Spirit of the Forest
Chapter 1

Trees rustled, birds tweeted their songs, and life went on its daily routine in the Mysterious River Woods.

In a meadow, by the Klyw river, a small cat stalked a brown mouse. Its rusty colored tail swished with anticipation as it slowly crept forward. Suddenly, there was a loud shriek that cut the tension in the air. Both the cat and mouse ran at the sound.

“Romelia!! How great to see you!” A blue haired nymph hugged a silver-haired girl, who was around the age of 18.

The nymph, who was hugging the life out of the girl, was Romelia’s best friend, Tanisha.

Tanisha had aquamarine hair compared to Romelia’s light turquoise streaks in her silver hair. While the nymph’s eyes were dark brown, Romelia’s were emerald green. They always reminded people of the trees’ tops. The nymph wore a light brownish tunic that reached about halfway down to her ankles. There were various spots over it, smooth and roundish, and variating on color.

“Tanisha! I can’t breathe!”

“Sorry,” she said, letting Romelia go, but kept her at arm’s length. “You know I don’t get to see you that often.”

Romelia chuckled. “I went to go get a drink, Tanisha. I wasn’t gone that long.”

“It was still too long, Romelia,” Tanisha complained, “You do need to come more often, though. It gets lonely here without you. Do you know the kind of things fish want to talk about? It’s revolting! I mean, who cares about...”

Romelia listened as Tanisha went on her usual rant. She could go on for hours at a time. Yesterday, it was mountains and seas. Today it was fish talk and trees. Tomorrow, who knows what she’ll rant about? It could be butterflies and deer. You never knew with Tanisha.

“... And well anyway, I’m never talking to Winfred again. So you shouldn’t either.”

Romelia couldn’t help but smile. Winfred was a tree nymph who was friends with Tanisha and occasionally not. Romelia suspected that Winfred liked Tanisha from the few times they talked. But he did like to tease her a lot, which made Tanisha mad.

“Mhm. Sure.”

“What?! Why?! He’s a jerk!”

This time, when Tanisha started to ramble, Romelia didn’t listen. Her stomach was twisting in knots. The feeling made her feel sick, but she didn’t know of what could have possibly upset her stomach so much. The only thing she had for breakfast was bread and some chicken soup.

Tanisha tipped her head when she saw Romelia place a hand on her stomach. “Is it that feeling again?”

Romelia nodded. She had been feeling odd from time to time the past few days. She didn’t know why she was feeling it or what it meant. Romelia hoped it stop soon. Ryna, her mother, was starting to get worried.

“Well,” Tanisha said standing up, “let’s get you home so you can rest.” She helped Romelia up saying, “Rest is always the best medicine. Especially if you’re getting sick.”

Surprisingly, as Tanisha escorted her home, the water nymph stayed quiet. The twisting in Romelia’s stomach grew as they walked. She wondered why she was having these feelings ever the last few days. Maybe Tanisha was right. Maybe she was getting sick.

“Hey, Romelia! Earth to Romelia!”

Romelia stopped walking when she realized that Tanisha had called her name a few times. “Sorry, Tanisha.” She turned to face her friend.

She was surprised to replace that she had veered off her usual path. There was a feeling, other than the twisting of her stomach, that told her to go that way.

Tanisha tapped her foot with her arms crossed, waiting for her to come. But Romelia stayed put, staring at a spot in the forest.

“What are you waiting for?” Tanisha asked impatiently, “Come on! Let’s go!”

“Let’s go this way...” Romelia continued to walk in the direction she had been walking.

Tanisha frowned but followed her. “Why? This is the long way! And I thought that you weren’t feeling well.”

She shrugged at her friend, “I just have a feeling.”

“A feeling?” Tanisha scoffed. “We all have feelings, Romelia. That doesn’t mean anything! I mean, there are certain feelings that do mean something, but I don’t think yours mean anything.”

Romelia laughed, shaking her head slightly. She never took any offense to what her friend said. She knew the nymph really couldn’t control what she said most of the time.

After a few minutes of Tanisha’s rambling, something caught Romelia’s eye. More like something was shined in her eyes. Even though they weren’t near the river.

“What is it?” Tanisha said with her arms crossed again when she noticed Romelia was walking off again. “Another ‘feeling’?”

Romelia didn’t answer her but continued towards the strange ground sun. A few feet away from it, she realized it wasn’t a reflection of light. Just really blonde hair. The sun’s light was reflecting off of it, making it shine brightly, in a way she had never seen before. When she saw what it was, Romelia stopped in surprise.

It was a boy, around her age, with the blonde hair she had mistaken, at first, for a reflection of light. He wore an odd type of clothing she hadn’t seen before. His top was pure black with no sleeves, leaving his arms exposed to the late summer air. You could see the muscles through his shirt. There was a weird feeling in her and for some reason, she wanted to feel them. She resisted it, though. Like his shirt, his pants were black and made out of the same material. They seemed to go down to his knees, where she saw he had something on his feet. He was also face down in the dirt. She also noticed that he was bleeding from a gash on his back.

“Tanisha.” But Tanisha didn’t hear her as she continued to ramble about feelings.

“Tanisha.” Romelia raised her voice a bit, but still, the nymph didn’t hear her. So she raised her voice to a shout. “Tanisha!”

“What?” Tanisha finally heard her.

She pointed at the ground to the boy while saying, “Look. Someone’s injured.”

Tanisha didn’t believe her until she saw him. “My lord, Romelia!”

“I didn’t do it! Why would I?”

“Well,” Tanisha sighed, “looks like he’s a goner. Too bad. He’s pretty cute too.”

“What?” Romelia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “We have to help him!”

Tanisha shrugged. “You know we can’t, Romelia. You should know the forest rules better than anyone.”

Romelia did. Her father was the one who made the forest rules. But still, she couldn’t leave someone to die. Rules or not, she wouldn’t leave him to die.

Romelia crossed her arms. “I won’t leave him.”

“It’s against the rules Romelia! We have to!”

“I’m not leaving him, Tanisha. We have to help him.”

After a few moments, the water nymph groaned. “Fine. But your dad is not going to like this.”

“Thank you, Tanisha,” Romelia said as Tanisha picked him up.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tanisha said. “I just have one thing to say.”

Romelia tipped her head. “What’s that?”

“I call dibs on him.” Tanisha started to laugh at her joke.

But Romelia only tipped her head more, confused. “Dibs on what?”

Tanisha hesitated. “Uh... Don’t worry about it... and don’t tell your dad. He’ll get mad.”