The Hollow Ball

Chapter 1

"No matter how desperate you are," I whispered over the heavy beat of my heart, "no matter who calls your name, and no matter who you see, never wander too far into the forest."

I remembered my mother's foreboding words as I stared into the depths of the dark forest that caged me. No matter what, never walk in those woods alone, do you understand?

I knew this. Everyone in Hunting Hollow knew this.

So then how, a little voice in the back of my mind wondered, will you explain being stranded right in the middle of it?

I had no other choice, of course. Desperation brought me to the forsaken forest. Sickness ran rampant through Hunting Hollow, taking lives without prejudice. If we didn't find a cure soon, there would be no magnificent town left to heed such warnings.

In the early morning hours, after weeks of watching our leaders stare dumbly at each other, no course of action against the plague in sight, I—either through sheer stupidity or hubris—made it my mission to take matters into my own hands. I needed to for the sake of my brother.

And that sheer stupidity, desperation, and hubris brought me to that moment.

Lost. Alone. At the mercy of a land of nightmares.

The forest had become a labyrinth of destruction and chaos since last week's storm. Black clouds blocked sunlight for days as cracks of thunder and lightning ripped across the landscape. This storm, like many storms over the years, left the outskirts of Hunting Hollow fractured in its wake. Living on the Astorian Sea, they were common. But something about the storm that raged—with its strong howls and wind and ice and rain—felt different.

More sinister.

As though it were only a prelude to something much, much worse.

"Stupid, stupid girl," I said between gritted teeth. "Look what you've done to yourself."

The sinister feeling churned in my stomach as I left my home just before dawn, careful not to wake my parents or disturb the manor staff. It grew into a lead-filled balloon in the pit of my stomach when I crept up the small path to the stables, hooked a mare, Daphne, to a small carriage, and left Hunting Hollow without notice.

There was a blind spot at gates that separated the town from the forest, where no patrolmen, guard, or watchers would see my unsanctioned departure.

It had been too easy. Even as a distant canary sang warnings of what was to come, I brushed off the bittersweet sound—credited my escape to good omens, and destiny—and rode to my doom.

I should have known better, of course.

In one moment, I watched my home disappear, the pearlescent sheen of the buildings fading as I rode deeper into the misty black wood, and in the next, the carriage jolted to a halt as Daphne stopped in front of jagged trees twisted across the road in a deadly maze. Their sharp ends shone in the morning light like spears, daring us to cross, while a river of mud and rock poured down the hill onto—

Onto a headless corpse.

Daphne's terrified scream ripped across the landscape. I couldn't tell what the creature was: four legs, dark fur, an elongated body marred with decomposition that said it could be either a moose, a deer, or a mountain lion.

"Easy!" I screamed as she bucked and thrashed in the mud, her cries growing more and more desperate. Daphne didn't need stories of legendary monsters and wild magic to sense what was to come. There was only one thing that could decapitate such a large animal. Before I knew it, the white mare veered off the road and into the trees, throwing me from the carriage as she trampled down the hilly landscape. My only luck was that a wooden splinter from the carriage didn't spear into the moss.