Part 5 Chapter 1

A Chapter by francis

PART V

“AM I READY NOW?”

CHAPTER 32

n Divinwood, inside the empty circular space all twelve figures stand on their rocks collectively facing a single direction. Since Olraym has been injured and he and Trugaime escaped the cultist village alive they have stood there waiting. Each of them watching both Olraym and Trugaime or watching Thorne as he catches up to them.

None of them move and whenever a cool breeze passes by it doesn’t rustle their green pattern cloaks, almost as if the breeze avoids them completely.

“Their only hope is her. He must tell her what to expect.”

“Tell her too much it might change, things might happen as we have shown the prince.”

“Tell her too little and it might come to the same conclusion.”

There is a buzz of low talk and heads moving side to side between some of them, mostly by those in the centre. Those on the edges stay still facing forward, though they don’t seem to be part of the talks they are listening. They talk of what all the outcomes they can see will be and what is the most likely depending on one thing or another. This all stops suddenly and they all face forward again. A cool breeze carrying whispers comes and this time it hits one at the end on the left side. He listens to the whispers until the breeze is gone.

“They are here. We will have to wait. Wait and watch.”

The morning heat is making things for Olraym difficult, he has been trying to stay awake since he and Trugaime left the Cultist village. Sometimes it feels like he is more awake and going to be fine, but his injuries coupled with the intense heat make his eyes heavy and he falls down again.

Trugaime hates taking him to Divinwood considering what has happened but she knows it is what he wants and she herself wants to know what this is all about. She has a tight hold on him and keeps talking to him hoping he will talk back, but all he is giving is a few words that make little sense.

The road they shuffle through changes in both look and the vibe it gives Trugaime. At first it is just a normal road bending slightly and going up and down unevenly, but as the night turns to day and the day gets brighter and hotter the road becomes something different: the distance between the road and the grasslands on the sides narrow. The grass itself looks thicker as if few people if anyone have walked this road. The sense of wildlife and insect life is more obvious, Trugaime wonders if she might catch sight of something in the corner of her eye. There are thorn bushes on both sides of the road: thick and raggedy, forcing people walking this road to stay in the middle.

Ahead of her she sees a sign. It is a simple sign with the words painted red, they look thick and painted on in a hurry as if whoever made the sign wanted to get away very fast. The sign reads ‘turn back now, DIVINWOOD AHEAD!’ she now understands, no one would want to be this close for too long. The so called monsters inside might get them.

She looks at Olraym leaning on her with his face so close. She considers turning back and not telling him about it whenever he wakes up. He may fight her on this decision but he will get over it.

After passing the sign the thorn bushes grow thicker making Trugaime hold Olraym closer and take care where she steps. She takes a glance far ahead, the road seems to go on straight forever and in the distance she can see a thick set of trees that look different than the ones around them. They are a darker colour and taller, and though it is hard to tell from her distance they seem to be closer together. The sight of them gives Trugaime a menacing feeling of darkness.

It is the edge of Divinwood.

She slows down then stops.

Olraym looks around, still dizzy and close to being unconscious, but he is awake enough for the moment to know what is going on.

“Where are we?”

Trugaime doesn’t answer for a moment as she looks ahead at the ominous trees. She looks back at the sign that is now a small black dot in the distance.

“We’re close.”

Trugaime nods.

“Can you walk?”

Olraym shakes his head. But not as an answer, it is more to get the dizzy blurry feeling out of his head.

Maybe, let’s see.”

Carefully Trugaime lets go of Olraym, he spreads his legs slightly to get balance. When Trugaime lets him go he stands still, she can tell he is stiff and is having trouble staying that way. He jitters side to side trying to stay up and when it goes too far Trugaime thinks he is about to fall and quickly gets her arms around him.

“I guess no is the answer.”

They continue together with Olraym now better, but not much better. He still wavers slightly on each step. Her grip is still tight but not as tight as before, she can tell he wants to have some sense of independence while doing this.

“How long do you think until we get there?”

Trugaime looks ahead and tries to make an educated guess.

“I’d guess an hour maybe more.”

She is right, an hour later they are close to the tree line marking the edge of Divinwood. She strops again and Olraym stops with her. They both stare ahead trying to see far into Divinwood and with the trees being so thick and so close together they are both failing.

