I found myself surrounded by trees in all directions, where not even a shred of light could be seen even in the time of midday. My mare had been calm, up until we had reached about ten paces within the woods themselves. Then she had seemed very frightful, even to the gentlest of sounds. All domesticated animals feared the woods because they always sensed imminent danger. Something always seemed to be watching you as you ventured within the Forgotten Forest.
Usually however, it was just the common shadow hound, a dog breed born out of the corruption of chaotic dark energy. They can rarely be seen anywhere else but in these woods because they dislike all other things. The path through these woods only brings you to Lake Faliore, and the only person that I know of that goes any further is myself.
'I'm going to have to leave the mare by the lakeside again.' I thought to myself as I brought her closer and deeper into these ominous woods.
I always had to leave her because the path ends at the lakeside, and any further travel would have to be by foot, due to the massive overgrowth and vegetation that almost seals Lake Faliore into its large clearing. I sighed loudly, just to hear something in this silence, otherwise I would have gone insane. I saw where the path opens up to Lake Faliore in the distance, so I brought the mare to a steady canter once more, not too fast, and broke through the woods to find myself in the clearing that held the sacred Lake Faliore. The reason the path comes to this lake is because it is used to perform holy ceremonies and if a person has committed an evil in his or her life, they come here for repentance.
I brought the mare to a halt, grabbed her lead, and strapped her to a tree that cast a shadow over the edge of the lake. Then I gave her an apple, and trudged off to the far side of the lake, leaving her to graze around that tree until my return. I made good headway along the edge of the lake, but the moment I had to start travelling through the woods, it became difficult, no matter how many times I had done this before. By the time I reached the area, it was about midday, and it was fairly hot.
The reason why people can't find the village is simple: the village isn't on the ground, it is in the trees. I looked up and had a sense of amazement I always had when I arrived. To any other person, they would just see a thick canopy of branches above them, but this fact however, was false. If you looked extremely close, you would discover that the underside of the village was painted extremely well, so you would see what they wanted you to see. The only reason I knew of them was because father had brought me to the village Terria, in order to see some of the villages outside the capitol walls. When we had gotten here, I ventured off while my father wasn't looking and made my way to Lake Faliore.
I had gotten lost of course, and ended up right under the hidden village when a pack of shadow hounds had shown up and attacked. The people of the village immediately killed the leader and a few others, in order to scare the rest of them. When that was settled, they brought me up into the trees and tended to a tear on my clothes and a scrape on my arm from when I had fallen back in fear. The village chief's own son had secretly escorted me back to Lake Faliore and from there, to Terria.
I hurried back to the village, only to find my father utterly worried and angry at the same time. When he had asked where I had gone, I said that I simply went to pay my respects over at Lake Faliore. At that, he gave a half smile, and told his guards and friends of the iron that ran in my blood. They all laughed and kept on making jokes about the times where they had to be dragged into the Woods because of their fears. I never once mentioned that I had met the People of Trees, and I definitely didn't say that I had stumbled across a village even my father didn't know about.
I whistled out loud, as though calling for a dog, and waited for a few moments to go by before repeating this process three more times. I finally heard two return whistles and watched as a rope ladder plummeted down to where I was. I climbed slowly, and made my way to the very top, where the people of the village awaited, happy faces looking down on me. All the people of the village were very tall, and were well trained when it came to climbing and hunting. They had no native tongue, so most were basically mute. Only the chief and his son spoke fluently in Lumarian.
The rest of the villagers had picked up a few words in the times that they've heard me speak with them. After the first time I had been here, I came back almost every time I had the chance, because I liked seeing how the people work in the village. Since all of them can't really talk, up until I showed up, they would do the village work whenever it had to be done, meaning everyone watched and waited until they had to actually do something. When you weren't waiting, you were hunting the wild colossal boar that roamed around. These boar grew tusks that could gore a man instantly.
These tusks were S-class quality material for a multitude of reasons, one of them being for smithing. The tusks of a colossal boar sometimes held large quantities of valuable minerals, mainly silver though. The reason behind this is they don't really care what they eat because there are few creatures that are big enough to fill their stomach easily. So, when they are out of options, they typically rummage through the ground, eating dirt and bugs. After doing this for many years, their tusks grow to about 10 feet in length, and they can hold about 30 pounds of any mixture of valuable minerals.
