The Solar Empire

Chapter 2: Uninvited guest

A day had already gone and passed since I first set foot out of the village. It only came to me a few hours after I left that I had never seen a world outside of my home, for the only time I had left the village was when I was a pup. Too young to remember. But now that I had started my journey, it felt interesting. By this point, I had already passed by the Stilfawn river, meaning I had only about two more days to journey, maybe one and a half if I walked a night. That being said, it's not easy for me to suddenly go from only having to walk a little out of the house to suddenly walking a distance equivalent to half the kingdom. I shook my thought away from that as I had to make sure I was going the right way. I look ahead of me and see that the dirt path forked off into two direction. Using my magic, I summoned my map using a spell that doubles as a bag that can hold anything by simply making it disappear and reappear as I please. I stared at the map for a bit, trying to figure out where I was relative to the village. That's when I heard rustling from a tree. My eyes quickly snapped to the tree where I could see that the leaves and branched were still moving.

I narrowed my eyes, knowing that it wasn't the wind as the wind wasn't strong enough to do that. I quickly looked back to the map, trying to find myself once again and I thankfully found it quickly. After a few moments of thinking and looking, I looked to the left path and started to walk down it, teleporting the map away and walking slightly faster, as I could feel whatever or whoever was in the tree....was watching me

~~~

The morning had pasted and the afternoon was now growing late, the sun preparing to set and make way for the moon. I had walked the path for hours now, mainly lost in random thought as it was the only real way to pass the time. As I walked further, I could hear the rustling of bushes and feel as though I'm being observed. As this was a lot more of a wide open meadow, few trees and bushes along the path, I could now tell that whoever had been following me could either fly or knew a levitating spell. Even so, they continued in making them-self unknown, and now more than ever, with the sun setting, I felt it right to finally face my opponent.

I stopped in the middle of the path, waiting for the sound of the bush to quiet before I turned around. I gazed at the bush that hid this spy. Without hesitation, I brought fourth my wand with the same spell I used for my map. 

"Reveal yourself." I commanded as I pointed the wand, which doubled as an umbrella at the bush, the wooden tip slightly poking at the bush. A moment of silence. I could tell that the spy hesitated. Suddenly, a brown, smiling face popped up, her big aqua eyes shimmering. I studied her for a second. She was a bat, clearly shown by her large ears. I quickly noticed her bright blue tie. Not bright as in neon or even light blue, just bright when held against her light brown fur. Somehow that tie alone annoyed me.

"State your name.." I demanded, focusing my attention back at her face and not her tie.

"My name's Spectrum! Pleasure to meet you!" She chimed as she held out her hand to shake, quickly showing me that he hand connected the rims of her wing together. I rejected the handshake, not really caring for making any friends.

"Why have you been following me?" I questioned her, thrusting the umbrella slightly forward to bring to her attention that I'm not in the mood for fooling around. Yet my attempt fell short as she retained her bright smile.

"Well what happened was I was traveling back from a local village and decided to take a nap in a tree. When I woke up I saw you through the leaves. You didn't look like you wanted to talk so I just kinda watched you leave. That's when I remembered I needed to get going again! So I flew up and went along the path." She explained, her eyes seeming to shine brightly. Since apparently she takes nothing seriously. However, I let her continue to explain.

"Because I get tired after a while, I decided to land in this bush. But because of the clouds blocking my view when I landed, I hadn't even realized you were on the same path I was on. So there! I'm not following you! I'm just trying to get where I need to be." She said nicely, finally stepping completely out of the bush. I moved my wand away and had it disappear since I could see she was no threat. 

"I apologize for the misunderstanding." I simply stated as I turned around to continue down the path. I had to practically bite my tongue from saying anything rude to her, but it was over, I could continue ont-

"Where are you heading to?" She cut my thoughts off as she fly by my side. I kept walking in hopes that she would take a hint and be on her way. 

" I like traveling so I kinda go where ever I want. You don't seem like the wandering kind though. So where are you going?" She asked again, her curiosity biting away at her and annoying me. I sighed.

"It's none of your concern.." I trailed off, thinking for a moment.

"But I'm going to Greenleaf." I quickly added, knowing she would only continue asking if I left it at that. She seemed to stop for a second.

"Really? Because you're going the wrong way." She stated, stopping me in my tracks. I stared at her.

"Listen, I can read maps. I understand them. I looked at my map. I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING." I exclaimed boldly. I had only looked at the map a few hours ago, so I knew I was still on track. That didn't stop her from walking in front of me. 

"I'm serious, this is the wrong way to Greenleaf. Here, lend me your map." She asked, no longer carrying the same cheery voice. Since that surprised me, I complied with the request and brought fourth my map. She quickly took it and showed me it.

"Okay, so I remember taking the left path. The map shows that the left path leads to Greenleaf, that's what you thought right? Because it's wrong. If you look at the map this way," She turned the around to where Beetseed was no long facing outwards to her, but inwards to me.

"See, you're supposed to look at it from this way. Because from this way, the path to the right is what leads you to Greenleaf. I can understand why you'd get it wrong, the lines on here can be fairly deceiving if you don't look at it from the right angle." She stated simply, handing me back the map, neatly rolled up. I looked at her for a second before I sighed. I was surprised in my simple mistake. She saw this and began to speak again.

"There's another little fork in the road ahead that will lead you to the right path though. And since I'm also supposed to head to Greenleaf, why don't we go together?!" She happily cheered, waiting for my response.

I was going to automatically respond with no, but the thought of me being wrong the first time still lingered. If I can be wrong once, I can be wrong again. Not only that, but she clearly understood more things about traveling then me. I let out a sigh of defeat as I stared at my feet.

"Lead the way...Spectrum." I grumbled. I looked back up and saw she was smiling again.