A Dead Forest

'The Rising...'

The Magic Guilds...

A group formed by powerful Arcane Knights who follow their King's orders, serving the Country of Avalon, and doing what they must going on Quests, and exploring vast Dungeons across the lands.

Often times kids are told stories about these incredible Guilds raised on how great and magical these Guilds are, leaving them with a desire to become an Arcane Knight.

And...

Often times they are told stories about one Guild they should hate. A Guild that is ran by demons, devils, and beasts. The Guild known as Phoenix Flight.

But for Oliver.

This was different. He heard tales about a brave guild. A guild that continued to rise up again and again. One that will never be destroyed and disbanded no matter how many hundreds of times it's attacked and yet they always came back with a new higher power getting up again and again.

To him, Phoneix Flight really was a worthy Guild.

The Guild he dreamed of joining ever since he had first heard about it.

Unfortunately...

***

Unfortunately...

Oliver made a face as the red lion buckled and moved over the mountainside at high speeds moving far faster than a train, and even more wild. But that wasn't why he was making a face. The bumpy ride was annoying but he was able to tolerate it. What made his eyes twitch constantly were the boy and girl in front of him who were trying to see who could yell louder.

"Athena did you steal my socks!" Davi screamed.

"What? No! Why the hell would I steal your socks!" Athena yelled.

"Don't yell at me! I will turn this lion around!"

"Ha!" Athena laughed. "Nice try Davi but Lion is my stuffed toy, and weapons, and only listens to me! I'm the one who will turn this Lion around if you don't stop yelling at me ya freaking jackass with an over bloated ego."

"Screw you, give me my socks back!"

"I didn't take your socks!"

"I don't believe you!"

"Why the hell would I take your socks dumbass!"

Oliver let out a small sigh and shook his head. "Why did I get stuck with them... Why Gods above. What did I do to deserve such a fate like this... Why..." Jakey his dog, who was currently resting in his arms during the bumpy ride, began to bark loudly getting louder and louder in an attempt to be louder than the two friends who just ignored the dog.

The three of them were all on the backs of the red metal Lion Athena had summoned with her magical stuffed animal. Oliver had to admit his stuffed animal was pretty cool... They had been traveling for nearly two days now, stopping only to relive themselves and eat whatever food was in Davi's satchel. Oliver still wasn't convinced, one of those 'leftovers' weren't spiced with the drugs from earlier so he had only eaten what Athena had as she seemed to be able to tell...

These two were certainly sketchy...

And freaking weird!

Still...

It was a fun way to travel. And he was beginning to almost view them as friends. Friends he would never have watch his back, but friends. Although he had noticed they were going somewhere weird?

The trees in the forest seemed to be dying and there were less and less animals? He had even noticed several animals carcasses all around the area. Just where were they going? The two friends hadn't even brought it up, but they also didn't seem to notice.

"So you guys are trying to find that missing dad guy right" Oliver said cutting the two loud, and bickering friends, off before they could break out into another argument.

"Oh yeah. We're still looking for Athena's father on our way over to the Guild. We'll be making a pit stop at a nearby village to check it out for a moment. Apparently a strong Wizard was seen in it so we wanna check it out." Davi yelled back to Oliver.

"Yippy..." Oliver shook his head as he held his staff closer to him. He held onto the saddle for a moment as he began to think about everything that led up to this point. "So we're going to which town exactly?" He asked.

"Not really sure on the name," Davi said letting out a sheepish laugh.

"What?" Oliver asked startled. "Well what were the rumors about the strong wizard than?"

Athena let out a small shrug as she moved the Lion forward. "We told you earlier. We're also looking for our dad. We're gonna be stopping at a nearby village. There were rumors about a powerful wizard entering the village and putting a curse on it or something. So long as that guy didn't touch 'my tree' than we'll just leave the area at once."

"...And you think your father did this..." Oliver frowned. "Sounds like a thing a villain would do."

"Her dad is kind of a prick." Davi laughed.

Oliver let out a small sigh as he turned his head away. The lion continued moving forward at a slow pace through the woods. 'Don't get me wrong...' Oliver thought. 'Mr. Davi, and Ms. Athena are... Well, I was gonna say nice but... Well, they aren't evil. And I'm grateful they're leading me to my dreams but...'

