Devin_Clare

Verdant Soul: The Wild Forgotten - Book One

In the heart of an ancient forest untouched by war or civilization, a young half-elf Druid awakens in a burned-out campsite, surrounded by moss-covered ruins and whispering trees. Her name… she doesn’t know. Her past… a blank void. But the forest knows her. The wind bends toward her. And something old and powerful stirs beneath the roots.

Clutched in her hand is a carved wooden totem, inscribed with symbols of a forgotten circle of druids. Around her neck, a pendant pulses with faint green light. She has no idea who she is—or why she was left behind—but the wilds are calling. And something is hunting her.

As she travels, she begins to uncover traces of a lost adventuring party… and of a greater quest left unfinished. One by one, she’ll find the rest of the crew—each with secrets, powers, and reasons to run. Together, they’ll uncover what fractured them—and what they’re truly meant to stop.

Because beneath the forests, in ancient dungeons now stirring awake, something has begun to bloom. Something that should have stayed buried.

Book One: Bloom of the Lost

The ruins greeted them with silence.

Not the cold, deathly kind. This was older—thicker. The kind of silence that hums beneath memory, where words once mattered and were now carved into moss-covered walls instead of spoken aloud.

The Druid stepped through the vine-covered archway first, Kaelen at her side, blades ready.

Or a druidic sanctum—small, circular, sunken into the earth like a seed waiting to be unearthed. The stone was gray-veined with green, and the walls pulsed faintly with magic that had long since dimmed but not disappeared.

The Druid pressed her fingers against the mossy entrance and whispered, "Renath'el."

Some part of her had been here before.

"Still think you were never part of a Circle?" Kaelen muttered.

The Druid gave a half-smile. "I'm beginning to think I might've led one."

They descended a staircase of stone spirals. The deeper they went, the warmer the air became—not with heat, but life. Something still lived here, down in the roots.

When they reached the base of the sanctum, they entered a hollowed chamber lit by pale green mushrooms. Carved pillars encircled a basin filled with still water, and woven bark-armor hung in tatters across rusted stands.

But what caught Kaelen's eye was the shape in the far corner.

A male elf, face-down, one hand clutching a broken staff. Blood had long dried along his side, and a deep gash crossed the runes carved into his shoulder.

He stirred when the Druid knelt beside him.

His eyes fluttered open—white, not with blindness, but with power.

The Druid took his hand, magic blooming instinctively from her fingertips. "You're safe. We're here now."

His fingers closed around hers. "Leaf… Weaver?"

Kaelen blinked. "Is that your name?"

"No," the Druid said quietly. "It's a title."

The elf coughed. "You bound the Verdant Gate. You kept it closed. We fell when you vanished…"

He looked at her, vision stabilizing. "They're coming through. From the Deeproot Mirror. You have to stop it."

The Druid stared at him, heart pounding.

Her memories stirred like soil cracking after the frost.

Etched above the basin in Druidic script were three words:

"Verdant Soul Awaits."

Kaelen stood slowly. "We need to move."

"What is the Deeproot Mirror?" the Druid asked.

Kaelen hesitated. "Old ruin. Buried beneath the forest. Off-limits even to most Circles. They say it's where magic first touched the earth."

"Or calling back what we sealed in it," Kaelen said. "You're connected to this. All of it."

The Druid turned toward the still form of the elf.

Kaelen raised a brow. "You sure you're ready to fight what's waiting in that Mirror?"

A memory—brief and blinding—flashed behind her eyes.

And her own voice, crying out: "Seal it, or it takes us all!"

When she opened her eyes, the moss around her boots bloomed in response.

Chapter Four: Roots Beneath Stone