The Cold Forest Ch. 05

It wasn't some kind of instinctual reaction; it all happened after that demoness hit her with a lust spell. She noticed that said demoness was also unconscious on the other side of Erik.

She again looked at Erik; he seemed to have grown a lot compared to how he was just a few weeks ago.

Erik Goodman was the grandson of Bjarke Goodman, a noble human being who died a few months ago. She closed her yellow-slitted eyes; when she opened them the yellow colour had covered both of her eyes entirely.

She looked at the unconscious Erik. Heli Mitt had seen many ups and downs in her life but it was the first time she was stuck in a situation like this.

A few centuries ago, a noble human being helped her and her grandmother by saving young Heli's life from a coven of demon worshipers. Heli's grandmother was pleased by the human's gesture and provided that human with a chunk of land outside of their forest.

The human built a house there and started his family. Young Heli, alongside her grandmother, often visited the human and his family but, except for him, no one in her family knew about their true identity.

They would visit this house often to celebrate festivals, but after a few years, the man died due to some illness. Something which puzzled young Heli, but her grandmother told her that she was too young to understand at that time.

After his death, they stopped visiting them but Heli would often see his family members roaming the forest. It took her a few more decades to understand the situation.

Once her grandmother taught her the 'seer' ability, she was able to see the problem. It was one of their specie's natural abilities; they could see magic like any other physical object. Her kind had this ability to see magic or anything magical.

One day she noticed the grandson of that man who was roaming the forest was under some kind of curse.

It was bad news, she informed her grandmother about it, but instead of being surprised; her grandmother took that news lightly.

"I know, dear, it's some kind of blood curse. And neither I nor anyone I know is capable enough to break it."

Since then, Heli had seen every child born in that family bear this curse. Her grandmother had researched to find a cure but failed. After her death, Heli continued the research work, but just like her grandmother she also failed to find any cure.

She had seen many people die in that family, so just like her grandmother; she hadn't contacted anyone in the family.

Until three decades ago when she one day encountered Bjarke Goodman, Erik's grandfather. He was heavily injured by a wolf pack.

Heli had taken him back to her home and healed him. During that time, she had also told him about the illness which was due to some curse that was placed upon his bloodline.

Instead of breaking down, the man took that news bravely. Within a few years, his son and his daughter-in-law died in a car accident.

After their funeral, he came back with a young child in his hand. Heli saw the child at such a tender age bearing such a harsh punishment of a 'Blood Curse'.

She said so to the old man, who was tense due to the news, but again took the news bravely. Instead of whining around, he focused all his attention on nurturing the child properly.

Heli would often see that child roaming inside her forest bearing the twisted cursed in every drop of his blood.

She had noticed the curse was like some kind of leech; it was eating the vitality of the bearer. Like some kind of parasite, it was destroying the blood of its very owner.

But now the curse wasn't there. She again looked at him. The 'Blood Curse' that she was seeing on this family line suddenly disappeared from the body of this young man. She was surprised when she noticed that last night but was also disturbed when she saw some evil spirit possessing his body.

At least that's what she believed last night but now she could see it clearly, while the curse was gone it was replaced by another one; a curse which wasn't just affecting his blood but also had corrupted his soul.

A small part of Erik's soul was twisted and turned into some evil or dark beastly spirit. Heli was beyond shock never before had she seen such a twisted and dark curse in her life.

'But how? Where?' She could see the demoness was too weak to place such a curse on him. 'Then where did this curse come from?'

Just a few days ago Heli noticed some kind of magical occurrence happening on the far North side. She left the forest to find the reason behind this occurrence, but in the middle of her travel, she noticed an ice storm raging toward the town. Unlike a normal snowstorm, this one was highly imbued with magic.

While she could have dropped the search mission, since she had already reached so far, she decided to try to find the source of this occurrence.

There was a huge chunk of ice and iceberg spread in vastness after her grandmother's death; it was her second visit to this place.

