"Guess that settles it. Tomorrow at dawn, we're leaving for Xiopia."

--------------

As they had planned the evening before, Celina was already up at the crack of dawn, checking the arrows in her quiver and filling her supply bag with all the travelling essentials they had found around the strange house. Slugging them both over her shoulder, the female stepped outside, breathing the fresh cool air as she looked overhead towards the forest. It did occur to her that there seemed to be no visible path anywhere around the mysterious house, though she suspected it was merely a form of magic casted by the even more mysterious old woman, whom she hadn't seen since last evening's chat.

"Good morning" 

Celina quickly turned her head to face the newcomer, who happened to be her travelling partner. She couldn't help a slight smile at his messy hair that stuck up in different directions and his squinting as he glanced around with his bag hanging from his shoulder. So he was not an early riser it seemed, much unlike herself. Training in the ways of a hunter, she was used to waking up and being alert at the oddest of times. "Glad you could join me. I was starting to think I had to go off on this journey on my own."

Wren didn't respond, instead making a sound resembling a huff as he crossed his arms and joined her down the steps. It was still too early to start an argument with a sort-of stranger. "Alright, so to get to Xiopia, the best way would be by ship, but quite frankly I'm not sure where in Cresselia we really are and how we are ever going to get to the port on foot with all this forest."

"Now, who ever said anything about going on foot?" As if on cue, the mysterious old lady made her way towards them out of seemingly nowhere, two strong looking stallions in tow. "They will take you to the edge of the kingdom, to the main port. As for how to get through all the forest, you must trust your inner force to guide you." She explained, letting the two guardians approach their rides. 

Both were easily entranced by their horses as they secured their bags and got on with relative ease, which was rather surprising considering that by the lack of a saddle, one could assume they were wild stallions. Of course, in their delight, they seemed to have tuned out half of the old woman's words, and hadn't even noticed that she had disappeared once more until Celina pointed it out. 

"Did she disappear again? And was that patch always there?" She frowned as a part of the forest had suddenly moved, revealing a narrow path, much like the one both of them had gone through to get to this house the day before.

"I'm really starting to hate when she does that.." Wren grumbled, before looking up ahead. "Uhm definitely not, but I'm still too tired to question our luck so..shall we?" Of course, the boy was used to the existence of common magic and had often read stories of intriguing creatures that lived in the cresselian woods, but the thought of entire trees just moving and settling down somewhere else as if they had always been there? It was rather unsettling. Luckily for him, Celina merely shrugged, before leading her horse down the path first, with him following close behind.

And so, the two guardians-in-training set off on their journey to the port city of Andros. Of course, currently neither had any idea as to where exactly they were, or which way to go, but luckily the forest seemed to be more than willing to part ways and clear a path for the two of them. It did make Celina wonder. Was this the magic of the witch? Or of the forest itself? And why did she feel a tingling sensation through her body, as if the trees were responding to her  presence? This couldn't be her own powers over plant life, could it? She had never done something so big as to part an entire forest before. There had to be some sort of explanation for this, and she couldn't wait to find it. 

"Hey Celina look, there's a road!" 

It was around noon when the companions made it out of the forest, the horses slowing into a trot as they made it onto one of the main roads. Wren looked more than relieved to finally see a road, which meant that there must have been a village or town nearby. "We must be getting somewhere, maybe we can take a break here to eat?" 

Celina nodded, hopping down her horse as she scanned the area. It wasn't really a road she recognized, then again she spent more time in forests than anywhere else. Nevertheless, she was thankful for the break, rummaging through her bag for some food, as well as an apple that she held gingerly for her horse to eat. She peered momentarily at her travel companion who had gotten off his horse as well, taking a swig of his water before offering the rest to his stallion, before diverting her attention to the road once more. "We might be getting somewhere as you said, but I can't recognize any of the roads here. Any ideas which path we should take?" She motioned the fork in the road a bit further away.

"I can't say exactly where we are, but maybe I can find out which way to go."

"How exactly are you going to do that? It's not like there is anyone around we can ask. And no forest to guide us." Celina crossed her arms as she narrowed her eyes at him. Truthfully, she might have been missing the forest at the moment. At least then, there was only one path to follow, without the two having to really think about where they were and where they had to go. 

The boy merely smiled at her. "Who said anything about asking a person?" He made his way towards the fork, kneeling over to touch the ground. Closing his eyes momentarily, he went silent, focusing solely on the earth underneath him. Surely enough, the earth rumbled a bit under his touch, much to Celina's surprise. Wren then opened his eyes and got up, wiping the sweat off his forehead as he walked back over to his horse. "Right path. We have to head east to get to Andros."

"And you're sure we have to head that way because..."

"The rocks told me."

"Right. Of course, the rocks told you. That makes sense."

Wren gave her a mocking look as he climbed back on his horse. "Okay, more accurately, the earth did, through the rocks. But let's not pretend that's the strangest thing that's happened so far."

"Are you sure about that? It's definitely up there on my list of top strange experiences." 

And so, the riders headed east towards Andros, of course not without Celina teasing Wren by asking questions such as "Do each of the rocks have a different voice?" or "How can the earth speak without any vocal organs?", all questions that the latter happily ignored. 

By nightfall, the adventurers finally made it to the beautiful port city of Andros, though as soon as they had gotten off and grabbed their bags, the wild stallions galloped back towards the nearby greenlands, leaving the travellers stranded.

With little choice, the two made their way to a nearby inn to procure a map and some information on any ship heading for Xiopia in the near future. Fortunately, and almost too conveniently, both tasks proved to be rather easy, as there was a passenger ship heading out later that very same night. 

"Well, shall we head out tonight? The next ship doesn't leave until another 2, perhaps even 3 weeks." 

"It's not like we have much of a choice. The sooner we go, the sooner we can find this third guardian, and get some answers about our powers." 

He was right. "Very well then. We'll be out at sea for a few days before we reach xiopian shores. I was going to go buy more provisions but I'm not sure how much coins we could need for a ship ride."

Wren glanced around, then patted his pouch. "I think I brought just about enough to purchase two entries, go ahead and meet me back at the docks." 

The girl nodded as she watched him pull his hood over his head and disappear towards the docks, unsure of whether she was to trust him that easily. After all, she had known him for little over a day, and despite her instincts telling her he was being honest about getting two entries, she still couldn't help but keep her guard up. Quickly making her purchases, she made it to the docks, cursing herself when she couldn't catch sight of him. So he had really left? She knew she shouldn't have trusted him-

"Celina!" Wren called out loudly from aboard the ship to get her attention, waving a hand that held two entry passes to tell her to get on. "What are you waiting there for? The kingdom of war and wizardry won't explore itself!" 

A/N:

Hey guys! Sorry for the wait, I was supposed to update during my march break, but after the whole COVID-19, everything got a bit chaotic and busy. I hope you're all doing well and feel free to post any comments, good or bad! Take care of yourselves and your family : )