Naia stumbled a few steps when Palla started to pull her along, but quickly fell into step, her free arm firmly gripping the lantern. Her eyes, as they usually do, start to wander, though at the same time she kept watching where she was stepping, a skill she had picked up over the years from being her. None of the curious gazes or looks of confusion escaped her vision, and she could tell her appearance was surprising.
When Palla led her down the left path, she followed without hesitation, understanding why the choice was made. Palla looked to be a couple years younger than Naia, but so far she seemed to be quite smart and capable, and Naia could respect that. In the left of her vision she saw flashes of a green light, and stored that information in her mind as it faded. She remembered Palla’s earlier conversation with the captain. He had mentioned other lanterns, and she wondered if the green light had been another lantern.
She turned most of her attention to Palla when she began to speak, listening intently, and storing the important parts in her mind. An ancient god, and it’s attached to her? Naia had the feeling that she should be more freaked out about that than she actually was. Would other people be freaked out if they learned that kind of information?
When Palla stopped all of a sudden and drew her sword, Naia tightened her grip on the lantern, hugging it to her chest with both arms. She took a step back when the branch grabbed Palla, a yelp escaping her mouth when she felt the roots wrap around her ankles and throw her. The sound of monkeys laughing and wings flapping reached her ears.
"Hand over the Lantern," a child's voice demanded. He stepped out of the forest, barefoot and dressed in threadbare gray clothes, wearing a white wooden fox-mask that covered the top half of his face. He grinned. "The trees obey me, you don't have a chance."
Naia looked up at the child as he spoke, realizing with annoyance that the fall had caused dirt to get on her glasses, so there was a big annoying smudge on her right lens. Suddenly she was aware of the lantern glowing in her arms through the bed sheet, and it’s warmth on her skin. The knowledge of the lantern’s power came to her mind, as if she had known the information all along, though there was no way she could have. She quickly observed her surroundings, running options in her head. Obviously she had to do something about the trees.
Fire? No, too uncontrollable. Palla might get hurt. A giant axe? No, she wouldn’t have the strength to wield something that big. She had to make it so the trees couldn’t get to her. Or Palla. Then she had an idea. It was pretty basic, but it might just work.
She concentrated, hard stone walls appeared around them, and the ground seemed to become stone as well. The stone came together up above to become a roof, cutting of any branches that got in the way, and they fell lifeless to the ground. As the branches holding Palla got cut, a curved slide of smooth, sleek stone appeared under her, delivering her safely next to Naia. The child with the fox mask was trapped with them in the small stone room/hallway, lit only by the violet light from the lantern, which Naia had taken the sheet off of. Even if the trees could break through the hard stone, it would at least take a long while.
