Chapter 3

Leo stood up. His head was aching. He looked around. Red leaved trees, Little orange things floating around and a person who looked like Dilka was standing several feet away. He was confused. Wasn't she wearing different clothing that day? Annie was on the ground looking around. She stood up and walked behind him. She stared at Dilka and pointed her out. He knew she was wondering why she looked older. Leo started to walk towards her. Annie followed walked into something 2 meters in front of 'Dilka'

He was confused. It was like some kind of invisible force field.

"Don't move any closer" she said.

"Where are we?" he asked. She grinned.

" Somewhere beyond your the world you were use to." she replied. Annie gasped. They had both realized they were in another world. "Now I am not who you expect I am but at the same time I am. I will be be watching your journey. I have some advice though... beware of the beast of Monsinkual." Before he could question her, Her eyes when a bright orange and she disappeared. Annie walked up to him. "What ever happened I think we were chosen to be here" She said. This was the first time Annie had actually talked to Leo confidently. His hope had already died inside him. They were left in a world of wonder not knowing what to do or what dangers laid ahead. But somehow he thought he could hear a distant call for him.

He concentrated for a bit, but he could never get what it was trying to tell him and he couldn't grasp some of it. He turned around to Annie. "We need to find shelter, food and water." He said. She looked at him in the eye and nodded. He knew she was looking into his eyes to try and find out what was bothering him.

She strolled over to the one of the orange floating things and cupped it into her hand. She walked back over and un-cupped her hand. There was a little creature in her hand with wings. " A fairy" she said in awe. It twirled around in her hand. They both watched. Leo thought he would try and talk to it. "Do you know where we can have food, water and shelter for the night?" he asked. It flew up onto his ear. It tried to speak but it's voice was too soft to hear. It flew down onto his nose and signed to him that she couldn't tell because he couldn't hear her and it is hard to explain in sign language. Annie started to walk around to a tree. She looked at it from top to bottom and climbed up to the first branch.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

" Seeing if there is food up here and it looks like a good place to sleep for the night the branches are quite sturdy and I can easily make hammocks out of these leaves" she said. He nodded. She threw down some food from the trees at looked like pears but their texture was like strawberries. He collected some water from the stream south of the plain. He found these big yellow leaves on the plant next to the stream. These looked good to carry the water and drink from it. He tested the leaves first to see if they stable enough to carry the water. They were so. He filled up two and brung them back to the 'campsite'. Annie was sitting down with dozens of leaves around her. " You going tree or hammock?" she asked.

"Tree" he replied. she shrugged and handed the leaves to the fairies. They flew up the tree and laid them about the branches. He showed her the leaves and she had a sip from one. night was slowly falling so they decided to get up the tree before it was too dark. He thought to himself.

'what is happening at home right now? What excuse has Charli made up? Is he okay? Is he even at home?' these questions flew about his head until he finally fell asleep. He woke up on the floor of an entry way of a mansion. A little girl was standing there. He struggled to get up and rubbed his eyes. He blinked serval of times until his sight un-blurred itself. "Hello" she said. Leo opened his mouth and was about to reply, but she put her finger on his lips. "No Mortal can talk in the palace of Finstor" she said. He stared at her confused. "Well actually No mortal can speak here nor an unchallenged immortal" she replied. She giggled and walked to a room. There was a table with 6 wooden chairs. They all had curves carved into the frames and each had a symbol drawn into it. He didn't get time to look at them all but one looked just like Dilka's.

"I know what you are thinking. You have seen this mark before. You can't question it at all." She blinked and his memory of that room disappeared. He blinked. Her crystal blue eyes glowing in the light. "My name is Rosa. I have appeared to you to say a message. One loss is an equal gain and loss. Each path will lead to a challenge. Defeat is the light at the end of the tunnel, but each light at the end of a tunnel has a consquence."

The little girl started to fade. Her long black hair wrapped around his eyes. He woke up in a start. Annie was laughing above him.

"You feel off the tree!" she laughed. He looked around. Sure enough he had fallen to the ground. "You know you were talking in your sleep." she said. He looked up.

"What did I say?" he asked

"One loss is an equal gain and loss. Each path will lead to a challenge. Defeat is the light at the end of the tunnel, but the light at the end of a tunnel has a consquence." His eyes widened. "After that you feel out of the tree!" She cracked up laughing again. He looked down at the ground. 'what does it mean?' he thought. He shook his head. Only if Charli was here! He was SO good at solving riddles. Annie jumped down from the tree. "We better start moving. We need to find a way out of here." He nodded and started to walk North. Annie was carrying a backpack she must of made out of leaves and it had a bottle made out of leaves aswell. It also held berries. He was hungry but she wouldn't let him have any. She said she was 'preserving them' until they were 'really needed' He was starving! Annie kicked him in the shin every time he went too close to the bag. He finally sighed in defeat and walked along.

