Chapter 2 scene 6 (The trek and the thoughts of Tracy

As the group continues their trek throught the silent forest, we learn something of Tracy and her thoughts and feelings towards the group.

As the group treks through the silent forest, a sphere of light finds them and becons

(without ever making a sound or uttering a word to them) forward, their eventual

destination being their two waiting companions beyond.

 

 

As the five of them continued their trek through the silent forest, Tracy started to wonder just how they would find their way to the others safely as the sun was going to set soon leaving only darkness in its wake. The sun was low now, and would be getting lower as the time wore on, and knowing this the group found itself wondering just how they would find their way safely.

    

     Almost as if to answer their internalized question, asked by no one out loud within the group, a sphere of light came suddenly forth and came to rest some five feet in front of the group. The sphere at first had darted between the trunks of the great trees of the forest as it drew near the group. At first seen from a distance, the sphere covered the distance between itself and the group rather quickly, as it passed from the deeper woods beyond and in front of the group, to hover a mere five feet in front of them.

    

     "What is it, other than a sphere of light I mean?" Sue asked as Tracy watched on as the sphere hovered a mere foot from the woman to whom all her love belonged.

    

     "A spell of some sort I would wager." stated Jasper as Tracy looked from her love to him, as Jasper pulled up along side Sue.

    

     While the look on her love's face registered as more of surprise and wonder at the sphere of light, at the same time Tracy noticed that the look on Jasper's face was more of interest in both the sphere and in what or how the process of its creation might have been done. To herself, Tracy wondered if thus such an occurrence (the spell and a sphere of light) was a common thing in the life of Jasper, as since he showed no obvious surprise (if anything just an interest in the sphere and in the way of its creation) if this was a normal thing for him.

    

     As Tracy watched the love of her life circle the sphere of light once, she wondered just how it found them and who could (if anyone) have sent it to them. It was just then that it had occurred to her that it must have been sent by the one to whom her love called Lilith or The Bandit.

    

     "I must be from your friend Lilith." stated Tracy to Sue as she figured that that was the only one that possibly could of sent it to them if indeed it had been sent by anyone at all and to anyone one at all.

    

     "Our friend, my beloved" stated Sue as she turned her head to face Tracy,"I, as did she, forgot to introduce my beloved to you. My beloved's name is Tracy, Tracy Moore." and as she said those final words a look of pride and even greater love showed on her face and glowed deeply in her eyes. Sue was proud of the woman that she loved, and Tracy was proud of her.

    

     With those words from Sue's lips, that their friend Lilith was her friend too, it made Tracy's heart swell with pride as she now felt as one of them and not an outsider looking in.

    

     "We best follow it then, if it was indeed sent from Lilith, from them to us, then it must have been sent to lead us from here to there." said Sue as she moved to stand by the right side of Tracy.

    

     The thought that one such a Lilith could send such a thing as a beacon of sorts to help guide their way was a marvel to Tracy's thinking, for she had never witnessed a spell ever before until now. She had heard from her love Sue that magic did indeed exist and that both Jasper and Lilith had great command of it. The thought and experience that she would now witness for herself the power of a spell made manifest excited as well as amazed Tracy.

    

     "Don't worry" said Jasper to her as he showed Tracy a kind and gentle smile,"You are as much a friend to us, as we are to you. I think I speak for all of us when I say this" Jasper paused then as he swept his right arm in a wide arch (an arch that encompassed the other three members of the group which included her love Sue) and as he did this he finished with the words that would in moments make her feel accepted and included in the group allowing her heart to swell with great pride and those words were,"that we all see you as one of us. And I mean that."

    

     "I agree" stated Trevor with a warm smile of his own.

    

     "Dido, the same goes for me." said William as the two of them (both he and Trevor) moved to stand a mere foot behind the three of them.

    

     It made Tracy more than happy to know that they included her as one of them and not an outsider to the group.

