The Forest

Melony had no clue what to do…

She felt so overwhelmed and helpless with everything that happened. Because of her, two people had been gravely injured trying to protect her.

"I wish big sister were here."

The cave was still crumbling around them as she sobbed. At this point she knew that even if she managed to drag them to the opening of the cave, it was most likely sealed off. She was also afraid that whoever attacked them would come back at any moment to finish them off.

In a desperation, she began to pray to the gods for something or someone to come and save them. She didn't care who, or what, she just wanted to feel safe again.

All of the sudden, she felt heard something coming. Turning her head, she almost screamed at what she saw. The bone tentacle from the pool was back, thrashing about searching for anything to pull in.

Leezy was closest to the pool, unconscious among a pile of rocks that had fallen around him. Fortunately, the tentacle was having a hard to finding him.

It was randomly grabbing rocks from around the area and pulling them in. Roars of frustration could be heard emanating from the pool every time it was met with disappointment.

'I won't let you get Mister Leezy.'

She thought to herself, casting her fear aside.

Sneaking over to him, she gathered all the strength her little body could muster and began dragging him away from the pool toward Reyes.

With only a few more rocks left between her and the tentacle, time was of the essence.

With her small arms already burning with exhaustion after pulling him just a few feet, more tears began spilling from her eyes because she knew there was no way she could manage pull him much further.

Roar!!!

The last rock between her and the tentacle was pulled into the pool. To her horror, she watched as the tentacle resurfaced and felt around on the ground nearby.

Forcing herself to keep going, her grunts of effort echoed around the collapsing cave.

'If only a rock would fall on that stupid squid, then i'd have a bit more time.'

She thought to herself in silence.

Sweat made her hand slip from Leezy's arm and with a yelp, her butt smacked the floor loud enough to alert the tentacle to her location. It made its way toward her quickly, but before it could reach her, a low growl came from behind her.

Shifting her gaze, she was shocked to see a huge white wolf staring at her and the approaching tentacle.

It was quadruple the size of a dire wolf and had golden eyes that shone with intelligence. Leaping over her, the wolf bit deeply into the tentacle, clinging to it while never taking its gaze off Melony.

A loud roar bellowed from deep within the pool as the tentacle flailed about with the wolf still attached.

"Let go before you get hurt!"

Melony screamed, her voice full of concern.

Hearing her, the wolf let go immediately, flipped backward in the air and landed gracefully beside her.

The wounded tentacle shot back into the pool and to her relief, didn't resurface. Tentatively, Melony stood up and stared up at the wolf.

The wolf just stared back with expression that seemed like it was expecting something. Reaching out her hand, she smiled as the wolf lowered its head to be pet.

"Good wolfie."

She spoke softly to it while running her hand through its silky smooth fur.

"Can you help me get my friends to safety? They saved me and I don't want them to die."

In response, the wolf just cocked its head and gave her a sidelong look. Instead of repeating herself, she just pointed to Leezy, then to Reyes and made the best rock-a-bye baby impression with her arms.

"Woof!"

The wolf trotted over to them both and lowered itself down to its stomach. Opening its massive jaws, it picked them up and softly slung them onto it's back.

Rocks continued to crash around them, so instead of waiting any further, it jumped up, softly snatched her up like a pup, slung her onto its back and began sprinting through the cave.

"Hey, you could have warned me you know!"

She cried out to the wolf, to which it just answered with a subtle woof.

After what seemed like hours of running, they managed to reach the end of the cave. On the other side of it was a large forest with trees that stretched as far as the eye could see.

A large mountain range stretched to their right, hiding the sun that had begun to rise into the sky. To the left was a wide river that circled around a gigantic tree which dwarfed the rest. It was like something out of a fairytale to Melony and all she could do was gaze onward in awe.

Without missing a beat, the wolf began running toward the giant tree. Exhaustion began to cloud Melony's mind, so she decided to doze off for a few, feeling safe again under the wolf's protection.

.....

Something wet suddenly slid across Melony's face, jarring her awake. She laughed as she realized it was the wolf's tongue.

"Okay, okay i'm up. Where are we?"

She said, looking around.

They had finally made it to the giant tree. Up close, it was much bigger than it appeared before. It seemed to touch the very clouds, and at the base of the tree was a small lake.

Many different animals were gathered around, drinking from it, although they paid no mind to the new guests. In the lowest branches of the tree sat a treehouse.

The wolf sat back on its hind-legs and howled, at which point a woman covered in vines came out of the treehouse and began working her way down to them.

She was tall, beautiful and curvy, with dark curly hair. She had silver eyes and glowing tan skin. Vines and leaves served as her clothes, although they had a hard time covering her entire body.

"Child, what brings you to this forest?"

She asked, walking up to Melony who sat with her back against the wolf.

