Beyond the Wicked Willow: Chronicles of a Teenage Witchslayer

THE MITHRAIC FOREST

Darkness had finally fallen over the land and for the past few hours, Frankie and the gang had been skulking along a beaten footpath deep in the heart of the Mithraic Forest. They proceeded warily as—by Ambroggio's account—the woods were inhabited by an ancient and mysterious cult that was not at all accepting to outsiders. The obscure cult stemmed from a small band of Cilician pirate holdouts dating back to the year 67 BC. While their fellow pirates had surrendered to the Roman general Pompey the Great, they themselves refused to do so. In order to escape the same fate as their subjugated comrades, the holdouts fled into the dense forest and had never emerged.

Within the solitude of the remote rugged woodland, according to Ambroggio, they formed a secluded society. Already devout practitioners of Mithraism, what they soon discovered within the borders of the forest realm transformed them into a cult of unyielding zealots. They had found the very creature of Mithraic idolatry, the leontocephaline.

As Frankie and the gang ventured through the dark wood, a distant bloodcurdling shriek pierced the silence of the night, and all eyes fell to Ambroggio in search of reassurance.

"Is that the pirates?" asked Frankie nervously.

"No, that was the beast the pirates worship," said Ambroggio.

"Beast?" asked Beef tentatively.

"In the Inferno, Dante Alighieri speaks of a hideous six-footed serpent that—" began Ambroggio.

"Doesn't just eat the thief Agnello, but rather grotesquely fuses with him creating 'neither two nor one,'" interjected Bookworm.

"A student of history I see," said Ambroggio, impressed for the first time with Bookworm's array of knowledge.

"Well, that too, but I think you meant to say poetry, in this circumstance," corrected Bookworm.

"I say what I mean," grumbled Ambroggio, "history."

"Are you saying this freaky-ass, six-footed, body-fusing serpent is in this forest?" Beef asked.

Just then, another chilling shriek split the night air; only this time it was much closer and much louder.

"You said, 'No dragons in there. I can assure you that,'" Bookworm reminded Ambroggio. "That's what you said. Those were your exact words."

"It is no dragon. It is the leontocephaline," replied Ambroggio, justifying his earlier assertion.

"I consider that a lie by omission," declared Bookworm.

Ambroggio looked around and noticed that his news of leontocephaline had sent a wave of fear rippling through the group.

"You have nothing to fear," assured Ambroggio. "I have formidable allies who also dwell within these woods."

Just then, a barrage of zipping arrows sliced through the darkness and began to spear the dirt at their heels.

"Run!" screamed Giacomo.

They tore off down the path in a panic, but only made it several yards when the ground dropped out from beneath their feet, sending them plummeting into the damp darkness of a deep pitfall trap. What they weren't aware of was that they had been tracked from nearly the very moment they had entered the Mithraic Forest. But, they were not the first to fall prey to the cunning of the Mithraic pirates. Many unfortunate travelers had gone missing over the years within the solitude of the harsh forest.

The next morning, a blinding sun slowly crept above the treetops and cast its golden glow over a large T-shaped glade carved from the heavily wooded forest. At the top stood an aged and eerie Mithraic sacrifice altar crafted from hand-hewn timber and adorned with statues of the Mithraic deity leontocephaline. The two representational idols, sculpted from solid blocks of granite, stood at each end of the altar. With the body of a man, the idols stood ten feet tall and were tightly coiled, from ankles to chest, by a large serpent. The idols had heads of lions and lengthy wings growing from their back. Rising up from the rear corners of the altar were tall timber columns crowned with iron torch buckets, which could be set ablaze for nighttime rituals.