The Land of Tales: The Darkwoods

Witches Valley

As they get closer to the village soldiers dressed in dark armories can be seen surrounding the village. This was not normal the guardian seems to be a bit shocked but he does not display a worried look on his face, yet it appears that something is terribly wrong. He displays a serious look on his face and a dark shadow started surrounding them, his eyes shifts and starts glowing bright blue. As they get closer to the village the soldiers began to notice the presents of the guardian. Their faces whiten. shocked as they did not expect for him to show up.

A bit of background about these soldiers:

They work for the kingdom of the dark forest, this is a part of the forest where every creature the exists within that kingdom is either poisonous or has a bad image of being dangerous in the rest of the forest. they don't mind the bad labels as it gives them more power within the forest towards other creatures. However, there are a few that threaten their power over others like witches as they can be the second most powerful creatures in the whole forest after the guardian. 

See the guardian's job is to not only keep the land of the humans and the land of the forest seperat but he also needs to gather those from the land of the humans in which their time is up, he gather spirits and since living humans could not see him he is more of a folklore instead of a reality to most living humans. Another section of his job is to keep peace in the forest, and so he does not stand on one side however the witches are in the same stands as him. they are feared but  creatures still go up to them if they need help. the only downside is that a few witches are wicked and twist the deals that were made to benefits just themselves. this power they hold or born with can cause the kingdom of the dark side to fer for their position of respect and fear amongst other creatures. 

With that being said unlike the witches everyone must respect the guardian as he keeps things in order and can punish those who step out of line. but then again there are many creatures in this forest with powers, could it be that there is a creature out there more powerful then the guardian waiting for the right moment to strike?

The the leader that is guiding the soldiers steps up and walks up toward the guardian and said "ohh? oh great guardian" as he kneeled down he then asked "what brings you here today?" as he displays a grumpy look on his face. 

The guardians looks down at the man from the side and said "how rude, i should be the one to asked you that... you are in no place to be at the witches village... do you have business here or is this a threat towards them?"

The leader answers with a smirk on his face "business, of course" he said. he then looks at Emily and mistakes her for a human he then continues to say "A weak human in the forest?"

The guardian grows impatient  he quickly interrupts and said "Now that is none of you business, but how dare you lie to me... i am pretty sure you know that i know that you did not come here for just business"  

The leader said "ohh? if you already knew that then why did you ask me? and besides that human wouldn't last very long here..."

The guardian's shadows grows stronger and said "i was testing you... and it appears that you failed my test" suddenly the shadows start to surround the leader and slowly starts squeezing him, his soul still connected to his body he becomes in a state between life and death. the inability to breath, the coldness, the scary sights and the pure fear displayed on the leader's face.   

The soldiers gather around their leader and start to beg for his life "no please don't... we will go back, please don't kill him"

Finally the shadows lets go of the leader, left him choking, barely breathing and then simply passes out of exhaustion. the guardian looks up at the rest of the soldiers and says "go back to your kingdom... i don't wish to see you here anymore.... get out of my sight"

They all quickly gathered and picked their leader up and carried him back to the dark forest. the witch's scream and laugh and cheer to the guardian "ohhhh~ thank you very much" they all said and danced around.

The guardian gets off his horse first and then helps Emily down, his eyes are no longer glowing blue and his shadows soften as he helps her. The witches are a bit curious yet don't want to get to close to Emily as she could appear to look human but she could be something far more dangerous. they kneel down and offer for them to stay a bit longer so they could show their gratitude towards the guardian for helping them out. 

The horse seems to walk away as it already knows the way through the village. 

As the sun starts to set, witches at the villages roll huge pots down the narrow streets of the village. They offer the guardian and his guest (Emily) a seat on a huge dining room table in one of the bigger cottages with a very pointy roof. Everyone in the village seems to be doing something towards making this dinner, chinking and clanking chan be heard from potion bottles and glasses. 

The guardian seems to be distracted by two of the witches that came over to talk to him. Emily sits down quietly listening on to their conversation but does not interact, she notices that there is a witch that is slowly lingering closer. The witch gets close enough to Emily that she can feel the witches breath on her cheek.

"Can i help you?" Emily asked. suddenly soon after that the two witches that were talking to the guardian quiet down and all three of them look at the witch and Emily. 

The witches eyes starts to glow bright lime green as she displays a creepy smirk on her face. "Oh nothing at all... i was just admiring your beauty up close" the witch said.

Emily moves her hair out of the way however this seemed odd to everyone else. Normally someone would be very uncomfortable, other creatures may be very scared at this point. however Emily was not displaying any emotion on her face, she was calm and smiled warmly back at the witch. "ohh?! well thank you, i am flattered" Emily replayed. 

The witch's eyes widen, shocked. Something about this human girl seems very unsettling, she is hanging out with the guardian could she be special?  she though. She got this close to intimidate her but there was no reaction.

See the old witch Emily lived with for years always did that so Emily didn't react... it was simply not out of the ordinary.

Soon after that dinner was served, they talked a bit but for the most part Emily was quiet mostly because most of the conversation Emily had no idea what they were talking about.

Just before it was time to leave a crow lands on to the guardian's shoulder. Everyone quiet downs. It was a message only he can hear. his face looks a bit upset with the message. the crow flies away and the guardian stands up suddenly. "we need to get going... there is a problem up north" he said to Emily.

Seems like it is going to be a long journey before heading back home. She nods and quickly stands up "well let's get going then" she said. 

The horse was already ready standing outside the village borders, as if it already knew where they needed to be going next. they both hop on to the horse and travel up north into the dark.