Legend of the Turobian King

The lead hound jumped at Darion with its mouth wide open. Darion held the spear sideways with both hands, raising it to the trap of the hound that leaped at him. The hound closed it's mouth on the spear, while its arms grasped the ends, and its feet were on Darions stomach; a dangerous place to be. From what he learned about the dogs, their back legs were just as powerful as their front ones, which meant they could easily rip flesh apart. He was going to have to be careful not cause the hound to make any swift movements. But, the other two hounds were circling around him..Great, more to worry about.

Darion was going to have to maneuver the hound biting on the spear to the other two besides him. Hm..Ah!..He had an idea, a very risky one. Darion tilted his head down to see the hound coming in his direction..Just a little..bit closer. When the hound was walking right under the head of the spear, Darion moved fast. He tilted the spear down and shoved it into the head of the one hound, while the hound biting on his spear began to slide down the shaft. Seeing it's friend get stabbed, the beast on the other side jumped towards his back. Hoping it would connect, his leg rose up to meet the stomach of the attacker, which caused the hound to land on the ground whimpering in pain. Darion's eyes shifted back down to the hound that was chomped on the spear. He saw the perfect opportunity..Placing his boot on the side of its face, he stomped the beast down onto the blade of the spear, causing both parts of its mouth to be sliced apart.

Those three were taken care of..But it wasn't over yet. He heard the whinny of Dust, quickly followed by the sound of Kari yelling. Both of them were backed up and had hounds that needed to be dealt with. Damn it..There was no way he could run between the two, and was going to have to think fast. He closed his eyes, inhaling the situation deeply into his mind. He began to run images and possible ways to save both of them. After a few moments, he exhaled with his eyes flashing open.

"I got you, Kari!..HANG ON!"

Looking down at the hounds skewered on the spear, then over to the hound that was snapping at the legs of the horse. He groaned as he lifted the spear with both hounds still impaled and rushed over towards Kari and Dust. Darion carefully lifted the head of the spear over his shoulder, making sure to hold the shaft of the spear tightly. Planting his left foot forward and his right food a bit behind, with one swift motion, he tossed the hounds in the direction of the hound attakcing Dust. It was like a man casting out a fishing line into the fierce sea. The two bodies buffeted into the beast, giving Dust some breathing room.

Now for Kari..Damn it! He was a bit too late, the hell-spawn was sunk into her leg trying to pull it off her body. Darion's heart began to beat fast at the sight of it, which only infuriated him. Everything else from the world faded except Kari and that one particular hound, the others didn't matter at this point, just the one that was attacking Kari...Argh..He..Was going to make that damned beast pay.

"GET. OFF...HER!"

Darion held his spear over head with tight hold, his arm pulling back. He was locked on the hound, and without hesitation..He hurled his spear directly at the hound. The sound it made while speeding through the air was the one of incoming death.

SSSSHFFF...TFT!

The spear went right through the hound's head, leaving it motionless and bleeding everywhere.​
 
Kari heard him shout something that had her name in it, but she couldn't act on it too much. Her eyes were on Dust, seeing the fear shaking in the horses's wide, black eyes. Kari's golden eyes mimicked the same fear, her eyes shaking as well. Her leg yanked again, pulling another ear-splitting scream into the forest air. If it had been a more peaceful area, animals may have scattered this way and that at the loud noise, but no. There was nothing peaceful about where they were at all. It was a potential death forest. Kari tried to kick the beast off of her leg, but it was growling so she quickly thought twice about it. The Dark-Hound could get pissed off in a second flat and rip her leg off.

A spring of tears suddenly gathered in the ducts of her eyes, lip trembling with a scream that got lodged in her throat, choking on tears and pain. Kari miraculously turned her head to where Darion stood, and opened her mouth in shock. The man shouted out in rage, tossing his spear directly at her. In any other situation, she may have yelled out in fear, but she couldn't. All she did was look straight into his eyes which may or may not have been bursting into flames at how angry he was. He never kept his eyes off of the Dark Hound that was latched onto her leg...not until the beast was impaled right between the eyes and shot back with the sheer momentum of the spear in it's head.

