Liminal Forest Novels & Stories

Surrounding them stood every member of Forest's Edge Pack, all looking on with vaguely confused expressions. The mind link that the location had changed only just came through but this area was prepared well in advance. I wondered what the nymphs thought of all this, but I didn't care. I closed my eyes for a moment and felt the gentle thrum of magic coming from my tree, excitement thrilled through me.

CHAPTER 11 The moment you are in there's intense feelings of anxiety and the feeling of being constantly watched, no locals from any village, including Namamali have ever dared to enter. People have stayed away because they fear and they know very well that if they enter, they will never find their way out. The forest has a mass grave containing thousands upon thousands of dead rotting bodies, ultimately, massacred by demons. Evil forest is impenetrable, the only forest with total darkness. The forest is actually haunted by werewolves, witches, and the devil himself. So for Nina to go inside, it was like signing her own death certificate.

“We tracked them to here. Faint scent, staggered footprints, like they were deliberately covering their trail.” “And then nothing,” Julian says with a frustrated shake of his head. “It’s like they vanished. No scent, no noise. Not even a broken branch.” I lean forward, studying the map, my brow furrowed. “What’s here?” I ask, pointing to the space just beyond where the trail ends. Owen glances at Victoria before answering. “Old growth forest. Dense. Uncharted in parts. Some say it’s cursed, bad energy, even the animals avoid it.”

The last soldier raised his weapon, voice shaking. “F—f—” The horned silhouette surged—and the rifle clattered to the dirt. Silence returned like a lid coming down. The fire still burned, casting light over twisted canvas. No one moved. The Labyrinth – Deep Cavern – Night Below the firestorm, deep in the ancient labyrinth, Sean and Jessica crossed a stone threshold unseen by human eyes for thousands of years. The chamber ahead glowed unnaturally white, its walls threaded with gold that shimmered like veins in rock.

Everything felt tense as the usually soothing sounds of nature turned into something alien to her. A cold breeze blew gently, rustling the leaves. The air grew more humid, carrying the faint scent of wet earth between the trees. Dark shadows swayed slowly, created by the moonlight trying to penetrate the dense forest canopy. In the distance, the gentle trickle of a small, slow-flowing stream could be heard. Its rhythm was like a pulse, seemingly calm yet full of mystery, as if it embodied the entire atmosphere of the Amerotha Forest that night. The mystical aura of the Amerotha Forest felt heavier, as if it were watching Ayla from behind the darkness.

I asked, not really willing to accept any sort of an agreement with them short of Verina leaving my forest altogether, but I agreed to hear him out at least. “Well, you know where the forest changes, further in the woods?” He hooked his head in the direction of Verina’s house. “You mean the dead part where the forest is black and disgusting?” He fought the urge to roll his eyes. I know he didn’t like my description, but it was true, wasn’t it? “Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. Why don’t we just decide that’s the demarcation line? You don’t claim any of her forest, and she won’t take anymore of yours.”

And neither could I. --- That night, as we stood together at the edge of the forest, I felt it—an unnatural chill in the air, a shift in the very fabric of the world around us. It was as though the ground itself was holding its breath, waiting for the inevitable. Lucien’s hand was warm against mine, but I could feel the tension radiating off him. We had reached the point of no return. There was no turning back now. The moon hung low in the sky, casting an eerie light over the landscape, and as the wind howled through the trees, I heard it—the sound of something far worse than just the wind. It was a whisper, faint but unmistakable.

“Something happened when I is young…and it happened because I made a lot of noise while crossing the forest.” “The fog earlier…” "Yes. Because you scream when you fall. The small fallen tree is the boundary between the moss forest and the lima pine. You screamed when you fell and landed in the five pine area, if you are still in the moss forest area… you would definitely be taken and made into his slave.” Randu shook his head, not expecting something bad to happen to him. "Then?" "No. We've reached pine five…there won't be any guards to kidnap you here.”

Ralta pointed at the maps and then gestured his hand up at the view before them. Malitus looked down and up several times as he read it out, nodding, confirming everything looked correct. Ralta said, “Our scouts have mapped this area out and it is fine with olden territory maps we did on scouts sent long ago. This great forest here isn’t very thick, just high, like the gods seeded a natural wall to guard the vast valley beyond.” “That valley is like this one?” Malitus asked, fingers drumming on the map. “Almost exactly, save for the end beyond turns up slightly and meets a great timberline that goes on for many more miles.”

These woods belong to Silverpine, but for a few precious moments, they’re yours too. The forest at dawn was a world apart—liminal, almost sacred. Sunlight spilled in thin ribbons through the mist, making every spiderweb into spun silver. Bluebells and foxglove bowed their heads to the cold, and wild mint brushed against her calves, releasing its sharp fragrance. A flock of crows rose from a distant birch, black wings loud in the hush, and for a moment Thalia felt she could vanish into their flight, be nothing more than a shadow moving between trees.