Arian's Gifts

“Are we there yet?” Bookworm whined. “I’m tired of walking.”
“If you keep complaining…” Shade began threateningly.
“I know. You’ll turn me into a pile of goo,” Bookworm glared at Shade. “You created the drake world. Why did you have to make the forest so big?”
“If it was smaller, how would Cat have remained hidden from Queen Flare’s soldiers?” Shade asked.
“I don’t know…” Bookworm thought about this for a moment. “Hey Cat! Could you have hidden from the drake soldiers in a smaller forest?”
“Please stop calling me that. Cat is a fanfic character based on me, but I’m not Cat,” Keyblade said. “And you should probably stop criticizing Shade’s creation. She looks like she’s about to do the goo spell.” Bookworm glanced uneasily at Shade and decided to shut up finally.
“Why are we going to meet what’s-her-name anyway?” Mithos asked.
“Arian! I want to know what’s going on in the drake world. Arian is a powerful majyker and Cat’s friend. We could visit her friend Rainheart, but the drake palace is far from here and I doubt anyone wants to walk that far,” Shade explained.
“I could fly there!” Keyblade suggested. She was dying to try out her wings.
“Yes, but since the rest of us can’t fly, we’re visiting Arian first. Maybe then you can try flying,” Shade said. Keyblade smiled happily.
“Hey! Look at that cool tree-house!” Mithos pointed to a tree up ahead. As he said, there was a large tree-house in it.
“It’s Arian’s house!” Keyblade said excitedly. Her wings and tail appeared again. This gave her a great idea. Why not fly up to the tree-house? Before anyone could stop her, Keyblade had taken flight. She had never actually flown with wings before. A forest filled with trees is not a good place for a first flight. Keyblade crashed into a tree almost immediately. There was a loud and painful-sounding crash. Keyblade lay on the ground, moaning in pain.
Hearing the noise, Arian left her tree-house. “Who dares disturb me?” she demanded, looking around.
“Hi!” Bookworm waved at her. “Can we come in your tree-house? I’m tired of walking and Shade wants to talk to you.” Arian stared in disbelief at this foolish human.
Recovering from her disastrous flight, Keyblade also gave a weak wave. “Hi Arian!”
Arian turned her attention to the person lying at the base of her tree. Her eyes widened as she saw the golden wings and tail. “Yes, you may come in.” Bookworm hurried in and collapsed in a chair. Shade followed, making a mental note to explain to Bookworm why caution was necessary when dealing with powerful magic-users. Maybe turning her into goo would get the point across. Shade grinned evilly at this thought.
“Come on Keyblade! Or are you too short to make it to the tree-house?” Mithos laughed and ran out of Keyblade’s attack range.
“Shut up Mithos!” Keyblade got up and ran after him, her wings and tail vanishing.
Once they had all made it to the tree-house, Arian said, “You are not Cat, but you have Goldd’s sphere. What explanation for this can you offer?”
“Umm…” Keyblade tried to think of how she could explain that Cat was a character based on her. Mithos interrupted her.
“Who’s Cat again?” he asked, forgetting the long explanation Keyblade and Shade had already given on this topic.
“Cat is a human who used Goldd’s sphere to shift into a drake and defeat Flare, the evil drake queen,” Shade explained. “Keyblade found Goldd’s sphere. She and Cat have a lot in common, so Goldd accepted her too.”
Arian’s gaze fell on Shade. “You are a magic-user,” she said. Shade nodded. “Then take this. I think you may have use for it.” She handed Shade an empty sphere. Then she turned to Bookworm, who was still sitting in the chair, glaring at everyone as though daring them to try making her walk again. “And I believe you will soon need these.” She picked up some gems that had been skillfully shaped into kunai daggers and handed them to Bookworm.
“Cool!” Bookworm grabbed the kunai excitedly.
“Hey! What do I get?” Mithos asked.
“You get a warning. Be careful. Do not do foolish things that will put you in unnecessary danger,” Arian said. Mithos stared at her. How could she possibly think a warning was as good as shiny kunai knives? Even Shade’s empty sphere was better than a dumb warning. He was about to say something, but Shade glared at him to make him shut up.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” she said to Arian. “I think we will leave now. Keyblade needs more practice flying.”
Arian nodded. “After you practice flying, you may want to travel to the capital. King Rainheart and Prince Tyrsis will want to meet you.”