The Stone Forest

 Setting

The “Stone Forest” 

Ideally the only setting the characters walk through isn’t just a the stone forest, so this is only what it’s initially called/known as

The trees that make up the stone forest are obviously, not wooden, but made of stone

Latin name Petra arbores

Obviously, “Stone trees” 

The forest they create is real old

Like before humanity old, and the trees pretty much CANNOT be felled by human technology at the moment

Even earthquakes don’t really affect them, as their roots are so deep and strong that they hold the bedrock in place

They’re also obviously huge

Tallest are not reasonably scaled, except the ones that have places to rest within the tree itself

And ascending one takes about a couple weeks

let’s say around 250-300M in circumference at max

Somehow, they still grow

It’s suggested that like coral, the stone are simply secretions of the inner organism’s growth, as they siphon the minerals they break down deep under the earth upwards, along their circulatory system 

This means that in a way, the stone forest is the earth itself given a new form.

And that the appearance and mineral makeup of the trees depends heavily on the environment they’re found in 

This can also make the trees mildly magnetic, and causes compasses to become difficult to use in within or near the forest

Due to how the organisms(?) plants siphon minerals from the ground they grow in, the oldest roots closest to the surface have carved out massive tunnels warping and wrapping around one another

Rain and erosion having washed the loose soil away

It makes about 100 feet of the upper layers of roots jagged, labyrinthine tunnels, also very much like coral reefs

The tunnels can be as small as to only allow a small mouse to pass through, or large enough that a battalion of soldiers could march in and out of them

???? some sort of “main character” whatever

Someone physically capable enough

Perhaps confident, and unknowledgeable of the stone forest, stupid and overestimating their own ability

The Stone Forest will warp and break them, as well as rebuild them

Dolly(?) 

A living flesh vine

With the thinking capacity of a human

A clone of someone (Hence Dolly )(if the name’s too stupid i’ll change it later)

Has terrible nightmares of things they feel like they’ve committed in the past. Their goal is to resolve those emotions, by finding the source of them, believing they are happening in the present time, and killing the source in order to make the thoughts cease 

MAIN GOAL

DETERMINE WHAT CAUSES THE MAIN CHARACTER TO MOVE THROUGH THE STONE FOREST

WHY DOES HE ENTER AND REMAIN, GOING FURTHER AND FURTHER

?

How does combat prowess contribute to driving a plot forward

In terms of suspension of disbelief?

The character doesn’t have to complete the journey in one go idiot

The characters are all living their own lives, and if anything, until their goals explicitly align, they’re getting in each other’s ways

This is how all interactions go in real life anyway

Dolly hung from a branch in the forest and dreamt of things they could never have known of. They raised their hand to strike an innocent person, as an emotion welled unstoppably in their heart. They killed, bloodying their hands with the lives of faceless soldiers who begged for mercy. They felt the immense satisfaction of wrenching away what others held dear, to make it their own. Awaking from those nightmares, Dolly felt relief wash through every fiber of their being, as reality settled in. Those deeply human thoughts slipped away upon opening their eyes like rainwater off a waxy leaf. The turbulent but motionless forest floor greeted them, a dark gray They drank in the morning dew, and unfurled in the mist, hoping to catch an insect or little bird in the air.

The lack of emotional capacity didn’t reflect a lack of intelligence Dolly’s. A complex network of neurons ran down every arm of their head, sensitive to tiny movements in the air. If they felt like it, they could twist and turn their sinewy body to snatch up hardened amber droplets, which swung on the vines that hung around them.

The scraping of boots and heavy breathing reached their sensitive ‘ears’. Someone was approaching. 

Meticulously I peeled back layer after layer of the tree’s flaky stone bark. The heart of the tree still lay approximately thirty meters away. I chipped, dug, scraped until the red splotches of raw skin began to bead with crimson, yet without rest, I clawed away 

Find dolly 

Clone of an old soldier

Cursed by a witch into this new/twisted form
Dolly

The warped “clone” (twisted new form) of an old warrior

A terrible person, but this is forgotten by them and therefore unknown to mc

Turned into their current form by a Witch

(Has to do with the Star?)

