Okay. I know it has been a few months and because of that here is an Extra long chapter for you. It is over 7500 words. That took a long time to write. A huge thanks to Yostar who as always was a big help in the making of this chapter and to all who reviewed 'Thank you!' It really makes me happy to know that this story which I didn't have any faith in and only did as a fun thing between other stories is one of my most popular in such a short space of time.

Let me first say to guest 'GreenFireFly. No this story isn't abandoned, it just takes a while to get over 6500 words each chapter.

And TheEzyGuy00; I shall go back over the other chapters and look for any spelling/ gramer errors. But even though I have someone look at the chapters we are not infallible.

Chapter 4

"You'll really make me a custom blade!?" Arya asked a huge smile on her face excited at the idea that Andrey would make something for her.

"Of course. Ill even make you a good deal, since you know Solaire so well. It'll be tough, no doubt about that. This is special steel with special properties." He sail looking at the blade and running his thumb along the edge. "First we need to find out what type of blade you want."

Arya looked at the sword in his hands. "One like that." She said simply.

Every man in the room cringed, even Lautrec.

"You really are a green wench aren't you?" The gold clad knight said in a mocking tone. "There are many different types of blade. For example you have a straight sword like the sun knight here, or a curved blade like my own."

The blacksmith stood and turned to the wall behind him and taking a large straight blade off the wall, he tossed it to Arya who struggled to catch it in one hand. "Try that out, see how you like the feel, the weight. Well, sing it around then."

And so she did, but the blade (an Astora Straight Sword) was a little too long. So with the help of the only experienced knights, Arya tested out many different swords that Andrey had lined on his wall and she finally decided on a model for her sword.

While she was on the second floor with the bonfire swinging a practice blade to improve her strength and technique since the others told her just how bad her fighting was. In fact Lautrec had compared it to a blind butcher with three fingers swinging at hallucinations above their head. She had been training, going through forms like the others had shown her when the Ruby from before fell out of her pocket. As she went to pick it up, Lautrec's hand reached forward and grabbed it first.

"Hmm, what have we here? Keeping valuable things like this hidden are we?" He appraised the gem before he tossed it to the blacksmith who had only just walked up the steps. "What do you think of that, Smith?"

Andrey looked at the gem also. "I think I can use this in the smithing process. Might actually be of some use, aside from looking good. It is high quality and has some magical properties."

While Arya was a little miffed at losing a good rare gem, she was placated at the notion that it was going to decorate her new blade. So with renewed vigour, she continued practicing.

"Now, girl. Come with me." Lautrec said grabbing her by the scruff of her high blue collar and dragged her backwards down the steps where Solaire and her sister were waiting by the door near Andrey's workspace.

"What the hell! Let go!" She yelled while trying to dislodge his grip while walking backwards and nearly tripping multiple times.

"No, you are making me want to beat you to death with how terrible you form is. If you want to learn how to use a sword properly, then you have two people here who are going to teach you." The Gold Clad knight flung her forward and she landed painfully on her tail bone. "But first we'll have to clear out this room. There isn't enough space in this tiny tower.

So after getting to her feet, Arya grabbed her practice sword and followed the two knights in. The room was nearly three times as large as the tower and in the middle of the room was a blackened statue with one leg, one arm and no head… That moved.

The Titanite Demon raised its one arm and the Catch pole and charged what appeared to be lightning in it, before it threw it toward them. Everyone rolled out of the way and Solaire shouted to Arya.

"Use your Fire. Get close while we distract it, then fire as much as you can at it!"

The two others ran forward while Isha stayed back to fire Soul Arrows and Arya ran to the side hoping to catch it off guard. While the Titanite Demon somehow knew where everyone was despite not having a head, it was at a loss as for where to aim. So weighing its options, it charged its lightning energy and fired it at the two knights, Lautrec was able to dodge, but Solaire was not so lucky. The sun knight caught the full blast of the lightning strike and was brought to his knees with the pain and the electricity was forcing his muscles to contract.

Arya was on the Demons flank and brought her hands together over her head and gathered as much fire as she could. When it was as large as a basketball, the young Pyro threw it with all her might, hitting the demon on the neck where its head would sit. It made a noise in anger and what must have been pain as it turned to Arya.

