It was approaching nightfall when Shiloh left the den of scum and villainy she would later learn to known as Vilpamolan. Instead of travelling by night, she scaled the nearest tall tree and hid in the branches to wait until dawn. Hours passed, and the next day she awoke with the sun filtering through the leaves. The sun was not yet high in the sky, so it must have been still morning. Taking great care to descend the tree when the coast was clear, Shiloh began what she expected to be a few days' trip though the nearby forest. Had she purchased a map or spoke with Vinsue a bit more, she might have learned that the forest she was venturing into was none other than the infamous Virens. 

When she reached the forest's edge, she stood in awe at the striking crimson of the trees. Massive, ancient trunks with leaves red as fire towered over her. This was something she had never seen in her entire life. She was accustomed to the pleasant green and dappled yellow when summer ended, but never before had she seen a forest entirely red. Perhaps it was early autumn? The leaves were still plentiful on the trees, so she wasn't quite sure. With that train of thought over, she entered. Once inside the darkness threw her off. From the outside she knew the forest was dense, but she never expected the canopy to be this thick. The branches overhead were practically suffocating the light from above, even though it couldn't be later than past noon. Shiloh drew her dagger and started slashing notches in the trees as she passed them, to make some kind of system to mark where she came from. Their bark was plenty thick, so she was sure it wouldn't do them any harm. 

After an indeterminate period of time, she found herself lost. The trees looked too similar, and soon she was running out of unmarked tree trunks. However that was the least of her worries. As she walked, she could hear rustling in the bushes and sounds of creatures. If they were songbirds it would've been fine, but the noises were not comforting. What made her skin really crawl wasn't when she heard the trees or bushes shift, but when it was dead silent. This was not an ordinary forest. She had thought she would have no problem crossing these woods, but that was based off her own experiences back home. This forest was foreign, and clearly the enchanted sort. Those were the type she had trouble with. There was a high possibility that she would likely die in these woods.

Finally, Shiloh stopped and decided to set up camp. The trees around her had more scratches in them that they resembled the markings made by prisoners counting their days on the walls, and she would only wear herself out. She needed to rest and reform a new strategy. Taking her tinderbox from her knapsack, she gathered dry leaves and twigs for kindling, setting them in a pile. She lit the dry tinder with a spark, and fanned the flame until smoke started to rise. While waiting for the fire to grow, she grabbed any dry combustibles she could find nearby to keep it going. Even if nobody would be able to see the smoke from the campfire, it would keep beasts at bay.

Anxiously she added more tinder periodically until it was perhaps more of a large pyre. Fortunately she was smart enough to clear an area around the burning pile first so she didn't make the entire forest burn. As amusing as it would be to see the scene of a red forest being literally on fire, she wasn't keen on starting wildfires while she was still in it. Once she had collected extra bundles of fuel in case the flames died down while she was asleep, she used her blades to dig into the bark of a tree and scaled the trunk. Finding a safe nook of branches, she settled in for the night. 

The night was not a peaceful one, as she hardly slept keeping one eye open to check if the fire was still burning. She only realized that it was day when the darkness lightened a little. This wouldn't work. She had initially planned to move through the forest at a calmer pace, however if she was unable to rest that changed things. Now she would need to find a way out of this accursed wood as quickly as she could. Checking around the tree for any lurking predators, she slid down the trunk and landed with a thud. She snuffed out the remains of the fire and stomped all over it to ensure there were no underlying sparks, lest she be assaulted by the guardians of this forest for her negligence. If she tried to explain this to somebody else they would likely scoff at her, but she heard a man in a tavern speak of a time he was chased by an enraged druid in the form of a bear when he failed to put out his campfire.

