Thunder Smoke Forest

Refilwe was the happiest of the three. Her prayers had been answered. She has dreamed of this day since she first heard of this enchanted forest. She was the first to step in. She took a long breath and exhaled, already loving the atmosphere. Giannis was the least pleased. He could have went back to Yoshino if he was not afraid to go alone. He did not tell them that he was afraid but Cassie could see it in his eyes even in the dense fog. They disappeared from the downcast bear and went deep in the forest.

No sooner had they went into the forest that Giannis announced his presence with a loud shriek.

“It’s only a bunny Gia.”

“Why do you act like a girl.” Refilwe scolded him.

The white bunny hopped out of sight in the thick mist. They followed the trail of the impala as it went deep in the forest. After tracking it the whole day they picked a trail of an animal they had never seen before. Refilwe was astounded by its enormous paws. Giannis was not keen on ever seeing it. Just the size of its paws was enough to make him tremble with fear. They had been warned to not dare go to the thundersmoke forest by the elders and now they knew exactly why.

‘Why does this thing only live in this forest and never goes out.’ That’s the question they both asked themselves.

“Why don’t we split? I don’t mind tracking the beast alone.” Said Refilwe.

“I will do a summoning spell when I see it and create a portal for you to come to my aid.” She added.

“No, We are not here for that beast, and I’m not letting you wander off alone.” Replied Cassie flatly.

“Please Cassie, I won’t engage it till you arrive.” Refilwe responded .

“It’s still a no Ref, We do not know how far it is right now. And our mission is to hunt game not to tour the forest. And you know I don’t use magic when I hunt. So I don’t want you doing summoning spells too.” Said Cassie.

Refilwe was disappointed but nonetheless they tracked the impala till sunset where they decided to set up camp.

“We will have one look out for the next few hours. Gia you will be the first night watch. After three hours I will relieve you and then Ref will be the last night watch.” Cassie said.

“Alright that is fine with me. Refilwe replied.

“Okay I will be the first watch.” Giannis said in a hushed tone.

The two girls went to sleep and soon as Cassie laid her head she had another dream that seemed to continue where the last dream stopped. A family of five living in a cave. A little girl was telling Cassie about their way of life, their language, glyphs and magic. As she was dreaming, she was rudely awoken by Giannis screaming to the top of his lungs. They abruptly got up, alert for the beast but it was just a warthog. Somehow Giannis mistook it for a giant monster with paws big enough to fit his head.

“Go to sleep Gia.” Cassie said.

“We will do the night watch together.” Refilwe replied.

“No we are all going to sleep.” Said Cassie as she was doing hand signs. Immediately a wave that only she can see rippled in all directions. Giannis was relieved that Cassie was using her wave sensor magic to monitor movement in a one kilometer radius.

She felt the need to use magic because they were in the enchanted forest. Giannis slept peacefully through the night. In the morning when they were still asleep Cassie sensed something approaching about three kilometers away from the north. She laid in her tent trying to figure out what it was. It closed in on them and when it was 1.3 kilometers away Refilwe felt its presence. She got out of her tent and called out Cassie.

“It’s coming down to us. So I guess I was right when I said that you should not go after it.” Said Cassie in a muffled voice.

She went outside the tent and they woke Giannis who was sound asleep. Tired from two days of tracking the impala. He rubbed his eyes and squinted them and suddenly caught it’s presence. His sleepy eyes opened wide and his pupils dilated. He went from a peaceful sleep to a nightmare reality. There was something about that magic that terrified him. All he wanted to do was to run as far as possible from whatever that was.

“Go up the trees Gia.” Cassie commanded.

Giannis possesses wood magic. If there was a place in this haunted forest, he would be in less danger, would be up in the tree branches.

Refilwe went to meet the approaching beast and soon as she laid eyes on it she backed away.

“What is this thing?” She asked in horror.