Then, bracing itself on its few remaining limbs, the living statue leaped into the air and nearly landed on Arya. She was so exhausted after using so much fire that she had little energy left to roll away, instead of the demon crushing her, it jabbed her around the middle with its catch pole and lifted her into the air. It seemed to study her as if the girl was something special that a child might have found on the floor.

The two knights took advantage of its distraction and hacked and slashed at the Demon, it made a noise in pain and swatted the two knights with its tail. Arya took out her practice sword and japed it in the hand and as it raised her to throw her to the ground, something hit it dead centre of the chest.

The force of the impact caused the Titanite Demon to drop its captive in shock. It looked down at its chest where a red wound began to spread out like a spider's web till it shattered.

"What the hell. Ow…" Arya complained as she rubbed her lower back, the damn Demon had dropped her right on her tail bone. The two knights were looking at Isha who stood slightly bent over as she had used a lot of energy in that last attack, her catalyst was steaming at the top. With the room now clear, Lautrec pulled Arya to her feet by the scruff of her shirt.

"Now we are going to train." The gold knight told the girl.


A couple of weeks had passed and both Lautrec and Solaire were happy at Arya's sword progression. She went from having no form at all, to being able to deflect most of the Golden Knight's duel sword techniques. She was in the middle of training with a huge practice sword swinging it in various ways to improve her arm strength and swing, when Andrey the Blacksmith came in a huge smile on his face.

"You're sword is finished." He told the girl in front of him. "It might just be the finest blade I have ever created."

Arya was so excited that she was nearly skipping as she followed Andre back up the steps to his workshop where upon his anvil was something wrapped in cloth. She picked it up and unwrapped the cloth revealing her new sword. It was a jet black blade much like the one before it, and was a straight blade unlike before which was wide at the hilt and became thinner and pointed. The guard was a wing like design that came down to the user's hands a little before pointing out to the blade while the ruby gem with the fire still retained in it was set in the centre of the blade about 20 cm's from the guard. The blade itself curved up and out near the base, then curved in again before running straight to the end and the final point. When Arya looked closer, she saw a rippling effect in the metal. It must have been folded and refolded a dozen times for this effect to appear.

"It's perfectly balanced and sized for you, but it would still count as a greatsword. There is also a little growing room in it so should you happen to grow and not stay a little tyke forever, the sword won't have to be reforged again." Andrey told her.

"Hay, Im not small!" She retaliated. "I. Drink. Milk." Swinging the sword, she found it was much lighter, or at least felt that way, even though it was still nearly as tall as she was. 'Yay, no more feeling like my arms are going to rip from their sockets.' She thought.

"Here, take this as well." The Smith tossed them a circular disk. "That's the Crest of Artorias. It should be of some use in the forest. It is usually worth twenty thousand souls. But I'll give it to you at a discount."

"Wow thanks." Arya said astounded that the smith was being so kind to people he barely knew. "Let's give this a test run", smiling as she raised her.


Arya and Isha decided to go to the Darkroot Garden by themselves to test out Arya's new blade. They expected to find a few trees and hack them to bits. Maybe even a few undead to test its metal. The garden itself was open and dark as if always in the shadow of something. But it was also so different to the normal open world in Lordran, it was more tropical and warm in the forest.

"Is there any explanation for there to be this forest here?" Arya asked her sister who was the more logical of the two.

"Is there any reason you'd think that I'd know the answer to that question?" Isha replied, her hand on her staff and the other on the dagger on her belt.

"Well-" The younger sibling started before an owl startled her and she turned to in the direction of the noise. This forest was teaming with life and not all of it was good, of that the sisters were sure.

"-Well. You are the more….logical of us. I am the 'charge in and kill things' person, you are the 'stop and think before charging in and killing things,' person. Aren't we a good team?" She had to be sarcastic at the end. It was a requirement.