Main character meets Dolly, wants to help them

Get revenge on the witch

They travel through the forest to find the witch, defeat her, have her return Dolly to normal

Finds out Dolly was an old villain, killed people, led people on a “witch hunt” against the witch who had come from the stars, even though she had done no wrong, used her for profit/etc

She turned him into Dolly for that reason

The Stone Forest

A star fell from the sky one clear night. It was midsummer, and the inside of the house was stiflingly hot, so I’d been sitting on my porch, drinking in whatever cool breeze drifted along. The dry summer air tasted vaguely of woodsmoke. I stared out into the black stone forest, when I saw it with my own eyes. What looked like the brightest star in the pic night sky, which moments before, had been perfectly still, fell directly downwards from where it floated. One moment a pinprick of white, next a streak of light that silently fell into the stone forest below. Vaguely, I felt uneasy, wondering if or when I’d see a flash of blinding light, hear a massive explosion, or feel an earthquake beneath me. Yet none of those happened, and the night continued on, unperturbed. Crickets droned noisily under my porch and the wind whistled through the spire-like trees in the distance. I wondered if it’d just been a meteor burning up in the atmosphere, and I’d sleepily imagined how the star had shone still in the sky. That’d make sense. It was hard to focus on any one star or planet, tired as I was, and small as they were. I yawned, gathering my saucer and teacup, and locked up. Click, Click. Click. No precaution was too much, this close to the stone forest.

The next day I marched into the stone forest, headed in the direction I’d seen the star fall. I’d explored the forest for most of my adult life. I knew it for its towering spires, the petrified plant-life, which inexplicably continued to grow. The shimmering vines of amber, colored with the kaleidoscopic hues of a church window. The black pools of pure water. And yet when I started out in that fresh direction, not even a half hour into my journey. I stumbled across a sight in the forest I’d never seen before in my forty years of living.

“Hello there!” A cacophony of voices, mingled to form a single tone. It was as if a swarm of insects had been given speech, though quite cheerful and bubbly. From the trees hung a tube-like creature, sinuous and fleshy red. It was constructed as a rope would be, twine twisted together and twisted together again, except the twine here was alive. 

They bound themselves to the tree beside them, and leered down, each strand a simplistic face in a display of emotion, some variation of curiosity or glee. I was pleasantly surprised. To think I’d find a sentient creature so soon along my journey. 

“Hello to you.” I dusted off my hands. “You’re quite peculiarly formed, aren’t you?”

“Am I!” The statement’s tone was difficult to parse with the number of voices. It sounded more an exclamation, of pleasant surprise, than indignation or a question.

“Yes, I’ve never seen anything quite like yourself, to be truthful.” 

“Neither have I!” I decided that given the inherent noisiness of its communication, I’d interpret future statements from it without taking into account its volume. It continued as I mused. “Well, to be truthful, I haven’t seen anything like you, either! I’m quite firmly rooted to this tree you see!” I nodded. “Haven’t got any locomotion of my own, so we hang around here, drinking the rainwater and plucking the berries from the vines!”

“How is it we’re able to converse so easily?” 

“Proximity, I’d imagine!”

“I mean that you're speaking my tongue. You’re fluent for someone who’s never seen many people.”

“I don’t really know! I don’t remember where I’m from, or when I was born, either!” 

Intriguing. “Do you have a name?”

“Dolly. My name is Dolly!”

They spoke with an interesting conviction, that I hadn’t detected in anything else they’d said before. “Where did your name come from?”

“I don’t know.” 

Unhelpful

They explained to me that they had been cursed by a witch. Into that unsightly form. Muscle and bone stretched into a sculpted mass. A leering grin, or scowl, slashed into their globe of a head. A single deformed, useless eye stretched across their skinless surface. 

Dolly(?)

A man navigated his way through a dark labyrinth of undergrowth. Long, faded scars marked his arms, but now he slipped through the serrated roots of the ancient stone pillars without a scratch.

That canopy above was so dense that it was impossible to even tell the color of the sky above. 