It rustled out the bushes, reeking of dog smell. It had red intense eyes that seemed to see right through souls. It’s fangs were as big as a rhinoceros tusks and they overlapped in it’s gigantic mouth. The fangs looked like they were poisonous than the O toxin. It looked like a breed of a wolf and a tiger but big as an elephant. It’s aura gave both Giannis and Refilwe chills. Has she got more than she had bargained for?

The beast never took its sharp eyes from Refilwe. It was like it did not see Cassie . It locked in on Refilwe and charged at her rapidly, the ground plunging where ever it stepped. It leaped and swinged at Refilwe with its sharp claws but she deftly jumped to the side. It turned swiftly and skillfully, missed her again and she back down.

‘How can it be so fast and agile, yet so big?’ She asked herself.

Giannis was watching attentively, petrified by the creature. The more he tried to calm his nerves the more he got terrified. The beast lunged at Refilwe again and this time she met it in the air and punched it as hard as he could and jumped over it. The beast landed on the ground and shook its head. As if to say, ‘is that all you got?’ It absorbed the punch, Refilwe however, was not fine. Her hand was bruised from the impact.

‘I can’t make any damage to this thing when I don’t use magic.’ She thought.

She charged up her spectra and her eyes turned sapphire blue.

Cassie had been watching it carefully all this time. What sets her apart from other shinobi mages is her perceptiveness. She noticed that the beast had been making silent howls since it laid eyes on them. Her wave sensor magic caught this sound waves.

The beast engaged Refilwe in a fierce battle. It was infuriated by the soft punch and mostly by the blue lights glowing around her.

Refilwe was now a lot faster than before and it looked like she had an upper hand, until the beast cut through her cloak with its elongated claws. Giannis was still perched on a branch like a bird and he almost fell when he saw her cloak being teared apart. Refilwe saw an opening and countered. She hit it with a round kick and blue flames flared on impact. The beast was pushed back by the impact force but it absorbed most of the damage.

‘How am I going to land heavy blows on this thing. It’s thick hide is almost impenetrable.’ She thought.

‘And it also has anti magic powers.’

Before she could think about how to land blows the beast was already in her face with its mouth wide open. She tried to leap backwards but she couldn’t as she was being forcefully sucked inside the creature’s mouth. She desperately held on the beast face so she won’t be swallowed whole. For a moment she felt life flashing out her eyes.

She didn’t believe that this beast could make her use her full powers.

She charged up again and a greenish yellow light glowed around her. With all her strength she plunged her hand in the beast’s eye. It howled in pain and Refilwe escaped its deadly attack. She lunged at it swiftly and when the beast tried to slash her with its claws she vanished and appeared behind it.

The beast felt her presence and with its long tail it cut through her skin as she was punching it. This time the beast felt the power behind the punch. It growled and recoiled from her. Refilwe was lucky the cut in her leg was not deep. She focused her magic on the wound and it closed up.

She was nonplussed by the beast’s ability to use its tail for rear attacks.

‘Now I see why this forest is forbidden.’ She thought regretfully.

The beast lunged again at her and they engaged in a fierce battle that eight minutes later Refilwe was panting yet she refused to back down, or use her summoning magic or her re-animation technique. She wanted to take down the beast all by herself.

Refilwe was upper green and by the way the beast was fighting, Cassie thought it to probably be yellow ranked. Upper yellow at most.

As she was watching the fight her wave sensors picked movement from the north. She then picked two more and another two. The silent howls that the beast made which Cassie picked with her wave sensor earlier were to alert the its pack about intruders. This silent howls are only heard by the wolf beasts. The sound is so low that humans can not hear it yet the beasts heard them from fifteen kilometers away.

They were closing in fast on them. Giannis caught their aura too and almost feinted.

‘Not five more.’ He thought dreadfully.

The sun was now shining through the trees when the beasts leapt out of the shadows. There were five of them, fierce and bigger than the first beast.

