edward go to the forest

seriously go to the forest

it is a long journey but it is worth it

for you must play the game

AND YOU MUST WIN

oh well divine intervention will take you there anyhow

* * * * *

Edward shook the peculiar recurring thoughts about monsters and forests he had recently been having from his mind, and concentrated on listening to the teacher in his very last lesson of the day. After this he would finally get out and do the task he had been assigned to. It could be fun, he thought to himself. Exploring such an interesting area as the school would be fascinating to the boy.

Before too long, the class was dismissed, and Edward gathered his books and papers, excited for what lay ahead. He decided it would get tiring carrying his supplies with him as he explored, so he decided to make a brief detour to his dorm room.

As he was going there, with an armful of school supplies, he encountered Jarex and Kalie, who were arm and arm. Edward was debating whether to ask Jarex what was on his mind or not. He did have a tendency for snapping at people when they asked him questions. What's the worst that could happen?

"Um, excuse me, Jarex?" he greeted.

Jarex detached himself from Kalie and gave Edward a stern look. "What is it this time?" he moaned. Edward sensed he might have done the wrong thing.

"Um, I was just about to go looking for possible spaces that we could practice. Do you have any advice for me?"

To his surprise, Jarex's face lightened up. "Well, just look around. You know, mess with stuff, and sometimes you'll find a secret passage or something. I've found so many, man, but I think that none of them would work to practice in... it sucks."

"Thanks," said Edward, but Jarex wasn't finished.

"Did you know that this school has a couple swimming pools? I have no idea why they don't use them, but there are a bunch that I've found. The coolest one by far was the one where it had no bottom. Or at least it was so deep I couldn't find the bottom. But I think if you swam for long enough, you would end up in the lake."

"That's... uh... cool!" said Edward in an attempt to be enthusiastic.

"Dude, I know. I wish I had some scuba gear. I'd just totally see what was under there. Anyway, good luck, okay?"

Jarex promptly walked away, with Kalie following on his heals. Edward didn't get a chance to even thank him. But the encounter had been pleasant, and it brightened his spirits.

After he went to put his bags in the dorm room, he ran into another one of his acquaintances. It was Leffa this time, which was always welcome.

"Hey, Edward!" She waved to him.

Edward waved back. "Hey," he replied, remembering to try and talk more naturally, like the other kids. A part of his brain asked him Why are you listening to Jarex? but he ignored that part.

"So, where are you heading to?" asked Leffa politely.

"Well, I'm doing what Jarex told me to do yesterday at the band meeting." said Edward.

"Oh, yeah, that," said Leffa, somewhat sympathetically. "I think half an hour a day is asking for a bit much, don't you?" She stepped over to the side of the hallway to get out of the way of hallway traffic, and Edward did the same.

"Not really," said Edward truthfully. "When I lived back on Earth, I practiced the piano for forty-five minutes every day."

"Well, I guess it's really not that much..." said Leffa in agreement, "I mean, singing for half an hour every day gets sort of tiring... but I really don't care." she reasoned. After a short pause in the conversation, she exclaimed "I love to sing! That's why I do it! It's so much fun!" Edward couldn't help but laugh at her excitement over singing. Leffa smiled.

"Well, I should probably leave to go look for a place to practice," said Edward, still chuckling a little.

"Hey! I'll come with you!" Leffa told him enthusiastically. "It's not like I have anything to do today. It sounds like fun!" She was so indignant on coming with Edward, he had no choice in the matter. Not that he would have said otherwise, this certainly would make the task far more enjoyable.

Together, they walked down the corridors of the school. "I don't know where to start," admitted Edward.

"Well, most students have found at least one secret place while they're here, I guess," explained Leffa casually. "I know I've only found one."

"Really?" asked Edward curiously. "Where is it?"

"Well, it's kind of an unwritten rule that you don't tell other kids where your secret places are. Unless you're intending for the kid to go there with you. But if you just happen to stumble on one, you don't go blabbing it off to everyone."

"Oh," said Edward. "But, it would make it a lot easier for me if you told me. I would know where to start looking."

"I guess I can tell you... that I found it by climbing up this one wall. It didn't go all the way up to the ceiling, you know?" Edward nodded to show his understanding. "Yeah, and then there was a bit of a crawlspace, and then there was a ladder that I climbed down, and I was in this underground room. I haven't found a use for it yet."

