Ancient Legends Returns - Legends of Chima

Chapter 1: Arie

On Earth...

"Arie, dear. Arie!" called a grown feminine voice. "Where is that girl?" A middle-aged woman stepped out of the doorway and onto the porch. A breeze blew by, lifting her curly reddish hair. "Coming, Mom!", another voice rang out from the fields that surrounded the old farmhouse. A teenage girl ran out of the fields, her long fiery red trailing behind her like an endless river. Coming up to the farmhouse, she'd quickly ran up the stairs and stopped to catch her breath. "What do you want?", she said between breaths, panting. "Arie, I thought I told you not to go anywhere unless you tell me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to worry and think you got yourself killed or something", her mother told her. "Sorry. I just woke up this morning and saw the fields. I felt like nature was calling me to come and play", she said honestly. Mrs. Bakersmen sighed. Oh, Arie, she thought. Ever since her husband and Arie's father was killed in a car accident, and she recently found out who the driver was, she moved with her daughter to the farmhouse that was given to her by inheritance from her great aunt. She didn't mind, just as long as she knows that she protected her one and only daughter.

However, this didn't stop Arie from becoming reckless. Every day, she often comes back from school with a note of complaint from her teachers, saying that she should stay where she belongs. Although Arie was an extremely bright student and often brings up the highest grades in her class, she was also the target of the school bullies, especially the popular crowd and the teachers. She wasn't exactly the 'favored' student, because of her intelligence and athletic ability, she was a threat to the kids and the teachers. So Mrs. Bakersmen put a stop to that by pulling her out of school and started homeschooling her. But there wasn't anything she could teach her, since Arie was still in her second year of high school and that she was a college professor. But they managed to figure out a solution.

After Arie finished her studies, she would often go out to the fields and explore, coming back telling her mother stories of her adventures, especially about seeing animals that stand and walk on their hind legs like them from across the river. didn't mind hearing her daughter's stories, for she thought that she made them up. But after hearing them for the next couple of months, she began to worry. Maybe Arie was growing lonely and wanted attention. Well, she couldn't blame her. Even after she took Arie out of school, she has no friends. And to top them off, she often putting together her studies for the college, so she had no time for her.

But she was not lonely. Arie couldn't understand why, but she could see them. And when she goes to the fields, preferably the meadow, she would look around to try and see if she had imagined them. But every time she did, she would pinch herself and muffle herself, in fear that she should startle them.

Meanwhile, as the girl talked to her mother, neither of them notice a dark figure coming towards them. That is until he stepped on a stick. "Who's there?" shouted. Then noticing the stranger, she whispered, "Arie, get behind me." Arie knew too well that when her mother whispers in that tone, it meant 'danger'. Nodding her head, she softly walked behind her mother, reached out and grabbed her hand. , once she felt her daughter's hand in hers, shouted out again, this time in a much protective tone, "Who's there?" The stranger, as he continued walking, laughed. "Oh, come on. Don't tell after all these years, you still don't recognize me." She narrowed her eyes at the sound of his voice. "Don't play dumb with me, Eugarus. I know why you're here. And you are not going to lay one finger on her." "Oh, I'm sooo scared", he said, mockingly. "Anyway, while we are on the subject, I know she's behind you. I also know that you are unarmed, while I", he gloated, pulling out a gun, " am. So, how are you going to defend her?" "Like this", she hissed. "Arie! The bo staff!"