The forest had a musty scent to it, as if all the flora was mixing together with the flowing water and causing it to be thrown into the air far and wide. The two sisters trekked through the dense growth of trees and ferns and passed by a big bush …that then decided that it didn't want to stay in the ground and came to life. They leaped into the air and out of the ground and whipped out their long spindly limbs toward them, Arya leapt in front of her sister and took the brunt on the hit using her shield to block the attack, but was unable to stop the pain running up her arm from the shock.

Arya sheathed her sword and summoned her fire in her hand before throwing it toward the living hedge watching as it caught fire easily.

"Does everything here want to kill us? I mean even the TREES are against us?!" Arya asked as she caught her breath.

The sisters continued onwards together, with Isha's long range being of great use in the forest and she had gotten very good at aiming from a distance. In Lordran it was learn fast or die. They neared a cliff with a very narrow walkway where three more bushes decided to attack them all of which were easily dispatched by Arya new forged blade and Pyromancy. As they travelled over a short cliff side hoping that nothing would attack them since falling would lead to imminent death, they managed to find a door that was sealed with a magical energy. They left it alone as to them it was more unknown they would take the path that they could see down.

When they were about to move off Arya turned back.

"Wait I hear something." She said before walking back to the door. "It sounds like a bonfire." Walking up to a wall next to the door she began to inspect it tapping it with her knuckles trying to find some kind of weakness. Finally she gave up and decided to break it down with brute strength and unsheathed her blade and swung it at the wall. It was met with a little resistance but not nearly as much as there should have been. The blade went through the wall leaving no marks on it and sinking through it. Once the illusionary wall was gone another small alcove was reviled with a bonfire waiting for them.

The duo rested at the fire and restocked their Estus before moving onwards.

The rocks towered over them and made them feel cramped. They passed an opening to a circular area that they ignored even though the treasure on a corpse was very tempting. But they regretted not having gone for it as before they had moved a few meters there was a rustling noise and the sound of twigs being broken and strained.

Tuning they were met with three Demonic Foliage's charging toward them, Isha was caught by the whipping vines as she was behind and closer to them then Arya. Seeing that her sister was in trouble the woman brought as much fire as she could in her two hands and threw it over head like one would a Rugby ball straight to the bush. It caught fire like a dried out Christmas tree. While it died the other two that were left decided that it would be a good time to attack Arya while she needed to get her energy back. They both whipped out their vine like appendages and whipped Arya across various parts of her body leaving large lacerations and cuts where they hit.

She tried to bring up her shield to protect herself, but the vines were able to hit the metal and 'flex' around it hitting her even with her guard up. There was loud pop and the whipping halted. Looking over the shield she saw that Isha had let loose a soul arrow on the back of one of the Demonic Foliage's, not quite killing it, but it was strong enough to force it off its feat.

Arya's sister didn't let up her attacks though, she continued her volley of soul arrows until they were both dead using her range to her advantage.

Once they were dead Isha sprinted over to Arya and began to look over all her injuries as any older sibling would. After seeing the extent of the damage she took out the Estus flask and handed it to her sister.

"Here, drink this and heal yourself." Seeing the look that dared her to try and fight back, Arya accepted the loss and took a drink of the Estus. Enjoying the warm yet somehow still cool liquid burnt and soothed as it travelled down her throat healing her injuries though the sting of them was still there.

When she was healed enough that she was able to continue on their trek through the forest they first went over to the dead bushes and were able to find some Purple and Red Moss on some of them. As they moved further onwards they were much more cautious and happened to get a 'Large soul of a Nameless Soldier' from the area that the Demonic Foliage's had come from. Move onwards they came to a wide open area full of trees and more bushes. Hopefully they were the normal kind and not the 'came alive and attacked you' kind.

The whole area was alight by strange flowers littered across the open expanse. And the air was much cleaner here than anywhere else the siblings had come across. The slight breeze was cool and crisp with some water vapour that hung in the air like a curtain yet didn't make the ground nor the trees wet.

"Want to try and hug the wall? That way we avoid the chance that any more things will sneak up on us?" Isha asked as she pointed to the wall.

"… Yeah, that might work."

Traveling along the wall they used the pointed rock wall as a guide so they would be less likely to run into anything. The path lead them to a huge tree Arya wanted to pass it by when her sister grabbed her sleeve and stopped her.

