「sᴇᴀsᴏɴ ɪ, ᴇᴘɪsᴏᴅᴇ ɪɪ」
𝐘𝐔𝐆𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐄
⊱⋅ ──────────── ⋅⊰

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N025CbAIAt8

⊱⋅ ──────────── ⋅⊰

the creature standing before you all ( a possessed dally, you quickly confirmed ) walked into the inn at a slow pace, the sheer weight of his footsteps being enough to make the entire building shake by the smallest bit. you stood your ground, eyes narrowed and focused as you watched the possessed iop knight go. your fingers twitch by your right hip, where a chain with a sickle at the end of it hangs off of your belt loosely, practically just begging you to use it.

ah, but alas, before you could do anything, a towel was thrown into the possessed shushu guardian's face, and now all eyes were on the one and only yugo.

"hey you, look at the mess you've made!" the child snapped irritably, his hands on his hips as he glared up at the demonic iop brain. "if you think i'm gonna clean up after you, you're crazy!"

"huh?" the possessed iop took a moment to think over yugo's words in his head before growling and curling his hand into a fist and raising it into the air, ready to strike down the foolish child who dare speak to him in such a way.

"yeah, that's it!" the demonic voice that you easily guessed belonged to rubilax said. "let your hate out."

"ugh!" evangelyne took a step forward and narrowed her eyes at the possessed iop, already drawing up an arrow into her bow. "we have to do something—"

"hold on, eva." you lifted your arm up and held it out in front of the cra, something that she couldn't quite read flashing about your [eye color] orbs as you watched the scene before you unfold. "let's see where this goes."

the blonde cra gave you a confused look, but still listened to you either way and slowly stepped back and lowered her bow. you better know what you're doing, [name], the cra thought to herself as she sent a suspicious look your way.

CRASH!

everyone flinched—violently. well, everyone but you, at least. you simply just stood in your place with your arms crossed and an unreadable expression painted out across your features; [eye color] jewels watching with some sort of knowledge held within them as everyone else gasped to see that yugo had not only avoided the iop's attack, but somehow managed to appear at the top of his head, as well.

"well, good thing i don't get that upset everytime dad asks me to clean the inn!" the boy spoke in a cheeky manner, one hand placed upon his hip confidently as he stared down at the possessed guardian's bewildered expression with an easygoing smile.

the iop growled and went to punch yugo once again, only to soon discover that that would be a mistake. as soon as the possessed red-head's fist was about to come down on the eliatrope, the boy quickly jumped off of his head and avoided the attack, leading the shushu guardian to end up punching himself instead.

"he's clever and knows how to think outside the box," you mused, watching with impressed eyes as the boy landed on a table. "i believe he'll make an excellent addition to our party."

evangelyne immediately perked up at your words and snapped her eyes over to your shorter form, her emerald green jewels wide with shock and disbelief.
"w-what? but, why would we—"

SLAM!

once again, the cra was cut off—this time by the possessed knight going on a rampage about the inn and practically tearing the place apart. tables were broken in half, chairs were thrown into the wall, and plates and cups shattered into pieces upon colliding with the floor.

the patrons all screamed in terror and fear, already making their way out of the inn quickly to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of the iop head's temper tantrum. from afar, yugo watched with rage in his eyes.

"dad!" the boy called out, reaching a hand out towards the fleeing customers of his father's establishment. "those people haven't paid!"

from behind you, you heard the retired bounty hunter scoff with disappointment. "there are some people who would take advantage of anything ..." he muttered, a heavy frown on his lips, "but don't worry, son. i'll recognize them."

another roar. everyone looked back over to the possessed shushu guardian, and your eyes instantly widened with terror once you saw that he had picked up a table and thrown it at you. you gasped, reaching out to pull evangelyne out of the way before she could get hurt, but your actions were quickly brought to a halt when thr cra moved before you; already caging your shorter form in her arms before pushing you down to the floor, the blonde cra now creating a protective shield over you with her own body.

unfortunately for alibert, though, you couldn't say that he had the same luck when it come to avoiding thrown objects.

CRASH!

the man cried out, the sound being enough to make both you and eva wince sympathetically as ruel decided to finally stand his ground and place himself in front of the two of you, shovel in hand and ready for combat.

yugo jumped up, his fists curled tightly as he released what you assumed to be a battle cry. down on his luck, though, this action only ended up resulting in the possessed iop to merely swing his hand at the boy and send him flying off into the kitchen, earning a horrified gasp from alibert.

"YUGO!" 

the possessed guardian roared once again, his eyes landing on you and eva at long last. for a moment, he seemed to hesitate, but that small moment of humanity was quickly wiped out when rubilax started speaking again, his voice being enough to send poor dally back into his destructive mindset.

"don't be distracted by their looks, you idiot!" the shushu snapped. "destroy! it's time to destroy!"

dally groaned, closing his eyes tightly in pain as he rolled his clawed hands into fists and lifted them up into the air—presumably to bring them down upon yours and eva's currently helpless forms. before he could do so, however, ruel suddenly ran forward and jumped up; one of his feet landing right on top of the possessed dally's face, which—fortunately for the greedy enutrof—gave the old man a boost and allowed him to flip through the air before landing behind the shushu guardian.

with his feet planted back onto the ground, ruel took an offensive stance and then swung his shovel around; the weapon hitting dally in the back and making the possessed iop stumble forward. an enraged cry soon left the iop's lips afterwards, though, and when ruel went to go swing his shovel again, the possessed guardian managed to catch it within his grasp. ruel's eyes widened in horror at this, of course, yet before the old man could do anything, he was picked up off the floor by his tattered garments; his shovel thrown aside and out of his reach.

"hey!" you finally snapped, pushing yourself up off of the floor and moving eva to sit behind you as you lifted a hand into the air. "leave him alone!"

and just like that, vines bursted from the ground and wrapped around the possessed shushu knight, holding him in place just long enough for ruel to struggle out of his hold to allow the enutrof to run over to his shovel and reclaim it.

"thank you for the assistance, your highness. i sure hope this sudden turn of events doesn't come out of paycheck?" he asked.

you laughed, shaking your head and returning back to your feet along with eva, your sword now drawn. "don't worry, mister ruel, you've already proven yourself to be an excellent tour guide," you told.

the demonic entity before you roared in rage and broke free from the hold your vines had on him at last. he turned around, flexing his clawed fingers as he stared down at your trio, brows furrowed with anger.