They suddenly reached a forked road. "What way?" he asked. She stared at him. "You think I know the way?" she asked.

"No ust you seem to be confident about this 'adventure'" he replied.

"well it is your turn!" she said with a big smile. He sighed and started to walked to the right. She looked at the left hand side. It was dark and gloomy. The right wasn't as bad. The books she had read though the characters went into the non scary one and it was a creature waiting for them. But this is real life so it won't happen. She followed. LEo stopped by a tree. "Can you hear a distant sound?" he asked.

"No all I can here is the breeze." she replied. "why you ask?" she asked.

"I've heard it ever since we arrived. It suddenly got a bit louder" he said. She started to open her mouth but Leo butted in. "I bet it is nothing" he said and started off again. He chose this path because he could hear the sound clearly. He was curious of what the sound was. What was calling him?"

The sun was right above them now. It was getting very hot. "Can we stop?" moaned Annie. She was wearing a long sleeved t-shirt. The sleeves hung over her hands. "Okay. Does that mean we get to eat and drink?" he asked. "yes but instead of eating the food we will find some." she said. LEe moaned. She liked hunting obviously. SHe picked up a long stick. "It is pointy thats good. This will be handy!" she picked another one up and handed it to LEo. "Here just incase we have to trek mountains or steep hills." She smiled sweetly. They walked on a little further until they found a good shady spot to sit down. The trees were now green leaved like the ones back on Earth. Violet flowers were in it. Leo looked at Annie. " Should we try those flowers?" he asked. She looked up. She quickly hopped back up and climbed her way up the twisted tree. She picked one and jumped down.

She played with it for a bit then sniffed it. Her eyes grew wide. "We can't" she said.

"why not?" he asked.

"they smell like water" she dropped it on the ground and got one of the leaves we preserved from the spot we arose from. She placed the flower in her palm and squeezed it. Water slowly dripped from it into the leave. One flower gave 50 mls of water by the looks of it. "Wow. I never seen those before" he said. She looked at him if he was a dumb ass. "OF COURSE YOU HAVEN"T! We are in another world." She face palmed her forehead. Leo lowered his head. He closed his eyes to relax. Suddenly he heard a shriek. HE opened his eyes. Annie was standing up. She was pale, shaking and pointing behind him. He turned around slowly. There was this two legged fly creature in the sky not far away from them. It was yellow with three big wings and emerald eyes. Fear struck him. What was this creature? "ANNIE! RUN!" He yelled . She picked up the bag and her stick and ran off. Leo started to run too. He could hear wings beating behind him. It was pursuing them. They were running through bushed and fallen branches. He could now feel the wind from the wings aswell. Suddenly there was a tremendous shriek. His heart beat fastened. It was obviously ready to attack was he going to do? Keep running or turn around to fight. He suddenly bumped into Annie. "What are you doing?" he gasped. She turned to her right and started off again. What in the world is she doing now? he thought. He ran after her. He heard another shriek. This time A triumphant shriek. He stopped to see Annie standing by a white wolf. She was patting it. "Annie we don't have time for this! Something is chasing us!" he yelled at her. She nodded her head and ran off again. This time the white wolf followed her. He heard that call for him again. He stopped and turned around. He saw the yellow creature coming for him.

He heard a bark and Annie screamed. The creature screamed again. This time he responded. "Hrrrgh" he said. The yellow thing kept coming. "What the hell am i doing? Charli will think of me as a jerk for doing this!" he said to himself.

"SHRRCK" The yellow creature yelled and flew faster down at him. He closed his eyes. " Only if Charli was here to help" he said to himself. A tear ran down his face. He opened his eyes again to see a tear floating in front of him. It had a green fire spark in it. It dropped to the floor and that young girl appeared again.

"You got yourself in trouble. I knew you weren't trained yet!" she handed him a sword and vanished.

All he could hear.

"You MORON!" Annie yelled.

He woke up in a den of some sort. Annie was next to him looking really pissed. "And you thought I was stupid for patting Artic?" she said. He looked at her blankly."Do you remember what happened?."

"No" he said. She snorted in disgust.

"Well you nearly killed yourself. Why did you turn to face the monster and why did you go "hrrrgh?" she said.

"I don't know what the hell your talking about." He sat up. Something about his leg felt different. He pulled up his short pants to find a strap and a hilt of a sword in it. He took the hilt out and press the button. The hilt transformed into a sword. "Rosa..." He murmured.

"Where did you get that?" She asked.

" Rosa" he said. She blinked confused. Rosa mustn't of reached Annie yet.