Footprints

Feb 06, 2026

The four guardians found the footprints at the edge of the Forest of Spirits, so many that, at first glance, it looked as though an entire army had passed beneath their watch. All leading straight into the giant trees. It was their charge to ensure no one entered the forest. Everyone knew it was dangerous, despite the possible promise that it could bring Eternal life.

“How?! No one had crossed the boundary in years. So why now? And why so many?” Ajay said as she scanned the tree line.

“My guess?” Jacked Jax said with a shrug that made his absurdly muscled shoulders rise like small mountains beneath his armor, “Cult. Has to be.” He peered into the dark between the trees, then sighed. “Which means we’re going in there, aren’t we?”

“Yup,” said Lira without hesitation, already tightening the straps of her pack.

“Yup,” echoed Fen, as he adjusted his gloves that were one size too big.

“Yup,” Ajay added, resigned.

Jax winced. “Great.”

The group felt the change in atmosphere almost instantly. The domain of the spirits felt cold but more from within, like the soul within was bathed in ice water: cleansed, sharp, and invigorating.

“Oh, oh no.” Lira’s voice broke the stillness. Her gaze had drifted from the path to a tangle of low shrubs just off the trail. Beneath the leaves lay three skeletons, arranged with unsettling care. Their armor still hugged their bones, swords rested at their sides, and gloves and packs remained fastened.

“Don’t worry,” Fen said quickly, placing a hand on Lira’s shoulders, “They’re probably adventurers from a long time ago. It takes a while for bodies to end up like that.” He gestured down the path, “We’ll find the ones who went in before this happens to them.”

“Right.” Lira said, determined to find who they were looking for, she added. “Let’s go. My grandma is waiting for me at home with a birthday cake!”

For a moment, Ajax couldn’t tear her gaze from the skeletons, there was something that bothered her about knowing these people had been left there like this, their families probably never knew what happened to them. Her heart ached for their families back at home.

“What? It’s your birthday?” Jax blurted, genuinely stunned, as if birthdays weren’t the sort of thing that happened annually.

“Yeah,” Fen said, rolling his eyes. “I told you yesterday. You might want to start remembering your own girlfriend’s birthday.”

Ajax finally tore herself away from the sight and snorted. “You shouldn’t talk. I’m your sister, and you’ve never once remembered my birthday, and you’ve known me your entire life.”

“Hey I didn’t choose to love you.” Fen shrugged his shoulders. The motion sent one of his gloves slipping free, falling into the leaves at his feet.

“I’m not sure what that even means, dork. By the way, when are you going to get better gloves?”

Fen bent to retrieve it, brushing dirt from the worn leather with a care, “They were Dad’s,” he said simply. “You know I’m a bit partial.”

He was still crouched, halfway through pulling it back on, when a voice hissed behind them.

“What brings you here, spirits?”

They all turned to meet a creature that loomed over them, something that looked like an owl but its neck stretched, elevating itself to heights no owl ever should.

“I apologize spirit, we did not mean to bother you.” Ajax said bowing reverently, “We are humans who are just in search of those that wandered into the forest most likely hours ago. Have you seen them? ”

“Ah that’s right you are human.” The owl swiveled its head upside down to take a better look at her, and then unnaturally turned its neck to view each of her companions, “Hmmm. No, I haven’t seen any other humans here. But I can help you find them, if you’re willing to play a game with me.”

“A game?” Ajax echoed, a tingling crawling up her back.

“Yes!” The owl’s beak curved. “If you win, I’ll lead you straight to the ones who made those footprints. And as a little bonus,” it added lightly, “I’ll throw in immortality.”

Silence stretched.

“And if we lose?” Ajax asked.

“Then you die.”

Jax let out a short laugh. “Wow,” he said. “That escalated fast.”

Ajay shot him a sharp look.

Fen studied the owl with curiosity, “You say game, but you didn’t say what kind.”

The owl’s feathers rippled, pleased. “Oh, it’s a very fair one.”

Ajax narrowed her eyes at the owl. “And if we refuse?”

