Chapter 8 Under Cover of Forest

Zada has been the guardian of the Pickton Forest ever since she ran off a horrible King that was set on destroying her forest...her home. She couldn’t stand by any longer and one day she lost control and let her anger take over and she wiped out half of the king’s guard. The King ran and told others the forest was haunted, and no one was ever to go back there and left his kingdom to be overrun by the trees and plants.

No one had stepped foot into the fortress since it had been abandoned. Everything had been left behind because they left in such a hurry.

Many have wandered into Zada’s woods, but few have ever made back out. She watches over her forest very carefully, making sure no one ever mistreats it like the king did. She hopes that one day someone will come along that will care as much for her plants as she does.

Being a tree spirit, she can be in many separate places and use the trees to see what is happening in various parts of the forest. Zada noticed a new face close to her forest and as soon as she began to watch her, she left. There was something about her that seemed different, and she hoped to get a chance to see her again.

Days went by and Zada began to wonder if the girl was gone forever, when suddenly, she saw her again, this time with a much larger group of people. Zada didn’t trust large groups like this and so she followed at a distance to see what they were here doing. She looked away for a second and when she looked back, the girl wasn’t with the group anymore. She moved cautiously closer to the group when the girl jumped out in front of her, causing her to stumble back on the ground. Just as she was about to lash out on the group, Emmalyn came over and helped her up, which caught her off guard. She wasn’t used to people being nice to her, they usually tried to take something from her or destroy her forest. Zada decided this girl might be the one she would allow into her forest and even into her kingdom.

As they told her their story and asked to enter the castle, Zada knew she had plenty of supplies for the group and she wanted to help Emmalyn and her friends. She showed them the way to her castle and told them they could take whatever they needed for their journey.

As the group got closer to the castle, they realized just how massive this fortress really was. The walls stood high above the treetops and as they looked around, they couldn’t see an end to the wall in either direction. It took all the Protectors to open the massive gate which was overgrown with vines. As they entered the main hall, they looked around in amazement, the inside of this castle was so well preserved.