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

Kaelen led through narrow game trails, her eyes flicking constantly to the treetops, blades ready. The Druid followed closely behind, her feet guided less by the path and more by the pulsing rhythm deep in her chest—the beat of something ancient calling her home.

Every step closer to the Deeproot Mirror made her skin prickle. Not in fear.

The trees changed subtly as they approached—more twisted, but more alive. Their bark shimmered with faint glyphs that pulsed green when she passed, like echoes of her former self whispering from the roots.

She didn't remember planting these wards.

But they remembered her.

They arrived at the base of an enormous hill, covered in ivy and ringed with thick tree roots that had grown to resemble grasping fingers. At its center, half-buried beneath moss and ancient stone, was a door.

Not made of wood or metal—but of living bark, interwoven with runes so old they hummed a note deeper than sound.

Kaelen stopped short. "This is it."

The Druid stepped forward and raised her hand.

Instead, it breathed.

The vines shifted, sensing her magic. The mark around her wrist burned softly—an old seal, still intact.

Kaelen muttered, "That's not a door. That's a gate."

The Druid nodded. "The Verdant Gate."

She placed her palm flat against the bark and whispered, "Ren fae talira."

A rush of wind spun the ivy outward.

The gate cracked open—not by force, but by invitation.

Beyond it, a tunnel of living wood spiraled downward into darkness.

The Deeproot Mirror was not a ruin.

Bioluminescent vines lined the walls. Pools of silver water reflected not their surroundings, but shifting memories—some familiar, others too strange to understand.

As they walked, the tunnel pulsed like the throat of a sleeping beast.

Kaelen kept her blades out, glancing uneasily at her warped reflection in the mirror-pools. "This place feels alive."

"It is," the Druid said. "This was the heart of the first Circle."

They came upon a great underground grove—circular, ringed with stone slabs, and at the center, a massive, vertical pool of still water, standing like glass within an arch of woven tree limbs.

The water showed nothing. No reflection. No light.

The Druid's breath hitched. "This is where I cast the seal."

Kaelen stepped closer. "What's beyond it?"

"I don't know," she whispered. "Only that it was sealed for a reason."

She stepped to the base of the arch and reached out. Her fingertips hovered inches from the Mirror's surface.

And a hand reached out from the Mirror.

Kaelen shouted, but the Druid didn't move.

It was her hand.

—and she saw herself, but changed.

A version that had never sealed the gate.

A Druid who embraced the chaos beneath.

The vision spoke with her own voice:

"You sealed me away. But you need me now."

Kaelen caught her. "What did you see?"

"Me," she whispered. "But corrupted. Wild. Whole."

Kaelen's jaw tightened. "Is it trying to merge with you?"

"No…" The Druid's eyes narrowed. "It's calling me. Offering power. It knows we'll need it to stop what's coming."

And this time, she stepped forward.

Chapter Five: Into the Deeproot Mirror