3. A Ride Through the Woods

Seraph grimaced at the horrible smile and continued walking. Then a realization struck Seraph like lightning. The foal was talking to him. His father had two beasts intelligent enough to speak so it took a little longer to realize the weight of the situation. If this foal was actually born the day before yesterday and it could already speak, it must be an extraordinary beast.

"Hey, uh, little horsey, how can you talk?"

"If what second mommy is doing is talking, I'm not. I'm using my soul to send signals. You're just making a lot noise. First Mother said you aren't supposed to make any noise or the demons will get you, you know. Oh, and don't call me little horsey second mommy!"

"Then don't call me second mommy!"

Seraph's body went cold when the foal finished right after that. The only noise at all was his own voice and footsteps. He stopped and ran his fingers through his hair, only now noticing that his flashing rock was gone.

As he stopped to try to calm down his racing thoughts, the foal walked over to it's mother and started to knock a hoof on his real mother's head.

Seraph watched in horror as the foal managed to split its own mother's head open and continued to beat against it. It seemed to accomplish what it wanted and pulled its mother's two antlers out. Neither of them had flowers like the foal's did but one looked crystal like and the other was just a plain, shiny antler.

The foal tossed the crystal like antler at his feet and kept the other in its mouth.

"Then what should I call you," the foal calmly said while blood dripped off the antler in its mouth.

"Uh, Seraph will be fine," he whispered. He reached down and picked up the crystal antler. He was pretty sure what it was. When a being dies that has more than three soul pillars hosting a spirit, also known as spirit totems, it leaves behind soul pieces. Every soul pillar ties the being and its soul closer together and so by three, the soul residue will latch onto a part of the body and turn it into a soul piece. It was the most valuable part of a beast and they had many uses in crafting and cultivation.

He eyed the antler soul piece and the foal looked at him as if pleased and continually nodded its head.

Slightly irritated, Seraph said, "It was nice to meet you but I need to go home now. Sorry about your mother and I wish you a happy life, so long." He continued the upriver, hoping to get away from the irritating horse as quick as possible.

"You'll never make it out without the Tree's permission, you know? Or do you already have it? Mommy said humans can't enter the forest, and you look human so you must already have it. That so cool! Mother had to provide a huge offering in order for me to stay in the Tree's domain. Plus I was super duper lucky and got a blessing from it too!"

"Wait, what tree? Like one of these around us?" Seraph looked around puzzled.

"No, the Tree. The one in the center of the forest with the pink flowers like on my antlers," it replied with the smug look on its face as it showed it's antler's off. Seraph felt a little dumb at that point.

"Uh, so can you take me to this tree."

Giving off its ugly horse smile it replied with a nod. It turned and started to walk from the river bank deeper into the forest. Seraph had no choice but to follow. He didn't think the horse was trying to trick him, no one entered the silent forest and made it out alive as far he knew. Seraph may be the first to learn the reason why, since he had an overly trusting horse lead him away

When they walked by the gorilla, the foal walked up to it and kicked out one of it's canines and gave it to Seraph. This sure was a generous horse. The canine was about 6 inches long was an ivory white. The other canine was yellowish, but since this was its soul piece it would be different thought Seraph. He pocketed it and followed after.

After about a minute...

"Hey, why are you so slow. It'll take forever to reach the Tree at your pace you know."

"I am a child!"

"So am I!"

After a minute long argument, the foal reluctantly let Seraph on his back. Seraph let a victorious smile show. If he was on the foal, he could rest and also not have to see the damned smile.

They continued through the trees, walking around underbrush and listening to absolutely nothing. Nothing. It was called the Silent Forest for good reason. Not an eerie quiet, just a calm quiet, like the forest was asleep. The calming quiet led Seraph's mind to wander, mainly to just how ridiculous this situation was.

He leaned forward a little to make himself more comfortable and noticed that the foal smelled really good. He smelled like flowers, which made sense due to the flowers blooming on its antlers. He didn't enjoy the smell long before the foal interrupted him, "Quit that you perv."

Seraph just snorted and went back to looking at the endless trees. The scenery was beautiful but a foal who was born the day before yesterday, which it brought up often, made it difficult to enjoy.

It was two hours into the journey before they saw other animals. There was two squirrels chasing each other along the ground and through the trees. Unlike the squirrels on earth though, these squirrels had plate like armor similar to an armadillo. They stopped their game when they noticed the foal, and without looking at Seraph they went back to their game. He was used to not being noticed. He wouldn't have even noticed the squirrels if he didn't see movement. The squirrels were running along the ground and the trees, but they weren't making a single noise.

Four hours in, he saw a dinosaur, or what appeared to be one. It looked the triceratops but the horns or the frill on it's head weren't as exaggerated. It had it's two front legs on a tree as it ripped leaves off of a tree. Same as the squirrels, it just glanced at the foal and overlooked Seraph. Even while ripping leaves off trees and slamming it's heavy weight back onto the ground, it wasn't making a single noise.

At six hours, he could no longer hold himself back and he fell on the foals back. He was exhausted and the silence that enveloped the forest along with the gentle swaying from the foal walking finally put Seraph to sleep.