"yes, there we go ..." you heard rubilax speak as he chuckled with malicious intent, "let your anger fuel you ... use it to end them all!" he yelled.

ah, but unfortunately for the shushu, he didn't seem to take into account just how enraged a father could be at the sight of his child on the floor in pain, possibly knocked out.

with a battle cry, alibert suddenly appeared from behind the front desk and brought his shovel down upon the possessed guardian. this soon proved to be a rather bad idea on his part, though, because it didn't take long for dally to grab ahold of his shovel and toss the poor man to the side, making ruel call out to his old friend in concern.

"now, crush them!" it shouldn't be too long now ... you thought to yourself, tensing under the stare of the possessed knight before you. "destroy them!" come on, yugo ...

"a shushu!" ruel cried out in realization, catching eva's attention. "he's possessed by a shushu!"

"a shushu ...?!" the blonde cra cried out, her eyes widening. "then ... that means ..."

"HEY!" as if he had heard your mental cries from ealier, yugo appeared once again in all of his glory—after throwing a rock at a possessed dally's face. "what's a shushu?"

"it's an evil spirit. a demon trapped in an object. when it's badly controlled, it becomes free and possesses its owner!" ruel explained.

if rubilax actually had lips, you imagine that he'd be smirking right about now. "gramps there seems to know what he's talking about." oh, boy.
 
you smirked, already taking notice of a fairly noticeable blue beginning to illuminate from yugo's hands.

here we go ...

"get rid of him!"

"oh yeah?" with a mere movement of his hands, yugo managed to create a blue portal right in front of him, earning a shocked look from everyone, although your reaction was more fake than anything in order to avoid any more suspicion ( specifically from eva ). "we'll see about that!"

jumping into the portal he had created, you watched on in awe as the boy appeared atop of the possessed guardian's head, his eyes alit with a fiery determination. from across the room, you noticed that alibert's expression had gone from a confused shock, to a familiar realization.

i guess that means he's remembered the message, finally, you thought to yourself.

"ARGH!" you perked up and returned your attention over to yugo and the possessed dally, only to see yugo pulling out the third eye—aka, rubilax—that sat atop the demonic entity's head. "what're you doing, you brat?!" the shushu snapped. "let me go!"

it was too late.

before rubilax ( or even the possessed iop ) could do anything, he was removed from dally's head and now sat firmly in yugo's grasp, having returned to the form of a blade.

now without the power he once had to keep his possessed form together, the demonic entity that was dally fell to the floor in exhaustion, with yugo still sitting on top of him and laughing in victory.

"yugo!" the said boy mentioned laughed some more and quickly threw himself into his father's arms. "are you okay?"

"that was very brave of him," you admitted, drawing eva's attention to you. "though, i must admit that i feel kind of useless. i didn't get to really do anything." though that's probably for the best. me helping out during that fight probably would have taken a toll on thr experience yugo needs to properly use his powers ... i think ...?

"well, you shouldn't feel bad," eva spoke up, returning you to the real world as sha placed her hands on her hips, a stubborn look on her face. "in case you forgot, i'm the bodyguard here, so if you didn't get hurt in any way, then i'd say that's pretty good. it means that i'm at least somewhat doing my job right," she chuckled.

eventually chuckling along with the cra, everyone then proceeded to share a laugh with eachother when the possessed iop suddenly began to shrink; slowly reverting to his original form, which honestly looked like a beanpole compared to what he once was just now.
"wow, did he shrink in the wash?" yugo giggled.

dally groaned, using his hands to push himself back up to his feet to reveal to everyone just how tired he truly was. evangelyne watched the red head with a narrowed gaze, one arm in front of your shorter form protectively.

"there's ..." your brows furrowed in concern when the iop brain began to struggle remaining on his feet, "... something i ... absolutely ... must tell you ...!"

the poor boy fell asleep before he could even utter out another word.

"he conked out!" ruel spoke, shaking his head at the supposed shushu guardian before grinning and directing his attention over to the true star of the show. "well, kiddo, that was pretty impressive stuff! what was that game of hide and seek you played, yugo?" asked the enutrof, "i've never seen that kind of magic before."

"it ... just sorta happened!" the boy answered, his hands behind his head. "pretty cool, don't you think? i just discovered it when i was doing the cooking," he said, a smile proud smile playing on his lips.

from beside you, alibert sighed.
"yugo ..." the man began, "i have something extremely important to tell you."

oh ... you frowned, beginning to feel sympathetic for both alibert and yugo as you watched the familiar interaction before you start to play out. here it comes.

"when i found you, there was a message in your baby carriage. it spoke of your powers," he paused, hesitating, "and ... your real family."

yugo's eyes widened. "what ...? dad, what do you—"

yugo's words were brought to an end when screams were suddenly heard from outside.

"hey!" ruel snapped, "what's all the racket?!"

your group followed yugo over to the hole that had been created in the wall, where the door had once sat.

needless to say, no one was very happy with what was waiting for them outside.

you and eva gasped, looks of horror and terror painting all over your faces. "polters!" you both cried.

of course! how could i just forget about them?! you groaned and slapped your forehead. idiot!

"SOMEONE!! PLEASE, HELP ME!!" a woman cried from afar, immediately grabbing your attention.

"ah!" you quickly drew one of your two weapons—a chain with a sickle at the end of it—and then began running over to the source of the helpless cry. "don't worry, miss!" you shouted, "i'm coming!!"

"wha—" a panicked look painted over evangelyne's fair features. "[name]!" she called, following after you. "[name], you can't just leave like that! i'm the one who's supposed to be protecting you, remember?!"

her words fell deaf on your ears.

═══════ ❃ ═══════

in the village of emelka, all that could be heard was the dreadful sound of peoples' horrified screams.

the villagers all ran in different directions, away from the small yet deadly creatures chasing after them. some even climbed on top of the rooves of their own houses, desperate and willing to do anything to avoid their possible demise. sitting about the village, standing still, however, were those who unfortunately didn't have lady luck on their side. for when they had failed to escape the polters grasp in time, they had been turned into nothing but mere shrubbery; lifeless plants, doomed to never move nor speak again.

but, even despite all of the panic and screaming, though, there was fortunately still those who could defend themselves, and fight off the mini terrors looking to end lives. those like—

"well, say hi to the human excavator, you dirty beasts!" an old man snapped, crushing yet another small group of polters standing that stood before him. "ruel stroud is here!"

from afar, a small women screamed, running away from a large group of polters. all seemed hopeless, at first, until young yugo suddenly came rolling in—literally. with a broom in hand, the short boy swiped away at the polters beneath him as he chased after them all on top of a barrel.

"eva!" you pointed over to a couple that had been surrounded by polters, "shoot over there! quickly!"

eva nodded, already drawing an arrow back in her bow. "of course, princess!" she obeyed.

