-not named-

[Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander]

This place was odd... I had never seen it before, yet something tugged at my memory telling me that this was always here - when I knew for a fact it was not. I stared at the trees in front of me, having trekked into the forest that I called home, the forest no one knew better than I, and only one came close.

Resting my hand on the hilt of my sword, rubbing the back of my neck with my free hand trying to think up an explanation. Studying the bark of the tree nearest me, I reached out. The bark was dry, rough as I ran my fingers down it. Something had happened to these trees. Something... different.

The snap of a branch on the forest floor behind me snapped my attention to what was at hand. Spinning around with such graceful speed, I dropped to one knee as all around me quieted. Birds had been singing before the snapped, and obviously, whatever made the sound was no friend of mine if they weren't welcome in my forest. Gritting my teeth, I pulled my sword an inch or two free of it's sheath, the distinctive sound of a sword being drawn rung in my ears. All around me, it was deathly quiet, as if no one was around, but I knew better.

Slowly, I pulled my blade and advanced forward. I moved quickly, my feet making so sound as I tread over the forest ground. I was cautious enough to be aware of my surroundings, yet when I heard another sword being drawn to the left and a little behind me, I stopped where I was. My eyes darted to the source of the sound, my hand gripping the hilt of my sword so tightly, my knuckles were white. I stopped breathing, capturing the breath in my throat. I expected to die.

Whirling around, I would fight with tooth and nail to the death, and I wasn't about to be done in with someone sneaking up on me. Holding my sword out, I rose to a stance, waiting. My ears were turned to wards the sound, however human they seemed, they still held the quality of my true blood, wolf.

Suddenly a man jumped out from seemingly out of no where. I rose my blade to defend myself, and caught his blade in the dead center. I held up against him, but had to pull and dance away from his parrying blows. I gasped as I felt his blade nip at my side, and furious, I threw a drown ward blow at him. In my fury, he easily intercepted my blade and made another nip, this time on my arm. Growling, I slipped away from his blade again, and finally got a good look at my assailant.

He seemed to be in his middle to late twenties, with blond hair and lovely blue eyes that I could stare into for hours. He was tall, well over a head taller than I. The armor he wore was shockingly familiar. The brown and blue melded perfectly on the colors of his , his metal ringlets clicked as he made a mad dash for me. It seemed odd to admire the blade in his hand but it was also brown and blue with fancy gold designs. As his blade whistled toward me I blocked it and flung myself away from him.

As I turned to face him, my blade was flew from my hand. I looked up, seeing him standing in front of me, his sword poised as I realized my grip had loosened. Cursing myself I ducked and rolled away, sending a kick to his thigh as I did so. I knew I had connected, as I heard him grunt in protest. Wheeling around, I brought my fist back and landed one in the square of his back. He stumbled foreword, barely affected by my blow. It didn't help that he was must stronger and much more muscled then me, I had noticed, with the way they remained stern when he attacked. Spinning to face me, he growled, and I growled back in a challenge. I flexed and clenched my fingers and prepared.

Flinging his sword aside, he stretched his arms forward, clenching his fists as he charged to wards me. I ducked to the side, jabbing him sharpely into the side as he ran past, but as he did so he turned and grabbed my arm tightly and pulled me close. I realized I was being c.ocky in my movements, and he had noticed. I struggled to get out of his strong grip he had around my middle as I pounded my fists into his chest, kicking at him. Then, I bit him. Right on the shoulder. Instantly he dropped me with a grunt and I fell to the floor, trying to get to my feet, but as I turned to stand up he was looming over me with his sword pointed straight at my neck. My throat constricted as I swallowed.

In his left hand he was holding my blade. I never could figure out how quickly he moved, but he was more avandanced then myself. As I laid there before him, feeling like a stupid, helpless pup, he flipped my sword catching it by the blade and handed it to me. Grudgingly, I accepted the weapon and he helped me to my feet. He wore that stupid big grin of his you'd hate, but loved it at the same time.

"You lose," He said, smiling at me like an idiot.

"Ass." I growled as he smiled at me. He came up and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Your getting much better, I must admit. Maybe one day you'll finally be able to beat me!" He said laughter in his tone as I growled in response. However he gathered a serious face as he turned to look in the direction I had come in and inspected the trees I was inspecting before he showed up.

"Somethings wrong."

[/blockquote]

[Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander]

I felt him tense up before he removed his hand from my shoulder and starting to wards the grove of trees that twisted this way and that. He too, ran his fingers over the bark, studying in silence.

I glanced toward the roots, realizing I never looked there before hand. Something sparked my interest as it had nestled itself between the crook of two roots entwining. To me it looked like a tangled mess of leaves. I knelt and reached my hand out to grab it, but before I could I felt his hand clamp down on my wrist and wrench it back.

"Don't touch," He instructed as he knelt down beside me. I was tempted to growl at him, but instead I stood up and moved away. I spotted another batch of that stuff clinging to another root.

"Hey, there's some more over here," I said as I seemed to have forgotten what he said about touching the stuff. As my hand neared, there was a faint buzzing in my ear, and the closer I got the louder it got before the thing hissed and lunged. I jumped back just in time as the thing sent tendrils spinning into the air, searching, before retreating back into the thing.

"I said not to touch! Do you ever listen to me?" He growled as he came over to stand by me. I giggled silently at his response, my hand covering my mouth as I did so.

"No," I said, biting my tongue and trying to keep a straight face and not burst into laughter. I knew this was serious business, but I just couldn't help but mess with him.

He turned away, mumbling about I being a smart ass and began studying the roots. Finally able to quell my laughter, the muscles on my face relaxed as I became serious once more. I was staring at the roots, counting how many that I spotted.

"There's so many of them," I whispered, my voice soft. He simply nodded, and lifted up a decaying limp root, and underneath it were several smaller versions of what was leeching off the trees. I assumed they were the offspring, and by the looks of it, they could over take this forest in months.

-chapter break-

Blinking my eyes open, I let my gaze drift around me. Green grass waved infront of my face, a breeze drifting over me. I lifted my head up, my long brown curly hair sliding over a shoulder propping myself up on an elbow. Beside me, I felt him. He had an arm draped over my stomach, and I could hear his gentle breathing.

Turning towards him, I smiled and planted a kiss on his forehead.

-will be continued-

[/blockquote]