"Why can't we use that for band practice?" Edward asked.

"Because it was just below the floor, everyone would hear us."

For a while they walked in silence, every so often going up to interesting or suspicious-looking things and fiddling with them, trying to see if something would be revealed. The closest they ever got for a long time was stumbling upon a statues that's head turned when you spun it. However, nothing further happened once the head was spun, and it turned out to just be a waste of time.

They traveled the hallways that were familiar to them, they traveled through unfamiliar higher-level biology rooms, bathrooms that they had never been in, in teacher's offices, and for the longest time, they found nothing. They checked every nook and cranny in certain rooms, but no secrets were revealed.

"It's much harder to find secret rooms when you're actually looking for them," commented Leffa. And it was true. While others had stumbled upon many hidden areas when in the course of doing other things, Leffa and Edward could find nothing while actually seeking them out. It was frustrating, to say the least.

"Maybe we should leave it for tomorrow," suggested Edward after approximately an hour and a half's worth of investigation. He was getting rather tired by now.

"No!" yelped Leffa. "Don't give up! We've got to find one somewhere!" She gave Edward such a determined look that he had to sigh in resignation, and follow along in her footsteps as she continued the search. And so they traveled more across the school, through math rooms, through dorms, through gyms, through computer labs, and everywhere imaginable. And still, nothing was to be found.

Edward finally got a break when Leffa stopped in her tracks and declared to Edward "Look, I got to go to the bathroom, okay? So just stay here, and I'll be there in a moment." As she disappeared into the ladies' room, he absentmindedly turned the doorknob of an open door around in his fingertips. Then, to his surprise, it fell off in his hands.

He glanced frantically around, afraid that a passing teacher might get him in trouble. But there was no one in sight, with the exception of a few upper-class students just hanging out, leaning against a wall. They weren't paying any attention. So Edward firmly screwed the doorknob tightly back on the door, securing it in place, but to his surprise, something remained in his hand. Confused, he held it up to his glasses and stared. It was a tiny, triangular orange object. It seemed like it was made out of plastic or a similar material. What is this? he asked.

Leffa burst out of the bathroom door, making Edward jump. "I'm back!" she announced. "What did I miss?"

"I think I found something," Edward calmly told her, still thoroughly examining the mysterious object.

"Really?!" squealed Leffa, clapping her hands in delight. "What is it?"

Edward held the small orange object in an outstretched palm. "I found it inside a doorknob, strangely enough," he explained. She snatched it up from his hand, and inspected it closely.

"I have no idea what this is," she admitted, giving the object back to Edward. "Anyway, it looks like it won't do anything. Maybe we should keep looking."

But Edward had noticed something with his sharp eyes. He was now walking slowly towards his discovery, ignoring Leffa. It was a tiny indent in the school's wall, barely noticeable, but it was shaped exactly like the small item that was resting in Edward's clenched hand. Before making another move, he surveyed the area, but the older students had left, and it was just him and Leffa. Cautiously, he firmly inserted the orange triangle into the hole.

As soon as he let go of the tiny key, the wall started to shift positions right before his eyes. A crack appeared between the bottom of a human-sized section of the wall and the floor, and a panel slid upward, leaving a doorway in its wake.

"You DID find something!" Leffa gasped, as he stared into the murky blackness through the opening ahead of him.

"You think?" asked Edward sarcastically. Leffa didn't seem to notice, and gave an excited burst of a reply. "This is AWESOME! Maybe this could be the place that we'll use for our band!" She hurried up to where he was standing, gazing ahead. "What are you waiting for? Let's go in!"

Together, the two strode through the missing portion of the wall. The door closed behind them, and they were lost into the thick blackness that enveloped everything ahead.

It was only when Edward, blindly maneuvering through the hallway, stumbled a bit, that he realized that it was a stairwell. There was a flight of stairs going down, descending through the dark. "Be careful," he warned Leffa. "There's a staircase, so watch your step."

The stairs continued downward only for a brief while, and then they found solid ground again. Edward, as he moved forward through the inky dark, felt his head brush against a metal string. He pulled on it, and a small lightbulb turned on over his head. A cone of soft light flooded the center of room, not reaching the walls. For the first time, Leffa and Edward could see where they were.