"get out of my village, you ugly beasts!" alibert shouted over the feared cries of everyone else, bringing his shovel out on the crowd of polters that had tried to surround him.

crushing each of the small creatures one by one until there were barely any left, alibert was just about ready to finish the rest of them off when a series of screams were heard from afar, and he snapped his eyes over to see a brunette woman standing atop a barrel with three children, surrounded by polters, who reached out to grab them from below in an almost hungry manner.

"mia!" from the window of the house that the woman and her children found themselves pressing their backs against, a familiar man went to climb out, his eyes wide with a worried panic.

"stay where it's safe, jason!" alibert ordered, already rushing over to the scene. "let me clean up this mess first."

growling aggressively down at the small, black beings that he loomed before, alibert brought his shovel down on all of them. one that had tried to reach up to touch mia was smashed into the ground, and another one that had even attempted climbing the house was turned into nothing but mush against the wall.

jason smiled brightly, his hopes of this nightmare ending almost becoming a reality until he noticed something that made his stomach fill up with dread.

one of the polters. it was crushed, left barely alive against the ground, yet still, someone, in someway, it had managed to use the last of its strength to shakily lift an arm up and—

"mister mayor!" jason gasped. "look out!!"
but it was too late.

small claws pressed down upon alibert's foot, and once the deed was done, the polter finally closed its eyes and eternally rested, leaving alibert to stare down at his body in a stunned silence as he watched his skin become engulfed with leaves.

gasping quietly to himself, alibert suddenly felt all of his senses leave his body, and his shovel fell to the earth with a thump!

"dad!" yugo, at long last, had finally taken notice of his father's predicament, and he cried out, his eyes already beginning to fill with tears as he went to embrace his father—possibly for the last time.

"yugo, listen to me!" alibert managed to stop his son's movements by lifting his remaining arm up, although the man couldn't help but cringe at how hard such a simple action had become in mere seconds. "you will get a message to tell you where to find your real family, understand?"

"what?" yugo whispered, his eyes widening in shock. "my ... real family? but ... dad, you're—"

"the message!" alibert cut off. "go find the message!"

and just like that, alibert was left to be nothing but a bush, shaped like the man that he once was.

"dad! no!" yugo's hands desperately grasped at the leaves and vines that had become his father's shirt, and the boy nearly fell to his knees out of his sorrows. "move! say something! please!"

amongst the boy's cries and pleads, a small insect-like drone landed on a well, and through its eyes, someone else began to watch.

"hehehe ..." a man, with a far gone and lost mind, chuckled as he watched the events playing from his noxin's singular eye unfold. "the polters are wreaking havoc. that old oak tree didn't take too kindly to my noxin."

the man would have chuckled again had not been for his looking glasses zooming in on one particular boy's hand, where a soft glow pulsed beneath his skin.

"oh, my. this boy!" the man gasped. "such energy! amazing!" his eyes widened. "it can't be true. no human contains that much wakfu. and this tofu," the camera lens turned to reveal a small, yellow bird hopping about on the ground, with a glowing blue feather sticking out amongst the yellow feathers that coated its skin. "since when do those stupid birds have such high levels of energy?" he questioned.

"ah-HA!" the man jumped, his eyes widening as his noxin turned around to see a sadida girl, who looked as if she were glaring down at him with those eye-catching [eye color] eyes. "there you are." she lifted her foot up, and the various looking glasses that the man stared through all flickered before going out, leaving him to laugh alone amongst the various cogs and machinery that worked together about him, where he schemed behind a mask of metal.

"i just may have found that dragon again~"

═══════ ❃ ═══════

"oh, have you found something, princess?" ruel asked, his shovel resting upon his shoulder as he walked up to you.

you frowned, eyes narrowing down at the crushed drone at your feet. "it's nothing," you spoke, beginning to back away from the scattered bits of metal. "just squashing a bug, is all."

holding an arm out in front of ruel, you continued to back away from the noxin remains, which in turn made the old man back away with you as well. he gave you a confused look, wondering why you seemed to be so cautious all of a sudden, when a poof sound caught his attention and made him avert his eyes to the ground, where a small cloud of blue smoke began to lay.

"by my enutrof's purse." ruel squinted his eyes at the blue cloud and rose his shovel threateningly. "what on earth is that?"

you chose not to answer and instead only continued to watch as the smoke slowly rested upon the ground. once it had settled, small clovers suddenly began to grow in its place, and soon—as expected—a giant tree grew in their place, making the old enutrof man cry out and nearly stumble backwards onto the floor in surprise, his eyes widening by a fair fracture.

"holy bwork!" you lowered your arm and allowed the enutrof to stand at your side. "you think there's any chance that would work on a stash of kamas, princess?" he asked, sending you a cheeky grin, to which you snickered and rolled your eyes at, shaking your head.

"eh," you shrugged your shoulders absentmindedly and turned to walk away. "better try your luck with something else, ruel. but ..." you moved your gaze away from the old man and onto the crying boy ahead of you, still grieving over the loss of his father.

i could have done something, the guilty part of you told, making you purse your lips and curl your hands into a pair of tight fists at your side. but if i had, the chance of us reversing the effects the polters had on all of these people would have been less likely.

sighing to yourself, you slowly walked up to yugo and kneeled beside him before placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. the boy sniffled again and wiped his eyes away of tears, but those few droplets were easily replaced with brand new ones, which sparkled in the light of the sun as they slipped down his cheeks and fell from his chin like early morning dew.

the guilt you had already been feeling for allowing this whole thing to happen grew even more at his facial expression, and the strings it had around your heart tightened so much that you had to hold yourself back from flinching at the sudden feeling.

"we'll fix this," you said, forcing an encouraging smile to befall upon your freckled features. "i promise."

yugo blinked, and then, after a second, suddenly threw himself into your arms, much to your surprise. however, even after your initial shock, you didn't hesitate to hug the young boy back; wrapping your arms around him tightly and patting his back in a comforting manner as he continued to cry on your shoulder.

unfortunately, though, the moment was quickly ruined. and by a certain iop brain, nonetheless.

"where is he?" everyone stopped and lifted their gaze up to see a red head with spiky hair looking around, obviously looking for a certain someone. "the boy who freed me from evil rubilax?" he called.

"well, i had forgotten all about him," ruel deadpanned from beside you, making you chuckle out of amusement as you released yugo from your warm embrace ( much to the boy's disappointment ) and stood back up, dusting your attire off in the process.

"ugh! would you slow down?" you had to hold yourself back from laughing at the sight of a very ticked off evangelyne, who had made her appearance by running after the searching sir percedal, who—for whatever reason—completely ignored her presence, much to your utter confusion.

shouldn't he be head over heels for her by now?

due to this very thought, you decided instantly that you would play matchmaker for iop and cra later, but for now, you figured that it would probably be best to pay attention to the scene that was currently playing out right now.

