Chapter 26: Arrivals

??????: “I don't understand, I can’t sense them anywhere?”

A group of men, one by one emerged from behind the waterfall, one after another, each with the same confused face as the first young man. The youngest looking amongst the group, his long blonde hair dancing in the breeze, brushing against the tip of his pointed ears. The elves of the Grassvalley Tribe received the message and had arrived, but they could not feel the presence of their tribesmen. The young boy closed his eyes, he listened closely, there was some strange signatures, two or three he didn’t recognize, but what worried him is what he didn’t feel.

??????: “Edwyrd.”

The boy turned to his father, approaching with to others alongside him.

Edwyrd: “Father, what does this mean, the daughters of the garden and our brothers…….. I don’t feel them at all.”

???????: “It seems the message was indeed urgent.”

?????: “Prince Edwyrd, Lord Gaelin.”

They both turned to a soldier who had scouted out earlier.

Gaelin: “What do you report?”

Elven Soldier: “My Lords, there are few nymphs in the vicinity.”

Gaelin: “Troubling, well do any of them know anything?”

Eleven: “I’m sorry, none of them will approach, fewer even spoke.”

Edwyrd: “We should locate the eldest daughter, she will be able to explain the situation.”

Eleven soldier: “My Lords, there above.”

Gaelin: “Is that not her, heading here right now?”

Edwyrd look to the skies, sure as his father spoke, Lady Saria was heading directly towards them.”

Saria: “I’m sorry for my late arrival, please excuse me.”

Gaelin: “Nonsense Lady Saria, we are here because of your message, as from the scarcity of your sisters, I presume they are in hiding.”

Saria: “So, she really isn’t here, I was hoping they were mistaken.”

Edwyrd: “Lady Saria?”

Saria: I sorry, there is much to explain, but time is of the essence, I urge all to follow me.”

Edwyrd: “Lady Saria wait, what in Leseres is happening in this Garden?”

Gaelin: ‘Edwyrd, I believe our answer will be answered if we follow her.”

Edwyrd: “Right.”

With that the Tribe of elves followed Saria into the forest.

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Anais slowed her pace, running a marathon so close after nearly drowning was not a good idea. Checking her hand, she breathe a sigh of relief. Nathan hadn’t move from his position, plus two arrows were closing in on her, Celes and Iris were not far behind, but she wasn’t going to wait. She jumped back to her feet and pushed her way through some shrubs, then as quickly as she did she stepped back in.

Anais: “What the hell, why are they here?”

Anais peered through the bushes, hundreds of the plant creatures were passing just on the other side. One creature suddenly looked in her direction, jumping back she didn’t notice the low hanging branch.

*Bang*

Anais: “OWW!

Three of the plant creatures took notice of the noise coming from the bushes and step in to find what was there. Anais, held her head in pain, looking up she was met face to face with one of the plant creatures.

She held her shriek in, cold sweat ran down her face, the monster staring directly at her, but unable to see her. After a while, deciding it was nothing the three creatures moved on.

The second they were gone, Anais let her breathe out, clutching the back of her head in pain. It was strange that so many of them were heading in that direction, way to strange to be a coincidence.

Activating her “Shadow Step”, she bounded to the top of the tree. She peered over the trees, the group of Plant creatures were all heading in one direction. The same direction, in which Nathan had stopped.

Anais: “This isn’t good, they all converging on him,.”

It was true that if Nathan, her And Iris were together they could possibly take out these things, to be honest, they weren’t much of a threat once Nathan tied them down, they could just burn them all. What worried her was why such a large number would happen to be heading for the exact location Nathan had stopped. She had to get in front of them, she checked her mana bar, she still had Seventy-five mana points left.

She quickly activated “Shadow Sneak” again, leaping from tree to tree, completely bypassing the plant creatures all together. Tree by tree she made her way to the middle of the pack. She stopped again, out if the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow, a lot bigger than any of the plant creatures, Hovering along in the crowd. Form her angle she couldn’t make it out, bounding to the top of the tallest tree she could find, that when she saw it. The spiked mass of stone, even from that distance, it was plain as day. She was right, Lynn had set Nathan up to fight the parent Gorgon and for some reason, the plant creatures were moving with it.

From where she was, in order to reach Nathan with such a large force, they would have to move around a set of large hills off in the distance. She could beat them there if she traveled through the woods, recover Nathan and they could get the hell out of there.

She stayed to the trees, it was much faster traveling then running along the ground and with abilities active she could travel great distances, if she used it right. She didn’t know how far she had ran she didn’t know how far behind the wave of enemies was, but somehow, without her realizing it she had reached the plains. Checking her hand again she, deactivated “Shadow Sneak” and moved towards him.

There he lied, in the middle of the field, peaceful and serene, unaware of the danger approaching. She reached him, he didn’t look like he was hurt at all, just blissfully sleeping in the middle of nowhere.

Anais: *gasp*gasp* Hey wake up, this is no time to be sleepin, Nathan, hey!”

She shook him, but he would not budge. She had pushed herself to hard, her body wasn’t complying, no strength came to her arms.

Anais: “COME ON YOU IDIOT, WAKE UP!

*shhhhrrrriiiippp*

Catching her breathe, she heard something, the sound of fabric being torn

Anais: “What the hell, you got to be kidding me?”

She looked to Nathan’s sides, this was why she couldn’t move him, something was sticking out his side and burrowing into the ground.

Anais: “The hell, roots, why the hell are they coming out of you?”

*Loud Roar*

Turning around, Anais could see a small number of monsters trickling onto the plains. It wouldn’t be long before they reached there.

Anais: “DAMMIT NATHAN, WAKE UP!”

_

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Nathan: “What the Hell!?”

Girl: “Focus!”

