Chapter 18 - Magic Beasts

Third Person's POV (Ken 4yrs. and 8 months old)

The three started packing their things after having their meal, and they were back on track, to go deep inside the forest to continue their training and task.

As the three are walking, animals big and small, ranging from packs of wolves, -because there are many- to herds of deers, to a couple bunnies, birds chirping on top of trees, insects that hide under leaves, stare curiously at the three.

The three noticed the stares, and Celine in particular, read the stares of these animals to be quite weary, as if they are giving the sign not to proceed much further into the forest.

The three continued walking, soon after, they noticed that there were no more animals deeper inside the forest, as the bushes become thicker, and the trees become bigger blocking more sunlight and obstructing their vision.

But they still continue despite the plants blocking their path, they do not know where to go, but something is pulling them towards the direction they are currently going, as if someone had captivated them, and there was nothing they could do but follow.

As they got out of the thick bushes, they stumble upon a fairly lit area where sunlight is piercing through the space between the leaves of the trees, and surprisingly, this particular area had no thick bushes, but fairly even grass.

The three scanned the area to look for a way, Wilbert however, noticed something from a distance, under the sunlight, a white, creature, who looks to be sleeping.

"Hey guys! I see something over there!" He said, calling the attention of the two, who were looking at opposite directions, together they approached the creature cautiously, and once they were within 4 feet of the creature, a voice shook them to their core.

"Hello, Children." said a voice.

"Who's there?!" shouted Wilbert.

The creature started to stir, and its face looked at the children, now that the three can look clearly of the creature in front of them, the creature resembled a deer, an adult deer, the size of an adult grizzly bear, all features white, even the antlers, and the eyes, looks as if they're glowing.

"I... I... Though this was a bear?" said Ken to himself, but was loud enough for the other two to hear him, both having looks of weariness.

"Why, that is rather insulting my child." said the white deer.

The three looked neutral for a second, collective gasps erupted from the three before sprouting faces of amusement and astonishment, Wilbert in particular, could not help but sprout a shocked and dumbfounded face, despite that he still showed joy upon witnessing such a phenomenon,

Celine squealed out of pleasure of getting to see a talking animal and started jumping and raising her hands above her head, Ken however, teleported around the deer, he could not shake of the excitement bubbling up inside him and just decided to teleport everywhere.

Laughter and squeals filled the air, slowly dying down.

"Wha.. H-how... How are you....? How are you able to talk?" Asked Wilbert not believing what is happening before his eyes.

"That's because I'm a magical beast my dear." replied the White deer.

"ooh! oooh! ooh! What's a magical beast?" said Ken while hopping and raising his eyes, a glint of astonishment in his eyes, looking as if they were shining.

"Beasts or animals -in how you recognize them-, that are able to use magic, the natural magic of this planet." replied the White deer.

"Woah! Really?! Can you show us?" said Ken.

"I can." The White deer said, it closed its eyes and light particles accumulated at its forehead forming a ball of white light, the deer floated it to the three curious children, Celine reached out her hands, seemingly wanting to touch the orb of light, but before she could touch the ball of light it multiplied into dozen balls of light surrounding them illuminating the forest.

The three looked back at the deer and saw a majestic sight, the deer was surrounded by the balls of light, greatly illuminating its features, the eyes looks like they’re glimmering, the coat looks as if it feels soft to the touch, and the antlers looks so powerful.

The deer willed the orbs of light to slowly disappear, and soon the brightness in the forest around them returned to normal.

"WOW! It is true." said Ken.

"Yes it is." said Wilbert.

"It's so beautiful." said Celine.

"Why thank you my dear." replied the White deer to Celine.

"I see that all of you are on a journey, perhaps your destination is this forest?" said the White deer to the three children, quietly examining them and what their reaction would be.

"Yes, uh.... I'm sorry, we don't know your name, oh and we haven't introduced ourselves, my name is Ken." said Ken putting a hand over his chest.

"I am Wilbert." Wilbert said while smiling.

"My name is Celine." Celine said and raised her hand, bending her body to the side slightly, the White deer, find it amusing that a bunch of children are introducing themselves to a magical creature, and are not afraid by it, most others tend to freak out, but apparently not these ones.

"Then let me introduce myself, my name is Coralia, the guardian of the Northern Forest." said Coralia.

"Woah!!!!" the three children, exclaimed in unison.

"Are you a girl?" asked Celine.

