by Kelly Napoli
CHAPTER 3
FRIEND
The next days was very much the same: training went smoothly, for her shield came to her now almost like a natural instinct, and the speed and ease of her preparation put her in a rather fine mood.
Again, after her training all she could do was wander and think. She never strayed too far from the area she had grown accustomed to; however, the carvings on the trees only went so far and were sometimes no help at all.
So Kiethara found herself padding through the forest, her mind was blank and eyes staring as she tried not to think too hard. Every time she did think, she would always end up with more questions and, frankly, that was something she really didn’t need.
It was suddenly very quiet.
All the animals around her went silent. The sudden unnatural hush was unnerving. She stopped short and strained her ears, listening, and then she could hear it: a soft thudding that was steadily getting louder. Her shield went up quickly, no memory needed, for her heart was already sent into a frantic pounding that was loud in her ears.
In front of her, a figure emerged from the nearest tree.
Her muscles tensed, a cold sweat starting on the back of her neck. Since her shield emitted a soft golden light, the stranger’s appearance came into detail.
Kiethara let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding out in relief. It was not Gandador, but that great fact didn’t make her let her guard down.
It was a boy, nearing the age of a man, with a tall, slender figure. He had shaggy, blonde hair that fell over his devastatingly deep forest green eyes, with long, thick eyelashes framing the brilliant irises. His nose was perfect, dead center in his face, while his thin lips looked soft. His expression was a mixture of surprise and alarm; his slightly tanned skin was tinted gold because of her shield. He was wearing a black tunic over brown trousers, the tunic fitting tightly over his muscular chest, with dark brown boots to fit over his feet. He looked to be the same age—maybe a bit older—then she was. All in all, he was beautiful. Despite this, Kiethara was backing away.
She was backing away because he was holding a bow, arrow in place and ready to be shot. She doubted the arrow could penetrate her shield, but what if he could make it burst into a flame so powerful it ripped through her only defense and kill her? Or made it so that when it impaled her skin she was paralyzed, so Gandador could finish her off personally? Yet something she felt made her doubt both of those conclusions.
When she first saw Gandador, she could sense the dark magic. It was heavy around him, and it smelt like something was burning. The person in front of her felt…empty. He didn’t look sinister, and he didn’t smell like ashes. In fact, he smelled sweet, like roses, but slightly different. Something she had not smelled before. The air around him was still, unlike how Kiethara’s hair was twitching in the slight breeze caused by her fear. He was so…normal. Ordinary. She no longer felt a threat. But precaution was still necessary, for he was armed. Kiethara still had her shield up and she was taking steps back.
He then seemed to really take her in. His eyes widened slightly as they gazed upon her shield. He scanned her over; she watched as his eyes traveled up from her feet to her face until they made contact with her eyes, his mouth opening slightly.
Something flickered in his expression. The surprise stayed in place, but the alarmed expression changed to something else, like he realized something. Almost as if he was afraid of her. Kiethara didn’t know what could possibly make him feel that way, when he was so strong. Then he moved.
He pulled the arrow out of its place and put it with the others on his back, very slowly. He did the same with his bow and then—in the same slow motion—he put his hands up, palms forward, and took a step forward.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said. His voice was deep, strong. Kiethara found it hard to doubt the sincerity that rang in his words, but she still tried.
“How do I know you’re speaking the truth?” Kiethara asked, raising an eyebrow, struggling to keep her shield up. All fear had left her. The boy caused her to feel…she couldn’t find a word for it.
“I swear,” he said, and took another step towards her cautiously. His eyes held a small hint of a smile, and was that…eagerness?
Kiethara lost her fight with her shield; it disappeared. She stayed where she was, scrutinizing the boy in front of her. His expression was no longer surprised, but reassuring.
“Who are you?” Kiethara asked.
“Navadar.”
Slowly still, he walked forward while she watched him with wary eyes. He was now close enough that her extended arm would reach him.
“What are you doing here, in the middle of a forest like this?” she asked suspiciously. He was the first one, in all these years, who had ever come into the forest, come deep enough to actually make contact with her.
“Exploring,” Navadar answered.
“Exploring?” she questioned.
“Yes, I’m exploring… Legend says if you make it to the heart of the magical forest in the center of the world you can find the guardian...” he trailed off and scanned her with his eyes again. Kiethara looked down and blushed. It was foolish; she should be either running away or fighting. Neither was happening, and truthfully, she didn’t want them to. Someone—someone from the world she had thought of often—had dared to venture in the forest.