"AHHH!"she yelled again when the teeth pulled down her leg until the hound lay sprawled and dead. Kari wanted to do so many things. She wanted to check on Dust to make sure he was safe. Darion saved him, but still...Dust was sensitive to dangerous things. He was just as strong as Kari was, until someone being hurt came into mind; then the two of them lost themselves in fear. She also wanted to maim the dead Dark Hounds for everything they did. Stab their corpses repeatedly to get some compensation. She...wanted to hug her savior and never let go for fear that more agony would befall her.

Yet, she did neither. She just lay crumpled on the forest floor, sobbing.​
 

Darion leaned over a bit, his hands grabbing his own legs, and his face looking at the ground with heavy breathing. Gah..Damn it. Those freaking hounds..Was that the last of them?..Darion rolled his eyes up and around. There was nothing, nothing but the sight of dead dogs everywhere, blood painting the grass, tree trunks, and his own clothing. He could live with that, least there wasn't any growling or snarling anymore. As he finally straightened up, he remembered this is only the beginning of the journey and there were greater enemies ahead. No...He wanted the thoughts out of his head, the battle was won..But, what was the damage?

Moving a couple steps forward, a few spots in his legs were hurting from the way he stepped. The pain that he could feel the most was the one up and down his back from when the hound pounced on him. Reaching for his lower back, at the slightest touch he winced a bit. There must be a cut there or something..Maybe he landed harder than he thought. Darion looked over to Dust who looked to be in a state of shock or fear. He would slip out of soon hopefully..Wait, what about Kari?..

The sound of sobbing was what got his immediate attention, his eyes flashing over to see her laying on the ground, crying. Darion toughed through the pain and walked quickly over to her side. He would've ran, but his legs were burnt out and were bound to collapse at any sec-

THUD!

He fell over right near Kari. This wasn't going to keep him from checking on her, so he began to crawl and shuffle his way up to where she was. As he moved up, the large hole where the hound sunk its teeth in was hard not to notice and should be tended to immediately. It could wait though..Her mentality was more important right now..Finally reaching up to her, he sunk his arms under her, pulling her up so her head was on his chest and he could look into her eyes.

"Kari.."

Words just couldn't be spoken. He knew what he wanted to say, but..They were obvious questions and would make the situation worse. What should he do?..He frowned slightly, sighing. Without thinking, he closed his arms around her and slid his right hand to the back of her head, holding it like a young child. His eyes slowly shut as he let out a soft breath.

"They're gone..I got rid of them.."​
 
She may as well made friends with the insects on the ground, for that was all she saw for a long while. A beetle trudged over a leaf with its immensely large backside that appeared more than too heavy for the poor thing. If it wasn't the way of nature, the thing may have toppled over on its side, kicking its beady little legs frantically. A tear soaked into the matted ground next to wear she lay. The beetle did well to move out of the way from the water that must have been 10 times bigger than it was to her in its eyes. An innocent little beetle, avoiding something as minuscule as a tear. Yukari hiccuped and started her crying spree again though it did nothing to soothe the pain. She heard the thud as clear as day, but she figured it was still Dust trying to trample the memory of what just happened out of his head. She would soothe him later; She had a little bit of her own problem to handle at the moment: Trying not to die of blood loss.

A spree of hiccups later and Kari suddenly found her body being scooped up. Her first instinct was to thrash her arms in fear at whatever had a hold of her. The Dark Hounds would not have been capable of grabbing her, but fear had already settled well away in her head. Anything in that death ridden forest was out to get her. She was just a pawn who hadn't made a wise move yet. She swung her arm again, fighting between a whimper and a grunt of annoyance at whatever had her. It wasn't until she caught a soft whiff of some foreign smell did Yukari remember that Darion was still there with her. Common sense clicked in a second later, spelling that he was the one holding her.

"What a-are y--"

"They're gone..I got rid of them.."

Strange. Why did she want to cry harder and cling to him? He was the first person who had been with her in such a long time. Better yet, she was also clinging to death's tantalizing edge as well, was she not? Yukari decided to call it desperation and immediately rebelled against it. No way she was going to doe over to some guy just because she was about to die. She had a little more honor than that.

"You...did, huh? Your timing c-could have been a tad bit better."she said jokingly in the attempt to pull herself away from his chest. As warming and comforting as it was, she still didn't know the man from a stick in the mud.​
 

"I-I guess I could have..But, at least you're alright.."