“Still want to go in?”

Olraym nods.

“Still want to go in with me?”

Trugaime nods.

They hesitate for a moment then Olraym takes her hand in his and together they enter through the trees. A few feet in it is suddenly dark enough and cold enough to make them think it is the middle of the night. Trugaime looks straight up and cannot see the treetops, though there is enough light, moonlight, to see ahead of them. They can see a dense fog that swirls around them at knee length. With the new cold air they realise just how hot they were outside and how covered in sweat they are.

“Well, we’re here.”

Olraym takes a good look around, he doesn’t recognise anything.

“We need to go deeper.”

“How much deeper, do you know?”

“I have no idea. I’ll tell you when we get there.”

Thorne no longer wants to stay a little behind them, he can no longer afford to. They already know he is following them trying to kill Olraym, and Trugaime but only for good measure and because she failed her contract and sided with him.

With the bow in hand and the arrow, filled quiver strapped to his back he has been trying to find them since leaving the Cultist village. When he thinks of where they are going he guesses it is not the way back. Olraym would not come all this way just for this he would probably send someone else or at least tell his family about it. No, this is just a needed stop on his way. So Thorne heads further away from Burden and Tov’ra and hopes he is correct.

At times while the sun is rising he thinks he can see them in the distance so he speeds up, but it just a trick of the eyes. He stays in the middle of the road as thorn bushes appear at the sides. The winds rustling the thorns sound like a mocking laughter to him and the bright sunlight makes them look as if threatening him with a painful death if he fails or succeeds. But then after coming up to a sign he looks ahead and sees them far in the distance. He can tell it is them because of the way one is moving, as if badly injured, ‘Olraym,’ he passes the sign without looking at it and starts running. He makes and effort to keep from cutting himself on the thorn bushes.

In the heat he isn’t able to run for long but he still greatly closes the distance between him and them. He can see them with greater distinction. But he is still quite a distance from them, too far to fire one of the arrows at them.

Though he feels a change in the air he pays it no attention, just focuses on them. They are what matters to him.

Then something does change that he pays attention to. Olraym and Trugaime walk to a group of thick trees that a bundled together. They are different from all the others and Thorne can tell there are more of them though he cannot see them. Olraym and Trugaime stop and Thorne can tell why, there is definitely something wrong with those trees. Thorne thinks that he might catch them and finally finish them this time but they suddenly walk forward again and quickly disappear from view.

Thorne speeds up and in less than five minutes he reaches the edge of the tree line where they stood. He is right there are more of the darker green trees. They seem to go on in each direction forever. He closes his eyes as if expecting something to happen then steps through the threshold.

He can feel the instant change and opens his eyes. It is dark, like late night dark around him. He looks back and can see the bright sunlight behind him that looks as if it cannot enter through here. There is a cold breeze that blows past him that feels great on his skin.

He hears a sound ahead of him, and though he cannot see much he guesses it is Olraym and Trugaime. He moves quickly but quietly in the direction of the noise. Though he can see ahead he still puts both hands out at arm’s length in front of him so he can feel what is in front of him, and avoid walking face first into something. While walking he lifts his feet high so he can avoid the roots around the uncountable amount of trees.

He hears that sound again, still in the same general direction but this time further ahead. He rushes ahead while trying to stay quiet. He thinks he is succeeding but he finds it hard to be sure.

He suddenly trips over a root sticking out of the ground, his outstretched hands save his face from getting hurt as he falls over. When he lands he grunts in anger and pain and gets back on his feet as quickly as possible.

Trugaime can swear she is hearing things, strange things whispers. They have been audible since entering Divinwood and she can find no sign of whomever or whatever is making them. At first she thought it is just a trick made by the cool breezes but they are coming and going too often for that. When she finds no one she thinks it is something that occurs constantly in Divinwood, something that adds to the mystery and horror of this place and why everyone stupid enough to enter thinks there are monsters watching them. But then suddenly she hears it again but the words sound different. At first she thinks it is saying ‘you came…you came” but realises it is saying her own name. It is saying ‘Trugaime…Trugaime’.

