Chapter 79

Sometimes sleep isn’t the best thing. I’d been asleep for almost the whole day. Now it was midnight, and I struggled and rolled in my sheets, the fatigue now all but gone. What stayed with me was the overwhelming fear and worry about what was to come. Will had told me a long time ago that the Dark Forest was once alive, but somehow the land had been poisoned; the creatures that lived within it were dark and outcasts. The place held the largest population of ghosts, ogres, centaurs, and countless other animals. Once, I’d seen a giant spider the size of a dwarf’s house, but they kept to themselves and found caves and dense trees for their homes.

Reviving the forest wouldn’t be easy. I didn’t even know how I’d be able to do that. Father hadn’t taught me anything about it. He’d only taught me a few things and would often go on and on about the thread of life and how everything was linked.

With a