‘The one that Refilwe fought must be a teenager, and this ones are adults.’ Cassie thought to herself.

‘They are probably ranging between orange and lower red.’

‘And there is five of them.’

‘What are we doing here?’

Cassie knew they were outnumbered and probably out powered. However she welcomed the challenge.

She appeared before Giannis at the top of the branch.

“Gia I need you to be strong, there is no room for fear. If you don’t consume it, it will consume you.”

“You have no choice, being afraid is no longer an option.”

‘“If you want to make it out of here alive then you have to fight.” Cassie motivated him

“I-I will fight by your side Cassie.”

“Not by my side, this things are levels above your magic.”

”Stay as much in the trees as possible.”

“You will see how you can offer support from a distance.” Cassie

“Okay I will.” Giannis replied.

The motivation speech was interrupted by one of the beast leaping into the air with outstretched claws attempting to slice them. The branch was sliced like a hot knife in butter by the sharp claws. They jumped on to another tree. The other beast joined in the fight and Cassie moved them from Gia. Refilwe was engaging two of them while Cassie was up against four. One of the four went after Giannis. He was so terrified that he could not think straight.

‘What am I going to do.’ He panicked.

Immediately the beast halted when Cassie grabbed it by its tail and catapulted it back at the other three beasts, rampaging trees until it came to a standstill.

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Now Giannis’s mind cleared. He saw Cassie saving him and suddenly had the confidence to try to help in anyway he could. He jumped down from the tree branch and the leaves detached from trees. They covered the area around the beasts. The tree branches and trunks also carved themselves and out came drill arrows suspending in the air.

He armored himself with concentrated tree trunks, wielding a large drill arrow in his right hand. An indigo light flashed over him and hundreds of drill arrows rained down on the beasts. The leaves were a smoke screen and the arrows struck the beasts. He expected to hear howls of anguish but the arrows tingled the beasts. There was not even one beast that was disoriented by the attack.

Cassie lunged at the five beast and used their size against them. She got underneath one of them and power punched it’s abdomen and it was catapulted into the air. She swiftly dodged relentless attacks one after the other and when the opportunity presented itself she went underneath another beast. It too was projected into the sky as she power punched it’s rib cage. One of the beast signaled another one to attack Giannis and Cassie’s suspicions were confirmed.

The beast charged at Giannis with blistering speed. Giannis held up his right arm and charged up the large drill arrow with indigo spectra. He suddenly thought of how his hundred, small drill arrows didn’t even make them bleed a little and got discouraged. Fear seized him and the beast opened its mouth wide to suck him in. Immediately the beast halted.

Cassie had been studying them and she noticed there was one giving orders and leading attacks. She knew it was the pack leader so she releases a spell. The very same spell she did with the birds at Nara mountain and instantly the alpha saw the little girl from the dream that Cassie had and no longer saw them as a threat. It sent a silent howl to the other beasts and they stopped the attack.

What was the connection between them and the girl?

Cassie played with it and groomed it. The other beasts joined in rubbing their bodies against her. Giannis was still frozen when the beast that attacked him retreated back.

Refilwe was lucky they were fighting in the forest. She was small enough to use trees to avoid the attacks. The beasts were large and at times they were obstructed by the trees from landing attacks. When Cassie cast a spell, they had cornered Refilwe and she was about to use a summoning spell to spread them out through the forest so that they can take them out one by one. She was relieved when she saw the beast no longer engaging her. She didn’t know why so she cautiously followed the beast at a distance and when she saw other beasts playing with Cassie she was very elated. She too joined in and groomed them like they were not trying to kill her a moment ago.

Giannis was still a safe distance away. He’s a dog person but on this day he was not. Seeing the beasts play with them made him miss his dogs even more. The thought that he could have died and never saw them again was like a spear through his heart. A spear tougher than his drill arrows.