Nathan: Did you not her the blood curdling roar and Anais she screaming my name?

Girl: “Concentrate, your only half-way there, if you want to wake up this is the way to do it.”

Nathan reluctantly closed his eye, the pain from his sides had reach a peak. Even worse, Anais voice kept ringing in his ear, he tried to drown her out, but she sounded scared and he worried.

Girl: “Don’t listen you need to keep your mind clear, take a deep breath.”

Nathan: “……………….I can’t do it, DAMMIT this all my fault, if had just told them earlier, my connection to their mother she would have never done this, I could still getting ready for the damn Gorgon and this hurts.

Just as Nathan, finished venting, the familiar sensation washed over his body, the feeling of being in danger. Nathan put a foot to the floor, but the girl quickly mounted him, pushing to the ground.

Nathan: “Get off me!”

Girl: “You need to focus.”

Nathan: “How am I supposed to focus with all this shit going?”

Girl: “DO YOU WANT TO SAVE HER OR NOT!”

Nathan: OF COURSE, BUT I CAN’T DO ANYTHING, LYING AROUND HERE, I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THIS IS WORKING.”

Girl: “IF YOU STAND RIGHT NOW, YOU WILL BREAK THE CONNECTION. IT WILL TAKE YOU TWICE AS LONG TO FINISHED, DO YOU HAVE THAT MUCH TIME”

Nathan: “…………………………..”

Girl: “The fact that you could hear her voice, the fact that you can sense you’re in danger, it means you are borderline conscious. If you get up, you “Will” break the connection, if you do………you are as good as dead, trust me please.”

The girl stood off Nathan, she would not hold him down any longer, if he decides to get up, it will be because he chose to. Nathan could still hear Anais, still screaming for him to wake up, he could still tell he was in danger, but he didn’t stand. He placed leg back doesn’t and took a deep breath, he couldn’t silence the voices, they were to definite, but instead use them as a push to keep going.

Girl: “Looks like you’ve decided.”

The girl sat down next to Nathan once again.

Girl: Now as I said, imagine yourself, you are becoming one with the earth, you burrowing deep into embrace. Once you have become one, let it heal you, all that ails you, seeps into earth, let it flow away.”

Nathan slowly fell in to a trance as the roots that sprouted, begin to extract the sleeping agent, forcing it out of his body and into the ground. As he fell deeper into the trance, little by little, the white space, along with the smiling girl was fading away.

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 Iris: “Why, why, why, why am I never there when he needs me?”

Iris flew through the trees desperately trying to close the distance between her and her master. Looking down at her hand, for the tenth time in less than a minute, she was just shy from reaching him. She was sure she would have caught up to the rodent, but at some point, Anais’s speed had increase to a point where she could no longer tell how close she was.

She looked back and glanced below, Celes was still close enough for her to see, Celes was probably the only one in the garden who couldn’t fly, but she made up for that with an ability to swim through the trees and shrubs. Every so often, Iris would see here dive into a group of trees, then as a shadow move through them with a form like swimming.

She didn’t use this often, it tires her out pretty quickly, especially at night, but it was an emergency. Whenever she didn’t have any more trees she would dive into the shrubs below, with her pace she was easily keeping up with Iris.

Iris turn her attention back to the matter at hand, ever since she left the study, failure after failure, never their when she needs him and when she was there she wasn’t much help. She just couldn’t take it, every single time, staring at her Master’s back as he stood in front of her. And the worse part, not one complaint does he make, he even continuously thanks her, even though she does nothing to warrant it.

Caught in her own thoughts she nearly crashed into Celes who had jumped out ahead of her.

Iris: What were you thinking, don’t you see I’m trying to-

Iris, stopped talking, as Celes urge her to look, hundreds of the plant creatures were heading directly for the area Nathan was in. Though, just like Celes, they were only noticed second, mixed in with the hoard of plant creatures, the Gorgon.”

*Loud Roar*

They both held their ears from the sound, that thing was without a doubt, in control. Iris change objective, instead of heading to Nathan, she could instead seek to destroy the threat. If she removed the threat, Nathan would be all the safer. She immediately changed the direction, but was grabbed by Celes.

Iris: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, RELEASE ME.”

Iris tried shaken Celes off, but she would not let go, in their struggles, Iris smacked into a branch and they both tumbled to the ground. Iris, now infuriated turn to Celes.

Iris: “Why are you hindering me, I have to stop them before they reach Master. If I can slow them down even a bit, it might just give him-”

Celes: “NO!”

Iris: “What, you spoke!?”

Celes was just as surprise as Iris, she had never done something like this, but she had to stop her, she was seconds away from a suicidal charge. Iris tried to speak again, but felt she was unable to. Celes took hold of Iris Hands

Celes: “(I know you can’t hear me, but you cannot try to take that on by yourself and I know you know the Hero would have none of that.)”

Iris wasn’t sure, but she could swear she could hear her voice.

Celes: “(I won’t presume to know how you feel, but I can say with all honesty, the Hero needs you. If he didn’t, do you think he wouldn’t have said otherwise?)”

Celes looked over to the horde monsters, she had an idea how to stop them. She turned back to Iris, she smiles a pain filled smile. Unlike Iris, she knew, Nathan did not need her.

Celes: “(You may think your useless, but at that time if it were you……………he would have counted on you to fight alongside him. Go to him, I can’t do much, but I can at least slow them down.)”

 She took a few steps and then dived into a tree and Iris watched as she disappeared down below. She couldn’t hear her voice any longer, but she believed she understood. Taking to the sky, in the distance, a battle taking place around Nathan general area. She couldn’t make out who was fighting, but she had a pretty good guess. She looked back to the horde, she would leave that to Celes, for now, she took off towards her Master.