Closer to the Dark part of the Forest

"14!?" Cruscia was surprised, "I would expected you to be a lot older then that!" She expected Zumia to be at least 16 or 17 around there but she was mistaken.

"You look a lot older for your age," Cruscia smiled.

Zumia grinned and said, "Thank you, thank you..."

But she suddenly got tense as if she heard something. She must have because she asked Cruscia, "Did you hear that?"

Zumia was now on her feet and crouched over so she had to support herself with a hand. She looked around, eyeing all the forest.

What she had hurt was a loud thud, like a huge footstep. She looked at Cruscia to see if she had hurt the mysterious thud.

Zumia's first idea of the noise was a Giant, but they never came down from the mountains... and the second idea was a troll that was out to get food.

Trolls were stupid, but strong and immune to most attacks since their skin was so thick. Zumia hoped it wasn't a troll.

((Hehe I have and idea. Let's say its a troll, and it captures both Zumia and Cruscia, and ties their feet and hands up so it can take them back to the others to eat... but like on the way it stops and they have to escape and ruuuunnn and they both of them get lost so they are kinda stuck together. Like it is a part of the forest Cruscia has never seen... yesh? lol?"))

Cruscia laughed but then stopped when she heard a noise. Since she is a demon she would need super hearing so the softest noise such as breathing she could hear clearly.

"Yeah I heard that," she narrowed her eyes evilly summoning her scythe.

Zumia was now in silent mode and she silently climbed the tree to get a better view. She got to the top and motioned for Cruscia to follow her.

Zumia didn't see anything, until something that looked as big as a tree moved. Zumia's eyes widened. In front of them was the largest Troll she had ever seen.

From experience with smaller trolls, Zumia knew they couldn't run. Even if Trolls were... less intelligent as they were, they had huge legs and in one step could outrun both of them. Fighting wouldn't do anything either. Their skin was so tough a blade or arrow couldn't pierce it.

All they could do now, was hide.

Cruscia watched Zumia climb the tree and when she motioned Cruscia to follow. Cruscia climbed up to the tree where Zumia was and was in shock.

"Now that's the largest troll I have ever seen!" Cruscia whispered, "We better hide."

Cruscia was about to hop to the next tree but she felt a great force hit her. The troll whacked her with a club while she was about to jump. Cruscia stood up, but fell back down to her knees clutching her side.

"Zumia run!" She said as loud as she could. Cruscia's voice was weak since every breath she took it hurt her side.

Zumia was in a state of shock. Her new friend was just clubbed by the biggest Troll she had ever seen.

The Troll looked down on Cruscia and raised his club. Zumia knew that it was going to crush Cruscia.

She snapped out of her shock and a ball of energy formed in her hand. It was a light blue color. She yelled out, "OYE! PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!"

Zumia wasn't the trolls size at all... barely even 1/6th but she pointed her glowing hand at the troll and small little balls, like bullets, hit the troll and distracted it. Zumia then started hopping around the trees but kept her attack on the troll to distract it so Cruscia could get out of the way and into hiding.

The attack was like a machine gun, it just kept coming. Zumia was about to leap onto the next tree but the Troll smashed the tree with his club and Zumia went flying and was knocked into a tree.

This knocked the air out of her and she fell to the ground, but her head hit a sharp rock and cut the side of her head open so that blood ran down her face.

She softly said, "Ow..." before realizing she could barely move.

Cruscia watched as Zumia fell and stood up. She was wobbly and she nearly fell again, but she caught herself and ran slowly to Zumia.

"Zumia are you ok?" she asked, her hand still clutched to her side. She looked up at the troll and it was still being attacked by the spell, but it wasn't going to last long.

"Come on we got to get out of here," she said helping Zumia up with difficulty. The pain on her side was becoming more crucial then ever, but she ignored it, she was going to worry about it once she knows they are both safe and sound.

For once in my life time I wish Shadow is here! Why doesn't he show up when I need help but then shows help when I don't! She thought to herself.

Cruscia knows Shadow would not be able to defeat a troll, it's nearly impossible unless you knock it out with something huge that is twice their size, but he would be able to help them out and bring them to safety.

Zumia felt her friend help her up but all she could mutter was, "Ooo I see birdies..."

Zumia's head was throbbing and her arm and back were sore from where she hit against the tree and ground, but she tried to ignore it and get them both out of he way.

