I hope you enjoy this, it's my first time ever trying to write this type of story so please bare with me. Also, any places mentioned in this story are either made up or randomly mentioned places.

Taya's POV

I was walking through the forest right behind my home when I came across this majestic waterfall. It fell into a lake that was a beautiful sky blue color with this seaweed green kelp under the rippling surface of the lake. There are thousands of tiny fish of all colors swimming throughout the water within their pods. They all swam around freely, living their wonderfully tranquil lives. For awhile I just sat at the edge of the lake admiringly looking at the lush green grass, trees, and wild flowers surrounding the waterfall and lake. I've always enjoyed nature and everything about it. Well, most things, because no matter how much I try or the amount that I'm connected to nature I'm still terrified of anything with less than 2 and more than 4 legs.

I've had this connection with nature since I was a baby. Then when I turned 13 I began to develops my powers. I've been on my own since I could remember, so if it wasn't for nature and its everlasting protection over me, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have survived the last 15 years of my life.

As I sat at the edge of the water deciding that the water looks perfect to swim in I stood up so I could take a dip. I was wearing a flowing lilac colored dress with streaks of white on it. I pulled the dress up and off my head so that I was only standing in my lilac colored underwear and bra. I dipped my toe in the water so that I could debate if I wanted to just jump in or take my time. The water had a warm temperature which I could only guess was from the hot spring that I built my house directly in front of. I decided that I might as well just jump in and enjoy the water, so I stood up took and took a couple steps back.

"Okay here we go, 3 2 1. Go!"

I take the couple of steps and launch myself straight into the water. I usually talk to myself or to any animals that are around because of the lack of people that I usually have around. So as I swim, I make commentary on everything around me.

"The water feels amazing! It's like I'm in some sort of heated water, and I'm just swimming in a huge tub of it. The fish aren't even scared of me, they just keep swimming in circles around me and tickling my feet."

I laugh as the fish continue to tickle my feet and swim around me as if they're trying go start a whirl pool. I swim around in circles with the fish, continuously giggling out of pure joy because of how free I feel to just swim like a fish without any worries. After an hour or two of sitting while watching the waterfall and swimming with the fish I decide that's it's about time that I head back home. I pulled myself out of the water and decided to just walk without putting my dress on because I have nothing to dry off with. I slip my feet into my leaf shoes and start the walk back home.

Once I'm inside, I change out of my dress, bra, and underwear, into clean pajamas. I sit on my bed and from under it I pull out my wooden tablet and stone blade that I've been writing in since I learned to read and write from a passing group of merchants. They offered me ink and paper but I knew I'd run out at some point so I just asked if they could teach me to write with my stone blade. After I traded some of the clothing and scented oils that I've been making since young for some recipe books about food and how to make soap, shampoo, and conditioner. I've been trying to make the different foods and bath supplies for awhile but don't have the same materials that the people in these books apparently have. So everyday I attempt a recipe but try different ingredients to see which would work, but so far I've had no luck. Usually I'd continue testing ingredients for the pie I've been trying to make, but I'm tired after the last few days of building my home, scavenging for food, and exploring the forest behind my home. I put my wood tablet and stone blade back under my bed as I grab my fur pillow and lay down under my leaf blanket. I close my eyes any feel myself drift off into my usual peaceful dreams of nature.

Thomas' POV

The merchants I've been traveling with for the past 8 years are packing their sacks and getting ready to go on a trip into the Trinity Forest. As I'm putting my drawing journal and colorful ink set into my sack Charlie, my best friend that I've know since I first joined this merchant guild, walks up to me.

"Almost got all your traveling gear ready?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, just have to put my cloak, lighter, and pocket knife into my sack." I put everything away and pulled the draw string so that it would stay closed. "There, now I'm ready to go," I said smiling.

"Okay let's go, the guild is already starting to go down the main path. Apparently we're going to divert onto a uncommon path to avoid all of the bandits that have recently been robbing passing merchants," Charlie explained.

"We're going onto a new path?" I asked.

