Sequoia

Chapter 1

    The wind blew through my elbow length platinum blonde hair as I grabbed onto the branches of a towering sequoia tree and pulled myself up onto a thick branch. I quickly continued the process of climbing up the tree until I was about two-thirds of the way up. I tied my hair into a low ponytail to keep it out of my face, crouched down on a thick branch and looked below me. Two warriors wearing the Warlock King's signature navy cloaks along with glossy black raven masks were in the clearing below me looking around with their enchanted swords held in a fighting stance.

    "She has to be around here somewhere, she couldn't have gone far, especially on foot." said one of the dark cloaked figures, his head scanning the area.

    "How do you know she was on foot? For all we know, she could've teleported away!" exclaimed the second cloaked figure, throwing his hands up, obviously frustrated. I mean, they've been chasing me for a while, who wouldn't be?

    "Are you an idiot or what?" hissed the first figure. "If she could teleport, she would've done so when we spotted her and started chasing her!" said the first figure in an exasperated voice.

    "Well, maybe she wanted to lure us into the forest first before teleporting away, leaving us alone, in an unfamiliar place, and outnumbered with all the magical creatures."

    "No, she wouldn't do that. That would be a bit too risky and we all know that magical creatures are cautious. They have to be, one wrong move and they're captured and taken to the King."

    "But you don't know for sure! Maybe this one is different, one of the risky ones or something. She might not be like the others!"

    I almost gave away my position by laughing out loud as I watched them go back and forth. But while they were distracted, I decided to take the opportunity. I slowly stood up on the branch that I was currently sitting on so that I now had a clear view of the two arguing warriors. Then I reached my right hand over my shoulder to pull an arrow out of the leather quiver strapped to my back. I drew my arrow, which had been dipped in a sleeping potion, aiming for the first warrior, who seemed to have more sense. I was hoping that if I disarmed the first warrior, the second one (who seemed pretty senseless and stupid in my opinion) would get spooked and run away. I pulled the arrow back so that it was brushing my cheek, the feathers on the end tickling me. I took a deep breath, concentrated, and let go. My arrow flew through the sequoia's branches as it headed straight for the warrior. I watched from my perch as the arrow buried itself into the first warrior's right shoulder, which I assumed was his dominant side.

    "Well, either way, what do we do now? We still can't find her and this forest is giving me a weird fee-" thump! "What was tha- OH MY GOBLIN!"

    I watched from the sequoia as my arrow worked its magic when the first figure slumped to the ground.

    "AHHHH! AMBUSH!" screamed the second warrior in terror as he ran in the direction of what I assumed was the Warlock King's castle.

    He's an actual idiot. I thought as I dropped from branch to branch down the sequoia. Then again, he probably thinks that he's surrounded or outnumbered. Especially since this forest is known to be home to many magical beings and creatures.

    In no time, my feet hit the forest floor and I ran over to the warrior's slumped figure, kneeling down beside it as I reached my hand out to take their mask off. My hand grabbed the beak on the mask and pulled, revealing two ice-blue orbs staring back at me.

    My own sage green eyes widened. Holy mushrooms! Uhh... I was in shock, had my potion worn off already? But...that couldn't be it, the potion usually lasted for about an hour, which was more than enough time for me to steal some supplies and run off.

    I definitely took way too long to ponder this over because, before I could make sense of what was happening, I was flipped onto my chest and my hands were held together behind my back by the warrior's.

    "You must be wondering why your magical arrow didn't work, am I right, elf?" the warrior asked, his voice cold as ice.

    I stayed silent, wondering how he had read my thoughts. Wait, is he a telepath-? Hopefully he's not, because I definitely don't need anyone snooping around my brain, not that I have anything to hide-

    "I'll take your silence as a yes. Well, I was wearing a protection suit under my cloak, which meant that your arrow didn't fully pierce into my skin and your potion lasted only for a few minutes. Bet you didn't expect that, did you?"

    I heard footsteps from behind us and there was a sudden whoosh and thud!  A weight was suddenly lifted off of me as something came barreling into the warrior, knocking him off me.

    "Hey! What the-" the warrior started.

    I quickly stood up and brushed myself off, getting into a fighting position before calming down when I realized that it was just my 12 year old sister, Aurelia. She stood next to the successfully tied up warrior.

    "Thanks sis. But now we have to figure out what to do with him because he's seen our faces and we most definitely don't need him tattling to the King."

    "Well, we could hold him prisoner, and there's always the choice of killing him." Aurelia suggested. "I personally vote that we kill him.

    "Feeling violent today?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

    "Yep! Someone picked the last of the raspberries from that bunch I found in the clearing." she responded, giving a fake, overly cheerful smile. "When I find out who it was, we're gonna have a one on one. The little-"

    "MMMMHHHH!" the warrior thrashed, trying to wriggle out of the ropes and glaring at us.

    "Well, I really don't want to deal with another dead body at the moment so let's take him with us for now. There could be more warriors coming." I replied, using telekinesis to levitate him as I started walking, Aurelia following behind me, ranting about her raspberries.