The Knight and the Guardian

"Rumor has it that a group of bandits are terrorizing the south. I want you to investigate on our behalf and wipe them out, if they exist. Dip your sword in the fountain of Strength and drink from the fountain of Good Fortune before you leave."

"As you wish, your Majesty."

"Damn High Knights, they really have everything, don't they? Fountain of Good Luck... That's cheating"

"Shut it! Of course he's allowed to, he's one of the best!"

"Still... There won't be any fountains to help him, over there."

"Oh brave Knight, I'm afraid their hiding is within the Selva Obscura. We don't know where, as we don't enter.

"Why?"

"People have heard a lady singing, for decades, and a man. But now they only hear a young man sobbing yet see no one."

"I see. I'll go."

Really, Bokuto should have seen it coming. A mission alone in the infamous Selva Obscura, the kingdom's biggest enchanted forest? No wonder his king, Lord Sakusa of the Blessed House, had him pulling favors from two fountains before his departure. Even the Good Fortune wasn't enough to repeal every trouble - namely, the bandits. Not a small group, oh no. He had counted at least 50 before he had to flee. By foot, of course, he had left his horse in the village. Thank the skies that he has don his leather armor today.

"Fuck fuck fuck! this is bad!" he curses, hearing them behind him.

Bokuto jumps over a root, eyeing everything around him in case he could find somewhere to hide. It goes against the flamboyant knight reputation he has but he can't deal with the bandits without a proper plan. Scratch that, he's going back to the village to ask its witch to send a vision to the King's High Seer, for him to send his squad - he's going to need the fox twins, for sure and his favorite crow. A blast of energy shatters the tree in front of him. Of course they have mages. Bokuto jumps, ducks, twists in between the trees, running as fast as he could to escape from his chasers. He wonders what would have happened if he hadn't sipped from the fountain of Good Fortune. Uh. Better forget it. They're getting close. His armor is too heavy for a long sprint.

He needs to hide-

His foot catches a hole. Before he knows it, he is sendt rolling down a hill - not the grass type of hill, no, the thorny and the stony type. He grits his teeth and lets his body roll. At least this way, he can flee faster (yeah, he's that type of optimist). When he finally comes to a halt, the noises behind have long since stopped. Perhaps he has fallen for longer than he had thought because, when he finally unstuck his head from the ground, he's in a completely different part of the Selva Obscura.

It's a clearing, for starters. Pretty small, surrounded by bushes of thorns and thick trees, the canopy so shadowed by leaves that the light is only present in small dots, like stars on a moss carpet. The whole atmosphere is serene, silent and perhaps a little bit scary. As Bokuto rises, he freezes: Except his labored breathing, there's no sound. No birds singing, no winds rustling the leaves, no cracking branches, nothing. Nothing except silence and stillness. Bokuto shivers. Unconsciously, he draws his trusty golden knight sword. He might not be a Mage Knight but even he could recognize the taste of magic in the air. He slowly approaches the middle of the clearing, where rumbles lay, overwhelmed by ivy. He can distinguish a faint circle, broken by time and neglect. The grass is greener beneath his feet.

"They heard a lady singing". Bokuto exhales.

He thinks he knows what happened here. It seems to be the remains of a fountain, before it was abandoned by its guardian - the singing lady, no doubt. He suddenly remembers: Selva Obscura was declared forbidden territory 30 years ago. The guardian and their fountain were left to rot. Here, a guardian exists solely because their fountain provides support to all creatures. In exchange, humans and faes care for them: they replace stones, bring offerings and the guardian is the center of their community. Except this place is left to the animals and no one went there after King Sakusa Senior's Edict. With no one to take care of it...