Slurping, chewing and the bowls constantly clanking together played like an orchestra that echoed throughout the open air. Every villager sat outside at long tables made by shoving multiple smaller dinner tables together while several pots boiled with stew over open flames. Rows of people all sitting together enjoying a hearty meal, likely the first in many days. Next to the mayor sat a newcomer, she’d come at request of their savior and now they’d been saved a second time.

  A giant of a woman whose stature towered over every resident, some by several heads. A solid body of fine compacted muscle created a vision of an amazon bred for combat. Watching her muscles flex and relax with each movement captivated and demanded to be appreciated. She’d passed out a few hours prior and it came as quite a surprise that she wore nothing under that bear pelt of which now hung on a post outside of town. Now she wore a white cotton tunic and matching pants, heavily modified to accommodate such an imposing size. Impossibly long curly hair like spun gold spilled out around a face of lovely ivory, dotted with a small button nose. Snow blue eyes that told stories of innocence and nativity, and a constant infectious smile brought light to the world.

  Her name was Goldilocks and she’d come baring gifts to stave off a slowly growing concern.

  “Alright, let me see if I’ve got everything here, so whatever forest guardian I think we struck a deal with was some kinda fake because somehow that's possible. Theirs no wildlife or game out there, not even berries to harvest even though it looks healthy, and a saytr that can summon monsters from across the world?” Mayor Woodsman ticking off each point on his hand, sweat dripping down his forehead.

  With a mouth full of Elk meat and broth she made an attempt at clarifying “Hmmmm, War-Elk aren’t monsters, and I’m not completely sure if you met the actual guardian or not buuuuutt, yep that’s about it… Red was right, as usual, things are indeed strange here”

  Mayor Woodsman spluttered “Ms.Red went to investigate herself why didn’t she at least warn us.”

  Goldilocks proceeded to drain her bowl of broth in one fluid slurp “mmmm, apparently her family isn’t on good terms with any forest deity… I think. She told me its something that goes all the way back to the first Red, sooo she might have been afraid it was just some bad relation and nothing malicious on their part… also that Elk wasn’t here before,”

  Woodsman nodded sagely and seemed to understand coming to his own conclusion “That explains a lot but doesn’t solve anything,”

  Tilting her head to one side “How so?”

  Ticking off each problem one by one Mayor Woodsman listed his village issues “I know why there's no game now, doesn’t change the fact we need to eat. This War-Elk, won’t last forever even if we chop it up, preserve as much as we can, then stretch it out as long as we can, we’ll eventually run out,”

  Goldilocks tilted her head one way then the other in thought “Wellll you’ll waste energy hunting, so don’t do that maybe? Red’s note said something about a ferry that comes here sooo maybe buy four of every animal they have and breed them?”

  The Mayor ran a hand through this short graying hair “That could work if we use the Elk as a buffer then breed the animals as much as possible. I gotta must say, I’m surprised you sailed here alone, not taking the ferry yourself must have been rough,”

  “Sail? Like a boat? I don’t know how to do that, how would that help your problem?” She looked at him, completely confused, wondering if he had some brilliant idea that involved a boat.

  “What. No. Its just, this island is water-locked, how’d you get here if not by ferry or boat?”

  “Oh, easy, I swam”

  Woodsman bore a face of complete incredulity “You have to be joking, closest mainland to this island is the central Veikrea continent, easily over two thousand miles,”

  Goldilocks just stared back slightly lost, trying to divine meaning from his words “I don’t know miles, but it took me four days, thankfully my pelt kept the note and map dry otherwise I’d have gotten lost.”

  Until said ferry could make it back to their little island, the villagers would have to chop up, seal, and preserve the elk as much as possible. Things would be touch and go for a while but Mayor Woodsman was confident they could bounce back with enough grit. What really surprised him was Goldilocks, given Red’s prickly nature, it stood to reason whomever she personally sent would bare those same traits, but Goldilocks was an absolute peach complete with pinch-able cheeks.

  “We should try making a border wall as well, if there is some rouge satyr out there that can just summon animals from places far off we’ll need some type of protection,” So saying he called over some villagers whom Goldilocks had to assume were the craftsmen.

  “Ooo I can help with that, long as we replant what we cut down I’m sure it’ll be fine, those ‘guardians we’re fake anyway, if the real ones come around I’ll make sure they understand”

  “We’d appreciate any and all help you can spare miss, for decency sake we always replant. Theirs a half elf trader that sometimes rides the ferry, usually pay him to speed up growth of each seedling to preserve the natural landscape”

  “What type of Half-Elf?”

  “He’s a willow tree, skinny lad but hard worker and worth his weight in gold when he comes around,”

  True to her word, Goldilocks did render assistance with the construction of a town barrier post. Mostly her job consisted of hauling chopped down trees and positioning them or uprooting stubborn stumps. After all that energy used swimming to the island, fighting a giant wild animal, then dragging said animal through a forest, it was nice to cool down with light exorcise. It took three days but in that time, she got enough sleep, food and healed that sprained wrist, ready to take on the world all over again.