Darion sighed with relief, he would not have known how to deal with losing the girl so soon. Luckily that wasn't the case, Darion was no good with sad events or losing friends. He began to look back on some rather unpleasant memories until the sounds of hiccups and soft sobs caused him to focus back on Kari. She seemed to want to move away from him, which was understandable, he knew as much about her as she knows about him, not much. Yet, to let her go and possibly show that he didn't care and be all hard about her getting better..That'd be a bad move. Darion loosened his hug slowly around her, until the hug was barely being held.

He remembered about the wound on her leg where the dark-hound bit her. Shuffling down to her leg, he inspected the wound thoroughly seeing what damage had been done to her. It was pretty deep and there was still blood trickling down her skin. This wound has to be taken care of right now. Darion ripped up the bottom part of his shirt, pulling it with both hands to make sure it was durable enough.
Yep, this was a strong piece. Reaching into his pockets, he was hoping to find some sort of..Nope..Nothing..Where was his bag? Looking over he saw it was over by the first hound he killed. Groaning in a bit detest to get up, he rushed over, grabbed his bag, and then returned to Kari's side.

Unfortunately, he didn't have many medical supplies left, so he was going to have to make do with what he had. Opening his jug of water, he poured some of it onto a rag from the bag and gently dabbed around her wound making sure not to hurt her or cause her to jump. After a few moments, and few times of dabbing, Darion took the ripped cloth from his shirt and wrapped it around her wound, making sure it was tight enough to keep the wound from bleeding any further.

"There..hopefully this will stop the bleeding..It's going to sting for a while..But just keep moving your leg and you'll be ok."​
 
"Ow! W-watch it! That...that--AH! OW! WATCH IT!"

Kari had about enough of trying to slap him into the next dimension. Every time she swung her hand to meet the side of his head, he seemed to move somewhere else just in time, unintentionally too. Kari pouted harder than she had in years at the pain and the fact that it was being cleaned up. She didn't take well to infirmaries or anything that had to do with medical tings. Blood and gory stuff? She could handle those with no problem. It's just concoctions of chemicals and other liquids and such made her...squeamish. Even though he was only using water, the process was still unnerving to her. Dust finally managed to calm down and trot over to her side, bending his head down towards the side of her face. Kari was in mid yelp when she swatted the horse away.

"S-sorry, Dust! It's just that he is cl--OW! THAT'S IT! STOP IT!"she snapped, right when Darion tied the last knot across her leg. The wound pinched in a burning pain and she closed her mouth, afraid of releasing a spree of curses upon him. Dust tilted his long head, regardless of whether Kari smacked him away or not. His master was acting strange around Darion and Stardust...well...he was confused. The cloth squeezed the wound together, stopping most of the bleeding, and just in time too. She was starting to grow dizzy, feeling droplets of sweat gather on her brow. The forest hadn't lightened up at all, and, by the looks of things, they had a while before they made it out. Yukari sighed and turned her tan eyes towards Darion.

"Exactly what are you looking for again? I want to know that whatever it is, it's worth dying for."she said, lips pulling up in a confused frown. Dust mimicked the look, quirking his elongated head to the side.​
 
"Sorry..I'm doing my best.."

The way Kari was swinging at him made him realize that she didn't like anything related to medical. Darion quickly made sure everything was secure then moved away from Kari, she was getting bitter and a bit sick. The knot on her leg was secure and then moved away from her leg and held his hands up to show that he was done, that's it! No more! Hopefully she wouldn't be in pain for too too long, and the bandage he made would hold up.

"There! Done! Finished.."

He felt as though next time she was injured, there would be no way of keeping her still like this again. But, she seemed a little dizzy and out of it..Darion reached into his bag and pulled out his jug of water and handed it Kari. He paused mid way when she asked what he was looking for. It was going to be really strange telling her what exactly he was looking for, but the whole story of it would make much more sense. He rubbed his head nervously. Just say it..Worse she can do is leave..

"Well...You see..I'm looking for arms..."

Realizing what he just said, his cheeks filled with a bit of color, quickly waving his hands.

"Arms! Arms that are fragments to..To a statue!"

That probably sounds really bad and really dumb. What an idiot he felt like..He should have just told her he was looking for a statue. How was she going to respond to this? Maybe not too bad..He did after all save her..Yeah! Maybe that counts for something. Darion did his best to look back into her tan eyes, hoping she would question more about the statue and he could explain everything to her.​
 
Yukari had now deemed the man mentally insane.