However, similarly jagged curtains of jeweled vines hung from the branches of the petrified wood, 

and whatever light made it through from the distant sky above, the gems caught and made their own, casting dim waves(?) of dappled, colored light across the lower layers of the forest. 

Amber, emerald, cerulean, ruby…

Strange creatures chirped and howled within those layers, but it was impossible to tell from where or what the cries originated, due to how the sounds echoed about until they faded. 

Underlining that cacophony, was a steady murmur, in places a roar, as countless rivulets of water ran down cracks in the trunks, filling glimmering black pools of unknown depths and joining streams that ran between the roots. 

It was a primitive, isolated place. Away from all the rest of the busy world, akin to a fortress of its own. Eon after eon, the trees had imperceptibly climbed upwards. No act of man could fell them, very rarely could even earthquakes totally uproot the trees. The Stone Forest had been there long before humans had, and would exist for long afterwards. 

But one day, a star fell from the night sky. Dropped straight down from where it hung in the sky, and landed deep in the heart of the forest. John had seen it from his home, as he sat having tea on his porch in the evening. Much of his life he’d devoted time to studying that forest, and still felt he knew almost nothing about it. So he jumped at this unprecedented chance, to see the forest torn open to an outside force. He set out into the darkness at the crack of dawn, to find where the star had fallen. He would venture deeper than he ever had before, come across sights he could never have imagined. 

No clue where to put this, maybe later in the story?

Though John knew how to navigate the forest floor, bit by bit, it seemed that any path he took was never quite identical. Always a new branch had fallen, or a sinkhole had opened to deeper layers of entangling roots. The hanging curtains of jeweled vines obscured vision for more than a few meters ahead at a time. Compasses were useless in this place, as the great Petra arbores(?) had dredged up from deep below the earth, minerals that made any compass’s needle swing haphazardly about. Truthfully, the only reliable way out of the great forest was to climb higher and higher until you reached the rocky tops of the trees. 

(probably save for later)

Reaching the treetops was a journey in itself, and much more easily said than done, but once you reached it, it was far simpler to navigate the rain worn, almost cobbled surface that was created. One could also find more typical plant life rooted there, likely brought by birds droppings or storms, meaning that, rarely, there were places where a forest stood atop the forest below. Each had their own ecosystem, its own wildlife. 

Nothing bigger than a rodent of course, as deer and the like had no realistic method of reaching the canopy. The tree’s roots could snake down and slowly erode the stone, until holes opened up in the petrified canopy. 

It wasn’t free of its own perils. In places, the canopy of stone could be deceptively thin, and brittle. You could be walking between a crevice of branches, and suddenly have your foot plunge through, shattering the shale. The rocks could shred your leg, or worse, your entire body if you fell through. There were no soft leaves to cushion one’s fall below. It would without a doubt be fatal.

(end of saving for later part)

The star had fallen towards the Southwest, just about. It was unfortunately the area he’d often neglected to break familiar ground for. It would be new to him, and the journey, probably the longest he’d ever embarked on. Who knew what the star might have brought with it. 

Food was the primary concern, as the trees did a spectacular job of filtering the rainwater as it streamed through the porous stone. John lay strips of dried meat near the top of his pack, above his clothes and other essentials. Truthfully the jeweled vines were also edible. Drops of hardened amber, but they were mostly unpleasant, leaving a dry, bitter aftertaste, and only mildly sweet. He doubted they could sustain him. Everything else, he would have to forage along the way. 

The edge of the stone forest was innocuous to the untrained eye. In fact, it was quite a normal, if dense and ancient, forest that itself was located within. Conifers and ancient oaks towered into  The fields of tall grass fell away abruptly, to the exposed, twisting rocky roots of the Petra arbores. The dirt constantly eroded and washed away, filtered downwards into the almost endless tendrils. John carefully made his way down the slope, bracing himself against a foothold, and grabbing a stony knurl. 

Holes and gaps riddled the surface of the entangled mass, making it easy to climb. 

He wore gloves to avoid cutting himself on the jagged rock. 

