Recap
It was then we heard a rustle in the bushes near by. The bugs that were in the area scattered, and the grass slowly bended to reveal another person behind them.

The figure growled at us, and hoisted its bow up so fast I could barely see it move, the shiny, silver arrow head pointing straight at us. "Who are you!?" The voice of the figure hissed. "And what are you doing here!?"
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My body urged me backwards at the sight of the arrowhead. I leaped back and felt my skin brush against Keith's arms, my face and his were frozen in shock. The figure hissed again, "answer me!" It spat. A small whimper escaped my mouth at the loud voice seeping into my ears. Keith seemed to notice and pulled me slightly closer, or maybe I was just looking into the details too much. "We.. we aren't here to hurt you!" I screamed back, focusing on the small drop of courage I had left in me. Oh my god.. I was gonna die here.

The persons eyes softened, the once dilated, square shaped pupils now relaxed. It was then that the arrow was lowered and the figure stepped out of the dark shrubs. A small girl stepped out, she had one patch of white hair and the rest that covered her head was pitch black. It was cut into a pixie, but her bangs still hung over her yellow eyes. Tangly vines dotted with flowers snakes up her arms and neck, staying clear of the brown leather bodice that covered her torso. It wasn't until I looked down after fully taking in her appearance that I realized.. she didn't have feet. She didn't have legs. Well she did have legs but she didn't have human ones. Her entire bottom half from just below her belly button was a horse. A soft black coat with long tufts of hair was in place of her human legs. I heard Keith gasp, and the girl stepped back slightly.

"W-woah!!" I couldn't hold in my awe. The woman stared at me, then eyed Keith. "Your a centaur.." Keith murmured, not tearing his eyes away from the sight in front of us. Her lips began to curl into a small grin, then she spoke. "And how did you know what I was?" Her voice was soft but deeper then I expected it to be. I could hear a strong sense of pride when she spoke, it made me smile just a little. Keith jumped at the question and stuttered a bit. He took a deep breath and collected himself. "I.. I read about it in the book. The book that helped us get here.." he said, then began to stand up. I stood up with him, since we were stronger together. I reached out my hand. "M-My names Lance.. Lance McClain." I said then realized what I was doing and started to pull my hand back. Before I could pull it away the girl took it and smiled. "And mine would be Kurona. But just call me Kuro."  She turned towards Keith, giving me a view of the small white spots that littered her body. "Uh.. mines Keith Kogane." Keith nodded to her. There was a small moment of silence until the girl, now known as Kuro spoke. "You spoke of a book. Could you perhaps tell me what the book had on it?" Her face suddenly became serious, her strong features twisting in confidence. "Well it had a symbol on it. A triangle, with three stars shooting from it. It was circled by a ring." Once those words left Keith's mouth, Kuros face brightened and her hooves started to trot a little in excitement.

"You mean you read the Book Of Truth!? Oh my god this is glorious!" Kuro grabbed mine and Keith's arms and tugged at them. "Follow me!" And with that she had begun trotting threw the thick forest. Keith and I followed close behind, gazing up at everything that we passed. The thick, rubbery grass crunched and crinkled under mine and Keith's feet. I looked back to the sky, then to the glowing trees. I found it interesting. "Hey Kuro, why does everything in this place glow?" I asked, plucking a leaf from a low hanging tree and knotting it in my hands. "Well in Dowahana, it's always nighttime. Always midnight. And so everything in nature glows so we can see." She replied, slowing down to walk beside me. "I'm gonna take a wild guess here and assume Dowahana is the name of the world we are in right now?" Keith added and Kuro nodded. "Indeed. Now please keep a steady pace! I can answer more questions when we get to camp." And again, Kuro quickened her stride to be just ahead of us. Keith drifted over to me and smiled. "Bet you didn't expect this." He whispered to me and quietly laughed a little. All I could do was roll my eyes. "No Keith, I didn't expect to get swallowed by a magical tree and meet a centaur lady." I retorted back in a whisper, which made Keith's smirk grow.

