The Disciple Of Aoide

The memory of that painting was still fresh in Arthur's mind. It was the first painting that he studied, the one entitled, 'The Cherry Blossom Tree'. The place that he was at matched the details of the painting perfectly. From the single cherry blossom tree to the field of flower, everything was a perfect replica.

Therefore, the question that surfaced in Arthur's mind was, 'Am I inside the painting?' The question might sound ludicrous but that seemed to be the only valid explanation.

Arthur thought back to what had happened before this whole shenanigan. He remembered reaching for the hidden seal on the painting and then after that, he woke up at this place...

From that logic, the seal perhaps was some kind of portal that had transported Arthur from Lady Myra's studio in the real world to this painted world. Arthur had heard about some space-folding magic before, so this was not entirely impossible.

Then Arthur was reminded of the missing magical artifact and Lady Myra. Could all these things be related?

The more he thought about it, the more convinced Arthur became. Perhaps Lady Myra had accidentally transported herself to this world as well and she was unable to find her way out. If that was the case, the objective of his quest would become to find Lady Myra and then help her leave this place.

That was a straightforward quest mission but there was just a single problem in the way... Arthur himself did not know how to escape from this world.

Arthur speculated that it would have to do with the seal that he interacted with since that was how everything started. Perhaps he needed to find another seal to reverse the process.

After arranging all the observations and speculations in his mind, Arthur set his goal as the following: One, to locate Lady Myra and Two, to find another seal to test out his theory.

Unfortunately for Arthur, neither of those things were in plain sight.

Arthur looked around and he noticed something. He focused on the field of flowers to confirm his suspicion. The expression on Arthur's face looked grim.

It was true, the layer of flowers was slowly rising. Arthur noticed the flower level was much higher than when he had just arrived. In other words, the sea of flower was filling up. It was understandable considering the endless rain of cherry blossoms that fell from the canopy.

Arthur did not know what he should do about his quest but at that very moment, he knew he needed to move to higher ground. If he stayed, he would have been swamped by the flowers and ended up in the same fate as that pitiful creature from before.

Arthur went back from the edge to inspect the tree trunk. He pulled out the dagger Felicia had given him when he left Armana and stuck it into the bark. He intended to use that as a scaling knife but the bark was harder than Arthur anticipated.

He tried it multiple times but the dagger was simply unable to pierce through the bark. He knew it was not the sharpness of the blade that was the problem, the bark was much more sturdy than it appeared.

In fact, the bark felt more like a concrete block than a creation of nature. That perhaps had to do with the fact that it really was not. It was a painted tree after all.

Scaling the tree with the dagger would have been safer but at least the tree trunk had natural grooves where Arthur could put his limbs to climb up the surface.

Arthur carried himself through another ascent and he poked his head up the ledge. He finally found the source of all that noise.

There was a bird-like creature that was trapped inside a hole in the tree. It was crowing and cawing, asking to be freed. Arthur was too far from the creature to have a good look at what kind of bird it was and why it was unable to break free on its own.

Closer to Arthur were two monsters that were locked in a heated battle. They looked very similar to the creature that fell into the sea of flowers earlier.

Arthur thought the creature was wearing the cherry blossom but now that he was given a closer look, the monsters seemed to have morphed from the floret itself. Their bodies were the flower and their limbs just extended out from it. They had a pair of hands and legs but no head. Their limbs had a wooden core to lend it sturdiness but they were covered by vines for dexterity.

Arthur stayed in the shadows to observe them closely. If he was required to fight them later, and the chances of that were high, it would behoove Arthur to study their fighting style beforehand.

He realized there was no style or skill to the monster's combat. They just whacked at each other with the wooden club in their hand. They were more like two brutes going at it with pure strength until one of them collapsed.

Arthur could not understand why they were acting that way and he doubted he could get an explanation from them because the lack of a mouth meant the impossibility for communication.

Arthur looked down and saw the flowers were still rising. There was nowhere else to go, he had no choice but to face this head on. He had to continue his upward movement and for that, he would have to pass the two monsters no matter what.

He jumped up from the ledge and the moment he did so, the two flower monsters stopped their internal conflict and turned simultaneously at the new challenger.

"Let's get this over with," Arthur said as he prepared for battle.