Zumia shook away the stars that she was seeing and tried to keep her vision from clouding over. When she finally had good enough vision she saw a huge piece of tree hurling their way.

"DUCK!!" Zumia yelled and jumped on Cruscia so they were both thrown to the floor but the tree flew over them without hitting them. Zumia felt her hand snap and she cried out. It was surly broken from the force that she fell on it.

In a scared frenzy, Zumia looked around for something huge that she could knock the troll out with. This however was pointless because where they were, NOTHING was bigger than the Troll. The Troll was about just as huge as all the trees were, not bigger but a tree falling on it wouldn't hurt it.

Zumia was about to help Cruscia get away but she felt a force on her leg and felt herself being dragged backwards!! She clawed the ground, trying to stop from being dragged backwards but it was no use. All she did was make clawed marks into the ground.

"AHHHH!!" She yelled as the Troll picked her up by her left leg and held her upside down in front of him. Zumia looked around but realized that Cruscia was in his other hand, held also by a leg.

Cruscia laughed and said, "Zumia now is not the time to see birdies!"

She felt Zumia throw her down on the ground to avoid the troll and she banged her head really hard on the ground nearly passed out. She had her eyes closed and thought she was about to pass out. She felt Zumia leave her then she felt a great force on her leg also and snapped out of her passing out.

"LET GO YOU GIANT FREAK!" Cruscia yelled while she was being hung upside down. She held her dress down and looked angry, "Ugh this is so awkward!" She complained trying to keep her dress below her knees. She also squirmed trying to get out of his grip, but the it happened, blood rushing to her brain.

The banging on the head wasn't helping also and her head was throbbing from hitting her head and from the blood rushing to her brain. "LET GO LET GO!" She yelled and she sounded as if she had a stuffed up nose.

"I'LL GET MY BROTHER AND YOU WILL WISH YOU NEVER CAPTURED US!" Cruscia kept threatening the troll. He really couldn't do anything about the troll so her words were meaningless.

"SHADOW!!! YOU CALL YOURSELF A BROTHER BUT YOU DON'T COME RESCUE ME WHEN I ACTUALLY DO NEED YOU!!!!!" She yelled some more, but the yelling didn't help any because no one was going to save them.

"Zumia in case we don't get through this, I want you to let you know your my best friend I ever had!" She said as if she was dieing on the spot, "And I never told Loki I actually loved him!" She said some more spilling all her confessions out as if this was her last moment of living.

"I LOVE YOU WORLD!........Well not really," She continued on. She took out her scythe and continually stab him in the thumb, but not a single puncture mark not even the faintest scratch was on him, nothing was working.

"I'M TO YOUNG TO DIE!"

((lol should loki hear someone say they love him? lol that would be funny!))

Zumia felt her hand pulsing with pain like lighting but she was momentarily distracted from that and her throbbing head, which was getting worse with the blood rushing to it, by Cruscia.

If she wasn't so scared, she would have started laughing at Cruscia about the dress and noted to herself that she was happy she didn't wear dresses.

She also was happy when Cruscia said she was the best friend she ever had... even if they had only met that day. Zumia didn't know who Loki was, but she expected that it was a guy Cruscia knew who she liked but tried not to show it.

Cruscia shouted back, "YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND TOO CRUSCIA! AND... who's Loki?"

Cruscia never had the chance to respond because both she and Zumia were tied up by the troll and slung over his shoulder. The Troll then started walking back to his homeland with his 'live' catch.

Somewhere a little ways away Loki heard, "I NEVER TOLD LOKI I LOVED HIM!" Loki looked around confused a little bit. He got a confused face and Lora looked at him,

"Loki... are you ok?" Lora looked at Loki. Loki nodded and said, "I don't know if I'm hallucinating... but I swore I just heard someone say they never told me they loved me..."

Lora started laughing and Loki looked like -_- to his little sister.

"Oh shut up Lora!" Loki growled then walked past her. She was on the ground laughing still but got up and continued to laugh as they walked through the forest.

Zumia blinked twice and said to Cruscia, “Hey… we are still alive… O_O that means… he is taking us back… to be eaten…”

Cruscia was scared, but still yelling and making funny comments.

"THANK YOU ZUMIA I'M SO GLAD WE COULD HAVE MET! And Loki is this really cute demon I met!" Cruscia answered her back.

"SHADOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY AREN'T YOU HAVING YOUR TINGLY FEELING WHEN YOU KNOW I AM IN TROUBLE!!! .....ok that sounded SO wrong in so many ways!" Cruscia said.

