Chapter 1: Forbidden forest

"Look behind the closet that's where the food is stored." Zhyler rummages around in his father's room getting supplies for their journey into the forbidden forest. Food, clothes, and a bow and arrows. "Can't believe we're about to leave the only place we've ever known which is really exciting, it's just sad thinking about the circumstances in which we're leaving." Ursa brings out the food after finding the storage compartment, putting everything in a old worn bag pack. Zhyler groans in pain holding his bandaged side He hears Ursa walk into the room and immediately straightens himself. "Zhyler you're not in travel condition we should wait until you heal up before we continue." She pats his clothes wiping off the dirt before raising his shirt to check on his wound and starts applying some medicine. "It's ok I've never felt better." He holds his breath so that he doesn't scream. "I can hear your struggle to breath so don't lie to me. But fine just don't put too much stress on your body or the wound might reopen." When they finish gathering everything they leave the house to head towards the forbidden forest one problem though. "Zhyler do you have a single clue where the forbidden forest is?" "Nope, I have not a single clue where it is, however we could go looking for a map. I think the village library has some maps and the trading store might have some aswell." "That's great, then we'll split up. I'll go to the library and you go to the store, you can pick up a few more supplies while you're there." Following that both go do there respective tasks. Zhyler breaths in, taking everything in that has happened so far and wondering if they'll really be able to ever find that Gina person let alone get revenge on the cultist who destroyed there home. But he pushes those thoughts down, focusing on his task. He finally arrives at the store, going inside he gets some tools to craft more arrows, he also gets some more provisions while looking for the map. Zhyler steps into the backroom and sees a sword with some ancient engravings edged onto it hanging on the wall, he takes it off inspecting it and bringing it along, after which he leaves the store not finding any maps and begins to head toward the library. Meanwhile Ursa is ravaging through out the library grabbing every single map she finds. While going through everything she finds a book titled: "Art of Rune magic by Gusto van Gustan" She grabs it along with a few other books. After the long search she finally finds a map to the forbidden forest right when Zhyler arrives. "I had no luck. There was nothing at the store. I did get more supplies though and i found this sword, i'm more use to the bow so i thought why not bring it for you to use. Did you find anything?" "Yup, there are allot of maps here so we'll be good for a while direction wise. I even found a compass. And guess what i found?" "I don't know you tell me." "I found a few..." She does a soft drum roll on the table. "MAGIC BOOKS!! Well there Rune magic books and more information filled, but its something right? I thought since you always wanted to be a mage you could start by using these." "I'm really grateful you got these for me but I already read these books, did you forget i grew up in this village. I've read these books front to back so many times it's basically edge in my mind. But I could never do any of the stuff the book says. Thanks anyway though, I'll bring them along for entertainment." Zhyler stuffs the books into the bag. "Oh yeah I should have guessed that much its ok, let's just get going. let me see that sword you found first." Zhyler hands over the sword to her, she grabs it swinging it around in the air effortlessly. "Maybe my mom was right to put me in those sword fighting lessons." They head out of the village, heading up northeast, as the village starts to get out of sight Zhyler turns around to look at it one last time. "I promise that I will find out what happened and get revenge for my mom. No matter what, I'll even put my own life on the line to get my revenge." He stands firm for a good minute before turning around and starts following Ursa once more. They travel through plains, and cross a few rivers along the way before nightfall. Seeing the sun start to set, they begin setting up camp for the night. When they are done, Zhyler makes a campfire and starts roasting some meat while also brewing some tea. He looks over at Ursa and sees her looking up at the night sky; her eyes reflecting the beauty of the shining stars, or could her eyes be the ones shining with unimaginable beauty? Zhyler blushes slightly looking at her before quickly looking down at the food so it doesn't burns. "Beautiful night tonight isn't?" "Huh, did you say something?" "Beautiful night tonight isn't it that's what I asked." "Sorry I was just lost in thought and Yeah it is indeed a beautiful night." She slowly draws a flower in the sand then looks up at him. "You know, my mom used to tell me something that the people in the tribe she came from have a saying, it goes something like: 'Ab astris venimus et, cum tempus advenit, astra nos domum recipiunt.'" "What does that mean?" "It's a sentence from a poem talking about live and death. Basically saying that we come from the stars and after death the stars welcome us back home. So I was looking up to see If I could find my mom." "That's pretty cool, could you show me how To find my mom?" He moves closer sitting right next To Her. She looks at him a bright smile on her face. "Sure no prob." She starts to show him while they gaze at the night sky Together the bugs chirp, and fireflies fly by twinkling. A few hours later they finally go to bed for they have a long journey ahead. As The sun rises Zhyler and Ursa pack up and Start heading towards the forbidden forest once more. While traveling they enter a small jungle, while there Zhyler climbs one of the trees and waits patiently with his bow in hand, Ursa sets up a few traps somewhere else like Zhyler showed her. When a boar comes into site he immediately locks on and shoots a precise shot hitting it in the head killing it right away, he cuts it up before they start traveling again. After a few more hours they find it reach the entrance to the forbidden forest, they enter quietly Zhyler readies his bow and Ursa pulls out her sword the moment they enter the forbidden forest, all