DARK BEAST
Chapter Two: The Whispering Shadows
The forest didn't sleep.
Not really.
Even when the moons rose high over the hills and bathed the trees in silver, the forest watched. And tonight, it whispered.
Kael moved quietly through the underbrush, one hand on the hilt of his short blade, the other gripping a torch wrapped tightly in demonhide cloth. Every step was deliberate, every breath shallow. The beast had passed through this way.
He could feel it.
Not by tracks or broken branches. But by the coldness in the air — the unnatural silence that followed its path. Not even the insects dared to sing where it had tread.
Kael reached the edge of a clearing. Moonlight spilled across the grass, and in its center lay the remains of what was once a stag. Its bones were shattered, twisted in unnatural ways. Its eyes had been burned out, not eaten — burned, as though something ancient and cruel had looked into its soul and deemed it unworthy.
This wasn't a predator's kill.
This was a message.
"Dark Beast…" Kael muttered under his breath.
He knelt beside the carcass, inspecting the ground. No prints. No scent. Just the lingering sense of dread — a sickness in the spirit. The stories were true. The beast was real. And it was no ordinary monster.
From the treetops above, a sudden rustle — followed by a low hiss.
Kael shot to his feet, blade drawn.
"Show yourself!"
The hiss turned into a voice. Not human, but echoing with the weight of memory and nightmare. "You hunt what you do not understand… Child of flame."
Kael turned in all directions, eyes wide. "You know who I am?"
The shadows moved. Not with the wind — there was no wind. But with purpose. They slithered across bark and branch, forming a shape — eyes glowing dimly, body formless, yet present.
"I know what burns in your blood," the voice continued. "You are a flicker… chasing a storm."
Kael didn't flinch. He couldn't afford to. "Then you know I won't stop."
A silence fell. Then, laughter. Low. Distant. Mocking.
"So be it, Kael Flameborn," the voice hissed, fading. "The Dark Beast waits. It remembers the fire. And it hates."
Then the forest roared back to life — the insects chirped, the wind howled, and Kael found himself alone once more.
But something had changed.
His mark — the