The magical waves she was feeling coming from this part had stopped now; she used her seer ability but failed to locate the source that was emitting such powerful magic.

Yesterday, she came back to the forest; she could still feel the magic embedded there. She was roaming in the forest enjoying being there, when she noticed an evil presence.

It was a hell spawn destroying trees here and there. Heli's anger reached sky-high at this. When the Hell spawn had her guards down, she struck and took the now unconscious demoness with her so she could send her back to Hell.

While Heli wasn't as brilliant as her grandmother, all the books from her grandmother and three centuries of life had granted her enough experience to perform such a magic easily. After going back to her house, she placed the unconscious demoness in her basement and started the preparation for the ritual. She was about to start the ritual when she sensed a powerful being inside the forest near Erik's house.

She rushed toward the house, but sensed the being rushing out in another direction. She was quick to follow, but failed to catch whoever this was. She decided to go and see if Erik was alright but she sensed the demoness was trying to escape from the forest.

Heli was quick to chase the demoness, in which she succeeded, right before the hell spawn could escape the forest.

While the demoness had fighting skills, the strength gap between them was too big for her to harm Heli.

She was about to put the demoness down quickly, when she sensed him entering the forest. Erik came rushing toward the demoness and caught her in mid-air. Heli was beyond surprised by this feat since it was something impossible to do. But the way Erik was standing before her and the way he was taking her and the demoness's existence so lightly was something she took notice of, immediately.

She also noticed his lack of clothes and his muscled body.

Never before that day had she been seen by him; his grandfather was the last in their family to know about her existence.

Heli could see that Erik knew this demoness, which infuriated her; it was one thing to know the supernatural world, but associating yourself with demons wasn't something Heli would take lightly. She urged him to hand over the demoness and leave the forest, but he refused.

Something which was beyond shock for her, even more shocking, was his declaration of his not being Erik. She used her 'seer' magic to look into Erik, and the first thing she noticed was that he didn't have the blood curse on him. But she also noticed that there was another spirit who had taken him over, so the person before her wasn't Erik.

'Vidar...' was the name he declared for himself. When he came to attack her, she could also see how powerful his body was; his strength was nearly her equal, which was definitely not normal!

It would need a high-class demon to possess a normal human, to have such strength. Still, he was moving on instinct, which wasn't enough to beat someone as skilled as her.

She restrained herself in her attacks, since she didn't want to harm him, but just try to weaken him and release him from this demonic possession.

She even succeeded in binding him with the trees, but failed to dodge a lust spell that was thrown at her by that demoness.

A sudden heat started to burn throughout her body, the primal instinct within her was triggered by it. The near-extinction of her species had forced her to suppress the wild urges that a normal human couldn't satisfy.

She always suppressed this wild and primal side of herself, due to the fear of harming others in her lustful haze, but the lust spell triggered that side. The animal instinct took over her mind and after that she lost control over her body and attacked him as he was standing closer to her ,behaving like he wanted to mate with her.

Things spiralled down from there, all the hazy lust which had taken over her mind pushed her body forward to challenge him and see whether he was worthy to be her mate or not.

After that everything became extremely foggy for all she could remember was an extreme pleasure that was unparalleled to anything she had felt in her life.

Suddenly she opened her eyes, which she had closed, and she again activated her seer sight. Looking at him, she could see it was clear some other curse was rushing through his body. But this curse had also corrupted a part of his soul, which was burning red with an evil twist to it.

She wasn't sure what this curse was, but seeing his connection with the Demoness, there was a high possibility of this curse having some kind of hellish origin.

Anger soared deep within her heart seeing this innocent human twisted into this. She failed to gauge the origin or function of the curse with her primary inspection.

Without wasting much time, she raised her one hand, and a variety of tree branches came before her. She entwined them around Erik and the demoness. With her magic, she levitated them both and started to walk toward the hideout built by her grandmother in the most dense area in the forest.

