A Wonderful Being

Leo woke up by a sudden sound. It sounded like something fell down with a thud and landed on a bunch of leaves as rustling sounds could be heard. He jumped out of his sleepiness and looked at the place where the sound came from.

He landed on a boy with black hair, who was laying in the grass and leaves. Leo was still hazy by the sudden awoken, he didn't know who it was. He heard him groan and saw him turn to his side.

His hair was covering most of his face, Leo didn't know who it was at first but as he stared longer he knew who he is. He sprung out of his log, which he used as a bed and dashed to the boy.

"Liam!"He yelled and squatted next to him.

"Hey! Wake up!"He shook Liam's shoulder while calling out to him."Doesn't it hurt?! Did you fall from the log?!"

Liam slapped his hand away and Leo thought he was awake for a second until he saw him still with his eyes shut.

"Geez...You're such a heavy sleeper..."He sighed and pulled him up from the ground and shook him by the shoulders."Wake up!"

"Huh?"Liam said, his face was still in a dreamy state while his mouth was drooling."What time is it?"

"Time to go on adventures! Come on! The earlier we set off the better."

"I'm going back to sleep..."He said while he slowly drifted back to slumber.

"You're drooling..."

"Huh?!"Liam yelled, wide awake while his hand directly wiped his mouth.

He realized Leo wasn't lying about it, his cheeks turned bright red with embarrassment.

"You sure love your image...You always get embarrassed so easily," Leo said while he chuckled slightly.

"So what?!"Liam said, still with his flushed face."It's not like it's a bad thing!"

"True, but it does make people want to tease you more."

"Hey!"

"I've been wanting to ask you this...Where do you put your arrows?"

"In my bag, why?"

"Ah...isn't that quite troublesome for you to take?"

"True..."

"Is decided then! The first thing we do when we arrived in a town or village is to get you a quiver."

"A what?"

"A quiver, never heard of it?"

Liam nodded.

"It's a container, which holds your arrows."

"Ohhh"

"Usually, made out of leather. I do

recommend you get the leather one though since it's not so easy to break."

"Alright!"

"Let's head off?"

"Sure!"

"Where to? It's hard to decide..."He answered himself."Should we just keep going straight? And if we see somewhere familiar, we can try our luck there."

Liam nodded in agreement.

"We don't have much choice anyway."

"True."

They walked deeper into the forest as the lights from the sun slowly faded away.

"You sure, we should try our luck here? It seems really unsafe...I don't think we will find anything if we continued down this road."Liam said, frightened and uncertain.

"Don't come to conclusions just yet! Adventuring is just like traveling into the unknown, where we bet our luck on it."

"...But...I still think we are going to nowhere...."

Leo sighed.

"We'll try walking this path for some time and if we still can't find the village or town then we go back and find a path, okay?"

"Yup!"

Leo was able to convince Liam, he felt a sense of confidence in his path.

Hope my feelings are right. Don't want Liam to freak out.

As they continued down the path, the sun was completely blocked by trees. They were almost in darkness while still able to see each other's silhouette.

"Let's go now! We really can't find anything!"Liam yelled while Leo felt a little annoyed by his easily give-up attitude.

"Just a few more steps, I have a feeling we're close," Liam replied, keeping his voice calm not to let Liam know he was getting mad at him.

He can't blame Liam for acting like this since who wants to be lost in a forest? Especially, in an almost pitch-black place and maybe being surrounded by unknown creatures who might come out and attack us.

"When is your 'just a few more steps' going to end?! We've been walking for a long time! Just how long are we going to stop?!"

"Just a little longer and quit shouting!"Liam whispered, trying hard to contain the anger inside of him.

They walked for some time and when Liam was about to speak again, Leo stopped him.

"Do you see that?"Leo said as he pushed Liam gently to his side.

Liam pushed the branches beside him and slowly moved his way to Leo. Lights flashed into his eyes as he covered his eyes with the back of his hand.

"What the hell was that?!"Liam yelled while he heard Leo's laughter.