"Yes, my child, but I'm what is called a woman, in human terms." replied Coralia.

"*GASP!!!* *SQUEAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL*" squealed Celine, and started jumping again.

"Are you like, a real guardian, Guardian?" asked Ken. 'Ahhh, the curiousity of human youth' Coralia exclaimed to herself.

"Yes. And right now, you three are nearing the entrance to the Northern Forest, which I am guarding. I will give you passage to the forest, because -not that I'm prying over your privacy- I read in your minds that you were told to come here and... train..." replied Coralia, thinking how absurd it is to send a couple of kids to a forest full of dangerous creatures.

"Yup!" said Ken while giggling. Coralia feels pleasant from the reply of the kid and started to converse with them.

The four of them talked, laughed and played, that they didn't seem to notice the time passing by, but the sun is still up, Coralia, upon noticing this exclaimed.

"It seems I might have taken up your time. You three should be going." at the mention of this the three simultaneously looked at the sky -even though there are tall trees- and saw that the sun had casted a yellowish orange light.

"You're right Coralia, guess it can't be helped, we still have a task at hand right guys?" said Ken.

"Right!" The other two agreed, and started to ready themselves to continue their trip.

"We best be off, before night time falls." exclaimed Wilbert.

"Thank you for your time Coralia, I hope we get to meet you again in the future! Goodbye!" Said Celine, with a smile on her face

"Goodbye children, and be careful on your journey." said Coralia, as the three started to walk the opposite way.

"Uhh, the path is this way." exclaimed Coralia, pointing at her back using her head.

"Oh, uh... hehe, okay, we'll be going now, bye." said Ken, bows along with the other two, and then started walking to the direction the white deer pointed.

Coralia stared at the three as they travel out of sight, she closed her eyes, and after a second black material started to ooze at her middle chest and continued to spread to her left body.

When she opened her eyes the left eyes iris was the color of red and black around, black smoke came out of the left side of Coralia's body, and gathered at her left side, until the black material had finally separated from Coralia's body.

It swirled and formed slowly another deer, looking rather sinister, with its body made of black, and smokes coming off of its hooves, it's eyes the same as what Coralia's eyes were, red iris and black around, with antlers as sharp as blades protruding from his head.

"Trunk, do you think those children will be able to survive in this harsh forest?" asked Coralia to her companion.

"Yes, I believe they can, they are of a strong breed, especially the one who can use teleportation." The black deer named Trunk, replied to Coralia.

"Right, they also have our protection of the forest, since we're the guardians of this place." said Coralia, as they were still conversing with each other, rustling of leaves caught their attention.

They turned to their back the way where the three children come from, and six humans appeared before them, the guardians fully faced the new arrivals, Coralia's expression was calm and composed, but Trunk however, was frowning and nearing close to showing a sneer, with this the six humans stood stoic, cautious of their action.

The two guardians looked and observed the behavior of these humans, but Trunk recognized someone from one of the humans, as if he had encountered this human before.

A voice spoke, shook the entire being of the humans.

"Felsin? Is that you? What are you doing outside of the forest?" asked Trunk to the person he is referring to as Felsin, which is Vin, the name surely rings a bell for Vin, and that's when it clicked.

"Felsin, you know my grandfather?" asked Vin, as he indeed heard the name right, his other grandfather, Felsin, the little brother of his grandfather Bard, who was living inside the Northern Forest, apparently, the deers must have recognized him as his grandfather, since they were fairly similar to each other.

"Well of course I know yo--- Wait, you're not Felsin?" said Trunk, who was then faced by the six humans who heard the voice coming from him.

"I am not, but I am his Grandson, Vin, Chieftain of the forest tribe, and he is the little brother of my grandfather, grandfather Bard." replied Vin to the black deer.

"Oh my, what a pleasant surprise, to think that we would meet again at such a fortunate moment." said Coralia, catching his attention.

"Oh, *GASP* I recognize this voice, is that you Coralia." said Vin to Coralia.

"Why I certainly am, my dear Vin, it's been a while." replied Coralia to Vin, which then puts a smile across Vins face, his other companions -except for his wife- have all questioning faces, not knowing what is going on.

"It's been a while too, meet Kel, my wife." said Vin.

"I see that our little girl had grown up, to be such a fine woman, and that the both of you had really become mates." replied Coralia, teasing Kel, making the young woman blush, at a loss for words.