Once into the undergrowth, the forest floor seemingly closed up. The bulging roots closing the gaps between them. Life had long left them, and they were simply solid shells of stone, left to be eroded by water. There were places where, by the dimly lit lakes, beaches formed. They were the best places to lie down, the soft sand easier to drift to sleep upon, rather than jagged bark.

This first day passed uneventfully. The trees rapidly seemed to close behind him and he was entirely enveloped in the dark forest. For anyone else it would’ve likely been impossible to chart a course in the direction they wanted to go. However over time John had noticed oddities about the way the trees grew. Where they let down their jeweled vines.

 It likely had to do with millennia ago, as they had grown ever so slightly, something, be it the sun, or the magnetic poles had dictated they lean ever so slightly towards the Northeast. 

The vines fell more densely in certain areas as well. 

With a subconscious awareness of the slight leaning of the trees around him, John was able to rather clearly make his way, Southwest. 

The distance I’ve walked, and the distance as the crow flies varied by miles. Even if I were to be walking in a straight line. The crow does not have to clamber hand and foot over roots and every obstacle. Nor does the crow have to crawl on their hands and knees through cramped, painfully rough tunnels formed by dried rivers. Nor does the crow have to hide at every unknown cry or shriek. The fauna of this forest has always eluded me, and perhaps for my own sake, it should remain that way. What strange life I might find prowling these stony caves I may not be equipped to handle. 

John had always traveled the forest alone. The very idea of managing himself as well as a companion, who’s single misstep or blunder could lead to their death or entrapment in the un-navigable forest weighed too heavily on his mind. If he traveled alone his life would be his alone to bear responsibility for. So for every wide-eyed adventurer, every bookish scholar that came to his house, the home of the eccentric old man who’d ventured countless times into the stone forest, and returned with his mind intact and his body unharmed, he’d turned them down. His rebuttals became more and more brusque over the years, seeing to the trend that he got less and less visitors.  Rumors spread that, perhaps after all, he had left his mind in the dark, maddening forest, to be replaced by a vengeful sprite or trickster faerie. Sometimes when he sat alone at home, he wondered if the theories had any merit. Maybe that was why he felt so at ease within the dark maze. Either way, the visitors stopped coming year after year. That suited him just fine. The forest became an extension of his private home, at least the areas he’d explored and gotten to know well. Perhaps it was only a mere fraction of a percentage that he knew, but he’d felt in his heart that no one else had come to know the forest as well as he had. 

Imagine his surprise, when one morning, perhaps a week or so into his journey, he awoke to the sound of other voices, in the trees. 

I sat up in my small tent. Morning was a foreign concept here. But I had formed a schedule of my own. I could sleep just as easily as I woke to the strung lights of the jeweled vines. Unimportant. I’d awoken this time to the voices of… other people. This deep into the forest. That was impossible. They chatted amicably, as if they were strolling down a town’s streets. I felt a chill down my spine. 

“How much further is it?” 

Perhaps these were phantoms of those who’d lost their lives in the forest before me. Forever trapped here, the maze of branches and roots stopping even their ascent to heaven or descent to hell. 

“It’s impossible to tell, I haven’t got a clue.”

Hurriedly, I rolled up my tent and sleeping bag, shoving them into my sack. Any noise I myself made was irrelevant, unless I spoke, my footsteps and movements would be masked by the roaring waterfall, which poured down into the lake I had camped by. The voices still seemed a distance away. 

“But you’d said we were close only a few trees ago!”

“That was a very loose estimate. I may have been false.” 

As they approached, I felt that I could make out more distinctions. Perhaps… a boy and his mother…? What could they have been doing here, dead or otherwise? He walked to a slope created by a broad root, slowly climbing up. I looked about. The scenery was what I’d always known. Like a glimmering cavern of crystals. Not a soul in sight. The voices had stopped. I began to wonder if I’d never ventured far enough in to truly lose my mind, and this was finally when it would happen. However I steeled myself. I could recall stranger happenstances within these stone spires. I would find the star that fell from the sky. Perhaps its light would dispel whatever darkness clung to this place. 

