Set in the Arcadia Universe, where the gods have allowed men to wield powers beyond our wildest dreams. How this power is used, however, is totally up to the bearer and they have the three choices. Be a hero, a villain, or live their lives like the...
After lunch, we cleaned up around the campsite a bit and then proceeded to enjoy the rest of the afternoon in any way we saw fit. Mom pulled out a romance novel displaying the name "The Love We Share" and sat beneath a tree near the pond and became fully unconscious to the world around her.
Dad pulled out a folder of papers and notes and spread them out on the floor of his tent where he could study and analyze them without the breeze causing havoc. They looked important and had pictures of persons on them, along with what looked like bio data.
On further examination of my surroundings, I realized that Grandpa was nowhere to be found. I walked down to the pond bank and peered across the pond, straining my eyes to see if he was sitting on the tree stump.
Unfortunately, he wasn't there either.
I sighed.
I guess it's just me then, at least, for the while. And by the looks of it, that while could be for the next few hours. I decided to take a stroll down the path that I went for firewood the other day.
I grabbed my binoculars from my bag in my tent and started from the campsite along the path.
As I walk, I scan the trees and brush for fauna, especially squirrels, but this evening was especially quiet. No birds were chirping, the air was calm and breeze refused to blow.
It was dead calm, so calm and quiet that it was unnatural. That's what happens when you live in the city, you're not accustomed to this level of quiet.
I took a deep breath. As I inhaled, I felt the calm of the environment swamp me and I was at peace.
As I walked past the tree where I fell two days aback, I look for the root that broke when I tripped, but to my surprise, it was nowhere to be found.
"That's odd. I could have sworn I fell on one of these"
I circle the tree, carefully looking at each protruding root.
I scratch my head. "I must have missed it"
I circle the tree once more.
"Looking for root you broke or trying to break another one?"
I swing around suddenly as I heard the voice, ironically tripping on another root.
"Ouch" I gasped as I hit the ground.
I fumbled and scrambled back to my feet toward the stranger, feeling humiliated that I fell in front of him.
He was a little taller than me and had sandy brown hair and a tanned complexion. He had a disgruntled expression on his face.
"You saw that?"
"I felt it, and it hurt" he said
I was confused. Did I trip on him or a tree root?
He sighed. "Alright, come on. I have to get back. Your grandfather is waiting"
"My grandfather?"
"Yes, now come quickly" he hurried me as he turned and started walking.
I started with a quick pace to not get left behind.
"I'm sorry if I tripped on you. I didn't see anyone there"
He looked at me, silently studying me for a minute before letting out a horrendous fit of laughter.
After he sobered up, he looked at me once more.
"So you think I would be randomly sitting on the ground by a tree at dusk?"
"Well...... you said-"
"I know what I said, do you?"
I became quiet. This man was odd. Suddenly, I got an idea.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
When I opened my eyes, the world around me shone bright. The man was shining bright blue in front of me.
Looking around, all the trees, shrubs and bushes around us also shone blue.
I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. When I reopened my eyes, I was still seeing astral.
I sighed, here we go again.
When I finally got it to turn off, he was talking, without realizing that I had been ignoring him this entire time.
He then turned around.
"You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost"
"Yeah, uhhh..... I'm okay."
he then went back talking about some adventure he went on, I paid little attention however because I didn't know what he had said before, and I was thinking about what he said.
"Well, here we are." he announced.
"Hmm" I looked up.
We had arrived at a cottage, cleverly hidden away in the woods, with a little stream passing nearby.
"You like?"
"It's not too bad"
He smiled. "Hey Jeremiah! Look who I found" he shouted as we approached the door.
The door swung open and my Grandpa opened the door with a smile that instantly transformed into a frown.
"Nate?" he asked in confusion.
"Grandpa!" I ran up to him.
"What's going on here?" Grandpa asked the fellow who was standing smiling broadly looking at us.
"That's the fellow that broke the root, I was telling you about that remember." and he proceeded to recount the story.
"I was sleeping the other night and then suddenly, I felt a short sharp pain. That's what happens when there is a disturbance in the forest. So I flew off the bed, flung on my clothes and ran to the spot where it came from, to see a broken root, with the broken part nowhere to be found. So I creep up the path a bit, to see a kid, heaving a bundle of wood at snail's pace over the track. I was going to intercept him until I heard voices shouting and the kid meeting with them. So I snuck around and saw your face." He pointed to me. "Then I saw your face" He pointed to Grandpa. "Then I-"
"Can you please hurry up, it's getting late"
"Oh right, yes. So when we were talking, I felt the tree roots being walked on again. I thought it could either be a lumberjack or you" He pointed to me again.
"So I rushed out and headed there, and what do you know? Here he is"
He's smiling broadly again.
"Thanks for finding him, Andrew" Grandpa said, and I could detect a little playfulness in his voice and I laughed, internally.
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*** A/N:
And I'm back guys. Took me really long to get this figured out, but I didn't want to keep you all waiting too long. Hope you enjoy this chapter, it's just more of a filler chapter, but action soon. Any ideas? Also, what do you guys think of the new graphics?
