The Horned Pegasus, a majestic, yet unlikely-to-come-by creature peacefully grazed within a small clearing of the forest. Its white majestic fur flowed slightly with the breeze emanating from the forest. The Hunter of the Forest and The Surveyor of the Forest were slowly making their way to the clearing when they spotted the royal creature. The duo, both dressed in animal hides sown together to create clothing, silently crept around to a group of bushes in front of the clearing. The Pegasus continued to graze, oblivious of the duo planning their dinner.

The Surveyor unfastened and removed his bow from a woven strap on his back, as well as grabbing an arrow from his hand-made quiver. He aimed the expertly crafted bow at the creature, ready to bring back a delicious meal. Suddenly, a twig snapped. The Pegasus perked its head and ears up, then quickly scurried out of the clearing. The Surveyor turned towards the direction of the sound, only to see the Hunter frozen in place with his foot on the broken twig.

The Surveyor sighed deeply before speaking, “I can’t take you anywhere apparently.”

“It’s not my fault that creatures around here are more timid the closer we are to the village,” the Hunter exclaimed as he stepped forward towards the Surveyor. “If we went further and crossed the river we could hunt more easily.”

“You know we can’t do that,” the Surveyor pointed out, fastening the bow onto his back.

“Do you want to eat tonight?” The Hunter exaggerated, pointing in the direction the Horned Pegasus fled in.

The Surveyor stopped for a second to think before responding, “Fine, but you’re carrying the game back this time.”

The Hunter chuckled and then started to walk deeper into the forest. He turned to the Surveyor with a beaming smile on his face. The Surveyor laughed at his odd companion and followed along behind him.

As they hiked further into the forest, the only sounds that could be heard were the leaves beneath their feet and the trees swaying in the gentle breeze. The foliage around them started to grow less dense the closer they were to the river. When they arrived at the river they stopped to listen to the water as it slowly trickled past. The Hunter rolled up his robe and carried his knapsack over his head as he started to wade through the shallow water.

“Well there’s no going back now,” the Surveyor told himself, as he rolled up his own clothes and followed behind the hunter.

They waded through the shallow water, which really only went up to their knees. The water was crystal clear, and they watched small fish swim around their legs as they trekked forward. They reached the other side of the river and dried their legs off with large leaves from a bush close by. The duo continued deeper into the forest, and mirroring the other side of the river, the foliage grew dense the further they hiked. Eventually, they reached another small clearing in the forest, so they slowed their pace in the hopes of not scaring away any potential feast.

As they approached the clearing they noticed the Horned Pegasus that ran away from them not that long ago, peacefully grazing, just as it did before. The Surveyor knelt down behind a bush and aimed his bow at the Horned Pegasus once again. Right before he took the shot, however, the Hunter walked into the clearing, not paying attention to the Surveyor’s efforts. Alarmed, the Surveyor signaled the Hunter to stop, but then noticed that the Horned Pegasus wasn’t running away. The Hunter walked closer to the mythical creature and started to caress its white fur. The Horned Pegasus looked up and started to rub its head against the Hunter in a very friendly way.

Dumbfounded, the Surveyor put his bow away and walked into the clearing to join the Hunter. By now, multiple other smaller creatures started to enter the clearing to surround them.

“How?” The Surveyor mouthed to the Hunter, expressing incredible confusion.

More creatures appeared in the clearing and ran up to the both of them. The Surveyor looked around them in every direction becoming more confused and surprised at the growing number of creatures entering the clearing.

“I’m not sure…” The Hunter said softly as his mind started to become lost in the animals that surrounded him.

As he continued to pet the Horned Pegasus, larger creatures also started to appear in the clearing. The Hunter looked up to see what other creatures were entering the clearing but instead saw a skeleton lying up against a tree, with a spear emerging from its chest.

“What…” The Hunter whispered to himself, confused about how he didn’t notice it sooner.

The Hunter stopped petting the Pegasus and slowly started to approach the skeleton. The Surveyor, now starting to pet the creatures himself, noticed him walking towards the skeleton.