THE BEAST OF THE STONE LAKES

That darkness was dispelled much more quickly than John could have anticipated. The next day, he came across a massive sinkhole. At first he noticed that the light around him had gained a slight tinge of aquamarine. More than what was usually cast by the jeweled vines, in fact, it seemed to have a completely different source than either the vines or the sky. It seemed to filter upwards from the 

porous ground below. A briny scent was the next thing John noticed out of the ordinary. He had never been to the sea, so it was something entirely unfamiliar to him. He followed it, intent on discovering the origin of this strange, salty odor, and curious blue light. More and more the stony roots of the Petra arbores fell away. Water began to splash up through the holes in the ground, forming little pools and waves, dimly lit by a blue glow, entirely unlike the still, dark wellsprings close to his home. 

The peculiar springs, blue and saline, seemed to be becoming more and more common. Oddly enough, I still found the occasional unlit, freshwater pool, suggesting that these glowing blue wells were all of the same source, and in turn, entirely disconnected from the usual ponds and streams of the forest. Even more curiously, closer to the source of these springs the Petra arbores themselves seemed to change. It would appear that this wellspring of saltwater had predated even much of the growth of the trees here, as imperceptibly ancient as that must have been, for the mineral makeup of the trunks here, even high up into the upper layers of the Petra arbores, were distinctly foreign to me. A thin layer of salt was encrusted upon the bark of the trees. It too was pure, as the trees must have filtered it from their inner anatomies, as with everything else that passed through them. It was unsurprising to me, to find such a rich source of natural wealth within the stone forest, yet I had not expected it to appear in this form.

The pools grew wider and wider, and eventually John found that they began to push up against each other, spilling over their rims, forming steppes that grew larger and larger. He began to notice life filling those pools. Drifting, jelly-bodied creatures, crystal minnows, and creeping aquatic plant-life. John knelt on the worn away stone and cupped some into his gloved hand. They disintegrated at his touch. The color of the Petra arbores darkened to a deep ochre, and brownish gold, the minerals a mystery. 

Eventually the broadest of the pools appeared before me. In concurrence with the canopy opening up, a rarity, a huge sinkhole, brimming with colorful life and the azure water. A huge beast languidly rested in the sinkhole, nearly filling its circumference. Its sleeping breath, its body gently swelling up and down was the source of the regular waves and pulse of the water. Placing my hand into the swell I felt the life breath of the beast, humming gently. A shiver ran down my spine at its immense power. The motion of its breathing alone was enough to move such amounts of water, and who knows how far below the surface its body continued. 

THE GIANT
Before long, that roughly hewn path we had come upon in the undergrowth began to take a more clear, distinct form. A yellow, claylike soil began to spill into the rough surface. As it twisted and turned, I noticed a bright sky in the distance. Motivated by the idea of a clearing, I hurried forward with enthusiasm. We may not have to sleep in the perilous forest tonight. However, as we approached, I realized that it was far more than I could have ever hoped for, to an almost excessive degree. The path became neatly trimmed, by a manicured lawn. The blue sky above was evenly decorated with fluffy white clouds, and the most striking thing—here, the forest ended abruptly. I could see that the thin, younger trees to my left and right as I stepped out into the light swept evenly in each direction, curving into the unknown distance. As if they were stopped by a perimeter. I had never seen anything like it before. There was something else quite unsettling to me, but I could not parse what bothered me so deeply. 

“What is it?” Dolly asked, they had not yet regenerated anything resembling an eye, though I noticed a divot forming like a socket. 

“It’s… a trail. A path through a pasture, under a blue sky. The grass is greener than any I’ve seen before.”
“Is that so unnatural?” 

“Yes… and it stretches all the way to the horizon from my vantage point.”

“Well, follow the path!” 

I wondered what gave Dolly such confidence in that idea. I assumed it was what came most naturally to them in conjunction with the concept of a path. Why else should there be one, but to follow? I was less eager, however. 

“We don’t know what it leads to, or how long we might be following it.”

“You were plenty content with doing just that within the forest, weren’t you?”

