Pick Your Path: Book 1

47

You stay at the nearby inn for the night and set out the next morning to the forest.

" A trail? Where am I going to find that?" you wander around the forest looking for the trail. Maybe it was a trail of puppets? Maybe something more invisible? A glint of silver catches you eye as you pass by a tree that looked slightly different than the other trees around it. It had a slightly darker shade of wood, very hard to notice it if it stood alone.. You pause, looking back at the tree. The sunlight caught the silver edge of a thin string. The string lead away, deeper into the forest. " That must be the trail." you begin to follow the, near by invisible, trail.. The trail ends at a small clearing, where a familiar person waited. Sori looks up as you approach.

" You decided to come?" he greets you as you approach. 

" Yeah.." he did say he could teach you a thing or two about puppets. Maybe he could show you some his tactics with handling them? He waves for you to follow him, " Since you already know my name, what's yours?"

" I'm (Y/n)." you respond, " Where are we going?"

" To the place where you will be staying from now on." he replies quickly. The two of you enter a valley with high walls. Half-breeds wandered around the clearing inside, some heading to another opening in the wall of the valley. A girl with blonde hair came running over.

" Sori." she greets, " You're back with a new person.."

" (Y/n) will be staying with me. He/she's not a threat." he growls.

" So you mean an apprentice?" a light pink and white fox trotted over, joining in, " So that's where you went. I didn't expect you to bring back an apprentice faster that me." 

" Anyway, not that you're both here." the girl interrupts, " We'll be having the moth's game today. And you are not allowed to skip." she turned and left you and Sori.

" The game's today?" the wolf half-breed asked, slightly annoyed, " I thought it was next week.."

" They probably changed it, Nan." Sori comments. " Don doesn't want us to keep leaving camp." he motions for you to follow him to the opening in the wall. Nan follows along, but at a distance, " Will, Cassie? You guys here?" he walks inside.

" Yep, we're both here." a voice responded. A boy with amber eyes came up to greet you. " Nice to see you around camp for once."

" I'm here too." a gazelle half-breed butted the boy aside with her horns " Sori, who's the new person?"

" (Y/n)." he gives a curt answer. Nan walked in and is now behind you and Sori.

" I'm Ellie." the gazelle half-breed said cheerfully.

" Hey, you're not allowed to get a head start on this!" the boy shoves Ellie out of the way, " I'm Will, do you want to-"

" No." Ellie tries to push Will out of the way, which soon turns into something similar to wrestling match. Both trying to get the upper hand..

" And they're fighting, again.." a girl looked up from her book in the corner of the room. That was probably Cassie.

" Let's leave before the fight escalates." Nan nudged us past the Ellie and Will. " Their fights can get quite rough." the three of you leave into another room.

" Hey!" you hear Ellie and Will yelp as you, Sori, and Nan are in the middle of crossing the room..

" Uh, oh.." Sori grabs your hand and immediately starts to run, Nan following close behind. You exit the room as Ellie and Will go charging in.

" Nan, is your sister here?" Sori asks as the three of you run down a hallway.

" Yeah. She might be by the lake area." Nan races ahead, leading the way. You burst into a large cavern with an open top. A small slash echoes off the walls as a light purple and white wolf dripped her legs into the water. She looks up as you come bursting in.

" Hey, Nan." she greets, her purple tail curled in a messy ball of fur beside her.

" Hey Rose." Nan approaches and sits down next to her.

" The game's tonight, do you have a team yet?"

" Sure, are you joining the game?"

" Only if I'm on your team." Rose responds, " Who's on the team so far?"

" You, me, Sori, and (Y/n), Sori's apprentice."

" He/She isn't my apprentice.." Sori growls.

" (Y/n), want me to go over the rules for the game?" Nan ignores Sori.

" Sure."

" The rules are pretty simple. There are multiple groups of three of four. The goal of the game is to to take out it sabotage the other groups' plans to get the item hidden somewhere in the forest. We have weapons to defend and attack with." Nan's tail flicked anxiously, " Do you get it?"

" Sounds easy enough."

" Everyone ready?" Nan's indigi eyes glittered with excitement, " We'll definitely will this month's game. None of the groups will get in our way!"

"Yeah!" Our howls of challenge echoed off the walls of the cave. " We will prevail!"

Continue to page 57.

It's that time of the month again.. The stakes and competition are high.. We can't afford to loose. Let's give it all we've got, everyone! ~N

Can't wait to face off against the other teams. Maybe we'll face off against Pearl's team first. I'll be able to take her out for once! ~Ro

Hopefully (Y/n) will be able to hold up against some of members in the other teams. They can be quite strong, especially Ellie's team. Her team may fight, but they know how to make use of the sporatic attacks. Maybe (Y/n) will be able to help the team in ways the rest if us could never imagine.. Nan and Rose seem slightly weary of (Y/n).. I just hope they will accept him/her quickly so we can move together as a team as soon as possible. Maybe we could spend more time together so we can get to know (Y/n) better like strengths and weaknesses.?  ~ So