After what seemed like days of walking, I saw shadows a little ways ahead of us. The silhouettes resembled a house-like structure, while the other looked like another person. I strained my neck forward a bit to try and see the shadows in better detail, trying to be subtle but failing terribly. "We've arrived!" Kuro exclaimed excited, and bounced over to the figure. Keith sped up his pace to keep up and I followed close behind him. Once we were close enough I saw a man, another centaur just like Kuro. When I say just like Kuro, I really mean just that. This boy had the same black hair with the small tuft of white at the front, his a little shorter. The man towered over me, and was even slightly taller then Kuro. His body had the same black coat as the other centaur but had way more dots, that invaded his entire body. The last thing I couldn't help but to notice was that he was ripped. Completely and utterly ripped. "Lance, Keith. Allow me to introduce you to my twin brother. His name is Shirogane." Kuro started but the other cut her off. "Call me Shiro." He said with a smile, his speech was a lot less formal then that of his sisters. I looked to my right to see Keith nodding at him, a big dazzling smile plastered across his face. For some reason this made me oddly annoyed, my brows spiked with jealousy. Wait.. I'm not jealous! I barely even know this guy, plus because of him I'm in a world with half horse people and strange bugs. I rolled my eyes and turned my head away from the two. Instead I focused my attention on the sky above me. It was still pretty, but even more pretty in Dowahana. All the stars were bright and big, thousands of small strings of stardust's connected them all. Splashes of different colours blended together to create a nice, blue-purple sky, with some hints of pink shining through the thick blanket of colour.

"Do you like the sky?" I heard someone speak to me. A little embarrassed I looked away and found Shiro standing in front of me. I looked around for the other two but to no avail. "Don't worry," he spoke. "Your friend and Kuro went to set up a place for you boys to sleep." I gave a small head bob to acknowledge his words then looked down at the floor. When I looked back up, Shiro had gotten slightly closer to me, giving me a better view of his body. I guess he caught my small stare because he chuckled and used his hand to bring my head back up to meet his eyes. "My eyes are up here." I felt my face twist into a dumbstruck look after those words left his mouth. I had a quick need to defend myself. "What!? O-Of course they are! I know that! It's not like I was looking at anything anyways." I spat, annoyed. I expected Shiro to be offended by my sudden defensiveness but he just smiled even bigger. After a moment of just looking at each other Shiro broke the silence. "So, what's your name then?" "Lance." I replied plainly, playing with the oversized swim shirt I still had on from the beach, the journal of my grandpa held tight in my clasp. "Lance. That's a unique name I must say." Shiro sat down on the floor, and I sat down next to him. I had nothing to loose at this point so why bother being scaredy-cat? "And may I ask what you have in your hand?" The man eyed the book. I brought it out in front of me, and leaned over so Shiro could see. "It's my star log. My grandpa gave it to me about two weeks before he got ill. Said he found it on the beach one evening and decided to fill it up."
"May I see it?" He asked and I nodded, surrendering the journal to his care. Shiro started to flip through the pages, and suddenly gasped when he reached the back page. "Your book.. it has the symbol of ancient on it!" He exclaimed and I puckered my lips in confusion. He looked back at me in the eyes. "Oh right, you've never been here before." He handed me back the book and sighed. "Well you see, the stories we are told since birth are things that every creature living here knows about. Basically the story goes like this."

"A long time ago, before the sky went black and the plants gave off hue, two deity's existed. Dara, the ruler of time, light and peace, and Fray, the ruler of darkness, life and beauty. These two goddesses lived together in friendship, and love. One day, Fray grew restless of just ruling over plant life. She wanted to create beings similar to her, so that one day Fray could retire from her spot as ruler with a successor taking her place. But Dara insisted that if Fray were to create anything other then those bound to nature, the entire realm would be extinguished by the chaos it would bring with it. Fray listened to her dear partner Dara for centuries, until one night the two got into a horrendous fight. It's said the fight broke out when Dara insisted she be the sole ruler of the realm they called Dowahana. Fray was furious with betrayal, and out of spite and terror for her future, she created a single egg. In this egg contained Frays successor, a creature with sentient life and a will to survive and care. Fray set her egg in the forest and awaited it to hatch, but unfortunately Dara had become aware of her beloveds plan before the egg could hatch. The corrupted goddess flew into a rage, she smashed the egg and declared that Dowahana would no longer receive her blessings. Thus Dara disappeared, never seen by again from Fray. Because of the deity's lack of attendance, Dowahana became laced in darkness, and time slowed down, creating permanent nightfall for all the land. Fray decided to start to rebuild her world, and created many different types of creatures to inhabit the ground, and some to inhabit the sky's. Overtime the society was growing strong, but the overwhelming influence of darkness created a horrible evil. To keep her people safe, Fray made all of the plant life glow with the essence of the goddess herself. In the fit of this big change, Fray created two key items. The Journal of guidance, and the Book of Truth. These items are still incredibly important, and sustain the life of Dowahana today and for centuries to come."

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Damnnn that was a ton of backstory, I hope y'all have kept up!
So for those of you wondering I intend to have a rivalry in the romance aspect of this book thingy.
Also super sorry for the late update. My finals are coming up so I will have less time to write and stuff. I hope y'all can look past that detail.
Plus thank you for all the reads I've received, it really kinda boosts my confidence a smidgeon.
Ok byeeeee!

Pronunciation: Dowahana ( Dow- A- Ha-Na)