Gate: Thus the Reich Empire Fought There, Revised

Chapter 12: The Dark Forest

Tuka's trembling grew steadily with each passing moment. She atop Silver's saddle in front of Jean, who held her in his strong arms. Despite his warm embrace, she remained pale and silent. The dragon knight sighed and leaned in closer to one of her pointed ears and whispered.

"It's not too late if you want to turn around."

"No." She muttered. "I have to face this, I-I have to."

Silver whined a little and arched her head back to nuzzle Tuka's face. The wood-elf evaded her for a moment but then gave in and let the dragon lick her. Jean's heart melted when he saw a slight smile and a bit of color return to Tuka's face as his dragon gave her some love. Crusher flew across from them, carrying Suzaka and Yao in her saddle. The dark elf rested her head on the samurai's shoulder with both hands wrapped around his abdomen.

"We're here." She muttered with a somber expression. They arrived over the densest forest Jean ever encountered here or back home. Even Silver's keen eyes could not penetrate its thick canopy. Given what Tuka told him about dark elves, it did not surprise Jean that Yao's people dwelled in a place like this. His mind ran wild with the kind of exotic beasts that must live within the dark forest.

Unfortunately, he got his answer. Both dragons growled as a horrible stench of burned wood and flesh overtook their senses. Jean and Suzaka gritted their teeth, knowing well what they were about to see. Through the dragons' eyes, they saw the Flame Dragon's desolation. An entire section of the forest lay a charred ruin with the remnants of trees standing over piles of ash. Scattered out around them rested skeletons of every size, from deer-like beasts and little fairies to manticores, chimeras, boars, and even wyverns.

Jean tried to cover Tuka's eyes, but it was too late. She started hyperventilating and shook so hard he feared she might fall out of Silver's saddle. Thus, Jean wrapped her tight in his arms and let Tuka bury her face in his shoulder even as tears soaked him. She clutched her christogram tighter and tighter, begging for Saint Circe's intercession.

"My home, my people." Yao's eyes, too, swelled when she saw three elven corpses among the others.

"We will avenge them. On my honor, I promise." The samurai gripped his katana and scoured the area for any sign of their target but found nothing. "Where is it? How can something that huge remain hidden?"

"I know where it is." Yao said, choking on her tears. She raised a quivering finger to a mountainside resting near the forest's northern edge. The great fortress of brown stone loomed high above any tree. Jean and Suzaka's eyes fixed themselves on a massive cave near the forest floor with jagged rocks atop the entrance into the darkness like the mouth of a monster.

They needed no instruction. Silver and Crusher descended on the area, careful not to get too close, and landed in a thinner section of trees a few hundred feet from the cave. Darkness crept over them the moment they broke the canopy. An artificial night enveloped them with an eerie silence. No birds chirped, all the branches remained still, and the absence of sound unnerved Suzaka. Tuka, too, quivered at the forest, clutching Jean tighter.

"Yao, how can you live in a place like this? It doesn't even feel like a forest." She stuttered.

"This is a proper forest, Tuka. Far separated from the machinations of humans and high elves. At least it used to be." Yao sighed.

Just then, Silver and Crusher took aggressive stances and growled at the trees. Their heightened senses warned Jean and Suzaka of movement around them. Jean held his hand out and lit up the darkness with silver light until he spotted over thirty figures clad in black with bright eyes fixed on them. Each held a bow with a drawn arrow aimed at the riders and Tuka.