Having spent the last few days without food, she was feeling tired and dizzy. Leaning against the tree she had slept in, she thought to herself how wonderful it would be if she had a loaf of bread right now. Even an apple would be fine–anything to make the pain in her stomach go away. As she was thinking these thoughts, out of nowhere an apple fell onto her head. Shiloh opened her eyes and stared with her mouth agape at the fruit lying a few feet away on the ground. Then as if to continue with her first thought, a loaf of bread fell into her lap. She spent five minutes staring at the food in utter disbelief, and looking up at the sky to see if she had been sitting under a magical bread-and-apple tree. When she was convinced that she wasn't hallucinating from hunger, she took the loaf and picked up the apple. Cleaning the fruit with her shirt, she blew off any remaining dust and bit into it. If this was an illusion, it was a very well-crafted one. When she finished the fruit she started on the bread, and buried the core beneath the put-out pile of ashes. 

With her energy restored and hunger pangs sated, she felt the whispers of worry recede a bit. Apparently something or someone was looking out for her, which was always a nice thing to have. Gathering her things she ventured further into the trees, with blades in hand. This time instead of hacking notches she paid attention to the ground and any other fine details she missed yesterday. No signs of animal tracks and no droppings–meaning nothing that could travel on foot came through here recently. She then tried to follow the sounds she heard in the forest, but that only led her in circles again. She tried everything she knew: finding which direction the wind was blowing, following streams, even leaving a trail of pebbles. At this point she was willing to even follow a trail of mushrooms with red caps and white spots if that meant she'd get out of here. Frustrated, she sat down by a tree when she sensed something damp. Standing up quickly, she dusted off the seat of her trousers and checked the spot where she had been sitting.

Apparently she had sat on a pile of moss growing against the trunk. It had spread down from the bark ridges to the forest floor in a greenish lumpy mass. Shiloh groaned as she was sure there was an unsightly green stain on backside of her pants now. But she wasn't going to take them off and wash them, that would be incredibly foolish in the middle of a forest possibly filled with bloodthirsty creatures. As she sat back down in a spot free from moss, she got an idea. The moss. Of all the things that she learned from her adoptive siblings about wilderness survival, this was one thing she hadn't thought of. Erra always said that moss grew on the north side of trees. That meant the side she was now sitting on was facing north. As long as she could see where the moss was, she could walk in a straight line until she reached the end of the forest. It was the only thing she had to go on at this point, so she got up and started walking, checking where the moss was as she went.

Following the moss did the trick. Shiloh couldn't believe she hadn't realized it sooner. If it hadn't been for her poor luck, she wouldn't have sat down on that moss and she'd be still wandering in circles until she was ambushed by beasts or died from exhaustion. The forest was still dark, but she could tell she was making progress. She still slashed marks into the trees as she went along, and she hadn't walked back into one of them for quite some time now. Feeling parched, she stopped when she saw a nearby brook. It was tempting to follow it to the source, but she resolved to stay with using the moss to guide her instead. Taking her canteen, she filled it with water and started a campfire to boil it. At most she could ensure it would be free from insects or worms, but if it were an enchanted creek then she would be out of luck. As she stoked the fire with a stick, she hoped it wasn't being guarded by some forest sprite or capricious undine. 

She let the canteen heat up until steam came from the top, then carefully used a forked branch to lift it out of the fire. Setting it down on the ground, she waited for it to cool while she searched the area for anything worth foraging. Taking care not to stray too far from the campfire's light, Shiloh returned empty-handed. She wasn't sure how she had made that food from earlier appear, but if there were animals she could hunt then that would be a more reliable alternative. Checking if her canteen was no longer scalding hot, there was a sound of something big stomping around in the woods. It had to be huge; the reverberations of its steps shook the trees each time. Leaving her canteen, Shiloh clambered up the trunk of the nearest tree and climbed up as high up as she could. She wanted to put out the campfire first, but the heavy footsteps were getting closer. 

Watching from her hiding place in the boughs, she spied the source of the shaking: a lumbering beast with thick hardened skin dragging a hefty wooden club behind it. It must have been at least twenty feet tall–maybe taller. Squinting her eyes she saw it notice her abandoned campfire. As the creature drew closer, she held her breath and became stock-still. Was it a giant? No… it looked heavier and more muscular. The light from the fire cast itself against the monstrous being as a gust of wind blew the flames in its direction, and Shiloh recognized the girth and visage belonged to a troll. Unlike her foster siblings, she could tell this troll was not the civil type. It had a terribly look in its eyes, one of blood thirst and savagery. She secretly hoped the smoke from the fire would mask her scent.