"Yup, apparently the guild leaders voted a few days back and decided that with some of the more valuable cargo that we have, it'd be better if we went off the main road to avoid unwanted attention," Charlie said.

"Anyways, let's get going we both know they'll leave us behind if we don't keep up," Charlie said as we ran to catch up to the rest of the merchants.

Glad your still reading, hope you enjoyed the first chapter and also like this one!

Taya's POV

I wake up breathing heavily and sweating unlike I've ever before waken from my sleep. I sit stunned on my bed still feeling shaky and jumpy from my dream, although it felt much, much more, like a living nightmare. I look around at the familiar surroundings of my home and take deep cleansing breaths to try calming my racing heart. After I'm able to calm my breathing I shiver as I think back to and remember what had happened in my dream.

I was walking down the path that I decided to call 'Serenity Path' thanks to the references the last group of merchants gave me. The path made me feel peaceful and calm as the entire forest seemed to do to me. I continued my walk and as I got closer to the break point of my path and the main path I noticed that the nature surrounding the path seemed to be getting more and more restless. I walked up to a large dark oak tree and placed my hand against it and conveyed the question I kept asking myself into something the tree would understand, 'Please show me what has unsettled all of you,' I waited as the tree took my conscious through its roots, and into the roots of other dark oaks, down the Serenity Path. After taking me 1 quarter of a mile down the path I see a group of merchants in a clearing, but the trees continue to take me further down the path. 3 quarters down the path I see the reason that everything is so unsettled and anxious, including me. A group of bandits is traveling down the path but instead of just walking peacefully like they should, they are trampling through my forest, tearing fruits from trees, killing any animals in sight of them. Then besides all of that, the most horrifying part that causes me to break into a cold sweat and jolt awake is that, behind the bandits is the biggest forest fire I've ever seen.

After reminding myself why I'd woken up so shaken I got out of bed and stood on unstable feet, trying to find balance in what seemed like a tilted world. After taking a few more deep breaths I began my morning routine knowing that today was going to be an eventful day.

After I was done washing my face, brushing my teeth, and eating a small meal of almond nuts and a apple I set off to stop my premonition from coming true. Walking out the door I put my leaf shoes on and started down the path to where my premonition showed me the group of merchants was in a clearing. As I was walking I took note the forest was still calm and completely peaceful which told me I had at least a little time before those bandits started to burn down my forest and destroy everything living in it. After about 10 minutes of waking I finally found the clearing and decided that I would just explain the situation and ask them for help even though I had no idea how I was going to convince them.

Maybe I could just threaten them using my powers, the forest would back me up if it meant that I could save everything. I thought to myself as I walked over to the biggest tent hoping to find the leader of the group.

Thomas' POV

I woke up to people rushing around camp and instead of hearing them taking down their tents to continue our journey I heard them talking about this beautiful almond skinned girl that had came to the camp early this morning to get help with something. Curiously I got up and got dressed after noticing that Charlie had already left the tent and packed his stuff. I put my stuff back into my sack and poked my head out of the tent trying to understand more about what exactly was happening. I watched as more and more of the guild piled into the main tent to get a glimpse of what was happening. Deciding that I was curious to, I got up and walked over to the tent listening to see exactly what was happening inside but only heard murmurs from the men inside along with a girls voice that could be heard clearly above all the others. I walked into the tent to see everyone standing along the edges of the tent staring while the 3 clan leaders and the girl with almond skin and long wavy dark crimson red hair talked. Now I could understand why everyone called her beautiful because even from behind you can tell the amount beauty she must contain. Then only adding to her beauty was her voice, it sounded like a soft, kind, whisper but was loud enough for all to hear without it sounding forced. Everything about her seemed perfect, and I hadn't even seen her face yet.

"Sir I understand that you are on a tight schedule but please, I need your help to stop the burglars from burning down my forest," the girl said sounding a little desperate but in complete control of everything else.

"What do you expect us to do Ms. Taya?" So that's her name, I thought to myself smiling. "We are a trading guild, most of the men here don't know how to fight or have never even held a sword. I'd love to help you but I just don't think we could aid you in any way," Grand Master Drew explained.

