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wow - awesome chapter - 1 freaky setting but i like it - it would be a intresting anime c: i like your style of writing because i can visulise it all in my mind C: nice work <3

That was a nice quote there Blood!!~

Your style of writing is brilliant! It's nice and simple to read, it's fun to read, and I too can visualize everything!!

Wicked sweet!!~ xD

A grassy plain surrounded the small village. All the houses were log cabins, mostly single-floored houses. However, Ida lived in a rather fancy double-storied house, at the very tip of the village closest to the forest. She was on the roof of the house, silently observing the great forest in the far distance. The last time she went there, she yelled at Ylva. Looking back on it, she thought, things could’ve been done differently.

“I didn’t have to yell at her, did I?” She quietly asked herself, her legs bent as she looked at some birds flying above the forest. “I mean, she didn’t treat me badly at all. She talked to me, gladly accepted the gifts I brought for her… I didn’t have to treat her like she was some criminal…” She lowered her head, her eyes still observing the birds. “I mean, I don’t think I should have been nice to her, but I don’t know if yelling really solved anything…”

The breeze picked up slightly, ruffling her hoodie slightly. She wore a green skull cap, a black hoodie and a pair of blue jeans. She would usually be packing by now, as it was only 7 A.M., but she knew she would not be welcomed back into the forest. She had stepped on flowers, snapped branches, and paid no heed to the animals. She involved the forest in her own affairs.

It was unforgivable.

“Bringing pain to the forest is bad enough, but harming it carelessly…” She sighed, looking downward, no longer watching at the birds. She sighed again, exhaling more air than last time. She didn’t know how to remedy the problem. She stood up, climbing back into her cabin room through the window.

“Ida! I thought I told you not to climb up onto the roof!” A man called out, climbing up the stairs. There were two different noises as he climbed though, one heavier than the other. The man wore sunglasses, and one hand held a cane. This man was Ida’s older brother, Joachim. He was blind.

“I know I told you as much.” Joachim continued, standing at the door to Ida’s room. “Doing dangerous things is, well… dangerous! You might fall off the roof and hurt yourself!” He took a step forward, his cane moving ahead of him so he could stay balanced. “Even if it IS a flat roof and we have a small fence to make sure no one falls off…” He started realizing that he wasn’t thinking before he spoke. He blushed slightly, realizing that he just embarrassed himself.

“Joachim, I’m very careful up there.” She stated in a matter-of-fact fashion, her voice slightly deep because of it. “I’ve never once fallen from the roof, and neither has anyone else in the family.” She looked at Joachim as she walked closer to him. He only stood there, looking over to where he heard his sister.

Joachim began speaking again, moving his vane in an odd fashion as he spoke. “Our parents are in town getting supplies, and I don’t want anything to happen to you while they’re gone! Remember that one time I went to the forest when they weren’t here!?” He pointed to his eyeglasses, leaving a fingerprint on the lens.

Ida looked downward, avoiding the unseeing eyes of her brother. “Don’t remind me….” She sighed, walking back over towards the window. “You came back, your front torso covered in blood and your eyes missing…” She shuddered as she spoke, the memories creeping back into her mind. “You kept screaming about a girl in the Forest who whacked you in the eyes so hard she blinded you... It was terrifying.” She was slightly calmer when she said that, but her voice was still rather shaky.

“That’s why I’m telling you to stay here! While they’re at the market, I have to trust you to stay here! You always left after you asked our parents, but I don’t want you leaving when they aren’t around. If you were to go blind, too…” He paused for a moment, unable to continue speaking. A small tap on the window distracted him, throwing off his concentration. “What’s tapping against your window? It ruined the moment.” He pouted slightly as he said this, upset that he didn’t get to say anything cool.

Ida looked out the window, seeing nothing in particular. She saw some smoke coming from a chimney a few houses down, but otherwise nothing. “I’m not sure what it wa-“ she paused, looking downward. She noticed a small, bright green bird and a purple chipmunk. Ida tilted her head slightly, her mind drawing a complete blank. “… Joachim?” She began, turning her head slightly towards her brother. “Was anyone using paint nearby?”

“Uh… No, no, not that I can recall…” He held his hand under his chin, trying to remember if he smelled any paint. “There were a few people complaining about some birds and rodents being awfully loud. Louder than usual, anyway…” He began walking towards Ida, his cane hitting the floor with a bang. Ida opened the window to get a closer look at the two animals.