“Hey, you probably shouldn’t touch that,” The Surveyor tried to warn the Hunter. The Hunter had reached over and pulled the spear out of the skeleton before the Surveyor could say anything else. The immediate second after the spear left the rib cage of the skeleton, the creatures in the clearing fled as they would normally. The Surveyor looked at the Hunter, visibly annoyed. “I told you so.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mock me all you want. However, I feel almost, a connection to this spear. Almost as if it always belonged to me,” The Hunter commented as he examined his new weapon. He noticed the craftsmanship of the spear, and how well it was made. The metal of the spear was covered in scratches, and the wood had also seen its fair share of use.

The Surveyor shook his head and sighed, “Of course you do.”

He reluctantly walked over to the Hunter. The Hunter stopped ogling the spear and both crouched down to investigate the skeleton before them.

“I wonder where they came from, or why someone would kill them.” The Surveyor said to the Hunter, afraid to touch the long-dead corpse.

“There aren’t any other villages close by, not to my knowledge at least. They could be from our village, but it looks like they’ve been here for a while,” The Hunter pondered aloud in response.

“That’s true,” The Surveyor agreed. He paused before continuing, “Probably best not to think that deeply about it.”

The Hunter started to zone off and ogle his spear again. He then looked up and saw a small pixie slowly flying into the clearing. It approached the Hunter and started to whirl around him. The Hunter giggled, “See, this little guy stayed!”

The pixie continued to swirl around the Hunter, but then it slowly drifted away into the forest the same way it entered the clearing.

“Come on! Let’s follow it!” The Hunter exclaimed excitedly. Then, without a second thought, he ran off towards the pixie, leaving the Surveyor behind.

“Hey! Wait for me!” The Surveyor yelled at the hunter, who already had a substantial lead. He ran after the Hunter, trying his best to keep up. The duo ran further into the forest and traveled throughout it for a substantial distance. ‘Is he even still following that damn pixie?’ The Surveyor pondered as he ran.

After dashing through the forest, the Hunter eventually came across the remnants of the Elemental Province, but no sign of where the pixie went. The ruins that surrounded the Hunter looked nearly lost to time. Large vines and trees littered the streets of the ancient citadel, covering the buildings and hiding much of the architecture. Even so, the large stone buildings still stood with their original colors faded, yet still impressive to the eyes of the beholder. The Hunter stared at the ruins in awe as the Surveyor caught up to him.

“You need… to stop doing that…” the Surveyor mustered out as he tried to catch his breath from running. He looked up and examined the area he was in. “What… is this?”

“I think I heard stories about this place, a lost civilization deep within the forest. I always thought it to be a myth,” The Hunter said as he walked deeper into the town.

“From who?” The Surveyor said to himself, starting to become skeptical of his peer.

Both of them walked through the disheveled city, amazed by the sheer size of it, wondering how it was able to be created. Statues lined the streets of the town, impressing the Hunter and the Surveyor with the amount of detail put into them. After a bit, the duo approached the center of the town. In the center of the ruins lay the Elemental Temple, an impressive yet unkempt structure. They walked up to the entrance of the Elemental Temple to peer inside the large, spiritual place.

“Woah…” the Surveyor trailed off in awe, struggling to comprehend it all.

“We should go inside,” The Hunter stated quickly then proceeded to run inside without input from the Surveyor.

“Now let’s think about this- Hey!” The Surveyor shouted as he ran after the Hunter, disgruntled by his antics.

The Hunter ran further and then stopped in the middle of the sanctuary. The inside of the temple was full of statues, similar to the statues that lined the streets. However, there seemed to be no order or organization to these statutes. The Hunter examined them, noticing the many emotions and positions they were in. The Surveyor caught up with the Hunter, but before telling him off he also noticed the statues. His anger turned to curiosity as he joined the Hunter in investigating the statues. They reached out and touched the cold stone they were carved from, admiring the craftsmanship. Each statue was very different from the last, from their clothes to their varying positions.

