The sun was starting to sink lower and lower into its bed to rest as the moon took leadership of the sky and land.
“Let’s stop for the night and get some rest. I’m sure we will get to the castle tomorrow.” Shining suddenly exclaimed.
“Ok. I guess we can stop, but only if you need to I’m fine” Mystic lied, to tell the truth she was exhausted and couldn’t wait till they had a chance to rest.
“This looks like a good place to stop” Mystic said as they passed under a tall tree with quite a few low hanging branches that led all the way up the tree.
“No, something could come get us during the night. Even we don't know what's out there.”
“Not at the foot of the tree. At the top where the branches are the thickest” Mystic said as if it was the most obvious thing ever and pointed upwards to show him.
“Okay, I guess” Shinings voice sounded wobbly as he was slightly afraid of heights (he was petrified of looking over the banister of the stairs at home). As they climbed higher and higher they could feel a strong wind flow through the tree, it blew them round in circles and Mystic had to grab Shining so he didn't fall off. After the wind calmed the filly and colt settled down on a large clump of tree branches the two lost travellers gazed up at the night sky to see the stars shimmering and shining in the black cobweb that the moon spun every night and when gazing upon those stars Mystic Moon and Shining Star thought about all the animals back home, they wished that their dogs could be there with them for, although different in many ways, Mystic and Shining shared two things in common, one of them being that they were the only links to their parents left alive and that they would both do anything for the animals, even trek across the entire country in order to help them. Mystic and Shining slept well that night both dreaming that they were back home with the dogs galloping through the fields.
“Good morning sunshine”
“Are you talking to me?” Mystic questioned.
“No, I was talking to the sunshine silly” Shining retorted.
“Weirdo,” Mystic muttered under her breath.
“Hey, I heard that!”
After a brief argument the siblings decided to make their charge through the haunted forest. Suddenly a previous scene started to replay itself. Trees came to life and surrounded them, except this time the filly was the one being carried away.
“Mystic, come one it’s an illusion remember,” Shining shouted, rolling his eyes at his forgetful sister.
“This is no illusion, it’s for real this time!” Mystic shouted back, having already tested the illusion theory.
“Then what is it?”
“Do I look like I know!” Mystic retorted. All the trees around Shining had re-planted their roots and the main focus was on the running tree. Shining galloped after her, trying his best to catch up with his sister.
“STOP!” A great shimmering light flashed in front of the tree with flying colours the sparkling light seemed to have no physical form and upon its entrance Mystic felt that she had seen it before but quickly pushed the thought from her mind, she didn’t ever recall seeing such brilliant light and colour, it must’ve been a dream.
“The light. It-it burns” The tree started to scream in agony and withered away into the ground.
“Hurry... hurry..... hurry..... I cannot stay... Hurry” The light started to burn out and fade away, even it's voice seemed to be full of light and colour.
“What just happened?” The two travellers said in unison.
“Let’s just get to that castle, quickly” Mystic exclaimed.
“Yeah, good plan, we should hurry.”
So the two, perhaps not so brave, travellers set out in a hurry to get to the ruined castle that resided in the forest .
Eventually they made it to the path that would lead them the the castle.
“We made it. No time to lose let’s keep going” Mystic sounded in a hurry.
“Okay, what’s the rush?”
“I don’t know, I just know that we have to hurry!"
Mystic and Shining ran and ran along the path, still not entirely sure that they were going in the right direction. They both had an awful sense of direction, however, this once, they were going in the right direction, urgency coursing through their veins. The path seemed to go on for ages and they were both tired after running for hours and they weren't even half way along the road.
"Come on Shining Star!" Mystic yelled to her brother, who was falling behind despite his longer strides.
"Mystic, stop!"
"Why? We don't have time, you can just hurry up!" She yelled back
"No! Really, stop, can't you hear that?" Mystic skidded to a halt, Shining was right, there was a strange noise coming from the side of the path. It sounded like an animal, an injured one.
"Do you think it was injured because it was scared like the rest of the animals?" Shining asked.
"Possibly. If it's a magical creature like, lets say, a manticore, some breed of Star Spider or a timberwolf then I don't think it's been affected like the other animals," Mystic said, recalling her incident with the manticore and her cub. Mystic walked cautiously over to the source of the noise, pushing passed a few bushes that blocked her path. It was a young creature, that was for sure. Mystic gasped as she saw the 'creature', it was like nothing she'd ever seen before. Calling her brother over Mystic took a closer look at the half timberwolf-half pony that was crying softly to itself.
"Um..Hello?" Mystic said, not really knowing what to make of the situation. The 'timberpony', as Mystic had decided to call it, shot it's head up in surprise,
"Ah! Stay away from me! I-I don't deserve to be seen!" The timberpony started to cry again, clearly hating herself, it was a filly if the voice was anything to go on.
"Of course you deserve to be seen, personally I think you look awesome. I'm Mystic Moon, you can just call me Mystic, I'm 13, how old are you and what's you name?" Mystic said, almost too quickly to be understood.
"I-I'm 6 in pony years, but 15 really, and m-my p-p-parents just called me Timber, I don't think I have a real name, I wasn't old enough," Came the tearful reply.
"Well, what do you think of Oak Leaf? You know, because you have a layer of oak, wait, it is oak, right?" the timberpony nodded, "thought so, oak wood covering your skin, and your eyes are the most beautiful shade of green, like a leaf, they match your mane," Mystic complimented, not noticing her brother standing behind her.
"Yeah, I really like Oak Leaf, Thank y- Ah!" The newly named Oak Leaf screamed as she noticed Shining Star standing behind her new friend. Mystic turned around to see her brother smiling sheepishly at her, "Shining!" Mystic scolded before turning back to Oak Leaf, "don't worry about him, he's my brother Shining Star, he's completely harmless, trust me," Mystic winked, blatantly insulting Shining.
"Hey! I am not harmless..." Shining trailed off, realising what he had just said, "I mean...She's right, I couldn't hurt a...a...a fly!" Shining exclaimed, as if he had just figured out how gravity works. Oak Leaf wasn't convinced and pulled herself back, away from Shining Star and sheathed her claws, getting into a defensive position.
"No,no. It's okay, he really won't harm you, he can't even look over the banister back home," Mystic giggled, happy when Oak did the same.
"So," Shining said, letting the insult slide, "your new name is Oak Leaf, can I call you Oak for short?" Shining tried to steer the conversation in a different direction.
"Sure," Oak agreed, after calming herself down, "So, you really don't mind how I look?" Oak Leaf asked, used to ponies running away, insulting her or just keep on walking past when they saw her.
"Of course we don't mind. Looks aren't important, what matters is your heart," Mystic said to the filly, not really understanding how she, a thirteen year old could be comforting a fifteen year old, even if she was 6 in pony years.
"Oh, and, If you don't mind me asking, how come you look like that? Not that there's anything wrong with how you look!" Shining asked, not wanting to offend Oak.
"Well, my dad was the Alpha wolf in our pack so he could speak pony and was very intelligent for a timberwolf and my mum was a pony, she had a talent with animals and could understand them, so she fit right in after her parents abandoned her because they thought she was insane for talking with animals. After living with the pack for a few years, she was, I think, 15 when she arrived, she and dad fell in love, nothing weird if you lived with timberwolves for 6 years. After a while they had me. I was welcomed in the pack and could speak both pony and timberwolf, both mum and dad were great and I loved them so much. But then, a village was built next to the forest and ponies found us. T-then they took mum away and k-ki-killed dad," Oak was in tears now, full on tears that formed marks on her smooth wooden skin. Her mind replaying some of the best days he had spent with her parents, and the last...