The floor was full of dust and dirt, the surfaces were grimy, cobwebs were nested in every dark corner, and some vandal long ago had written graffiti all over one of the walls. The room was bare, just a dirty room that had obviously not been recently used. But it was huge, much larger than Edward's dorm room, or even two dorm rooms combined.

Edward's companion was ecstatic at the discovery, bouncing up and down. "It's kind of dirty, but I bet we could clean it! It would work!" she said in glee.

Edward shook his head. "Listen," he said calmly. They both paused for a moment and strained their ears.

"See, you can hear voices in the hallways," explained Edward. "Faint voices, yes, but if you can hear anything coming from up there down here, you'll almost certainly be able to hear loud, raucous, electric guitars coming from down here up in the hallways."

The realization struck Leffa, and her face fell. "Yeah... I guess so," she mumbled.

For a moment, they just stood there. Then, all of a sudden, their attention was directed to a small flutter of movement in a corner. Something darted across the dirty cement floor into the center of the room, near where the two were standing. Edward flinched a little when it scurried past him, but Leffa squealed and chased after it excitedly. Running in circles around the room, she pursued the creature, whatever it was. She lunged toward it, but it escaped her grasp and she ended up suffering a hard fall to the floor. Edward winced.

"Almost got it!" she announced, unhindered by the fall, as she brushed the dust off of her clothes and leaped back to her feet. The object of Leffa's pursuit scampered around some more, going in circles around Edward's feet. Then it made the mistake of pausing, and she lunged again, her long blond hair streaming behind her as she dove. This time, she was successful, and clamped her hands firmly around it. Triumphantly, she held it up in the air.

"I got it!" she declared. Edward had never seen anything like it before. It was a creature, a small mammal. Deep purple, beady eyes, elongated ears, and a long, stringy tail that dangled from Leffa's clenched fist. He thought that it bore a distinct resemblance to the rats of the Edward's home planet, although maybe that was just because Edward had just seen it come out of a hole in the wall. It squirmed and wriggled around, struggling to escape the girl's grip.

"Interesting..." Edward thought aloud. "I suppose that's one of the native species of the Kingdom of Doom."

"I remember learning about these in one of our classes!" recalled Leffa. "I can't remember what it was called... something that starts with a P... or maybe an F... or like a G or something. I do remember that it's from the planet Wind."

"So does that mean that species from other planets are also native to the Kingdom of Doom?"

"Yeah," said Leffa. "All the animals from the planets in the Quadraterracel are in the Kingdo- OW!!!". She yelped as the animal whose name might have started with a P raked her fist with a sharp, pointed claw. She dropped the writhing thing on the ground, where it rushed back to the hole from which it came. "Owwwww...." she whimpered, sucking her forefinger.

"Are you okay?" asked Edward, concerned.

"Yeah... ow..." she said, taking her finger out of her mouth and shaking her hand around in an attempt to relieve the pain. "Ow...." she moaned, and Edward walked over to her position and patted her on the back in sympathy.

As Leffa was preoccupied with her scratch, Edward had an idea. "Do you suppose there's some way that we could, say, possibly get to where the animals are coming from? I assume that it leads somewhere else, maybe to some sort of area where we could maybe practice."

Leffa giggled, and pointed to the rodent's exit. "Silly, it's too small, we can't fit in there! We need a bigger hole...". She trailed off, her mouth fell open, and Edward knew that she had seen what he had.

Right up against the wall was an abnormally large air duct opening. They could see it run upwards in a large, cylindrical metal tube, and go across the ceiling, into an opposite wall. Warm air vented out of it, blowing Leffa's skirt around her knees.

"Hey, we could totally climb through it! Like in the movies!" suggested Leffa.

"I don't know if it's practical in real life," Edward worried. "Hollywood likes to make things up, you know."

"What likes to make things up?"

"Never mind."

"I'll go first!" said Leffa, who was evidently not heeding Edward's warnings. She snatched up the wooden grate covering the opening to the duct, and flung it aside, nearly hitting Edward. Then she beckoned for Edward to come closer, and without a moment's thought she climbed up into the ventilation. Not having a choice he followed behind, squeezing himself into the piping.

Only a couple feet in, the tube took an upward turn. "Hey, give me a hand," said Leffa, who was reaching way up above her heard for the lip where the duct headed horizontally again. What am I supposed to do, lift her up? Edward questioned of himself. He remembered all too well how weak he was. Unfortunately, lifting her seemed to be exactly what she wanted.