These boars can sometimes be found larger than the average man, being almost 16 feet tall, and the longest recorded tusk was 14 feet in length, and had held pure sapphire mythril, a mineral that contained enormous amounts of mana. This tusk was used to create the strongest, and most expensive blade ever forged. This blade has been kept in a place only the king of the land knows about, but my father won't even mention it to me. The only time I had asked him about it, he had told me that "when the time comes, it will be of good use." It has been years since it was last seen, let alone used. As I sat in the chief's doorway to watch the entire village, I started to think if I should bring up the sword again, but as the time flowed on, I closed my eyes and drifted into a calm nap.
I woke up three hours before dusk, terrified of my father's wrath if I were late. I jumped down a tree that had been hollowed out, where instead, a rope led to the bottom. I made it to the bottom, through the open door to the hidden passage, and sprinted through the wilderness back to Lake Faliore. I ran at full stride for no more than a few minutes before I broke into the clearing, spooking the horse. I calmed her down, and jumped onto her back, prepared to go at full gallop, when suddenly, time froze.
The mare wasn't breathing, fireflies stopped midair, and the very wind was at a stand still.
'What in the world is going on?' I asked myself as I made my way to the edge of the lakeside, or, pulled rather.
I felt a strong compulsion to draw closer to the water, as if it would soothe my confused and frightened mind.
"Come closer child, and receive thyne blessing."
A voice called out from what felt like the center of Lake Faliore. I stopped at the edge of the lake, when I saw a large ripple in the water. I stared at it, then watched as a large woman appeared, coming straight out of the water.
In the most simple of terms, she was gorgeous. She shined with a silver hue, that greatly magnified her olive skin. Her eyes were mossy green, with branches of amber radiating from the center. Her hair flowed with it's own grace of wind, letting it sway, like a large black serpent. Her hair seemed to hold the darkest parts of the universe, whereas in comparison to my own figure, my hair shone golden, as if graced with the sun. She came closer, making graceful strides along the surface of the ever still water.
I took in a quick, deep, breath as she got closer, because with every step, gravity seemed to grow in pressure. It was as if a mountain was slowly being placed on my shoulders, and at any moment, I would snap. The woman realized this and started mumbling to herself, when the pressure left instantly. I breathed in quick gasps of air as the woman continued her walk towards me. Once she had come within twenty five paces of my location, she stopped and looked at me fully.
"Who are you?" I asked, completely puzzled by the situation that had laid down before her.
The woman seemed amused by my question and then slowly her forehead creased and she looked as though she were in deep thought. After what seemed like an eternity, she spoke with a soft lulling voice.
"Child, my name is Faliore. Why else would the lake be named this if not for her goddess? I've come here to fill my role in what is currently going underway in this world."
I looked at her as if she had just run down an adorable rabbit in the road. My face spoke for me apparently, because she took in my reaction and continued.
"As I was saying, something extremely important will be taking place in this world. Something that holds so much power, that if it isn't taken care of correctly, can rupture and utterly erase the existence of every living species known to the universe. This is why I have stirred from my deep sleep, in order to tell you what must be done."
She let me sink in what she was saying before I broke into a rant about how I wasn't important at all, and "why me?" and "what is going on?"
After I had asked all of the annoying questions that would have obviously been answered anyway, I let her collect her thoughts before she continued with a more serious expression.
"Your importance in this situation will be made clear to you once you meet that boy from your dreams. Another reason however, is that within you lies an extremely potent amount of potential. You will learn to use it in due time, but for now, it will stay locked away until it is most needed. Just remember child, that someday you will have to make an extremely crucial decision. One that will pave the way for the nation as a whole, and possibly the rest of the world as you know it. When it comes down to this decision, make sure to not be influenced by anything other than your heart and instinct, though they might conflict sometimes, they will surely be invaluable at that time. Now I will tell you something for the greater good of all your people. Find the boy in your dreams, because he is the key to all of this. Find him, and you find purpose, you will find ideals that were kept hidden. Now come forth, for I have a gift that will help you immensely."
I took a few shallow steps into the cold lake water, where she seemed to form something out of the air around her. Then with a swift motion she threw it towards me and I was enveloped in a large array of colors that were absolutely breathtaking. They swirled around me like a miniature tempest, and then they placed themselves on my upper arms, along with my entire back. It had burned for only a moment, but it still felt somewhat tingly in all the areas that they currently took place in.
"What are these strange things Faliore?" I asked as I felt my skin to make sure there was nothing wrong.
"They are my blessing young one. They will protect you from almost all evil in this world, and there are very few that can even come close to you if they have a malevolent heart. It is the best blessing I could possibly give you."
With that she just simply vanished and time seemed to return to normal, and that's when I realized I still had to make it home before I was scolded. I gathered my senses, leapt onto the mare, and sped away to the castle.