Chapter 02: The forest

Upon entering the forest, Meeth was greeted with the pleasant smell of leaves and grass floating in the air. The sunlight trickled in between the branches of the tall trees which surrounded her. She felt warm and relaxed. Closing her eyes to take in the sweet smell of the forest, a smile peeled its way onto her face.

 After a little while, Meeth decided that she would take a moment to sit down and add something to her little chronicles. And so, she sat down on the warm grass, pulled out her green book again, and added the line ‘Sherlotta is waiting for me in the forest.’ She studied the page again, feeling a little strange, yet excited. She felt like some kind of amazing adventurer, telling her story as she went by. Filled with a greater desire to complete the task at hand, Meeth closed the book once more, pushed herself up, placed the book back into her pocket and took another step deeper into the forest.

 *Rustle rustle rustle*. Something was moving towards the entrance of the forest. A bouncing red ball hovering in the air was making its way towards her. Then it clicked. Much to her dismay, she had stumbled upon the moogle again. She let out another sigh.

 “I’ve been waiting, kupo!” it declared.

 She rolled her eyes. Really, she’d only just talked to him. What did he want now?

 He wobbled over to her. “Sherlotta told me I had to teach you about the Basics of Battle, kupo.”

 She sighed again. “Alright.” She said, “Tell me.”

 “Very well. Then listen to me, kupo!” he said. Meeth suspected that she was going to regret this. He walked her through the basics, as promised. Telling her all about her health, and how much mana she had for her magic. “Clear so far?” he asked. She nodded, so he continued. “Now let’s look a bit more into the battle format, kupo.” He babbled on.

Time felt like it was moving slower all of a sudden. But then again, he did explain to her how to attack in mid-air. Which could certainly come in handy.

“Simple, kupo? Let’s see what else you can do.” He said cheerfully, before telling her to pick up a monster and then lob it into a tree. Which for some strange reason, she did. He went on to tell her many more things before finally finishing up. “It’s easy!” he declared. “Now practice what you’ve just learned with the monsters here.” He said before wobbling off again.

 Just as she was about to ask him what he meant, the mu she had bashed into the tree earlier made a dash at her. She was dumb struck at first, but her instincts quickly kicked in. Double bladed bronze lance in hand, she slashed at the beast. After three strong swings, the creature let out a feeble cry as it fell. Once the beast was defeated, she let out a sigh of relief.

 She looked down at her lance. It was a rather silly name really, as it was neither bronze, nor a lance, at least it didn’t look much like one. The blades were steel, one being an axe head, while the other a spear. The pole was also steel, nothing bronze about it, save for a few minor details. She remembered someone mentioning something about halberds and pole axes, but couldn't quite remember what they were exactly. Hence her continuing to call the weapon by it's strange and unfitting name.

 While lost in thought, it was at that moment that the bat nearby flapped towards her. Somewhat startled at first, Meeth had forgotten where she was. Shaking her head, she prepared herself once more. Her mind cast back to what the moogle had taught her only moments ago. Sucking in a deep breath, she bent her legs, leaped into the air, and swung her lance. The blow landed! She jumped around with joy, feeling pleased with herself.

 The bat, on the other hand, was less pleased. It squeaked at her, before attacking back. Flapping its wings angrily, as it grew closer to Meeth, it bit her. She let out a yelp, before swinging her weapon twice more. Thankfully it fell to the ground in defeat.

 Meeth was pleased with herself once again. If things kept up the way they were currently, she’d get through this ceremony in no time. Or at least that’s what she told herself. Weapon in hand, she climbed up the slop, only to be greeted by another mu.

 After running around the first area and ridding it of all the monsters, she managed to find three chests, each with their own loot. She’d also become considerably stronger than she was before. She was starting to get used to fighting these monsters.

 The battle now complete, Meeth casually walked over to the strange blue object. She tilted her head from side to side, trying to figure out the purpose of it. Looking up, she saw a sign. “Strange, what is the point of having a sign in a forest?” she muttered. Nevertheless, she walked closer to it and read it aloud. “Take this stone and place it on the pedestal…” She looked back down at the strange object and picked it up. It was incredibly light, despite its size. Tilting her head once more, she noticed a similarly coloured object. “Pedestal?” she questioned. She walked in front of it, then placed the stone on top. It slid into the hole, clicking into place. The wooden gate, only a few meters away, then rose up from the ground, letting her pass. “Piece of cake.” She boasted.

 Head held high, she strode into the next area. She had this strong sense of pride. She felt as if she could do anything! She turned and began her trek down the slope when a goblin appeared. It threw stones at her as she tried to get close enough to attack it. It was at this moment that she wished she had a shield to protect herself. Alas, she did not, so instead she was forced to block with her arms. As she grew closer, she was able to strike the creature. Clearly one strike wasn’t going to be enough. After a long amount of time, she managed to deal a total of five strikes, which finally brought the goblin down. She then looked at her rather bruised arm. Really, Sherlotta was going to kill her when she saw it. Nevertheless, the quest hadn’t finished yet. She still needed to finish this area.

