[Trade] Rite plum

Plum stands in front of the Great Forest. It will be her journey to adulthood, to prove herself and reach the Life Tree, growing in the exact center of the forest. She is supposed to take one of the fruits with her, as a trophy, and to show everyone that she was able to find the tree in the big crowded forest, which is also packed with dangers.

Predators roam here. She is aware of that. The forest is very crowded with trees and plants, so getting away easily, and escaping the beasts will be hard. She can only hope she will not come across one. It might already get to her before she is even able to see it. She quickly shakes off the thought, and focuses on what is really already in front of her; the big forest that made her anxious since she heard she would need to travel through here. 

She inhales a few times. 'I can to this I can do this' she thinks to herself. It almost seems to give her some real confidence. She still has goosebumps all over her body, but she probably will not lose those before she walks out of the forest again.

After another long moment she slowly starts to walk toward the forest. She enters it and is almost instantly swallowed into the trees that grow unnaturally close to one another and a whole lot of leaves and plants. She walks around an enormous tree that blocks the way right in front of her.

She looks up to see if flying would be possible, but is does not seem like it. The whole forest here is too crowded with plants. No sunlight seems to be able to get through the thick roof of leaves. A small breeze blows through the forest. It whirls through her fur and leaves goosebumps all over her back. Where the wind is coming from, she can not even guess, she can barely fit past the trees and plants herself.

The trees have dark bark. Together with the dark muddy ground it leaves a dark atmosphere. On the ground are barely recognizable splotches of light that managed to find their way through the bushes. Dust particles float through the small rays of sunlight in every direction. 

The place looks magical, but deadly none the same. Plum feels eyes on her back, watching her. A shiver makes its way through her and she looks back for a second. She hears the rustling of leaves, and then the feeling disappears. She inhales deeply. "Its probably the wind" she tries to reassure herself. It does not seem to work that well though. Her steps are careful and calculated. She looks around herself on every second of the way, scared something will jump out of the shadows and hunt her.

Growling sounds follow her the whole first part of the journey. Then suddenly, it is quiet. Not a sound to be heard. Plum looks around. The silence is suspicious, and scary. Nothing happens though. 

The suddenly a loud roar drums in her ears from behind her. She quickly scurries away and starts to run through the forest, the dense trees and bushes holding her off from using all her speed. She takes a second to look around and notices a monsterous creature running after her. 

While looking back she misses the small ditch in front of her, and she slams down into it when the ground suddenly lowers beneath her. She grunts and squeezes her eyes shut for a second.

Luckily the creature was too late to notice the ditch and it runs right over it. It quickly dashes around to run back at her. 

"Not today" she grumbles to herself. She runs through the ditch. Tree roots and bushes fly over her head past her, and the creature has a hard time trying to track her. It is bigger than her and not able to fit into the ditch. The image of the beasts horrible scarred face is clawing at her eyes and she shakes her head to try and get rid of the image. 

She starts to pant heavily after a while of running. She dashes to the left when the ditch splits up and ducks under the enormous tree root hanging over the ditch. Her breathing comes out ragged while she looks back at the creature that follows the split of the ditch to the right. Its snarling, growling and stomping of its feet can be heard from a while longer until it is finally gone. Plum releases the breath she was holding and collapses on the ground. With the tree root above her she feels like she can rest here for a second. She seems hidden pretty good.

Her legs hurt from the running, and she wishes she could just fly right out of here. But she can not. She still has to find the Life tree within the forest. How she will do it, is the biggest question she has on the moment, but she will continue. There is no going back now. 

A bright yellow light suddenly ignites right in front of her. She dashes backwards and squints her eyes to see what caused it. She recognizes the light as a firefly. She slowly crawls closer to it, and notices there are more of them. 

Slowly standing up she walks forward through the ditch. The fireflies fly around her, glowing a soft yellow light on her back. It is almost like they urge her to walk on forward. So she does. 

The path here is dark, and slowly the ditch evens out with the ground. She walks into a less crowded part of the forest and looks around. The fireflies following her are suddenly gone. It is dark here. The forest is less crowded but the sun still barely seems to get trough the leaves above her. 

Suddenly all around her fireflies ignite their lights. They glow bright and illuminate everything around her. Plum looks around in amazement from the wonderous display. The fireflies fly all around her and over the path in front of her. She can make out her way more clearly now, so she moves forward. She can not rest another time to enjoy this display. She already lost time because of the monster.

The fireflies follow her and illuminate her path for her. She looks arouns at the now yellow colored trees and plants lining the path. Her feet softly thump to the ground with each step she takes. The ground is less muddy here, and she is actually able to move forward a bit easier. She feels small pebbles under her feet mixed with the hardened sand. The pebbles make soft clattering noises when she kicks them around. 

It takes a moment before she finally sees something other than the path she walks on. The fireflies follow her the whole time, as if to watch out for her. She is kind of scared that the fireflies will attract the attention of predators, but she is more happy with the fact that she can finally see where she is going.

She enters a big clearing and her mouth falls open. She is looking right at a place that should only exist in fairy tales. The light from the big tree in front of her gets mixed with that of the fireflies surrounding her. Within seconds she recognizes the place.

The Life Tree.

It is even more beautiful than she could have ever imagined. The leaves of the tree glow brightly in the darkness. Veins of light spread through the bark of the tree into the ground, disappearing into the Secred Spring they told her about. No one has every entered it but 1 drakiri they said. It is a sacred place that should not be entered, so she will not search for it to see what it looks like. 

She slowly inches closer to the tree, afraid that it will suddenly disappear again. The light in the veins of the tree pulse brighter with every step she takes. She could swear one of the branches lowered itself for her. A bright big fruit hanging on the end that seems like the best meal she might just ever encounter. The tree creaks all over when it moves, sounding like it can break at any second.

She slowly plucks the fruit from the tree. She uses extra care to make sure she will not break the branch it hangs on. She looks at the fruit for a second and notices bright light from the corner of her eyes. The fireflies are illuminating her way out of here. 

She closes her eyes a second and thanks the tree. In a slow pace she walks over to the fireflies that are waiting for her. 

She takes her time leaving. She wouls rather stay in this beautiful place forever, even though the monsters roaming her give her goosebumps all over.

She walks into the firefly light to the end of her journey.