The Mage Queen Book 1: The Princess
Visions

Cicada Forest was a place she had only read about in books. She had seen pictures of how lush the trees were and how little pockets of sunlight would gently light the way. It was a rather romantic sight especially when the flowers bloomed at every step.

But now that Anastacia stood in the forest itself, she realized that books needed a drastic update.

The expected gentle feeling was instead replaced with dread. Every step she took, every crack of a dead leaf and rotted branch caused her to jump with fright. How could such a fairytale forest create such dark feelings?

But she did notice that Marick and Rowan didn't seem to be as jumpy. The little dryad had even begun whistling and humming softly. He swung his arms lightly and skipped along as if he was walking through the park.

Marick on the other hand had slower but more steady steps. Both his gunblades were drawn and his grip on the hilts tightened at each step. But despite the tension, his shoulders appeared relaxed and his lavender eyes only looked in one direction: forward.

How are they not afraid? She wondered. In a place filled with shadows and silhouettes of beasts that may or may not be there, who would not wonder about their survival? But her heart, despite her mind running amuck with fear, seemed to still. While unsure whether it was because fear had frozen her blood or it was because she accepted things with a hopeless calm, she still saw it as a learning experience.

Suddenly, something dropped onto her shoulder and caused her to yelp and jump with fright. Marick and Rowen quickly turned around with their weapons brandished and she prepared to unleash a spell when it was a little leaf that had fallen from the looming branches above. She blinked at the leaf for a moment before sheepishly laughing at the two. Rowen smiled reassuringly while Marick scowled and rolled his eyes. She sighed at her jumpiness, gripping her trembling wrist.

Calm down, calm down, she chanted in her mind.

It was ironic that the words "calm down" amplified her worry even further as her heart thundered in her ears. She shivered at the sound of each footstep, trying her best not to shriek and the sudden creak and snap of the dried branches that she stepped on. However, she suddenly bumped into Marick who quickly placed his fingers on his lips.

Rowen gulped.

Marick shook his head, slowly pulling the hammer on his gunblade. It softly began to hum while the blade itself glowed a dim pale blue.

Anastacia stiffly nodded and rubbed her hands together, closing her eyes. The mana in her body sparked and her fingertips started glowing with a soft white aura. She fought her urge to suddenly charge up her mana and throw a spell into the darkness to get the pre-emptive strike. She glanced at Rowen whose hands started glowing green and his human ears suddenly became more pointed like that of a dryad.

Marick glanced back at her. Ready?

Anastacia shook her head. What was he saying?

Suddenly, he leaped forward with his blades swinging with Rowen summoning vines simultaneously. Anastacia yelped and her ray of light shot forward. All the blows crashed with a loud explosion, possibly alerting all the living creatures in the forest. But when the dust cleared, all they saw was several pieces of rubble and rock debris. Marick's eyes widened in horror.

"Ana, Rowen, to me!"

Anastacia found her body jumping towards Marick by itself, nearly tackling him over. Rowen stopped himself from knocking down the captain but when she heard the echoes of the explosive sounds caused by their attacks fade into the forest, all the more she struggled to breathe. Her heart threatened to burst out of her rib cage until all she could hear was their breathing. Marick soon sighed and shook his head.

"At least we know that the forest isn't out to kill us yet," Marick pointed out before plopping down on the ground against the tree. "Jumping at every movement like this is going to kill us."

Nodding stiffly, Anastacia whined. "I swear, this place kills me every five seconds we stay here."

Rowen blinked. "But how come you're still breathing?"

"Sprout, not now."

"But, she said that the place kills her every five seconds. Either something is wrong with her lungs or she is bad at math."

"It's neither, Sprout."

Anastacia smiled at Rowen. "It's a figure of speech. Like, I don't literally mean that the place kills me every five seconds. It's just this place is so frightening that I may as well die of a heart attack."

The dryad blinked before nodding in understanding. "Humans are so strange with their language. Why would they say things they don't mean?"

The princess tried to come up with an answer but realized she couldn't.

"That's because their brains don't always work, Sprout," Marick remarked offhandedly.

Anastacia gawked. "Seriously, Marick?"

"What? Got any better ideas?"

"Isn't that too simplified?"

Marick shrugged. "Again, do you have any better ideas on how to explain to a dryad what the complexities of human linguistics are?"

She prepared to retort but realized that it would have been too complicated. Anastacia sighed and shook her head.

Rowen tilted his head to the side. "You guys are weird."

"Well, that's coming from someone who has pointed ears and talks to vegetables," Marick chuckled. "So, it's a compliment."

Anastacia formed a small ball of light in her hand. "So, what do we do now? We can't stay here."

"True but there's no point in venturing into the forest when we probably woke up every possible living creature here." Marick shook his head. "At least if we're in one spot, we can easily defend ourselves."

Rowen blinked. "Wouldn't it be better if we kept on moving?"

"We'd burn out faster that way. All the running will eventually take away all the energy we need to fight. Besides, we haven't had a good night's sleep."

Anastacia shook her head. "I'm not sleeping here!"

"You eventually will," Marick unsheathed both his swords In the meantime, I'm going to keep guard. You and Rowen get some sleep."

Rowen nodded and pulled out a small bag from his pocket. "I have lavender."

Anastacia blinked. "Why do you —"

"— Cap'n and I sometimes have a hard time sleeping so we sniff the lavender until we fall asleep. It also helps when we get headaches from the sudden change in air pressure."

She shrugged. It was worth the shot. Taking the bag from Rowen, she opened it to see a small vial along with several flowers inside. Anastacia raised an eyebrow at Rowen.

"I have both oils and the flowers itself. I was still trying to make lavender oil out of it."

The princess, being rather skeptical of his methods, dabbed her finger with some of the lavender oil and smeared it under her nose. When the floral scent filled her nostrils, her heart rate slowed down gradually. She sighed in relaxation and her eyes started feeling heavy. Before she knew it, she had already fallen asleep.

When she came to, she found herself standing in the middle of Cicada Forest. A calm yet eerie mist swirled around her when she heard a howl of a dragon in the air. As she snapped her head up to see where the dragon's howl was coming from, a large shadow loomed over her and landed right in front of her. Standing next to the dragon was a young woman, a brunette in black. She extended her arm with her two fingers generating blue electricity. Before she knew it, it shot right through her.

Anastacia woke up with a yelp, trembling from the dream. She gripped her chest and noticed nothing. It was just a dream, she comforted herself. Yet, it felt so real. Who was the young brunette and why did she try to kill her?