Me: I don't own anything, otherwise I would not be on this site.
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A young girl skipped merrily through the forest, admiring how beautiful the trees looked in the summer climate. She was rather short, no taller than five feet, with unkempt blond hair. She wore simple clothes, shoes, and a red ribbon around her neck done into a bow. Penny, a talking cat, always had to tell her what to do, a cat not having thumbs and all to use.
Despite that, Penny had raised Lania for as long as she could remember. The cat told her that her parents one day left for the market and just never came back. They both could only guess what happened. Penny presumed that they had abandoned her, although she never said so, for the child's sake. Ever since then, Penny had fed Lania, taught her, and took care of her like she was her own kitten. In fact, that was Penny's name for the girl, "her little kit."
Today, Lania was planning on going to climb that enormous tree not a quarter mile from her home. Climbing and reaching the top of trees gave her a rush like no other, making her feel like one of the heroes from the stories Penny told her.
She was about to look for a suitably low branch on the tree to start her climb, until she heard a moan. It wasn't the ghostly moan she would make when she was trying to scare Penny. No, this moan sounded like a pained one.
"Penny?" Lania asked to open air.
No answer.
"Penny, if it's you, you're not scaring me," the girl lied. Silence ensued, as if refusing to answer her question.
Lania carefully walked towards where she heard the moaning. Picking up a stick that was light enough to carry, yet heavy enough to leave a lasting mark on someone's head, Lania moved towards the sound with a bit more confidence, only to drop the stick when she found the culprit of the noise.
Lying with his head at the base of the tree was a young man in pure white robes with a golden trim. He wore leather boots, leather fingerless gauntlets, and a fair amount of jewelry that told he was wealthy. An amethyst pendent hung around his neck, two rings on each hand, and a gold earring on his left ear. Although he looked as if he was no older than twenty, his hair was whitish gray.
Lania walked over to the unconscious man, and gently shook him by the shoulder. "Sir? Sir? Wake up."
The man groaned and opened his eyes, as if he hadn't slept for a week and was being woken up from a long anticipated slumber. Lania saw that his left eye was a clear blue, but his right eye was blood red. For some reason, the crimson eye sent shivers up Lania's spine, as if there was something evil lurking behind it. She dispelled the thought soon after though, reminding herself that there was surely a reason why his eyes were like that and that she shouldn't stereotype.
"Did we beat him?" The man asked. Despite his weakened state, there was fierce determination in his eyes, as if aching to know if they beat "him", whoever "he" was.
"Beat who?" Lania asked, confused.
"The Black Mage, of course." The man said impatiently.
"The Black Mage? I heard about him, in stories. He's not supposed to be real, though."
"What?" The man seemed to be in some kind of distress. He slowly got up, his impressive height towering above the small girl. "Where are the others?"
"What others?"
"The other Heroes. The ones who helped stop the Black Mage."
"Um," Lania didn't know what to tell this strange man. "I'm pretty sure they're myths too."
The man turned away, looking like he was deep in thought. He started to pace away, but winced and fell down as he felt a sharp pain in his thigh.
"Are you okay?" Lania asked, concerned.
"I'm fine-" The man tried to get up again, only to fall down again.
"We can take you to my house. Penny can help you."
"Who's Penny? Where are your parents? Are you alone?"
"I don't know where they are. Penny has been taking care of me as long as I could remember."
The man's stoic expression betrayed a fair amount of sympathy. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"
"That's okay." Lania smiled at him. "Come on. Penny can fix you."
The man looked like he was going to protest, but for some reason decided against it.
"My name's Lania. What's yours?" The girl asked as she found the man a stick nearby for him to use as a cane.
"Luminous."
_ _~BACK WITH EVAN~_
"I swear, when I find that damn pig, I'll make bacon out of him and throw him to the foxes!" Evan trudged through the fields, trying to get to the lush forest that bordered most of the farm. He adjusted his straw hat to keep the rays of the sun out of his eyes. His father told him that the piglet had run towards the forest, although Evan could never imagine what would have possessed the little monster to go there. All the pigs avoided the forest, whatever the cost.
"Here, Lee! Come on out, Lee! Where are you, you little- Ack!" The next thing he knew, Evan was falling into an enormous hole in the ground that he swore wasn't there a few seconds ago.
"I hate pigs," was all he could say when he got up after he hit the ground with a thud.
He got up and looked around, before squeezing his eyes shut and reopening them just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
It was weird enough that there was an entire forest down a hole. What was even creepier was that Evan was in a forest that resembled the one from his dreams. No, it didn't just look like the one from his dream. The forest matched the one from the dream with the same mist, same trees, and same eerie stones. All that was missing was-
Uh-oh.
Evan tried to see if there was any way out, but there was no way he could get out through the hole. The only way out was forward.
He carefully tread through the forest, every move planned and every step as quiet as he could make it. If there was a sleeping dragon, he didn't want to wake it. He had walked for about ten minutes when he saw something that he definitely didn't see from his dream.
Lying on a stump was a light blue egg that was giving off an eerie glow. It was about the size of a soccer ball, and was almost a perfect sphere.
Suddenly, Evan felt a mild pain on the back of his right hand, where the symbol was. Hastily, he pulled off the glove, and saw the symbol glowing. He looked at the egg to see the exact same symbol on its hard surface, glowing just as brightly. In awe, Evan brought his hand closer to the egg, barely touching it.
Evan could never quite explain it, but he felt different somehow. The closest thing he could describe the feeling as was wholeness. And he knew it had something to do with that egg.
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Me: Well, another lazy update ;u; I'm so sorry for the lack of difference, but I really don't want to rewrite the whole thing XD