"Come on, help me up!" she said impatiently. Trying to keep his confidence, Edward grabbed her around the waist, and gave her a slight boost upward, heaving her with all his measly strength. Trying to act like he was strong, he attempted not to make any grunts, or show any signs that he was working. It was difficult. A drop of sweat ran down the side of his face. It was a relief when she finally told him "Got it!" and swung her legs back up to the higher part of the duct.

"Alright, now I guess you need to get up here," she offered, extending a single arm downward in his direction. Staring up at her, he grasped her hand firmly, and tried to somehow climb up on the ridges of the metal vent. It didn't work, and he flailed around wildly in the air before falling on his back.

The second time, he was far more determined to mask his athletic inability, and after grabbing the girl's hand, he pulled upward with all his might. He felt his armpits sweating under his shirt. Exerting all his strength, he placed a hand on the ledge and heaved. Finally, gasping for breath, he climbed up over the lip. "Let's go!" beckoned Leffa as soon as he made it up. She had to turn her head over her shoulder to look at him. Following her was the last thing he wanted to do, but he resigned began the crawl.

The journey through the piping was uncomfortable, to say the least. First of all, Leffa was wearing a skirt, not exactly short, but not long either. The entire time, Edward's face was right behind her rear end, and it made for a rather awkward travel experience. Second of all, Edward being squeezed a tiny ventilation shaft, with hot air blowing through, was one of the most unpleasant experiences of Edward's entire life. Maybe he was slightly claustrophobic, but not being able to move his limbs freely was terrible. He desperately wished for it to be over.

It was most likely only a few minutes that Edward spent in the shaft, but it felt like hours. He was only able to move forward or backward, with no end in sight, facing the thought of being trapped forever. The only good thing to be said about the experience was that the shaft never again ran vertically through the walls, so they could avoid an experience like the prior one. But when it was over, Edward couldn't remember ever being more relieved in his whole life. When he finally saw the opening, he almost cried with glee, and when Leffa moved away from in front of him, he collapsed on the floor.

Leffa was laughing at him as he got up from the heap on the cold stone floor he had landed on. Standing up, he surveyed his surroundings. It instantly reminded him of the chapel he had been in about a month beforehand. The same soft blue light, the same ornate decorations. However, it was definitely not the same room. This was a circular chamber, as opposed to a thin rectangle, and there were no pews, just a large altar in the middle. There were several stained-glass windows adorning the walls. However, they must have been lit by artificial light, as from what he remembered, they were underground and in the center of the school.

And in this secret room, everything was perfectly silent.

"I think we found the place!" said Leffa, who was overjoyed. "It looks so cool! It's way better than that ugly dirty room, and there's no sound at all! We could totally practice here!"

Edward looked into her light blue eyes, and realized just how much his life was changing. Never before had he been on an adventure, and he had never been friends with a pretty girl. No, he had been ignored by most girls in his social group back on Earth. But now? Things were changing. He was on a different planet. Things could happen his way for once.

"I don't particularly want to climb through that vent every time I go to play with the band," pointed out Edward. But his attention was not focused on the girl, but instead on the mosaic windows. They were beautiful, to say the least, and they each depicted a different humanoid figure, ones that Edward was unfamiliar with. He lingered there, taking his time with each strange depiction of creatures that he had never seen before.

As he finished gazing at the walls, he moved on to the altar in the center. A series of three small stone steps had to be climbed to reach the cylindrical pedestal, and Edward climbed them. It came up to a little lower than chest hight on his stout figure, and so he was forced to bend over to see what was carved on the surface.

He was instantly dazzled by the display on the top of the pedestal. Gemstones of all kinds sparkled, adorning the edges of the circular altar, forming a rainbow spiral of patterns. In the center, the most impressive thing of all, was a colorful, ornate, and stunningly beautiful design that looked vaguely familiar to him. Its form was like the Christian cross back on Earth, only the top part was twisted, forming an X on an elongated pole.

The X-on-a-pole image was clearly divided up into seven sections, all of different hues. The top potion had four different sections for each prong of the letter X. The first, in the top left hand corner, was red and brought to mind images of fire, in a burning volcano. The second, blue like the ocean. The third, emerald green like a lush forest. The fourth, bright yellow, crackling with sparks. Furthermore, the pole part was divided into three sections. The top was orange, with images reminding Edward of the dry desert heat. The second section, further down, was mostly white with fluffy clouds. And the last was pitch black, except for a small crescent moon towards the top.

