Eigenheim kingdom

In the southernmost kingdom of eigenheim,on the far side of the valena mountain range, there was a place called the dark rosewood forest. Now this particular piece of land despite its name and the fact that it was a forest far from reaches of the pesky humans, the grouchy dwarves, the arrogant elves and the stupid ogres and thus being entirely invulnerable to the corruption, pollution and defilement that is often associated with them, could not have its name spoken in the same breath with words such as beautiful, wonderful and amazing.

It was not because it was none of these things. in fact it really was beautiful the way the various kinds of exotic and unique trees and plants grew everywhere, how wonderfully the different shades and hues of green and yellow and purple and black came together under the dark canopy of the trees that just could not be compared to the obnoxious and depressing everyday scenes of the cities and towns of the kingdoms. While the scenes of small animals playing around in the grass and among the trees while occasionally coming down to drink water from the sparkling springs on the forest floor were simply amazing.

The real reason why these words were not used to describe the place was simply because the few adventurers who were brave enough to come to this place were never heard from again.

And people, after all being what they are ended up making pretty wild speculations. Some said that a great mountain troll king lived somewhere within the forest, some had the view that there were man eating ancient trees in the depths of the forest while still some others wagered that maybe the forest marked the end of the world and you would just end up falling off xandor if you went close enough to the edge. There was even a little boy who thought that maybe all those heroes and adventurers who went in the forest made a secret base after having seen how beautifully wonderfully amazing kind of place it was and finally realised that it was exactly the kind of place that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives in , away and detached from the hustle and bustle of the cities.

The ironically unfortunate and somewhat amusing thing about all this was that it was only the small boy, after having told his thoughts to numerous adults and being harshly told off and scolded for a theory sounding as ridiculously unheroic and uninteresting as it did, who had got it right.

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The eastern end of the rosewood forest was marked by the great tenesa lake. The lake was one of the seven great lakes of the world, surrounded on all sides by some of the highest mountains of the valena.

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The size of the lake was majestic and awe-inspiring and the land of the rosewood forest made up only a small part of its shoreline. it was home to a vast multitude of creatures, ranging from simple fishes to massive terrifying existences whose names themselves could not be lightly spoken.

It was a place where a large number of springs, small rivers and waterfalls congregated, depositing the crystal clear water in the lake that they had collected from all those snow-capped mountains lining the boundary of the lake.

It was just near one of those unassuming but tall waterfalls, just south of the forest that a most curious scene could be seen on a day just like any other.

There was a cat

Yes, that's right. A large cat of the size of a small tiger with distinct bright green fur, thin red stripes running down the length of its body and intelligent daunting eyes that had a pinkish hue around the red slit-like irises. But it was not the highly peculiar and somewhat frightening appearance of the cat that struck as odd at first glance.

What was odd was that the cat surprisingly enough was trying to climb the steep side of the cliff, off which the water was falling. A simple mistake, a slight slip of the legs would have been enough to plunge the cat straight down for hundreds of meters. It was the kind of climb that would have even made the earth lizardmen living in the great ravines of the saphera kingdom   despair.

The cat was drenched due to the falling water and beads of water were stuck on its coat shining brilliantly like pearls. It climbed halfway up the slope, still unfazed after that difficult ascent and finally stopped on a ridge.

It faced away from the rocky somewhat wet surface of the cliff and looked down. The time was  around that of dusk, the sun had almost reached the horizon on the other side of the mountains and the cliff side was crawling with shadows, growing longer by the minute. The low light played tricks on the eyes showing large silhouettes looming from time to time on the surface of the lake. The falling water on the rocks sounded pleasant to the ears, clearing and calming the mind.  

The cat stood there for a while almost as if to take in the view. Then it shook its head a little and suddenly sprang into the waterfall against the full force of the water. The impact of thousands of litres of water falling from the top of the cliff would have been enough to plunge the cat straight down. But nothing like that happened.

The cat had disappeared.

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