“So, are you the guardian?” he asked, trying to keep the conversation light. But he couldn’t hide the disappointment in his eyes completely.
“I believe I am,” she replied with a small smile.
Navadar bit his lip. She could see the distrust in her words clearly.
So she had to prove herself? She mildly wondered how she looked to him.
Kiethara then focused her attention on the grass in front of her, waving her hand through the air in one small, indiscrete motion. Instantly, a white rose blossomed from the ground: her favorite flower. She didn’t think Navadar would wait long enough for her to grow the whole bush, so she took her convenient short cut, bending down and picked it in one elegant motion. Navadar’s shocked expression returned for a whole minute before he could compose it. When he did, it became a dazzling smile.
“The legends speak of a guardian who is…older.”
“You seem to rely upon your legends greatly,” she said, and then sighed. “The legends you have heard forgot to factor in one key point: Gandador.”
Kiethara, keeping an eye on Navadar with her peripheral vision, walked towards the nearest tree and pulling herself up on the lowest branch, which was only a couple feet off the ground. She put a hand of the trunk and watched him as he stood there, shocked, wary, awkward, burning with curiosity.
“Gandador?! The one who had attacked my kingdom fourteen years ago? What does he have to do with the fact that a girl my age is guarding a forest bigger than three kingdoms combined? Eh?” he asked. She couldn’t help herself, she laughed. The sound seemed to thaw Navadar out, and he took cautious steps forward until he was standing at the edge of the branch.
“Twelve years ago, I was the age of three,” she explained. “My mother, Earthaphoria, was the guardian of the forest. She would still be guarding the forest today, if she was still alive.”
“Gandador killed the guardian?” he asked, appalled.
“Yes.”
He then asked the question she knew had been coming. “Then why is the forest still here?”
“The forest is still here because the death of Earthaphoria awakened the Spirit of Aaron. He protected me and drove Gandador off, weakening him greatly. Then Aaron raised me and trained me as best as circumstances allowed.” She didn’t tell him that she was still training. What if he thought her weak or figured her easy enough to kill?
“That is not what some of the legends say. Gandador is supposed to be dead,” he told her, eyes wide in horror.
“Do you really think your silly rumors got the truth right, and the person who was actually there is speaking a lie?” she ch
allenged, raising her eyebrows. Navadar was silent for a while before he composed himself. He sat down, slowly, on the edge of the branch she was one. He was still a good few feet away.
“True. So…does that mean you have amazing powers, or are shields and gardens all you capable of?” he mocked. Brave boy. She laughed quietly again. It felt…natural, and that made her feel uneasy. She shouldn’t trust Navadar so quickly.
“I can do much more than that,” she told him, which was almost completely telling the truth.
“Well, what can you do now?” Navadar asked.
“Why do you want to know?” she asked, tensing up.
“No, no,” Navadar said quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that. Not at all. I told you, I’m not a threat, I swear.”
Again, his sincerity was impossible to doubt.
“You don’t have to show me anything,” he said quickly. It was clear in his eyes that she had offended him. She bit her lip.
“Why did you want to meet the guardian?” she asked. It seemed like a risky journey for just a simple conversation with a being of one of his legends.
“I was…curious,” he admitted, but he seemed to be struggling for the right words. “My life was plenty ordinary and I felt like going on a small quest. I had to come to Nikkoi anyway. In fact, my father doesn’t even know that I’m here.”
She shouldn’t feel regret—that was irrational—but she couldn’t help it. Would it really hurt if she showed him just one thing? Something that Gandador had already seen her do, something inconsequential.
“I can show you one thing,” she relented.
She looked around, wondering what would be the best way to show him. She wanted to show him just enough so he wouldn’t question her power again.
Kiethara pulled herself onto her feet, balancing herself on the branch. Fortunately, the trees in the forest were lush and overgrown, so it didn’t take much to climb one…that is, if you knew how to climb one.
She pulled herself up onto the next branch, and was about to pull herself up higher when Navadar called out.
“Where are you going?” he asked, puzzled. He had followed her and was standing on the lower branch.
“To show you what you want to see,” Kiethara said, exasperated. She pulled herself up another branch, and Navadar followed, utterly perplexed. She sat herself upon the highest branch, him one lower.