Should the brute discover her, she would have a slim chance of escaping it. There were no places to hide and no way to cover her tracks once she was spotted. Closing her eyes she crossed her fingers and waited. After what felt like an eternity, she heard the troll grunt and stomp off into the distance. Once she could no longer hear the thumping of its steps, she quietly slid back down. Shiloh heaved a sigh of relief. Made it out alive by the skin of her teeth. This had to be the best streak of luck she'd had so far. Seeing her canteen had been left untouched, she retrieved it and took a few swigs before capping it. Putting out the fire, she continued her search for a way out of here. By now she had learned to pick up on subtle changes in light on the forest floor to guess when night was falling. The spots of light were still bright, so she had around a few hours until she would need to stop again.

The past few days were peaceful, lowering her guard. Her senses of hearing could easily alert her should danger be near. That was a mistake which almost cost Shiloh her life. Hours had passed since her encounter with the troll, and she was covering ground at a steady pace. Several times when she scanned the area she didn't see any signs of wildlife, so she expected the woods to have few large animals. As she was inspecting another patch of sunlight on the ground, she failed to notice movement in the bushes behind her. A low, guttural growl took her by surprise  as a warg assaulted her from behind. Thrown onto the ground, Shiloh fought for her life to keep the frenzied beast from tearing into her with its maw. The buckler she had worn on her back had saved her from being bitten in the back, but she was struggling at holding it back with both hands. Snarling with glowing eyes and white fangs, the warg gnashed as her broadsword was restraining its head. Unable to use her blades, she kicked the beast hard several times in quick succession in its ribs and gut until it was pushed off from the pain, and scrambled to get her footing.

Her blows had done little to it but distract it for a while, and the warg lunged at her with fanged bared and foam at the mouth. Quickly she smashed her buckler in its face and swung her sword to slice its throat open. Her swing missed, but cut into its side causing it to shriek in pain. Without hesitation she dropped her buckler and charged at the wounded beast, slamming into it. Once they were both on the ground, she plunged her sword downward into its stomach and stabbed its neck repeatedly with her dagger. They both lashed at each other for several minutes, until the warg bled to death. Laying on the ground exhausted and covered in blood, Shiloh breathed rapidly until fear was replaced with heaviness in her limbs. Forcing herself up, she used her bloody broadsword as a support as she surveyed the damage. Beside her was a dead warg with its throat and belly slashed open, sitting in a pool of its own blood. Her eyes and ears now on high alert, she whirled her head around to see if there were more waiting in the shadows. 

When the forest fell silent, she wiped off her blades on the corpse's hide and used some water from her canteen to wash off some of the blood and dirt. Taking a gulp of water, she wiped her face with her sleeve and started another fire. The smell of blood might draw the attention of other beasts, so a fire should discourage them from coming too close. Worn out from her fight, she had no desire to skin the warg for its meat. After she was well-rested, she'd see what parts she could scavenge.

The next day Shiloh went to work on the warg corpse. Using her dagger she skinned the beast and removed the claws and fangs. Backtracking to where the stream she had found earlier she washed the skin and baked it dry over a fire. Time seemed to fly as she traveled through what felt like an endless sea of trees until she finally saw it. In the distance, there was a brightness shining through the trees. Pushing forward, she raced towards it. Her legs were tired and her arms weary but she didn't care. Stumbling out from the maze of trees, she rolled down a grassy slope. Finally, after several days, she was free!

As Shiloh laid down in the tall grass, she craned her neck back at the ruddy forest she had came from. With dirt and bloodstains on her clothes and feeling worse for wear, she had somehow survived. Next time she might not be so lucky, but for now all she wanted to do was sleep.