Realm of Wings

Kallan, walking next to Jade as she was talking to the old man on the horse:

“I had completely forgotten about that! Did I really say that?” Jade laughed at Neil.

We had gotten more supplies from the first village we came across where Jade enjoyed the happiness from the people that lived there. But she had also inquired from the locals how they experience their ruling King and as she had feared, they didn’t have a bad word to say about him. In fact, it was said to be an honour should you be chosen to be able to live on the floating island.

Of course, as the stubborn Kimberling she is, I wasn’t about to hear the end of that for a long time. She was determined to make me realize our ancient traditions were outdated and simply cruel. And as much as I don’t like for Fae to lose their magic, it has always been the most trustworthy incentive to keep every Fae warrior at the top of their game. True however that King Qai used that punishment for the wrong reasons, it was still his right to administer it in his way.

But she made sure to remind me diligently that when she would have all her powers, she would make that tradition disappear forever.

“Yes, miss Jade. Although I do believe you to be drunk when you wanted to fight two Alpha werewolves at the same time.” Neil continued their reminiscence.

“Do you hear that Kallan? She fought and killed not one, but two Alphas!” Trixie hollered towards me.

“Well, that’s not entirely true, she in fact killed one but the other...” Neil continued the story, probably where he dismantled Jade’s vision of how she believed the fight had happened. But I wasn’t listening anymore as I got a strange feeling.

We were nearing the vast forest we had seen from the hill above the floating island, right where both the compass and Poseidon had pointed us to go. But there were no sounds heard, no creatures or vegetation was moving or rustling, it was quiet. Too quiet.

“No! That’s not how that happened! I jumped on his back and – “Shh!” I interrupted Jade.

“What? She was just telling us how it – “Be quiet!” I now interrupted Trixie as well, while lowering my stance and standing right in front of some of the trees that made the edge of the forest.

I took the sword we had bought from a blacksmith, out of its holster and kept it in front of me. My obsidian skin formed all over my body because my senses were telling me something dangerous was about to happen. Jade finally got the same sense as well as Trixie and now the three of us stood ready to face whatever would come out of this dense forest.

“Do we have to get through it? Can’t we go around?” Trixie asked softly.

“I’m pretty sure the orbs aren’t supposed to be easy to find, so let’s just follow the compass.” I replied to her just as quiet and Jade nodded agreeing.

Jade took a few steps forward while keeping her newly acquired blades in front of her. They weren’t as good as the ones she had to leave behind at the castle, but they would do for now.

Trixie and I were right behind her, and while Neil stayed at a safe distance we kept on going to the first trees of the forest. There still was no sound to hear as if the forest had been frozen in time, not even the branches above us were moving as there was no wind either. Whatever was lurking in there, looking at us while we came closer, must be really strong and large to make everything around it go silent.

Jade kept going forward and stepped in between the first few trees. And while we followed, she just moved further until also Poseidon and Neil were in the thick of trees. Poseidon however kept Neil busy with the reins as he pulled Neil back each time they came too close to us. It was as if the Pegasus knew what was coming and tried to keep Neil away from it.

I know that Poseidon is just a smart horse with wings, but could he also be this understanding? Could he be really keeping Neil away from any danger?

Jade, listening to Kallan’s thoughts:

“He made us go here, didn’t he? So let’s just listen to him again.” I said while keeping my eyes and ears focused on everything around me. “Trixie, stay with Neil, Poseidon get over here.” I asked and the regal blue horse came strutting his way over to me. I put my blades away and took hold of Poseidon’s reins.

“You know where to go, right?” I asked him and he softly bristled his nostrils. “Good, then take me there.”

Poseidon took a few steps back, taking me away from some bushes of which I would have otherwise gone right through, then stomped his hoof on the ground which made a pebble shoot right forward and land in those same bushes.

Suddenly, as if this forest was one living creature and taking in a big gulp of air, the wind started to blow heavily, trees were moving and bushes were rustling again! And the bush in front of us uprooted itself, opened up a few small branches as if it had a mouth and came towards us, biting his way through the air, indicating it would want to eat us up!

Poseidon hovered on his back feet, wildly flapping his wings at the uprooted and moving bush and even made angry horse sounds to scare off the bush to go back to where it came from.

I had already let go of the reins as soon as I saw Poseidon getting all worked up, and now that the bush was coming our way I had my blades at the ready again. While hacking and slicing into the leaves and tiny branches and even inducing the blades with my energy, eventually the bush backed down and crawled its way back to where he was rooted before.

“What the hell!” I cursed.

“You alright?” Kallan hurried over and checked me up to see if I was hurt.

“Yeah, I’m fine, but what the hell was that?” I pointed over towards the trimmed-down-bush.

“Not your greatest work as a barber I would say.” Trixie chuckled and Kallan glanced her way angrily.

“No? I thought I did a pretty good job actually. Meh, you might be right.” I chuckled back after looking at the wild bush, which was silent now.

“Yes, well, let’s not try out your new hobby again shall we? I think Poseidon just wanted to show us what a little bush could do, but I don’t want to wake up anything big next time we touch something.” Kallan said and we all nodded.

We decided to follow Poseidon’s guidance and tried to stay away from as many bushes or other greenery as we could. But as this is a forest, a living and dense forest even, it was hard to do that all the time, so delicately we chose which bushes to attack and which not.

We managed our way through the forest like this for another day or two but it was getting dark soon again and there was no sign of our destination or the end of the forest. Nor could we fly above the forest to find out where we were either as a solid thick mist was covering the canopy. Kallan had tried to fly up and search for a way out like that, but he had no clear vision at all. And what was even more confusing is if this orb which Poseidon urged us to go to, which might indicate it would be the orb of Animal, then why haven’t we seen one single animal in this forest? Not even the webs of spiders or other insects were crawling around.

