Paradise

They all shortened the gap between each another, and started to slowly walked towards the large trees.

Compared to the trees they all looked like weak tiny ants. It looked as if the trees reached all the way up to heaven, and each branch stretched for at least 50 meters.

'What a daunting place'

Arlo thought

They were approaching 'paradise' but to him it seemed like he was walking to his death. The trees were too big, its branches were too big, he felt weak, vulnerable, and pathetic compared to it.

To Arlo the trees were giving off an aura of death, yet this made Arlo even more curious about 'paradise'. For now, all he could see was large trees, moss on the ground and at the bottom of the trees, overgrown vines and lots of flowers.

The group lingered just outside 'paradise'

'Why have we stopped?'

Arlo was confused as to why they weren't walking, they had been standing still in the same place for quite a while now. He was going to ask Sasha, but just then sounds of rustling leaves came from above.

Glancing above, Arlo saw a large figure hiding in the shadows, its eyes were piercing through him, a sudden wave of fear coursed through his entire body.

The monster kept glaring at them, not moving a single inch. It was the protector of 'paradise'.

'Wow, It's judging us to see if we have any ill intent towards 'paradise', but how can it tell if we do or don't? Is it able to understand our emotions or read our minds?'

Many questions came to his mind but not a single answer.

"Don't worry everybody, we are followers it won't harm us"

Yelled the man, his voice was eccentric..a bit to eccentric.

With that they continued walking and finally entered 'paradise'.

The Overgrown vines kept blocking their path, so they would momentarily stop and let one of the two protectors to slash it.

As they kept walking deeper and deeper, Sasha's started to panick, her hands were violently shaking and she was breathing very heavily. She seemed to be on the verge of collapsing right their.

"Sasha, are you okay? You are trembling a lot, is anything worrying you?"

She glanced at him for a moment, then kept staring at the ground, her mouth was shaking whilst she muttered

"It doesn't matter Arlo, we can't do anything about it anymore"

Her response sounded very ominous

'Can't do anything anymore? Huh'

Arlo curiously thought, to him, her response sounded like they were in very deep trouble which they couldn't escape.

"If we get our self in trouble, I'll definitely find a way, so don't worry to much Sasha"

He quite confidently said, the situation didn't look too dire to him, so he was quite confident in himself. They had already reached 'paradise' so their pilgrimage was basically over, which also meant that this trial was going to end. What could possibly go wrong in such a short amount of time.

She smiled a bit

"Thanks Arlo, I feel better now"

With a smile on his face as well , they continued to walk through the trees at a slow pace.

The journey was coming to a close, which made Arlo happy and also a bit sad because the friend he had made will soon disappear.

Arlo didn't have many friends in the real world, so knowing that Sasha will disappear, made his heart ache a bit.

'I gotta cherish every moment'

He thought

The trial in itself hadn't been too bad for Arlo, his luck for once had been good.

Arlo was lost in thought, wondering about everything that had happened to him during his trial. At the start he was ready for the worst, but this whole thing hadn't been that awful, just really tiresome. One thing that was constantly bothering him was his purpose in this trial, he had no clue as to why makutu had created this situation. What was he meant to do here?

"We are here, Arlo"

Said Sasha in quite a panicked tone, Arlo glanced at her for moment before looking in front of him.

He saw a vast open space, with green grass and a couple flowers blooming from the ground. This open space was shaped like a circle, with a pond in its center and next to it was a rectangular brick block which was coming out of the ground and it was also strangely covered in blood.

"I guess we are"

Arlo said with a faint smile on his face, Sasha glanced at him with a sadden face, then she looked ahead

"If we get ourself in trouble, you will protect me right Arlo?"

Arlo found her behaviour very suspicious, but they were so close to finishing this trial, so it didn't really matter what he said

"Yes Sasha, I will"

A while later she softly said

"You promise?"

With a smile on his face, he confidently said

"Yes Sasha, I promise I'll protect you"

Hearing this made a small smile appear on her face

"Thank you"

Arlo was acting quite confident because he knew that this trial was going to end. Their was no reason to be scared, this trial was 99 percent done anyway, so showing off by saying he would protect her wasn't going to be hard.

Seeing the finish line made Arlo start to wonder about the change that will occur to his body. He was going to evolve which would result in him gaining a power. This made Arlo really excited, he wished for some really cool power like controlling fire or being able to fly.

Whilst he was pondering, the group continued to walk to the centre of the open space. The pond was a beautiful blue colour and reflected the sky perfectly, however the block next to it started to look creeper the closer they got to it.

As Arlo looked around,he couldn't help himself but feel something strange, he couldn't tell what this feeling was. It was a bizarre sensation, something he hadn't felt before. It made him become really panicked and paranoid.

'What is this?, why do I feel so weird?'

Arlo was starting to get restless, so he started looking around, hoping to find some clues. Nothing helped him, untill he layed his eyes on the still pond. Looking at the magnificent bluish pond, made Arlo feel a sense of...…..déjà-vu.

He felt like he had visited this place before, but that wouldn't be possible as this was his first time being here, but was it really?

The pond felt familiar to him, it was like he had been embraced by it before. This whole situation felt oddly familiar, the rectangular block was also starting to feel familiar.

It started to feel like he had visited this place many times, but oddly enough this was his first time being here.

'What is this strange feeling?'

His senses were going off, it felt like his mind was collapsing from the sudden realisation he had gotten.

The darkness that had consumed him at the very start, must have been the pond he was staring at, that's why it felt so familiar. The pond must have some kind of time travel powers, which allowed Arlo to go back to the beginning of the trial, and start again. It all felt really familiar, so then how many times had he sunk to bottom of this pond and started all over again. Just how many times had he reached 'paradise' before?

But, it was all just so bizzare

Arlo had managed to realise that he had done this before, which also meant that in his past cycles he had also realised this phenomenon. So why was it that he continued to jump into the depths of this pond? What had forced him to continue to repeat the same cycle all over again?

This déjà-vu led to him remembering a conversation he had previously

"You promised to protect me Arlo"

"I'm sorry Sasha"

This was all so strange to him, Arlo hadn't said he wasn't sorry to Sasha, yet it felt like he had before.

His eyes slowly widened

The conversation he was remembering must have been from the past cycles

He was unable to keep his promise to her, which meant that she had died.

Arlo quickly started to look around for any monsters that were hiding among the trees. Their was no movement and he couldn't see any vicious monsters.

'Then, who attacks us?'

As Arlo pondered, Sasha quickly walked towards him in a panicked manner, she stopped right infront of him

As quietly as possible she said

"Arlo help me, I don't want to die"

His heart skipped a beat

'Die, how does she know she's going to die?'

Before Arlo could respond to her

The tall, blond hair protector dropped the brown sacks he was carrying, raised the black sword which he was holding in his right hand and yelled

"Everyone gather around"

He then took a big breath in and exhaled slowly

What he said next made every hair on Arlo's body to stand up

"The sacrificial offerings will begin"