"This tree, it's strange." She told her sister as her head was turned in the direction of the strange flora in question.

Her sister was confused and took another look at the suspect tree. "I don't see anything wrong with it."

"Well, I think there is. It is making a strange noise like a 'creek' or something and I think its roots are moving…"

Arya was very close to laughing at her sister but didn't out of affection for her sibling. "So 'cough' what do you want to do about it?"

"Let's hack it down!" It was strangely violent for Isha but her sister didn't really care, she only wanted a reason to use her new sword.

So that was exactly what she did. Arya hacked and slashed at the tree until it exploded into thousands of little souls and revealed a new path for them which they took. The new path was just as narrow as the previous one but there were new monsters in this area.

They met something like a Frog and a Manta ray, it had a frog face with a flat manta ray body and it leapt at them attacking them with its long tongue. Isha used her magic to attack it mid air and it was blasted off course before falling on its back, Arya ran forward to finish it ramming her sword into its soft underbelly.

When the Manta ray-frog was dead the duo continued to follow the trail when they came upon another living tree which Arya burnt down easily when led into a large open area full of trees and toward the middle was a large stone statue laying on the forest floor covered in moss and the like. It was wearing stone armour reminiscent of a knight. Isha went forward to inspect it when it decided to get up making the sibling leap into the air and try to run away.

"What the-! Why is a statue MOVEING!?" Isha shouted as she ran back to her sister's location.

Arya brought her hands together and charged a large amount of Fire into them before she threw it at the Statue. It flinched and cringed but it didn't stop it completely. The Stone Knight brought both hands to the handle of his stone sword and raised it to the air and sent out a pulse of energy that hit Arya.

Isha was far enough away that it didn't hit her.

"HA! That did nothing you big stone bastard!" Arya shouted and went to jump backwards from its fast approaching form only to find that her body was slow and unresponsive.

The stone Knight was quickly in front of her and raised its arm to hack at her with its stone sword when a powerful soul arrow hit it directly in the chest. Isha knew that if she timed her attacks she would be able to make the stone giant flinch and interrupt its attack giving her sister time to hack at it from close up.

Seeing what her sister had in mind Arya did hack at it with her own blade. She went for the back of its legs hoping that it was susceptible to some form of pain. It had the desired effect as when she landed it through the back of the leg and could feel the stone give way when it was forced to one knee though she was unable to feel any sort of victory as it swiped at her, backhanding her and sending her flying as she hit the ground hard.

Isha used its distraction to her advantage and dealt a finishing blow to it.

Arya was relatively unhurt, though the same could not be said for her pride. "Why is it I seem to be the punching bag for everything in Lordran?" She asked.

With the way finally clear they followed the narrow path to their prize. A ring with a wolf symbol on it. Looking it up in their book they read the description.

'One of the special rings granted to the four knights of Gwyn. The wolf ring belongs to Artorias the Abysswalker. Artorias had an unbendable will of steel, and was unmatched with a greatsword'

Isha handed the ring to her sister. "Unmatched with a greatsword, sounds like you should have this."

She took it with a smile and put it on her right middle finger to mirror the rusted iron ring on her left and the duo travelled back to the large open area. They quickly noticed something that they hadn't before.

"Tell me those aren't…" Arya questioned pointing to a large pile of rocks.

Her sister nodded. "They are more Stone Knights." Isha ever the tactician came up with an idea to avoid them all together. They couldn't be sure how they knew people were near them but they DID know that if they went near them, the giants would awaken. The younger sibling followed the older and Isha gladly led the way to a broken stone building. They were a few meters away when the ground shook behind them, looking back it was a Stone Knight marching its way to them.

The sisters sprinted into the building and thought they were safe until the Stone Giant knelt down and reached inside trying to grab them. The two went back as far as they could, knocking down a small bush in the process and Arya saw a summon sign on the ground.

"Isha! We can get help! Look here, this summon sign can let us call someone to fight with us" Arya beckoned to her sister.

They stood on either side of the sign and held their hands together over it and began to chant the summoning spell like Solaire had taught them. He mentioned that they could come across these signs in Lordran and taught them both how to use them.