"Are you sure you didn't steal my socks!"

"I will slap the hell out of you if you mention those damn socks once again! Don't think I won't! I'm the stronger wizard!" Athena warned.

"That was before I got a blade that sends out explosions!" Davi announced. "I can take you now, so come at me!"

'But... They're kind of weird...' Oliver shook his head as he thought back to that last battle. "Hey so that Alion's guy? Was he strong?"

"Oh yeah. He was super strong." Davi said in a casual tone. "Totally could have killed me and Athena in an instant if he wanted to. He's a semi-decent guy though so his morals wouldn't let him. He would have just took us in. I think I knew him to... Is that the guy I pissed on at that one party... No... That was someone else?" Davi began muttering about various crimes he committed as Oliver's eyes lit up.

"And you two beat him so easily! So you must both be super strong-"

"Nah we cheated. Davi and I are actually super weak. Well at least in these forms. I could maybe win if I used 'that' power to its fullest, and if Davi did 'the thing' more often he could have likely won, but he's honestly to much or a jackass to take the fight serious!" Athena sighed. "Honestly us collapsing the mountain on him did most of the work for us, plus we blind sided him when he wasn't ready."

"Oh... Oh... Umm, so what Village are we going to exactly?" Oliver asked curiously looking around in an attempt to change the subject. "I know Davi said he doesn't know what the village is called but do you have any idea what it's called Athena?"

"It's called Sapphire," Athena said throwing her head back and letting out a sigh. "A pretty mild village that doesn't have anything too interesting. Well... Besides its apples. God those apples..." Athena licked her lips and let out a moan making Davi, Oliver, and Jakey uncomfortable as they scooted away from the woman.

"Apples?" Oliver asked.

"Why did you have to bring it up..." Davi sighed.

"Yes... Apples..." Athena said happily as her face became red. Athena's mouth seemed to water for a moment as she began to rub at her stomach. Oliver briefly remembered back to the time he saw the girl eat, and him and Jakey, both let out a shudder.

"Sapphire has super apples!" Athena said cheerfully as drool began to drip out of her mouth. "Apples redder, than blood, and filled with more juice than a million strawberries! They're the Apples of the Gods!" She shudder from joy as she grabbed at her stomach and let out another moan. "They're so good!"

"How are we friends?" Davi said flatly?

"My dad put your legs back on when you challenged Satan and cried like a bitch when he ripped you in half." Athena said also in a flat tone.

"What?"

"Ignore her Oliver she's going over backstory." Davi said cutting her off. "We'll cover that later."

"U... Uh okay? So uh. What exactly makes these apples so good?"

"No Oliver don't ask that question-"

"They're Godlike-" Athena nearly fell off the lion from his thrashing around but Davi reached out and quickly caught her as she smacked him a few times in the face.

The sharked tooth teen let out a sigh as his eyes seemed to twitch in mild annoyance. "You just had to ask that. Well. To put it simply. The apples are... Good? I guess." Davi shrugged. "To me and you, Oliver, they'd just be mildly better than average apples. But to Athena... Being someone with 'that' thing inside of her, I'd say the apples are better than well... Let's just say I try to stop her eating them as they do this to her."

"W... What?"

"It has do with a legend." Davi shrugged. "Like four thousand years ago, some asshole God, did an asshole thing and dropped some asshole seed down to the planet, and some asshole humans found it buried it and it made a Godly tree that produced these really big red apples that are tasty I guess?" Davi shrugged. "I don't really remember it. It was a story about Gods, and those guys are assholes so I never finished it."

"Why do I get the feeling you don't like the Gods?" Oliver muttered. He shook his head getting back on topic. "Still those legends are just legends, right? That tree isn't actually from the Gods?"

"Beats me." Davi shrugged. "Though it is magically. Or at least something about it is magical. Besides getting Athena all worked up from eating them."

"It is magical!" Oliver asked.

"Yeah. One day it was cut down, and the next it just regrew in an instant. And once it was removed from the ground but was very quickly put back, because all the plants, and animals in the surrounding area died?"

"You... You mean like what's happening now."

"What?"

Davi and Athena both went quiet for a moment as they looked around. Now that they both thought about it they realized the forest smelled of death... And many of the trees were gone to.

"Ahh crap..." Davi sighed.

"My tree!"