The owl’s head straightened, neck slowly retracting, “Then you may turn around,” it said gently. “You may leave the forest exactly as you are.”

Relief flooded Ajay.

“And the footprints will keep going,” the owl finished. “As they always do.”

Ajax clenched her jaw. She glanced back down the path they had followed. The prints were still there.

Lira stepped closer to Ajax, lowering her voice. “We can’t just leave them.”

“I know,” Ajax said quietly.

Ajax straightened. “What are the rules?”

“It’s simple really, this path is a maze, stay on the path, keep moving, help when it’s needed, and leave behind what you must, and then the exit will open. If you make it out of the maze alive you win.”

It sounded easy enough, Ajay turned to her friends and they nodded.

“Fine, we will play.”

“Excellent,” it said. “Then the game has already begun. Good luck, human.” The owl stepped aside revealing the path ahead and they journeyed forward.

For nearly two hours, nothing happened. The path did not branch or twist or narrow; it ran straight as an arrow through the trees.

“This is easy enough. All we have to do is stay on the path I guess.” Jax said at last, squeezing Lira’s hand in his.

Fen frowned, scanning the forest as they walked. “I don’t think it’s meant to be that easy,” he said. “This feels like a test.”

“Well I hope it starts testing soon, Grandma is going to be worried.”

Before anyone could say anything more, a scream let out in the distance.

“Did you hear that?” Ajax asked.

“Yeah.” They all said in unison.

“It came from over there.” Fen pointed a direction off the path, the tip of the glove bent downwards like floppy bunny ears.

Jax’s grip tightened around Lira’s hand. “It’s a trick,” he said firmly. “Something trying to pull us off the path.”

“But what if it’s them?” Lira’s voice wavered as she looked up at him, “Didn’t we already decide their lives were worth risking ours?”

“It’s still a trap,” Jax pulled her forward, “We have to keep moving. Stay on the path.”

Lira went quiet. Slowly, she slipped her hand from his.

Ajax, Jax, and Fen exchanged glances, then nodded and started forward.

“I can’t leave someone to suffer,” Lira said softly.

She stepped off the path.

The forest reacted instantly. Vines snapped up from the soil, roots wrapped around her ankles and wrists, dragging her farther into the undergrowth. Lira cried out as the plants pulled her away.

Jax didn’t hesitate.

He lunged after her, catching her arm, muscles straining as veins popped beneath his skin. He dug his heels into the dirt, refusing to let go, as the forest pulled back.

Jax failed.

The vines swallowed them both. In a matter of heartbeats, their bodies were gone, pulled beneath leaves and roots until there was nothing left but disturbed earth and the echo of their struggle.

Ajax and Fen stood frozen, staring at the place where they had vanished, unable to accept the sudden finality of it. The forest offered no sign they had ever been there.

“It was her birthday,” Fen said at last, his voice hollow.

“Mm,” Ajax murmured, dazed.

Then, without warning, Fen stepped off the path.

He dropped to his knees, clawing at the earth with frantic hands, calling out through ragged breaths, and the forest answered at once. Vines and roots surged up around him, and in moments, he was gone, the path smoothing over as if he had never existed at all.

The forest was silent.

Ajax thought of the skeletons at the entrance of the forest, and how her beloved friends will not return. She thought of walking off the path too. Then she thought of their families never knowing what had happened to them.

So she got up and continued forward.

“Congratulations you’ve won! I will show you what you want, and hooray you now have immortality, good for you.” The exit opened and the owl creature was there.

“I want their bodies.” Ajax said sharply.

“Don’t worry. What you desired before and what you desire now are one and the same.”

“Don’t play with me. Their bodies. Screw the fools who entered here.”

“Hmmm. Well a deal is a deal.”

Ajax appeared at the entrance of the forest, next to the skeletons. Three. One with a pack, one with armor, and one with gloves.

“Those are the ones you seek, you’ve been following your own footprints this whole time. For you see, immortality comes with a price.” The owl grinned.

Three ghosts appeared next to her.

One ghost spoke.