He explained to her in a short sentence of what she nearly just risked her life to help him find. He did not wind a very long tale about how he was searching for his lost love who had traveled the ocean in search of gold. He did not mourn over the location of his son's grave in long, far away lands, wanting to pay his respects for his lost spawn. He did not cackle maniacally and plunge his spear into her stomach, riding off with an enraged Stardust to find the deepest riches any man could have fathomed seeing. No. He simply explained to her that the thing he was after, the thing the two of them nearly got mauled over, were two arms.

"Well...You see..I'm looking for arms..."

"...Arms."she repeated, her eyebrow raised high on her head.

"Arms! Arms that are fragments to..To a statue!"

"You're trying to find arms that go to a statue?" She tried to make the second time around seem more legit than the first time he said it, but it wasn't working. Kari had never heard of such a quest before, even one that involved looking for something as...strange as two arms. She and Dust both exchanged curious glances before looking at Darion who was waving his hands like an idiot. Dust snorted in confusion and Kari simultaneously tilted her head, resting her hand firmly on her hip.

"Is the statue...golden or something? Diamond? Does it...hide the Fountain of Youth in it's fingers?"she said, letting a small pfft! of laughter escape her lips. A second later, her fingers flew over her lips to smother the next spree of giggles. It was not the right time or place for her to be laughing at all, but it was very hard not to do so. Yukari had just followed a complete stranger through a dark forest and almost got eaten alive by Dark Hounds, all because he wanted to find some statue arms. She didn't know whether to laugh harder of kill him where he stood.

Instead, she managed to stand straight despite her wound and wait for a better explanation.​
 
"Well..Yes.."

Great, now Kari was laughing at him. Way to go Darion, you sure know how to explain things thoroughly. He groaned and felt something trickling down his forehead, curiously raising hand up to see what it was, it was sweat. Darion was so embarrassed and he wanted to explain more about the statue but Kari's laughter made it difficult and uneasy for him to try to explain. However, all her laughter might attract more unwanted attention. The last thing they were ready to do was have another fight with more Dark Hounds or worse...So, he leaned forward and gently placed his index finger on her lips to keep her from giggling.

"This statue..." Clearing his throat, "Is indeed golden, but it's not about what it is made of but what is inside the statue..Is what I'm after."

Darion reached into his bag, searching for that one scroll...Where is it?..It has to be ri- AHA! There it was, the scroll with everything Kari would need to know. Darion shuffled by Kari's side again, rolling the scroll apart to reveal a a series of images of the tale of the Turobian King. Starting from the long reign of Aca-Tura to when he was encased inside the golden statue and how the arms were broken off to stop anyone from ever bringing him and his dark magics back to the world. It finally shows the fragments located on different ends of the world. However, only the left arm had a clue to where it was while the right had nothing, which puzzles Darion still. Why only one arm gets a clue? Would it be too easy?..

"So you see..The statue, the Turobian King, could very well be cursed.."

Darion closed his eyes while rolling up the scroll.

"It sounds completely insane, yes..Yet, I want to see for myself..To see if there really is an evil ruler inside."​
 
A small tuft a wind blew her hair and the white bow secured above her head around a bit when Darion placed his fingers to her lips. His fingers were slightly calloused, but full and strong enough to give off the impression that she had to be quiet. He had touched her before, yes, sure, but this time was different. She didn't know if she was dealing with a man who was in his right mind. Even after she sarcastically repeated everything he said about the arms just for the laughs, he still agreed that it was what he was after. Darion really been going on the search from two arms of a statue. Kari blinked once while her small pink lips hid behind his finger. He confirmed it to be golden but was much more interested in what was inside it.

Yes. He was insane.

"You don't care about the gold...but you care about what's inside it? Is it...more gold?"she mused, not hiding the questioning tone in her voice as she fought more and more sprees of laughter. Dust kept tossing the couple odd looks with his large brownish-black eyes, confused as to why they were conversing as if they had never been attacked in the first place. The horse had more sense than the other two. Kari pulled herself away from his gaze by walking over to Dust, rubbing him on his snout. She ignored the snort of impatience from his nose, understanding that he was being greedy with being comforted. Meanwhile, she watched while Darion pulled out some sort of scroll from his bag, sliding next to her. Dust, annoyed at hiving the personal space between he and Yukari disrupted, padded his feet and walked over to a nearby tree.

