The Sealed Warrior

⇺12⇻

Dahlia woke up in a tree.

Yes, you heard correctly.

A tree.

It's not a very welcoming sight to be upside down hanging from a vine.

"AH!" Dahlia screamed. She began to thrash around, but it seemed like the vine was tightening around her foot.

"Dahlia relax, ah!" a voice shouted out from somewhere behind her.

"Syl?!" Dahlia yelled, scrambling to find where she was at.

She then noticed Ethan also hanging from a vine that had grabbed his left hand and boot. His face was light pink and his black hair was hanging down. She watched him take a deep breath and sag his body, and just like that the vine let go of him so that he fell to the ground with a thump.

"Okay, Dahlia. Just do what he did," Dahlia muttered to herself, before letting herself go limp.

Then, just as she did so, the vine also let go of her, and gravity was in the act. As she fell, Dahlia tried to land on her feet, but that didn't go so well. She cried out in pain. All of her weight was brought down onto her injured leg. She fell to the ground in agony, her hands grasped her leg. It felt like it was still stuck in the fire.

Someone placed their hands on her shoulder.

Dahlia's instinct kicked in and she went to slap the person who touched her, but they easily stopped the blow.

"Shh, calm down," Sylva whispered. She helped Dahlia stand, causing the Princess to wince when she put pressure on her foot.

"Why are you whispering?" Dahlia asked, which sounded rather loud in the quiet forest.

"Tone it down! We're in the Silent Forest, which is the last place you want to be loud."

"Why?" Dahlia asked, not changing her tone.

Sylva glanced at Dahlia and in a split second, she was standing behind her shortsword drawn.

"That's why," Sylva stated softly, pointing at a plant with her sword.

Dahlia looked to see what she was pointing at and grimaced. The plant was a vine, and it was in pieces thanks to Sylva. The one thing that stood out, though, was that the plant was moving, flopping around on the ground before lying still.

"It's alive," Dahlia whispered in disbelief.

"Of course it's alive, it's a plant," Sylva murmured sarcastically, poking the plant with her sword. It twitched once more.

"Are you two alright?" Ethan asked quietly from behind Dahlia.

Dahlia jumped slightly. "Where did-"

"We're fine, but do you know exactly where we're at?" Sylva whispered to him, interrupting Dahlia.

Dahlia looked at Sylva before looking back at Ethan, a frown plastered onto her face. After a moment, though, her eyes widened slightly as she realized she couldn't see him until he moved. She hadn't noticed till now how his black uniform blended into the dark trees, and if she looked at Sylva she also was hard to see. Meanwhile, Dahlia herself was dressed in a white nightgown, and starting to feel a little naked standing out in the open she tried to cover herself with her hands. Ethan saw that she was uncomfortable and shifted off his dark cloak and handed it to Dahlia.

"You need it more than I do," Ethan simply stated as he looked around.

Dahlia stared at him for a moment, before she repositioned the cloak to where it was on correctly. The cloak was doing its job as both Sylva and Ethan could barely see her, and since the cloak was too big for her it went down past her feet and engulfed her in the warm fabric.