She placed them inside the basement of her house and started to inspect Erik to grasp the type of curse that was placed upon him.

After few hours of inspection, she failed to understand what kind of curse it was. At first her simple belief was that it was simple case of possession by some high-class demon, since he had demonstrated such a physical strength. Then she thought it might be some kind of blood curse, similar to the ones she had seen in were creatures. But that wouldn't explain the corruption of his soul. Why was it effecting his soul? And the strength he displayed was beyond what normal lycanthropy could accomplish, especially without transforming.

Since last night was a full moon night, wouldn't he have transformed into a were-creature if the curse was such?

Even more shocking was something inside his blood which was beyond her magical understanding, it was like there was something with in his blood but her magic failed to explain it.

She knew now there was only one way for her to find all the answers that she needed. She gathered a small bit off her magic in her hand and threw it at the still unconscious and bound demoness.

Tanha was awake quickly and jumped on her feet looking around, but due to her bound state she fell to the floor again. Then her eyes landed on the same mysterious woman.

"Who are you? And why are you doing this to us?"

Tanha tried to keep her voice firm and tried to pose herself as strong, even in her immobile and pathetic state.

"That doesn't matter. What did you do to him?"

"What? I didn't do anything."

"Then what are you doing with him?"

Tanha was unsure on how to answer that question, since she knew the woman before her had enough knowledge to confirm whether there was any bond between her and Erik or not. But she still decided to speak the same version.

"It's because he had bound me as his slave."

"What?!"

The yellow colour spread across the woman's eyes she looked at Tanha and then at Erik.

"Yes, you are telling the truth."

While Tanha took a breath of relief at the woman's statement, it also confused her. But her chain of thoughts was broken by a scream from the woman.

"What the..."

"What happened?" Tanha inquired.

"Nothing it doesn't concern you."

The woman ditched her question while composing herself.

"Tell me what has happened to him?"

"I don't know, but I could tell you everything I know since I was summoned to this realm."

Tanha told an edited version of everything that had happened in past few days to the woman.

"Where are those witches?"

"I don't know; they left the town."

Tanha answered the woman's question meekly while displaying innocent expression on her face.

"Where am I? Who are you?"

Heli turned around to see that now-conscious Erik was looking at her with a scared expression on his face.

Chapter 37: A Bronze Chain

Erik walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He walked closer to the full-length mirror that was placed inside his room.

His eyes scanned his body he could see many changes that seems to have happened in past few hours. His muscle definition had increased a lot, now he could also see thin lines defining his lower stomach section.

It was like he was on steroids and going to the gym to gain such a heavy muscle body. Even after that, it wouldn't be possible to gain so much muscle in less than a week.

His eyes landed on the bronze chain that was hanging in his neck with variety of symbols engraved upon it, which triggered the memory of past few hours.

Just a few hours ago, Erik had woken up in a dark, dungeon-like room bound in tree roots and branches. His eyes landed on an equally immobile Tanha, and a strange woman dressed in a skimpy dress having some kind of conversation with Tanha.

He was feeling extremely uncomfortable being in such an immobile state in some unknown place so he gathered his wit and asked the woman where he was?

At first the woman looked at him with shock. He also noticed a bit of fear but it was just there for a brief moment and it quickly disappeared.

The woman was looking at him while standing on high alert; it was like she was expecting some kind of attack from him.

Suddenly a scene appeared before him where he was about to land an attack on the woman who was standing before him. A wave of pain shot through his brain and shattered the picture; he was brought to reality while a big exhale left his mouth due to the sheer intensity of the pain.

The woman carefully walked closer to him and when she was just few feet away from him, he noticed her eyes which had yellow slits in it turned yellow entirely.

She was looking like some kind of devil who could see through his soul. After few seconds of this the yellowness reduced back.

