Hey. Here's another one. I'll keep this short so you can read. Read and Review please! Enjoy!
Chapter Two
The Dark Forest is no place for someone who is faint of heart. It is filled with all manner of mean creatures and demons that won't even think twice about taking a bite out of anyone who treads on their soil. Most people avoid the Dark Forest altogether, but Yume isn't most people. She's a fully trained warrior of the highest degree, and she isn't about to be beat by some lowly demons with big egos.
The trees in the Dark Forest are, well, dark, and that's what gives it its name, but it wasn't always like this. It seemed as though the very essence of the evil demons that took up residence in the forest has seeped into the very trees and made them evil. Personally, she liked this forest when it wasn't so dark and there wasn't so many demons wandering around. She has been living for a very, very long time and she has seen the land change from wild and magical to corrupted and evil, but she doesn't have time to think about her past right now. She has to have all of her thoughts on the world around her to prevent any egotistical demons from coming after her.
It would probably be better for her to shift into a wolf and go on from there, but with these trees and this tricky, root-strewn land, she would most likely end up with a broken paw and then she would be fodder for the demons. It is better to be agile here than to be quick. She's going to have to save that energy for when she gets to the palace.
Dodging and maneuvering around trees and bushes, she makes her way into the heart of the forest, to the Hidden Temple that once symbolized the great Earth Mother long ago, but is now in ruins. Yume quickly shifts her ears into bat ears and listened to the movements around her, caution making all of her senses alert.
It is just a few more miles to the temple when the branches above her start to rustle and she stops dead in her tracks. Slowly she reaches for her sais, swiveling her bat ears to catch any sound coming from around her. The sound of breathing comes to her ears from above her in the trees and from behind her, and she knows that she is surrounded. Silently she berates herself for not catching it sooner and slowly moves into a fighting stance.
The trees rustle again and four demons drop down and move to surround her. Her ears shift back to normal as she pulls her sais out of their sheaths. The demons all pull out some type of weapon and smirk ready for a fight.
Her eyes shift from one to the other examining them. All of them are abominations. They look like a sick cross between a man and an animal. One looks half snake with the upper half of a man but with sickly fangs and long claws. Another looks like a cross with a bear and a man, his large body burly and muscled with large canines, claws, and a furred upper body. The other is a cross between a bird and a man with the head, wings, and feet of a bird and the torso of a man. The last was the most sickening, he is a cross with a pig and a man. His body is that of a man, but his head is a pig's as is his feet. It sickened her to look at them, the way they downgraded the very animals they were connected to.
She watches them all as her hands tighten on her sais waiting to strike. They all start to close in on her slowly looking as though they thought this would be fun and that she would be an easy kill for them. Well, they were going to get the shock of their life.
Her body moves into a crouch, her sais ready to strike as they move in for the kill. The snake demon is the first to get impatient and he moves in quickly for a hit. Quick as lightening her sais flash out and she literally disarms him and decapitates him. The other demons move in quickly after that, their swords, clubs, and claws flashing, trying to get a hit on her. They manage to tear up her cloak, so that all that is left is shreds hanging from her shoulders, and slash her on the thigh and her shoulder. Again she lashes out with her lightening fast speed dodging most of their attacks and eventually felling all of her opponents.
Breathing hard, she sheaths her sais and throws the rags that were her cloak away into the bushes. She examines her wounds, and finding that they are not too serious she treks on.
After an our of moving through the treetops, Yume eventually gets to her final destination, the Hidden Temple, or as her people called it long ago, the Den of the Earth Mother. Now, though, the radiance and beauty of the place has all gone from it, but the mysteriousness of it still remains. It is covered with vines that have burrowed themselves into the very stone causing cracks to run up, down, and across the temple. The steps leading up to the gaping hole that once held two magnificently carved doors are now dilapidated and falling to ruin. Some stones stand missing most likely stolen from the temple to further some other project. The carvings that once stood proudly out front and along the walls are now worn down or stolen.
She stares dismally at the old ruin and slowly moves up the broken steps, her eyes taking in the sight of the old temple one last time before she moves onto the Spirit World and then to the Human World. She may never get to see this place again when she finds him. She moves into the interior of the temple, her eyes straying to the faded murals, vacant pedestals, and worn or damaged statues.
Her bear feet slap against the cold stone sending shivers up and down her spine. The wounds on her thigh start to throb every time her foot hits the floor. Her shoulder starts to ache, and she puts her hand up to touch it and comes away with blood, a lot of blood. She needs to find something to heal her up quick or she's going to be passing out from blood loss sometime soon before she completes her mission.
Her eyes move to a corner of the temple near a slightly stagnant pool of water and she silently gives thanks to the Earth Mother. There in the corner is a plant that could potentially save her life. It is moonbane, a healing plant that usually only grows around holy places. It is severely depleted now in these areas ever since the taint of the demons moved in and took over. Yume's people have been using this to heal themselves for far more than a millennium, ever since they learned about the medicinal purposes of plants.
Quickly she moves to the corner of the temple and picks some of the leaves and two petals from the plant. The leaves would help her skin heal and the petals would help banish any infection from her body. She chews up and swallows the petals and applies the leaves to her wounds by licking them, activating the sticky adhesive in the leaves, and pressing them on her wounds. She pulls out two strips of cloth from one of the four pockets on her pants and ties them securely around the wounds. She takes out a small pouch from the pocket on her left thigh and picks more of the leaves and petals to store away for a later purpose should she need them.
Getting up slowly so as her wounds would not fester, she moves on to the back of the temple and comes to an old wooden door that looks rotten and ready to give out any second. Carefully, she pushes it open, the creaking of its hinges echoing through the silence of the temple making her wince. Yume squeezes through the small opening she could make and walks carefully into the room, not sure if there would be any nasty surprises. The small alter room is severely dilapidated now, silver cobwebs clinging to the high corners and the plain, grey stone alter. The window in the back wall now only a gaping hole where beautiful stained glass used to be.
She maneuvers herself around to the back of the alter and looks around. She knows the portal is around here somewhere, she just doesn't know where. Her toe hits the edge of a tattered rug causing her to look down. She crouches down and pulls the rug back to reveal a large, gaping hole in the floor. Faintly she can see a small amount of light at the bottom. This must be it. She thinks and takes a large breath for bravery, prays to the Earth Mother, and jumps down the hole.