Just as she was about to pet the chipmunk, however, the green bird flew straight past Ida, causing her to spin around to look. The bird landed on Joachim’s shoulder, gently and elegantly. “Hm?” Joachim moved his hand over to the bird, petting it on the head. “What’s a bird doing inside?” He thought out loud, sliding back most of his fingers, except for his index. “This is its head, right? Feathers, beak… Yup, definitely the head.” He moved a single finger over the top of the bird’s smooth head, the bird itself looking over at Ida.

“Um… Joachim, I don’t know if that’s a bird…” Ida began, the chipmunk in the window now crawling onto her arm. Ida looked down at the creature, tilting her head slightly. “For that matter, I’m fairly certain that I know who this bird is.” Ida looked over towards Joachim, her eyes focusing on the green bird on his shoulder. The bird stared back intently, not twitching for even a moment.

“It seems that my choice of colors were not as wise a choice as I thought.” The bird exclaimed, now looking at Joachim’s cheek. “Admittedly, I knew you would recognize the color choice, but I would have thought that you would be confused enough to not think about it.” The bird fluttered upward, than quickly descended onto the floor. “Your brother over there is a bit dense, too… Like he’s always been.”

“Is that… Is that voice…?” Joachim was stuttering, recalling the memories that the bird’s voice invoked. “I-Ida… Who’s this-this person?” Joachim turned towards Ida, shaking slightly.

“Uh… This is… Ylva.” Ida slowly stated the fact, the small chipmunk moving over towards Joachim. Her voice was low and slightly upset, knowing that Joachim would not react well.

She was right.

“Why the hell did you let them in!?” Joachim yelled, waving his arms so the bird would fly away. The chipmunk jumped back, retreating towards Ida once again. “She nearly killed me! You met the make-believe creature who almost—“

“She exists.” Ida interrupted, the chipmunk once again resting on her arm. “She is not make-believe. If she DID hurt you, then she DOES exist.” Ida looked over at Joachim, then back over at Ylva. “I realized that any creature that lives on this Earth, whether seen or not, must be treated as such: a fellow life.” Joachim was silent, while Ida let the chipmunk onto the floor.

“Well said.” Ylva stated, landing in the middle of the room. “I came today to prove my innocence, however. I would have done so a long time ago, but he would not listen to me. You, however, might.” Ylva looked over at Ida, a small grin appearing on her face.

Ylva began changing, the feathers disappearing from her body. Her hair grew alongside her body, while her arms and legs began their growth. Oddly enough, she was still wearing the same dress Ida gave her. Ida couldn’t believe this; Ylva still wore the dress Ida brought to her, even though Ida treated her terribly. Why?

“Now, I brought a guest along to clarify.” Ylva pointed towards the chipmunk that was resting on Ida’s shoulder. “Her name is Nina, and she is a dear friend of mine. Of course, Joachim may already know of who I speak of.” Ida looked over at Joachim, who was looking downward at the floor. The chipmunk was already moving towards the center of the room.

Suddenly, another change occurred. The chipmunk began her transformation into a human. Her arms grew out, her hands on the floor, her legs lengthened behind her. Her hair grew down her back, dark colored and slightly curly near the ends. Her eyes were a dark purple with slightly small iris’. She smirked as she stood up after her transformation.

“Hello, nice to meet you. I’m Nina, the person who blinded the dumbass looking at the floor.” She pointed towards Joachim, who was still looking down at the floor. Ida twitched for a moment, her eyes widening to the point where her iris’ shrunk. Joachim turned away, while Ylva looked over at Nina and sighed heavily.

“Nina, I’m here to explain, not to invoke. We came to get our point across and nothing else.” Ylva gave a focused glare at Nina, who was now completely silent. To Ida, it seemed to be that Nina knew who was boss.

“Wait…” Ida began, her voice slightly shaky. “You… You blinded my brother?...” Nina looked over at Ida, Nina chuckling under her breath. “You caused him all this suffering?...”

“Yeah, pretty much.” She grinned wider, looking over at Joachim. “He came into our Forest and tried to get Ylva to fall in love with him. Didn’t work, though, and he kept going after her until I put a stop to it.” She glanced at Ida, her chin resting on the back of her hand. “Ylva was being a sissy about stopping him, so I removed the one sense most humans need to traverse through our Forest.” She chuckled again, much lower than last time.

