Chapter 5 – Learning of the Forest and World Part 2

I marveled at the sight as two Elves rode up to us in the forest on their steeds. Standing in front of me, Sakura waved as they came to a stop in front of us. “Well it took you guys long enough to get here!” One of the Elves got down from his horse and crossed his arms as he judged Sakura with a stern look. “We only came at the behest of the Princess God and the spirit tree, otherwise you would find yourself still walking.” It was amazing for me to see an Elf speak to us, and I couldn’t help myself from speaking up to him. “Are you really an Elf?” Looking at me with a funny face, he laughed at my innocent question. “I was one the last time I checked. Is this your first time seeing my kind white hair?” Before I could answer, Sakura slightly glared up at him with disapproving eyes. “Her names Hana and she’s with me, okay? Now we have to see the Princess God urgently!” The Elf shrugged off Sakura’s blatant rudeness and got back on top of his horse, pointing at us. “Then I will take your “Hana” with me, and Maki will take you.” The younger looking Elf waved to Sakura with a gentle smile as she gruffly went over to him. Taking the Elves hand, I got up and sat behind him on the horse. Nodding to his companion once Sakura was seated, the horse I sat on took off in blinding speed. I shook my head bac and forth as the trees seemed to speed by us at top speed, making me utterly confused at how we were going so fast. “H-How is this-“

“How can out steeds do this?” The Elf said to me as we rode with Sakura nearby, not looking all too healthy as she rode on the other horse. “Our horses are of a special breed that could run faster than a shooting star.”

“Amazing.” Was all I could say in response, so taken by the horses and their speed. The Elf didn’t say anything else to me during the trip, so I was able to clear my mind and breathe in the fresh forest air as we rode. “I wonder what this Princess God is like. Is she just a normal girl like me…Or…no,” I thought to myself, realizing her and I were truly two complete opposite when it came to race and worlds. “She’s an Elf from another worlds, and I suppose it’s only natural she and I would be different from me or even Sakura for that matter. I look forward to asking her many questions of this world…and myself.” I let my thoughts slip away as I rode behind the Elf on the horse, just making my mind clear and eager for the meeting.

xXx

It seemed like only a short while, but suddenly the trees that had been speeding by began to slow down somewhat until the horse came to a slow trot in the forest. Looking back at Sakura and seeing her looking ahead, I turned forward to the Elf and spoke to him. “Have we arrived already?” The elf nodded his head as we rode underneath a giant tree root, making my mind explode in wonder. “Yes, this is the city in the trees.” As we came out from under the tree root, my mind was fully blown by what I saw, an area with multiple tree’s that rose hundreds of stories tall into the canopy. All around on the forest ground were all sorts of Elves of varying ages, and all of the trees seemed to have large wooden stairs climbing upwards as they wound their way around the trunks of the trees. Once we came to a stop in front of one such stairway, the Elf in front of me spoke suddenly again. “This is where you need to be.” Getting off of his horse, I watched as Sakura got off of hers and walked to me in a slightly dizzy manner. Once she shook it off and stood next to me, the Elf looked at us with a kind face and wished us luck with the meeting. Once he and his companion rod off, Sakura held out her hand holding the old sword. Taking it from her, she put her now free hand on my shoulder and we began to ascend the stairs to above in the tree.

“This is amazing Sakura! They really do live with the trees!” Sakura laughed when she heard the tone of amazement in my voice. “You really are amazed all right Hana, I’ve never seen anyone else react before with such wide eyes, teehee.” Laughing with her, we came to a stop on top of an extended like balcony, with a clothed entrance into the tree being guarded by Elves in bright shining silver armor. Speaking up to them, Sakura pointed thumb at me. “I brought the girl just like the Princess God asked, now if you would be so kind as to let me through, I ne-“ Before she could finish her statement, a figure walked out from behind the cloth and looked down at us with green Elven eyes. “So you have brought the white haired one as my sister asked Sakura? It seems you weren’t full of hot air after all.” I looked up as a male Elf in front of us looked at Sakura with a thing wry smile, pleased to see her upset. I was too shy to speak up, but Sakura was all too annoyed to not answer him. “Why would I lie about her Kambal?! I said I knew how to get her here and that I knew her, right?!” Before Kambal could give his reply to Sakura’s sudden anger, a soft female voice spoke from within the tree. “That’s enough brother, stop you’re teasing and let the white haired one in.”

