War Ambassadors: Chapter One, Part One.

Lucinda and Andy are lost in a strange forest on a different astral plane to their home. As impromptu ambassadors they have no idea how they're going to complete this mission. Or even begin it.

Chapter One.

It was warm, even though a thick fog hung in the air. I stepped quietly around Andy, my brother, trying not to wake him. Scanning the area, he was the only person around; sleeping silently on his side, his jet-black hair draped over his face so it covered his forehead and eyes. Though he is only two years older than I, our sibling rivalry had created a gap between us and at times he seems more of an introvert than the happy outgoing boy I grew up with. The camp-fire next to him was smouldering; small wisps of smoke were the only movement in the clearing where we had stopped for the night. In our haste we didn't notice any landmarks. We were lost.

I stopped just where the clearing ended and the woods began. The trees were different here, tall and thin; the sun rising behind them caused the light to fracture and spear its way through the dense forest to land on the ferns which dotted the ground, it was eerily beautiful, as if an artist had painted every leaf. I had heard that this place was different from a lot of other astral planes, the nature here was designed to be beautiful, to lure its prey and entrance it. A symbiotic relationship occurred between the creatures and forest here, the forest would put you at ease while you were being hunted and in return the creatures would violently defend their forest territories. Unlike the plane of Tamnor, where I was born, in which everything fought against each other for survival.

I blinked lazily, trying to clear my head as the soft breeze whipped my cloak around my body, my hair was barely contained by the hood while I admired the surroundings, I was dimly aware of it though. I could feel the strength of this place; yes this was a good world to find help. Every plant had an amazing aura of magic, if you looked close enough, a haze of gold and silver against the green trees and the blue morning sky. Easy to see if you were attuned to it; I had inherited the ability from my father which gave me an advantage but it was hard to compare to Andy who was not only psychic, but he could teleport himself anywhere, an unusual ability that he refuses to use most of the time. But he could still be arrogant about it. In the end it saved us, being the most likely way we arrived here, so I could excuse his arrogance at least for a short time.

“Lucinda,” said a familiar voice. “Are you alright?” Andy was slowly standing up, adjusting his clothes and running his hands through his hair. He was pale and exhausted, we had only stopped for a few hours.

“I'm going to go scout the area, see if I can find anything useful. Maybe something to eat.” I replied, we had no supplies with us and had to eat if we were to survive.

“You're going to go hunting with an axe?” His voice was incredulous but I ignored it, I was hoping to sneak away so I could escape his just-woke-up mood. “Or are you going to strangle things with your bare hands?” I looked at my empty hands, my axe was still near the fire. “You've been standing there a long time.” His voice was quieter now, I focused on the forest in front of me, the sun peeked over the trees and most of the fog had cleared away, just how long had I been standing there?

“This place is strange.” My voice sounded hollow, I shook my head and looked back at Andy, his ice blue eyes were turning platinum silver, a sign he was using the psychic part of his abilities. Most often he was sorting through my emotions, he believed that gave him a clearer picture of my intentions and considering the logical part of my brain was often taken over by them, it was probably easier to get a vivid image than string together a coherent thought. “Stop it!” I said sharply at him.

“Then snap out of it!” he replied just as sharp. His eyes narrowed, as if he was a cat about to pounce on an unsuspecting mouse. “We do not have the luxury of feeling safe anymore, we can't take chances or walk around daydreaming and unarmed.” His hair ruffled in the breeze, walking forward he ran his fingers through his hair again before grabbing hold of my shoulders. “You're my sister, I love you, and I will always try to protect you. But I can't be there all the time. You have to be a soldier now.” He pulled down my hood, spilling my own long black hair into the breeze. I just stared forward at his chest, not wanting to meet his eyes. I may have been short compared to him but no-one would doubt we were related. He pulled out a leather tie from his pocket and scooped back my hair, tying it in place. “Keep your hair out of your eyes. Keep your magic in check.” I kept silent, he didn't want to hear my excuses, I mentally kicked myself for not keeping my metaphysical shields up and allowing the forest to entrance me. I did need to be more careful, he was right. Andy went back to the fire, which was not much more than coals now, and flopped on the ground. “Go search the area, but be back by midday. We shouldn't hang around in this forest too long, I'll cover our tracks in the meantime.” His posture was slumped, as if he was trying to keep himself from falling over. I walked over and picked up my weapon, an axe, which was more like a staff that someone just got over zealous and put a double edged axe on the each of the ends. I glanced back at him, but he didn't look up, I knew I probably should have left it alone, but...
“How much did it cost you to drag us through to this side of the barrier?” He looked up sharply, seemed to consider my question for a brief second before looking back to the fire again.
“You have your orders.”
“Yes, Captain.” I trudged off into the thick forest.