As they were playing, another beast went to Giannis and rubbed its leg on him. He was terrified but it reassured him that it wasn’t trying to hurt him. The beast played with him until he let his guard down. An hour later he was riding it chasing Refilwe who was riding the alpha male. They led them to their den and introduced them to eight more beasts. Six puppies and two female adults.

Refilwe cast a spell and parallelogram mark appeared on the forehead of the alpha male. She did that to all the other beasts except the eight they met at the den. They spent the night at the den and that night

Cassie had the same dream again for the third night in a row. Just like the one from the night before, it also continued where the last one left off. The girl told her more about the glyphs and their language. Around the girl were flowers Cassie had never seen before. Before long it was morning and they continued with their hunt. They hugged the beasts goodbye and they went their way. They caught a fresh trail of an impala and tracked it down till noon. Cassie spotted it and signaled to them and they halted. She slowly inched closer to get a better shot. The wind was in her favor. The impala had not caught their scent yet but she still had no shot and was afraid the wind might change direction.

‘I don’t wanna miss this shot because its been so long since we left home.’

‘Amber must be missing me and the quicker we go back home the more time I will spend with her.’ Cassie thought as she was trying to get a clear shot. She took out her bow and three poisoned arrows. She put the three arrows and pulled the bow. The grazing impala raised its head and stared towards Cassie who was standing behind trees. It did not see her but out of instinct it knew danger was fast approaching. Cassie still had no shot but released the arrows anyway.

‘What is she doing.’ Giannis thought.

‘There is not shot.’

Giannis glanced at the arrows intensely as they pierced through the mist.

‘She shot at random because the opportunity was too good to pass on.’ He thought.

He watched the arrows curve around the first tree on the left and danced around the second tree on the right. Giannis was amazed by the arrows as they curved around the third tree, their tails swinging outwards. The wilderbeast did not see the arrows but caught the scent of death coming. It bolted for its dear life but the three arrows were already upon it. They descended on it like they were guided. She anticipated it to bolt so the arrows were going the direction she knew it will run to.

Refilwe and Giannis stood in awe as the first arrow hit through its abdomen, another through the leg as it was in motion and the last one through the neck. It leapt forward wildly in pain and ran out of sight. Giannis was astonished by the way Cassie shot those arrows. He had never seen anything like it before. They followed the blood trail and soon enough they found it dead. Cassie took out her dagger to drain its blood. As she squatted down she felt the presence of someone near them. She glanced at Refilwe and Giannis and she was startled when she saw that their guard was down.

‘How can they not feel this presence of someone.’ She thought while getting up quickly.

She looked around alert for any danger and when the two saw her they too were alarmed.

“What is it?” Refilwe asked curiously.

‘“Don’t you feel this energy?” Cassie replied.

“I have felt this energy before but I can’t seem to get where I felt it.”

Immediately she released a type B wave sensor and as it spread in a one kilometer radius the mist cleared. There was no one present to her suprise.

A beautiful view of hills and fountains watering beautiful flowers emerged from the mist and memories came rushing.

“This presence I felt was from the dream.”

“This is the place.” Cassie said excitedly.

“What place?” Refilwe asked curiously.

“The place I have been dreaming about.” Said Cassie

“Seriously? That means there are people who live here.”

“I doubt, my waves didn’t pick any sign of live except the bees at those sapphire blue flowers and some animals behind that hills.” Cassie said.

“I will go check out that side.” Said Cassie as she was pointing to the side where there were many flowers.

“You go to the other side.”

“Gia stay her and skin the game.”

She remembered that the girl took her towards the flowers as she was teaching her. So she hoped they held a clue. She went towards the hill and realized there were many different colored flowers just like in the dream. There were white flowers, emerald flowers, pink flowers,

and many other colored flowers.

She squatted down and smelled the sapphire blue flower. Immediately she felt a sensation in her eyes. She saw a red flower and when she smelled it, her eyes turned purple. She felt a cold breeze and an immense power flowing through her body. Never in two thousand years had someone’s eyes turned into intermediate colors. And Cassie who never had spectra was the first to unlock this eyes.