Within seconds a figure began to materialize, they were small and appeared young though with their huge hat over their head it was hard to tell. In their hand was a large Catalyst telling them that they were a mage and from their attire it was clear they were female. When the summoning was finished the newly summoned woman was no longer translucent and took one quick glance at the two that summoned her and another at the Stone Knight before knowing exactly what to do.

The witch brought her Catalyst up to the air and hit the Stone Knight with a powerful great heavy soul arrow and followed up with a homing Soul mass. The Stone giant was unable to withstand the onslaught and exploded into a mass of souls. The witch turned to the ones who summoned her and bowed.

"I am the Witch Beatrice, thank you for summoning me. I don't remember much of where I was before I came here but I know it was dark and cold." She told them lifting her hat so they could get a better look at her. She was indeed young, in her late teens to early 20's with midnight black hair cut short and her outfit was mainly one long dress with a small black cape. On the arm that wasn't holding the Catalyst was a cracked round shield to which Arya quickly replaced with a better one.

"I assume you are heading to the top to dispatch the Moonlight Butterfly?" Beatrice asked tilting her head.

The sisters looked at each other before Isha answered "Not really, we were mainly here for practice with our teamwork. But I guess we may as well kill it."

"I agree, this forest is not its natural home, though it once came from here it was experimented on and when it escaped its confinements followed its instincts to this dark humid forest to feed from the plants and nectar here." Beatrice told them a smile on her face as she wandered up the steps making the others follow her if they wanted to stay with someone powerful.

At the top of the stairs was a fog door, all three of them went through it and they heard the flapping of gigantic wings. As they turned their heads to the noise the form of a huge butterfly with a massive horn froing from its head appeared before them glowing a luminescent green. It took them for intruders and attacked them from a distance with powerful magic.

Every one of them had to dodge the attack. It was clear that Arya was not going to be much help in this battle and moved out of the ranged mages way hoping to draw the luminescent bug's attacks away from the others. The two charged up their magic in their Catalysts and blasted the butterfly with Soul Arrows and Great Heavy Soul Arrows. It took a fair amount of damage but retaliated with magic of its own and sent another barrage of attacks toward them.

Arya was doing a fine job of keeping the Butterfly's attention as she kept throwing fire at it nearly reaching but not quite hitting it. It sent a focused energy blast at her which she blocked with her shield but the force sent her off balance, she swung her arms hoping to regain her it but ultimately fell backwards off the bridge, she would have fallen to her death had she not jammed her sword into the stone cracks of the bridge. Now she was dangling from it trying not to move too much lest she accidentally loosen the swords hold to the wall yet she was trying to grasp the wall or the vines near her with her free hand so she'd have a good perch to pull herself back up.

Beatrice and Isha had seen her fall and the witch, being the closest to her was the one able to go to the ledge where Arya fell. She was relieved to see the woman hanging there and Beatrice summoned a Homing Soul Mass to protect her back while she reached down to help Arya back up. While she was helping the younger sister, the other was not idle. Isha was still firing as many soul arrows as she was able at the bug to make sure it wouldn't attack Beatrice while her back was turned.

Once Arya was back up she knelt on the stone, happy to be back on solid ground and the others waited for the butterfly to land as it wouldn't be able to keep up this pace of attacks for much longer. True to its nature it landed on the ledge to replenish its magic and energy with nectar from plants growing from the stone. Arya used this chance to attack while the other two also rested to replenish their Mana. The younger hot blooded sister sent a barrage of two handed power swings at the head of the butterfly. The rest of the battle was a bit repetitive as when the huge Bug flew into the air the two mages easily attacked it with their magic once more. It did send a Homing energy blast at Isha and as her shield wasn't as good at magic deflection as Arya's the younger sibling threw herself in front of the blast and had the wind knocked out of her by the sheer force of it. To finish the fight the two mages attacked simultaneously and the butterfly was unable to withstand the continuous attacks and fell to the trio giving them a huge amount of soul's and opening a way across the bridge to what must have been an endless staircase which had a petrified Blacksmith holding a Devine Ember and a watchtower basement key at the top.

