We had made it past the large clearing
and now into a thick forest. Just before we entered the wall of tree’s I looked
back at the place where the temple once stood. It was just out of sight, I knew
now that we were completely alone in this new world.
The forest was lush and green.
Everything was moist and there was mist covering the floor that added an eerie
atmosphere.
“Is it just me or
is this place creepy as hell” Raide was trying to say it jokingly but it came
out very seriously
“We saw how deep
this forest goes from the hill, we shouldn’t be here long…”
Lux
was trying to be consoling but it didn’t change how we felt. We were lost and
getting more and more depressed as the minutes rolled bye.
It
had been two hours since we entered the forest and still hadn’t reached the
other side. Surprisingly, through all the things we have gone through in one
day my watch was still working. I was grateful that we had something slightly
useful. I was starting to get desperate and others were just getting irritated.
“This is just
REDICULOUS! We saw that this forest was only a few meters deep. How could we be
walking for two hours!?” Kiske was showing his anger
“Lets just try and
stay calm and keep on moving… if were not out of here by the time darkness
falls then we should just make some sort of camp.” I was exhausted but I had to
try to calm them down.
As if I had jinxed the whole thing,
darkness seemed to come faster then I could have predicted. But it made sense;
we were in a thick forest so it should get dark faster.
“This isn’t
normal…” It was those kind of statements that always came out of Lux’s mouth
that angered me. I don’t know why but it seemed like he always knew more than
he let on for as long as I can remember knowing him.
“There isn’t
anything we can do except make camp.” Siln stated firmly. He stopped walking
and we all followed suit.
There wasn’t much for us to make camp
with. All we had was just ourselves and our weapons. So we all just found
secure spots where we could get them. We all found a spot at the base of a tree
except Lux. He was up in the tree… meditating as he called it. But I knew that
he was sleeping.
We were all uneasy but we managed to fall asleep. But I couldn’t. I just sat
there staring at the floor. Thoughts started to come to me. Why am I here? What
was the purpose of all this? We are all here because some demon is chasing us.
We have to destroy him, but we don’t know how to. We don’t even know where to
start. Our only guide has been destroyed and we have no idea what to do. We
don’t even know where we are going…
“You awake Zesh?”
mumbled Lux. I wasn’t expecting anyone to be still awake.
“Er… yea… I’m
awake” I looked up and saw his glowing eyes staring at me.
He took a deep breath and looked up to
the moon. I could see that he was concentrating deeply on it.
“Zeshin, do you
believe in what’s going on?” he said very seriously
“I don’t understand
what you mean.” I honestly didn’t. And all I could do was just stare at him.
“Steve… do you
think what were on the good side?” He was getting frustrated
“We aren’t supposed
to refer to each other as our real names anymo-...” he cut me off by jumping
down from the tree and landed right in front of me.
I couldn’t say or do anything. His
piercing eyes were digging into my skull and I was frozen. After a few moments
I got some words out.
“I- I’m sorry, I
didn’t mean to-…” He cut me off again
“Be quiet!” he
whispered with force
That’s when I heard it. Something
behind us! I quickly turned and saw nothing. I gripped my staff tighter; I
could feel the tension building.
“Oi… oi… don’t be
so quick to fight people, ya?”
“Who’s there!?”
barked Lux. That woke everyone else up. With in a few moments they were all
behind us ready to fight.
“I said…” it stepped
out from the shadows. “You shouldn’t be so quick to fight in this area, that
how you die ya… My name is Takeshi. I’m a merchant. And you are?”
“It’s a gerbil!”
shouted Kiske
“What’s your point?
I may be small and fat but that doesn’t mean you’re any smarter than me. I may
not look it but I’m able to do a lot of calculations on a moments notice. It
comes in handy when someone is trying to rip me off.”
It’s true. He was a short, fat gerbil.
Brown all over with a large black shirt, on his head he had this weird looking
hat that seemed to just be a ski cap with blue goggles on it.
“I apologize for my
friend’s rudeness. We are wanderers that were abandoned here. We assumed this
would be the fastest way to next town.” Lux was suddenly very calm and polite.
The gerbil grunted and shifted his
weight while scratching his belly. He took in a deep breath and said:
“Well
obviously you
don’t know where you are because of how quickly you were to attack me.
A-and because the pointy eared one called the fuzz-ball a name that
would DEFINITLY not be from around here” He
paused for a moment. “How about I help you get to the nearest city, but
on one
condition!
We all relaxed a little and looked to
each other with disappointed looks on our faces....