  Walking up to her pelt, which hung on a post that denoted the village entrance she traced her hand along that tough bear hide. It was an unnerving thing to behold, claws on its sleeves and three bear heads stitched together to form a hood. Resting on a post made it look more like a looming killer at night, villagers gave the thing a wide birth. Truth be told even without that visage, something about that pelt seemed, otherworldly. Simply looking at it made Woodsman’s hair stand on end, when Goldilocks wore it she’d engaged something primal, a sense of fear.

  “By the way, do you know where the temple or shrine is?” she asked starling Woodsman out of his introspection.

  “No idea, they never asked for tribute so we never went looking for it” fingers moving through a growing beard that would need a good shave, he thought on that.

  “Hm, that’s was probably for the best anyway, I’ll just have to find it myself”

  Goldilocks smiled, such an infectious and warm thing. Just the fact she was going herself somehow made Woodsman believe everything was going to be alright just like how Red. Flinging her pelt around to slip it on, a green translucent energy bubbled up around her feet then climbed up her legs, torso and arms. Winds picking up and blew a comforting breeze throughout the village, it brought a freshness not felt in this wood for so long all of them had forgotten what nature was supposed to smell like. Goldilocks grew, not physically but in presence, being seven feet already demanded attention from those around, but now, the whole world needed to turn in her direction to acknowledge a titan.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Jumping in place from one foot to another, giving her arms a good, much needed stretch, every muscle in her imposing body rippled and flexed with ancient power, sending out waves of color that washed over the village. Flashes of blue turned to red only to returned back, each transition interval becoming shorter with streaks of violent lightning arcing upward into the sky to signal a mid point between each. Energy ebbed outward, sinking deep through each blade of grass, uplifting and enriching the field itself. Woodsman watched in awe as all around dead pastures returned to a healthy green. Grass reached for new heights, taking on healthy vibrancy in their differing shades. Colors became so much more vivid, like he’d been living life with such a malevolent fog over his eyes that sought to distort his view of how magnificent the natural world really was.

  Such as a tide may ebb outward, it too must flow back. Energy reached up to grasp heavens it could never claim before cascaded down to crash upon Goldilocks herself. Those changing colors of reds and blues became less distinguishable, blending together into a translucent iridescence. Bending down low, she leapt forward with such a force it shook the very ground, and off she went.

  “A girl with golden hair named Goldilocks, man alive, times sure are getting interesting,”

  Land blurred by underfoot, every leap sending her body hurdling ever forward. Faster. Arms stretched out snagging nearby branches to pivot her body and change direction. Faster! Low to the ground, moving at such a pace she could have out ran a bullet, trying to get back to that starting clearing then push even deeper. She radiated with vibrancy and health, flowers bloomed in her passing, hard soil softened for her feet, even pushed upward to help her body along. Winds brought about by her passing brought a blessing of healthy glow. While short lived it was clear even a forest with so little energy to give as this one would still muster it all and give in to her subconscious demands.

  A familiar melodious odor assaulted her senses causing her face to scrunch up in indigence. Unpleasant it may be, but that scent acted like directional signs; the worse the smell the closer its source. After-all, that little tussle left scars on the land that would never heal without a guardian or shaman, getting deep enough meant following her nose was unnecessary. A straight line wasn’t hard to follow. And finally she’d managed to find it again smell and all. To call it pungent or acrid wouldn’t give enough credit to just how raw it actually was. A scent one could actually taste. It invaded the nose, mouth and down the throat. Goldilocks wanted to hurl.

  Bending over, grabbing her knees, Goldilocks resisted the urge to give back what she ate, it was right then the wild-woman discovered something. Black sludge just like from those fake guardians, oozed from piece of broken trees that littered the ground. Trees that were broken off but a stump still remained had tar spilling free like white pus form an infection.

  “Stygian-Petra” She breathed

  Suddenly, everything more or less fell into place. Black stillness or Stygian-Petra, a sort of disorder wayward spirits can develop, then transmitted to plants. Animals and mortals were completely immune. Goldilocks whirled around and took off at a sprint deeper into what she now understood was an immensely diseased thicket.

  “No no no, I got so caught up with the guardians, I didn’t think, no no what if the shrine has been corrupted”

  Guardian’s could not be corrupted by Stygian-Petra as they were extensions of their chosen nature deity, and thus were immune to all diseases, spiritual or otherwise. However, a shrine was essentially the heart of any given domain. Be it forest, ocean, mountain or otherwise; a shrine provided a tether that linked its respective daemon to the mortal plane and translated its essence into energy that circulated throughout its territory. While both guardian and daemon were immune, the same could not be said for a shrine. A sickness originating in spirits could insert itself and use any given shrine to transmit infection rapidly throughout the soil.