Beatrice looked at her hands. Expecting herself to disappear but she was still as physical as she was before.

"Why aren't you disappearing?" Arya asked, not trying to be harsh but coming across as. Solaire had told them that once the summoned person had fulfilled their duty they faded back to the land whence they came from.

"I am not sure. It must have been your magic's. Somehow they were so strong that I was fully brought into this world, I am now as much a part of this word as you or anyone in this world is." The witch told them.

"So… you want to travel with us then?" The younger sibling askes as she sheathed her sword.

"I would like that very much. I am curious about your magic's."


As they travelled the path back to the Undead Parish, Beatrice told them about what she could remember about their life.

"I am from a clan of witches, we didn't conform to the Vinheim Dragon Schools rules and lived in this very forest many years ago. While I am not exactly sure what happened, I know that this place is different to what I remember. It is darker and older. Much older." She had a distant look in her eyes as her hat was pulled back on her head. "My home was corrupted by something dark and my mother left to battle it, looking for some way to stop it. When she couldn't, I stepped in.

"There was a knight sent to our home to try and prevent the spread of the corruption and I followed his path into the heart of the blackness I don't know how long I wandered, time seemed to be meaningless in that dark abyss, but I made it to the end and could see the light of day, when I was attacked by four men… Not men anymore, they had sold their souls for power. And that's all I remember." The young woman finished.

She followed up with some questions of her own for the two siblings. She wanted to know where they had learnt their magic and where they had come from. They were reluctant to say where they had come from as they knew saying that they come from an alternate dimension would not go over well, even if time in Lordran was convoluted and summoning people from different dimensions was common place but aside from the fact that they had died in their own world, the sisters were unable to recall any more about their lives.

When Beatrice learnt that Isha had no formal training, she enthusiastically offered to train her in the ways of magic.

"Your magic is powerful but it is unfocused. It is like a vast lake and you are draining it fast like a waterfall on simple remedial spells. You need to learn how to use less energy to achieve the same results. Then if you move onto more powerful spells like my Great Heavy Soul Arrow or Homing Soul Mass." When she continued to talk to Isha about magic Arya shook her head and walked slightly faster than them not wanting to be part of the conversation.

When they arrived back at the hidden bonfire next to the magically sealed door, Arya took a long look at it before taking out the Crest of Artorias. "You think this is the key to the door?" She asked her sister and Beatrice who were sitting around the fire.

"Give it a go, might be." Beatrice told her.

Arya walked up to the great door with magic flowing all around it, she held out the round crest and held it to the door. There was a circle shape that she pushed the crest into and the magic dispelled as the door opened to a new section of forest. The two at the fire stood and quickly moved to Arya's side.

Beatrice was the first to break the silence. "Let's move forward. After all, what is life without adventure?"

With that piece of encouragement, the group entered the new area and walked down the stone stairs. This area of the woods was more densely covered in trees and was much darker as the strange plants whose tips were glowing a luminous blue/white were not present here as they were in the other area. Leaves crunched under their feet as they marched hesitantly forward. A breeze from ahead brought with it a cooling and soothing sensation that was mixed with the fresh scent of the forest.

They moved cautiously forward expecting anything to come out and jump them. As in this world it seemed to happen a lot, as a general rule the siblings decided that if it moved, it was trying to kill them.

As they went deeper into the forest something felt off. Like they were being watched. They could see to what seemed to be a decrepit building at the end of the forest and the beginning of a bridge at the end of that. Something to their right moved and a huge crunch of branches and trees breaking and being uprooted resounded through the forest. The trio dashed forward to the noise looking for its source and the closer they got to it the more sounds they could hear. People were shouting and screaming at something.

Breaking through the trees they came upon an open area that would have been full of life and trees except they had been uprooted by the thing in the centre and the ground under its feet was covered in thick black tar. There was a troupe of people surrounding the creature, all were wearing different armour and one moved like a shadow almost transparent, there was one in the back with a large feathered hat with a black ebony bow firing arrows and one next to them with a Sorcerers Catalyst was another person. In the front lines was more soldiers, one of which had a large red shield with a spider on it, another wore cleric robes like Petrus and a final knight was in samurai style armour with a large lion head on the left shoulder and a massive sword in his right which he was swinging at the creature.

