"Ms. Helen you mustn't push yourself, you're still injured remember!" Xera tried to reason, as she supported Helen back to her bed.
"Her wounds have already healed, your majesty, but because of the magic barrier she did to save the armies her body is struggling to recover." The doctor informed.
"I got to say the explosion is great," a nurse spoke, "if Ms. Helen haven't cast the barrier most of the armies would have been dead right now."
"No! I must try! I casted a tracking spell at Mayari, I must know were she is." Helen argued through hoarse voice.
"But your still recovering-" Xera tried again but was cut off short.
"I must, what if she is in injured or worse! My barrier didn't reached to her or Evan so they got blasted and I'm sure Evan's energy is low by that time because of the fight."
"We saw it, Ms. Helen. Evan successfully cast a magic barrier to protect-"
"But they got blasted, we need to find them fast – ouch!" Helen suddenly felt pain all over her body.
"See, Ms. Helen. You must rest," Xera gently push Helen back to her bed, "once you recover we will track them and Evan is there, he's the crowned prince of Enchantia, the next future king. I'm sure they are alright."
"I know..." Helen quietly replied, "but why do I have this unsettling feeling that they are... in danger..." Helen said holding her aching head and wearing a very worried face.
"You must be tired, please do rest, Ms. Helen."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Have the searching team found anything?" standing up Carlos ask to the knight bowing low in front of him.
"I'm deeply apologize, your majesty, but they haven't found them or anything that leads to their location" the knight before hi responded, "But don't worry your majesty we will cover more grounds and keep on searching until we've found Ms. Mayari Alverno and Prince Evan of Enchantia."
"Keep on searching, you're dismiss."
The knight bowed once again and left to his way.
With a long face King Carlos stumbled to his throne as he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in disappointment.
"This is a catastrophe, the Spring of Remedy got smash by a giant ball of ice due to Aria's destructive act it can be repaired but it will take some time, half of my soldier died and others are greatly injured, we don't know what's happening to the the Dragon of Myrim Aria and now we couldn't find both Evan and Mayari." Carlos mumbled to himself in frustration, "What is happening?"
"Nino!" Carlos called out, then came Nino who is also wears a face of frustration and anxiety.
"Yes, your majesty." He replied.
"I want you to send a report to the Kingdom of Enchantia of our current situation," Carlos instructed, "we must call them for backup to quickly find Prince Evan and Ms. Mayari."
"I will, right away your majesty." Nino bowed then started walking to deliver a report.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile...
-In the Searching Team lead by Prince Fernando of Enchantia-
"Did you find anything?!" Fernando asked to the members of his searching team as the storm of ice and snow continued to get blown by the wind in a thick snowy land.
"Nothing, your highness." Replied by a soldier.
"Your highness, the storm is getting worser and our snow dragons and fierns can't handle another distance anymore, we must take shelter and rest for now."
Fernando thought of it for a second, he really wanted to find Evan and Mayari but there is nothing to gain if they continue on in a storm like this. They must take shelter first and rest to gain the energy to keep going, "You're right. Take shelter! We must rest for now and let the storm pass by." He instructed.
'Evan, Mayari... wherever you both are, please be safe. We'll find you soon.' Fernando prayed as he pulled his fiern to a halt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-In the Yuver Forest-
Above the trees, Evan is flying with boost speed, passing by trees after trees in great numbers, trying to find a way to get out of this curse forest. But even though how far away he flies all he could see is endless trees and he always arrived at the same place he left.
He landed again at the same place he left, in panting breath he sat down on the white virgin snow, 'This is the 15th tries already... and I still have no results or any improvements in this method' Evan though, 'looks like I need to find another way'
"It's your 15th tries already" A cold feminine voice suddenly came from behind him. Evan then slightly turned his head and found Mayari. "We've been here in this forest for a week already and that you're doing is a waste of energy, your highness."
"What can we do? We don't know about this forest or its curse," Evan replied with a chuckle, he felt like an idiot, "this forest is already a thousand years old so everyone hardly knew its history." And Mayari just stared at him in silence.
"By the way, how's your wound?" Evan asked.
"It's still healing..."
Suddenly, Mayari heard a whisper from behind her that made her head spun like lightning. Still the same, the whisper is too quiet to hear, that she couldn't understand what it is saying. She's been hearing this for the pass week that made her wonder 'are they truly alone in this forest?'.
'Whispers again... what does it truly means.'
"Mayari... Mayari! Are you alright?" Evan's voice knocked Mayari off from her thoughts.
"...Yes, I'm fine." She turned to Evan and replied, "I just need to do something." With that Mayari was about to leave.
"You're hearing whispers, aren't you?" Evan asked, and that made Mayari's feet stop walking.
"Yes... your hearing it too, aren't you?" Mayari replied.
"I've been hearing it for the pass seven days, it's hard to understand it though since it's too quiet."
"Same also for me. What do you think it is telling?"
"I don't know but don't keep your guard down we're definitely not alone in this forest."
---
The river in the Yuver forest. this is where Evan first heard the whispers. Eager to know what does it tell he decided to focus his attention just to hear the whispers clearly.
Sitting near the beautiful river, he slowly breath in and out. Then closed his eyes and sharpened his hearing. Everything was quiet beside from the gentle noise of a coursing river that is lift by the air to Evan's ears. There are fishes in the water just swimming to where the current takes them and there are shiny rocks glistening beneath the sun's ray.
