Into the Woods

 "Hey Levi we're going to the forest as soon as Timothy learns to control his power and as one of the person's who's been there, we're going to need your help," Xander informed him.

 "Do you really expect me to go back in there? I barely got out alive last time and it was just one of those demon dog or whatever that is. What are we supposed to do if there's a pack?" Levi refuted.

 "How deep were you into the forest when you first saw the death dog?" Xander asked.

 "I-I don't exactly remember man, I know we we had been walking for a while so maybe a bit deep I don't even know," Levi replied as his face portrayed a confused expression as he tried to recall.

 "Okay look, we'll only be looking at the edge and a little at the front of the entrance, we just need to see if we can find any of these edible fruits because our supplies won't last forever and forget about the monsters because if we don't have any food we're all dead anyways." Xander replied.

 Levi took a second as he contemplated the decision then he responded, "Fine as long as it's just the entrance. You should probably know that it was pretty dark out when I was there so I may not be as much help as you're expecting nerd."

 "I think you'll be more help than you realize. I'm going to gather a few more people," Xander replied as he began to walk away.

 "I didn't think you'd go back there," a voice said from behind Levi.

 He quickly turned around to see Casey's mesmerizing red hair, "Yeah, I didn't think I'd be going back so soon either but there's things I have to do," Levi replied.

 "And just what type of things are we talking about?" She inquired.

 "Before I answer that let's take a walk," he replied as they walked further away from the group where no one can hear them.

 "What are you planning that needs this much seclusion?" Casey questioned as she became more intrigued.

 "You see, we're not on earth anymore and in this world we can have actual power. Eventually we'll all realize there may not be a way back and at that point, the strongest will rule," he said while staring at the forest in the distance.

 "Wait you're not saying-," she replied but was interrupted, " This world will need a king, I'll carry that burden but a king is nothing," he stated as he turned to face her and held both her hands in his, " -without his queen. Casey you and I are alike and I want you to be the one who is at my side ruling this world."

 "Are you hearing yourself Levi? You don't even know me. We don't even know if we'll survive the night, isn't ruling this world a little too much?" Casey replied as she withdrew her hands.

 "I know it sounds impossible now but when we all have our abilities and I've recruited more and more persons to our side then the canvas will be all set for our portrait," he responded as he went closer to her, trailing his hand down her cheek, "You saved me from going down a dark path yesterday. No one's ever tried to protect me before, it's always felt like it me against the world. Just an empty void until you came and illuminated it a bit. So if you protect me by being by my side, I'll protect you for as long as I live. I want to learn everything about you, Casey will you join me?"

 Casey stood speechless as she looked deeply into his eyes which were the softest brown infused with green as she replied, "Levi, I can't answer that right now. Give me a couple days, okay?"

 Levi smiled as he replied, "Sure you have all the time in the world to."

 Casey chuckled as she gave him a slight nudge, "Stop it, you know you're actually quite poetic. Why do you act like a total muscle head all the time?"

 "That's just it Casey, an act. We have a long way to go but I have you now so it's only a matter of time," he replied as they sat and continued talking.

 "Hey Flora I love you in one of them, you're like my favorite character," "Your hair looks amazing, I'm your biggest fan," "I can't breathe am I actually standing right beside the Flora Porter," Flora heard these and more comments as she was being mobbed by people who recognized her.

 "Thank you but could you please like back up, you're in my personal bubble," Flora replied as the crowd backed off a bit she responded with a sarcastic tone, "Thank you."

 Timothy was meditating at the tree when he took a break, "I can feel it I'm not too far from using my flames," he said as he looked down at the commotion Flora was involved in.

 "Hey, I still can't believe someone as famous as her is stuck in here with us," he said to the other guy who received his remnant.

 "Y-y-you're talking to me?" the guy replied nervously as Timothy stared at his scrawny figure.

 "Yeah who else would I be talking to she's still deep in meditation," Timothy replied as he referenced the girl who had experienced the remnants.

 "I-I guess it is a bit unbelievable," the guy replied under his breath.

 "What's your name?" Timothy inquired.

 "It's Isaac, Isaac Andrews," Isaac answered.

 "I'm Timothy Fiske, I heard you have some kind of electric based ability," he replied.

 "I guess but in my remnants I didn't really see how to use my abilities just how to absorb essence," Isaac replied.

 "Well maybe that's all you need to do and eventually it'll come to you," Timothy suggested then stated before starting meditating again, "We should both try our best."

 Isaac gave a strong nod as he resumed meditating.

 "I found three persons who fit the criteria and were actually willing to go," said Caleb.

 "And I found two plus Levi and Timothy and us, so that makes nine of us," Xander replied.

 "That should be enough right?" Caleb asked as Xander replied, "For just a recon, it should be good enough now we just need to wait for Timothy."

"So what do we do in the meanwhile?" Caleb inquired.

"Let's get the guys who are coming with us geared up with a sword and a shield for protection," Xander replied.

Xander and Caleb rounded up the other six persons while Timothy was still meditating. They headed towards the bunker and got basic defense gear to make raise the chances of no casualties. Xander gave them pointers on how to hold a sword and they took a couple swings to familiarize themselves with it. They continued this exercise for what felt like half of a day when suddenly, "I did it!", Timothy shouted from on top of the bunker.

