Worthy

Luna

I stared at Indrik like he had suddenly grown two horns before turning my attention back to the grove and studying them for any signs of them being damaged. I frowned as I noticed a break in the line of trees to the center of the grove. Where there were supposed to be trees, there were creeper plants instead. They had grown very thick and were barely moved by occasional gusts of wind but their presence still stuck out as what they were, a piece of skin that had grown to replace a wound. My heart bubbled with anger as I glared at Indrik, trying my best to keep my temper in check.

"What did you do to the trees?" I growled. He stared at me in confusion but I was in no mood for that as I hissed in irritation. "Why did you cut those trees?" I asked again, barely able to hold back from hitting him so hard in his face as to send him back into a coma.

"Oh, that." He started casually then froze as he realized I wasn't joking. "I found it that way. Promise. I have tried my best to not touch anything that need not be touched since I arrived here." He informed.

I regarded him, trying to figure out exactly how much of his words were lies and how much were truth. "How did you find this place?"

He paused, his brows furrowing as he considered it. "I don't think that is the right way to say it. As a matter of fact, I do think that this place found me." He paused, sparing me a glance then continued when he noticed I was still waiting on him. "Growing up, I used to be very lonely. To counter that, I would walk around, trying to find new interesting things to keep me from loosing my mind. It was on one of such expeditions that I noticed that door in the stable. I don't know why or how, but it was open. I had been so excited by my discovery that I had gone into it without hesitation and, here we are now."

I examined his features, trying to figure out if he was lying but he looked sincere enough. The forest seemed to rustle in approval as well.

"Can we go?" He asked quietly when he noticed that I was not ready to say anything else.

I stared at him with blank eyes as I thought about why I had been so inclined to protect nature. I felt like it had something to do with my past that I was constantly forgetting more and more about by the day. I shook the grogginess out of my head as I turned to him. "Let's go see it."

Indrik seemed relieved as he led me to the creeping plants. For a moment, I wondered about how he was going to get past the thick creepers but he simply brushed them apart like they were no more than tiny blades of grass. I was going to ask him about it but the sight that rolled out before my eyes killed the words on my tongue. If I had thought that the view outside was incredible, in here seemed like the pinnacle of beauty. The fading light of a closing day seemed to be locked outside as we trudged on in semi-darkness. We walked past rows of felled trees that got me swallowing past my resentment at things so beautiful being reduced to stumps. Finally, the trees opened into a large clearing. The trees still formed a heavy canopy over us but somehow, light trickled in through some breaks that were too far off to see. That wasn't the most impressive though. The most impressive thing was the way the trees began to glow, emitting a silver hue that looked an awful lot like moonlight which illuminated our path.

"That is strange." Indrik's voice was so quiet, he might have as well not have spoken.

"What?" I asked, still entranced by the sight of these majestic trees, glad that no pests had ever been able to lay their paws on it and also promising to defend this place with my last breath if I had to.

"The trees." His voice sounded hoarse. "They never used to glow before." He whispered. I wondered why he did that since we were the only ones here.

"Maybe you never came here at night?" I suggested, my eyes still feeding on the beautiful nights.

"I always come here at night." It almost sounded like a growl, if growls could be managed in whispers.

"Oh! I'm sure there is a simple explanation." I shrugged, not anxious to peel my eyes off the beauties.

"I guess you are right." Indrik hissed. "But we should get moving." He continued, sounding more and more nervous by the moment.

"Going back to the palace? I thought we were here to train."

"Not to the palace. To the training grounds." I turned toward him, an obvious question on my face. Weren't these the training grounds? They after all perfectly fitted into the picture. Hidden? Check. Spacey? Yes. Lighted? Beautifully. Whatever a training center needed, this place seemed to have in abundance so, of course, I assumed that this was our destination without a doubt. Now, he was saying we were still going elsewhere?

He seemed to catch on to my thoughts as he smiled. "This isn't where I told you about. This place is more like the courtyard of the palace. We will reach the. Palace soon."

The Palace turned out to be a hut built on the center of a large expanse of land. Here, the trees which had kept a mere fifteen feet berth in the former clearing spread out into a much wider circle, allowing for the moonlight to beam from the sky. The moon? Time sure moved fast. Before I could carry out any more exploration, Indrik wrapped his arms around mine and pulled me along in this little kingdom of his.

I couldn't help feeling honoured that he had considered me worthy of sharing this with him.