While he explained the story, Kari got a good look at his features. He was about 3 inches taller than her, maybe more, she didn't know. She was a pretty tall one herself, but men always beat her in that department. His skin complexion was a shade darker than hers in a tanned sheen she knew was from the sun. His skin had been exposed to the unrelenting rays of the sun. It made her wonder how far he had traveled in search of the Turobian King's arms. She flicked her eyes to his face, finding it full of emotion and excitement when he told the story. There was glint and a twinkle behind it that Kari knew oh-so well. He wasn't insane. Just slightly crazy in his efforts.

"I understand the latter...but why would you want to go after a cursed statue? Just to get there and say, 'oh, hey, it really is cursed?' That doesn't...I mean, I don't see why someone would risk their life for something like that,"she paused to shrug her shoulders. "Not to be mean, really. It's just weird. I hope you know what you're d....do..." Her head started to swim and she wobbled against his shoulder. The effect of blood loss was coming back to her, eliminating her ability to stand straight. Dust turned his head to Darion and snorted, expecting for him to do something about Kari's state.

"I...I'm fine..."​
 
Darion looked down to Kari, since she was a bit shorter than he was. Most people he came across were shorter than him and resorted to looking down at them. He saw that Kari was a bit lighter than him, but that's because he spent many hours out in the rays of the sun, not really ever taking to the time to relax and lay in the shade. Darion was always on the move and really didn't sleep much unless it was raining really hard and couldn't navigate. As he pulled his fingers away from her lips he smirked while closing his eyes as if he was going to give a really smart answer.

"You see..I'm very determined in my searches, even if it is the most dangerous of journeys. I'm a risk taker. Heck, I've should died a long time ago, but someway..somehow..I'm still breathing and continuing on, always looking for new things to find." Which was true, Darion always found himself searching for some new artifact or relic. The statue of the Turobian King though, was a much stranger case..Davion's thirst for answers drive him to find the fragments and see if it really is cursed.

"Along with my determination and drive, I've always wanted to prove I can do things larger than most people think of..Like larger than scaling a mountain or fighting a large creature. Something that could potentially ruin the world as they know it."
Davion loved to be a hero in a sort, even if it was his own story that no one else knew about.

"I know exactly what I'm doing..I've scaled a rock ledge with no equipment just to find a temple."

Darion noticed her wobbling was slowly coming back, the blood from her wound must have been escape. Placing his hands gently on her shoulders until she is balanced. He looked over to Dust, who seemed to be nudging him on to help in Darion's own way. Ha, horses...Intelligent creatures definitely. Even though she said she was fine Darion didn't believe her one bit. An idea came to him though, reaching into his sack for something.

"Where. is that..damn..Aha!"

He pulled out a strange looking sort of fruit, it was shaped like a triangle and was rather pinkish, but the smell of it was very inviting.​
 
His explanation was plausible. A traveler or two always stopped by the archery shop to tell tales of their journeys more than to find something archery related. They talked to Bastion most of the time while Yukari did work around the house. She picked at her hair bow a bit more as he rambled on and on of his reason for finding the arms, and she had to admit, he was grabbing her attention more and more. The blood loss was still getting to her, but adrenaline for the journey ahead was slightly masking the pain. Still, if she had not been holding onto Dust, she may have fallen over to a pathetic heap on the ground, once again joining the beetles.

As if Dust's support wasn't enough, Darion steadied her by placing both of his hands on her shoulders. The notion caught her off guard, but it was much needed. She had apparently forgotten how strong he was during the fight, and his hands held her in place for a moment before he dived through his bag in search of something. Kari blinked once and chanced another odd look to Stardust. The horse returned the look with a large, black eyed wink. He still didn't think Darion was okay in the head, but Kari had to hear the man out before she assumed not all of the gears in his head were turning the right direction. Just as she was coming to that conclusion, he pulled out a small piece of something, wearing a triumphant smile.

Kari merely stared at it.

"Uhh..."​
 

"You're probably wondering what it is.."
Clearly Darion, you idiot...

"It's a fruit called the Triapin, it may look strange..But it's said to have some strange nutrients in it that revitalizes people. You don't have to eat it now..It's just an offering."

Darion took Kari's hand and placed the triapin in it. It was a fruit that was rarer than any others. He didn't want to mention that, for good reason. It was usually sold for an incredibly high price and not the easiest to find. He smirked a bit as he stepped back and remembered where they were. It was time to get moving, they had enough downtime and finding the arm was never going to get done by just standing in the middle of this death forest.