    

     "Lets get going then" Tracy heard Sue say as the group moved out once more, and with the light of the sun continuing its fade (a fade that would herald the eventual coming of the night and darkness that comes along with it) Tracy found herself thinking that finally she would meet those few members of the group that she had not meet yet and that she could learn from them as well as she had learned from her love Sue.

    

     As the group continued to cover ground and reach closer to their goal of reaching the other two members of their group, the sun was no more now than a red sliver on the horizon. The darkness that was not only still deepening around them, but gave the silent woods an almost spooky quality to them for not a sound (save for the sounds they themselves made) echoed throughout the silent forest. No sounds of birds or other animals could be heard, not even the sounds of crickets brought sound to the fading light and the deepening darkness around them.
    
    As the group continued its fast pace march through the silent forest, Trevor pointed in the direction before them and said,"Look, there seems to be a campfire in the not to distance ahead of us."

    

     As the group finally came to a stop then (there to rest a short bit while they got their bearings and to as well try and see if  indeed the light Trevor was seeing was indeed a campfire or not) Tracy came to a stop standing just a short distance behind her love.

    

     "Tracy, if you could my dear." said Sue to her love Tracy as she looked back towards her, and as she did so, she pointed at a tree that was just five feet and to the right of Sue.

    

     The tree was tall, almost seemed to go on forever (though in actuality it only went on for thirty feet or so). The tree may have seemed so tall due to the fact that every tree that spanned the entire realm of the forest seemed tall and imposing (though at the same time as the trees seemed imposing, they also oddly seemed welcoming, almost as if they were welcoming their arrival and even seeming to have been waiting for their arrival to occur, however odd that thought may have seemed).

    

     The tree had spiraling branches, that spiraled all around its perimeter. The branches were long and thick, able to very much support the weight of either her or Tracy, and with each branch there came the spacing of one foot above and a half a foot in front of each individual branch and its neighbor.

    

     With the request now given to her by her love, and her objective now clear, Tracy now endeavoured to do her best and to carry her love's bidding out.

    

     Moving with grace and speed, Tracy soon stood beneath the first of the branches she would use as steps to reach to almost the very top of it. The first branch spread out from its base some ten feet above her head, but this posed no problem for either her or  Sue (in this case herself) as both of them had been specially trained in the acrobatic arts of the Amazons of the world of Ashena.

    

     As Tracy leapt into the air above her own head and grasped the first of the branches that she would use for her ascent to almost the tree's top, she then pulled herself onto the branch and quite easily steadied herself atop it. Balancing atop the branch like one would atop a high-wire some thirty feet in the air and with no safety net, so too did Tracy balance herself atop the branch with ease. Leading then with her right foot she leaped from the first to the second branch and continued to do this as she climbed up the tree via the branches.

    

     As she wound her way up the tree, she found herself marveling at just how the branches acted like steps, and how the winding around the tree (for her) felt like she was ascending a winding staircase to the top of some ancient tower in a medieval castle. As she reached near the top of the tree to stand just five feet short of the top (for the branches stopped just five feet short from the top of the tree) she cast her eyes in the direction of where Trevor had pointed and said he thought he saw the light of a campfire originating from.

    

     "It is a campfire" said Tracy to those down below,"and there seems to be two people sitting in front of it. Both are facing one another. The one closest to us is kneeling and the one furthest from us is sitting." continued Tracy before finishing by saying,"We will be there shortly." and with that she finished her description to the others down below her.

    

     "Thank you, my love." said Sue to Tracy, and with the voice of her beloved Sue now heard, Tracy's heart then swelled with both love and pride, a love for her soul mate that ran so deep and with such passion as to having been experienced by too few, and a pride so strong for having been allowed into her mate's life and love that to Tracy, Sue was her whole world where her soul either rose or fell by the appearance of either Sue's smile or frown..

