Or the dead.

The trees whisper their secrets as you pass underneath them, the wind fanning the chorus of their ramblings endlessly as you trek your path through the forest. The Dark Woods is never a place to be trifled with. The spectral ranger gave you telepathic directions to a final resting place of some sorts, though the thoughts she passed were vague to a sense, more of a feeling of **** than an actual gravestone. If you had known beforehand in the entirety of how much you'd have to cross the Dark Woods you'd have had second thoughts about the trip as a whole. A cursed land of fears and trees, a place of no respite, holy or otherwise.

Thankfully you know you'll have no work to go back too at the Academy, already taking your tomes and parchment with you, you'll study and ensure your technique so this trek isn't frowned upon by the staff, especially since they do not know you're gone. Also in a special case as you took the liberty of taking a few choice books from a stack in the restricted section of the library, meant only for prefects and research. The books you've already attempted to pour over are hinting at spells not yet been introduced in the class, and even ones that the Academy won't allow in use. They've been no help in understanding how the ranger found you though, even blood-tied spirits took rituals to summon, nothing as simple as just appearing in the same room. If this all as it truly seems then you have a family name, possibly a home as well, somewhere in the world. Home... nothing has ever felt like home in your life and even now this seems to good to be true, always is.

The sky darkens as it pushes into the night, noises glide on the wind from every direction and in all disturbing manners. Skittering, clawing, rustling, crunching of leaves and sticks trouble the forest and surround you quickly, something is out there. You tighten the straps of your pack and pull out a luminosity stick from your robes, snapping off the tip and the activation words light it up like a new found sun. While unnecessary in most cases and it can light up a countries worth of land you think it is becoming quickly obvious that the best time to use it is now. You begin to break into a run following into a sprint, the moon blessing you with a sense of direction in the dark but no light allowing you to stay on what feels like the right path. Eyes with colors of the rainbow outpace you in the shadows of the trees and watch your poor attempt at escaping them, snapping the point of the stick you yell the needed words of light and brace yourself and your eyes for the burst.

It doesn't come at once to your dismay, the tip brightens to that of a candle and settles until you speak the words again, moving along the spelling with panic. The wave from the stick nearly throws you to the ground as the full burst of its light shines across the woods, revealing what follows you in the dark. Shrieks instantly fill the air as the beams of the light pass into the trees unveiling what hides there, dark souls. Shadowy humanoid figures of every shape, size, and type move behind the trees to stay out of the light, screams of pain fill the air as they dissipate from such strong light, as they would in the sun. The Dark Woods stretch on for miles and miles across the lower plains, whatever it is you're looking for is keeping itself in the heart of the woods, waiting for you.

Looking back momentarily you see more vague shapes stalk your presence as your lungs and legs sear in pain more and more from the running. Cardio was never your strong suit it seemed. You quickly seem to find yourself meeting the forest floor as something has flanked your shoulder while you weren't looking, throwing you to the ground. You roll along the ground until you stop promptly on a pile of sticks your luminosity stick behind you on the path, you begin to back up until your back hits stone, a stone pillar more specifically. Belonging to the foundation to a gate, a fairly imposing and large one, braziers lighting up on either side of it give a warm glow to the cold forest. Sparking and more screams ring out as you turn to see the shadows try to move on you until a ward dome stops them, their hazy and rough forms disintegrating on contact. The stick meters away from you blows out in a shower of red and purple motes of light, leaving just the fire's glow as your only light. The scene grows more strange as you look back to the gate spying the main sigil boasting itself proudly on the front. It glows slightly as you approach.