Chapter 22

Chapter 22: The West Forest Incident (Part 2)

“Anne, come on, we need to walk faster before the night falls.”

Anne sees the enthusiastic David, who waves his hand towards her. Sharing a glance with Darla, they laugh at how David seems like a little boy all of a sudden. She remembers her days when she had the same kind of enthusiastic tendency as David, Anne think that although she could never gain the same feeling again.

It all changes when she looks upon the vast valley before the forest. The beautiful flowers surrounding the pathway, colorful birds chirping on the branches, butterflies, and bees dancing around the flowers. She feels she could prance around the area and begin to sing with a melody of a guitar.

“Anne?”

She felt a hand touches her shoulder and turned around to see her friend, Darla, “Are you okay? You pace out, I called you several times.”

“What? Really? I... I didn’t notice.”

“Careful, okay? We don’t know what’s inside this forest, even though it is near the capital.” Said Darla to Anne.

.....

She nodded her head, and together they follow David, who was already walking further than they expected. However, the three of them don’t notice a sweet fragrance that comes from a certain plant. A sweet and intoxicating aroma that could make you hallucinate and fill the mind with euphoria. Anne and her two friends, step into a landmine, without them even realize.

Behind them, three other people enter the valley, people wearing a cloak, wary of their surroundings.

“It seems the effect is not as severe as we thought.” Said one of them, while detecting the aura of the valley with his hand.

“Yes, if the person has enough level of magic, but if they were a low level...”

“The effect will be severe.” Mumbled the one who scan the area, he turn to his colleague, “Vale, what should we do?”

Vale, the magi with wavy brown hair and emerald eyes, looked at the other two, “Come on, let us search the area, the gatekeepers told us, he saw three youngsters walk in the direction of the valley of a dream. I’m afraid, they’re are going to be in danger.”

The Magi then steps further inside of the forest, and Vale at this moment doesn’t realize, that the one that he tried to search and rescue is none other than Anne, the purple hair healer from Viora village. The one girl that keeps presenting herself in some of his dreams.

Deep down in the forest, after two hours of walking, Anne and her two friends are sitting on a dead branch, trying to catch a breath. The look on their faces is full of desperation. They had been walking for two hours, and there was no sign of any Wismushroom.

“David... How much farther to this supposed to be Wismushroom?” Complained Darla to David, “I’m starving!”

“For the love of Moon Goddess! Darla, you were eating so much food, like two hours ago!” Scold David, he looks agitated and tired.

“But, I’m hungry again!”

Darla is whining so much, Anne looking at how tense David is, immediately gives Darla another eggle sandwich. The last thing she wants right now is two people fighting in the middle of a dense forest. She looks around the forest, and her instinct kicks in, the forest feels dark, even though the sun still shining brightly.

The fog has become thicker, she tried to convince her friends to go back to the capital and forget about the Wismushroom. David and Darla, sadly don’t budge, their ambition to found the wild Wismushroom, makes the two of them oblivious to the danger that will come.

“Look, Anne, it will be fine, we are going to study in the Wismushroom, put our tent near the Wismushroom and have a blast studying.” Said, David.

“Yeah, he’s right, Anne, I need the knowledge, I’m not the brightest kid in my village.”

Anne then holds Darla’s hands, “I’ll help you, Darla, we can do it, together.”

“No, sorry Anne, you may be confident with your knowledge, but not mine, I really need this.”

David let out a sigh, and begin to pick up his bag, “Come on, let us waste another time, I’m positive we are going to find this Wishmushroom before dark.”

“Hope the Wismushroom has some kind of light source, cause it will be too d*mn dark to study at night!” Said Anne with a very good dose of sarcasm.

They continue the journey, through the rough patches of the thorny flower field, the three of them almost give up, until Anne sees a glowing green light from afar. It is the wild Wismushroom, glowing from the light that comes through its see-through body.

They run as fast as they could towards the Wismushroom, David and Darla arrive before Anne, and they hug the Wild Wismushroom while cheering loudly. Anne, who’s not very good at sport is the one who notices a colossal shadow creeping into her friends.

“David! Darla! Run! There’s something behind you guys!” Screamed Anne.

Darla and David take a glance at what’s coming from behind them and scream as loud as they could. It is a monster called Snaillog, with a body full of mucus, and a shell house that resembles a log. The two of them run as fast as they could, tailing by the Snaillog from behind. Anne feels hopeless for the first time, she looks around hoping to see something that could help them.

Finally, a plant that is as tall as the tree with a thorny skinny branch is getting noticed by Anne, she pulls one of the plants ignoring the thorns, and runs to the Snaillog. She arrived in time before David and Darla are getting smashed by the Snaillog, despite David already cast a protection shield.

Anne swished around the plant, miraculously a powder-like substance appear from the leaves of the plant. The Snaillog retreated and seems scared by the powder. Anne and her friends yell for their win over the Snaillog, which sadly doesn’t last that long. The plant begins to run out of powder, and as soon as the powder is completely gone, the Snaillog makes a really loud noise and charges into Anne and her friends. David tried to cast another protection spell, but it was too late. The three of them got thrown by the Snaillog.

Whimpered and with a thumping head, Anne tried to avoid the Snaillog who was now going to her. She drag her body, while her friends screamed at her. The Snaillog now getting closer to her, and with one giant leap, she could see the body of the Snaillog ready to mushed her, she closed her eyes, praying that it was not going to be hurt. Miraculously, nothing happens, no impact, not even pain.

“Anne, are you okay?” A man’s voice called her name.

She opens her eyes and sees Vale crouching beside her, while his hand lets out a powerful Magica to the Snaillog.