“All right, watch.”
Kiethara threw herself off the branch. The air whooshed past her.
“No!” she heard Navadar cry. His hand shot out and grabbed her hand. She giggled.
Kiethara was hovering in the air, eight feet above the ground. She had one hand extended, the hand Navadar had grabbed in his own fear. He was staring at her with his mouth hanging open, and Kiethara answered his stare with a smug grin.
Unsure of when Navadar was going to recover, she rose slightly and stood on the same branch as him. She removed her hand from his grip, and that seemed to thaw him out.
“That was amazing, um…” Navadar said, a bit breathless. She realized she hadn’t given him her name yet.
“Kiethara.”
“Kiethara, that’s a lovely name,” he complimented. She blushed and averted her eyes.
“So what do you protect the forest from? I can’t imagine anyone thinking they could take down the forest, with all the legends of the guardians and such,” he asked.
“Have you been following along at all? I thought it would be obvious. Gandador, of course,” she said.
He just stared at her, as though she had two heads instead of one. Then he just shook his head, as though he was denying the fact.
“You just told me he fled. What are you talking about?” he asked with a weak chuckle that had a small note of hysteria.
“That’s true. He had been afraid of The Spirit of Aaron, so he ran away like a coward. Apparently, he thought he was strong enough to beat Aaron, or he thought Aaron was no longer here, and then he showed up. As soon as Aaron did show up, though, he fled.”
“He came back?” Navadar asked, expression appalled.
“Um…” Kiethara said, afraid to admit to him the truth. His reactions of horror and fear were throwing her off. Not that it made any sense that she was telling her life’s story to a stranger, but she thought it would be good if the kingdoms were warned, for Gandador had been known to attack them as well. But Navadar wasn’t a fool, so she finished in a small voice.
“Yes.”
“He did? When?” he asked.
“Er… a few days ago. Something like that,” she said in a casual tone.
“What?! Are you all right?” he asked, caring. She liked that.
“I’m fine,” she said with a roll of her eyes, though she could feel the blood rushing to her face.
“Tell me what happened,” he said. He scanned her over with his eyes, as though he was checking for battle scars. Kiethara took a deep breath and tried to explain as much as she could with as little detail as possible. It wasn’t as though she had to tell him, but she didn’t want to seem rude. She finally had a friend, one who was alive and one who didn’t want her dead.
“All right. One day I woke up and he—Gandador—was there. I tried to attack, but failed, so I fled. He caught up with me, holding my mother’s locket”—she pointed to the locket she was wearing—“but I got it back, and then Aaron came to my rescue.”
“Wait,” Navadar said. “Are you talking about Aaron Pervel? The forest’s father?”
“Aaron Pervel?” she asked with a laugh. “His name is Aaron Pervel?”
“That’s what the legend says. Does this mean the rumors know more than the guardian?” he asked in mocking surprise.
“Of course not. Aaron just hasn’t told me about his personal life yet. In fact, I don’t know too much on life outside the forest,” she admitted.
Kiethara looked out towards the golden sun. It was getting lower in the sky, casting the clouds into colors of gold, baby blue, and a dull pink. It was beautiful, but it had her sighing in disappointment.
“What?” he asked, and followed her gaze. They both stared at the sun for a moment, soaking in the remaining rays it provided them. They turned towards each other, eyes meeting, and she was suddenly lost in the deep beauty of his green eyes. Her mind catching up with her actions, she reddened and averted her gaze, holding her breath as her stomach flipped uneasily. They were both silent, awkwardness holding tightly at her tongue.
“I should be getting back to my hammock; it’s hard to find in the dark. You should also be getting back to…wherever you came from,” she finally said with a sad smile.
“Say no more,” he said, and then he jumped to a lower branch and out of the tree altogether.
“Be careful!” she cried, jumping out of the tree as well, absorbing the impact with the balls of her feet.
Navadar chuckled. “Not a scratch on me.”
They started walking in the direction of her hammock. This silence wasn’t awkward, but Kiethara had too many questions to keep quiet.
“So where did you come from?” she asked.
“The kingdom of Redawn,” he answered promptly. After a few seconds of silence Kiethara raised an eyebrow.
“That is located…?”
“It’s not too far from here, actually. Nikkoi is closer, but it only takes about a day or two straight on horseback. That’s not counting the stops of course, but still.”