"Well, two of my friends were hurt really badly fighting off some bad guys. The wolf saved me from a tentacle monster in the cave and brought me here, can you please help them?"

She cried, pleading with the woman.

"I will see what i can do. What is your name child?"

"Melony."

Reyes and Leezy were still unconscious on the back of the wolf.

The woman approached and softly touched them both with her eyes closed.

"They are both still alive, although barely. The one with the armor is in better condition so it shouldn't take much for him, but for the other, i cannot say the same. I will do what i can for them. My name is Saphira by the way."

With a snap of her fingers, a large bird came over for her to place the brothers on it's back.

"It is nice to meet you Miss Saphira, thank you for the help."

Melony said, wiping a tear from her eye and leaning back against the wolf.

"It seems that he has taken a liking to you."

Saphira pointed at the wolf Melony was leaning against and smiled.

"I could teach you a few things to help you along your journey. With these two in the state that they are in, I know you probably feel helpless. I felt that way as well once before, but I can assure you, these two will have much to thank you for once they wake."

Nodding, Melony returned the smile.

"I would greatly appreciate that Miss Saphira."

Mounting the bird, Saphira beckoned Melony to join them.

They quickly flew up to the treehouse and upon reaching it, she brought them inside.

The interior of the treehouse was full of books, potions, and many hand made decorations. It had tables, chairs and a fire pit in the middle with a small cauldron hanging above it.

Melony looked on in awe, surprised by the beauty of it all even though it was so simple.

"This place is beautiful."

She said, unable to contain herself.

Smiling, Saphira ran her hand through Melony's hair.

"I think so too, I have been alone out here for quite some time so I thought it would liven this place up a bit. Please, take a seat by the fire and relax while I tend to their wounds."

Saphira took Reyes and Leezy through an opening and into a small bedroom. Laying them each onto a bed and covering them from the waist down with blankets, she began stripping their clothes to get a better look at their wounds. Once she saw the pendant hanging from Reyes's neck, she almost gasped aloud.

'These two are the son's of Alistair and Illana? They must have fought a tough battle for them to be so injured. I owe it to their mother to make sure i try my best to fix them up.'

After stripping them down completely, she turned to exit the room to grab supplies, just as the blanket fell off of Leezy.

'Oh my...'

Her body began to feel a little hot as the sight of his manhood greeted her.

It had been a long time since she had been around any men. She was also still a virgin, so seeing this had a very profound effect on her body, as well as her mind.

'Let me just….cover that up and act like I didn't see anything.'

She timidly covered him back up with the blanket and returned with the supplies she needed.

The spear that struck Reyes pierced through his side as the stalagmite struck him, opening two wide gashes just under his ribcage and pushing the debris of the stalagmite deeply into them.

As his wounds were the most serious of the two, they needed to be treated as soon as possible.

She cleaned them with fresh water from the lake, rubbing healing balm into his wounds and dressing them tightly with leaves after the bleeding came to a stop. After this was done, she poured some pink healing elixir down his throat, making Reyes cough a little.

Next was Leezy…

A couple of his ribs had been broken and pierced through his lung, collapsing it. The loss of oxygen led him to pass out. Acknowledging this, she would have to re-set his rib.

Using numbing ointment on his skin, she made a small incision into his side. She then put her fingers inside it to begin re-aligning his rib, causing his eyes to shoot open from the pain.

"Whaa...who the hell are you?"

He muttered through the pain.

"I am trying to help you, your ribs are broken in many places and i need to re-set it unless you don't mind puncturing your lung every time you breathe."

Staring at her, he just nodded.

Continuing, she finally got his rib aligned and began cleaning his wounds.

"If you weren't so pretty I would have to break your hand for not being more gentle."

He said, a small hint of malice in his voice.

"You can try to threaten me all you want, but I don't think Illana would take that very kindly if she heard you."

She muttered softly.

"Who the hell do you thin-? Don't you ever mention-arghh."

Leezy tried to sit up at the mention of his mother's name, but the pain was too excruciating.

"Your mother saved my mother and I in the past. I was just an infant then. I'm very fond of your mother and it is a shame how your parents were killed. I truly am sorry for that, but I can assure you that I don't mean you two any harm. I am simply doing what must be done."

Her kind words sadly fell upon deaf ears after she noticed that he had passed out again from the pain.

Sighing, Saphira finished cleaning his wound, applied healing balm, tightly wrapped his torso with bandages and poured some of the healing elixir down his throat.

As she was cleaning her hands of blood with the remaining lake water, she felt someone was watching her. To her surprise, she turned her head and noticed Melony standing at the door.

"I heard a scream so I came to see what was going on."

"Nothing really, one of them just awoke from the pain, nothing out of the ordinary. Would you like to know what i did to help them?"

Nodding, Melony came over and began to learn about the art of medicine…