The Celestial Land

Chapter 1: A New Life

Elleste felt tired after running for so long. Yet, the two creatures chasing after her seemed to be in the mood to play. They weren't in hurry to go and chew her at flesh.

With her weak figure and petite body, at the age of sixteen years old, no wonder that those two wolves looked down on her. She was an easy prey, they probably thought, so let's play with her first before having a feast.

Elleste was driven into the state of despair. Her feet was bleeding after running for so long, and her skin had begun to tear off after she run into the branches of trees many times over that she had lost count. Her body was weak to begin with. She was almost run out of energy to run, it was also deemed a miracle that she was able to run this far.

Elleste knew that she couldn't give in, she had to keep running or else her life was at cost here. The moment she  her body couldn't continue anymore was probably the time that those two creatures would pounce on her.

Silently, Elleste cursed her rotten luck. Nothing good seemed to come at her way. At first, Elleste though that she was dreaming when she woke up in this strange and unfamiliar world. But, the pain from her feet and skin slapped her back to the harsh reality. She wasn't dreaming.

Her feet was bleeding badly, yet her heart was even more so. She used to live in a completely different world. She didn't know how she had gotten to be here.

The last thing she remembered was that she was sleeping in the modern world. Her life there also wasn't that good. It was cold and somehow lonely. She had never gotten to know of her parents; she didn't even know that they existed. She only had acquaintances and very few friends. Overall, that life was boring and depressing.

And now, she was even more depressed. Was she really cursed that she would be so unlucky? Those two wolves may seemed a bit small, but, there was a hint of intellegence in those cold eyes.

Elleste almost could see the hint of disdain in their eyes, as if they were disdaining of how weak she was. She wasn't sure if it was just an imagination or not, but she was sure that those wolves were different than those she knew in modern world.

They seemed to be more intellegent, judging from how they played with her first before decided to devour her. They could've run faster, yet they didn't do so. This was a psychological t*****e.

Elleste was almost run out of energy completely, but as soon as her eyes landed on a tree before her, her eyes lit up. The tree wasn't as big as those that she had encountered on her way running before. The log wasn't too thick, but it stood taller above those with thicker log. She could also use those many branches as her footing to make her climbing easier.

Hurriedly, Elleste jumped at tree and stick her body into it like a koala. She used every last bit of her strength to climb higher.

The wolves let out angry growls as they looked at Elleste sticking herself into a tree. They were stratching the tree log using their paw. Elleste, who had already been a few meters above the ground looked down on them and smiled.

Though, after a few moments, her smile froze as she realized her dire situation. She was indeed sticking into the tree tightly, but from how far she had been climbing up, she hadn't seen a tree trunk big enough to hold her entire weight. They only barely able to hold one of her feet. She couldn't continue to stick herself in a standing position forever, could she?

Those two wolves were unnaturally smart that they finally noticed there was something wrong. Elleste wasn't moving up anymore after around three hours had passed already. This made Elleste felt so anxious that those wolves didn't immediately leave after she climbed the tree.

"Just hurry up, go away. There's no way that this girl is so foolish to come down and delivered herself to you." She told those two wolves below, somehow she had a feeling that they could understand her language.

The wolves only growled in the response. Instead, they keep on stratching the tree log more furiously as if wanting to shake her off the tree.

Elleste didn't lose her grip, but she could felt that her body had begun to get sore for maintaining this uncomfortable position for far too long. She wanted to curse at the two wolves, yet didn't dare to. She was afraid of them being more insistent in case she incur their hatred instead.

After another minutes passed, Elleste could felt that her body had begun sliding down. Down there, she could also somehow perceived those two wolves' mocking expression.

Deep in her heart, she was bewildered. Though, she was feeling more curious than ever. This world seemed like one of those depicted in fantasy books, seemed so magical and  fascinating.

Honesty, Elleste was eager to learn more regarding this world. She had seen many colorful birds flying up on her way she was running. They seemed magical, and those trees also looked extaordinary. The leaves do not only have one color. Though green was the most common, there were also orange, red, blue, and even purple leaves here.

Still hanging onto the tree, she knew that her dream of getting to know this magical world was bound to be only a dream after all. Looking at how persistent those two wolves was waiting down there, the two seemed to be so sure that Elleste will be their meal tonight. Even, as she felt herself sliding down, Elleste was also sure that she will be their meal in the end.

"How unfortunate..." Elleste let out a sigh of regret as she looked at the beautiful surroundings. Is life really that beautiful? She couldn't answer for sure, but the sight of her surroundings sure looked beautiful enough that she didn't want to leave yet.

Her grip began to loosen no matter how hard she tried, and her body slide down bit by bit. Her energy was almost completely being used up, so she was very weak right now, couple with the wound, she practically had no way to defend herself in front of those two wolves once she completely fell into the ground.

The two wolves let out excited howls as they waited eagerly for Elleste to be delivered before them, and they would tear off her flesh bit by bit while she didn't have even an ounce of energy to struggle at all.

Elleste really fell down into the ground. Her head hit something as she felt even greater pain spread all over her body. She wanted to move, but she couldn't even lift her hand to support her body.

She didn't know how long she had stayed into this position. She had given up, and silently waited the two wolves to approach her as she let out a soft sigh. She closed her eyes slowly. After a long time, she began to feel curious as she felt that something wasn't right here. She opened her eyes back to check.

Suddenly, a figure came into her blurry view. She could only make out the figure of a dark haired person with staff on his hand as he glanced briefly at her. She also barely able to make out the figure of the two wolves chasing after her.

The wolves growled, as if angry, yet they didn't dare to be to close to either of them. Amidst her pain, this caused Elleste to be slightly surprised. More person meant that there were more meat, right? Then, why did they back away?

What happened afterwards really shattered Elleste's sixteen years life in modern world. The man just waved his staff, and some mysterious force suddenly descended, though it wasn't directed at her, she could still faintly felt it.

One of the wolves had run away as soon as the man appeared, while the other one didn't really realized the terrible situation it was in. As the pressure descended upon the wolf, its body began to be covered by ice from the head to toe.

The man waved his staff again and the frozen ice began to shatter along with the wolf inside. Strangely, there was a shinning red crystal left from where the wolf had just been. It floated and landed into the man's hand.

Elleste heard the man muttered softly. "A third ranked demonic wolf crystal."

Then, Elleste could felt the man's gaze directed at her. She was anxious. The man had just killed the wolf that almost claimed her life in a blink of an eye. If he had evil intention, wouldn't she had no way to resist?

"There shouldn't be any human here, or are you the survivor from some villages nearby?" The man muttered, as he approach her.

His words were something that Elleste couldn't comprehend at all, but she was able to get the gist of it. If this man was really a human--after all, there seemed to be a lot of strange creatures here-- does that mean that there were also other humans in this world right?

Elleste didn't know if it was from her tiredness, anxiety, or blood loss from the wound in hee head, but as soon as the man lifted her body, her entire vision went dark.