"you finally woke up, then?" ruel asked, raising an unimpressed eyebrow at the iop that stood only a few feet away from your group.

the idiot of a shushu guardian smiled and bowed his head humbly before resting a closed fist against his heart. "sir percedal of sadlygrove," he introduced, now approaching your small crowd. "noble knight, order of the guardians of the shushus."

once close enough, the red head knight bowed his head again before kneeling down in front of yugo, his fist yet again placed against his heart. "you saved my soul! i will repay this debt, even if it costs me my life!" he claimed.

to the young iop's dismay ( and embarrassment ), however, rubilax soon began to speak up as well. 

"that's not the way he talks to me!" the demon laughed. "a knight. i've heard that one before."

percedal growled, one of his eyebrows twitching in frustration as he pulled rubilax from his holster and snapped at him. "i command you to put a sock in it, demon!" he yelled.

rubilax scoffed, narrowing his singular eye at the iop currently screaming in his 'face' ( if you could even call it that ). "you'd still be a farmhand if it wasn't for me. and a dead one at that!" he told.

percedal growled again, his already clenched fist beginning to shake in the air. "i had a moment of weakness, that's all!" he said, trying to defend himself. "i'd have been just fine without you!"

rubilax didn't look impressed in the slightest. "the truth is that you're nothing but a lowly peasant, totally unworthy of guarding a shushu," the demon shot back, before proceeding to add, "especially one of my quality!"

"ugh, sorry, [name]." you hummed curiously and turned to see evangelyne rolling her eyes at the duo. "i tried to get information out of him like you asked me to, but he just wouldn't listen!" she said, sounding exasperated.

at that, you smiled and took her hand into your own, something that you had done since the two of you were kids and you needed to help the blonde cra calm down.

"hey, it's okay," you gave her a gentle smile, "you did your best."

evangelyne, when feeling your fingers intertwine with her own, flushed and suddenly let out a panicked squeak, making you laugh in oblivious amusement.

unbeknownst to you, though, at the sound of your laughter, a certain iop's attention was caught, and he gasped, his pupils practically turning into hearts at the mere sight of you.

"oh, please," rubilax rolled his one eye, already knowing where this was going to go the moment his 'guardian' began to straighten his clothes out and fix his hair. "not this again ..."

"greetings, fair maiden!" your laughing came to a halt, and your eyes lowered down to see that percedal was, in fact, kneeling before you and holding his hand out for you to place your own.

"i don't believe i've formally introduced myself to you. you see, i am—"

"sir percedal of sadlygrove?" you giggled at the surprised expression that befell upon the iop's face before releasing eva's hand and placing your other one upon dally's. "yeah, i heard."

"oh, uh ... well, then ..." awkwardly, percedal cleared his throat before smirking up at you; his attempt at regaining his 'charming' composure, you supposed. "would you care to give me the honor of telling me your name, then, fair maiden?" the iop asked, placing his free hand over his heart.

you smiled, head tilting slightly to the side.

( funnily enough, if you had turned around at that exact moment, then you would have seen a certain cra fuming behind you. )

"[name]. [name] sheran sharm, princess of the sadida kingdom, and currently a young adventurer traveling the world in hopes of fulfilling a prophecy," you spoke, smiling as if those words were something that anyone would hear any day of the week.

percedal paused, eyes widening as he slowly processed what he had just been told. from his holster, rubilax rolled his eye and sighed to himself in frustration.

( out of any guardian in the world, i just had to get stuck with this one, huh? ​​​​​​)

"p-princess?!" percedal grinned as if he had just won the world. "w-w-why, that's perfect!" standing up, the red head placed his arm across his chest and then bowed to you, making you stifle a laugh at his overdramatic actions. "well, then, consider me your knight in shining armor, your majesty—"

"um, this is nice and all," eva spoke with venom lacing her words as she suddenly pulled you away from percedal and into her arms, much to yours and the shushu guardian's surprise. "but don't you think that we have more important things to do?" the cra questioned, acting as a shield to hide you away from percedal's eyes, to which she sharply glared into.

"the cra's right." ruel was the first one to speak up. "right now, there's bigger snappers to fry, in case you couldn't tell," he told, gesturing out to all of the shrub-ified people around.
percedal looked, followed everyone else's gazes before meeting ruel's eyes with his own as well. "oh, you had polters here as well?" the iop knight asked. "they invaded two other villages. they come from the forbidden forest. i went myself, but didn't have much time to find out very much. i was attacked by a vile monster when i was asleep," explained the guardian, a certain edge being added to his tone at the last sentence of his words.

"and that's when you cried, so i promised to save your life!" rubilax added. "and then remember wh—"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!"

holding the entrapped demon above his head, percedal soon then began to bring rubilax down against the stone of the well, intentionally hurting the demon as the two began to argue once more.

"... well, there they go again ...!" you grinned nervously and clasped your hands together, sending a glance each to yugo, evangelyne, and ruel. "what do you guys say we head off into the forbidden forest, then?"

yugo wiped away the tears clouding his vision once again before sending one last look over to his father. after about a short couple of seconds of pondering, the boy then took on a determined look and moved his gaze ahead, where the forbidden forest layed. "let's go."

you grinned, pumping a fist into the air. "yeah! that's the spirit. once we find out why the polters attacked your village, we'll be able to find a cure for your father and everyone else!" you said, not a trace of doubt in your words.

"you sound awfully optimistic, princess." evangelyne smiled and rose a brow. "any reason why?"

"oh? uh ..." your nervousness from before returned, and you offered eva the most convincing smile you could muster. "just a hunch."

"well, if you'll all be heading there, then i must warn you." your small party turned to see that it was mia who had spoken up, the woman having finally ( somewhat ) calmed down from all of the recent events. "terrible things have happened in that forest, so i suggest that you all be careful and tred lightly," she said.

all of you smiled and each offered the brunette woman a curt nod. "of course. thank you for the warning, ma'am," you said, bowing your head to her respectfully.

yugo turned to see a red head boy with a had on his head staring up at him with glossy eyes. his hands were clasped together as if he were begging the older boy before him, which i suppose you could say he was. "please free our parents," he said, a new set of tears already beginning to form in his eyes.

yugo blinked, surprised by the sudden plead. but then, the boy smiled, one of understanding and sympathy, with his own eyes shining in the daylight from the tears he had shed as well. "don't worry, princess [name] promised that she and her friend would help me and ruel sort it out," the boy told.

from where he stood, ruel sighed. "i usually don't work free of charge," he began before smiling down at the red headed boy as well, "but i'll make an exception for an old friend."

and thus, with your party of adventurers assembled at long last, you all headed out on your first quest: the search for a cure in the forbidden forest.