"NO I CANNOT BE LIVE MEAT! I AM TOO YOUNG TO BE EATEN! NOOOOO I AM TO SMALL I'M ALL SKIN AND BONES YOU WILL NOT ENJOY ME I TASTE SPONGY!" Cruscia continued to yell.

Zumia was every bit as scared as Cruscia was... but she was trying not so show it at the moment.

Her hand was hurting but she almost started laughing anyway when Cruscia said her very funny comments. She wondered if they did live through this, Cruscia would actually tell Loki she loved him. IFF they lived through this. ((That IFF is not a typo, IFF means if and only if! ^_^ it’s a math term! ^_^))

Zumia yelled out, "FATHER!! NOW IS A GOOD TIME FOR YOU TO COME AND TRACK ME DOWN!! SOMEONE ANYONE!!" Zumia frowned when nothing worked.

The Troll carried them for a while, both of them yelling to the air. Zumia at points switched to Elvin and shouted curse words at the Troll, Cruscia however wouldn't be able to understand them.

Eventually night fell and the Troll dropped them to the ground then rested against a huge tree and fell asleep.

Zumia and Cruscia were silent. The Half Elf looked at the Demon and grinned, they both knew now was their only chance to escape.

While whispering very softly, Zumia said, “Ok, don’t make any loud noises… yelling is counted as a loud noise!”

Zumia hoped that her joke wouldn’t make Cruscia laugh too loudly.

Cruscia tried so hard not to laugh and summoned up her scythe, "now only if I could get my scythe to cut these ropes!" She said doing weird flipping tricks with her scythe. But she then gave up when it wasn't working.

"Ok then plan B," she grabbed a small knife and cut the ropes and broke free, "Ok let's go!" She stood up, wobbled a bit then grabbed Zumia's wrist and ran like hell.

Once they were quite a distance away from the troll they entered a small cave and Cruscia slid down the wall and clutching her side. Her side was hurting more then her head.

"Ugh, I feel terrible," She moaned she hoped she didn't break a rib, but most likely did from the force of the club whacking her.

Zumia collapsed down also and sighed, Her hand was probably broken and her head was still bleeding and was throbbing.

"You know what? I say we are lucky! Not too many people get attacked and captured by a Troll THAT big and live to tell the tale!"

She tried to move her hand but couldn't, she hoped Cruscia wouldn't notice. Her eyes wandered over the cave and then to Cruscia and she asked, "How is your side?"

As a Elf, Zumia knew she could perform a bit of healing magic to help with the pain, but because her other hand was broken, she couldn't do anything to help heal them both.

"Hey I can help with the pain if you want... the healing not so much... we will both have to suffer through that, but do you permit me to help with the pain?"

The half elf smiled at Cruscia as she waited to the approval.

Cruscia gave a small laugh, "Yeah that is true, this is my first troll encounter, next time remind me when we see a troll RUN!"

She then sighed, "yes please i wouldn't care about the broken part I just want to pain to go away."

Once Zumia made it go away she stood up slowly and a huge dark shadow swarmed around her and as quickly as it came it left and she looked human, "I say we should go to the humans and help us out, it would be better then nothing, especially since your bleeding a lot on the head," Cruscia suggested.

Zumia nodded and said, "If we run into another Troll, I will defiantly remind you of that!"

She laughed and made her hand glow a very light blue and pressed it to Cruscia's side. She then used it on her hand and head.

"My head is bleeding?" Zumia asked in a confused way. She touched her head and looked at her hand, "Well what do you know? My head is bleeding... I knew I had hit it but not... split it open!... oww"

Zumia looked around and her eyes widened, "Ok... um I am normally lost but....... NOT THIS LOST!"

The half elf had NO IDEA where they were, she looked hopeful to her friend and asked, "You know where we are... right?" She grinned.


((remember, they are both lost XD))

When Zumia asked where they were Cruscia stopped for a moment, "Er.... Not exactly, heh heh," she smiled weakly and sat back down.

"Alright then that blows that idea..." She thought for a moment then went to her small bag and took out a piece of parchment and a quill, yes she carries that around just in case of emergencies like this one.

She wrote a S.O.S letter to her brother Shadow then whistled for her bird and gave it to her.

"Give this to Shadow quickly! And lead him the way back to me!" She said urgently to the bird. She tied the letter on the bird's leg and let it fly away.