She smiled at his words. That meant he might come back.
“What’s Redawn like?” she asked.
“It’s one of the better kingdoms, really. We have a lot of royal blood, and we have the strongest defense, the richest merchants, and the nicest people. We don’t have half as much of the crime in the other kingdoms, but the reason behind that is because we have no lust for power, none of your magic to gain. We don’t use it, and our nation never will,” he declared rather proudly.
“No magic?!” she asked in disbelief.
“I know it
must amaze you, just as the things you do amaze me. Even the weakest magic you could perform would amaze my kingdom. Our ancestors hadn’t liked the dangerous power magic was, so they gave it up, and since then nobody in Redawn has even attempted to wield it. Truthfully, it has kept us together. Even the king won’t use it.”
“Your king?” she asked. Navadar sighed.
“I forgot how little you know. I might as well tell you everything,” he said, taking a deep breath.
“The kingdom of Redawn is the only non-magic kingdom. There are many more kingdoms, but all of those kingdoms use the magic you guard here. All these had kingdoms fought for power—the power of the magic, mostly. Right now, however, some truces have been laid down and the fighting has ceased.
“What really sparks all the fighting is the way people used the power. People were twisting the power into something dark; however, no one had noticed this happening, because it was happening so subtlety. But the increase had been recognized, a little too late in my opinion. Kingdoms were falling deeper into this dark, powerful magic. It was all we could do to keep the world sane.
“People want the forest for themselves, but none dare approach it in fear of the mystery of its past and present. Back fifteen years ago, Gandador only ruled our kingdom for two years. He was foolish, thinking he was powerful enough to destroy the forest. See, everyone believed he would never fall, so when he did fall to the forest, people were in shock. No one really knew what lay in here, but whatever it was had killed the greatest enemy the kingdoms had ever faced. Or so they thought. Rumors spread like wild fire, and people stopped using magic, due to the fact they were too scared to come here and get any more of the power. Back then, people would just walk in and…take some? I don’t know what they did. I’ve never done it myself,” he finished, leaving Kiethara with more questions than she had had when they had started.
“Amazing,” she said. “So that’s why you are the first one to come into the forest.”
“Yes, I suppose it is,” Navadar said. “It also takes a long journey for most of the other kingdoms to get here. Redawn and Nikkoi are the only kingdoms that are close enough to get here inside a day. Our kingdom doesn’t use magic, so we have no reason to come here. I’m surprised nobody from Nikkoi has come, but I suppose they are a bunch of cowards.”
“Why are they scared, though? The guardians banished their enemy. Don’t they know that, if their intentions are good, the guardian won’t hurt them? That I won’t hurt them?”
“Most people have forgotten that the guardian means well and the people that do remember are more intimidated than scared,” Navadar said.
They had reached her clearing now. The sun was even lower in the sky, casting the forest into beautiful colors of pink, orange, and red. The light reflected off of Navadar’s eyes, his hair twisting and turning in the slight breeze. His beauty was almost staggering, and a feeling rose in Kiethara that had her bewildered; it was something she had never felt before. Was this what having a friend felt like? It was so strong; she couldn’t form a coherent sentence to keep the conversation going. Navadar seemed to be having the same issue.
She did not want him to leave. Today had been one of the best days of her life, for it was the first day she had ever conversed happily with another human, at least in her memory. It seemed she had another reason to live, not just to protect the forest. Now she could spend time with a friend! But she was getting ahead of herself—what if he didn’t come back? She was afraid that he would leave now, and this all would just slip away. It would just be another happy memory.
“You should get going. There’s not a lot of day light left,” Kiethara sighed at last. She tore her eyes away from him and followed his gaze back out towards the sun.
Navadar opened his mouth as though to say something, but he closed it.
“You’re right,” he finally said.
“Promise you’ll come back, though,” she said quickly, and then added, “It’s so boring here, you know.”
“Don’t worry, I will. I’ll go back to my kingdom first, but I’ll return. Around a week, say,” he promised. A week seemed long, but at least it was something. She smiled.
“All right,” she said.
“Goodbye,” he said in reply, and with one final glance at his surroundings, he turned his back to her and started walking east.
“Farewell,” Kiethara called to his retreating back, perhaps a bit too late. She stood rooted to the spot long after he had left. Finally, with a heavy sigh, she clambered into her hammock and fell into a dreamless sleep.