( from behind all of you, a certain iop brain began to cry out and look around in confusion, for he had finally noticed that you had all but disappeared. )

═══════ ❃ ═══════

"bounty hunting?" ruel scoffed. "waste of time! it costs much more looking for bounty than it brings in!"

your party was now just entering the forbidden forest, with evangelyne rolling her eyes at the two idiots talking up front whilst az flew next to her. you and yugo completed this small line of yours by walking after everyone else in the back, where you took the opportunity to talk to the boy in hopes of getting to know him more.

"so, that portal thing you did earlier. while you were fighting percedal?" yugo looked up at you curiously as you went on. "what was it like?" you asked.

"huh?" yugo blinked, the ears atop his blue hat perking up slightly as if he were surprised ( or had just been snapped out of some sort of trance ). "how did it feel to use my ... magic?" he seemed almost hesitant with that last word, which you completely understood; he had just discovered his powers today, after all.

you nodded. "yeah? was it exciting? scary? or were you not really paying attention because of the whole adrenaline rush you must have gone through?"

"uh ..." yugo averted his gaze down to his hands, which he stared intently at. "it felt ... nice, i guess? almost ... natural?" the boy sighed and allowed his hands to fall back down to his sides as his hat-ears drooped down. "i don't know. it's just ... the whole thing felt so ... normal to me, and it's weird because i didn't even know i could do that until today! so ... why did it feel so ... great for me to use them? like, it felt like i'd done all of that before, but i don't even remember—"

"hey." yugo tensed when he felt your hand fall upon his shoulder, and you both stopped in front of your tracks, allowing the others to walk on ahead without you. "calm down, okay? it's completely understandable for you to feel that way since magic is just ... apart of you, you know? i'm sure other beings who possess magic understand how you feel, so please don't feel like you're alone in this." you smiled.

yugo paused, his eyes widening slightly by a small fracture before quickly moving away to stare down at the ground—a poor attempt to keep you from seeing the small flush that had befallen upon his features at your comforting nature.

"t-thanks, miss [name]. i really appreciate it," the boy spoke, mentally kicking himself for stuttering and at the way his voice wavered slightly when your name slipped off of his tongue.

you smiled and patted yugo's before pulling your hand away from it, much to the young boy's disappointment. "it's no problem, yugo. anything for a friend," you chuckled. "oh, and by the way, the 'miss' is unnecessary. feel free to just call me [name], okay?"

you were already beginning to walk away to catch up with the others before the boy was given a chance to respond, and all yugo could do was watch you leave with a flustered expression before pulling his hat down in front of his eyes and screaming into his hands.

oh, gosh, the boy thought, this can't actually be happening, right?

the only answer he got was the sound of az screaming in his ear, and the boy drew his head back at the sound before huffing and sending a small glare the tofu's way.

"okay, i get it, i get it ..." the boy sighed and went to follow after everyone else. "i'm going."

with yugo now on the move once again, az flew off and decided to perch himself right atop your head, much to your amusement.

"why, hello there," you smiled up at the small, round bird. "comfy?"

az chirped in confirmation before snuggling into your leafy green locks, making you laugh aloud.

"fifty years ago it was a respectable trade," ruel continued to speak on at the front of your party's line. "but nowadays, well ..."

"fifty years ago?" percedal cut in, his brows raising in surprise. "so when were you born, old-timer?" the iop playfully asked.

ruel huffed, sending a heavy glare the iop knight's way. "don't 'old-timer' me, i could still show you a thing or two!" the old man snapped, jabbing percedal's side with the wooden end of his shovel.

"hey!" yugo ran up to your side, a small panicked look in his eyes. "has anyone seen az?" the boy asked, looking around amongst the shrubbery of the woods in a desperate attempt to find his small friend.

you smirked, a small giggle playing upon your lips as you heard az release a loud chirp before snuggling deeper into your hair, just when yugo had snapped his confused eyes up to meet with your mirth-filled ones.

"was that you, princess?" questioned the boy, his brows furrowing questionably at you.

you couldn't help but laugh. "no." shaking your head, you then proceeded to point to the top of it, where az currently laid. "i just have a small, tired and i believe also quite frustrated bird sleeping in my hair," you answered with a playful grin.

yugo blinked, processing your words, before allowing a surprised expression to take over his features. "az is in your hair?" he asked. you nodded. the boy's surprise seemed to grow. "why?"

you hummed and gave a simple shrug of your shoulders before returning your gaze onward, where eva was currently commenting about how 'childish' percedal and ruel's bickering was. you giggled at the sight.

"why not?" you returned your attention back over to yugo and offered the boy a warm smile. "it's not like he's hurting anybody by laying there."

as if to prove your point more, you then grinned and looked up to the yellow bird in your hair and asked, "are you, az?"

the bird chirped loudly once again, sending you a frustrated look for interrupting his lap before closing his eyes and falling back into his peaceful slumber from before.

you and yugo shared a laugh.

"the forest is enormous!" percedal spoke as he took in the seemingly endless line of trees that surrounded your group. "i spent a whole month here, and still didn't cover much. i even made a map so i wouldn't get lost," told the iop, all whilst sending evangelyne the most subtle, smuggest look that he could muster.

the blonde cra merely rolled her eyes with a scruff and continued on ahead, seeing no point in conversing with the red-head any longer.

amongst the two pointed-eared beings interaction, ruel took the chance to scoot closer to percedal's side so that he'd have a better view of the iop's hand-drawn map.

"so i guess we're right here," the enutrof stated, pointing to the center of the map; the only part of the forest that lacked trees.

to ruel's disappointment, however, percedal proved to him rather quickly that even his mapping skills could use some work.

"hey, i don't know!" the iop shrugged his shoulders and offered the enutrof a lop-sided grin. "it may not be accurate, but it's pretty."

"i see," ruel deadpanned, "sir percedal is an artist."

"hey, [name]!" perking up at the sound of your name, you looked down to see that yugo was now hiding behind a couple of bushes, and was also gesturing for you to come over to his side with a mischievous grin coating his features. "watch this!"

raising a brow, you still managed a curious smile over to the short boy as you joined him behind the bushes, with az flying out of your hair to instead rest atop yugo's head so that he, too, would get to see what the boy had planned.

