Forest of Lights

Waking up, Amelia grumbled as a gush of sunlight attacked her eyes. Instinctively, she raised her arm and blocked out the annoying light.

Memories of the goddess slowly invaded her mind, causing her to shoot her eyes open and abruptly stood up. Rubbing her head, she was greeted by the sight of trees surrounding her.

Sitting by a giant tree, the leaves provided a cooling shade for Amelia, as the light beamed through the forest. Some light managed to seep through the thick leaves, warmly caressing Amelia's cheeks.

The wind blew to her direction, rustling the leaves it passed by. Amelia closed her eyes and heaved a sigh of comfort as the cool breeze balanced out the warm sunlight, cooling down her slightly sweaty face.

Leaning her back to the tree, Amelia began to think, remembering the events that lead up here. Assigned by a goddess, to not only be her champion, but also save the world, left a slight discomfort in her heart.

Saving the world was not something she was accustomed to on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, the goddess gave little to no information whatsoever, leaving her quite distraught.

Doubt started to brew in her mind as she further thought about how to save the world. Being blessed by a goddess seemed good on paper, but now the technicalities and logistics of it all were starting to bother her.

First of all, she had no idea what she was doing. Essentially, she was unprepared. This world, that has magic for god's sake, could pretty much break the law's of physics. Yet, she was clueless about it, she had no idea how to handle herself here or even how to survive.

Second, how does she save the world? At first it sounded simple, but now it was getting more complicated. The goddess stated that she had to stop this "Great Evil", but how exactly. She was given powers, but that just leads to her third point.

She had no idea about magic! She doesn't know what her powers are, let alone how it works! Could their be a system that governs how magic is used, or is it just as simple as snapping your fingers.

That thought got Amelia curious, looking at her fingers she thought: 'Why not..".

Raising her arms she snapped her fingers, and by miracle—nothing happened.

She grumbled and dropped her fingers, getting more exhausted by the minute.

And finally, is she willing to do this? She just died, and the memory is still fresh in her mind. Furthermore, she still feels it was so abrupt that she died, without saying good bye first.

Well at least that girl she saved could see her mom again.

All of a sudden, Amelia's face grew dim, as the thought of her mother finding her dead body made her depressed. She knew the goddess would help her mother, but what about mentally? Could she even move on? Could she even forget about her?....

"Mom..." Unknowingly, she muttered those words. The thought of her mom forgetting about her and moving on, made her heart ache.

She knew that was what's suppose to happen, she can't just be depressed forever. Nevertheless, Amelia still felt pained at that, she knew her mom would have to move on, yet she also knew she would never forget it.

"That's enough Amelia, no more crying" She said to herself as she wiped a tear that had suddenly appeared "If mom were to see this, she would 'greatly disapprove' ".

Amelia chuckled as she remembered the shenanigans her and her mom did. Those memories, gave Amelia a sense of comfort as the sudden depressing feeling before went away.

Suddenly a gush of odd, ominous wind, flew to Amelia, sending her hair in a frenzied state, and dress flapping dramatically. Composing herself, she felt a weird tingling sensation in her arms, as all the hairs on it stood up.

The light atmosphere of the forest soon turned dark. The light, declining until the forest became dim.

Amelia's eyebrows scrunched, realizing the sudden change in the atmosphere. Standing up, she felt the cold, wet grass touch her feet.

Taking a step forward, Amelia cringed as the feeling of the grass disturbed her. Right now, she wished the goddess gave her some flip flops, instead of having to walk bare foot in a forest!

As her feet continued to move, each step caused a crunching sound. Each sound, making Amelia feal uneasy, as she frantically looked around. Each shadow, each noise, each rock, almost getting her to jump and bolt it.

Holding her arms, she carefully surveyed her surroundings, trees surrounding her everywhere. The warm sunlight no longer to be felt as only a little had managed to pierce through the leaves.

The cool breeze, became cooler, to the point where Amelia shook from each contact. The sudden change in tone and atmosphere baffled Amelia, as she began to think: "could someone be the cause of this?".

As if on cue, a low grumble could be heard from behind, causing Amelia to turn her head. What greeted her was two, glowing red spheres, staring down at her by the darkness. The grumbling became more wilder and impatient.

Soon another could be heard, another pair of glowing spheres revealing itself in the shadows. Right now, three pairs watched her intently, not blinking even a second.

All the hairs on Amelia's body stood on end, her mind going in a frenzy. Her fight or flight reaction kicked in, her heart beat faster, breathing became ragged, and sweat poured down on her face.

At this moment, she was scanning around, trying to find any ways of escape. Going back the other way was not an option anymore, as the path she had once walked through, disappeared!

Her eyes widened, realizing what had just happened. Suddenly, a cold feeling of dread engulfed Amelia's body, thinking she might just die...again.

As the noise grew louder, so did the glowing red spheres. Dark, dilated pupils lied within the red sclera, soon formed. Silhouettes of four-legged animals met Amelia's vision, causing her to step back.

Just as these animals surrounded her, Amelia ran for it. Dashing the the other way, deeper into the forest. The animal's only revealed an annoyed smile, as one by one, they followed her deeper.

Running through this forest, Amelia gasped as she realized how fast she was running. Currently she was running through a dimly lit, dense forest, leaves obstructing her already impaired view.

However, she was practically soaring, the forest proving no affect to her. Right now she could be compared to a car, as she ran from the animals behind her.

The animals on the other hand, maintained a 20 feet distance. Amelia grew worried, she felt something was off, not understanding why they weren't running faster.

