The small gust of wind gently taps on each tree making it rustle and sway. On a cliff, four people settled down on the soft grassy ground having a conversation.
"I've never seen anyone dress like you three do." the ginger-haired girl said pointing at the three seated in front of her.
Shaine gently elbowed Elly signaling him to say something to the girl who had saved their lives.
Elly gulped before speaking. "Th-thank you for saving us back there."
The raise her right hand with a smile. "No problem but I have to ask, what are you doing near the Gorgon mountain?" she asks getting all serious all of a sudden.
Abby blink a few times before asking. "Gorgon mountain?"
The girl nodded and pointed towards the mountain where they suddenly came out, the mountain is pretty easy to spot at a far distance and it's tall, it can almost touch the fluffy clouds floating by.
"Umm, how should I put this.." Shaine started with her fingers playing with each other.
"We were like on top of the mountain then there was this big lizard thing that looks ready to gobble us up so we jumped off the cliff--"
The girl interrupted with her hands waving for Shaine to stop talking. "You jumped off a cliff, from the gorgon mountain?" she ask earning a nod from each of the three.
Their response made her laugh out loud, the three stared at the girl awkwardly with a small gap between their lips.
"I'm sorry haha I couldn't help myself haha." the girl said wiping a few tears away from her eyes.
Abby shyly raises her right hand. "Umm if it's not much trouble, where are we exactly?" she asks eyeing their surroundings.
"Well we're on the edge of the Dark Forest as we speak." the girl answered with a small smile.
The three look back on each other with a questioning look in their eyes, the dark forest is not part of their city or even near it.
"Where exactly is this dark forest located?" Shaine then asks, the girl stares back at her with a brow raised.
"You guys must be from another country not knowing this place. This forest is swarming with magical beasts and demons." the girl said while playing with the string of her bow.
Hearing this made the three gulp with shaking hands.
'Does that mean that there's more of that bunny monster out here!?' their brain all scream.
The girl continued talking." So are you visiting or are you guys on an adventure, or a job request perhaps?" she asked only earning a light shake of the threes head.
She frowned and pointed her bow back to the three.
"Then why are you here?" she asks once more.
Elly look back at his cousin who's staring back at him, they don't know what to answer back. They can't just say that they suddenly appear in a tunnel and then ended up on the mountain.
"We were abandoned," Abby said in a low voice, Shaine and Elly look back at her with questioning faces but decided to go with the flow.
"Abandoned huh?"
Shaine and Elly look back at the girl and nod toward her, making her look at them with pitiful eyes.
The girl grins towards the three before standing up, dusting her strange outfit along.
"I'm Selviah a wizard archer from the GriffinClaw, you three don't have anywhere to go I presume and I would gladly help so if you'd like I'll take you to my guild, maybe Master can do something about you and even perhaps let you join the guild." she happily announced with her hands on her hips.
The three didn't ask any more questions and instead smile towards the girl with the bow, Selviah.
" Let's get going," Selviah said putting her bow on her back.
They begin their journey out of the dark forest, they would stumble upon three to four creatures on the way but each is shot to crystal by Selviah. It was no time at all when they got out of the forest. They are on a steep hill and at the bottom are rows of rice fields and wooden houses.
"Shaine aren't we supposed to be going the other way around, technically we're walking away from the only possible way back to Grandpa's farm," Abby whisper to her sister, Shaine looked worried, perhaps it was a bad idea to follow someone they hardly meet.
"For now let's follow her, if we go back where we came from we may end up dead, for real this time." with that whisper Abby got goosebumps hearing such words from her sister.
Indeed the only safe place to be is near this girl who picked them up.
Shaine slightly taps Elly on his shoulder. "Do you think we can trust her?" she whispered.
"I suppose we can, we don't have any other choice though," he whispered back.
Some villagers were waving at the ginger-haired girl who casually wave politely back.
"She seems to be well-known here, wherever this place may be." Elly quite said enough for Shaine and Abby to hear.
