Venom (Book I) ✓

Chapter One

The Forbidden Forest was turning golden. It waved peacefully in the spiced air, seeming to beckon in the first bitter tastes of winter. Beneath its branches, shadows gathered, thick and riddled with menace, if only because of the stories the villagers told of what they contained. Tonight, however, the moon illuminated the treetops and fields alike, and in the silvery light everything looked magical. Perhaps this was why a lone figure, tall and strong, wandered through the fields toward the forest they called forbidden. His steps were sure, and he carried himself as one who knew this path by heart.

Were it not for his certainty he may have had more of a chance to notice the way that the dried crops swayed against the breezes. If he'd thought to check over his shoulder, or to consider the cautionary bedtime stories his parents had told him, perhaps he would have at least been able to steel himself for what struck him that night.

The village was silent but for the whisper of the gentle breezes against the doorways. People had turned in hours ago, exhausted by the hard work that was required from a farming community during the harvest. Nobody thought to keep an eye on the fields or the forest. Nobody had ever considered that they may be a danger to the sleepy village. That made it all the more startling when every eye was opened by the first screams that rent the air.

Doors up and down the streets flew open and tousled townspeople emerged, looking blearily past the edge of town and into the dark fields. Nobody moved to help as more cries rose like smoke from among the dark expanse of land. Nobody in town had ever had to address a situation such as this one.

In one house, a girl was roused with a shriek of her own. It melded into the more distant screams, and she was immediately on her feet, something inside of her driving her from the small shop she called home. As she skittered down the stairs and into the street she managed enough forethought to snatch a shawl from beside the door before plunging into the night.

On the street, no one moved, and for a moment she felt herself hesitate. However, as soon as the screaming began again, now with more fervor, she began to run. Her feet were numb with the cold, and her breath exhaled in white clouds, but she found that she could not bring herself to slow down or stop. The townspeople muttered in shock when she passed them and the closer she got to the screams the louder the others' voices got.

"Are you daft?" The baker's wife demanded as she flew past.

"You'll get yerself killed!" A farmer shouted toward her retreating back as she took the first few bounds into the fields. The ground was rough and riddled with the thorned and sharp brambles common in the fields around the village. They caught and tore at her skin, but she continued to run, slowed only by the thorns and branches catching and tearing at her nightgown.

She followed the screams, ducking through rows and aisles of corn, driven by an overpowering desire that she did not understand. All that she knew was that she needed to find the source of the screams. Though she knew that she was in no way the best person to stop the screaming, she knew that she had to try.

At first, she saw only one hulking form, dark and undefined despite the supple light provided by the full moon. It stood among a portion of the fields that had been trampled into a clearing and shone with what could only be blood. Then, it shifted, and the thrashing figure of a man became visible beneath the claws of the hulking shadow.

She cried out in shock and horror, and the beast turned. Her heart stuttered in her chest.

The light caught the beast's face and she skidded to a halt, the soles of her feet tearing painfully against the rough ground. Fangs hung from a bloodstained snout like fine blades, glinting black in the moonlight. Dark eyes regarded her in a way that said that this creature was not like the other beasts that farmers encountered in these fields. Intelligence shone in those eyes, and she swallowed hard, suddenly very afraid and unsure.