A World Forgotten

The Forest of Eternia

    I walk along the outskirts of the forest that borders the kingdom, looking for the tree split in two. The forest always was my favorite part of the kingdom, known as the Forest of Eternia, with trees of every color different color mark the territories in the forest. We had retreated to the Heart of Eternia, the very center of the forest. The greenery aren't the only magnificent things about the forest, the creatures inside are a sight to see, sometimes I'm jealous of them. Living in peace, without fear. The forest is fearsome to those who don't have a connection to it as I do, but after a while it gets to know you. I find the tree, and walk over it, into the forest following the path, for a very dense forest it's rather easy to navigate, but maybe that's because I've lived here for he past 15 years of my life. I start to sing a tune that my mother taught me growing up in the forest without her it's my only connection I have left to her. It talks of the creatures and how they had a relation with the people of Uostha until the war started. I will never understand why the gods angered the spirits of the forest, but from the beginning we knew nothing good would come of it, nothing good ever comes from angering the spirits of the forest. My mother thought that letting the gods take shelter in our kingdom would protect us as the forest borders our kingdom, how wrong she was. I will never forget the look of betrayal on her face when they took the throne from under us, casting us out for her mistake claiming "She cursed this land endangering all of the people along with it." They placed the blame of the war on us, it was a mutiny, the people overtook us throwing us to the outlands. They were killed just outside the forest when we were scavenging the Outlands of Esthoro, we were looking for things that we could use for our civilization in the forest only wanting to take what we had to. The gods came from the kingdom, they slaughtered them in a matter of minutes, we were caught off guard, I've never seen my parents so panicked, they told my brothers to take me and run, that I would be the revival of our Uostha, a kingdom that would rise with a queen once again. So they did what they said, now the three of us live in the forest, separated from the rest of society. It was time to take action, no more hiding behind a society overtaken by corruption. I've been training to fight, to bring my parents' dying wish to light, I won't fail them, not this time. I shake my head as I find myself at the gate to our settlement. I open the gates and walk in.

"Sylene Yaren Mantra, just what in the name of Egya were you thinking!?" Zaren exclaims, running out of his house with Xyro trailing behind him. Zaren is my older brother and Xyro is his boyfriend, h=which he doesn't want to admit it.

"I was doing more than you have in the past 15 years, I warned them of the upcoming battle, I won't hide from them any longer!" I yell back to him. My voice unsteady as if it would shut down in a matter of seconds.

"Sylene... Come here." His voice softens hearing the distress and panic in my own. He opens his arms, I shake my head and walk past them into my cabin in the tree.. He knows I'm upset with how we've been treated over the past 15 years. He knows I hate that they just threw our family to the side like we were a rotten shigna fruit. Everyone believes what the gods say as they are immortal beings, but all they do is spout lies, lies that society eats up like a starving erthropa. I try to think of happy memories with my parents, The Cost of a Crown, mother's song that she would sing to me every night. Zaren would try to sing it to me so I wouldn't forget, but he isn't the best at singing so I took over that tradition, it's what I started to sing which calms my emotions. I hear a knock at my window from the outside, I walk over to it and see Mari. I open the window, and she climbs in.

"Just what were you thinking, you could've been hurt!" She scolds me.

"But Mar, I didn't. Also I have a lot to fill you in on!" I reply hoping she'll let it slide.

Just as I expected her eyes light up, "What kind of fill me in?"

"I told some man off after he knocked me over, it felt so.."

"Justifying?" Reland, my other brother asks, walking out from the shadows of the room. Both Mari and I jump.

"Just how do you always manage to sneak up on us like that?" I ask, he always has been the one I confide in the most, but I love all three of my brothers equally.

"A brother never reveals his secrets, but I'm staying. I wanna hear what happened." He says, I swear he's more of a girl than I am.

I sigh, "Fine, but don't tell Zaren, he'll have the man's head on a spyre."

"I swear it." He moves his hands over his heart in a dramatic gesture, I laugh. I explain what happened after I was tripped to where I left.

"I think you handled that like the queen you are!" Mari exclaims, her voice full of sass. We all burst out laughing.

"Thanks Mar." She smiles, and I swear I feel my heart melt a bit, my face getting a bit hot. I smile back trying to keep the red on my face down. My brother smirks like he just solved and enari.

"Well, I'm going to be late for dinner, talk to you in the morning!" She waves then climbs back out the window.

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Clarifications

Egya - E-jah, an ancient deity and supposedly the main spirit of the forest.

Shigna - A sickly sweet fruit that when rots lets out an almost toxic smell, it grows in the cavern bellow the forest.

Erthropa - A type of fox that scavenges, and can eat like they haven't eaten properly for a week.

Sylene has three brothers and no sisters, her and Ralend are twins.

Zaren - 23

Jalence - 22

Ralend - 18

Sylene - 18

Enari - A hard riddle that takes a week to solve on average.