Chapter 3 - Into the Trees

I glanced over my shoulder and saw the familiar shape of the rider, general tarvis, hot in pursuit of us down the road from the capital city. Sakura paid no heed to him and sent the horse into higher gear, with the spires of the forest trees looming closer to us. As I looked forward again, I could see something huge and black on the path ahead of us, and I shouted loudly to Sakura. “There’s someone on the road!” Whatever the person was, it was so huge that it made the horse come to a screeching halt, flinging us from the saddle. As we hit the dirt with resounding speed, the horse we had ridden on had begun to bolt back towards the capitol in fear. I looked up silently from the ground as a new pair of hooves trotted towards where I lay, each hoof fall making my spine shiver with dread. Moving my eyes upward, I met the face of the rider with rotting flesh, making my blood run cold when I met his icy gaze. Sensing my fear, the rider, General Tarvis, smiled in a chilling way, the bits of skull making the smile look menacing. “So you are one of the women that stole the old swords, or at least, your companion did. But you, you come from a very far off place….”

My eyes grew wide over how the general could know that I came from far away, so far away that it was another world. My voice slightly choked in fear as I spoke to him. “You know that?” The general let his smile slip and scowled at me with his rotting face, perhaps trying to intimidate me in some way. “The High Priestess foresaw a girl would fall into Hygar from very far, and  that the girl would try to shake the world's balance, and….” He fixed his eyes on me, staring deep into my very soul with them. “She said that the one with hair as white as snow would try to usurp the laws of this land and place her as the savior. As such,” He drew his long black longsword and pointed it at me with his menacing stare. “You must die before that dream becomes reality.” Just as he was bringing the vile blade down upon my head, a booming voice shouted.

“Hey, aren't you forgetting someone General?”

Tarvis withdrew his blade and looked over to his right, speaking with a deadly hiss. “Ah, you are the other female that the late incompetent captain was unable to catch. What business do I have with a child like you?”

Sakura walked up next to me and I could see a large gash under her left eye, causing her to have blood roll down her cheek. Speaking without respect to the general, Sakura spat at him.

“I don’t know what your Priestess thinks, but the girl is the least of your worries. Don’t you want this?” She held out the old rusted sword and swung it back in forth in her hand, like a bit of candy in front of a child. Tarvis reacted a bit to the sword and looked down at Sakura with disdain. “The old sword of legend, yes, we require to have that back with us.” Walking away from me now, Sakura led the sight of the General with her. As I watched her taunt him with the sword, I felt a finger tap me on my shoulder.

“So you want this sword and the girl dead, yes?”

“That is the general plan, yes.”

“Then,” Sakura lead him along, baiting him with the sword to follow. “Then how about we make a trade. I give you the blade and the girl lives? She won’t be able to bother anyone without that sword, certainly not enough to bug your Priestess.”

Tarvis stayed silent for a moment, thinking over the proposition in his mind, calculating what was the best option for him. Making up his mind, he spoke again to Sakura with a hint of pleasure in his voice. “Very well, the girl may live. So give me the blade woman.” He held out his left arm and opened his palm to Sakura , who in turn dropped the blade in it. Laughing in content, the dark general rapidly pulled his longsword out again and stabbed Sakura point blank in the chest, causing her to lie lifelessly on it as the blood spluttered from the wound.

“Foolish woman, you really think I would make a deal with you?”

The sword in the General’s hand suddenly vanished and he reacted a bit when another voice spoke up to answer him.

“No,” Said Sakura, the real Sakura that had tapped my shoulder earlier as her copy baited the General away long enough as we made it to the edge of the treelines. Tarvis angrily spat over being tricked and pulled his blade out of the lifeless copy as he hissed. “You are quite the little tactician. I should have killed that girl when  I had the chance, but I am a greedy man…”

Sakura pulled me into the trees and gracefully flicked her hand to the side. “I just don’t like getting killed by rotting men, sorry. But now that we are within the confines of the forest, you are unable to give chase.”

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General tarvis made his nightmarish steed move forward towards the treeline, making me fear that Sakura was wrong. Suddenly stopping a few inches away from us, the general looked down on us with his horrific eyes. “I am unable to come after you because of the ward placed on the edge of the forest, a ward the keeps beings such as I out. But I wouldn't feel too safe inside that forest of yours,” The general’s horse began to slowly trotting away, but not before he could let his last words sink into our hearts. “The Priestess’s magics are strong, and before long that ward will be destroyed. You have only endangered the Elves that  dwell deep in the forest. As such, prepare yourself for my return women.”