Axe in hand I walked through the forest, my footsteps silenced by the damp forest floor. It was unusually still, the breeze that was in the clearing had disappeared as I stepped into the thick of trees. I felt uneasy, like something was watching me; I gripped my axe tighter in my hand, the length of it continually caught on branches and undergrowth, it was nearly as tall as I was. It was customary to learn staff weapons if you could wield magic, something about the alignment of your weapon channelling energy, personally I never doubted the practicality of a sword. Especially when walking through a forest. Swords rarely got wedged between branches causing you to swear in the silence and be startled by your own voice.

I couldn't hear anything apart from my pounding heart and the rush of blood in my ears. I stopped, scanning the ground for tracks. Nothing. I stepped again and my ears picked up a whirring sound, something crashed into the bushes behind me, I turned and paused, balanced on my heels with my weapon in front of me and strained my senses for any more movement, it was most likely a bird, but if it wasn't... I would rather have it rush out at me than bite me from the safety of the bushes as I searched. I began to slowly walk backwards, treading lightly while feeling for anything I could trip over. The bush creaked and rustled as I stepped back again, a loud crack beneath my foot caught my breath as a sharp pain shot up my leg. I glanced down and saw a thin, sharp stick piercing my pant leg, straight through into my right calf. I tried to move my leg to the side, hoping to pull out the stick without having to take my hands off my weapon when I felt exhausted, my body was too heavy. Collapsing onto my knees, I could vaguely feel the stick digging into my leg as a burning pain shot up my calf to my thigh. I tried to move and ended up on my hands and knees, head down I made some kinds of horrible feminine whimpering sound as I began to focus on just breathing, the pain kept moving up into my stomach, my chest and finally my head. It felt like my skull was being crushed. I opened my eyes and saw blood dripping from my face onto the ground, making a spatting sound as it hit some leaves. Putting my hands to my face it came away covered in blood; I sunk to the ground, falling on my side. A face came into my vision, it was rough like bark, no, it was bark, I could see the human form in its face and the rivets of the bark-skin. It smiled at me with sharp wooden teeth and moved with a cracking sound. I tried to move, keep my eyes open, but my vision was hazing. It looked up suddenly and screeched, completely inhuman, it backed up and scuttled of my vision, I heard branches snapping as something ran near me waving a torch, it paused at the tree, looking up to the canopy, the only thing I could concentrate on now was the smell of smoke coming from the torch and finally the haze took me over.

When I awoke my sight was blurry and I still felt slightly numb, keeping my eyes open seemed to take too much effort. I stretched my muscles to make sure nothing was too damaged before I committed to standing, very stiff and sore but not unmanageable. I felt blind and helpless as I turned around trying to make out objects from the blurry shapes in front of me. Was it the camp? Andy must have followed me. I tried to be annoyed by being followed but I was happier about not being eaten by some plant creature. There was a dull pain from where the stick dug into my leg, I leant down and touched it, and I could feel a bandage soaked in some liquid. I sniffed my hand where I touched the bandage; it had to be blood. I could hear the crackling of a fire and felt the heat of the flame as I slowly walked forward, it wasn't so much that my leg hurt but I still felt numb, better to be careful than falling into a fire pit, I didn't need to prove I was rough and tough, especially not to Andy, at least not at the moment. Slowly my sight started to improve; about a metre away from the fire there was an object that I made out to be wooden. Hands stretched out in front of me I made my way over to it, my eyes closed against the painful light of the fire.

“Don't move around too much, it will take time for your body to return to normal.” I spun around to confront who was there and reached for the dagger that was in my boot, who ever it was I did not know them. “Be calm, if I wanted to harm you I would have done so by now.”

“Who are you?” I said as I crouched into a position to defend myself if he came near, facing him I put my hand in my boot. A wave of panic rushed over me, the dagger wasn't there, I had been disarmed.

“Marco, but just call me Marc” his voice sounded kind, as if you were trying to calm a crazed person, but I was too busy being wary to be offended, parts of my vision was becoming clearer but much slower than I would have hoped. I glanced around, keeping him in my peripheral vision , it seemed too obvious now that it wasn't my camp but a separate clearing with a hut. The hut was made of small trees and a straw roof. I turned to look at Marco and it surprised me how tall he was. Sandy coloured hair was in a war like fashion, spiked to split from one Mohawk at the top of his head to two at the bottom, and he wore the clothes to match, plain brown pants and a shirt that showed his chest, something you would see on an out of uniform soldier back home in Vyne. His muscled arms had scars running up them but overall he didn't look as tough as he should have. “Luci?” he interrupted my thoughts.

“How do you know my name?” I said standing up.

“I went through your pouch.” He gestured to the pouch that was tied to my belt. "I found a bracelet that said Luci, I guessed it was your name." The bracelet was given to me by my grandmother, but I never wore it, I had no idea why I carried it, maybe so when I'm found by strange people in the forest they could at least be on a first name basis.

“You make a habit of trapping people and going through their property?” I bit at him.

