CH1 - The Escape

Creeping through the forest, Sera closes her eyes as she experiences the gentle notes of vanilla in the air. The scent sifts through the woods, drifting across the entangled pines. The sweetness is the foreign note in the darkness of the night.

Her eyes remain closed as she remembers the scent of her mother's perfume. The way she wore that gentle vanilla perfume with the playful tropical notes.

The smells remind her of the night her mother had stood in defiance of as he approached her as a child. She was too young to become one of his wives, but he didn't see it that way. His appetite for violence made it so he needed younger and younger wives whose bones would have time to mend. Her mother's defiance taught her that strength exists in many forms.

Sera trembles as she closes her eyes, remembering when he cornered her in the forest. She had tried to run as fast and far as she could, but his feet carried him quicker. He had grabbed her and pinned her to the snow.

Clenching her eyes closed, she remembers the pain he caused as she squeezes her thighs together. Trembling, she remembers the scent of the blood as her body slowly warmed with the warm liquid swarming her body.

Her shoulders tremble as she remembers her shame that the dress her mother created for her would never be the same. The sticky red liquid clung to her flesh, marking her as his. Before her tenth birthday, she became his by conquest. He had taught her for years before she would have a chance to give him a child of her own.

As her tears seep from her eyes, Sera walks onto the snow, her footsteps sinking into white purity. Blood bubbles from the snow as she moves through the forest, her body trembling in the chilly night.

As she closes her eyes, Sera whispers her mother's name like a quiet prayer. Her presence moves through the forest that she grew up in as children. She was told there was a time before when people lived in communities in their own homes before the storms had come. Her mother had said to her that it was not the God they were meant to worship but only a man—a man of flesh, blood, and needs who preyed on the weak.

Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she holds her daughter calmly in her arms. She had no choice in her life, no matter what her mother had tried. She could not see the same thing happen to her daughter.

Sera needed to spare her child from the world's darkness and do what she knew would happen. He was a demon creating a society in his image by keeping a world of women, fitting his needs until they outlived their use. Any older adult who aged out of breeding and didn't have a child or grandchild was sent to the forest. Terrified of becoming one of his acolytes dedicated to providing daughters as others do in fear.

Cradling her infant child, Sera runs into a blizzard in defiance of the howling winds and the world she leaves behind. As she sprints through the snow, she feels the sting of the cold as the cloth around her feet barely keeps her warm. She enters the forest canopy as the first alarm bells ring through the compound.

Her body trembles as she runs in a direction she has only heard of. Sera hopes she is leaving on the right path as it has always been where food was gone. Where monsters had left the prey to help feed the community beyond their small gardens.

She risks everything for her daughter to live a better life. She will give everything of herself knowing the horrors of the world. She saw how they looked at their daughter, the desire and corruption of the monster who took all girls as concubines before their rights to become wives.

Sera wretches, almost collapsing at the memories of her youth. It was all she had ever known, and the measure of her pride was doing all she could. To do what she asked to make her mother proud. She never understood why allowing the pain, not crying out, only made her mother cry.

She wishes she had asked, wishes she could have asked at the time. She wished she had known better. Sera wished she had the choice she wanted. She runs through the forest as the sounds of howls cross the air.

As Sera clutches her daughter to her chest, the howls are closing in on her. Tears fall as she runs. The wind lashed across her face cutting her with the howling winds and sending her scent into the air. The forest, the monsters, and the gods are all cursing her. Her breath labored as the fabric wrapped around her feet fell away. Sera runs with everything she has, every desire, every broken dream, and every fear in her life.

Sera tries to still her mind as she did as a child. She feels hot breath on her neck as she shudders. The stench of his body as he lifted her frail soul in his arms took the innocence. In the absence of thoughts, of fear, in acceptance of misery, the sounds of the crashing forest fade into the distance. The horrors torment her as she tries to remember her mother's lessons about the forest. Of the time before the storms, the atrocities, the monsters, and the Oracle. There existed a world of beauty and peace. Her concentration is broken as she hears the sounds of the violence coming forward to engulf her world.

In a moment, Sera looks around her, trying to find a hidden point. Looking into the hollowed-out dying tree, she places her daughter within, knowing the forest has seen her. It will teach and keep her child safe.

She hopes she prays that the monsters will not consume her child. No matter what happens, she needs to find the strength to leave her daughter in her place of safety against the cold and the wind. Placing her child deep within the hollows of the tree, Sera begins to run from the clearing doing her best to put distance between her and her child. The sounds of the horrors crash forward.

As she reaches the end of the clearing, something sharp cuts into her, tearing the coat from her back as she frees her arms. Running forward, she knows her life is complete.

She broke free of the chains knowing her daughter was free of her mother's sin and the sin of all mothers before them. She had to ensure she broke the cycle and that her child's safety was more valuable than her life. She hopes her daughter lives long in service in Forest's peace, avoiding the corruption of man.

Claws rip into her flesh once more as she cries out in pain as the warmth spreads across her clothes. Heat seeps out of her into her clothes as she cries in pain.

In moments teeth dig into her thighs as she grasps out to the forest, begging the gods to protect her daughter. Her body trembles as she shakes violently, as the monster thrashes its head as she lies on her stomach. A heavy clawed hand holds down her back as teeth sink into her neck.

Sera's voice, her power to scream to call out to the Gods, is ripped from her. As bloody tears fall from her eyes, she hears the crow again. As the light fades from her eyes, she can't help but feel a sense of peace under the watchful golden eyes.

She hopes the lord of the crows has seen her sacrifice and will protect all the daughters. The prize was stolen from a life of pain to become a child of the forest, to serve the Gods as she lives. The warmth fades from Sera's mind as her life seeps into t