Chapter 2: Unfortunate Circumstances

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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.

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