"We should really get moving, Kari."

He made sure he had all of his supplies together, his spear in its sheath on his back, and made sure that Kari was ready herself. Darion reached into his bag and pulled out the map again, inspecting it thoroughly. According to this..Just a few more miles and they would be in the core of the forest. Where the arm is supposedly located somewhere in the ground under the Sorrow's Branch, oldest tree in the woods.

"Yep! We're almost there! We just have to head...Uhh..." Darion shifted from his map, then back up in a different direction. It would seem he was unsure of which way to go since everywhere had a bunch of dead trees and patches of grass. Oh! Whoops..He swiftly dug into his pocket and pulled out his compass, looking at it for not even a split second before pointing ahead. North, always North is the way to go. Darion begin to walk in that direction, and hoped to heck it was the right one.

"Come, come! Let's roll!"​
 
"I'm kind of afraid about how over confident you are about this entire ordeal. I understand the legend is deep and riveting, but you really didn't...you know...base your life with finding these arms, did you, Darion? I mean, I expected a little something...I don't know...different from you. I thought you were some common hunter, coming to my shop to buy items and weapons and the former, just to come to find out you were trying to steal my horse and find the arms for a statue? Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that seem a little out of place?" Dust nodded his head in her direction as if to give a silent 'Amen.'

With the bleeding stopped, Kari didn't have to worry about losing anymore blood than she already did, but she still felt weak. The blood that she did lose took a toll on her, so, without even giving him a fair warning, Yukari swung her legs over Dust and perched on his backside, tapping his large hips gently. Dust snorted but obeyed, walking alongside Darion quietly. The fruit was tucked safely into her right palm, the outer skin feeling soft and fuzzy to the touch. She looked down at it and frowned. Should I eat it? I just met him...He already tried to steal Dust. He could be trying to poison me with this...this Tripan fruit. A snap in the distance made her freeze, clutching the fruit close to her chest. Dust neighed and kept trotting.

Yukari looked back down at the fruit and over to Darion who was fondling with a compass. A bundle of silent seconds passed by, the two not saying anything at all. Kari burrowed her eyebrows at him and returned her gaze the the fruit. He saved her once. What would be the purpose of saving her from the Dark Hounds only to kill her with a poisonous fruit? The wind pushed her hair onto her shoulder and, without a second thought, she brought the fruit to her lips and bit down on it. At the same instant, a burst of flavors shot through her mouth, a soft, succulent juice running across her tongue the moment her teeth broke the surface of the Tripan fruit.

"O-oh..."she moaned out, eyes closing and travelling to the back of her head in pure bliss. Her mind was now off of the statue and onto the fruit and how delicious it tasted! She moaned and giggled and made other sounds she didn't know she was capable of. Dust tilted his large head, now thinking that she was the insane one!​
 

Darion kept looking at his compass, then back in the direction he was walking. He was determined not to be even the slightest inch off course. This was probably one of his most noticeable flaws, Darion's ability to be be off a bit of read things too quickly and end up making himself confused and lost. No, not this time. His mind was set on the course and direction and all he had to do was go North, North..No other way! Yep! Darion only scratched his head once and that was he didn't realize his map was tilted. But, they were heading in the right direction, and Darion's adrenaline began to pump through his body again, surging him with anticipation.

However, he was halted by Kari's concern about him. Darion was identified as a lot of types in life, but never a common hunter. Was she right though? Maybe his head was over the real deal..Going after arms to a statue..Just to see if it was cursed. He frowned a bit, it did sound sort of strange when he really thought about it. Perhaps he was a bit too bent on this quest and the fact he did try to steal a stabled horse..Wow..I actually did that?..Damn it. No..No..There was a reason I set off on this expedition, and I'm sticking to it.

"I'm no common man, Kari. I've always had a knack for being the odd one out of the box. Sure my methods and how I'm approaching it is strange..But..I've only been on the hunt for a month or so now, and have had my real first lead towards the arms. I understand you're thinking I'm crazy..I'm really not, I just have my own method. You have to tru-"


Hearing the soft moan beside him as he looked to see her biting into the triapin fruit. Guess she did trust him in a bit after all, it was a comforting feel as he watched her bite into it. The triapin was a one of a delight that was only seen once so often. Kari was the first person Darion ever gave the triapin too. Legend says that if one person gives another a triapin, they will remember the person who gave it to them forever. Darion looked up to see a tall dark tree, and according to the map this is where they would supposedly find the first arm.