 Wincing, she moved her arm over her chest, in hopes it would be less in the way and continued onward. The next foe was a mu. After three jabs, it fell. It made her feel somewhat stronger. “I guess I’m a level 3 warrior now.” She declared to herself.

 At the bottom of the slope was another chest. She opened up the chest in front of her, before turning her attention to the water. Meeth hated water, she wasn’t very good at swimming, yet right in front of her was water: it was probably three times the size of her, so she could easily drown.

 Meeth wanted to weasel her way out of it, maybe she needed to leap over the water. As she looked around her, she noticed another sign. It read ‘Do not fear the water. Just dive in!’ It had clearly been written by Sherlotta. Sighing, she bit her lip. No time to chicken out now, she dived in despite her mind screaming in protest.

 *Splash!* And the tiny creature was in the water. At first, she struggled to keep her head above the water, but after a few minutes began to get the hang of it. “Huh…” now that she wasn’t struggling as much, she sort of liked the feeling of swimming. It was somehow relaxing. She began to swim around a bit more, until she reached the other side. As she pulled herself out, she couldn’t help but laugh. What a strange child she was.

 A slight nip at her feet made her jolt, catch her attention. Then another nip, and another. As she looked down, she noticed small blue creatures. She sighed, realising there was still much more to do before she could rest properly. Looking closely at the creatures, she suspected they must be mini movers. Lance in hand once again, she began to jab at them. They all needed to be hit twice each, thankfully the creatures were close to each other, so she didn’t have to keep jabbing at them for too long.

 Once the mini movers had been dealt with, it gave her some time to look around. The mound she was currently standing on was higher than most of the others. As she walked closer to the edge, she noticed another chest. Her eyes gleamed with excitement.

 Chest after chest, monster after monster, she slowly finished off all the obstacles in the immediate area. At one point she had to battle three goblins at the same time! Though after defeating them, a platform went down into the ground, to be replaced with a switch. She didn’t even bother with reading the sign this time. She just walked over to it and bashed it. It glowed a yellowish gold, before the gate leading into the next area opened up.

 This was it, the next room could be the final test. She took a big gulp, cracked open a barrel, using the healing potion to mend her wounds, rubbing most of it on her left arm. Once her wounds had been healed, she walked through to the next room.

 As she walked casually, she noticed the area was quieter than the rest of the forest, perhaps she had finally completed the test. Wasn’t that hard really. As she got further in, she halted her steps. “Talk about speaking too soon.” She said aloud.

 Before her stood a large golden statue-like thing. Probably a guardian of some sort. It had apparently heard her because in that moment, its arms and head began to rotate. Faster and faster, till finally it stood tall. As it turned to face her, its head flew off. It turned itself around, clearly embarrassed. Searching around, it finally found what it was looking for and placed it back on top before letting out a mighty roar

 “Oh boy.” Meeth muttered. She began to run around the giant thing. Whenever she got a chance, she tried stabbing it with her lance, but to no avail. The thing only rattled slightly, as if it was somewhat old. When it bent over, she bashed it on the head, the helmet like thing crashed to the ground, breaking into a million pieces. It let out a squawk like grunt.

 Finally, Meeth had found its weak point. She leapt onto its shoulders and stabbed at the back of the head like thing repeatedly; she wasn’t going to let it beat her now. Just as her confidence had reached its peak, the guardian managed to throw the lilty off of it. As she fell to the ground, it punched one of its giant metal fists into the earth, she just barely dodged it. She pushed herself up, running behind the machine-like creature, she managed to climb its back once again. Up to the shoulders she went once more, bashing and hacking at the creature.

 It took quite some time in the end, but finally the guardian fell. She was exhausted, never in her life had a fight been so difficult. And she hoped she’d never end up in a situation like this one again. She allowed herself to catch her breath as the giant stones moved into the wall. She knew this meant she had to move on to the next area. Nevertheless, Meeth sat there, on the earth, for quite some time. There was no point rushing, especially not if she was going to be forced to face more unrelenting monsters.

 In order to help her calm down a little, she decided to pull out her book once again and on the last part of the page wrote ‘I fought a strange masked machine among the ruins in the forest.’ As she looked down at the page, she smiled quietly to herself. Though it wasn’t the most amazing story in the world, and really wasn’t well detailed, it was her story, and her life. Which made it all the more important to keep writing down new and interesting events. Really, it was more like a journal for her, but she would treasure it all the same. She then placed the book back in her pocket and allowed herself to breathe in the cool crisp air.

 After a good few moments, she finally felt ready to move on. She picked herself up and dusted off her legs. Looking around, she noticed the chests; opening them up one by one, finding that they all held health potions. She felt rather annoyed with herself. How had she not noticed them earlier?! She could have used them in the battle!! She could have used them to help her regain her strength! However, she knew it was pointless to complain now, what was done was done. There was no way to go back in time and mend her mistakes, she had to move on with her life. Even though she was frustrated with herself, she slowly moved towards the strangely marked stone archway.

 She cast one last look behind her. This was it, her childhood finished here, with these last few steps she would finally be considered an adult. Sucking in air, she pressed deeper into the unknown.

<<<<<<<< Chapter 01: It all started with a dream                                     Chapter 03: An adult at last >>>>>>>>