Lyrics family

"Yes ma'am" I say and we continue going deeper into the forest

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The rest of the journey was peaceful, it was about a twenty from where we started. The forest starting about halfway through. After I calmed down it was soothing and peaceful in the forest. We eventually reached a place where you could see little houses and roads of wood built in the trees, there were, bridges and platforms for people to walk from place to place. A group of children ran along them on occasion, climbed the trees and ran among their trunks. Buildings on the ground seemed to conform to the surrounding trees, seeming as if the tree and the house itself were one.

"Beautiful" I mutter, as I gaze at my surroundings in wonder. I thought I saw the old lady smile while looking at me out of the corner of my eyes.

" Look Grandma's back early" I heard a child's voice, she was a cute kind that seemed to have features reminiscent of a fox.

A group of children came from around the trees, I counted around ten, and they all have their greetings to the old lady

" Who's that, I've never seen her before" I heard a boy say. He was an elf like Jacklyn and Lily, but his were pointed out to the sides, while the other two's ears were more pointed back.

The children then began whispering amongst themselves and a cute girl walked forward that had wolf ears, and looked a little like Lyric, however she had a blood red color that replaced his ice blue.

" Nice to meet you, I'm Harmony, we don't often see new children around here so they're just excited." She gave a big smile " Don't let them scare you, if you need help just call and me or my big brother will come and help."

" Ah, Harmony my dear, how are you doing?" Asked The old lady

" Great! Brother just came home not too long ago and started telling mom and dad about how schools been going, it feels like so long since I've seen him" Harmony said enthusiastically

" My, that sounds wonderful. Now Harmony, dear would you kindly come with me home, I have a favor to ask but I would like to put my things away first." The old lady asked

" Hmmm, I don't know would you be willing to tell us all a few stories after dinner?" Harmony asked with a forced expression of thought

" I do believe I can, think of it as a thank you for my favor." The old lady said with a chuckle

" Alright, I'll come," Harmony then waved to her friends " Bye everyone, I have to do something I'll meet up with you all again later. Ok?"

" Ok!" They replied in unison and ran off into the forest and began to start playing with each other again.

As we proceeded further in the direction of the houses they got more densely packed and larger, more people were seen. They would all wave at The old lady or give her their greetings. However I never got a name as everyone called her Grandma.

" Why do they all call you grandma?" I asked the old lady

" I've lived here a long time child. In my old age, I've seen many of the adults here grow from small children. They've always called me as such, It's become as much a name as the one given by my parents." She smiled " You can call me that too if you'd like"

" Ok ... Grandma ... , my name is Alice" I got quiet when saying grandma, I had never called anyone that before and it felt weird addressing a stranger in such a way

" You need not be so shy dear, we're all good people here."

" Yah, everyone's so nice, especially grandma you'll love it here!" I heard Harmony say from behind

We continued until after a few minutes we arrived at a clearing seemed to be the center of the center. A massive tree that seemed to be the center of everything was in the center surrounded by a small clearing, similar to where I was born. On the tree was a massive building with bridges going in all directions, unlit lanterns hanging throughout.

" Home sweet home" Grandma said to herself, while standing in front of the massive tree.

" This is your home!?" I sounded exasperated. The house itself was massive. Even from outside the forest I think it was visible.

" Yes, I do indeed live here" Grandma said.

" Grandma's house is so big" Harmony said her arms in the air as she did a small spin around. " It's so fun to play in, and we have dinner their every Week! The foods amazing!" Harmony started to drool, then perked up when she saw something in the forest.

" Now, Alice, you can just leave everything in front of the door, I can handle the rest" Grandma said and called over Harmony

" Now Harmony I have a quest, of great importance for you." Grandma said in a dramatic voice.

" I'm ready!" Harmony replied in an overly enthusiastic voice

" The quest is perilous and of the utmost importance, are you sure you are ready?"

" Yes, Grandma." Harmony said in a faked somber voice trying to act serious.

" Then I need you to take Alice to your brother, and ensure that she reaches him safely" Grandma said

" Yes ma'am, Come on Alice" Harmony started pulling me away.

" Try to keep up" Harmony said with a smug grin, and started running into the forest.

It was a nice little run to keep up with Harmony, more fun than difficult, but I found I liked running through the forest, Hopping between roots and around trees, occasionally scaling a tree to follow Harmony. After a minute or so we reached a tree that seemed to have a treehouse style home built around the middle, relatively hight up.

" Your good Alice, but now we climb!" Harmony started climbing up the side of the tree on a ladder that lead to the platform that the house sat on. While I waited at the bottom for her to almost reach the top and started, I wanted to see how fast I could climb it.

I started and was about two thirds of the way up when Harmony finished and she hopped up onto the Platform and spun around as I was climbing up through the hole as well. Harmony then closed a hatch that was covering the hole to prevent people from falling down.

" We're here" Harmony said and started walking to the door when she stopped

" Do you know why Grandma wanted me to bring you here?" Harmony asked

The door opened and Lyric came out of the door and hugged Harmony "Didn't bother to say hello to your brother when he came home did you." Lyric started to squeeze tighter and the breathless apologies from Harmony didn't change anything.

Lyric eased up on his sister and repositioned her in his arms, as she was gasping for air, as Lyric turned, saw me, and jumped a bit.

" Alice? Why are you here?" Lyric asked

" You both know each other already?" Harmony asked through her breaths.

" We go to school together." Lyric said

" School? The only school you go to is the Guild one, how does she go to school with you?" Harmony asked confused

" Believe it or not Harmony, she already has a class" Lyric said, then laughing at the disbelief on his sister's face

Getting out of her brothers arms Harmony runs up to me and grabs both of my hands, with stars in her eyes " You must be the youngest person to get a class ever! I'm so jealous."