"Look, this is it! The dark tree!"
​
 
Dust and Kari looked up at the large tree at the same time, before Darion even mentioned it. He was still in the process of explaining his reasons for pursuing the arms while Kari was still engrossed with the Tripan fruit. She continued to bite into it when he talked, the flavors hitting her over and over again, as if it had become new to her taste buds in the short amount of time of being without it. It was a small fruit, but whatever was in it made her feel 100 times better than she had before. Her sense were sharpened again, eyes scanning the forest floor, spotting scattering and scuttering things. She could have jumped down from Dust's back at any moment, but she figured since she had already gotten comfortable, she might as well secure her spot.

Kari wiped her lips with the back of her hand as she looked up at the tree. It was forlorn and twisted; not such a good sign in a forest such as that. Darion apparently knew exactly what it was and he seemed too excited about it. It could not have meant good news.

"It's going to attack us, isn't it? I have the strangest feeling it's going to attack us," she said, tilting her head to the side as she examined the branches. Dust caught on to what Kari was implying, for he stomped his hooves down at the ground menacingly, as if he were daring the tree to move.​
 
"Of course it won't attack us! It's just an old tree. Not much it can do if it did attack anyway..Its branches would probably snap if it tried to swing."

Sure it looked skeptical and likely to go wrong, but Darion would never know unless he looked around. From what he could see, the tree was up on a hill surrounded by other trees. He looked to Kari and Dust, then began to climb up the the hill to the large twisted tree. It was swarmed with crows that tilted their heads and would periodically ruffle their feathers. A few of them began to caw and fly around the three of them. A very dark welcome for sure, but it didn't get to Darion, he was too focused on finding the fragment.

"Cordin' to the legend..it states that it's within the bark of the tree. That's not too bad, only thing that will pop out will be bugs and possible some critters."

Darion began to peel away at the bark of the old tree. He was right about the bugs though, there had to be about 6 spiders that skittered out of the way as he ripped off the bark. At one point bats began flying out of the tree and he had to duck for cover to avoid being bitten. As he continued though his impatience began to rise and so he dug deeper into the tree's trunk until eventually he noticed something glowing. Was that it?..Was that the fragment? Darion cheered out loud so Kari would be able to hear, just as he was about to grab it, a loud growling sound shook the land around the both of them. The roots of the tree bursted up through the hill and the tree grew even taller in size, probably about over twenty feet. They had awoken an angry treant, but didn't appear to be much of a threat judging by the withering and paleness of its branches.


"WHO DARES...AWAKEN ME FROM MY SLUMBER?.."

"Oops..."​
 
"I am not going up there,"she said sternly, even while Darion was already making his way up the tree. Good riddance, because Kari was sitting her rump firmly still on Dust and not moving a muscle. It wasn't so much that she was afraid of the thing; she just didn't trust it. A mysterious tree in the middle of a dark forest wasn't the kind of tree she wanted to scale, that was for certain. So, she folded her hands over her chest when Darion went up instead, disturbing the wildlife that lay in the branches. Every time a crow called, Dust's head would tilt and he would nick in their direction with his nose, threatening them to come get a piece of him. After the Dark Hounds, he was ready to knock something to the outer orbit with his hind hooves.

Kari didn't blame him at all.

"Hey, buddy. Relax. You're okay,"she whispered, rubbing his mane to calm him when a bat or two swooped down, barely missing biting his ears. Stardust snorted at her words but couldn't hide from the fact that they were soothing to him and were actually calming him down. She brought her eyes upwards to the dark canopies ahead when Darion suddenly let out a shout of success. If he was expecting her to show the same interest he wasn't going to get it, because Kari saw it before he did.

The strange twisting of the roots underfoot, that was.

"Uhm....Darion...?" When she saw him suddenly snap his head downwards to the ground, she knew he had realized his mistake. That and the giant rumbling of the Earth around them. Dust was rattled out of his mind, bucking and kicking everywhere in fear. Kari had to clasp her hands around the reigns to keep herself plastered to Dust or else she may have flew off. The rumbling continued along with the enlarging tree which seemed to never stop growing. Kari and Dust both stopped their bucking to look skywards, eyes doubling in size. When the tree spoke, Kari's mouth snapped shut. The voice as deep and riveting, shaking her down to her very core. Dust even stopped his moving, staring up at the large plant.