They ventured further into the sanctum, continuing to examine the statues as they traveled. They eventually reached the altar of the temple. There, they saw the most pronounced statues in the temple. A battle seemingly frozen in stone between a noble-looking wizard and a grim diseased creature very unknown to the duo. They investigated the battle further. The wizard, standing behind the altar, holding a large, worn book, with her hand out as if she was casting a spell. The plagued creature, an intruder, with his arms held out as if unleashing his full power against the wizard. The Hunter walked closer, then further up to the altar.

“For once, please, do not touch anything,” the Surveyor warned the Hunter.

The Hunter was too invested to hear the Surveyor as he examined the statues and the altar anyway. He noticed something odd about the altar, a small rectangular hole in the center. The hole was too small for a book to be stored in, but it was also too shallow to hold valuables.

“That’s odd, why would there be a hole here,” The Hunter pondered to himself. He then turned his attention to the statue of the wizard. He caught a glimpse of a stone tablet in the wizard’s reached-out hand. The tablet looked as though it would fill the place missing from the altar. The Hunter started to reach over to take the tablet out of her hand, but the Surveyor grabbed his arm and stop him.

“Don’t,” the Surveyor scolded him. “Think about this. You don’t know what you are doing or if anything would happen if you remove the tablet. What if it’s a trap?”

“Then we will deal with it together like we usually do. Besides, it’s not like we have anything better to do,” The Hunter reassures the Surveyor.

“I know, you just… concern me sometimes.” He lets go of the Hunter’s arm and backed away. The Hunter stepped down from the alter and approached the Surveyor.

“Hey, everything will be alright. Chances are this won’t do anything anyways,” the Hunter told the Surveyor. The Surveyor smiled after hearing this.

“Alright, but if these statues come to life, you’re the one that’s going to deal with it,” the Surveyor said jokingly.

“Deal.” The Hunter laughed. He reached over and carefully took the tablet from the wizard’s hand. He slowly placed it into the depression in the altar and pressed down. It made a clicking noise, which then caused the ground around them to shake violently, startling the duo. Patterns in the altar began to illuminate, as well as the lines on the floor and wall. The wave of illumination flowed until reaching the large circular carving on the top of the wall. As the carving on the wall began to glow, a large shockwave was released from it. The Hunter and the Surveyor crept backward to be against the wall, terrified of the chaos that followed.

The shockwave turned not all, but many of the statues in the temple back to life as it traveled throughout the temple. The wizard was the first to come back to life. The color returned to her robe and the Hunter and the Surveyor were taken aback by its majestic vibrant quality. The shockwave caused her to be knocked to the ground. She let out a loud audible gasp, then looked up towards the unknown beast.

He was the next to return back to life. As he became unfrozen a dark ominous feeling filled the room, causing the Hunter and the Surveyor to receive a horrible chill down their spines. The creature was corrupted and null, looking as though he embodied everything that was death. His robe was dirty, tattered, and diseased as opposed to the wizard’s. The creature wasn’t knocked over because of the shockwave, so he took this as an opportunity to attack the wizard.

“No!” The wizard yelped. She quickly got back up but it was far too late. Many of the statues have come back to life now, and the creature leaped on top of the altar. He released a blast, a black plague-like spiral, from his bony hand that hit the wizard and sent her back to the floor. She dropped the book he was wielding, and the creature snatched it shortly after.

“I will be taking this now. You may have weakened me, but without this tome, you have no chance of stopping what is inevitable,” the creature groveled in a sickly voice. The wizard stumbled back up and made a running leap at the creature. He simply pushed her to the floor and whirled around to speak to the rest of the corrupted beings awakened by the shockwave. He spoke in an unknown corroded language to the other creatures that surrounded him. The creature then launched himself from the altar, flying out of the temple with a trail of disease behind him. One by one, all of the creatures flew away, leaving the temple within seconds.

The Hunter and the Surveyor stood back in shock from the events that quickly transpired. The Surveyor looked at the Hunter with a look of impending doom, but the Hunter’s attention was then turned to the creature as he spoke to his army.

The remaining creatures left the temple as the wizard struggled to get back up. She then limped up to the altar to look at the remaining statues in the temple.