General Tarvis proceeded to vanish into the night, leaving us alone at the edge of the dark and quiet forest. Sakura was about to say something, but I stopped her by quickly hugging her tightly.

“Thank you.” I whispered, glad that we were both alive after the encounter with the rotting general. “You saved us from that...that rotting general!”

Sakura was happy to hear me thank her, but she pulled away from the hug. “Don’t thank me yet Hana, we still have a very long way to go before we reach the city in the tree’s.”

“How much farther is it?” I inquired, hoping the city of Elves wasn't too far away from where we stood. “The forest is very large, and on horseback it would have taken half a day, but now.” She snapped her fingers and brought a magical pin prick of light, making the dark forest seem a little more inviting. “It could take us about eithteen hours of walking, maybe more depending if something tries to stop us in the process.” She looked over at me with her usual friendly smile and pointed her hand forward. “We should try to walk a few hours, then find a place to sleep, okay?”

Nodding my head, I followed her as we plunged into the giant forest, with nothing but the light Sakura had created as a guide. Looking up to her as we walked side by side, I could still see the wound under her eye leaking blood. “Does it hurt?

“Hm? What hurts?”

“Your wound on your cheek, does it hurt?”

Looking down slightly, she muttered to herself. “Yeah….just a little. Being thrown from a speeding horse can sure do a lot to wreck a perfect face…”

She stopped walking when I brought a hand up to wipe the blood away carefully. Blushing, Sakura quietly gruffed at me in annoyance. “W-What do you think you're doing?”

“Getting the blood off of your perfect face. Unless you like old blood sitting on your face….I thought it would be nice to wipe it away for you.”

She annoyingly spoke to me as her face turned red. “I-I can do that by myself! You don’t have to do that for me!”

I just smiled and brought my hand to pat her shoulder.

“Whatever you say.”

She just huffed at me and picked up her speed, forcing me to run after her into the dark of the forest.

“Ah! Wait up!’

xXx

It seemed like it had been hours, or maybe just minutes, but we were still walking the dark forest to make it to the city of the Elves. I knew all of that, but my stomach decided to be the first to complain over the long overdue food it needed.Hearing my growl and subsequently making me feel ashamed, Sakura stopped her walk and looked at me.

“I should have guessed one of us would get hunger pangs at some point.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Nothing to be sorry about, I feel a few hunger pangs myself.” Sakura spoke to me with sympathy, not upset over the want for food. “You're only human after all, so it's natural to need some food sooner or later. We can stop for the night I suppose…” She guided to me to a smaller area of grass off of the side of the road and made me sit down. “You take it easy here for a bit and I will go find some food to force feed you.”

I looked at her a little bit puzzled and confused over why she would want to force feed me. “Why...why do you need to do that?”

Sakura laughed as she split the small light and left it, leaving as she did. “Because I doubt anybody has done that to you…”

She got to far away for me to hear the rest and respond ,so I layed back on the grass and peered at the trees above me. “So we have made it to this forest, but now we have to keep walking to make it to these Elves….” I thought to myself as I clung to my cloak for warmth, trying to keep the cool air of the forest out.

“That rotting man said he would be back soon…..but how soon? Was he telling the truth or lying to us? And who is this priestess that rules the land? How come she has not touched to forest the Elves live in? He said she has magic….”

It seems strange to me that with the aid of a rotting general, that an all powerful priestess could simply not lay a finger on the forest. But more than that, the title “High Priestess” for a ruler of the lans made me think harder. From what I had seen and heard in my old world where I came from, someone with that title belonged to a religion or cult. “Could this woman have some deity she worships? There has to be some reason to be called a High Priestess after all!”

If there were deities in the land I had fallen, then that means that something more was at hand than what I had seen with my eyes. After seeing a man on top of a rotting horse, something that rotted like him, anything seemed possible. As I pondered on the world I was in now, a old and haggard voice of laughing broke my thoughts. Lifting my body up, I locked my eyes with an old looking woman in tattered clothing, her finger pointing to me as she laughed and called my name.

“Come to me Hana……Everything will be alright……..I will take you to the Elves...”

End Chapter 3