Bebo

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	Chapter 2 - Taiboku's staff
	Keitaro was sitting in the woods near his home. In fact, he was lying more than sitting. His back was against a tree, and his thoughts were elsewhere. He didn’t exactly know where elsewhere was, because he wasn’t actually think of anything in particular, just staring up at the sky above him. There weren’t too many trees in the part of the forest he was in, so he could easily see the sky from where he was lying. He was awoken from his half-sleep as something white caught his eye. He was alert all of a sudden; there was nothing natural in this forest that was white. He scrambled to his feet and looked towards where the white had come from. Nothing was there. It was all green, as it should be. Keitaro walked over to investigate. It was a normal section of grass, and didn’t feel any different to anywhere else in the forest, but Keitaro knew it wasn’t. Someone, or something, had just been here, and they had been for quite some time. There was more, whatever they were, they weren’t friendly to either Keitaro, or the forest. Keitaro had to stop it. The forest was under his protection, purely because nobody else believed it would possibly be in danger. He needed the staff, but his father had gone into town, and taken it with him. He’d have to make do without it. He walked up to the nearest tree to where he was and found what he was looking for: there was a claw mark on it. The ‘something’ was an animal. That didn’t add up. Why would an animal want to harm the forest? He looked to the ground, and saw where the grass had been trodden on, and it had depressed. Keitaro followed the trail, and noticed that each tree he passed had the same claw marks in the same place. As Keitaro went farther into the forest, the trees got more frequent, and the grass got less frequent, so he had to rely more on the damaged trees to lead him where the animal was. Keitaro was following the trail for about five minutes, when it suddenly cut off. Nothing was visible of it. The grass had long gone by now, and the trees were untouched. Keitaro looked at his surroundings, and instantly recognised where he was. Taiboku. The largest tree in the forest. He was directly in the centre of the forest. That explained why the trail had stopped. All the trees near Taiboku were protected. It had magical properties, very powerful magical properties. Keitaro sunk to his knees. “Taiboku, forgive me for disturbing your forest” said Keitaro, in a loud voice. He stood back up to his feet, and went to walk back where he’d come from. No animal would be able to do any harm to the forest if it had passed Taiboku. Just as he came to where the trail was visible again, he heard another rustling from behind him, just like the first one. He turned to face the source of the noise and finally saw what he’d been chasing. It was a wolf, a silver wolf. Silver wolves weren’t usually found around Karamune, and were never seen in the forest. There was something out of the ordinary here. The wolf didn’t move, it just stood there on four paws, staring at Keitaro. Keitaro had to think, as soon as he moved there was no doubt that the wolf would pounce, but he had no means of fighting back. With no staff, he had no way of using magic, and even if he did he didn’t know if any of the spells he knew would affect a silver wolf. Keitaro stayed frozen to the spot, not daring to move. Taiboku started to grow active. Keitaro felt the magic in the air grow denser around him, and his hand seemed to grow heavier. This made absolutely no sense. Why would Taiboku activate its magical energy? It was just a silver wolf. Even if they were rare, this one didn’t have too much magic in it. The thing Keitaro didn’t realise though, was that this particular silver wolf had a great deal of magical energy. In fact, it had almost as much as Taiboku. It was almost immediately after Keitaro asked himself the question that the wolf showed its full powers. The air became flooded with magical energy as the silver wolf released its stored energy into the air, and started drawing it back in quickly. This was no animal, it was a demon. It came clearly to Keitaro now. Taiboku had sensed the stored energy in the wolf, and expelled its own energy to draw the demon out. Demons were greedy creatures, they would absorb any magical energy in the air around them, but to do so they had to be at their full energy, which meant re-absorbing any stored energy first. Keitaro wouldn’t let the demon take Taiboku’s energy. He needed a staff. He looked around the forest for any fallen branches he could use, but found none. Keitaro’s hand grew very heavy in an instant. He looked into it and saw a twig there. It wasn’t enough. He couldn’t transmit his energy through something as small as a twig. Just as he thought it, the twig