"Grand Master Drew all I'm asking is that you help me to disguise the route to the Serenity Path, before, the burglars are able to find it," Taya bargained.

"Wait, your saying they aren't even here yet and they are going to set fire to the forest, but they haven't even come on the path yet? How could you possibly know there plans? And if you figured out their plans from someone doesn't that mean they already know where the path is?" Master Harold question.

"Those are very good questions and most of it is stuff that I'll have to explain another time because if we don't hurry they'll be on this path very soon. But to earn your trust a tiny bit, I'm a magical being with powers that are connected to nature." There was collective gasp at the words magic and powers. "When something bad is going to happen near me or to the nature surrounding me, my magic will send me a warning in the form of a dream. So I need your help to prevent my premonition from coming true." Taya's voice gradually rose slightly during the last few sentences which told everyone just how important this situation was to her.

"Do you expect us to just believe you all because you said that you have powers and are able to tell the future? This could could all be a trap of some kind. Do you expect us to just walk right into it?" Second Master Lee dictated.

"I understood coming here that I may have to show you my magic, so I can do that, but if you believe me, will you promise to move right away to help me? We are running out of time, and if we don't hurry it'll be to late and we'll have to fight our way out." Taya explained in a serious and 'no objections can be made' tone.

"Fine show us your magic, but if we don't believe you please just leave peacefully, and don't try to stop something that is inevitably going to happen." Grand Master Drew said agreeing with Taya's proposition.

Instead of replying to the Grand Master Taya stood up to her full height which appeared to only be around 5'4, spread her arms out to her sides and started to twirl in circles with her eyes closed. Her hair and lilac colored dress flowed out around her making her look even more magical and full of beauty. Everyone was mesmerized by the beauty but snapped out of their trances as soon as they realized that flowers were starting to come from the tent floor, that the room had a slightly warm breeze blowing through it with the scent of lilac floating on it and that the girl was hovering what looked like 2 feet above the ground. Everybody just watched in wonder, admiring the beauty of the magic that this little girl could wield. Finally the wind stopped and the girl floated back down to the ground leaving flower petals all over the ground.

After snapping out of his trance Second Master Lee asked, "Where did you come from? And how old are you?"

"I don't know where I came from, I've been alone except for nature my entire life, only learning about the world through the stories told by passing merchants. Also, my age should not be a factor on your helping me. Now, could you please help me to protect the Forest of Tranquility?" Taya exclaimed and asked with a serious look back on her face.

"We can help, but what will we get out of helping you? We are going to be behind schedule if we help you," Second Master Lee bargained.

"If you help me out I'll show you a short cut out of the forest that is on a safe path, safer than the main path, and I will show you all a place where you can relax and clean yourselves, oh and the water is warm. Is that good enough for you Mr. Lee?" Taya bargained back.

After thinking and conversing with the other masters Second Master Lee said to everyone, "We are going to help Ms. Taya to protect the forest from these burglars and in return she will lead us on a shortcut out and show us a place where we can bathe."

Everybody was happy that we'd finally get to clean ourselves because we'd arrive at a town tomorrow and didn't want to go to any brothels or other hang out places smelling terrible. With our new motivation we all quickly filed out of the main tent, went back to our tents and started packing up.

On my way back to the tent Charlie ran up behind me and swung his arm around my shoulder. After walking for a couple of seconds he finally said, "Did you see her? I've never seen a woman so beautiful! Do you thing that grand master could convince her to travel with us for awhile?" Charlie asked while practically skipping.

"I honestly don't think she'll stay with us." I said watching Charlie's face drop. "I-I mean.... Maybe they could try, but you heard her, the way she says 'my forest' tells you that she doesn't plan on leaving. Plus we usually are traveling through dry lands not forest like this. Do you really think that she would want to travel with us?" I said trying to convince him to accept reality.

At first he just looked down and was deep in thought, but after awhile he looked up smiling. "How about we just convince her to stay?"

I gave him a dubious look, "Exactly what reason would make it so that she would stay with us?" I asked genuinely curious.

"We could make her fall in love," Charlie said simply with his huge lopsided grin.