Now only the slits of her eyes appeared yellow. She raised her hand and waved them; suddenly his bonds fell of his body, freeing him.

He tried to stand up but a wave of dizziness made him fell back to his knees; it took him few minutes to compose himself properly. During this whole time, the woman was standing like she was ready to attack him at any moment.

Which he could feel due to something within him telling him that the woman standing before him was extremely dangerous.

Again, the woman walked closer to him while he tried to get up on his legs.

"What is your name?"

The firm, yet feminine, voice was echoing inside the basement. Erik raised his head; pain was still coursing through his skull, but he opened his eyes and looked at the woman that was standing before him.

There were millions of questions running through his mind he still answered her before asking anything.

"My name is Erik Goodman. And who are you?"

The woman just shook her head before speaking, "Heli Mitt. I am what they call a forest spirit; a Huldra, to be exact."

"This forest belongs to me. A few centuries ago, my grandmother allowed your ancestor to build the house currently you are living in."

"Oh..." Erik wasn't sure what to say. Here a mysterious woman was standing before him, telling him that she was some kind of forest spirit, and the forest in his backyard belonged to her.

In past few days many crazy things happened to him, so it wasn't something that he couldn't digest.

"So, what happened to you, Erik?"

That question broke his chain of thought and he looked at the woman standing before him.

"What?"

He tried to play it cool. Even though the forest belonged to this woman, he still didn't know who she actually was, and he wasn't sure what would happen if he told her everything.

"I am asking you has anything happened to you in past few days. Have you encountered any supernatural beings?"

He was thinking about lying to her and getting his ass out of there, but the instinct within him kept blaring, telling him how dangerous things would turn if he messed with the woman who was standing before him.

"Look, I don't..."

"Erik, there is a curse upon you—a nasty curse—and I think I could help if you will let me."

"A what?"

Erik's expressions were that of shock; it was like he had seen some kind of ghost.

"Yes, so tell me Erik. What was it?"

"Listen, I don't think..."

The woman just kept staring at him; it was like her eyes were piercing through him. Erik stopped in mid-sentence and took a deep inhale and spoke again,

"During the storm a wolf bit me and after that everything just turned upside down."

"What? A werewolf?"

"I don't know."

"But, then...how...?"

The woman looked confused; from her facial expression, after thinking for few minutes she spoke again.

"Look Erik, I can help."

"After that wolf bit me I would often wake up with no memories of the past few hours. It's like someone else had taken control over me. I would often have done things that I don't remember doing."

"Oh...I see. Come on, follow me."

Now the woman just nodded her head in understanding.

Erik wasn't sure what to do but he decided to follow the woman who walked out of the basement door. While exiting the door he stopped and looked back at Tanha who was still in an immobile state.

When he exited the basement, he was in a living room where many old things were lying around.

The woman entered the first door on the left side and he followed her lead. Huge tables were arranged in the room and many books and variety of ingredients were lying around the room.

She walked to the last table in the room, opened a drawer and took a bronze necklace out of it. She placed the necklace on the table and looked back at him.

"I will need a strand of your hair, and I would ask you to wait outside of this room."

After giving her a few hairs, he walked out of the room and was standing outside the closed door. He walked to the wall opposite the door, where a huge painting of the forest was hanging on the wall.

There was no name of the artist on the painting but he could see the painting was a masterpiece. It was like every small detail of the forest was covered in it with a bird's eye view.

The painting covered the forest in its entirety, which was more than 50 square miles. He just kept staring at the painting; it was like he was lost inside the forest and its beauty.

A hand on his shoulder brought him back to the reality. He turned around to see the same woman standing behind him, holding the same necklace in her hand, but now it had some weird symbols engraved on it.

"Erik Goodman, I don't think I can remove the curse right now, but this will stop that evil spirit from controlling your body."

Erik looked at the necklace and then back at the woman. He was unsure at what to do but the woman spoke again.

"Erik, it's up to you to decide what you want."