A shorter one and not super focused on Aisha and Rainen but I decided that it would be a good side story. You guys can expect two chapters tomorrow, if it doesn't happen then feel free to yell at me in the comments or something.
I haven't been updating as much this week because of some homework and just me not having enough me time. No, not that me time. I just haven't been able to enjoy myself as much, you know. Like watching videos and hanging out with friends.
I enjoy writing but sometimes I'm just not feeling it. Still love it though, always makes me feel good to write a chapter. Anyways, blame it on the homework, essays are hard and boring. Mostly because I'm a little lazy but anyways! Enjoy the chapter guys!
Happy Halloween and what not.
--------------
He woke up in the middle of the night. Swinging his head from side to side, he wanted to check if he was alone. Just the day before, his girlfriend had just told him a story about a long long time ago, where there were a group of monsters that lived inside of a blue forest that stole children away at night.
"Do you know the story about the blue forest and child stealers?" she asked him with a devilish grin. Her right hand was pressed against her cheek, as if it were a big secret.
He shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, sure. It could be interesting." his girlfriend, Reida, always said interesting things. So, he always waited patiently as she told her stories, despite her less than amazing story telling skills. He was quite eager for this one too, his younger siblings had been bugging him to tell them another story.
"Fufufufu." she covered her mouth. "There once was a demon who came into this world. It held incredible power, so much so in fact that dragons came to deal with it. In a three on one battle it ultimately lost but not without taking two dragons down with it." she looked over to gauge his reaction.
"Go on." he said interested. Dragons were some of the most powerful beings on the planet, being only matched by a few other monsters such as Navacks, the monsters that were in the great war 500 years ago.
"So, the demon, after being heavily wounded, turned an entire forest into its domain. The green leaves turned anywhere from a dark navy blue to turquoise. The grass was covered in a whitish tint, like frost, and the flowers started to glow with a bright blue sheen." she put her hands up in the air to demonstrate the change.
"So that's the blue forest down." he stuck his finger out. "Now about the child stealers please."
She swatted his hand down, "I'm getting there. Just hold on." she put her hand up to emphasis. "When I say child stealers, the age ranges anywhere from a newborn to fifteen."
"You're just saying that to scare me." he said.
"Shut up Lester and let me tell the story."
He put his hands up, "Okay."
"Here's where the forest ties in. There's a village, built hundreds of years later near it. The people there lived normal lives, that is, until their children are stolen. Every year, around this time, the children grow sick, and lay in their beds."
"Well yeah. Of course they're sick, it's getting colder and the kids need to stop playing outside."
"Are you going to listen? I get that you don't want your two siblings playing outside so much at night but seriously, don't interrupt me."
He held his hands up again and stepped back.
"The parents go to work and live their daily lives, leaving their sick children at home. But when they return however, the children are no longer there. Gone. Disappeared without a trace. The adults of the village grew suspicious of the disappearances so they waited outside another child's house."
"Let me guess-"
"No." she shook her head. "The adults who understood what was going on hid inside of the house, in closets and under the beds. From what I've heard, there's one monster that comes, it's face is a dark leathery brown. It stands at seven feet tall with two horns growing out of its head, long scaly legs, with its ankles up high like a flamingo. Six thin arms sprout from its sides, a tail, and two glowing green eyes."
She took a breath. "When the adults saw this, they couldn't move, they were paralyzed with fear. The monster spread its six arms wide and descended on the bed, it closed its arms together and the floor and bed cracked. The next instant they were gone. No trace to be found. Apparently, when they looked around again, they saw large foot prints leading from the forest."
"Eh. Not bad, it's interesting but not very scary."
"Unless you saw one." She said.
"Well, I don't live arou-*Cough Cough Cough*" His body jerked forward and shook violently.
"Better watch out," she said tapping the side of his leg with her boot. "you might be next."
"Ahahaha." he laughed sarcastically. "I'll be leaving now. See ya Reida."
"Bye Lester." she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
He started his walk home. He passed by dozens of houses on the way, he lived near the outskirts of the village by the woods. The village wasn't anything special, the only thing that distinguished it from other villages were the merchants that constantly came and the stone path.
Lester's eyes darted around at the slightest movement. Lester couldn't believe it, there's no way that he would be scared by that story right? He kept denying the thought, there's no way that his girlfriend could scary him with one of her stories.
He passed by the rowdy tavern, his mind faltered for a second and came to a stop. He tensed up every muscle in his body and propelled himself forward, he didn't want to drink or anything, he just wanted to escape the dread following him by surrounding himself with other people. Lester knew, however, that he couldn't stay out too late, his parents had wanted him back before ten. Usually he didn't have a curfew as they trusted him, but recently they had to be gone longer and Lester had to watch over his siblings.
He didn't particularly mind, during the daytime he could leave them alone, his parents were fine with that, but he had to be the one to send them to bed at night.
Seeing the house come into view, Lester quickened his steps. Sitting down, right next to the door were his siblings. His little sister sat down next to his younger brother and together they drew figures on the ground.
"That's not fair!" she yelled. "You can't erase my picture just because it's better than yours you jerk!" she threw the stick down on the floor as she saw Lester and ran towards him.