“You… You… I…” Ida was speechless and completely flabbergasted, unable to speak a word. Joachim was still silent. Ylva slowly made her way to Ida, bending down and leaning on one knee.

“I am sorry for what happened to your brother. I never expected her to harm him. I thought she would only frighten him into not returning, not outright hurting him.” She had her head hanging low, unable to look at Ida. “I am truly sorry. I apologize for all of her actions. I am not asking for forgiveness, but for Joachim and his family to be able to blame me for these atrocities and move on with their lives.”

Joachim was finally looking upward, towards Ida and Ylva. Ida was looking down at Ylva, who was still looking down at the floor. Nina leaned against the wall, silently observing the scene.

Joachim took a slow first step towards Ylva, ending as soon as he stood beside her. He reached his hand downward towards her, his palm open. “I… honestly don’t know whether to accept the apology or not, but the fact that you hurt me and came here to say sorry means a lot to me…” Ylva took the hand, already rising up onto her own two feet.

“What? I never saw you before you lost your eyes.” She responded, a look of confusion upon her face.

“… Huh?” Joachim twisted his head slightly, looking over at Nina. “I saw you with sharp claws coming right towards me. I only saw you for a moment, but you had bright green eyes and darker hair than usual.” Joachim twisted his head to the other side now, while Ylva’s eyes widened while looking over at Nina.

“You… Nina, what did you do!?” Ylva demanded, walking right over to Nina. “Why were you trying to imitate me!?” Nina chuckled slightly, putting her hands behind her head.

“The easiest way to fool someone is to throw their guard off, and he had a soft enough spot for you for me to confuse him.” She took a few steps, walking past Ylva and Joachim. She looked over at Ida, smirked, and headed towards the window. “If the person he loved were to attack him… That terrified him more than enough to stay away from us.” She chuckled, and started turning back into a chipmunk. “And all these years, he thought it was you. No wonder you dragged me back here.” She jumped out the window, landing on a small tree and scurrying her way back to the Forest.

Joachim stood there for a moment, silently contemplating everything Nina said. “… I… She… She acted as you, and I held that hatred towards you for all those years?...” Joachim leaned against the wall and slowly slid down until he sat. Ylva looked over, her eyes filled with regret. She reached out her hand to put on his shoulder to consolidate him, but was pulled away by Ida.

“Ylva…” Ida began, her right arm rubbing her left, trying to think of the words she wanted to say. “I… I shouldn’t have said those things in the Forest. I don’t know whether I had the right to be angry at you or not, but I know that I shouldn’t have disrespected you or your home. I’m sorry…” As Ida finished her last two words, Ylva put her hand on Ida’s head, on her skull cap.

“I accept your apology. You had every right to be angry with me, but I am glad we can forgive one another. However…” She looked over at Joachim, who had his head in his bent legs, silently thinking, possibly weeping. “I worry for him. Many revelations were revealed today, and one surprise can be more than enough for a lot of people…” Ida smiled, lifting Ylva’s arm off of her head.

“I’ll see to it that he’s fine. You have nothing to worry about except for that Nina girl.” Ida stepped to the side, walking slightly past Ylva before turning around. “I’ll come see you in the Forest after things have settled down. Make sure to be ready for me.” Ida smiled, as did Ylva.

“I will. I assure you.” With that, Ylva jumped out of the window, quickly flying away as a bird with green feathers. Many chirps could be heard around the house that Ida and Joachim resided in, sensing that a grave error has been cleared up. Ida sat alongside Joachim, conversing with him as he tried to recover from his terrible mistake. And all the while, the wind died down.

The balance of nature, and all of the problems that come with it, has been restored.


FINALLY. Fudging FINALLY. I'm REALLY sorry it took so long. Tell me what you think. ;_;

Aha, so that's what happened.. biggrin
I love it, thank you so much! I really enjoyed reading this.
And don't worry about the time it took, it was worth the wait (plus I'm far from finished with my part..). whee

I look forward to drawing something from the story now!

Aaah, ok.. The last paragraph just sounded so conclusive.. whee
But cool, I look forward to seeing more!

heart whee