Lady licked her fingers, smacking her lips to savor the taste of the wild berries she had greedily chomped down into her stomach. She sighed in satisfaction, a grateful smile adorning her face, she lifted her head and squinted at the sun which was now dying down and gracefully setting. She got up, placed her cloth bag on her shoulder and stretched her muscles.
"Let's get this over with" Lady said with determination and took the first step to search for the water body that she was supposed to find.
After a few steps, she realised that her power felt a little shaky and vibrant, it was if she had suddenly entered into an evil unknown that was slowly suffocating her. She wondered why her power was feeling so restless and then carefully glanced around to make sure she had not missed anything.
Lady furrowed her eyebrows when she gathered that everything seemed to be normal around her except that she was not feeling so well and that was when she caught on, maybe it might be because of the berries she ate earlier. Hurriedly, she removed her cloth bag from her shoulders and placed it on the ground, squatting beside it. She opened the bag and took out one of the few wild berries she had saved for future purposes.
"I better be proved wrong" she exhaled and placed the berry she took out onto her left palm.
Lady closed her eyes and hovered her right palm over the berry, slowly she opened her mouth and started muttering a spell, a spell to check whether the fruit was the cause of her restlessness.
Lady finished her spell and then she opened her eyes waiting for the end results of her spell. She held her breath and anxiously waited for the spell to do its job. Then finally, the fruit fell off her hand to the ground, changing colour to a vibrant dark hue of blue.
Lady gasped in shock and fell on her bottom from her squatting position, the fruit wasn't just a fruit, it was a spiritual fruit and even though she didn't know what it meant or what it was used for, she recalled Mai telling her that there existed spirit fruits and they each had their intended purposes, that was why she had taught her the spell so she could use it to decipher spirit fruits from ordinary ones.
Then suddenly Lady felt her head throbbing, her vision started blurring and everything started dancing in circles. She groaned and fell on the floor as her strength started leaving her. She lay on her back, with no ounce of strength left in her body, she was couldn't even open her mouth to spill a single word.
Slowly the world started spinning around her and then it seemed to close down on her. A deep darkness engulfed Lady and her eyes fluttered close without hesitation.
Lady felt her eyelids lifting up slowly after a while and she still felt a little weak though not as weak as she felt before. She tried moving her limbs and she was successful. She then fully pried her eyes open to be met with a harsh golden light. She closed her eyes on instinct and then slowly opened them again, squinting to make them adjust to the golden glow she was engulfed in.
She slowly stood up and looked around her, she seemed to be in a different place as where she was had no subtle similarity to the forest she was in earlier. The place was no doubt a forest but the trees in it were exceedingly tall and beautiful. Their barks were not even like your usual tree barks, they were rather smooth and colourful. Different kinds of birds flocked the skies that looked over the forest. The birds were even different from the normal birds that she was used to. There was no sun and there was no source of light as far as Lady could see but the place seemed to glow golden on its own.
Lady looked down and took a step back, gasping in astonishment when she saw a colorful glowing spider, the size of her fingernail slowly crawling on the forest floor directly in front of her. She heard the loud roar of running water not far away from where she was and she decided to go take a look as her power tugged her to walk to that place.
Lady also then realised that her power was now extremely calm, the type of calm she had never felt before, she felt whole and lifted up to a whole new level. With a smile on her face she slowly walked towards the sound of the water, gazing around her and taking everything she could about the forest, she was going to boast about it to no end to Mai when she got back.
Before Lady realised, she had already reached the banks of the water body. It was a crystal clear stream, that flowed smoothly through the forest. Lady could see it's head winding up into the upper parts of the forest and slowly snaking down to wherever it was going to. Lady squatted beside the water and dipped her finger into the stream. She sighed from the cooling satisfaction she got and when she made a move to place more fingers in, the surface of the stream rippled and then a large crocodile jumped out of the water onto the opposite bank of the stream from Lady.
Lady shrieked in horror and fell on her bottom again but instead of her heart racing and her nerves getting a better hold of her, she found out that she was still unusually calm and she didn't mind it one bit that a giant crocodile jumped out of the water right before her very own eyes.
"Welcome" the crocodile said in a loud deep voice to Lady.
Lady tilted her head to the side in amusement, a little bit shocked as she replied "Thank you"
"Please, would you mind sitting on my back to go see what you are looking for? " The crocodile asked her and slowly walked into the stream, getting close to Lady.
"Of course, I don't mind" Lady blurted out, she wouldn't miss this especially now when she was overly calm and powerful. No, the offer was too good to pass.
"Please, do sit" The crocodile gestured to it's back as it swam closer to Lady.
Lady climbed the crocodile and sat on its back, her fingers slowly gliding over the smooth scales she was sitting on, she expected the scales to be sharp and hard but then again, everything in the forest was exceptionally great. The crocodile then started swimming downwards into the water with Lady on its back.
Surprisingly, Lady did not even try to hold her breath or something, she could perfectly breathe under the water and she was beyond glad. She feasted her eyes on the school of fishes they came across which were obviously not like the usual fishes. After a few moments, they reached the bottom of the water and Lady found herself gazing at a tall gate under the water.
"What you look for lies behind that gate, good luck" The crocodile said and then waited for Lady to get off from its back. Then without a single glance, it swam away leaving Lady in front of the daunting giant door. Lady moved closer to the gate and then with a deep breath, she tugged the gate open. The water didn't enter the gate when she opened it and it was no surprise to Lady, she already anticipated something of that sort. She entered the gate and closed it behind her to find herself in another part of the forest where a large tree stood out amongst the trees present there. The forest here was exactly like the one the crocodile took her from, the only difference was that, this part had a tree larger than the rest in the middle of it.
Lady exhaled and looked around and that was when something caught he eye, she saw a cloth fluttering through the wind behind the large tree in the middle of the forest. With a calm heart and cautious footings she approached the tree. She stopped a few inches from the tree and wondered about what could possibly be at th other end of the tree Could it be the leaf or another trial she was supposed to endure?.
Lady with determination, went around the tree and finally stood at where sg found the fluttering cloth and she nearly gasped even though she couldn't stop her eyes from widening and this time her heart started beating erratically.
A young boy about twelve was laying down on the forest floor, golden clothes adorning his exceptionally handsome features. His beauty was beyond par and he shone like the sun even though it wasn't harsh to Lady's eyes. The fluttering clothes were a just a small figment of his apparel.
"I've been waiting for you" he opened his eyes and smiled at Lady "child of Mai"
Lady's eyes widened more and she became dumbfounded, his voice was even more than ethereal.
"Walk with me" said the boy as he stood up, he extended his hand to Lady.
Lady still dumbfounded, nodded and took the boy's hand. She saw that the boy came up a little to her shoulders, it was if she was walking with her little brother.
"Welcome and I believe we have a long chat" the boy said with a smile to Lady.
And this time Lady got a hold of her tongue as she replied "Thank you"