An X on top of a line... where have I seen that before?

Soon Leffa also finished with the stained glass, and, with a spring in her step, moved on to the altar where Edward was standing. He smiled at her childlike enjoyment of everything around her. However, when she saw the top of the pedestal, she stopped in her tracks.

"Oh my god..." she whispered faintly.

"What is it?" asked Edward.

Leffa looked positively alarmed. "The... the symbol..." she stuttered, the color draining from her face. Edward didn't know what to say, utterly shocked at her reaction.

"It's... it's okay, Leffa," he said, attempting to calm her down. Surprisingly, she did relax a little at Edward's words, and slowly sat down on the stone steps surrounding the pedestal.

"Um... can I trust you?" asked Leffa tenatively.

This was one of those questions where one just does not know what to say. Of course you can trust me! Edward wanted to tell her, but he wasn't sure if that was what he really should say. What was she about to do? Trust him with a terrible secret? Or was it merely the knowledge of social issues, like a school crush? His mind didn't even want to consider the possibility that she could have a crush on Jarex. But the more he thought about it, the more dread he felt. The more indecisive he felt about what to say.

"Er... you can trust me," he finally told her, hoping that it was the right decision.

Slowly and nervously, she pulled one strap of the pink tanktop she was wearing over her shoulder, and then over her arm, letting it fall to the side. A thin bra strap was exposed. Is she stripping for me? was the first thought that entered Edward's mind, and he became slightly unnerved, not knowing what to do. But as she pulled the collar of her top down to her chest area, it became plainly obvious what she was showing him.

It was a tattoo, right between and slightly above her breasts. It was made out of five straight, bold black lines. It looked very harsh and out of place on human flesh, but there it was. It was a symbol of an X on top of a line. Edward gasped in sudden realization.

Edward's mind suddenly flashed back to the moment where he had picked up the small scrap of paper in front of the admissions building. THE CHOSEN ONE, it had said. And then there was that symbol. And he had later asked Greto what that had meant, in this very chapel, or at least one that looked similar. And then, here he had seen the symbol again, just more complex. What did it mean? Was the chosen one sitting right beside him?

Leffa's cheeks were colored bright red, and her top had been put back on. Edward absolutely had no idea what to say. This day might have been one of the most awkward ones of his entire life.

Fortunately, Leffa said something first, in a softly spoken single statement. "I've had it ever since I was born."

"You were born... with a tattoo?" asked Edward, aware of how much of a blubbering idiot he sounded like.

"I don't think it's a tattoo," she explained cautiously. "I think it's... a birthmark. Or something, I don't know what to call it. But it wasn't made with... you know... ink. It's been there forever."

"I've seen that symbol before," recalled Edward. "It was on a scrap of paper that I found outside the admissions office. And in above it, it said 'the chosen one'. I don't know what that means, but then I asked Greto, who works here in the chapel about it. He knew what it meant, I think, but he told me to forget about it. So... I guess... the symbol has something to do with... the chosen one?"

"That's me," mumbled Leffa, burying her face in her hands. Edward couldn't tell if she was about to cry or not. Looking up at him, she whispered. "I... I think that I'm... I don't know. Special, somehow. I think... but, not..." she trailed off. Edward sat there with his hands folded. He had never been in a position like this before.

"Look," she pleaded. Her facial expression showed struggle, like what she was about to say had been building up inside her for quite a while, and she was forcing it to come out. "I think that... I think they sent me to this school to protect me." Her eyes made it look like tears were soon to flow, but she brushed them away.

Edward's brain didn't formulate a response soon enough. Not knowing what else to do, he just patted her a little on the back. He saw a faint smile on her face, without her even looking up.

"I... I'm not smarter than anyone," she admitted. "I've always gotten terrible grades. I can't think of why else I would be here. But... I think people are looking for me. I think people know that I'm... special. And I'm... I'm... I'm scared of them."

Why is Leffa telling me all this? Edward asked himself. Why isn't she telling someone else, like one of her female friends? He couldn't figure out the answers. However, he was secretly glad she was telling him, for whatever reason it was.

