The whispering wood

The whispering woods: chapter 1

 I woke up in the dark shady forest. It was at the beginning of the day, almost dawn, and the sky was a combination of subtle hues of purple and pink, streaked with threads of gold. I forced myself out of my tattered sleeping bag, rolled it up, and put it in my daypack, along with a knife, a book, some matches, and a piece of dry bread I'd been saving. My stomach rumbled, but I couldn't linger to eat. The forest near the city is not a good place to stay unless you want to get killed by a bear. So I packed up everything and started towards the city, hoping to find food and shelter. ,, and I knew I had to find shelter soon or a bear will decide I look yummy and eat me..

Right. You're probably wondering what the hell I'm doing in a forest. Well, I'm homeless. My mom disappeared when I was 8 years old.

Suddenly, a blinding light filled my eyes. Unable to bear its brightness, I brought my hands up to my face to block out the light. Gradually, as the intensity of the light began to fade, I removed my hands, and that's when I saw a bright light swirling through the sky. It spun around twice and started floating away. I ran after it and it led me to a warehouse in the forest. A small flicker of orange and yellow light caught my eye in the crack between the doors, I slowly walked up to it and the door slowly creaked open.

Okay what happened next was entirely my fault.

When the door opened, flickering hot flames licked at my skin. The door slammed shut. There was no where to go. The smoke from the flames began to do their work suffocating me. My eyesight dimmed and my knees buckled. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the fiery red wings of a phoenix.

* * *

"Edge!"

I rubbed my eyes. When I opened them I saw a flickering of a girl about 12 with hair as black as night and a dress as white as snow.

"Sorry do I know you?" I asked.

The girl looked offended.

"I am Aeleorea. One of the 5 guardians of the spirit tree." She huffed.

Yup. I was definitely going delusional.

"Did you say something about a talking tree?" I was confuzzled.

"The Spirit tree not the talking tree!" Aeleorea rolled her eyes. "You know the one that binds the world together?"

"Um sorry. Doesn't ring a bell." Now I was really confuzzled.

Aeleorea started to look exasperated.

"Didn't she tell you?" She asked.

"Who?" I didn't have a clue about what she was talking about.

"Your gaurdian."

"You mean my mom?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"My mom didn't tell me anything before she disappeared." I snapped. My mom was a touchy subject. " She's dead now."

"What!" Now it was Aeleoreas turn to yell. "That's not true!"

"How do you know?!" I asked. "You're just the guardian of a stupid talking tree!"

Aeleorea lowered her voice as if someone was listening to us.

"I-I just know. Okay?" She huffed.

"Doesn't sound very convincing." I muttered.

"Look. I wasn't sent here to argue. I have to be quick. I don't have much time left." She glanced around nervously as if something might jump up and yell BOO!. "When you wake up, there's going to be a phoenix with you. Don't be alarmed. I sent him there to help you. Just don't make him nervous. He tends to burst into flames. You have to go to the first temple and kill the monster that's guarding it. Then you have to go to the altar inside the temple and put the gemstone I gave you into the gem-shaped space. Okay?"

I blinked.

"Um...Okay." A phoenix? My mom wasn't dead? Then where was she? There were so many questions I wanted to ask but My thought were interrupted.

"I have to go now." Aeleorea started to fade. "One more thing. I'm sending you to the first place you need to go, I'm sending you off. It's up to you to save this world!"

"Wait! I never agreed to help you save the world! I didn't-!"

But I didn't get to finish. The dream rippled like a raindrop falling into water. I was waking up

* * *

I stirred a bit and sat up. When I opened my eyes a familiar place was there. I was in Manhattan where I used to live before my mom disappeared... but that's another story. I had a quest to complete and a world to save.. I couldn't linger on the past now. The phoenix and I trailed the ruins of the city. Everything was destroyed. The empire state building was toppled over and covered in vines. The city looked as if a huge round of whack-a-mole had happened. There were huge holes in the ground and the ruins looked as if they had been hit by a giant hammer. RUSTLE! RUSTLE! A noise came from behind me. I turned around to find a flash of green. a small sparrow landed behind me, the vine wrapped around it and strangled the bird. The bird let out one last cry before it fell to the ground. Lifeless.I didn't waste any time doing the heroic thing. Running and screaming MOMMY! I started running through the ruins. Phoenix trailed behind me. When I thought we lost the vine, I risked a look behind me.

That was my biggest mistake.

When I turned around a blur of dirty green. shot into my face temporarily blinding me. I stumbled and heroically fell on my rear end. The vine grabbed my leg and pulled my leg until I was sure it was going to come off. The vine dragged me backwards towards a very sharp looking piece of debris.

"EEEEEEEE!" The phoenix screeched as it dived down.

If the phoenix had been even a second late I would have been turned into a Edge-kebob. The vine, startled, let go of my leg and slithered away. But the phoenix wasn't done, it dived down and it's fiery breath torched the vine.The remaining vines retreated.

"EEEEEEEE!" The phoenix screeched again as if saying Yeah thats right run!

For a second I thought the phoenix had said something but realized the idea was ridiculous. Talking phoenixes? Next thing you know There'll be walking waffles.

"Thanks..." I huffed and puffed trying to catch my breath.

I stood up rubbing my leg on the spot where the vine had nearly ripped my leg off. A blood red circle circumferenced my calf where the vine had gripped my leg.

"Well that's not gonna be healing soon." I muttered still rubbing my leg.

But I didn't have much more time to complain because the phoenix suddenly screeched in warning. I looked in the direction the phoenix was screeching.

A dark shape was standing a couple of yards away.. As it got closer I could make out the shape of a wyvern.

And it was coming right towards us.