That was true. As I’d thought earlier, I couldn’t place, and therefore couldn’t express what troubled me about this meadow, besides the absurd artificiality. Perhaps it simply belonged to an eccentric, very wealthy being, who just loved the picturesque image. But not a flower in sight… 

“We don’t have many other leads, either!”

Dolly, at least, spoke rationally. I stowed my uneasiness in my steps, and decided to continue onwards, under the endless, cerulean sky. 

Days later we came across a small house. Quaint, almost like a dollhouse. I stooped to look into the window, and tapped on the tiny red door with a fingertip. 

“Hello?”
A clatter came as an answer, and soon a little gray head poked out of the door. “Visitors? Sorry we can’t invite you inside. Have a seat on the lawn.” He gestured at the expanse of grass. A little bed of flowers lay next to the house, the most vibrant and saturated I’d ever seen.

“What brings you here?”
“We were following this path, and I'm wondering if there was a way out.”

“Out? No, no, it goes on forever.” 

“Well, we came from somewhere besides here. Can we return there?”
“Oh, that can probably be arranged by father.”
“Father?” The little humanoid before us looked to be the eldest of their group. All looking like little gray people, gathered around us, hardly coming up to my knees. Dolly draped over my shoulder to get a better look. “Even I don’t recognize these as human.”
“Human? I don’t quite understand what you mean but it feels rude to say that to our faces.”
“I apologize. Who is this father you speak of?” 

“He will come soon. Father always comes at the same time, just after dinner. Dinner is boiling on the stove top now. Wait, and you will see him.”

Father appeared as a great gray face, parting the vibrant blue sky.

A rumbling voice filled the world, vibrating my organs, making the jelly in eyes quiver. 

Chapter ? 4

Traveler at night

Stars began to twinkle over the lonely stone spires that towered up around me. The sun melted into the horizon, barred by the dark peaks. I started to hike the grassy slope of the valley, searching for a place to sleep for the night. Caves and crevices dotted the hillside, so I settled into a sheltered nook, brushing debris away, and tearing dead vines from their holds. I unrolled a sleeping mat onto the stone. Sighing, I loosened my tie and lay on the unsubstantial mattress, pulling a thin blanket from my pack, using the rest as a pillow. I was so exhausted, before I made camp, I fell asleep, inhaling the faintly sweet scent of moss and stone.

I arose on a cold, blue morning. A draft of frigid air crept along the floor of the cave. I’d awoken before it settled into my bones. Shivering and sore, I pulled my knapsack closer, rummaging about, and pulled out a circular metal case, more a disc than a cylinder.. Beaten and dulled, it was still my one and only traveling companion. Flicking it opened, a small flame began to dance above a concentric circle of runes, set into a stone base, blackened by the flames it brought forth. I began to warm up immediately, and the heat filled the small cave.

I bolted awake, pale light being the first thing to enter my eyes. My head lay in a pool of moonlight, at the entrance to the cave. I wiped saliva from my face with the back of my hand and sat up. “Mmgh.” The night was cold. I wondered why I’d awoken so suddenly. Perhaps…! Some as of yet, unidentified stimuli… my ears perked as I heard a faint tune upon the night breeze. Standing up, I looked down into the valley. A little white light danced along the path, whistling a melody that somehow felt eerie. As it came closer and closer, I felt a chill run down my spine. What else would be traveling this path in the mountains at this time of year, at night? I quietly backed into the darkness of the cave, and silently settled down, straining to hear the music. It approached, and for a good minute or so I almost held my breath, unsure if it was climbing the hill to where I was. However before long, I could be sure that the sound was fading. I sat still in the darkness for a while after that, too buzzed to fall asleep again. Thinking about it, there wasn’t any particular reason to be so afraid. Who with will intentions, would walk along a traveled path with a lantern, whistling a song? I pulled another blanket out of my pack. It was colder than I thought it’d be tonight.

 The morning crept upon me slowly, 

Things To Do

Introduce magic(???) it really shouldn’t be a focus but it would make a little sense at least for this setting

think about what the star actually is

maybe it really is a star

what is this weird mix of fantasy/ecology im trying to do

figure out a balance

.