They were walking down this endless tree-lined path after walking through the small village, somehow its the middle of the morning even though it was already around 5 or 6 in the evening.
When they reached the end of the path they ended up on another hill and not too far is a town, no not just a town it's more like a city, but instead of cement buildings, the houses, shops, and such are all made from stone and wood.
"This is the center of Kingdom Eridena, Eden," Selviah said and began walking towards the city, the three gasped.
'This is not in Lakeburgh!!' the trio's brain screamed.
The city was cheerful and peaceful, all the folks have grins on their faces as if nothing mattered in the world. Although the people seems nice they couldn't help but stare at the three newcomers in their city, which were wearing these so-called unusual clothes for the people.
Abby clung onto Shaine's shirt and tried to hide from all the unnecessary stares they were receiving, Elly on the other hand was glaring daggers to boys with inappropriate stares at the girls.
They walked down the streets of shops, although the shop wasn't like the usual shops you can see in malls, there were signs dangling above each door with unusual writings. After a few more streets they stopped in front of a huge building with flags, on top of the big brown double door was a sign with a symbol in plain red of what looked like a griffin.
Selviah walked up to the doors and pushed it open making it bang loudly to the side.
"I'm back!" she said loudly.
"Hey Selviah, welcome back."
"Done the job request already Selviah!"
"Looks like you have some friends with you. "
Different greets were thrown at the ginger-haired girl while she just smiled and waved. The three walked closely to each other while not falling behind Selviah.
"Master Selviah!!"
A boy with silver hair run up to the group, he has bright yellow eyes and a toothy smile. His clothes are rather normal than the others they saw down the streets, he has black pants and gray boots with a blue shirt topped up with a darker blue vest, there's a thin piece of light blue cloth dangling right above his chest which was connected on both his shoulders, on his waist is a gray buckle belt with a pocket on the side.
"Who are they?" the boy asked walking towards the three.
"I forgot to ask your names," Selviah said giggling as she sat down on a table, the three then followed and sat down with her.
"I'm Eleanor, this is Reshaine and Abidale," Elly said pointing at his cousin. Abby shyly wave while Shaine smiled sincerely.
"Hi, I'm Xyndro Clausdine, master Selviahs apprentice." the silver boy happily said but was pushed aside by Selviah.
"Never mind him, he's just a big fanboy of mine," Selviah said in a bored tone which made the three laugh.
"Um, Miss Selviah why are we here again for?" Shaine asked.
"You guys were abandoned right and I'm doing the right thing to keep you safe and alive until you find a way back to which country you came from."
"Helping people in need was always a lesson taught to us by our guild master, and I can't just leave three teenagers in the Dark Forest now can't I," Xyndro said popping out from the side.
"That reminds me, hey Hal is master inside his office? " Selviah yelled towards a girl behind the bar, she was facing the other way cleaning a glass. Her long white hair was covering her back.
"He was called to the Magic Organization to fill up some paper, he may be back by now." the girl said before turning around wearing a sweet smile.
She has pitch-black eyes and fair skin, she wore a simple faded red dress with a white ribbon around her waist.
" That's Halxian Metronite. " Selviah introduced the girl, the trio smiled and waved at the beauty not far from them.
"Why are the people here have such unusual hair colors?" Abby whispered to her sister. Indeed the people inside this building each have different colored hair and eyes, not the normal colors they see every day in their life.
"Oh newcomers." a young girl said as she walked up to the group's table. Soon a lot of people pilled up around the three asking common questions about them, Abby was uncomfortable and not letting go of Shaine's sleeve, she can't handle crowds that much like her sister.
A loud bang echoed through the hall making the people zip their mouths, the three looked at the door and saw an old man, maybe around the age of 50's. He was wearing black pants with black boots, a white shirt topped up with a long black coat that reaches his ankles, and on his hand is a roll of papers.
"Welcome back master." Halxian greeted with a smile to the man.