“Damnit… I thought… it worked… what happened?” The wizard questioned herself. She looked over to the left, then the right, and notices the duo standing there, still in shock. The fury in her eyes started to glow as she spoke, “What did you do…”

“That… thing, it said they were done here, and without your book, you’re no longer a threat. What did they mean by that?” The Hunter stepped forward to question the Wizard.

“You could understand that thing? How?” The Surveyor exclaimed to the Hunter.

“You couldn’t?” The Hunter replied.

“Quiet!” The wizard yelled at the two, “Who are you and why are you here?”

“We come from a village quite a distance away from here, we came here to hunt but discovered these ruins instead.” The Surveyor explained. “What is this place? And for that matter who exactly are you?”

“I don’t have time to answer your questions. A grave evil has just escaped. My spell failed and you two shouldn’t be here,” The wizard started to panic as she spoke to herself, “What the hell could have happened?”

“You were a statue, I placed that stone tablet into the altar and you came to life, how is that even possible? Who even are you?” The Hunter exclaimed, trying to understand the incomprehensible.

“You did this?” The wizard raged. “Do you understand what you’ve done?”

The wizard started to lunge at the Hunter angrily but was stopped when she winced and collapsed in pain from the injuries she had sustained in the fight. The Hunter ran to her to help, propping her up against the altar into a more comfortable position. Her anger started to subside as she continued to speak.

“You two are trespassers. This place is a sacred temple for the Elementals. I am the Elemental Wizard, I protect this temple and the Elemental Province as a whole.” The wizard explained while clutching her stomach.

“The… what?” The Hunter asked confusingly, wishing what she said had made sense to him.

“What was that thing that attacked you?” The Surveyor asked abruptly.

“He goes by many names, but we call him the Soul Taker. He is a being that wishes to destroy the balance of the forest.” The Elemental Wizard answered solemnly, “And you set him free again. I had cast a spell, sacrificing myself to capture the Soul Taker and his army in stone.”

“So why are they still frozen in stone?” The Surveyor pointed to the remaining statues in the temple.

The Wizard sighed deeply. “The Soul Taker has found a way to capture any living creature in stone, by sealing their souls within stone tablets, similar to the one you placed within the altar. He’s stolen the souls of the entirety of the town, and probably countless others.”

“Do you know why they are doing this?” The Surveyor asked.

“Why are you asking me so many questions? I should be the one asking you two questions! Besides shouldn’t you know about this?” The Elemental Wizard said, visibly more annoyed.

“No, we had no knowledge of any of this. Like we said we live in a hunting village, we didn’t even know this place existed until today.” The Surveyor answered, trying to rationalize. “And besides, how else are going to be able to stop them if we know nothing about them?”

The Wizard laughed and spoke in an exaggerated tone, “Stop them? There’s no stopping them now that they’ve stolen the Tome of the Forest.”

“Seriously, what are you talking about? This makes absolutely no sense!” The Hunter chipped in, trying to keep up with the conversation.

The Elemental Wizard rolled her eyes, “Okay fine, I’ll explain this more clearly to you two. The forest we all live in is isolated by the mountains and the ocean around it. Creatures of all elements live here peacefully, or used to until the corruption arrived. The Elementals drove the corruption to the other side of the mountain eons ago, sealing their mysterious powers away within the depths of this temple. The Elementals resonate with all of the elements and are the protectors of the forest. The corruption’s goal is to regain their lost power and unleash its destructive power against the elements.

“The Tome of the Forest was a collection of information and secrets about the forest, including the method of sealing away the Mysterious Crystal. Now that the Soul Taker has the Tome, they will be able to discover how to reobtain the crystal. Luckily, the powers can only be released if they have all eight stone tablets of power that belong to each of the elements.”

“So, in order to stop the Soul Taker, we need to get to the tablets before they do?” The Hunter asked.

“Yes, I suppose so. However, the tablets aren’t easy to get to. They are guarded by the most powerful protectors of their respective element.” The Wizard explained further.

“What do the tablets look like?” The Hunter asked.

Before the Wizard could explain, the Surveyor had a look of realization flow across his face. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a hexagonal rock with a leaf engraved on it. He handed it to the Elemental Wizard and asked as she examined the rock, “Could this be one?”

