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 woman's voice resonated with the land around her. When she spoke, the luminous pools shimmered. When she blinked, the floating stones drifted closer in slow orbit.

Rowan gripped his spear. "That one's tuned to something powerful."

Kaelen stepped forward cautiously. "Is she… with us?"

The elven woman stood, robes trailing motes of light. "I'm with the Song."

"I remember you. You don't remember me yet… but I was part of your Circle."

Thalindra's heart clenched. "Then tell me your name."

"You were the Circle's voice," Thalindra whispered. "You could make stones sing."

Eryndis nodded. "And now the Scar listens to me."

She gestured to the landscape below. "After the Verdant Gate collapsed, I was drawn here—where the old songs still echo. This place is the wound left behind when the Harmonyfall happened. When too many spells clashed at once, and the land… broke."

Rowan spoke up. "It was a war. Mages, druids, and Choirbloods fighting over something none of them fully understood. It ended with the ground singing for eternity."

Eryndis nodded. "And inside the deepest rift… something still stirs."

The Scar pulsed beneath them—a slow bassline that thudded beneath their feet.

Eryndis turned to Thalindra. "You've reawakened the Verdant Soul. I can feel it. You've balanced parts of yourself that others would have cast aside."

Eryndis lifted a hand—and the cliff behind her bloomed with light.

From within the stone stepped a beast—part elk, part vine, with a body of glimmering crystal and eyes like moons.

"I became part of the Song."

Rowan stepped back. "Is it… bound to you?"

"No," Eryndis said. "We are bound together. I don't command the wild anymore. I converse with it."

Thalindra stepped closer. "Then help us. We're trying to find the rest of the Circle. To rebuild it—not as it was, but as it should be."

"Because I'm not the only one down there."

"There's someone else in the Scar. Someone who never left after the Harmonyfall."

Kaelen tensed. "Another survivor?"

Eryndis whispered, "Of their own magic."

Far below, a flicker of light moved—then blinked.

Eryndis smiled softly and raised her flute.

Chapter Fifteen: Harmonyfall