I. FOLKLORE
"I wouldn't survive if I was struck by this," a village porcupine, Pan, thought to himself as he was awestruck with fear by the sight of a giant claw mark cleanly cut into a fallen tree. "Is this what Lana was telling us about? Could a lioness like her really take on such a beast? Pfft. She's exaggerating. There's no way tiny little Lana could fell something this massive. The mark on her face was probably just juice from the local berries. Well, that doesn't quite explain the deep scar she has now, but...n-no way...probably fell and grazed her face against a pointy tree or something."
Before walking away from the sight Lana had her battle, his eyes went downwards in embarrassment at the thought that no one back home could take on something so big. "What's this?" A soft red glow dangling from the hollowed parts of the tree caught his gaze. "It's gentle..."
These part of the woods have been forbidden for as long as anyone could remember. No one was allowed past the single, overgrown tree that was used as to mark the end of the border to show they are leaving their safe-space. But why today is it torn down by marks never before seen?
"You're cheating!" A loud scream came from past the safe zone.
"Who would be stupid enough to go past the guardian tree? W-they sound like...children...?" Pan went northeast from his safe haven. The farther he trekked towards the outdoors, everything faded into a dead zone from the lack of forestation the farther he ventured. "I better not be putting myself in danger for a bunch of hoodrats." Pan made it to the edge of the forest with almost nothing surrounding him but a rocky meadow leading to the mountain giving him shade.
"Why, you, Graham! You can't go underground! I can't find you if you're cheating!" Thwack! The energetic rabbit gave a fierce smack to a little gopher.
A bird came flying down from on top of one of the large rocks. "H-hey, cool it, Ruby."
"And you, Blake! I can't reach you in the sky! You guys aren't playing fair!" Ruby stomped her feet and bounced away behind the rock with her face holding back tears.
Pan was furious to see a group of young ones playing outside the border without a care in the world. "Hey! You kids! The law forbids passage pass the Guardian Tree! Get yourselves together and go back to your families this instant!"
Pan's loud screams scared Graham back into the hole he dug. Blake panicked and began flying in circles and swiftly enough to not realize he's about to hit his beak against the rock. Blake collapsed onto Ruby who couldn't hold her emotions back anymore. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she lifted her head towards the sun to let the tears fall freely from her face with the warmth of the sun holding her head together.
A cold wind caresses Pan's face while the clouds brush against one another as they changed from clean white to ambiguous gray. His patience wore thin as he could tell that danger is lurking around the corner if they didn't return back to the safe zone before a storm could roll in. "You're causing as much trouble as the blasted Wynter Force. Get your paws and feathers into high gear and head back home. Now!!!"
The three shivering children were too afraid to disobey his authority. After being frozen in fear for about a minute, they noticed Pan springing towards them like a raging bull. They huddled up and help each other close. Graham tried to drag his friends down with him into his hole so they could hide, but Blake tried his darndest to fly them all away to safety from the terrifying porcupine. Ruby at the center of them all, and also the heaviest of the bunch, dragged them both off with her as she hopped back towards the village, or so she thought.
Unbeknownst to her, she bounced them all in the wrong direction. There was running water filled with fish and rocks surrounding them. "W-where are we?" Blake muttered.
"It's...so beautiful..." Ruby said as her breath was being taken aback by the sights of clear blue water contrasting the soaked rubble from the distance drawing in her eyes.
Loud rustles of water hitting the ground from high up caught Graham's ears as he looked towards Ruby. "It's kinda chill here. I like it. Why haven't we been here before?"
Blake was tired from all the hiding and seeking they partook in, so his senses came back to life as he took in the smell of something juicy. "Where's that sweet smell coming from? I'm not sure what it is. Something, new, something..."
Ruby cut off his train of thought, "majestic."
A red blur with what appeared to be two moving flames behind it dashed from across the water carrying a bright red fruit none of them had seen previously.
Ruby's eyes were caught in a trance by the graceful red in front of her. Her heart skipped a beat from the excitement of taking sight of such an exotic color belonging to a living, breathing creature. "Those twin-trails it leaves as it moves...are those the wings of an angel?"
A ferocious roar came from a silhouette of a giant creature sitting down next to the fire beast, but the three of them could only focus on its skin ripping claws looking ready to strike. Without a moment of hesitation, the three made a frantic dash back to their village like their life depended on it. Ruby knew Graham was one to be lost without proper direction, and Blake would be too anxious to move, so she summoned up her big girl energy and held everyone's hand together tightly and wouldn't let anyone go for fear of losing them. Ruby's rabid steps gave them a sense of direction as her furry arm gave them comfort. As she made her way past the fallen trees and scattered rocks, rain began slipping on her face. Her grip tightened with every drop striking her, and her balance decayed with every force in her paws tightening.
Thankfully, she had enough composure and bits of luck to get everyone home to their village. By no conscious willingness of any of the three, their hands slipped apart. Blake hadn't realized his vision had blurred from the moisture in the air. He flew beak first into the flower keeper's sign hanging in the air. Graham's haste made him unable to slow himself down as his feet had become slippery. He crashed into a fruit stand before he could realize what was going on. Ruby went for one more hop to make it to her family's home, but she slipped on the muddy land and hit her head. All three were overcome with pain. None of them could hold back their screams. Their voice as terrifying as the thunderous shrieking covering the entire village. The entire village came rushing in wondering if they're being attacked by what the legends foretold as a brown creature three times as big as their guardians.
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