The Elemental Wizard’s face dropped as she responded in disbelief, “Yes… but how did you get your hands on this?”

“It was given to me by my father, he said that it’s been in the family for ages. He said it would give me good luck while I hunt.” The Surveyor explained. The Wizard gave the tablet back to the Surveyor.

“Guard it with your life. The Soul Taker would do anything to get his hands on those tablets.” The Wizard advised. She looked towards the entrance of the temple and watched as the sky began to grow darker. She sighed before speaking, “Follow me, I can lead you to a place to stay for the night.”

The Elemental Wizard limped over to the far right side of the temple, hugging the wall as she walked. Standing before her was a long dark staircase that cut deep into the ground. She spoke an incantation and then snapped her fingers, lighting up the torches along the side of the staircase, revealing how incredibly deep the staircase went. The Wizard then led the duo down the stairs, hugging the wall and being as careful as possible because of her injuries. When they reached the bottom of the stairs she led them through a hallway with elaborate carvings covering the walls.

“The carvings on this wall depict the story I told you, except with much greater detail than I explained,” The Wizard paused, then turned to the Hunter. “Hey, you, you said earlier that you were able to understand the Soul Taker’s language correct? Can you read the carvings on these walls?”

“Yes, I can read them,” The Hunter replied, examining the wall the Wizard leaned on.

“Remarkable… this language is long dead to many inhabitants of the forest. Only elders of the Elementals and select people knew the language. After a while mistranslation became prominent when teaching the language amongst the elements, so they reserved it for nobility. How is a hunter such as yourself able to read this ancient language?” The Wizard questioned the Hunter with a look of curiosity.

“I’m not sure… I’ve always known it I guess. Nobody ever taught it to me. The elders from our village would give me writings in the language and I would translate it for them.” The Hunter replied as he continued to look at the intricate carvings. The Wizard approached the Hunter closely, examining his face.

“You look familiar, but I don’t know from where” The Wizard pondered aloud, staring deeply at the Hunter’s facial features.

“I’ve never seen you before in my life, so I don’t know how I could look familiar to you.” The Hunter said, now visibly concerned.

The Wizard shrugged, “Maybe that blast scrambled my memory a bit, I apologize,” She said to the hunter. She continued to lead the two down the hallway, passing many different doorways along the way. Finally, the Wizard reached a doorway and snapped her fingers, lighting the torches in the room. In the room, there were two hammocks stringed up across the walls. “You can stay here tonight. You can cover and uncover the flame by pulling this lever,” She demonstrated the contraption without fully covering the torch.

“Also, before I forget, what are your names?”

“I’m Mark and that’s Hunter,” The Surveyor replied.

“Well ‘Mark,’ keep that one in check,” the Wizard gestured towards Hunter.

Mark laughed, “I can do that, it’s something I do very often.” Mark turned around to Hunter with a beaming smile on his face.

The Wizard smiled, “I will wake you two up in the morning. Don’t leave this room please, the catacombs of the temple can be a maze if you aren’t careful.” The Wizard left the room and shut a tattered curtain behind her. Mark and Hunter set their belongings down and got comfortable. They lied down in their hammocks and talked for a bit.

“Out of all of the messes you’ve gotten us into, this one is the messiest,” Mark said to Hunter.

“Yeah, I didn’t imagine anything like this would happen,” Hunter replied.

“Well, no one could have,” Mark pointed out, turning over in his hammock towards Hunter. “Encountering a group of lifeless statues that returned to life doesn’t happen on your typical hunting trip.”

Hunter chuckled, staring at the ceiling, “Yeah… but there’s no going back now.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Mark responded as he turned back over in his hammock.

“I mean, we don’t really have anything in the village to go back to,” Hunter pointed out, gesturing his hands as he spoke, “Your father died and I’m practically an outcast.

“Yeah, it will feel nice to get away from the village for a bit,” Mark replied, after yawning.

The two continued to talk for a little while longer, laughing and trying to make the best of the situation they found themselves in. They then laid there for a while in silence, before Mark finally got up to turn the lights off in the room.