Forest Through the Trees

"What is going on!?" "Why is she here!!!?" Alec exclaimed out loud. This was the last thing he expected to come out of the wraith. Actually, he had not expected anything come out of it except an ether crystal, not a human girl, and especially not someone he knew.

Standing beside him, Nera was visibly disturbed and bewildered as well, but she was doing a much better job of hiding it. Closing her eyes and focusing, she honed her cybernetic ears on Charlotte's vital signs until she could hear her pulse. Once she confirmed this, she opened up her eyelids more relaxed.

"She's still got a heartbeat, that's good."

She was also curious about the apparent connection between whoever the girl on the floor was and Alec.

"Do...you know her?"

"...Yeah, kind of, her name's Charlotte Adlen, I work at a book store and she comes by often to buy books. I just saw her today actually-"

An image of the book Jack and the Bean Stalker suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Wait, the Bean Stalker in the book was a mandrake wasn't it? Yeah, it definitely was, but what does that have to do this. Wraiths attack and consume the life force of humans not absorb them into their bodies. What's going on?" Alec forcibly racked his brain as hard as he could but he couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation.

"Hey, you can stop zoning out now. She's waking up." Nera declared snapping him out of his fruitless speculation.

"Really!?"

True to her word, Charlotte's dark blue empty eyes blinked gently as life returned to them. Her arms and legs started rustling as if she was slowly waking up from a deep slumber and with a sharp inhale, Charlotte suddenly sprung up from the ground looking just as surprised as they were moments before.

"Ummm, I did that thing again didn't I?" She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.

"Huh..."

The mysterious sigils that covered her face, neck, and hands had started to recede slowly sliding down her skin and beneath her clothes. He made a sideways glance at Nera, sure that she had seen this as well and had decided not to bring it up in order to not alarm Charlotte. He chose to do the same.

"Ah! Alec you're here!? She looked down ashamedly. " I was hoping nobody I knew would find out about this."

Alec frowned and crouched down at her eye level trying his best to assure her that was nothing worry despite being completely out of his league himself.

"It's alright. I don't care if you're...a little different as long as your still a good person. I just want to know what this is."

"Me too. I want to know why you can turn into a giant monster." Nera chimed in bluntly.

Charlotte looked up then furrowed brows deep in thought not sure what to say first. After a moment, she finally made up her mind to speak.

"There's not much I can tell you honestly. I've always dreamed of going on adventures and exploring the world as a Venturer, but I didn't have powers nor was I that athletic at all either so there wasn't much hope for me.

That sounds really familiar to how I used to be.

So, I was just content with just reading books of adventures I could never go on instead. Well, I thought I was until I one night while I was at a fair when I saw a strange fortune-teller stand. They had on a decorative mask and were using some kind of voice changer, so I couldn't even tell if they were a man or a woman, but they were giving away one free fortune reading per person so I couldn't pass up on it. I'm a sucker for a good deal, hahaha." She chuckled nervously trying to lighten up the mood.

"That's really sketchy.", Alec responded.

"Totally sketchy. That's like something out of a horror movie." Nera agreed.

"Yep, in hindsight, maybe that wasn't the best idea, but it's not like you would expect that a weird fortune teller would curse you into turning into a giant tree monster randomly." It seemed like Charlotte was back to her usually perky self.

Alec nodded. "Yeah, I wouldn't expect that either." "What else happened?"

"Well, the fortune teller gave me a blank page of paper and said it would guide me to achieving my wildest wishes. I don't remember much after that, but I'm definitely sure this isn't something I would've wished for." Charlotte motioned to the pile of wood and vines around her.

Alec couldn't make sense of her story. He looked over to Nera who had her hand over her mouth, appearing to be mulling over something. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you, Miss Vigilante Venturer?"

"It's Miss Volunteer Venturer and no idea...But I might just know someone who does, unfortunately.", she groaned.

"Hmmm..." "What do you mean by tha-"

"Ughh! Whatever, let's just get this over with already." "She picked up Charlotte by her jacket collar off the floor without the slightest bit of care or struggle and walked towards the door still toting her on one her arm while Charlotte just stared at Alec helplessly as if she was being kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Alec still stood there for a moment completely bewildered as to what was happening.

"Hey, stop standing there like a foggy eyed cyclops and get moving! You're coming along aren't you!?" Nera yelled looking back after reaching the door of the building.

"This is going to be one really weird day isn't it?", He said to himself under his breath.

Alec grinned then rushed to catch up with the two of them.

***

At the same time, high up above in the sky, two figures were perched on top of a cloud as if it was as solid as the Earth below. One was wearing a form-fitting black hoodie with white musical notes strewn haphazardly all across it while the other was dressed in a full suit of silver knight armor and equipped with a large ax on their back. The black-cloaked figure was crouched and had their eyes covered by their hands which had nails covered in black nail polish.

"Is it the one we're looking for?"

The silver knight that was standing straight up asked. A deep stern sounding voice emitting from his metallic helmet as he made this inquiry.

The woman in the black hood promptly answered him in a mischievous and playful tone as she slowly removed her hands from her face revealing emerald spiral shape irises. The very same eyes possessed by the mandrake that Charlotte had turned into.

"Not sure, why don't we check it out for ourselves. Hehehehehe."