"Helps on the way," Cruscia smiled to Zumia.

Zumia put her good hand over her eyes and said, "Great... we are both lost!"

The half elf watched as Cruscia wrote the SOS letter and sent it off. She was now curious and said, "What help is on the way?"

"Ok my new goal in life is to memorize all the forests! So I will never be lost... haha... that is going to be hard." Zumia laughed and grinned to her friend.



((I have an idea, its like when Shadow gets the message, he tells Emara he has to save his sister so like Emara wants to go see how they act together so she follows Shadow and when they are done arguing she steps out from where she was hiding and they are both like O_o how did you get here? lol what do you think?))

Cruscia laughed at Zumia wanting to memorize the whole forest. She then answered Zumia's question, "I'm getting my brother, he could take us to a hospital. The Vampire kingdom has very good healers there."

She looked out the cave waiting for Shadow to come.

((lol ok))

Zumia stood up but winced in pain a little. She then turned to Cruscia and said, "... Wait a minute... the VAMPIRE Kingdom?"

The half elf had green eyes, and they widened so the green was clearly visible. "Ok you might be a demon... but THEY WOULD EAT ME!!... alive."

This was mostly true... Zumia was half human so the vampires would be more prone to eat her than Cruscia. Zumia stayed standing and waited for Cruscia’s brother to come.

"We have no other choice there the best healers, better then the werewolves and humans combined. They no me since I go there often I'll make sure they don't eat you," Cruscia confirmed.

After a while Cruscia's crow came back along with another gigantic crow and Shadow. Cruscia narrowed her eyes evilly towards her brother and walked straight up to him once he hopped down from his crow.

"Why didn't you come rescue me!? We were attacked by a huge troll!" She snapped.

"Oh I thought you didn't want me to come save you, besides who is 'we'?" he said.

"We as in my friend Zumia and I, now take us to the vampire kingdom were both injured and lost!" She demanded him.

"A simple please would be nice," he said in a normal calm tone.

"Do you WANT me to die!? I might have a broken rib and I hit my head really hard!" she crossed her arms.

"Fine where is your friend?" he asked.

"Right there," she pointed towards Zumia, "Come on Zumia time to get all healed up."

Though Cruscia confirmed that Zumia wouldn't get eaten, she was less panicked… but still panicked!

“Ok well I'm sticking close to you!” Zumia smiled but then a shadow appeared. She looked around and saw the biggest crow she had ever seen with the scariest demon she had ever seen on its back. Her eyes went huge and she almost ran behind Cruscia.

While Cruscia and her brother argued, Zumia stood there, frozen by something similar to fear and shock and didn’t say a word. When Cruscia pointed to her and said it was time to go, Zumia nodded a yes in jerky motions. She was still getting over the shock of Cruscia’s older brother.

As the two siblings argued, Emara stayed in the shadows, she smiled sadly to herself and knew it was almost just like her and Larz. Larz however was a bit worse than Cruscia. Emara felt sad for Shadow and wanted to help him, but she knew not to get in-between arguing siblings. She stayed safely in the shadows of the trees. She still however kept an eye out for Trolls who enjoyed wandering around this part of the Forest.

"Wait a minute back up one second, did you just say you have a friend!?" Shadow asked looking at Cruscia puzzled.

"Yes I did! What a demon can't have a friend!? Comes to show I have better social skills then you," she crossed her arms.

"That or you're going soft," he grinned.

"Ooo you shouldn't have said that!" Cruscia said, "Once I'm all healed I'm dueling you and this time I SHALL WIN! Now take me to the vampire kingdom pronto," Cruscia grabbed Zumia's good wrist and hopped onto the crow. "Hold on tight Zumia," she smiled.

Shadow shook his head then climbed up the crow and soared through in the skies and towards the vampire kingdom.

Zumia grinned sheepishly and hid behind Cruscia as Shadow looked at her. She got the feeling that Cruscia wasn't as strong as him and was trying to be. When Cruscia pulled her on the crow, she didn't have to tell Zumia to hang on... Zumia KNEW it!

The Crow took off and Zumia held onto her new best friend tightly and was quite scared... even more than going to the Vampire Kingdom. She had her eyes closed tightly when they first took off but then opened them and grinned. She then realized she loved flying.

Though she loved flying, she never let go of Cruscia and was still slightly afraid to fall. "Ok... onto the Vampire Kingdom..." she thought to herself and watched as they flew to the Kingdom.