"what are you up to, yugo?" you asked, gently knocking your shoulder against his in a playful manner.

yugo's grin grew, and a noticable sparkle twinkled about his brown eyes. "you'll see~"

gesturing for you to direct your [eye color] eyes back over to percedal and ruel, you did as the boy instructed and had to hold back a snort that threatened to rush past your lips when you saw a small, familiar blue portal appear right behind percedal's shoulder. as if it couldn't get any better, one of yugo's hands soon emerged from the portal, and without a word, the boy hastily placed a few pats upon the iop-brain's shoulder before quickly pulling his hand away and making the portal disappear.

you and yugo could only giggle together as you both watched percedal perk up before looking over his shoulder. to the iop's confusion, he saw no one there. continuing to look around, however, the shushu guardian's eyes eventually met up with ruel's confused ones. one amused smile and a short chuckle later, percedal was patting ruel on the back and shaking his head before directing his attention back to his 'map', leaving a very confused ruel in his wake.

"pfft!" once you and your two companions had managed to get all of your giggles out, you all finally emerged out from behind the bushes and joined percedal and ruel out in the open once again. at seeing his work out right in front of him, yugo sent a knowing wink az's way, with the bird still giggling as ruel—oblivious to the small prank that had been pulled on him and the red-head—began to speak up.

"alright already, quit yopping around!" the old man turned around and locked eyes with the younger boy behind him. "yugo, take a look up there," the enutrof ordered, using his shovel to point up into the trees.

yugo smirked, a glimmer dancing about his brown eyes as he lifted his hands up. "piece of cake!"

and with but a simple circular motion made in the air in front of him, yugo was gone and hopping about in the trees above.

"say ..." you looked around, worry starting to cloud your gaze. "have any of you seen evie?" you asked.

"oh, don't worry, fair princess, i'm sure she's fine!" percedal casually waved off. "of course ..." suddenly, he slid up next to you and wrapped an arm around your shoulders and brought you closer to him. "if you're feeling a little scared, your knight in shining armor is always willing to provide some comfort~" he purred.

chuckling nervously, you awkwardly placed a hand against percedal's chest and pushed him away, all while also making sure to muster up the best smile that you could for him to see.

"i appreciate it, dally, but trust me: i'm fine."

"dally?" the young man rose an amused brow. "oh, we're already moving onto the cute nicknames, are we?" he wiggled his brows suggestively.

"uh ..." before you could answer, a blue portal suddenly appeared in front of you, and out popped yugo, who made a silly expression at dally before going, "boo!"

the iop, startled, yelped and stumbled back; quickly drawing his demonic blade and holding it out in front of himself protectively.

when you and yugo shared a laugh, the red-head's expression of fear quickly turned into that of befuddlement.

"ah, yugo, you're back," ruel said, acting as if nothing had just happened. "did you see anything while you were up there?" he asked.

yugo nodded. "there's a really tall tree that way," he told, pointing over to his right, down a path that led straight past you. "why don't we head over there?"

"a tall tree?" the gears in your head began to turn at the familiar words, and suddenly, you jerked up and gasped, eyes widening with what could only be described as horror. "EVA!!"

before anyone could question you over why you were so scared all of a sudden, you turned on your heel and took off into the forest, leaving the boys—who were all shouting your name and telling you to come back—behind.

"quick!" yugo pointed after you, looking back to ruel and dally from over his shoulder. "we have to go after her!"
the boy summoned another portal before any protests could be given, and much like you and eva, he was gone.

"welp," ruel began, sharing a look with dally. "looks like we don't have much of a choice," the old enutrof stated before running off as well.

dally huffed, determination pulsing through his veins as he got ready to join the rest of his comrades, when—

"outsmarted by a kid!" rubilax laughed. "how pathetic!"

dally growled, a brow twitching in frustration as he lifted the one-eyed sword high into the air. "I TOLD YOU TO KEEP QUIET!"

CLANG!

"OW!"

═══════ ❃ ═══════

evangelyne should have known better than to wander off by herself in the forbidden forest.

"ugh! stay back!" the cra cried, making sure to keep herself balanced on the branch she was currently perched up as she drew back yet another arrow in her bow before releasing it, turning the polters beneath her into nothing but mere puddles.

"EVA!!"

the cra gasped, her pointed ears perking up instantly at the sound of the familiar voice she had grown to cherish more than anything in the world.

but then, the young blonde remembered all of the polters that were trying to surround her from below, and her eyes went wide with terror.

"[NAME]!" the cra yelled, looking around in search for a head of familiar leafy green hair. "listen, i know you want to help, but please trust me when i say this and—"

the girl was cut off when a large, thick vine suddenly arose from the ground and swiped an entire crowd of polters away; smashing them into the closest trees nearby. the blonde blinked, her green eyes filled with shock as she stared out upon the scene, unaware of the fact that the branch she was standing on was going to soon give way until—

CRACK!

until it actually did.

"AAAAHHH!" evangelyne shut her eyes as a scream tore out through her throat, and the girl braced herself for the inevitable impact she would soon face with the ground below.

only for said impact to never come.
instead of the rough, hard dirt floor of the earth that evangelyne expected to land upon, the fair cra instead found herself landing into the arms of something. of someone.

"strangely enough," a familiar voice spoke, the tone of it filled with mirth. "i feel as though this should be the other way around."

ever so slowly, evangelyne cracked her eyes open. she squinted when the first thing she was met with was sunlight, streams of it shining down upon her and her savior through the small cracks provided by the leaves above. but then, after blinking a few times to readjust her eyes to the brightness of the sun, the girl proceeded to turn her head to lock eyes with her savior, whose shiny [eye color] jewels stared back with a hint of playfulness in them.

"hey there, evie." you grinned, a flower crown of yellow roses appearing upon both yours and the cra in mentions heads. "you okay?"

instead of a response made up of actual words, what you instead received was a loud squeak as the cra pushed herself out of your arms and flipped backwards onto her feet, her face a shade darker than you remember it all of a sudden.

"[name]," the cra gasped, placing a hand over her heart, "you gave me a heart attack."

"uh ..." you blinked, bemused. "sorry?"

"[name]! evangelyne!" you and the said cra looked to the side to see yugo teleport beside you both, panting and obviously out of breath. "are you guys okay?"

sharing a look with your bodyguard ( and childhood bestfriend, mind you ), you chuckled and then patted yugo atop his head. it's a shame that he wore that blue hat of his all the time, or else you could have ruffled his hair.

"thank you for worrying yugo, but eva's okay now. luckily," you sent a teasing smirk the cra's way, "i managed to get here just in time to save her."

evangelyne, as if she wasn't already flustered enough, turned the darkest shade of red you had ever seen her face in before huffing and turning her head away; crossing her arms in the process as you giggled and went to hug the cra.

"oh, evie," you wrapped your arms around the taller girl's shoulders loosely and allowed your head to rest against her shoulder, "you know you love me~"

the girl wasn't given a chance to respond before percedal and ruel finally caught up to your trio.

