TWC: 1,150
Solo Thread Cap: 10,000words!
Previously: 2,500 / 10,000
Currently: 3,650 / 10,000

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Finally, after so long, Rhapsody had found herself on the right track to locating the Guardian. She had spent months in searching, though to be fair, the majority of those month had been spent within her ship as she waited out the winter. With the season now in her favor however, and three of the four cardinal directions searched, there was only one place left to search; the East!

When she had initially gone through the portal to escape her village, she had, had no idea where she ended up. She'd seen a sea that she'd never seen before; and experienced a world she never knew existed. She'd encountered troubles, from nearly drowning to nearly dying of dehydration in the desert. She'd been taken captive to be sold off into slavery, and had aided in a rebellion, freeing the captive slaves and putting an end to the slave traders tyranny.

She'd met and made friends throughout her travels, gaining experience and learning of the different standards amongst the people of Earth. Now, after so long and so much searching, Rhapsody found herself traveling through a forest in the East along a mountainside. She remembered the site of the white tower she searched for from her village; once she found the tower, then she was certain she'd once again find her village as well. Yet strangely enough, in spite her flight over the forest, there was no tower in sight.

"I was certain I'd find it by now, but this map doesn't do well in the way of properly displaying the topography" She'd sigh as she took to descending beneath the forest canopy for a brief rest, "Hmm, maybe I should have asked Zerori for one of those information devices I kept seeing people speak into back in the city, then at least I'd be able to maintain contact if I got lost." She'd say as she took to casually walking within the forest, "Or at least I could have accessed the Intergalactic Web. No wait, the human devices are limited to information regarding the world? Sooooo... the world web? World wide web?? Why is it even called a web?"

Talking to herself so much, she'd have likely seemed crazy to an onlooker; in actuality, her words weren't meant for merely herself, but for the trees and other plant life around her. She was never lonely so long as there was some form of nature nearby; be it flora or fauna, the gift bestowed upon Rhapsody at birth kept her exceptionally aware of all that was around her. Surprisingly however, in spite her best efforts, there was a strange air about the trees in this forest; for the first time in a rather long time, the forest felt... quiet.

"Hello?" Rhapsody would call out hesitantly, "Are you... okay?" She'd question as she approached a tree, placing her hand upon it's truck tentatively before suddenly flinching as an abnormally cold feeling overtook her.

Something was wrong, and though she couldn't explain exactly why, she knew as a matter of fact that something was incredibly wrong. The wind within the forest was still, and the foliage remained silent; there wasn't a single specimen of fauna to be felt anywhere, and in spite the spaciousness of the forest, Rhapsody couldn't help but to feel claustrophobic.

Rhapsody would back away from the tree, examining the woods around her carefully, questioning whether or not her eyes could be trusted. While everything certainly appeared real, the world might as well have been a still framed picture of exquisite design. Upon truly paying attention to the world around her, the oddities became clear; not a single broken stick, not a single leaf or blade of grass out of place. The world around her was carefully constructed to deceive those who entered with its design, it was a a pseudo forest blanketed in a strangely familiar magic to turn those that journeyed through around. The familiarity had be so uncanny, that the realization hit immediately-

"The shrouded forest..."

Rhapsody would step back, away from the imitation tree as her eyes widened with disbelief. While the design and approach was entirely different, the concept was more or less the exact same. The forest she was in was no different than the one that protected her village; the magic she felt around her would keep her from reaching her destination she she was deceived by it, but luck was on her side.

Closing her eyes, Rhapsody would take to sitting upon the ground as she took a deep breath to begin her meditation. To the average traveler, these imitation trees would have passed without issue. Any other would have ventured in, and been spat out wherever the magic desired, being none the wiser to the magics that had affected them. Rhapsody however, was no average traveler; her animal like features made her much more attuned to the world around her than the average human, and her gift of communicating with nature itself was a boon in this moment. While the magic that blanketed the forest still threatened to disturb her senses and misdirect her, Rhapsody previous days of training would finally bear a necessary fruit.

Through the calm, her mind would focus; extending her hand, Rhapsody would call forth her keyblade, and listen to it's voice. Between the vast expanses of nature, and the hustle and bustle of human communities, such silence was rarely found. In this moment however, she was utterly suffocated by the silence, and in this moment, she would finally hear the words of her weapon more clearly than she ever had before.

Rising to her feet, Rhapsody would begin to lift her weapon as it directly; her arm would extend, pointing the tip of her blade in a direction opposite of the direction she'd believed her destination to be. With a twitch of her ears however, she would not question the words of her sword; in the distance she could hear it, the sounds of nature that felt non-existence in the area around her. Keeping her eyes close, Rhapsody would follow the direction of her keyblade; with the sway of her arm as it instructed her, the purpose of the magic around her became clear. Unlike the shrouded forest with effectively transported those who ventured in back out from where they entered, the magic in play here was merely to misdirect.

It would only take a few short minutes of walking before Rhapsody would find herself in the true forest an free of the magic that had attempted to misdirect her before. Opening her eyes, she would be awestruck by the sights and sounds around her; the complete opposite of what she had just experienced, she was now in a forest brimming with life and magic, a forest that spoke of its caretaker, Korins Forest.