I was starting to get tired and annoyed of not knowing how long this would take us, even wondering if the next orb would indeed be in this forest, so I told the others we should seek shelter and stop for the night. We have to come up with a plan and find new food soon too.

“Great idea, but we have to shut down this willow first!” Trixie hollered as she suddenly shot her purple shards towards what appeared to be the tree’s face.

“What? Who woke this one up?” I yelled while running towards it, aiding Trixie.

“He was already like this when I entered this open spot!” Kallan replied as he had been walking upfront for a while to scout the road ahead for the rest of us.

With each shot, the willow pushed back in pain while trying to defend itself with his branches. Leaves were scattered around us and branches were broken off while Kallan used his sword and obsidian black skin to keep himself safe from an incoming swipe of one of the tree’s roots and cursed when he landed on the ground on his back.

Trixie fell on the ground as well as she stumbled over one of its uprooted roots just like Kallan, and the tree saw its chance to attack them full on. He bend backwards, made all of his branches lean back as well and then came forward again with such a force that made his branches and vines act like soft and loose hair that swirled to the front. Of course, the vines from this willow were anything but soft, so when they would come down, Kallan and Trixie would be crushed!

I cursed within as what I had done to get us out of the castle, could have come in handy in this situation, but still, I pushed myself forward, getting right in between them and used all my energy to shield them both with the strongest shield I could muster up to create.

Hexagon shapes were growing next to each other at a rapid pace, to my surprise, creating a shield that was larger than the one I had made in the castle by the white, oak tree. But it wasn’t enough to cover all three of us! I screamed in agony to push all my energy out of my body, to get it into the shield faster than I thought was possible, but still... It wouldn’t be enough.

“Noooo!!!” I screamed as I saw the vines come rushing down and especially reaching for the open spaces on the side of my shield, there where both Trixie and Kallan still could be very hurt! If only I hadn’t been so stupid to leave my… Shit!

“Focus!” The familiar voice, I have heard many times before, said.

And I don’t know where the time came from for me to think this over, as the vines of the willow came closer, but the voice was right! I am to become the most powerful Etunadain, so if I can’t keep my loved ones safe from this overgrown willow, then I’m not worthy of anything.

I took a deep breath in and begged for a source of energy from which I could siphon my power. One that wasn’t in my reach before but which I would need now for sure! Within another second the branches would be crushing down on us and even though I would be underneath my shield, what’s to say about the inbound impact? The tree could still be much stronger than I could have imagined and break through my shield with ease.

But I was determined to not let anything happen to both Trixie and Kallan, let alone Neil and Poseidon as they stood behind us, not being able to help us right now. But should we be defeated, the tree would surely start to attack them, right after. So, as the voice said, I focused on a different source, hard.

The ground beneath me started to buzz with a humming sound and for a moment I thought that the magic that lets these trees and bushes wake up, wake up more of them to help this willow. But soon I realized that small golden specs, just like the one from the white, oak tree and its blooming sprouts, were coming up from the earth and induced my body with renewed and stronger energy!

I felt invigorated with more power than I have ever felt before and immediately started to use it to enhance my shield even further.

Victorious sounds belted from my throat as soon as the vines came crashing down and landed on my yellow honeycomb shield, sizzling with the impact of a thousand leaves that scraped along the surface as I was laying down in between Kallan and Trixie.

And as soon as the willow lifted his vines to see his success rate, and managed to see there was none, its bark started to crack in anger and frustration! He became even more infuriated as soon as he saw me jump up to attack him again.

Trixie, taking the lead in this story for once, as Kallan was passed out now:

Ever since I met her, I liked her personality. She was vibrant, competitive, strong and above all, stubborn enough to face Kallan head-on with everything she stood opposed to. She was marvellous already, and I’m not saying this because of my sexual preferences, even though it was a shame to hear that she was aiming for Kallan’s ass instead of mine, but now that she was glowing radiantly she was even marvelousser... If that’s a word...

We came here to find the next orb of power and I’m wondering if she realizes she might be closer to it than she thinks.

For the willow that we are attacking stood in the centre of this clearance of forest, which was odd as there hasn’t been an opening in this strange, silent forest for days now. We continuously had to clear a path for ourselves as the density of this forest was immense. Yet, Poseidon had guided us this way and took Kallan right to this place, so there must have been something special about it.

And now that Jade was attacking the tree head-on with all her renewed power and energized weapons, where she sliced and diced the tree at multiple places, the tree had lifted its roots to get himself grounded in a better position. And while dragging Kallan to a safe spot, with the help of Neil, I finally saw it!

The next orb of power, how dull and grey it may seem now, was right under the biggest root of the willow! It was getting hard for the tree to keep it hidden as Jade was vigorously attacking it with her newfound power, even though she didn’t know it was right there.

“Stay here.” I said to Neil and quickly went towards the tree again.

I came running in while it had lifted the root where I had seen the orb, but once I reached for it, the branch rooted itself again just as quick, hiding the orb once again.

“Hit it harder!” I said to Jade while keeping my eyes focused on the root.

“What do you think I’m doing!” She shouted back angrily, but I didn’t care. If she wanted this orb, she had to work harder. So, chop, chop!

Eventually, the tree uprooted the root again and I was able to see the orb. Yay! But unfortunately, it was lodged in between some rocks and solid dirt, making it harder for me to grab it and go.

“Keep it busy!” I said to her again, while I crawled halfway underneath the root to get me more access to the dirty marble. “Trixie, don’t!” Jade shouted while I was digging my fingers through the dirt, hurting myself as little pieces of stone got stuck underneath my nails.