“Ha!” I jump up in a fighting stance,

……

(Wait..)

Then scenery has changed,

Gone am I from being surrounded by trees to some wooden walls…

A bright ray of sunlight passes through a pane-less window,

Below me is a soft bed of hay which I was laying

(Wasn’t I caught from some creepy looking people?)

“Hello!” says a high pitched voice followed by tap behind my shoulder,

I swing a punch behind at once, not taking any chances with whomever, this is

“Woww, calm down,” some mossy green eyes glimmer at me,

“What are you?” I ask pulling back my fist

Across from me is a ‘thing’ whose skin is a pale white-green, the texture of an onion, it’s oval shaped eyes looks at me earnestly, it’s pointy ears twitching constantly as they currently hear something I cannot,

(A plant person?)

“My name is Sprite, I am the personification of the forest,”

“The what?”

“All the trees of the forest are alive, I am the only one who can assume a humanoid form,

I’m sort of like the spokes person for everyone,” Sprite puffs their chest out proudly saying that,

(I knew those trees were messing with me on purpose)

“Ok, Sprite, sorry about attacking you before,” I extended my arm in apology

“That’s alright champ,” Sprite slaps my hand away friendlily,

“Say Kage, are you boy or girl?”

“I don’t think I’m either, but how do you know my name?”

“You’re just like me then” grins Sprite,

“But you can still address me as a girl since I represent a part of mother nature, plus I sound girly don’t you think?”

“How do you know my name Sprite?” I ask again,

“Jeez, you’re awfully pushy you know?

Himari told me, ‘Take care of Kage until he gets up,'

You looked like a human woman so I wanted to ask you if you were a girl or boy, but you only want to ask how I know your name,

I mean I was going to answer, but I like to have conversations first, meanwhile you just want to get straight to the point,

I don’t get much chances to talk to people you know,”

(What a talker she is)

“Himari told you to take care of me you said, is she here?”

“Mhmm, but she’s out now, she left this morning to get her husband,

You know I was surprised when you fell out of that tree last night,

Were you being chased by the Velociraptor?

Was that your ship that explode on snakeway?”

“Yes, yes, and Himari has a husband?”

Starting to feel a little less tense, I turn away from Sprite, going to the small window in the wooden shack,

(Woah)

“Is that your first time seeing our sky?” Sprite sidles up next to me,

The soft blue of the sky I had gotten used to now is nothing compared to the sky I see now,

Instead of blue the sky is a fluctuating spectrum of colors, like a sky rainbow.

(It feels so fantastical)

From Danté’s memories the first ring was a cold industrial place not a beautiful mesh of nature and magic I’m seeing now…

“Hey Sprite, is this really the firs—Terra?”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Of course, it is, this is just the Venus quadrant, a large forest filled with many animals,

The other three quadrants are, Jupiter, the mountainous region, Mercury, a large grassy plain with a many lakes, all types of crops grow there, and Mars, a rocky cave-y cost, is where most mining and ore refinement is done,

There is only one country/city here and that’s Pluton, it’s in a cold wintery region in the center of all four quadrants, it’s a very industrial place,

I don’t recommend going unless you need to,”

“You like talking a lot Sprite?” I reply still looking up at the rainbow-like sky,

“Yes, I do,” Sprite says this proudly as though talking too much was a unique skill she’d learnt

“I listen to the other trees a lot, and hardly get a chance to speak for myself, so allow me to talk a lot right now,”

“…….” Instead of replying I look out at the area outside the hut,

We seem to be in a small clearing deep within the forest, trees presumably surround us from all sides,

A good place to provide cover from attacks on land or aerial, and that’s without factoring the trees being able to send back warnings to Sprite

(A pretty secure system)

“So are you going to ignore me now” Sprite attempts to pinch me but her grassy hands barely even tickle me,

“I was assessing something in my head,

Why you acting like we are companions, we just met?”

“I treat everyone like companions as long as you don’t harm the forest,”

“Or what?”

“You will be killed obviously–you know Kage for someone who asks a lot of questions you sure don’t like conversations,”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s counterproductive dontya think?

Going around asking why, how, what and where gets you less information than if you simply started a regular conversation, you learn so much from speaking causally than asking for direct answers,”

(……)

“What if I don’t–

–Ok, Sprite, let’s have a conversation then,” I cut myself off

“What do you want to talk about,” Sprite grins widely her mouth has a sort of animated look that I can’t tell if those are teeth or something else….

(What should we talk about…?)

“The sky, it’s colorful, I like it,” I start off

“That’s because our sky is filled with the entire spectrum of magic,”

“A magic sky huh, the skies on Tellus and Gaia are just plain blue, Gaia has a more mystical blue and Tellus has a soft light blue, they both still have clouds though,”

“You mean those gassy thingies?” Sprite asks curiously to which I nod in response

“We don’t have clouds here, since all our elements convert through magic,”

“Like evaporation and such?”

“Yeah, Instead of water evaporating it just changes to water magic an goes to the sky,”

“Where do you think all the magic goes?”

“It’s any body’s guess really, I heard that only the supreme leader knows,”

“Hmm, you know something Sprite…

I like looking at the sky, it’s pretty,”

“Ha, you know something Kage,

I like looking at the sky too,”