Ariana's Epic Destiny

The sun was setting behind the mountains, casting golden shadows on the trees.

Ariana was running as fast as she could. The heat of the day had worn off and it was now just pleasant. The forest was quiet here, away from the villages and towns where people would be eating their evening meals or starting their work for the night. She stopped to catch her breath, leaning against a tree trunk.

"Are you sure we're headed in the right direction?" Varyana wiped sweat off his brow with his sleeve.

Ariana nodded. "This is where he said." She pointed at the ground, "He left these marks for me to follow."

"Well, we've been running for hours already," Varyana complained. "We should stop for a meal and rest." He started to look around for a good place to sit down.

"No!" Ariana grabbed his arm, stopping him. "We can't! If we take too long, they will get there first!" She pointed back towards the town they had come from.

Varyana frowned, pulling himself out of her grasp, "Who will get there? What are you talking about?" He looked back towards town too. "What's going on?"

"It's Okto!" She threw her arms up in frustration. "I knew he shouldn't have been let go so soon! I knew it!" She turned back towards the woods, looking around frantically for any kind of clue that could help them find him.

Varyana looked puzzled. "Okto? What did that crazy old man do now?" Ariana didn't answer him as she ran into the forest again, heading deeper into the trees.

As he ran after her through the shadowy woods, Varyana thought about what Ariana had told him earlier in the week when she'd explained that she needed to find Okto again, to chase him off before he hurt someone else with his 'magic.' Even though she had asked nicely several times for him to leave and never return, he wouldn't listen to her and kept coming back anyway.

The first time she caught up with him was last week just outside of town when she went out to gather herbs and berries for one of her healing salves. When she saw him sitting by a babbling brook on the edge of town eating an apple while staring at his reflection in the water, she thought he was mentally unwell because he was making strange noises and gesticulating wildly at seemingly nothing. Upon closer observation, however, she realized that what appeared as nonsensical speech was actually some kind of incantation or ritual chant with indecipherable meaning.

She figured it must be some type of spell or magic trick and decided to wait until he left so that she could study how it worked without being disturbed by him if possible before reporting back to anyone else who might also be interested in this new development - after all, everyone always talked about how powerful his magic was supposed to be so maybe this was an opportunity to see if any of these rumors were true! When it became obvious after a few moments that Okto had no intention of ever leaving his spot by the water even though most people who passed by quickly avoided looking directly at him like he was an outcast or something, Ariana decided to take matters into her own hands by simply walking straight up behind him and tapping him on the shoulder! When Okto jumped several feet into the air and spun around so fast that Ariana nearly got whiplash from watching his head whip back and forth like that she knew instantly that either his magic tricks were real or maybe he really did have some sort of mental illness because this behavior seemed more than just a little peculiar! But then why would someone like him be bothering with all this weird incantation nonsense anyway?

When Okto finally calmed down enough after seeing Ariana standing there waiting patiently while balling her fists at her sides ready to defend herself if necessary, she spoke calmly but firmly toward him saying: "Okto - I know you can hear me loud and clear so please listen carefully - I know you mean well but you need to leave this area right now before something bad happens!" That's when Okto started raving again while waving his hands every which way: "Who are you? Where did this girl come from? How did she know my name? Why does everyone look scared when they see me? Is it my clothes? Am I dirty? Why do they run away from me?" And on like that for another few minutes until Ariana couldn't take anymore and said: "Okto! Stop it! Enough already! Can't you see you're disturbing everyone in town with your crazy antics?!" Now Okto looked confused: "Disturbing them? How am I disturbing them?! They know my magic is dangerous - why else would they shun me as if I'm a leper?" And then Ariana remembered something her father had once told her about