The creature in question was standing at the centre of the black tar, it was somewhat humanoid in appearance with Digi grade legs like some wolf or cat while its shoulders were too large for its body and where its head would be was some circular ball with a collar forming upwards to protect its head. Its eyes were the colour of blood and it roared with a great open mouth full of sharp pointed teeth.

Arya, Isha and Beatrice didn't hesitate in throwing themselves into the battle. Arya, reckless as ever went straight in charging full force swinging her blade down with as much force as she was able to muster into the creature's leg. It did a little damage but it wasn't much compared to the vast amount of health the thing had. It swung its long arm and knocked Arya along with a few of the others backwards and they landed hard onto the ground.

The sorcerers and the Archer sent a barrage of magic and arrows toward the creature hitting it with enough force to make it stumble a little.

Arya rose to her feet, bruised and angered. Her power seemed to rise with her frustration, it felt like her blood was boiling. The woman wanted to be weak no longer. She was tired or being pushed around by everything in this world. Fire emanated from her and the others around her backed away so they wouldn't be burnt by the flames licking at her body though not burning her or her clothes. Arya slashed her sword down and concentrated the flames in her sword through the ruby that contained some of her own flame from her fight with the Channeler. With her sword alight she once more charged forward, this time in more of a blind rage unaware of anything else around her. Gripping her blade with both hands she swung the blade and her entire body at the creature's leg, this time she was able to leave a substantial slice and burn to it.

When it was cut the blood that flowed from it was the same as the tar surrounding it. Some of which fell onto Arya's arm and burnt while it stuck to her, much like boiling glue. She screamed at the pain and dropped her sword trying to scrape the tar off her arm with her other hand but even with it off the burn was still present and still the girl screamed in pain.

Isha was shocked at the fire that had emanated from her sister but couldn't focus on it as the creature was still alive, heavily injured but still alive. She and Beatrice threw two soul arrows simultaneously at the creature, the two magic's combined in mid flight to make a stronger arrow which pierced the creature making it fall to its back as it was unable to right itself due to the damage it received from Arya (who at this point had passed out from the pain and shock).

When it was floored, the knights from the forest all charged in and hacked at the creature. Once it was dead it exploded into a number of souls which Arya and Isha absorbed and with the main threat now taken care of there was nothing stopping Isha from rushing to her sister. When she was assured that her sister was still in fact breathing the elder sibling released a sigh of relief.

"You can't be the hero all the time. It is the job of the older sibling to take care of the younger." She chastised to he now sleeping Arya. She felt cold steal on her shoulder and turned her head to be met with the samurai.

"You two are trespassing and as such must be dealt with." He said in a light eastern accent.

"Yet Shiva, they helped us. And without that Pyromancer and those two Sorcerers we'd be well dead." The archer told them, not having been reviled to be a woman with her soft spoken voice and physique that only females had.

The man called Shiva lowered his blade as he thought this through "You are right Pharis. They did save us… Very well. Let's take them to Alvina. She can decide what to do, so."


Isha and Beatrice were being shoved forward by Pharis while her sister was being carried by the ninja following close behind Shiva, the Ninja was nearly invisible making it seem like Arya was floating. They were escorted to the ruined building and were led down a secrete passageway at the back of the building under a trap door hidden to look like the grassy forest floor.

The inside was fairly deep down and the stone stairs were lined with torches to keep the place alight. Isha was worried about what would happen once they met with these people's leader. Would this Alvina want them dead or would she send them away?

Once at the bottom of the steps Isha saw the accommodation of these Forest ninja. The main gathering hall was wide and open with large open area's leading into what Isha saw as the Kitchen/ Dining area and the other lead into a living area. The entire building was underground and lined with a bright sandy coloured stone while it was lit predominately with torches Isha was able to feel a breeze from somewhere indicating that fresh air was flowing through the base.