  She did not wish to entertain a frightening reality that a shrine could be corrupted. Move faster! She pumped her legs harder. Energy that coiled around her body branched out, questing just like before looking for strength, a magic only found in an ecosystem that normally would saturate the ground. Quickly, she discovered it would only yield near non-existent results. Having nothing to draw upon, Goldilocks was forced to utilize her own personal storage. A railing, unrelenting force, impossible to control without guidance from mother nature due more to her own inexperience and lack of a teacher.

  Without help, wild magics exploded from her core, like a dam bursting and its waters crushed everything under an unstoppable wave. Flashes of red and blue lights fought for dominance until finally, red won. Very bad! Either color winning was bad, she needed a perfect marriage of both. Her body still shone in a faint aura of green, but red encapsulated a vast majority, muscles rippled, bulged out and even began to grow in size. Her stature swelled at to an extra foot. A face once fair an innocent with a smile that could shame heaven in its beauty, twisted up into a snarl, bearing elongated teeth, sharper canines giving an impression they could rend flesh from bone.

  Added muscles meant added mass, combined with already natural born super human strength creators began to from each foot fall. Surrounded by such a chaotic aura, no healing took place from her passage. In this state, heaving forward with such reckless abandon, despite shame blooming from lack of control, it only took minutes where at a normal more controlled pace would have taken hours. Eventually, she slowed from a sprint to a jog and finally stopping. Goldilocks stood right atop a literal line divided the land itself. Further ahead, no color could be seen, the final stage of Stygian-Petra, an achromatic visage twisting in upon itself like a macabre painting.

  Swirls of spilled ink reached out with hands of void to grasp and strangle plants, devouring the landscape one blade of grass at a time. Oozing from trees in grotesque globs of sludge that splattered with a wet thwack. Originally a spiritual illness, it caused unsettling changes in the mortal world like this, from one shade of gray to another. Only exceptions being those formless blobs, no smell, even with her senses, nothing but stagnated air in a poor caricature of sterility. Brushing ones fingers along an infected piece of foliage felt like lifeless plastic, everything felt wrong, like it shouldn’t be and indeed it shouldn’t.

  “If it weren’t for Red I’d have never known,” she thought, gazing upon an unearthly landscape.

  Her hairs stood on end and goosebumps formed, seeing something so unnatural, utterly divorced from any conceivable notion of what one consider nature. It brought a deep, primal fear in all beings, mortal or otherwise. That first step. That first breath, always the hardest. To ignore ones instincts of survival is no easy feat, even for one as strong as her. Pushing forward. One step. Two steps. Inhale, exhale. With calm nerves and an iron resolve slowly beginning to stride forward. She was Goldilocks Ursus, and nothing could frighten her, although, she wasn’t running anymore. Back straight, a confident pace, a brisk walk, red aura pulled back, diminished as if cowed and sent fleeing like a dog back to its master.

  Cresting a particularly large hill gave her more information on her surroundings. While everything looked similar due to infection, one thing that couldn’t be denied was that even at this set pace she’d run out of land pretty quick. Long stretches of land were turning into small hills that curved down into beaches of gray un-shifting sand.

  “I would have noticed something if I were close, maybe its on the edge?” Goldilocks talked, mostly to keep her own company, she found strength in it.

  Casting around. She tired to catch some kind of trail, a path, anything that would divine the location of a nearby forest shrine. Some were in caves or constructed above ground, but even then she’d have noticed, something. Every turn yielded similar results, a twisted landscape with an anathema stillness, more resembling a disturbing painting than lush greenery. Her nosed twitched, catching a whiff of salt, mixed with a sulphury undertone; that was the ocean; eventually even that would die down as those smells drifted further onto land. Going from a steady walk to more of a trot, she made it to the beach and looked out at what lay before her.

  The vast ocean flowed as nature intended, however a noticeable line of still waters stretched out to encompass not only this island but its neighbor as well. The islands in this area were grouped closely together making it difficult to consider them separate entities. Something even the sickness seemed to agree with. Following that line of still water, she could see where symptoms of Stygian-Petra had over taken the other landmass.

  “And I just bet the shrine is on the last island,” Goldilocks swore and jogged closer.

  Upon seeing what type of task laid itself out and realizing what would have to happen for that task to be complete, her face screwed up in a phenomenal Red impression. She’d rather do anything that sim through that filth. Granted she couldn’t actually contract Stygian-Petra, but that didn’t mean she would get in line to take a dip and swim through what was essentially blighted liquid. The mere thought of submerging into that anemic cesspool brought a body wide shiver.

  “I could just… swim around make a large semi-circle” then smacking her cheeks “No no, straight line no wasted time just” Goldilocks dry heaved, this was akin to swimming in sewage “At least sewage is has some life this is just… wrong”

  There were certain things mortal-kind regardless of aptitude, upbringing, experience or otherwise was never meant to interact with. Such things gave an otherworldly sense of wrongness, as if ones very soul were engaging a flight or fight response that didn’t exist. Fey touched or spirit cursed things were very high on a short list of things Mortals stayed clear of.

  “And here I am about to swim through it, Red would call this a new record of stupid, and id say its only lunch time, I’ll top this before dinner” So saying, she dove in.