Through the Silent Forest

Characters

Eighteen year old Diana is the new Chief of Terrene. We learn that she is a curious and intelligent young woman, who is prone to being stubborn and wilful. She has a great fondness for books and proves herself to be highly intuitive, sensing things on a deeper level than others. In addition, she showed herself to be resilient and courageous when it came to protecting her people from potential harm. She is more than willing to sacrifice her freedom, putting the wellbeing of her people ahead of her happiness on multiple occasions. However, over the course of the story, Diana also learns to embrace happiness wherever it can be found, even in the smallest of moments.

Atanas, Diana’s shadow (more casually referred to as Tase) is initially portrayed as mysterious and elusive. We see him only briefly at first, in Diana’s dreams. As such, I wasn’t sure if he was real or merely a figment of Diana’s imagination. He is the only one of his kind, a creature who can take on many forms depending on his own needs and his environment. He was generally blunt in his way of communication and kept his true form a secret from Diana for most of the story. Who and what he is seems too terrible for him to show her, a burden he carried with great distress at times. Over time, he proved himself to be deeply caring and protective, never allowing Diana to come to harm. Although at times he would fight with Diana, you could tell that he cared for her even early on in their travels together. Furthermore, his cheeky sense of humour and mysterious nature made me fall in love with his character. I honestly couldn’t get enough of him.

Ryu, protector of the land of the beasts seemed warm and friendly at first, in an almost fatherly way. He particularly acted as a father figure to Tase, who had grown up without parents. However, like any father, Ryu was also strict and authoritative at times, with his disappointment being the worst kind of punishment. Over the course of the story, Ryu always did what he thought was best for those within his realm. At times, his commands seemed unfair or even cruel, however, they soon made sense in the long run. Additionally, his own backstory was tragic and helped me to understand him on a deeper level.

The Monster under the mountain, otherwise known as Damien is only mentioned now and again in the story. He is the beast which stalks after Diana, threatening her homeland, Terrene. He often claims that he is not her enemy and has a silken voice and red eyes, which lend him a devil-like presence. He has the ability to possess other creatures in the land of the beasts, forcing them to do his bidding and taking away their own sense of free will. Prior to this, I felt that he wasn’t all bad as people made him out to be, but I think that was the point of him; he is deceptive and highly persuasive, to try to get Diana to let her guard down. Overall, he didn’t seem very trustworthy and the few encounters we experience alongside Diana gave me the impression that he meant only harm to the inhabitants of the world.