    

     As she listened to her love's voice then, Tracy looked down towards those below her (but in actuality the one to whom she looked was her love Sue). As she looked through the encroaching darkness Tracy could still see her love's face, as she looked at the love of her life Tracy merely smiled a smile of love to the one who held her heart. Seeing a smile cast back to her, gave Tracy a feeling of belonging and peace that only those held firmly within the safe embrace of true love could ever feel.
    
     As Tracy prepared to ascend the tree (via the winding staircase like branches) she laid her left palm bare upon the surface of the tree to which the branch she stood precariously but perfectly balanced on, and it was then that it was as if her very soul had then touched the soul of the tree to which she balanced upon its top most branch. As she felt the bark of the tree, the roughness of the bark to the touch, and even as she traced with the first finger of her right hand (with the palm of her left hand still placed firmly against the bark and trunk of the tree) the crisscrossing pattern of the tree's bark, and as she did this it was as if her soul drew nearer to the very essence, the very soul of the trees and the forest itself. She could not explain it to herself in the slightest, for Tracy always thought of sentience as a human, or at least a more evolved being's attribute and not a plant or a tree, but there it was sentience and a soul embodied in this tree and the trees and forest around it.

    

     As she prepared to withdraw her left hand and palm and retract her right, Tracy became aware (without a doubt in her mind) of a essence, of a very soul, sentience, and of a very will of a forest, a land, and this very tree and it was as if she became just as curious about the tree and its forest existence, just as it, the forest and land became aware and curious for the first time of hers.

   

     "Thank you" Tracy then said to the tree and the woods and land as one,"Thank you for allowing me to carry out the wishes of my love and to help me locate those we've yet to meet. But most importantly, thank you for the safety." and it was as if as she said those words that she knew, without a word being spoken by the land, woods, or tree itself that she knew its response was that ot was saying that it was saying in its own way that she was welcome both to her thank you and welcomed as well within its borders.

    

     As Tracy descended the stair like steps (the steps being made of branches and wood) she thought to herself that if the world of Ashena was as magical and mystical as that of these woods, then truly would their adventures within the realms and borders of the world of Ashena would be something extraordinary. Upon reaching the final of her wooden steps, Tracy hoped down from her perch amongst the branches of the tree and landed like a cat would as it descended from a place on high to a safe landing on the ground below.

    

     As she moved to stand by the others, Tracy then added to the description of what she had seen of the campfire and its attendees by saying,"We will be there in no time, and I believe I saw a pair of animals with the duo that awaits us. One I believe was a bird of some sort, there other a large wolf."

    

     And as she awaited the response of the rest (but in particular the response of her love) to the mention of the other to companions  (that of animal companions) that now awaited them, the first to respond was her love by saying,"To more companions with which to join with." the look then of contentment appearing on her love's face then at no doubt the prospect at two more companions joining their ranks making Sue's heart and mind light with delight as Tracy knew of her love that such a mention of two more companions would make her.

    

     The second and the last to respond was Jasper by saying "Well" then he paused to gesture with a right hand and arm towards the campfire beyond,"we better get going then before we lose all of the light. Though if I may say one thing more" stated a playful Jasper as a equally playful smile appeared on her face as he finished the conversation.

    

     "You may" interrupted an equally playful Sue as she smiled, and the thought that her love Sue would get so comfortable with her knew companions made the heart and mind of Tracy so very pleased as she knew of both her and her love that they had excepted the rest of the groups as the rest of the group had excepted them.

    

     "And that's that I hope that the wolf is friendly, as I haven't always had the best of relationships with dogs, wolf or otherwise." finished Jasper.

    

     "I bet you'll do just fine." stated Sue as she chuckled to herself as she said those final words to end the conversation as the group then continued their trek through the silent forest towards the campfire and their waiting companions beyond (both human and animal alike) guided still by the sphere of light safely as they tread a safe a secure path to their eventual destination and the still unseen door to the world of Ashena beyond.

Author's Note

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