"No," is all I said as an answer while walking straight into the tent.

"Come on Thomas! She's such a beauty do you really just wanna leave her to die in this forest as a ** for the rest of her life? She doesn't even have to stay with you, she could be mine," Charlie said, sounding more serious than he ever has been about going after a girl.

"No, if she doesn't fall for someone naturally then there's no point, and neither of us love her. We haven't even talked to her yet, so I see absolutely no reason to even start trying," I said trying to stop him before he got to stubborn.

"Fine. But we'll talk more about this later, I'm not going to give up on that beauty just because you say I don't love her," Charlie said huffing, grabbed his bag and walked outside to start taking the tent down.

Taken aback by his 'no nonsense tone' about Taya I just sit there for a second. Finally I remember we have to get moving soon so I grab my bag, put it outside, and help Charlie in silence to take down the tent. Then we set off to stop Taya's premonition from coming true.

Chapter 3: Shifting Hearts

Please feel free to comment and critique whatever you want getting everyone's feedback is a very important thing that will help me to grow.

Taya's POV

I waited in the main tent with the 3 guild leaders while the rest of the guild hurried to pack their supplies so that we could head on our way.

"Is there any way that we could start walking now? Or at least take down this tent so that when the rest are down we can start moving right away?" I asked getting extremely impatient because of the fact they don't want to fight but are making the window between peaceful and chaos smaller with every passing minute.

"Fine. Harlem, Smith, Ernst, and Paul start taking the tent down. As soon as your done we'll start moving." Grand Master Drew quickly demanded.

"Thank you." I say glad that they've finally started to move at least a little. "Is it okay if I walk around and see how the progress of the others is going?" I ask simply curious about the presence of a man among the people that makes me want to just run, hug, and kiss him. Even though I haven't even seen or met him yet.

"Sure but as soon as this tent is down come back over here so that you can show us the path to where you want us to help," Master Harold agreed kindly.

"I'll be back at that time. Thank you again for your help, and we may need to travel quickly because we are really running out of time and if we don't hurry a fight will be inevitable so do please get up and start packing your things instead of sitting there and watching your guild mates do everything for you," I scolded them turning so I wouldn't have to see the surprise on their faces. Then I walked out to see if the rest of the guild had better brains than the 3 of them.

Everyone seemed to be just taking down there tents when I first stepped out but as soon as someone noticed me watching them they would stop their work and just stare at me. After more and more people began to look at me I finally said something. "There is no need to be staring and you should all mind your manners." I said angrily and after no one turned away I turned more authoritative. "You all better hurry and get you tents down, stuff packed, and boots on, because as soon as that main tent is down we are moving. I don't need all of you to help, in truth I only need 5 or 10 of you. So if you continue to be slow and waste my time by getting left behind and staring at me, then be my guest." I was quite proud of myself for saying those things because usually I'm extremely quiet, nervous, and shy around others, especially men. But that one presence among them keeps me calm and in control of my nerves. After my 'short but to the point' speech, everybody finally looked away and busied themselves with the work that still needed to be done. I walked around for a few minutes and after getting bored of still getting stared at continuously I decided that I might as well talk to someone. Just as I was about to choose some random group of people that looked to be ready to go I felt the presence of the man very close to me. After turning in a quick circle I found who I thought to be the man emitting the beguiling power over me. I walked up to the man and someone else that were sitting on the ground chatting purposefully avoiding my eyes when they saw me approach.

I smirked glad that they had taken my speech to heart and were respecting my wishes. "Hi there, I'm Taya. May I know your names?" They looked into my eyes and smiled both reaching to shake my hand.

The man to the right that emitted no power spoke first, "Hey there Ms. Taya, I'm Charlie, it's wonderful to meet a woman as beautiful as you," Charlie said while taking my hand and planting a light kiss on the back. It sent a uncomfortable shiver through me and I pulled my hand back right away forcing when I hoped looked like a genuine smile.

"Wonderful to meet you to Charlie. Oh, and you can just call me Taya no need for the formalities," I said trying to act like his face alone didn't disgust me. Especially with the way his eyes kept gliding up and down my body.

