A/N: So, I've been informed that Colored Twigs are not an actual item in-game. Oops. I'm not sure why I thought they were, maybe because they sound like an EBF item, or is that just me? Oh, well, they're an item now! Anyway, here's chapter two! Thank you, my first few reviewers ever, I can see why authors clamor for them now! So many warm fuzzies... ^u^
On the far side of Greenwood, inside one of the many tree houses, a young ranger named Anna was just finishing dressing for another day of scouting the woods around her home. She stood up from the stool in front of her dresser stretching her arms over her head and shook her head once to toss her viridian bangs out of her face. The rest of her hair was pulled into pigtails clipped back with stylized leaf barrettes. Giving her appearance a final glance in the mirror, she deemed the brown dress with its belts and pouches over the darker brown leggings and bits of leather armor suitable for her foray into the woods.
Anna padded to the door, soft leather boot muffling her footsteps, pausing to snag her favorite bow, Sky Feather, and her quiver of arrows from their hooks on the wall and swing them over her shoulder. She stepped out the door and locked it behind her while taking a deep breath of the crisp morning air. Turning to the path out of the village, she smiled and hummed a cheery tune as she set out for Ashwood Forest.
Halfway to the exit of the village, however, Anna hesitated on the dirt path, hearing a clamor of loud angry voices coming from the direction of the altar that held the Greenwood Jewel. Curious, she changed direction, assuming that some slime or two had taken a liking to the village's sacred treasure again, and would need to be taken care of.
"That, or Old Lana caught Sam and Chris asleep on the job again," Anna thought to herself with a giggle as she drew closer to the site and the voices became louder. The elderly priestess considered the brothers' careless attitude about guarding the Jewel sacrilegious and if she ever caught them slacking on their duties it always led to an explosively loud lecture filled with outrageous what-if's. It always caused a few people to stop their daily routines to watch with amusement.
When she arrived however, she was quite puzzled to see what looked like the entire village milling around the altar in an angry throng. "Weird, Lana's lectures don't normally draw this big of an audience," Anna mused as she shoved her way through the crowd to see what all the fuss was about.
When she finally managed to get to the front her green eyes widened and her jaw dropped. There, slumped on the ground unconscious in front of the massive carved stump that was the Altar for the Greenwood Jewel, were the two lazy brothers. Both had small trickles of blood running down their faces from large bumps already swelling on the tops of their heads, their ceremonial swords lay on the ground next to them out of their sheaths. The priestess Lana was kneeling next to them with a bowl of herbal water and a cloth, cleaning the wounds.
Fearing the worst, and yet knowing what had almost certainly happened, Anna wrenched her eyes up to check the altar. Her heart dropped as her worst fears were confirmed. The Greenwood Jewel that their village had guarded for countless generations was gone, whisked away by some thief whom probably didn't even know what it was or could potentially do.
Immediately swinging around to face the crowd, Anna raised her voice, "Has anyone unusual been seen in the village today?" People exchanged a few uncertain glances, a whisper here and a shrug there, but no one had seen or heard anything. "Figures that no one knows since we don't have an active watch here," Anna thought glumly.
Suddenly a new person burst through the bushes with a loud crash. Everyone in the clearing swung around to see who it was; Anna unslung her bow from her back and placed an arrow on the string, ready to fire in a heartbeat. There, with sweat running down his red face and completely out breath, was the local shopkeeper. He seemed angry, which was unusual since he was known to be a pretty laid-back man.
"Did you see the thief, or thieves?" Anna asked hopefully, lowering her bow.
"You already… know about them?" The man huffed out in baffled amazement, "I was just… coming to… report them. My shop has been… cleared out. The gold, the weapons, the gems… even the Colored Twigs and Lanky Roots are gone! I'm ruined," he wailed.
"So there's more than one? Did you see what they looked like or which way they went?" Anna asked quickly, gripping her bow tightly in her hand. The store wasn't too far from the altar and everyone knew the chubby shopkeeper couldn't run very far or long, there was a good possibility that she could track the thieves down and teach them exactly what happened when you stole from her town.
The man, having caught his breath, began to explain what had happened and whom he had seen, "I heard strange sounds coming from the back of my shop when I came to open up for the day. There was a young man with a massive bag chocked full of my wares making for the trees behind my store. I chased him through the trees; the bag must weigh a ton because he wasn't moving very fast. I'm not positive, but I think it was one of the heroes, Matt. He had a pirate getup on with what looked like Heaven's Gate—that sword he supposedly uses?—strapped to his back. Though, I didn't see any of the others there so it might not have been him."
The crowd began to get worked up again, all shouting at the same time causing a bedlam of anger: "Damn them!" "How dare they think they can get away with this?!" "I'll bet they took the Greenwood Jewel too, filthy thieves!"
Anna shifted her weight to one leg and closed her eyes as she thought quickly about what she had been told. "There have been rumors of Matt and his friends running around stealing whatever isn't nailed down… sometimes even what is nailed down. It's not out of the question that they took the Jewel along with everything from the store." Her eyes opened again, filled with a determined emerald fire. "I'm going after them," she declared firmly, causing the hubbub of the crowd to die down again. "If he's being slowed up with all the stuff he stole, then it will be easy to track him down; that is what I do after all. I'll interrogate him on any accomplices, too. I'll bring the Jewel and all of your merchandise back."
The crowd cheered, they had complete faith in Anna's tracking abilities; she was a prodigy in the village known for both her wood craft and her dead-shot talent with a bow despite only being eighteen. If anyone in the village could bring back the Jewel, it was Anna.
The young ranger, with the crowd's cheers at her back, set off for the shop to pick up Matt's trail. Her face was set with determination, "The stolen wares are a problem, but the missing Jewel is a far bigger deal. I have to get it back, I have to. If I don't and the others have also been taken…"She cut the thought off with a shiver, kneeling down to check the ground for foot prints. "Well, that won't be problem if I just catch Matt and his friends. Ah, ha! There we go!" She had found four sets of tracks and a scuffed depression from something being dropped and began to read who or what had made the tracks. The signs, along with the shopkeeper's description, all pointed to the former world saviors. One belonged to a cat, Matt's pet NoLegs. A smaller set probably belonged to the mage, Natalie. And finally, two sets belonging to the guys, Matt and Lance. One was much deeper than the others indicating that they were much heavier or, more likely, carrying something heavy. She stood up straight and started a brisk jog into the trees, following the trail.
A/N: There we go, chapter 2 is done and 3 is in the works! Leave me some reviews so the warm fuzzies they give will motivate me! And don't be afraid to point out errors or leave some ideas you might like to see!