After hours of hearing the sweet harmony of peace, finally the whispers came. It's still too quiet to be heard clearly and it keeps on repeating and repeating, on and on, and it is becoming louder and louder, volume after volume.
If you want to leave this place,
Present yourselves to our grace
Follow the trees of snowflake
And it will lead to a lake
In the heart of this curse forest
Call the name of our Goddess
History will be unraveled
That no one had discovered
Fate will lead you to your way
Heed our words and this we say;
"If you both want to survive
give true meaning to her life"
The words of the whispers are clear now. But the whispers aren't only said by one, it has been said by many, multiple voices both feminine and masculine with different unique variety. Evan now understand, the whispers he and Mayari keep hearing is a message from the spirits of the Forest.
"Prince Evan?!" A calling of him suddenly broke Evan's concentration, the whispers stopped and his eyes instantly bolted open. "Prince Evan?! There you are." Mayari came holding a glowing piece of ice like crystal.
"It's already nighttime and you haven't come back to the cave, so I thought your dead or something." Came Mayari's cold attitude.
"Oh... its nighttime already?" Evan quickly look at the sky. It's dark alright. He haven't notice that how many hours pass by since he started listening to the whispers.
The sky is dark, scattered with thousands of pixie dust twinkling so bright. The crescent moon was just beside with its faint light but with the white virgin snow beneath the sky and above the cold earth the moonlight bounce from glow to glow just like daylight. The river is glistening as the light from the starry heavens continued to stroke its flowing water and the rocks are shinning like pearls as always, night or day.
"Why do I always forget how breathtaking this scenery is?" Evan asked himself with a smile as he gaze at the beautiful painting of nature.
"All beauties have dark secrets, we already knew this forest's secret and that's it is curse so don't let it's beauty blind you, your highness." Mayari replied.
"We're the only one that knows each other in this forest, Mayari, so I gladly appreciated if you just call me Evan for now."
"Aright then... saying "your highness" all the time is quite a pain anyway." She commented as she sat down beside Evan.
"By the way, Mayari, I have heard the whispers clearly." Evan informed.
"What does it say?"
"It came from the forest spirits, I think their telling us a hint how to get out of here;
If you want to leave this place,
Present yourselves to our grace
Follow the trees of snowflake
And it will lead to a lake
In the heart of this curse forest
Call the name of our Goddess
History will be unraveled
That no one had discovered
Fate will lead you to your way
Heed our words and this we say;
"If you both want to survive
give true meaning to her life"
That's what they say"
"So they want us to journey to the heart of the Forest."
"And to present ourselves to the Forest Goddess."
"Looks like we will be exploring this Forest tomorrow." Mayari said the obvious as she stared at the glistening river and to her reflection.
"Hey, Mayari, the crescent moon in your neck is that a tattoo?" Evan asked remembering the time when he saw her mark glowed red, he saw it twice already, he saw it again when she was doing blood bending to Aria.
"No, it's a birthmark." Mayari simply replied.
"Is that a clan mark symbol?"
"No, don't know how it formed in my neck but I was treated like a curse for having it since many believe that a crescent moon is a symbol of death, demons, devils, misfortune, and many more idiotic words to be commented and thrown on me"
"How did you react?"
"I ignored them but with the painfully bloody fate around I ended up proving that they we're right all along..."
"What do you mean?"
"That's something that I am not gonna tell you."
"Well, that's too bad. Then how did your parents react?" "
"They thought that I was special at first but decided the same thought like them in the end."
"So that's what aunt Helen means that you have an awful past."
"Did she tell you everything?"
"No, just that." There was a moment of silence before Evan started asking again, "Did you know that when you're doing blood bending your birthmark glowed red?"
"Yes." Another moment of silence started again after Mayari replied.
Abruptly, Mayari suddenly felt a warm touch in her forehead, fixing her eyes he saw Evan's hand. She stared at him and asked; "What are you doing?"
His other hand is also in his forehead, "Just checking if you're having a fever."
Mayari then snap Evan's hand of her forehead, "And why do you think that I have a fever?" she asked with a glare.
While Evan pulling back his hands and wearing his leather gloves again replied; "Because I never notice you very open to someone before besides Aunt Helen. You never even bother to respond to a conversation like this, looks like I misjudge."
"To be honest, I don't know why I answered those personal questions of yours," Mayari then diverted her head and lock her gaze to the other side of the river, "It's maybe because of gratitude, maybe because you remind of Ms. Helen since you're her nephew, or maybe because you're just an idiotic prince that I found amusing."
Faint light slowly highlighted her feature as she raise her head to meet the moon and the stars. The ice like crystal in her hand is slowly fading its glow making a way for the nature's moonlight to shower her with soft silver radiance.
Her hair is tied in a messy bun but that didn't stop her to shine in Evan's eyes. There where only silence between them Mayari only take notice of the moon in the starry night while Evan only just stared at the cold blooded girl in his side that somehow sent warmth inside him, it's strange and confusing but Evan didn't think of it like that, he can't because this is a special moment.
With her beside him is already very special for him, Evan then smiled and veer his head to the sky, to adore the little lighted crescent moon displayed beside the thousands of twinkling stars.
'She's like just the moon, even though she's cold, dim and mysterious, there is always a part of her that glows and brought moonlight. Even though she don't glisten and twinkle like the others surrounding her, she always comes out special to my eyes... like the moon'