Isha and Beatrice were pushed ahead into a different area. This one was darker as there were less torches lighting the area and eventually one of the people opened a door that led to a large room. There was a large table in this one and sitting in the centre of it was a large cat. Not looking like any ordinary cat though, its face was too elongated and its teeth were a little too pointed.

It raised its head and looks at the newcomers with intelligent yellow eyes. The Ninja carrying Arya stepped forward and placed her on the table in front of the cat. It got up and strode forward peering down at Isha's sister.

"What have we here? Three intruders? Why have they been brought before me?" The large smoky grey cat spoke with a meow noise in the background as she talked.

Isha leant over to Beatrice "The cats talking. Tell me I'm not dreaming this?"

"This is Lordran, stop being surprised." The witch replied a smile in her eyes and a teasing grin on her face.

"This one has been touched by the corruption. Tell me, what did happen outside these walls?" The cat asked.

"There was a huge earthquake outside and black tar began to rise from the ground, Alvina." Shiva stepped forward and spoke "We had no idea what to do then all of a sudden, this monster appeared from the ground. We were nearly loosing when this Pyromancer and these two mages appeared. They helped and this one got some of the creature's blood on her arm."

Alvina the cat 'Hmm'd' in response and took a closer look at Arya arm before she looked too her group of hunters. "Pharis." She called. "I need you to make a potion with the exact ingredients and measurements I give you." Alvina then hopped down from the table and walked out of the room with Pharis on her heels.

"But Alvina. What do we do with these two?" Shiva insisted taking a half step forward.

The cat stopped and half turned her head. "Leave them be. Till such a time when the other is healed, they are to be guests and treated as such."

It was clear that Shiva was disappointed.


It took a few hours before Arya woke again. She was laying on one of the beds in a guest room, Isha and Beatrice were sitting in the room waiting for her to wake. As soon as she groaned, Isha was out of her seat and by Arya's side.

"What happened?" Arya asked, groggy and sleepy.

"That monster was killed and we were taken to the home of the Forest clan. Their leader Alvina made you potion to heal your arm." Isha explained.

Arya threw her legs over the edge of the bed and sat up straight she talked more and more with Isha and Beatrice finding out what happened and about the Forest clan themselves. When she was fully up to date the younger sibling stood and stretched testing her right arm. It seemed fine, no damage left behind, then she grabbed her sword which was resting against the end of the bed. As soon as it was in her hand the door opened and a nameless Forest Hunter entered.

"Alvina wants talk with you all when she is awake." He said.

The trio followed the Hunter through the base and to the meeting room where Alvina was last time sitting this time however she was sitting in an intricately weaved basket. She looked up at them from her comfortable position and rose pattering to the table and hopping up onto it before sitting straight waiting for them to stand at the foot of the table.

"So this is the one who dispatched the one made from darkness. Tis it not true that thou cometh to this forest by accident. Why? Why did thou help us? It was of no concern." She asked tilting her head as she did so.

"It was simple. There were people in trouble and we helped." Arya simply stated.

Alvina laughed opening her mouth and showing her sharp teeth. "Oh, so noble of thou. But this world tis full of selfish and disgraceful people. Tis nice to finally meet some who are still as kind and noble as you three." But her happy attitude left as quick as it came. "But I cannot let thou leave. Thee know too much and would be a liability to our clan… But if thou were to become a member of our clan, thee would be free to come and go as thee pleased."

The three looked at each other. "What would happen if we joined? If it for life?" Isha the sensible one questioned.

The grey cat chuckled and rubbed her ear once with a paw "No, it isn't for thine life. Thee may decide to leave the clan if thou choses. But know this. The secrets of the clan must never be told to outsiders. The clan leader shall know and divine judgment shall be brought down upon thee."

Once again the group looked at each other and had a quick debate deciding what to do. Eventually they decided on a path. "We accept." They all said together.

"Good. Then thou will be allowed to come and go unhindered by the Forest clan. Come hither and chant the binding words."

Doing as bid the trio stood before Alvina and repeated the words joining them to the clan.

"Should thou decide to leave the clan tis by thine own choice. No ill will shall be held against thee. The thee before me shall always be known as friends of the Forest clan."


Leave a review and tell me how the story is progressing. Can you guess where they are going next?