"Darion..."she whispered in fear, realizing he was still on the tree. Her hand twitched to her bow, but a shuddering of the tree caused her to stop. She couldn't save him if she was going to be pummeled once she moved. Instead, she stopped all sudden movements, praying to something to make sure Darion made it down from there.​
 
Darion held on for dear life as the treant rose from the ground. Despite being so high up in the air, it was fascinating to encounter a treant, and one with such age too! Astounding! Now he was going to have to figure out a way to scale the large treant without hurting himself or the tree, perhaps it would know where the next frag- The fragment! Where is it?! Darion flicked his head in every direction to see if the fragment was gone, but it was still in the same spot. This was truly a heart pumping moment for Darion, the moments he lived off of. Carefully he began to descend the treant's fragile body towards the hole he was digging before. As he was moving, he looked down to Kari and Dust making sure they were alright, he'd also let them he was alright by nodding and smirking back.

The treant opened his old eyes and looked around, mainly at the canopy of the dark forest. There was nothing above it, but who woke him up? The sounds of his thick neck, churning as he tilted his head down. He spotted two unusual creatures but couldn't make out exactly what they were. Squinting at them, he was able to see that one was a young girl filled with fear, and the other was a horse who was just in terror as the girl. Were they the ones who woke him up? A light groan seeped from the creature as it tried to lower it self down to their level but just couldn't without almost collapsing and destroying a good chunk of the forest.

"YOU TWO...ARE YOU THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR AWAKENING ME? WHAT PURPOSE DO YOU HAVE? ANOTHER WHO TRIES...TO END MY LIFE?"

When the the treant spoke, it sent vibrations throughout its body making it incredibly hard for Darion to move himself along the body, and it would be a long fall if he attempted to. He was puzzled by what the treant meant about 'another trying to end its life' Had the monster been hunted before? Were there others after the fragment too? It made him curious to ask the tree itself but first he was going to have to grab the fragment and then ask questions, hopefully without falling or alerting the tree that he was invading its personal space.​
 
As much as she wanted to scream in fear, Yukari held her ground as she sat upon Stardust. Sudden movements and retorts of any kind were going to have to wait. The tree thing was speaking in clear plain English, but deeper and with an older wisdom caked through his voice. If he had been a human, he may have been a large, heavyset man with graying hair painting the top of his head, black ending to the ends as he bellowed loudly, his belly moving with the momentum of his words. But, the tree thing was not a man.

He was a giant tree. He was a pissed off tree.

Kari gulped and tightened her grips on Dust's reigns looking upwards at the tree's bold black eyes. She flinched when she saw Darion look down at her and Dust. Quickly, Kari snapped him a what-the-hell-are-you-doing?! look. Dust noticed Darion but was not going to move until Kari gave the order. Kari shifted her view back to the tree, not trying to attract too much attention to Darion. Whatever he was doing, he had to get it over with and over with quickly.

"YOU TWO...ARE YOU THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR AWAKENING ME? WHAT PURPOSE DO YOU HAVE? ANOTHER WHO TRIES...TO END MY LIFE?"

"Uhm...n-no, sir, we do not wish to kill you at all!" Kari shouted back, wondering if her voice would reach the tree's ears. Her answere was a shuddering roar of laughter, a laughter she was sure was giving Darion problems.

"HAHAHAHA! LIES, YOU SPEAK! YOU ARE OUT FOR MY DEATH! WHY ELSE HAVE YOU AWAKEN ME FROM MY SLUMBER?" Kari didn't want to say because of the fragment that lay within him, but once she opened her mouth, the tree shuddered again. This time, Dust was not so calm. The sudden burst of sound and movement had gotten under the horse's skin, scaring him bad enough to cause him to buck his legs back, kicking off into a run.

"No, Dust! Stop!"

"LIES! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR TREACHERY!"

A large branch fell right in front of Dust's eyes, and, thankfully for the horse, he was fast on his hooves, neighing as he skidded to a stop. Kari was not as grateful. The sudden stop in momentum slung her from Dust's back and directly into the branch. Her head popped with a white light, but she still had her bow in her hand, so any other movements from the tree would be paid for greatly. Yukari groaned, trying to block out Stardust's whinnying of fear.​
 
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