"Oh I could still remember, how you would run everywhere trying to run away from Vin chasing you. How you would complain to us, about how Vin is being mean to you." teased Coralia. Kel blushed harder at Coralia's words.

"Aunt Coralia, please stop." replied Kel.

"Woah,woah,woah,woah,waoh...... Woah! She's your Aunt?!" asked Lyn, completely flabbergasted by the sudden turn of events, her companions can't help but look at her in surprise by her sudden outburst. Kel nodded to agree that Coralia, really is her aunt.

"B-But.. how is that possible?! I mean you're clearly a human, but she's -no offense-

"None taken." interjected Coralia.

"-Right *nod*-, a deer!" asked Lyn again, emphasizing with her right arm, palms open, referring to Coralia.

"Let me explain, remember, when the black deer or Trunk referred to Vin as Grandfather Felsin." said Kel.

"Yeah. Uh-huh." said Lyn, folding her left arm to her chest and holding her chin by her right hand, placing it on top of her left arm.

"Me and Vin, have been in these parts of the forest since we were little, along with grandfather Bard, particularly to visit grandfather Felsin, where grandfather Bard and grandfather Felsin would catch up,

Along with our parents of course, since my father was the left of the Chieftain that time, -which is grandfather Bard-, they would accompany the chieftain , bringing me along with them, and the family of Vin, which where me and Vin, had first met each other." said Kel, looking at Vin at the last part.

"UUUUhhhhhhhh, we did not ask to where how you guys had first met, how are you a niece of the white Deer, Coralia." replied Lyn, rather impatient for her question to be answered.

"Oh, right, um... We were not the only ones who had brought along companions for those meet ups, Grandfather Felsin would always bring with him, Coralia and Trunk, and since then, me and Vin became close with these magnificent creatures, that's when we started calling them Aunt and Uncle, since it was awkward calling them, creature, and such, hehe." said Kel to lyn.

"Okay, now I get it, but was it really necessary to tell us in a long story? And you even mentioned the birth of your romance with Vin, you sneaky little girl." said Lyn, teasing Kel, to which Kel blushed profoundly.

"Sorry, hehehe." Kel can't help but act sheepish, which everyone smiled to.

"I believe we haven't introduced ourselves yet." said Trunk acting formally.

"Yes, I believe we haven't." replied Lyn.

"My name -which you already know- is Trunk, The Black Deer Guardian of the Northern Forest." said Trunk.

"And My name is Coralia, The White Deer Guardian of the Northern Forest." said Coralia

"My name is Lyn, and this is my husband Alfred." said Lyn and then referred to Alfred who waved his hand and smiled.

"My name is Lorna and this is my husband Erick." said Lorna, then referring to her husband who is staring into space before coming back into his senses and muttered a small hi and did a small wave of his hands.

"We are pleased to meet your acquaintance." the four said in unison and bowed together, then stood upright again.

"The pleasure is ours, so what might be your intention for coming here." asked Coralia to the group.

"We were just following our children, who we sent out here to train." said Alfred.

"Oh, those kids we have met a while ago?" asked Coralia.

"Yes, it would be them." replied Alfred.

"I can see that it was your idea to let them come here, but if it's not so much of bother may we ask the reason why you would let your children come to such a place?" asked Coralia.

"It's because we believe in our children's capacity to tackle tasks now, especially since they have shown growth on their efforts to become strong.

So we let them venture out here to experience what it's like to survive out here in the wilderness, and to make sure that if ever they may run into unexpected events, we, their parents, make sure that we can secure our child's safety, and if in dire situations, be able to flee without having our lives, hanging in the balance of life and death." replied Erick.

"I understand." Coralia said and nodded. The Parents smiled and looked to each other.

"Coralia, if it's not too much to ask, can you help us in monitoring the safety of our children?" asked Vin.

"Why of course not Vin, this is our grandsons and granddaughter to be, and more importantly, they are your children, we would be pretty much willing to help." said Trunk to Vin.

"Thank you, thank you so much Auntie, Uncle." Kel said, and hugged the two deers one by one, then returned back to her husband's side.

"No problem, little one." said Trunk.

"You're welcome, sweetheart." said Coralia. Their smiles grew brighter, and were glad to get help from the two guardians.

"Now, let us peer into their whereabouts using our magic, Trunk, together shall we?" said Coralia.

"Yes." replied Trunk.

"Far-sight Magic: Long-Range Clairvoyance."

A magic circle the color of white, appeared in front of them, before revealing the locations of the three children.

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