‘What are this flowers? And why do they hold such powers? What are this beasts? This mist? Why was I led here? And Who is this girl?”

Cassie overwhelmed herself with questions that she can not answer.

She remembered that her magic picked something that seemed out of place and she thought it must be a boulder.

“A cave is where I’m going to find answers, just like in the dream.” Cassie thought as she was heading to the hills and there it was, a boulder covering the mystery of the thundersmoke forest.

She rolled it over and kindle multiple flames to light up the dark hollow cave. She walked in cautiously and released a wave. It picked what looked like human remains.

She went deep inside convinced it was a tomb. There was more to this tomb though. There we’re paintings in the wall and glyphs that she didn’t know or heard of four days ago. But now she understood them, all thanks to the girl from the dream. She went to see the remains and there she saw two adult remains and what looked like a teenage boy remains. There was no sign of the little girl. She saw a hilt to a sword in one of the remains. She took and held it up. The tilt was charcoal black and had a tanzanite at the end. The blade was made with obsidian steel, inscribed with glyphs. It was forged by a master swordsmith with techniques lost in history. She was never a sword person but something about this sword made her fall in love with it.

She examined the remains and in the hand of one of the remains was a poem.

“The poor is the most generous

The scared is the bravest

The weak is the strongest

The slowest is the fastest

The one without magic is the most powerful”

She then went to interpret the glyphs. They told a tragic story. A story about a time in the distant past where the whole village was destroyed. It reads that the village was a settlement of about 4000 people living happily together until a volcano erupted at the Red lake mountain. A cloud of volcanic ash covered the whole region, as far as modern day Yoshino. This cloud killed many but the creature that rose from the red lake mountain killed even more. It had a figure of man, made of molten ore.

Out of desperation the last men cast spells on their wolf dogs and created the beasts to protect them from this creature. They made another mist spell to counter the cloud of volcanic ash and also to keep the creature away as the mist contained moisture. The flowers made it possible for this powerful spells that lasted a millennium. These flowers are not ordinary flowers but rather stone flowers. Precious stones like sapphires, diamonds, tanzanites, emeralds, lapis lazuli, pearls, moonstones, rubies, opals and amethysts are powerful magic conduits. They increase magic exponentially.

These stones were over mined in the old earth before the world flood so these tribe developed an ingenious way to turn this stones into seeds so they can bear more stones. What Cassie had discovered was secrets kept from the outside world for over a thousand years. Secrets hidden by the mist. What she didn’t know was why they chose her to know about this. And what role she was to play in the future.

She met up with the others and told them about everything she had learned. They tried to smell the flowers but their eyes did not react to the scent. She knew she had to find a way to make them compatible to this flowers and she believed she will. After a while of exploring the area they went back to Yoshino. Along the way they saw beautiful animals and birds that are found only in the thundersmoke forest.

‘I’m going to miss the wolf beast.” Giannis said bitterly

“Me too,” Refilwe replied.

“I miss home.” Said Cassie.

“My dogs must be wondering were I disappearing to.” Said Giannis

“I will sure tell people of your bravery.“ Said Refilwe sarcastically and they burst into laughter.

A day later they made it out of the thundersmoke forest and there was Leo’s ravens in the skies watching them. He alerted the villagers who were at this point worried sick about them. Days earlier the ravens saw them enter the forest and Leo told Raphael and Daniel. Since then they had not been getting much sleep and they were overjoyed when they heard that they were spotted coming out of the forest. They sent a party to meet them on the way. When they arrived they received a warm welcome.

Everything about this reminded Cassie of the day she went after the Dragonsbane. Cassie told the elders of what they discovered in the forest. From the wolf beasts to the stone flowers and everything in between.

They also told her that Uriel had returned with a sapphire stone from Pakresia.