started to stretch out, and a straight wooden branch formed in his hand. Perfect. Taiboku wanted him to fight. Keitaro held the branch from Taiboku up in the air, and the energy from Taiboku flooded into it. The demon must have felt the energy all leave the air, because it immediately jumped straight for Keitaro. Without the time to recite a spell, he jabbed the staff forwards, hoping that Taiboku would help him one last time. It didn’t work. Nothing came from the end of the staff, but the wolf had stopped. It was standing firm on the ground, not moving, just as it was before. What was stopping it? Keitaro lifted the staff to recite a spell, and the wolf started running again. Keitaro jabbed it forwards again without thinking, and the wolf stopped once more. He saw it this time. It wasn’t nothing coming from the staff, it was air. He saw it as the demon’s fur was blown back. He held the staff forwards with more determination, taking a step forwards as he did so, and the demon was slowly sliding backwards. Keitaro lifted the staff slightly, and the wolf came off the ground. Keitaro flicked the staff forwards, and the demon flew forwards through the forest. His mother’s voice came inside his head “Keitaro? Where are you?” “I’m in the forest mother, by Taiboku.” “Taiboku?” What are you doing that far in?” “There was a demon, mother” “No there wasn’t, I’ve had enough of your stories of protecting the forest. As long as Taiboku stands, nothing can harm the place” “That’s just it mother, I fought alongside Taiboku” “Fought with a tree? What nonsense. Listen, just get here now, there’s someone at our door for you.” “Is it grandma? She always gives me money!” “No, it’s not grandma! It’s a gentleman who says he’s come by order of King Karamune, so you’d be best to hold your tongue young man!” “The king wants me?” Keitaro was shocked. What would King Karamune want with him? “I’ll be right there!” Keitaro ran in the direction he’d come from, looking for the scratch-marks on the trees. Once he’d found them, he set to leave, but a thought brought him back to Taiboku. He approached the ancient tree and stood the staff up against it. Before leaving, he bowed and thanked the tree for its help. Keitaro set off down the path of scarred trees until the grass started to show again and he could follow the depressions in the grass, which were much easier to follow as the trees became scarcer. He finally reached the edge of the forest, just where he had been half-sleeping less than an hour ago and noticed something standing against the tree that he had been laying against earlier that day. It was the staff he’d just used against the silver wolf demon. Keitaro chuckled to himself. It seemed that Taiboku was thanking him. He picked the staff up and carried it to his home, which wasn’t too far from the edge of the forest. It was a nice and cosy little house, and Keitaro had lived there with his Mother, Father and Big Brother all his life. It was placed perfectly, in Keitaro’s opinion. It was close to the edge of the forest and just far away enough from the town to avoid the racket, but still close enough to be only a short walk away. The house itself was just as perfect as the location. It had 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and two rooms and a kitchen downstairs. The two rooms downstairs were used as a main room, where the family would spend most of their time, and a potions room, where they would brew their potions. Keitaro’s parents ran a potions shop, which was based in town, but there was a fair deal of customers who would come straight to the house and have the potion brewed while they waited. Keitaro only knew basic potions, like strength potions and happiness potions. He’d even came up with a thirst-quenching potion once, which sold quite well once he’d shown his father how to make it. He walked in through his front door to find his father waiting for him in the living room, which was the first room you came to when you entered the house. “The man from the palace is in th-” began his father, but he stopped mid-sentence as his eyes caught the staff in Keitaro’s hands. “Is that a staff?” “Yeah, it was a gift from Taiboku. See? I told you I was defending the forest.” “That staff has incredible magical power, more than any I’ve seen before” “Yeah, I was fighting a demon but I didn’t have a staff, so Taiboku gave me the staff and expelled some of it’s energy for me to gather, and then the staff blasted the demon away on it’s own.” “Well, Taiboku must really trust you to give you his ener-” “Will you two get in here, Mr Avalon is waiting very pateintly for him in here” Shouted in his Mother. “I want to talk to you about that staff later, self-made staffs have incredible potential, and to think that came from Taiboku itself is really something”
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