous as the rumors would have you believe, so why was the young man heading right into the belly of the beast?
Mostly because his village’s crops were withering in unnatural ways, so much so that they believed magic to be involved and wished to either ask the mage for help stopping it or, if they were the cause of it, plead to reverse it. So why was Peter going? Well, he was without much family if any at all - not much was lost if he was captured by the mage or never seen from again. So there he was, with wide brown eyes as the pretty young thing walked further and further into the dense forest. What could he even offer this all powerful mage? It felt like he was being sent to certain doom and yet he kept going, knowing the consequences for not even trying now were not worth thinking about.
Eventually he came to a clearing even as it felt like the forest was getting more and more dense and his heart raced more and more in panic. His eyes set on a large cottage, next to a crystal clear lake. Was...this the mage’s home? Perhaps it was real, perhaps it was a trap...but his legs began to take him forward anyway. Unable to help the feeling he was being watched. “H-Hello? I...are you the mage that rules these forests? I...I come begging you for help from the village to the south” Peter called out, voice trembling.