the hairs on her body standing. It's foggy, smells of death, and dark but also has a unique charm to it, glowing mushrooms laid throughout the forest a few strange animals running quickly by in the blink of an eye and some strange growling further ahead of them. They travel silently through the forest trying not to attract any attention to themselves, sadly luck isn't on there side. On there way they stop as a giant wooden tree creature lays in there way, they try to back away slowly, but Zhyler stands on a branch making a loud Crack sound that echoes throughout the forest. The monster immediately jumps towards them dragging its giant body through the forest knocking down some trees in the process, Zhyler and Ursa turn around and go into a sprint running at full speed in the opposite direction of that thing. Zhyler tries shooting a few arrows at it but they do absolutely nothing to it, it just shrugs it off and keeps going towards them. "Maybe you should put that sword of yours to good use!!" Ursa hearing this turns around to face the monster but takes one look at its size and instantly turns right back around and starts running away again. "Why are you running!?" "Are you insane?! You expect me To fight that thing All on my own!? Look over there its a cave maybe we can hide in there and wait for it to leave." "Ursa you beautiful genius, that's a great idea. But we're gonna have to slow down our friend mister rotten wood." "Don't worry I got it covered." She swings with all her might cutting one of the trees down tripping the monster. They slip into the cave the moment the monster falls over. Zhyler rushes to sit down leaning against the cave wall breathing heavily groaning in pain holding his side blood spelling out of his reopening wound, Ursa rushes over to him taking out some bandages and medicine. "Flop, I told you not to put too much stress on your body. And I even offered to stay there and wait before we leave for you to fully recover but noooo we had to leave no matter what, when we don't even have a time limit." Her hands are shaking as she pants. Zhyler places a hand on hers. "Well I didn't think we'd end up facing a giant monster only a few steps into the forest. Can you cut me some slack for once?" He sits up straight his body protesting, she finishes patching him up and breathes a sigh of relief when the bleeding stops, she plops right next to him exhausted from the ordeal, Ursa begins to fidget with her hair thinking of a way to get past that thing without ending up it's food. Ursa gets up and starts looking through there bags for anything that might help, pulling everything out of the back pack tossing what she believes to be useless. Amidst her search she throws something behind her that catches Zhyler's eyes. "Wait can you give me that book you over there real quick?" She gives him a book with some strange creatures on the cover, after receiving the book he immediately starts flipping through the pages looking for something Ursa tilts her head to the side raising an eyebrow wondering what he could be looking for. "LOOK!!" He shoves the book into her face, a very detailed drawing of the monster is on the page infront of her with precise information on what it is and how to defeat it.
A smile slowly forms on Ursa's face snatching the book out of his hand quickly scanning over the page. "This is great Zhyler all we need is a plan." "Don't worry I already got one. But let's get some rest first we act it out first thing In the morning." They hit the hay getting a good night's rest. The next morning Ursa sets up everything refusing to let Zhyler go out in his condition afterwards she approaches where the beast rests sword in hand she gets herself ready, takes a deep breath and roars out with all her strength before turning around and dashing away at full speed the tree beast follows suit the moment he hears her scream echoing through the forest. While on the run she cuts a bunch of trees making it difficult for the beast to follow and making it scream in pain. While running she turns around to see where it is but ends up tripping and falling over, the tree beast immediately catches up raising a claw to stab her but right before he does Zhyler shoots a few fire bows at its back aswell screaming at the top of his lungs at it. The beast screams painfully turning around in the blink of an eye and rushing towards Zhyler. "NOWWWW!" Ursa cuts a rope setting off a trap that breaks the ground underneath the beast's feet, making it fall straight into a pit with spikes covered in oil, he slowly raises a fire bow at the beast. "Burn to ash you dang tree." He fires setting the beast on fire slowly burning it to death. "We... did it?" "WE DID IT!!" Ursa proclaims proudly jumping onto him hugging him tightly before she quickly backs away blushing realizing she just hugged him without his permission. "Can't believe we did it though but I never doubted your plan." She smiles trying to forget what she just did playing with her sleeve. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! It would never had worked without you, how did you even move your sword and body like that in such a stressful situation?? It was pretty flopping cool. All i did was make a plan and scream" Zhyler looks at her with admiration playing with his bow string slowly stroking it. "Dude i was absolutely terrified I don't know how I moved like that myself but without your plan we would have never gotten to kill it. Let's just agree we both did great. We should probably head back to get our supplies." Before they can go back they get surrounded by Tree beats everywhere they look some small others towering, Zhyler gets his bow ready and Ursa prepares her Sword in a ready stance. "It seems like we're done for." "Not without a fight we're not
" right as she finished speaking lightning starts to strike the Tree beats lighting them on fire one by one as the lightning stops a woman starts slowly flying down to where Zhyler and Ursa stand. She has white hair that glows in the damp forest flowing slowly in the wind and beautiful dark skin with some glowing stars scattered on her arm. "Who dares enter my Domain." "We mean no harm we came here looking for someone." She looks them up and down analyzing them. "No one lives here but i." "And may I ask who thy might be?" "I am the Mage of the forbidden forest but as my friends call me Gina."