“Only the ones who are careless enough to walk into the traps.” He was trying to stop a smug smile, it started to show at the corners before he controlled himself again. I walked slowly to the log, the object I had spotted earlier, keeping my eyes on the man, the last thing I wanted was to be careless and have him incapacitate me. Again. Sitting on the wood’s rough surface I unwrapped the damp bandage on my leg, the wound was deep but short, luckily it hadn't torn into the muscle but it looked like it would take a while to heal. A clean bandage was pushed into view; Marco was squatting in front of me holding it. Damn he was quick, and quiet. His eyes met mine and my breath caught, his eyes flickered, colours were shifting on his irises, but always seemed to go back to a bright grey. I realised I was staring and glanced away, he jiggled the bandage.

“Take it; you can’t walk around with an open wound and there are no healers out here.” I cautiously took the bandage and began to wrap my leg up. I could feel his eyes scanning me. “Where are you from? You’re not a local.”

“Just a traveller.” I said off-hand, which only brought a short laugh from him.

“Travellers don’t come this way, no roads, settlements, just forest.” There was a long silence; I didn't know what to say to him. Even though we were here looking for allies, it was unwise to speak about our situation to just anyone we came across, until we knew the local customs and were speaking to someone who could make the decision to send the reinforcements. I could feel his eyes on me as I continued; it was making me more self conscious, taking my focus off my surroundings. My hands were shaking slightly as I made the bandage tight, Marco held his hand up to stop me.

“You wrap like a soldier,” he took the bandage from my hand gently and continued, taking his time, “the bandage should be firm, but you were jerking it tightly as if to stop bleeding.” He looked up at me with his unnerving eyes again and I couldn't help but squirm, he smiled but quickly hid it as he looked down. “I’d understand if a traveller this far out wrapped like a healer, but no soldiers ever come here.” I frowned, that didn't make sense to me, surely we were within a kingdom or some sort of territory? How far were we from a road or patrol route? I bit on my lip to prevent myself asking questions, pushing that panic feeling back down. Marco begun to tie off the bandage and my curiosity got the better of me.
“Then why are you here?” he glanced up from his work then it was his turn to hide his eyes.

“I'm a hunter, I need to be out this far to earn a living.” I nodded, but a little voice in my head said bullshit.

“Why don’t the soldiers come here?” I asked quietly, he looked up and smiled, but there was a bit of sadness behind it.

“You only come out this far if you’re running from death, or looking for it.” I decided not to press any further, the statement was too ominous for a first conversation and I began to doubt that I would want to hear the answers to any questions I had for him, especially if it led to questions about me.

He stood, and blocked the sun, it was then that I noticed it setting. My stomach clenched anxiously, I had been unconscious that long? Had Andy left camp? Was he looking for me? He could have fallen into a trap like me. I looked for my axe and found it leaning against the hut along with my dagger.

“Where did you find me?” I asked.

“West, about five hundred paces.” He pointed in that direction. I strode over and picked up my axe and dagger, my legs didn't collapse under me, things were looking up.

“Thank you for your help.” I said to Marco and started to walk towards my camp.

“Where are you going?”

“Back.” I replied.

“You can’t go back, it'll be dark soon,” he strode up and grabbed my arm.

I shot him a look that made him reel back, I shifted my axe so it would be in his view, honestly I didn't know if I could win a fight if he decided to keep me here, he noticed my weapon and look of wariness passed over his face. Releasing my arm he stepped back and I noticed again how tall he was, at least three heads taller than I was. He tried to reason with me, “There are dryads in the immediate area and much worse will wake up once the sun sets, it’s much safer to stay here by the fire.” I began to walk to the forest and he ran in front, stopping me. “You don’t know the area how do you know you won’t fall? Or walk into the elvan territory? It’s too dangerous!” he protested, his voice becoming rough and breaking at the end.

“Elves?” I said exasperated, “you would warn me of Elves?” I could feel my anger begin to bubble up, all the elves had been slain in the battle for Nasgeren near two thousand years ago, before the astral barriers were created. They emptied their cities to defend the mortal stronghold and used their magic to seal the enemy in the earth, but to do that they had to sacrifice their own people. “And how long has it been, Marco, since you last saw one?” my anger slipped into my voice and he stepped out of my path.

“I have not seen one. I was merely trying to keep you safe. But if you are determined than I will not stop you.” His voice was calm, resigning, but his eyes held an emotion that I could not place. I scanned the forest before me, I won’t see him again, I should just walk back. I couldn't be that far from camp. But what if he’s right? “You should stay here.” He said it softly, but the way he said it settled my mind for me, there was no way I was going to spend the night with a strange man that traps animals and travellers, even if I was the one who walked into it. I straightened my cloak.

“Thank you, for your help but I must get back, my brother will be waiting for me.” I mentioned him hoping that Marco wouldn't follow me, if he knew there was someone waiting for me, women weren't raised to be weak in my country but we knew damn well how easily we could be out-muscled. Before he could reply I quickly walked off into the forest.

Author's Note

This is part one of the first chapter. If you come across any inconsistencies please let me know.