The words whispered by the wind seem to beckon her deeper and though she wants to fight it she cannot and follows them. She thinks of asking Olraym about this and if he can hear them too, but doesn’t want to seem crazy if he can’t and if he can she doesn’t want to worry him more than he already is.

Trugaime has cut herself on the sharp branches. They slice across her sides and her face as she moves between them, shifting Olraym until he is out of their way. The cuts bring pain and she can feel blood escaping her from a few of them. Olraym is getting better and is aware of a lot more than before, he is trying harder to walk on his own and is succeeding somewhat. Suddenly he mumbles something. Trugaime stops and looks at him thinking he is trying to say something.

“What is it?”

Olraym mumbles again and points to their left. Trugaime looks over and finds a large fallen tree blocking them.

“Over there? What’s over there?”

“Pretty soon we will be.”

They move towards the fallen tree and Olraym takes a look around while remembering his dream. The old man and the hooded figure are nowhere to be seen, which Olraym guessed would happen, but other than that everything is as he remembers it.

They reach the fallen tree and Olraym realises they need to get to the other side. He tells Trugaime this and with Trugaime’s help he pushes himself up the tree; he climbs up using the broken branches as leverage. When he nears the top he feels something stab him and looks down to find a branch cut him. He manoeuvres so he is away from that branch which now has some of his blood on it and continues to the top. As he does he remembers a part of the dream when he climbs this tree, just as he is doing now, and cuts himself. But in the dream there was no pain, now it happens again for real and now there is pain.

He reaches the top and stops he finds where they were in the dream and finds it odd to see it so empty and dark without the fire and them sitting next to it. He leans down and gives Trugaime a hand, she takes it and soon she is sitting on the top with him. She looks around and unlike him there is no sense of recognition or wonder, she just sees more moonlit forest and more fog. Olraym points to a small area a few feet from the fallen tree.

“We should go there.”

It looks to both of them to be completely indistinct from everywhere else, so much so that Trugaime is confused as to why they need to go there. She then notices the whispers telling her to go there as well. She thinks Olraym only wants to go there because they are telling him to. But again the beckoning is too much for her.

“We should rest, I know I need to.”

Trugaime nods in mild understanding but is still worried as to why that place specifically. She says nothing and they climb down the other side.

Soon Olraym is sitting down while Trugaime is walking around gathering stone and thick sticks for a fire. Though the fire is her idea she wonders why exactly she is thinking of it. The cool air feels great after the heat outside. But she knows it is her idea and hers alone, not because of the whispers. She returns quickly with a stack of sticks and twigs in her arms, she drops them in front of Olraym and the two move them and the set of stones around to build a fire.

After not hearing anything for a while and wondering aimlessly in the direction he believes they are in he gets himself lost. He has no way of tracking them and doesn’t even know which way he came in from. He looks around hoping to catch a glimpse of something, anything, which will help him. But all he can see is high trees and fog.

He feels a cold breeze and then hears something faint. He darts around thinking it is Olraym and Trugaime but still cannot see them. He prepares an arrow to be fired and twists around in a circle, still nothing. Another cool breeze passes by and another noise can be heard, this one slightly louder. He realises the wind is creating whispers.

At first he pays them no attention but then hears what sounds like a name, he listens again and hears a name, his name. He stops and looks around, sure he is hearing someone talk, not the wind.

“Come out!”

But no one is there. There is no one around but him.

He hears any noise and this time follows it. The noise leads him away from the direction he thought Olraym and Trugaime would be in and takes him far away.

At one point he stops as he thinks he sees from the corner of his eye a figure standing near him, watching him. He looks around but sees nothing, though for a moment he could swear the figure he thought he saw was wearing a green hood with a strange looking pattern on it.

The fire takes a while to light but when it does it quickly consumes the sticks Trugaime gathered and starts roaring. Though it is very bright they don’t think anyone will be able to see it unless they are close enough to be seen themselves.

Olraym is lying down taking a much needed rest while Trugaime is sitting up straight next to him. Olraym cannot stop thinking about the first time he saw this place in his dream and what happened in it. He suddenly stops as he realises this is where he and Trugaime where when they died in his dream, this is where it all happens. He sits up suddenly and looks at her. She looks back surprised.

“What is it?”

Olraym looks around, expecting Thorne to appear suddenly and fire an arrow at them, at her. Trugaime follows his gaze.