"ah, well i see miss evangelyne seems to be doing quite fine," ruel spoke, a small hint of a teasing tone detected in his voice as he locked eyes with the blonde cra for but a split moment before averting his attention to all of the splattered polter corpses against the trees. "and i see miss [name] made quick work of all of these polters, as well," added the enutrof, blinking in slight surprise.

"hehe!" you giggled and made a peace sign with your fingers; positioning it next to your eyes. "i sure did! now ..." you smiled innocently and turned on your heel, locking hands with evangelyne in the process. "i say it's about time we continue on our way now, right?"

the others weren't given much room to argue. you had already started walking off, eva's hand still tightly interlocked with yours.

═══════ ❃ ═══════

"bounty hunter?" ruel scoffed. "a sure road to ruin! expenses, equipment ... it costs much more looking for bounty than it brings in!"

"really?" yugo asked, sending ruel a curious look. "my father always said he had it good before ..." the boy trailed off.

at that, ruel laughed humorously. "you call surviving on roots and dirty water the good life?" the old man questioned.

before yugo could answer, a gasp mixed with emotions of horror and sorrow cut through the silence of the woods, and you suddenly ran ahead of everyone else.

"[name]!" evangelyne quickly ran after you, with everyone else soon following after. "[name], what's ... wrong ..." the cra's words trailed off as everyone else went wide-eyed along with her, their eyes immediately decorated with the same horror that they had heard in your gasp just now.

"it's horrible!" you whispered, a hand covering your mouth as you fell to your knees before the dead forest life that stood stiffly in front of you. "horrible!" you sniffled, tears streaming down your cheeks as you shakily rose back up to your feet and placed your hands against the dark, lifeless tree before you. "you poor things ..."

evangelyne frowned, her ears pinning to the sides of her head as she joined you at your side and took your hand into her own once again, offering it a comforting squeeze. "ogrest's chaos!" she claimed, brows furrowing distastefully at the sad sight that sat before her.

"you believe in that old legend?" ruel questioned. "i always thought it was gobball nonsense! everything gets blamed on ogreste, and no one even knows if he exists."

you shivered, the flower crown of yellow roses wilting and dimming in color. evangelyne noticed this, of course, and quickly gave your hand another squeeze as she turned to look at you.

"what's wrong?"

you inhaled sharply. "i ... i felt something ..." you began, shoulders tensing, for you already knew what was coming. "an ancient, evil presence. we aren't welcome here."

"really?" dally joined you at your other side, rubilax already drawn as he stood beside you in an almost protective manner. "well i'll have to give them some hospitality lessons," he snapped.

looking down at rubilax, you found yourself smiling slightly when you saw the demon roll his one, singular eye. "show off!"

"whoa!" yugo walked past your trio to stand in front of everyone in order to gaze up at the large tree that sat silently before you all. "i've never seen such a big tree in my whole life," the boy told, clearly in awe.

at his words, however, you couldn't help but snort. "you should come pay a small visit to the sadida kingdom, then," you said, only for your mood to darken as you, too, began to stare up at the large tree standing tall ahead of you.

"he's been affected, too," you told, slowly releasing your hold on evangelyne's hand to walk up to the large tree and place your hand against him.

"hey ... that machine there." everyone focused their eyes over to what ruel's had been rested upon, which was, as stated, a machine. "didn't you crush one of those back in emelka, princess?" the old enutrof asked, sending a suspicious look your way.

you hummed, choosing to ignore ruel's suspicious stare as you wiped the remaining tears from your eyes and walked over to the small robot before kneeling down in front of it. for a moment, you pretended to examine it, even despite the fact that you already knew that ruel was right, before lifting your eyes back up to meet the others' and nodding.

"it would seem so."

ruel's suspicious look towards you did not waver. not even once.

groan ...

you tensed, eyes widening by a small fracture. thankfully, you had already turned away before anyone from your party could notice the small look of panic that danced over your features, but that still didn't help your nerves calm down any less.

especially when you heard ruel start to speak up yet again.

"what's this now?" the song of the crow's watching you all from their perches above grew louder.

a warning.

"my instinct tells me we aren't the first on the scene." ruel laughed. "the good thing about brave adventurers is that their pockets are always full of kamas!"

"uh, ruel ..." slowly, you turned and felt your breath hitch in your throat when you saw that the old enutrof had already taken off his purse and was already dropping kamas from the pile of lost treasures into it. "i ... don't think that's a good idea ..." you said, eyes watching for any signs of movement amongst the pile of goods.

at your words, to your dismay, ruel merely laughed. "oh, princess, your concerns flatter me. but trust me when i say this, i—"

"no, i'm serious!" at long last, something arose from the rubble, and in a panic you placed your hand against the handle of your blade and got ready to pull it out and rush forward. "GET BACK!!"

rising from the equipment of fallen heroes, a tree-like creature groaned threateningly and reached out, trying to take hold of ruel as it emerged from the pile of treasures.

"hey, relax!" the old man said, hastily grabbing his bag as he nervously backed away, panic now in his voice. "i just hate seeing waste!"

"ah!" dally's eyes went wide with familiarity. "that's what attacked me in the middle of the night!" the iop exclaimed.

"ruel ..." finally, you drew your sword and stepped forward, your eyes narrowing in order to complete your serious expression. "get behind me," you ordered.
the old man quickly nodded, already moving around you to do so. "you don't need to tell me twice."

"everyone ..." you began, taking a cautious step back as more treechnids appeared and began to surround your group. "back to back. we can't let any of them take us by surprise."

everyone nodded, quickly following your instructions and pressing their backs against one another, leading your party to form a small circle in the middle of a larger one made up of the tree-like creatures closing in on you.

"set me free, peasent! it's your only chance," spoke rubilax, only to earn a harsh glare from the iop currently wielding him instead. "no. never again, demon!" he snapped.

"everyone get ready ...!" with intent eyes, you watched as one of the treechnids buried its hand into the ground, where you soon heard a rumbling from. "here they come!"

"everyone!" eva drew out an arrow and placed it in her bow. "take one each!"
as if on cue, a giant, wooden hand arose from the earth below, and the fight began.

as amalia once said ... "aggressive brambles!" drawing your arm back, you threw your sword forward and smirked when the blade stabbed the treechnids enlarged hand dead center, just when it was about to come down upon you. hearing it groan in pain, you took this as your chance to take out your other weapon, a sickle gifted to you oh so long ago, and spin the blade around next to you before throwing it forward as well. when the chains of the weapon wrapped around the tree-like beast, you grinned and then proceeded to give the chain a sharp pull; making sure to also use your vines in case your strength wasn't enough alone to create the pressure needed in order to crush the treechnid.

from behind you, dally closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before turning around and lifting up his one-eyed sword before the treechnid approaching him. "take this!" the iop rushed forward and chopped one of the treechnid's arms off. "if you stand the heat!" one slice after another, the treechnid could do nothing as dally avoided its slow strikes with his speed and the swing of his blade. so, in short, it didn't take long for the young knight to turn the creature into nothing but a pile of wood.

twirling his shovel around his wrist, ruel watched carefully as a treechnid approached him as well before suddenly jumping up into the air; easily avoiding the beast and its strikes. "kiss my shovel!" the enutrof soon cried before throwing his weapon at the wooden beast, who cried out as the old man's tool sliced it in half.