"You know sunlight."Leo chuckled."See that?"

Liam blinked a few times until his eyes adjusted to the sudden change of brightness. The first he saw was Leo.

"Can you see now?"Leo asked when he saw Liam stop blinking and stared at him with wide-open eyes."Look over there!"

Liam switched his gaze to the warm sunlight in front of them and saw something which made his heart race and dropped his mouth wide open. A beautiful castle surrounded by walls stood at the top of a mountain, basking in the warm morning sunlight.

The sight took his breath away while he heard Leo chuckle by his side.

"First time you've seen such a sight?"Leo said with a bright smile.

Liam was flabbergasted by it so much, he couldn't speak to him and just nodded. Leo chuckled again and turned his gaze back at it. Wind blew through their hair as they stared at it.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!"Liam said, excitedly when he finally snapped out of his stunned state.

As he was about to take a step, a hand came out in front of him, blocking his way.

"Hold it," Leo said with his hand held out in front of Liam."If I were you I wouldn't want to take that step."

Liam tilted his head and Leo pointed something below them. Liam looked down and saw thorns blocking their path. Liam quickly stepped back and looked to Leo.

"How...How are we going to go there?"

"Might as well find another road."

"But how are we going to do that? It seemed to surround this whole side."

Leo sighed.

"We can't do anything about it. We'll start by going along with the thorns and when we find an opening, we go right in."

"Got it!"Liam nodded.

Both of them followed the thorns, Leo in front and Liam at the back like they normally do. As they continued walking along the thorns, rustling sounds could be heard coming from their side in the trees.

Both of them stared into the trees, Liam was about to freak out and make a run for it while Leo, on the other, was calm about the situation, they were in. He pulled out his sword and stood in front of Liam with his hand held out.

Sounds began to emerge from the forest as thousand of horses galloping sound could be heard.

"When I say run, you run, alright?"Leo yelled while he stared into the forest."Got it?!"

He yelled again when he heard nothing from Liam.

"Yes!Yes!I got it!"Liam yelled back while he took out his bow and held an arrow in his hand, ready to shoot.

The sound stopped and a silhouette slowly emerged in the darkness. Leo saw a hand on the tree and yelled.

"Run!"

Both of them dashed to the left but were stopped by another silhouette stood in front of them. When they turned to the other side, another two appeared, they were cornered They stood back to back with each other while holding their weapons in front of them.

"We're going to die!"Liam yelled while his whole body trembled.

"We're not going to die!"Leo yelled back.

Suddenly, a horse's feet stood in front of them and the face of the creature was in sight. A man with a masculine body stood there with a bow and arrow in his hands, he looked like a normal person but not with his lower half. His lower half was a horse which freaked Liam out since he was on the verge of his fear tolerance.

Liam wanted to scream his soul out but a hand covered his mouth before he could do that. He glanced back and saw Leo.

"It's a centaur. Keep your weapons." Leo whispered to him."They are nice if you don't hurt them, they won't hurt you."

"Do you have any business in our land?"The centaur, who first revealed itself spoke.

"No, no, sir. We were just passing by."Leo replied while his hand still covered Liam.

"Then, why are you in the dark woods?"

"We were lost, sir. We wanted to go there but we didn't how to."Leo said as he pointed his finger to the gorgeous castle."We lost our map when we were attacked by a slime."

"Very well, we shall guide you to the castle on two conditions."

"Yes, sir!Anything!"

"Do not come back and never expose our land to anyone!"

"I understand, sir."

"Follow me."

All four centaurs walked away, leading them to the castle. The centaur, who talked to them seemed to be the leader as it was walking in front of the rest while none of them question his decision.

Leo let go of Liam while Liam gasped for air.

"Are you trying to suffocate me?!"He whispered.

"Sorry, but I don't want you to scream. They would think we are calling our allies."Leo replied while the centaurs looked back at them.

"But we don't have anyone other than us..."

"How would they know? Now, let's go."

The two of them followed from behind as they slowly got out of the dark area.