“Can you see anyone?”

Trugaime shakes her head, “no.”

“Good…I need to tell you something.”

Trugaime still looks around waiting for something to happen while also waiting for Olraym to continue.

“I need you to keep me awake.”

“I know that, you fall asleep you might not wake again. But that’s not why you’re telling me, is it.”

Olraym shakes his head, “no, well obviously I need to stay awake for that. But I also need to stay awake because something is about to happen.”

She looks around more alert than before.

“Something like what, exactly?”

“I don’t know when but I know it’s soon but that man who attacked us-”

“That man your brother Prince Thorne you mean.”

“Yes that man my brother Prince Thorne from the village is going to come here and try and kill us...again.”

Trugaime nods, she looks as if she might burst out laughing while still looking serious.

“What’s so funny?”

“We come all this way. I’m told to kill you for the Cult though I don’t know who wants it. I get caught and thrown out of the Cult, then I come with you as you blindly wander the Highlands and we arrive here to find out it is none other than Prince Thorne, your older brother, who wants you dead.”

“Again, what’s so funny?”

“We could have just stayed in Tov’ra and dealt with this!”

“Well you remember the dreams I told you about.”

Trugaime nods.

“Well I got the feeling I, we, had to be here for this. I don’t think staying in Tov’ra or anywhere else would have helped.”

She laughs a little louder but then stops and cringes. Olraym looks at her worried and inches closer to her. She is holding her side and he can see blood there, not much though but still it alarms him. She notices his alarm.

“I must have cut myself while climbing.”

His alarmed look disappears and he smiles.

“I cut myself the same way.”

Olraym shows her his cut and the two laugh at this. It is a good natured, hearty laugh. It dies down quickly and Olraym lies back down.

“Remember to keep me awake.”

Trugaime takes a small dagger from the inside of the sleeve of the arm without the crossbow attached. She spins it around expertly, waiting for when she needs it.

“I’ll remember.”

But soon Olraym starts to feel tired and Trugaime is still looking in every direction but his. He tries to wake himself up or at least get her attention, but he is so tired he cannot move.

Thorne follows the advice of the whispers, going one way then changing direction suddenly. He doesn’t know if he is going the right way, but since he has no idea where he is or where Olraym and Trugaime are he has no other choice. The fog is growing thicker around his ankles but apart from lifting his legs high he pays the fog no attention.

Apart from the whispers and the crunch of his own feet he cannot hear anything else. He cannot hear anything snapping or breaking that tells him they are in one direction or another. He cannot hear any sign that anything other than him is walking through this dark forest, no animal noises, no insect noises, nothing.

The silence is disturbing and he thinks of stopping and turning around. But then another whisper is heard, this one spoken clear saying: ‘over the obstruction’. Thorne looks around, wondering what obstruction the whisper meant. Then he finds it, a large tree that has fallen on its side. He moves closer to it and finds there isn’t a way around it. Even though it is on its side Thorne sees it is going to be hard to climb over. He hears another whisper with the same message and climbs over the tree.

He is high enough to see the other side he at first finds nothing but more moonlit forest and more fog and trees, but then he sees a light. It is yellow and orange, a fire. As his eyes grow accustomed to the new light he notices two figures next to the fire, ‘Olraym and Trugaime’. He lowers his head thinking they might see him, but they don’t. He looks again and realises they are facing away from him, and then he sighs. He climbs the rest of the way and carefully drops down the other side, when he drops with a seemingly loud thud he looks again and finds they still have not noticed him.

He looks at them harder and finds Trugaime is the one sitting while Olraym is lying down, maybe sleeping, hard for Thorne to see. He walks around in a wide circle to get in a better position and stay out their views in case they turn around if maybe he misses once or twice. All the while he does this still staying at their backs.

He finds a good spot by three trees with bushes occupying the spaces between each one. He kneels down in the central bush with one leg going vertical and the other going horizontal along the muddy ground.

He is about to fire when he sees Trugaime move suddenly, she shakes Olraym for a while and he suddenly moves around and sits. They look around as if they heard him. But they don’t see him. Not wanting to waste an opportunity Thorne pulls back the arrow on the bow and lets it go, lets it fly.

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