"last but not least ..." eva turned over to the last treechnid standing and drew back an arrow coated in a beautiful light blue color, shards of ice decorating it. "my frozen arrow!"

the cra released, and the boys could only watch on in awe as her mentioned arrow hit the treechnid directly in its forehead, where ice soon began to form and freeze over the bark that was its skin.

evangelyne smirked, taking in a moment to bask in her quickly earned victory until it was interrupted just as fast, and by you no less.

"haha!" you laughed, arms wrapping around your blonde friend's neck in a hug. "nice one, evie!" you cheered.

evangelyne immediately went tense, just as her face immediately went red as a flower crown of yellow roses appeared over her blonde locks once more.

"uh ..." clearing her throat to regain her composure, evangelyne huffed and looked away from your sparkling eyes in an attempt to hide her flustered expression from you. "would you have expected any less from the sadida princess's bodyguard?" the cra asked, trying so desperately to sound as casual as she could.

to her words, you giggled, releasing her from your embrace. "of course not. you are my bestfriend, after all," you replied with a teasing grin.

( unbeknownst to you, the heart pumping blood inside of evangelyne's chest took a moment to punch itself in the face. )

"uh, yeah ..." evangelyne coughed into her fist, her blush finally dying down. "of course."

"hahaha! did you guys see that?" dally asked, cheerfully laying an arm across your shoulder as he cheered. "we sure showed 'em!"

you laughed, wrapping an arm around dally as while also using your free hand to pump a fist into the air. "heck yeah we did!"

everyone else smiled, looking as if they were about to join in on your small celebration too, until a giant hand suddenly came up from the ground and took hold of you and your red-headed companion, much to everyone else's horror.

"[NAME]!" evangelyne rushed forward and took hold of your hand, desperately trying to pull you back down. "PERCEDAL!!" yugo cried, reaching out to grab hold of the iop as well.

you and dally couldn't do anything but scream, the two of you increasingly in volume once your hand had slipped from evangelyne's as the hand that had trapped the two of you in the first place rose higher into the air.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" dally began to struggle in the old tree's hold. "WHAT DO WE DO?!" he cried.

you didn't answer.

"[NAME]?"

"leaf?"

dally jumped, and then, in that moment, finally set his eyes on the being you had been staring at since the moment you were lifted halfway up into the air.

"is that you?" the old tree spoke, his voice coming out in cracks and rumbles as his wooden jaw moved with his voice. "leaf. little leaf," the old tree's eyes suddenly became glossy with tears. "your old soft oak is suffering. strange machines came here. they burned my heart and stole the sap from my little brothers."

the old oak had opened his hand now, his fingers no longer caging you. you took this as a chance to stand back up to your feet, so that your eyes—now ablaze with a fiery determination—could interlock with the poor oak tree that spoke his sorrows to you.

"my polters are turning all the humans into trees. all the humans!" the old oak tree's arm creaked as he moved it out to gesture to all of the fallen plant life around—all of his dead brothers. his sisters. his family.

"from now on, their destiny and ours will be one and the same."

you hadn't even realized you had begun to cry until the tears began to sting your eyes and shape patterns against your cheeks, but you didn't care.

you had to make this right. you had to.
"venerable soft oak, you're mistaken." humbly, you bowed your head to the old tree. "they don't all have hearts of stone. please, you must believe me!"

to the soft oak's surprise, you suddenly kneeled down before his eyes and placed a clenched fist against your heart, your head still bowed as a sign of respect. "my true name is [name] sheran sharm. i am the daughter of oakheart sheran sharm, king of the sadida, and great protector of the world's forests."

the soft oak gasped, his eyes beginning to swell with tears. "you're not leaf?" he asked, his low voice cracking with heartbreak.

you frowned, the strings of your heart being tugged at just the pain that you could hear in his voice alone. "no, i am not." ever so slowly, you stood back up and finally looked the soft oak in the eyes. "but even if i am not, i still ask you, venerable soft oak, to listen to me." with a sharp breath, you continued on. "i have no idea who leaf is. i don't know what sadida expected of me by guiding me and my companions to you. but ..." your fists clenched, determination igniting through your veins once again.

"but what i do know is that the world's forests are threatened in many ways. and only those who are free can protect them."

carefully, you pulled one of your gloves off and then placed your now bare palm against the very hand you stood upon. "please, listen to my heart, and you will know that i speak the truth."

with life coursing beneath your fingers, you watched with a soft smile and glossy eyes as beams of life seemed to pulse throughout the soft oak's being. his eyes widened, and groans left his oakwood lips as the cracked chips of his 'skin' were healed and the leaves that hung from his branches bloomed with a new color of life and grew ten times their size. mushrooms and flowers that decorated the sides of the old tree grew as well, their color finally returning to them at long last and being left to look as beautiful as they once were.

then, finally, once the process was done, the old soft oak released a breath of fresh air, and your smile grew.

you had just given someone life.

"[name] of the sadida kingdom ... thank you. you have calmed my anger. like little leaf did, oh, so long ago."

slowly, the old oak tree lowered you and dally back to the ground, and you beamed when you saw that all of your friends were desperately waiting for you below—each of them looking just as excited to see you as you did them.

"out of friendship for you and your people, i shall remain patient and have hope in mankind."

setting you and the red-head that was dally back down upon the earth's floor at long last, the old soft oak then lifted his hands into the air, and the polished gem that sat in his forehead glowed for but a mere moment, when a wave of light suddenly rushed overhead of you, making you and the others gasp out in awe as the plant life around you slowly regrow to the beautiful color of green that it once was.

"[name] ..." you and yugo locked eyes, and you felt your heart melt when you saw that the boy was now beaming up at you with absolute joy. "you saved my village!"

after a moment's pause, you beamed yourself, and sent a look up to the old, venerable soft oak one last time.

"actually," you placed your hands on your hips and grinned at the small team of soon-to-be legends, "i think we all played a pretty special part in this adventure."

and hopefully, we'll still continue to play those parts for the rest of the way. for but a mere second, the memory of a tower of gods danced about in your mind, along with two brothers, torn apart, and you had to hold yourself back from grimacing at the thought.

hopefully.