Amelia of course knew that these creatures could easily catch up on her, but they weren't. A sudden shift in the air caught her attention, as an image flashed in her head.

Gasping, she turned around, raising her arms. Just in time, a six foot long, silver colored wolf pounced beside her. Just as the wolf made contact, her arm hit the wolf, causing a crack to be heard.

The wolf flew 4 meters away, and laid limp on the forest ground, its face deformed and leaking blood. Amelia was dumbfounded, she looked at her hands in awe as she thought, how strong could she actually be.

Caught up in her wonder, more wolves pounced at her, but just like before, a flash of an image appeared in her head. And just instantly she turned and ducked, just enough for the wolf to jump right above her.

Seeing this, she reacted with a kick right through the stomach, sending the wolf soaring through the air. The wolf dropped to the ground as blood leaked out from its mouth and organs seeped through the open wound in the stomach.

Before Amelia could think however, another wolf appeared before her, startling her. Shocked, she involuntarily slapped the wolf, dislocating its jaw and crushing its skull.

To Amelia, everything happened instantly, and she felt nothing. Her kick, her punch, her slap, all of it felt numb, as if her pain receptors were turned off.

She looked in utter shock at the three wolves, who have stalked her and frightened her. They now laid dead, their lifeless bodies laying in the ground.

An image of her dead friends replayed itself in her memories. She clutched her mouth and collapsed, tears streaming down her eyes. Although she knew it wasn't her fault, the sudden reminder of her classmates made her cry.

She clutched her legs in a fetal position as she sat by a tree, observing the dead bodies.

Half an hour had passed after the initial confrontation, leaving Amelia to sit quietly by a tree.

She had already stopped crying, remaining silent the entire time. The trees swayed in the wind, a calming sound echoing through the dim, silent forest.

Amelia glanced at the wolves, her face contorting at the sight of the dead corpses. Two had their face completely deformed, while one had its stomach and intestines seeping through the ground.

She raised her hands in curiosity as she was still struggling to process everything. She had just effortlessly slaughtered, three fully-grown wolves, with her bare hands!

She had never been the one to go to the gym, preferring to stay home in her bedroom. Moreover, she was completely faster than she was before as she had managed to stay ahead of the wolves, without even panting.

Could it be the goddess? At first Amelia thought that she would give her some magic, but the idea of making her physically inclined, never crossed her mind. However, now that she thought about it, making her strong was actually a good idea.

Amelia's thoughts started to lift up, as a sudden glimpse of hope appeared. If magic is difficult to learn, then might as well practice her physical damage for now.

And speaking of magic, she remembered those sudden flashes in her head. Without it she might have never knew about the sneak attacks of the wolves.

They appeared seconds before the wolves attacked, like a warning. Closing her eyes, Amelia decided to concentrate, maybe she could get another flash.

Unfortunately, seconds passed by and Amelia got nothing. She slumped to the ground, feeling exhausted after doing almost nothing.

Amelia chuckled, she barely even reached full concentration, yet she was already tired. Compared to her physical strength, her mental fortitude was that of a stick.

krik...krik...krik...

A sudden noise caught Amelia's attention, turning her head, she saw a dark, empty pathway. Raising her brow, she wondered:

'Was that there before?'

Staring into the darkness, she couldn't help but feel that it was staring back at her. She squinted her eyes until....

There it is!

A flash of light appeared, flickering in the darkness. Staring deeper, she couldn't help but be mesmerized by the light.

Then another one appeared, and another one, until the darkness was filled with flickering lights. The scene left Amelia's mouth hanging, as countless of lights appeared in the darkness.

The lights resembled stars, as they flickered in the backdrop of the darkness. Soon after, a light made its way towards Amelia, taking shape of a cup-sized sphere.

As one ventured outward, soon did the others, until the entire place was illuminated by these lights. Seeing them come to her, Amelia wanted to move, yet she didn't.

However, the lights merely passed by her and instead surrounded the dead wolves. They broke up into three groups and surrounded each one.

A light from the group glowed brightly, a flash of orange appearing. Another light from the other group glowed in response, this time it was bright red.

As the lights saw the display of color, they immediately glowed, as if agreeing to the red color. The one from before shook, this time releasing a bright green, following it with a deep purple.

The lights immediately stopped, their shine growing dim. After that, a single light dared to shine (the one who shone in red) this time however, a light blue color appeared. The other light who glowed two colors, replied by simply glowing.

Amelia watched in awe at the array of lights, she deduced that they must have been talking. As more and more colors appeared she couldn't help but want to talk to them.

As the argument of lights ended, the lights once more circled the wolves, a powerful energy emitted from their bodies.

The ground shook and roots sprouted, each one creeping onto the bodies. They tightly hugged the wolves until they were completely covered, no fur could be seen.

The roots then pulled, the bodies being dragged through the ground until it disappeared into the bushes.

The lights scattered and once again headed towards Amelia, the girl only looked in silence as the lights surrounded her. Color after color was shone, indicating they were talking.

Amelia tried to say something, but she bit her tongue, not wanting to provoke them. As the lights shone with color, one light glowed brightly, forcing the others to stop.

The light in question, moved towards Amelia, growing brightly. Soon the light glowed different colors, trying to communicate with her.

"Ugh-ugh I don't understand...." Amelia said, confused on what she should do.

The light stopped it's glow and immediately flew towards her forehead, bumping it softly. Her forehead glowed a bright light as a symbol was etched onto it.

"What about now?"