Everyone immediately turned their focus to him, "Are you serious?" Caleb asked excitedly.

Timothy had a wide grin on his face as he pointed his hand towards a low hanging branch on the tree and said, "Burn."

The entire branch set ablaze as everyone gasped in unison at the marvel they had witnessed. Xander hurried to the tree and sliced off the branch before the fire spread to the entire tree. That flame ignited everyone's spirits as they were now beaming with excitement of receiving similar powers soon. The entire recon team gathered together and began discussing, "Now that Timothy has control over his ability we could go into the forest now but a long time has already pass and we don't know how much daylight we have left," Caleb stated.

"You're right it would make sense for us to wait until tomorrow but we could potentially still have several hours until night, so honestly it's up to majority," Xander commented.

"Boys I'm so ready to set something on fire, I say we go now quick in and out and if anything attacks us..." he let out a light chuckle, "I'll toast them."

"I agree with the nerd, we should go in see what the fuck is in there and get out quick," Levi added.

"Okay cool, let's vote by raise of hand who think we should go now?" Xander inquired as 6 arms were raised, "Majority rules, let's get our stuff and see what's in that forest."

The group got their gears while Xander went over to Emma, "Hold down the fort until we're back."

 "I'll be waiting," she replied as the team set off the the forest.

 They walked for about an hour discussing what Levi saw when he went into the forest and what each person was to do in case something went wrong. They were now stood in front of giant trees engulfing the entire area as far as the eyes could see. They carefully ventured inside the forest slowly making their way to see what's inside while one of the volunteers drew his sword in the ground leaving a line through the ground to follow. The trees were majestically towering over everything as they formed a sky of green overlooking the entire forest. The ground was decorated with a ring of red and blue flowers wrapping around every tree. Everyone stayed close and continued walking through while marveling at the beauty of the forest. A strong wind blew between the branches, as it caressed the group they heard multiple bell sounds. They all froze in their tracks as Timothy questioned, "What the hell was that?"

 "It's that damn bell sound again," Levi frantically said.

 "Grand Aspen," one of the volunteers muttered.

 "What did you say?" Caleb asked him.

 "This tree it's grand aspen. In the books that were in the bags, it has some trees in there and this is definitely grand aspen. It said grand aspen were large trees mostly used for construction but what makes then interesting, is that they bounce the wind off them and it creates a sound that apparently sounds like a bell." He replied.

 "I'm sorry, what did you say your name was again?" Xander inquired.

 "Oh I'm Raphael, I've read a lot of the book so hopefully I can remember stuff and help out and also, that flower is called aeslac and one of them is poisonous I don't remember if it's the red or the blue so just don't touch it," he replied.

 "Lucky to have you, we'll be relying on you then Raphael, let's continue moving," Xander replied as they journeyed deeper into the forest.

 For the next couple of minutes they encountered nothing new but definitely had their guards up. They came across a different tree than of the grand aspen, it was massively smaller but about the same size as a regular tree on earth. It's branches all pointed upwards instead of outwards, there were green lines running throughout the tree like veins and on the end of the branches were orange round shaped objects with a ring of green in the middle. "Hey Raphael, do you know what these are?" Xander asked.

 "I can't recall reading anything about a tree like this," he answered.

 "Are these supposed to be fruits or something?" Timothy questioned.

 "Why don't we pick some and find out?" Levi added.

 "Great idea and if they're poisonous we can just, I don't know die or something," Timothy sarcastically replied.

 "Nerd I didn't say we should eat them now, we could pick them and carry them back to base see if it's in the book or not dummy," Levi replied with hostility.

 "It's not the worst plan, but we'd have to pick it without touching it and store it somewhere that it won't come in contact with us. Why did we all leave our books" Xander said as he sighed and continued thinking.

 "I'll just use my shirt, none of us carried our bags so I'll just use my shirt and get this over with," Levi replied as he approached the tree.

 "You sure you wanna leave your body exposed like that?" Xander inquired.

 "I already said I'm going to do it so stop bothering me," Levi replied as he took off his shirt and started climbing the tree.

 It was a bit of a struggle for him to find his footing at first but he got it pretty quickly. He opened his shirt in his hand and picked the three lowest hanging ones then quickly jumped down from the tree as he wasn't that high up. "See? Easy," he taunted as he wrapped them up carefully in his shirt.

 They continued further into the forest seeing more and more of the green veined tree and couple other trees that had nothing on them but blossoms. As they were about to turn back they heard the first sign of life in the forest. Everyone went quiet as they all hid behind some trees, a cooing sound echoed louder and louder then a weird looking chicken emerged from some nearby grass. It's feathers that covered it's body looked solid like the shell of a turtle, and it was a bit bigger than a regular chicken. "What the fuck type of chicken is that?" Timothy whispered to Xander.

 "I don't know but let's watch what it does," Xander whispered back as they continued to observe the creature.

 They watched it walk straight away from them and then out of sight. "That thing looked like it could tank a hit or two," Caleb said as they regathered.

 "Things are definitely weird on this planet, but let's turn back now, we've seen enough," Xander replied as they all agreed and retraced the sword markings on the ground.

 When they were almost out of the forest they heard howling echoing throughout the forest. They sped up to get out of the forest but it was a jarring reminder that, they might not have encountered anything threatening today but the forest held hidden dangers everywhere.