Standing up, the beguiling man to the left took my hand sending sparks up through my arm making me gasp and suck a breath in. He hesitantly leaned down and placed a kiss on the back of my hand just like Charlie except the shiver that went through me was extremely pleasurable. "I'm Thomas its very nice to meet you Taya. Also, um..." He started looking at the ground a light blush coming into his cheeks making me grin a little. "Your-eyes, hair, body-everything-about-you is absolutely, gorgeous-I-hope-you-don't-take-my-comment-the-wrong-way," it sounding like he was rushing to say all of it and did it in one breath. But the effect of him being so nervous made me start to giggle uncontrollably.

"Does it scare you that much to compliment me?" I said grinning, "Is it that my presence makes you extremely nervous?" I take a step closer with only a few inches between our faces, "Or is it that you feel what I'm feeling?" I said quietly while sounding slightly breathless. The groan that comes from Thomas' throat reminds me that I've stepped into his personal space so I take a quick step back and unlatch my hand from his.

After catching his breath and thinking for a second Thomas looks me straight in the eye and answers my questions with answers that only somebody that's been wooing girls for years should say. "The only thing scary about complimenting you, is not giving enough credit to the amount of beauty you have. Your presence does make me a little nervous because I don't know how to react when someone as beautiful and graceful as you is in my vicinity. As for the last question," he says grinning, "You'll have to figure it out yourself," after all the words are out, Thomas seems suprised but pleased with everything that he said.

I was about to respond when Smith, one of the grandmasters main helpers, waved me over, indicating that the main tent is down and everything is packed. "Guess I'll have to figure the answer to my last question out another time," I said grinning at Thomas, "it was nice talking to the two of you and I hope that we can talk again in the future," before they could respond I turned on my toes and skipped back to the grandmasters.

Thomas' POV

"What the hell Thomas?" Charlie says as soon as Taya is out of ear shot.

It snaps me out of the haze that my brain went into as soon as she walked up to us. I was honestly still surprised at how easy it was for me to speak my mind to a girl that I've never even actually met. "What do you mean? All I did was talk to her and answer her questions," I answered Charlie honestly because I really didn't understand what had happened with my confidence myself.

"Dude we both know how much of a smooth talker you can be but it Never happens like that. You completely charmed her. Plus you get extremely tongue tied when you meet someone that's pretty. How'd you manage to speak coherent sentences and still stun her with your compliments?" Charlie says accusingly.

"Char, do you Really think that I talked like that on purpose? If it was any other girl that looked like her I probably wouldn't have been able to say one full word, no way a full sentence. The only thing that kept me from getting tongue tied was the aura that she carries around her and her enchanting amethyst eyes. Just looking into her eyes allowed me to speak my mind without filter or even a stutter." I said speaking without filter again, as if the thought of her aura and eyes put a spell over me again.

"That's absolute bull! There's no way that she has such a strong aura that even your stutter and nervousness went away in like, 2 seconds flat," Charlie stated angrily, "She must've put a spell on you. There's no other explanation for the way she treated me in such disregard and stopped your stupid stutter."

I was stunned by the violent way that Charlie was reacting to the meeting, which only lasted about 2 minutes, with Taya. "Charlie what's with you?" Usually if a girl takes even a little interest in me he'll give up and let me have her, but in this case I see no chance of him giving up.

After looking at the ground for a bit he finally answers, "Taya's the first girl I actually like. So could you just back off and let me have her? We both know that no matter how much you stutter the beautiful girls like Taya all flock to you. So could you just give me this one?" Charlie says this sounding sincere and heart broken, but we both know that the only reason he's acting like this is out of jealousy. "You know what, lets just help her with this mission and sever all ties. Once this is over we can just completely forget this trip ever happened." Charlie says and instead of waiting for me to respond, picks his sack up and jogs to join the rest of the guild.

Might as well go along with it. But I already know that forgetting Taya, is just inconceivable. I'd fight with Charlie if it meant that I'd be able to stay with her. I just hope that it doesn't come down to that. I hope that the relationship between the three of us will at least be friends.