Lyric started laughing more "Harmony how old do you think she is?"

" My age right, I mean we're the same height Unless she's younger but I don't think that's right." Harmony muttered to herself, " Your about eight right?" Harmony asked with an innocent expression. I couldn't look at the cuteness before me and had to turn away.

" No, I'm almost eleven" I say to Harmony and she freezes her eyes wide and mouth shaped like an O. Causing Lyric and I both to start laughing, as she hmphs in indignation

" Anyways" Lyric starts after everyone calmed down, " Why are you here Alice?"

" We all just wanted to remind you that we have something with the Guildmaster later, but he never said when so we wanted you to come back soon" I said

" Another question, How did you know I was here?" Lyric asked "I don't recall telling anyone about where I lived and this place isn't overly well known."

"I met a nice old Grandma that brought me to the forest" I said, " Then I met Harmony and she brought me here"

" Alright, I guess that makes sense. Anyways, when do we need to leave?" Lyric asked " I just got here so is there time for me to stay for

a little longer?

I pull out the pocket watch and look at the time.

{12:13}

"The matches end at 4:00, and it took about thirty minutes to get here" I say to myself. " We can probably stay for another three and a half hours if needed, I assume that the Guildmaster will want to finish all of the ranking matches before bringing us to the guild vault."

" Alright! well come in since we have time let me introduce you to my parents" I walked into the house.

" Mommy, I'm home" Harmony yelled as she ran up two a woman sitting in a chair and hugged her, and snuggled into her lap.

" Welcome home Harmony" The woman said

A man then walked up behind Harmony, picked her up, and started to tickle her.

" You say hello to you mother, but not your father I'm hurt " He said, in a fake hurt tone, smiling

Through her laughter Harmony barely managed to articulate a joyful sorry, when Her mother saw me and had her father stop.

" Sorry for that display dear, not the best first impression is it? May we know your name" The woman asked.

" My name is Alice, it's a pleasure to meet you." I say "Also their is no reason to act differently since I'm here I won't judge, your family seems wonderful already."

" Well your quite the kind child, Alice. Thank you" The woman said

" You said your name was Alice, Correct? Like the one Lyric was talking about?" The father asked only to get elbowed in the stomach by the mother.

" I think you meant to tell her your name, dear" She said with a smile.

" Sorry, My name is Gladeius, It is a pleasure to meet you." The father, Gladeius, shared the white hair that Lyric and Harmony had only he had green highlights, instead of the light blue Lyric has, and the red Harmony does. He looked strong and well built, but didn't seem overly bulky. His face had a rugged handsome look to it making him look a bit wild.

" My name is Natalie." The mother said, and like the others she had white hair but with a yellow instead of the other colors. She had a refined, beautiful face, and seemed to have a slimmer body, still you could tell she was fit and had some muscles that were hidden pretty well. Harmony and Lyric got their facial features more from their mother than father.

"It is a pleasure to meet you both." I say with a smile and turn to Gladeius. " To answer your question I do go to school with Lyric."

" Alice is so cool!" Harmony had jumped out for her father's arms in the moments where we distracted him and was now behind me, hugging me.

" Come now Lyric, you haven't finished your story." His mother beaconed him to sit down and continue, " Alice, Harmony why don't you join us.

" Ok, mom!" " Yes ma'am." We say together and join the others in their living room. They had a couch that could fit four and two independent chairs on the sides and that was almost the entire bottom floor it was small, but these houses were built taller that wide.

" So where did I leave off?" Lyric asked

" I wasn't here so can you start from the beginning?" Harmony asked

" Of course" Lyric said and he began again.

Lyric started by telling everyone about the friends he made, It mostly comprised of me, Emmy, Caroline, Eric, Gram, Tanya, and Julien, however their was one person I didn't know. Apparently he has a shared room with Julien and this one that was named Mera. Apparently he was another resident of this forest. After speaking about everyone he began to talk about how his days there were. The first day people had to start living in the dorms was the night of the festival.

The day after he had spent in the Arena practicing the claw fighting style his father taught him for the competition. He spent most of his day there and had dinner at the guild restaurant for lunch and dinner. I remember seeing him briefly since I had waited on him. He said he found it funny then that they let a child so young be a waitress, but he understood now.

Then came the competition. His fights were easy because he was faster than all of the other contestants and they were not the most accurate when it came to projectiles, he got through without much of a problem. His opponent in the next bracket, however was not so simple. I remember Tanya and Lyric fighting and it was crazy they were actually like wild animals aiming for each other's throats. Lyric said it was the hardest fight he had ever faught aside from sparing his parents. He also mentioned it was the most fun and painful match he had ever had.

He told everyone about how most of the people thought I was a basket case and about my fights too, which was a bit embarrassing but it brought more of a hollow feeling, as I remembered how I felt after the fight with Tanya. Harmony had given me a hug and I could see approval in the eyes of Lyric's parents.

He told them about what he did after the competition and about the Rank battles that followed, how me and Emmy were conveniently ranked so we wouldn't have to do much fighting because no one could challenge us, and the subtle annoyance in his voice had caused his dad to laugh.

After he had finished telling his story, we had talked a bit more. They had asked me about my family as I was the only one of the group that hadn't mentioned it and I told them I didn't remember anything past a few days ago when I was found in the forest by a group of children who were there.

Our time had passed and we needed to get back so bid farewell and I was offered to come for dinner later that night. I told them I would see if I could and we left.