"Big brother!" she jumped into his arms and he picked her up. "Rainen was being mean! He broke my drawing!" she complained.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Lester knelt down and looked at his younger brother. He stood with a stick in hand, his body was slightly angled away, his face was red and he was pouting. Lester let Aisha down, put his hands on his younger brother's shoulders and turned him.
"Rainen." he said.
"I know. Sorry." he mumbled and dropped the stick.
"That's alright. Aisha, do you forgive him?"
"Mhm." she crossed her arms and nodded in a taunting manner but was ignored.
"I have a new story for you guys so go inside and sit down okay?" he waved them inside. They both ran inside, completely forgetting their earlier conflict. Lester waited there for a moment trying to recall the memory, a mistake. From the corner of his eye, he saw movement again.
His body locked up and he couldn't move for a moment.
"Are you coming?" Aisha yelled from the living room.
"Y-yeah!" he yelled back and ran inside.
While the both of them sat down on the couch, Lester stayed standing, veering out the windows looking for something. He made sure to light the lamps and lanterns around the house, the room that they were in was lit brilliantly, easily radiation out into the dark barren night. Someone looking in from the outside would think that they were having a party, there was no reason for so many lights to be on unless they were eating or had guests over.
Fighting the constant urge that pushed his head to look out the window, he calmly, or so he thought, told them the story about the blue forest and creature.
*Cough Cough*
"UWAAAH!" Aisha threw her hands out.
"UGH!"
"H-hey, don't push Rainen off the sofa. He could get hurt."
"B-but the monster's gonna come for him!"
"Still..."
"Hehe. Don't worry about it." getting up he brushed himself off. "It's not a true story... right?"
Lester leaned over and rubbed his little brother's head, "Yeah, Reida just told me it today to mess with me. I'm sure it's not real.
------------
Aisha pulled her covers over her face. Her whole body shivered as she listened to the sound that her brain made for her. The imaginary bumps and creaks lead her force herself out of bed. As soon as her feet touched the ground she went into a mad sprint for the door, a chill went down her back as she rushed out and made it into her older brother's, Rainen's, room.
"WAAAHH!" she screamed as she jumped onto his bed, bouncing up and down for a second.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" he also screamed. "Take my sister!" his hands thrashed around and got tangled up in the sheets, rolling off onto the floor.
"I-it's me." Aisha said frantically. "T-the monster, I heard it outside!" she looked back through the open door and into the darkness. She really wished that she had closed the door. Her childish mind drew a figure from the empty shadows, one with six long arms, a tail, and horns.
"I-it's coming." she said, her teeth chattering.
"We have to tell big brother Lester!" he yelled as he finally untangled himself. "Run!" he closed his eyes and ran from the room, and nimbly turning the corner.
"W-wait for me!" Aisha hopped off the bed and also ran out, but instead of turning, she ran head first into the wall. "UWAH!" she rubbed her throbbing forehead. The terror she felt was lost for a second, only a second. In the next moment she got up and started running for Lester's bedroom.
Both of them busted through the door, sending Lester into a big shock.
"W-what are you guys doing here?" he asked, relief rushing through him as he realized that the intruders had been his siblings.
"The, the, the monster's here!" Aisha yelled as she and Rainen climbed onto the bed.
"Why didn't you close the door?" Lester said peering into the darkness. He struggled to find his lamp, constantly knocking it over when he finally felt it. He brought it over and lit it with his fire magic.
"G-go beat it." Rainen suggested.
"With what?"
"Your magic! You're the only one who can use it right now! Blast it away, you can do that right?" Rainen said glancing up hopefully, he was pinning everything on his older brother.
"M-my magic is no good, no good. I'm gonna need your strength here Rainen, why don't you go and get that door for me?"
"What? No way! You go! You're fifteen!"
Right as he said that, the door creaked to the side, leading to a more open door frame. The huddled together in fear. What would be coming for them? Lester mustered his courage, as the eldest one, while his parents are away, he has to take care of his younger siblings.
His foot touched the ground and he took off, making his way for the door. He slammed it shut and sprinted back onto his bed where he joined them again in the corner.
"Uwaaah. I don't wanna be eaten before my fifth birthday." Aisha said burying her head into Lester's side.
He didn't quite remember saying anything about being eaten. He was going to correct her but stopped, just disappearing was bad enough, maybe people really did get eaten after that. He psyched himself out, once again too afraid to keep his eyes off the door.
They sat there huddled together in the corner waiting.
------------
"We got back early, can't wait to surprise the kids with the new stuff we got." A tall gruff man with black hair said to his wife.
"Yeah. I hope Lester's been keeping those two under control." his red haired wife responded, fluttering her dark eyelashes.
"I'm glad that we made it back before Aisha's birthday." he said.
"We would've made it back before the first even if that last meeting did to astray." she responded.
"Well, you know, we gotta keep up appearances. Don't want people thinking that we're neglectful parents."
The opened the door into their large house, larger than most of the other houses at least.
"Lester! Rainen! Aisha! We're back!" he yelled. No response. Thinking it kinda odd, Rowan and his wife, Ayleth, went through their rooms. Both Aisha's and Rainen's were empty.
"You don't think..." Ayleth said looking at Rowan.
"No." he shook his head. "Of course not. Lester would never be that irresponsible... right?"
They quickly made their way into Lester's room, upon opening the door, they saw the three sleeping together. Both Rainen and Aisha were resting their heads on Lester's chest, his arms wrapped around them.