Moving out of the way of the door, Kambal pointed an arms at the door and motioned for me to enter. As I went in, he put a leg out to stop Sakura from following me in. Utterly pissed off by his refusal to let her come with me, Sakura spat at him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing bastard?! I’m wanted too!”

“I’m afraid that my sister only wishes to speak with the white haired girl at the moment Sakura, so it looks like you have to keep waiting.” Looking back at her with a worried look, she waved a hand at me. “Don’t worry Hana, just go. I guess I will just have to sit out here and deal with this bastard for a while!” Not sticking around to hear anymore of her insults to the Elf, I stepped inside the tree fully and looked with a slightly open mouth as a long eared woman sat on a pillow on the floor of the room. She looked a bit more exotic to me than the previous Elves, her skin being slightly tanner and she had many bracelets and earrings on. Gesturing for me to be seated, I sat down in front of her and she finally spoke to me in an equally exotic accent. “So you are the one Sakura cares for deeply hm? I am glad to have been able to finally been able to see you with open eyes and a clear mind.” The Princess God leaned her head on a hand and some of the bracelets she wore jangled down her arm as she did so. “Speaking up to her quickly, I nodded my head up and down. “Y-Yes I am…..but how do you know me or…”

“I foresaw that you would be able to help this world, and that sword you have with you would be the key to it all Hana.” She kept her gaze fixed on me with her gentle jade green eyes, not looking away once as she spoke of me and the sword. “And above all, I saw that you were connected with the sword of legend. Your connection goes all the way to your, how should I say it, unique white hair and blue eyes. For Hana, the hero of the legend that wielded that sword also had hair as white as snow and eyes as blue as the sky on a cloudless day. I believe you are his reincarnation, here to help once again and set the word straight.” Shocked by the mention of the word “he” for the hero of their legend, I spoke with an uncertainty. “But I’m a woman, not a man. Doesn’t a reincarnation retain the same gender as the previous life?” The Princess God nodded her head to my question. “In most cases yes, but only when the spirit and soul of the person identifies itself as a set gender. Your spirit and soul was made very differently, and as such, you have no gender Hana. You live in the body that you choose before coming into life. Last time you came as a man, but now it seems for some reason you have chosen to come as a woman.” Her statement was mind boggling for me, hearing that I may have been a man at one point, and above all genderless. I was still very uncertain of anything, and I replied once again in a skeptical voice. “But I was born on another world, far from your world of Hygar. I only got here because of-“

“Because of the sword and Hana’s wish for you to be here with her. That sword is deeply connected with your spirit and soul, and it could have summoned you by itself alone. There are many ways to travel to this land, and once such way is by wish. The wishes added with the power of the old blade brought you to us, but now you have other questions for me, yes?” I nodded me head again with a nervous sweat, trying to sort out the right questions to ask her. “Y-Yes,” I said as I started to speak, with her only smiling to me kindly. “I have many questions, but my first one is about the High Priestess of the land. Who is she?”

“She,” The Princess God started to say to as she kept her green eyes glued to me, making sure I payed attention to her. “The High Priestess is a follower of Kamui, the Demon God of death and decay. Or to put it in a straighter manner, she is the one who is his High Priestess and wishes to bring him back to the land.” I grew a little cold knowing that the ruler of the land wanted to bring a demon back to life, but I did my best to not let it show. “Why would she want to make this Kamui live again?” I asked in a hushed voice, afraid of the answer I may hear. “A millennia ago, Kamui was a living breathing man that once ruled all of Hygar with an iron fist. He ruled the land with unjust power and slaughtered millions for the sake of a balanced world, a world where evil reigned supreme over Hygar, with Kamui in the seat of power.”

“What happened to him then? Did he destroy the world with his power?” I asked the Princess God, still nervous over the story. Replying to me, she looked at me seriously. “The good Gods of Hygar grew tired of seeing the land they had created get destroyed by one man, and so they created the sword you have before you. Kamui needed to keep killing to bring an ancient power back from the dark past of the Gods, and the Gods wished to keep that power hidden from such a man.”

“What was the power?”

Looking at me with a silent, almost emotionless face, the Princess God uttered the words I never thought I would hear.

“It is the power to control time and space, the power to rule over all of the different worlds and dimensions that exist in the universe, with Hygar as the seat of that power.”

End Chapter 5