"I feel like you're trustworthy," explained Leffa, as if she could read his mind. "Like... I don't know, it seems like you don't really judge people. It's like..." she tried to explain. Exasperatedly, she looked at Edward. "Never mind," she sighed, at Edward's apparent lack of understanding, judging by his blank look.

"I... I imagine that would be pretty scary," he sympathized awkwardly.

Leffa giggled, and all of a sudden, she was back to her old self again. "It is, yeah. It just... feels good to get it all out, you know?"

Edward laughed with her. "I have a question. Usually... well, I've only heard the term 'the Chosen One' applied in literature, never in real life. It always met that the person who was chosen was chosen by the gods. Were the people that 'chose' you... the four gods of this planet?"

"I don't know," admitted Leffa. "Nobody would tell me. For forever, my parents called the thing on my chest 'your special mark'. When I was like eight, I asked them about it, and they told me they would tell me when I'm older, and that it made me very special. They never did... but I got very curious. Everyone seemed to know but me. My parents were one of ten, so I have this huge family, right? And like, we all lived in the same place back on planet Water, so we see each other a lot. And some of my cousins whispered when I walked by, and I overheard discussions about what to do with Leffa... and... I knew something was up, and it was about me."

"And they said you were the chosen one?" asked Edward.

"I think the term came up a couple times. Yeah, it must have, because about a year before I got to the school, I knew that I was supposedly 'the chosen one'. I thought it was funny at first. Like, what am I supposed to do, save the world?" She laughed. "Yeah, I guess I was chosen by the four gods... who else? But... I don't know why."

"In all the books that have chosen ones in them, they have to stop some sort of evil threat," reasoned Edward.

"That would be awesome!" exclaimed Leffa with a huge grin on her face, and she began miming sword movements in the air with her hand.

"But, in real life, unless I'm mistaken," Edward elaborated, "the gods are tangible beings. Why couldn't they just stop this threat themselves? It must be something else."

"I don't know, that's a good point," agreed Leffa. "The gods are like huge monsters, maybe they need a human to do stuff for them? I don't really like the idea of having these gigantic beasts as gods... they all look so mean, you know?

"I know, but they created the world, so they've at least done one very good important thing," explained Edward, who was stealing words directly from Greto.

"Yeah, but they just don't look all that nice... and besides, why did they even pick me in the first place? Out of all the people in the Quadrateracell, why just a random girl? I'm... actually easily scared of things. Like... I still sort of am scared of... I'm sort of scared of the dark." Color was flooding into her cheeks. "I know it's stupid, but like... I need a nightlight on, you know?"

"I understand," said Edward, and she smiled.

"But, you know, I mean, there are some people don't want me to live because of this! It's like... starting a couple years ago, back home, my parents and some of my aunts and uncles and older cousins went everywhere with me. I couldn't go to a party with my friends or anything, someone always went with me. And then we got bodyguards in my school, and they always seemed to be looking at me... It was really frightening. It still is."

"What I think happened," continued Leffa, "was that soon the people, the people that... I guess what they want to do is stop me from doing whatever the gods want me to do, they came to our city, looking. And my mom decided that it would be better for me to go here."

"How did your mother know about this place?" asked Edward.

"She knew everything," replied Leffa simply. "I guess they told her about all the stuff when I was born. You know, having a kid that's 'the chosen one' and all. And now... I'm here. I guess that's it."

The two sat in an awkward silence for a moment. Leffa started humming a tune and tapping her feet against the ground. Edward checked his watch. The watch face glowed in the dimly lit chamber.

"Um," he pointed out, "Dinner ends in twenty minutes. We had better go."

Leffa looked a little indignant, but then she got up, smoothed down the front of her skirt, and looked around. "Hey, we can just get out that way!" she said, pointing at a small opening in the stone wall of the circular room. Edward ducked through, and Leffa trailed behind. The uphill passage was cramped and claustrophobic, but thankfully it was short. When they reached the end, a small black handle hung down from the ceiling, and Edward slowly pulled it to reveal that there was a trapdoor over their heads.

They pulled themselves out, and Edward immediately recognized his surroundings as the chapel he had been in with Greto. The trapdoor had lead to the large altar at the front of the room. "Come on, let's go!" said Leffa impatiently. As the duo hurried to their meal, Edward stole a backwards glance at the statue of the four gods, looking imposing and wrathful above them. Leffa was right. They did look rather cruel...


next > > >