Celina: Eden

Monster in the Forest 2

The four headed through Ephinia, walking past every inhabitant of the town. It seemed like they walked for hours, but finally, they stopped before the tall trees over towering. Several rows of them were met with shrubbery and what also looked to be thorny vines off side the dirt path.
"Well, it looks--inviting." Noel said sarcastically.
"You've been learning from Jess." Priscilla said.
"Ha ha ha. My laughter ensues." Jessica replied.
"We can't delay. The other town resides beyond this forest."
"How do you know that exactly?" Noel asked Leon, who seemed to be in a hurry.
"Because, I've traveled through here before. There's nothing new under the sun."
"Except for now there's a giant monster lurking the forest." Noel corrected him.
They stepped in through the path. The rustling of trees, chirping of birds. Little, furry creatures known as Chiku scurried by with chichichichichi noises. A school of them in white, black, white with black spots, and brown passed.
"This is beautiful. I doubt that anything would happen of the sort." Priscilla replied.
"Hmm. What do you mean, Priscilla?" Leon asked.
"That any monster would be lurking this early in the day. I'm guessing it's another monster that the Red Moon created." Priscilla replied.
"If the Red Moon created such a beast, we would be able to help your little girlfriend." Jessica added.
Noel started to realize the point they were making.
"So, we can't help her? I mean, we just leave her poor, defenseless daughter out in the wilderness?"
"We're not here to help anyone else but my mother. I'm sure you understand."
Priscilla, although she wanted to comment off of Jessica's mean remark, she knew she had a point. She turned to Noel.
"Noel, we have to help Jessica's mother, that's what we promised. Remember? We can't get sidetracked...anymore."
"How do we even know if my mother is still living anyway," Jessica folded her arms, "its not like Leign is here right now giving us any word on her health."
"Who said I wasn't?"
They all stopped shortly in a clearing. The four looked around.
"Who said that?" Jessica was the first to say.
"I don't know. Who was that?" Priscilla echoed Jessica.
The laugh of a man came, then, it spoke again: "well, Jessica, I'm down here. Attached to your hip."
She obeyed the voice, looking down at her waist, to spot the old, rusted compass dangling from her waist. She collected it, and observed it. It looked the same as always: dormant and rusted as usual. Everyone gathered around it. Jessica shook it a few times before placing it up to her ear. She shrugged her shoulders as it spoke again.
"Um, testing, testing, one two. Testing..."
"What? What is it saying?" Priscilla asked.
"Whatever it is, it's speaking." Jessica said, shaking the compass.
Priscilla and everyone exchanged bewildered looks.
"Ah that's the spirit. Leign here everyone. We need to make sure I can get a visual on you all. Princess Jessica, use your magic on the compass."
"Leign? Leign, speaking of which, is my mother okay?"
"Of course she is, but I can show you better than I can tell. Try dabbling some of your magic onto the compass and see what happens."
Jessica snapped her fingers as a huge dribbling of magic glittered and fell from her index finger, and onto the compass' dirty glass covering. The hands began to shiver and shake. The single hand on my compass spun around very fast. Jessica screamed as she dropped the compass to the ground. Everyone ran away from the compass, yelling out in fear of not knowing what was going to happen. Standing there brushing himself off was Leign himself. He held a pipe in his mouth.
"Well, that was fun."
"Whoa, hey, where did you--? How did you--?" Noel said while poised behind a tree.

"I told Jessica there--the Compass is magic. I found it on an expedition a loooong time ago. It was said to belong to an explorer during ancient times. I accidentally used a dab of magic on it from one of my alchemy experiments. The trinket had taken me right from out of my lab, and from one side of the world, to the other in just an instant!"

Leign pointed at the compass lying on the ground. Slowly, Jessica walked from behind a rock, inching towards the object. Leon's eyes wide, he kept his blade drawn. Priscilla tiptoed towards it also. Noel was last to inch away from his spot. Leign looked at everyone while standing in the clearing.

"Um, you can all come out. It won't hurt you, I promise." He chuckled.

They all came back together as Noel used his finger to poke Leign a few times.

"Who--who is this? What magics is he using?" Leon asked.

"Not the magic I'm using, but the magic Miss Princess Jessica used. Technically, I can't use magic. I merely mix potions and make spells, but none of my magic is natural." Leign corrected him.

He felt Jessica poke him next, then Priscilla had taken a turn. Leign shooed them all back.

"Ahhh! Come on kids! Why you all obsessed with poking me?!"

"It's real! I mean, Leign is really here?!" Priscilla asked.

"Wow, I don't even know how to do that!" Jessica replied in utter shock.

"He's really him." Noel added.

"Of course I'm really me. Who else would I be?"

Leign looked over at Leon. "I see you've all befriended a new comrade."

"Yes, but my mother, how is my mother, Leign?"

"She's still holding on. Don't worry, I can actually show you in a minute...have you gotten to Eden yet?"

"Hmmm. Not yet. We've been using the compass."

"That's good. I finally found away to speak through the compass, but I can't travel through the compass again."

"That brings me to my next question: if you accidentally traveled to the other side of the world, then why didn't you just use the compass to travel to Eden?" Jessica asked.

"It only travels between two points already explored. So, you're already here, therefore, I was able to travel here. And, you have already been to Kingdom Selah, so you are able to travel back with me. You can also pull me through, but I can't go back without the compass, that's why I contacted you the way I did."

"Makes sense," Jessica said, tapping her index finger on her lips,"fine. I wish to go back to see my mother momentarily."

That's when they all turn their attentions to it. A loud, earsplitting ROOOAAAR pierced the daytime skies like a blade into the heart of a beast. They all became startled.

"What--what is that noise?" Priscilla yelled.