The Chronicles of Kyle

Chapter 11

Kyle assumed Xadia would be full of terrifying, dangerous dragons and monsters, but so far his experience had been surprisingly pleasant. Dux had led him into the forest the previous night where he had slept soundly under a tree. It was hard for him to fall asleep at first because of his aching body and paranoia of bloodthirsty creatures, but exhaustion quickly took over. Kyle felt a little better about Xadia when he woke up and realized he hadn't been eaten in the middle of the night.

Kyle had lost track of how long they'd been traveling. He guessed it was late afternoon judging by the position of the sun. Though his ribs still sent shooting pains through his chest, Kyle remained in good spirits. Xadia had a wide variety of colorful fruits that tasted even more sweet and exotic than they looked. Kyle occasionally spotted unfamiliar creatures out of the corner of his eye. He'd seen a bird that seemed to be leaving moonbeams behind as it flew, an insect that blended in perfectly with the exquisite flowers surrounding it, and a strange, catlike creature that was peering at him from the top of a tree. Despite his initial wariness, Kyle didn't mind spotting the curious creatures anymore. In fact, he found it fascinating! They never seemed to have any interest in hurting Kyle. They either ignored him or stared at him with a perplexed expression as if they'd never seen anything quite like him before.

The Xadian forest almost reminded Kyle of the Whispering Woods back in Etheria. The plants and trees were certainly strange. However, the wildlife here was far more friendly than the crazy robot-like creatures back where Kyle was from. Kyle laughed to himself. Even Xadia, the place everyone seemed to fear and believe to be filled with monsters was unfathomably better than any place Kyle had ever been in Etheria. However Kyle hadn't met any elves yet, so he had yet to see if they were as cruel and bloodthirsty as everyone in Katolis seemed to think. The thought of running into other intelligent life did intimidate Kyle. He could deal with the prying eyes of animals, but the elves might think he was trespassing or a thief or something and kill him on sight.

As if sensing Kyle's uneasy thoughts, Dux suddenly alighted from Kyle's head and excitedly flew towards a field of flowers a few feet away. She had developed the charming habit of sitting in Kyle's hair as he walked, and she only got off when she wanted to redirect Kyle or show him some interesting plant or creature.

"What is it this time?" Kyle asked as he followed her, "it'd better not be a nasty flower again!"

As soon as he set foot in the flowery field, he felt an odd hugging sensation envelop his leg. He gasped and looked down to find dozens of fluffy, colorful creatures clinging to his pants.

"What the heck?" Kyle exclaimed, "Dux, what are these?"

He bent down to get a closer look and was taken aback to discover little pairs of eyes on each puff ball.

"Oh! You're... Alive!"

He reached his hand down to touch one. A little pink one leapt into his hand and stared at him with wide, innocent eyes. Kyle let out a surprised laugh. The creature was barely bigger than a ping pong ball, and it felt even lighter. Impossibly soft fur covered its entire spherical body except for its big round eyes. Kyle wasn't even sure how it traveled since it appeared to just be a body without arms or legs.

"You are adorable!" Kyle said as he lifted the creature to the level of his eyes. "You know, I could get used to Xadia if it's just filled with harmless little guys like you!" He glanced at Dux, "they are harmless, right? They don't like... have venom in each of their little hairs?"

Dux shook her head, and Kyle smiled. He felt more and more creatures leaping onto him. Little blue, green, yellow, pink, and purple puffballs were clinging to his clothes. Dux flew ahead of Kyle and shook some dust off of her body.

"You're right," Kyle said, looking at the sinking sun behind his friend, "we should get going."

He looked at the creatures covering him.

"You guys mind traveling with me for a while?"

Kyle started walking again, and his furry friends stuck by his side quite literally. He laughed at their antics as they stacked and unstacked themselves into different shapes and patterns in the palm of his hand. He couldn't help but wish the kids back at Katolis could see these little guys. They'd get a kick out of it.

The creatures helped Kyle to pass the time as he traveled closer to his unknown destination, but eventually he reached the end of the forest. His new friends began to hop off him as the trees began thinning out.

"Nice to meet you guys," he said as he continued following Dux into the unknown.