The Betrayal of the Guardians

~ (13) The Forbidden Lands ~

Arisa remembered one of the lessons she had taken at the Academy of Celestia, an academy for those who wished to protect and aid their people.

The lesson that came to mind was the study of the worlds. She remembered her chubby lovely teacher lecturing her class about the worlds that were considered dangerous. In most of those worlds, agents of the Special Forces of Celestia were allowed to research or rescue a lost member of their world.

Her teacher told the class that those missions were risky. They required a lot of training and experience in order for an agent to be sent to such dangerous places. Several other worlds considered dangerous were forbidden even to agents. If a fellow citizen was lost, hope was all they could do since they weren't allowed to travel to that specific zone.

The number one world that no one should set foot was the Enchanted Lands, infamously known as the Forbidden Lands because only the chosen ones were allowed to explore that world.

Arisa remembered that she was fascinated with that day's lesson. She remembered asking her teacher about the appearance of those lands. The teacher only gave her a gentle smile and told her it was a scary place, that she shouldn't think of visiting it.

With the lesson that she had a few months earlier, Arisa pictured the Forbidden Lands as a dark place; a dead land whose only vegetation was dry trees with no leaves. The inhabitants she imagined as ferocious, huge monsters.

"These are the Forbidden Lands?" she asked again, blinking repeatedly.

They had already disembarked from the train which, after a few minutes, it started on its return trip to another world.

Arisa couldn't believe her eyes. The sun was starting to set, darkening the clear blue sky. On the ground, all she could see was an endless green field. There were no trees, no mountains or alps. It was a sea of green grass painting the lonely land.

She glanced over her shoulder to see her companions' reaction. All they did was smile at her.

"This place doesn't look dangerous at all," she said, joining them. "It looks like a good place to relax and read a book."

"That's so like you, Arisa," said her grandmother, caressing Arisa's dark head. "Always thinking of an ideal place to read a book."

Arisa gazed at her grandmother with gentle eyes. Ever since she was a child she would feed her curiosity about other worlds by reading a good book. Of course, she grew up loving reading other types of books that told her imaginative stories. If Zen or Kazuya weren't there to spend time with her, she would find a good spot to read a good book.

"Don't let your eyes deceive you," said her grandfather. "There's a reason this place is called The Enchanted Lands."

She frowned and set her eyes back to the scenario in front of her. The perfect green field was still there. She blinked in order to prepare her eyes to find the trick about the place. She still saw the perfect green land. With the perfect sky that was beginning to get an orange tone across the horizon.

Arisa tilted her head. What secrets does this world hold? 

"That's weird," said Kazuya, interrupting her thoughts.

She looked behind her. She saw that he was glancing around with surprise.

"Usually there are twenty candidates that compete for the spot," he continued as Arisa approached him. "What's with this amount of people around here?"

She followed her friend's gaze to his right side. Her brows arched as she spotted a large crowd. She was so shocked by what she saw of this world that she didn't notice the many people of her own kind and others sitting not so far from the station's rails.