“Look…I know you’re worried about your friend, but I know too that there is always hope, even when there seems to be none. I grew up in an orphanage surrounded by people who lost their hope, yet somehow hope always found them and they all got taken away one by one by loving families, and more children always came back to take their place. I always wondered why I was never picked. Was I too old? Was I incapable of being loved? But now that I’m here, maybe I’m starting to find those answers I was looking for all along.” he replied.
David could see that Erin was thinking about his words and it seemed to be helping ease her troubles, so he pressed his luck further.
“It’s strange you know. Fate seems to work its way out in life in ways you may never have expected before, but the important thing to remember is no matter what comes your way to never give up hope. Never.” He finished and let the message sink in while they walked together quietly. After some time, Erin finally smiled.
“Thank you, David. Somehow you always find a way to look at the brighter side.” she said.
They continued walking, stopping only to rest and eat, until the skies began to darken. They decided they could go no further in the looming darkness and they set up camp for the night.
Rex caught a small rabbit and Orin found some sweet berries and leaves to make what resembled a salad. They ate enough to be satisfied before turning in for the night. Rex was on watch for the first shift while the others quickly drifted off to sleep. The fire lightly burned in the middle of the company as they slept, each battling their own demons through the night.
✽✽✽
“David, wake up. It’s your turn for watch.” Rex whispered as he nudged David lightly in the ribs.
He slowly got up and stretched before wiping the sleep from his eyes.
“Thanks, Rex. Try to get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.” said David.
Rex slowly climbed into his makeshift bed and drifted off to sleep. David was alone now for the first time in a few days.
He replayed the events that led up to this night. He was haunted by the horror of the task that lay ahead of them. How were they ever going to take back the kingdom? He had no idea what he was doing. All he could think about was the message the Mystics in his dream had given him. "You will know when the time is right what must be done". Why couldn’t they have given him a more useful message, like how to access his powers or something?
He was frustrated, and even worse, exhausted still. The little bit of rest he had wasn’t nearly enough, and he kept finding himself drifting off before catching himself. He had to stay awake and watch over the others to make sure they were safe while they slept.
He got up and decided to take a stroll around the campground to ensure everything was in order. The endless sound of crickets chirping in the darkness was nearly deafening as he patrolled the perimeter of the camp. Suddenly he heard a rustling in the distance. “Who’s there?” whispered David. “Show yourself!”
He slowly started towards the source of the sound. It seemed to come from behind a tree in the distance, near a small cluster of bushes. He checked to make sure his sword was at his waist before moving onward.
The bushes rustled again. He could feel his heart racing in his chest, pounding inside trying to force its way out. His breathing got heavy and sweat started to trickle from his brow.
He was only inches away from the bushes now. The noise stopped.
He jumped through the bushes with his sword drawn and ready to fight off the intruder. He looked around panting, but no one was there. Then suddenly he heard the rustling again, but this time it was right behind him. He slowly gathered his nerve and spun around swinging his sword with all his might, ready to slash through whatever was lurking in the darkness just inches behind him.
Just a foot or so away from him stood a small, furry animal that looked just like a badger. Its fur raised up threateningly as the rodent opened its mouth wide, baring its teeth at David before letting out a hissing noise and scattering off into the darkness.
Relieved, David sheathed his sword and headed back to the camp. He sat down on a log near the fire and looked around at the others to ensure they hadn’t seen his extravagant act, but both Rex and Orin were fast asleep.
He glanced over to where Erin was sleeping, but he couldn’t see her behind the fire. He stood up and slowly walked around the fire to check on her, but she wasn’t there. And he noticed her pack was gone!
Oh no! Something must have happened while I was chasing that stupid animal! thought David in a panic.
“Orin! Rex! Get up! Erin’s missing!” he cried.
The others shot up quickly from their slumber, ready to fight.
“What’s going on?” asked Orin.
“Erin, she’s gone! Someone must have taken her!” cried David.
“I don’t think so mate,” said Rex, looking around for any sign of a struggle but not finding any.
“I can guess she’s gone after her friend.” he said, pointing at what looked to be fresh tracks heading back the way they had come. “That girl wouldn’t have gone out of here without a fight, and that would’ve woken us up for sure. All I can see here are one set of tracks.”
“He’s right, David. She must have gone out while we were sleeping. What were you doing? I thought you were supposed to be on watch?” said Orin, glaring at David who lowered his head in shame.
“I was! I heard a sound just beyond the camp, over there by that tree. I went to check it out, but it was just a stupid animal. How could I be so foolish?” he said, blaming himself for letting Erin slip off on his watch.
“Don’t blame yourself, kid. She must’ve had this planned, and it seemed that her mind was set since she heard about her friend being imprisoned. There’s nothing we could’ve said to change her mind.” said Rex, assuring David it wasn’t his fault.
“We have to go after her! We can’t just let her go alone!” cried David. “I won’t let them hurt her!”
“David, we won’t be any good without more people to take on the Royal Guard. How do you expect us to get past them alone?” replied Orin. “We must get help first, and then we can go and save our friends. We can’t let them have you. This is the only way.”
“No! I have to go after her!” David shouted.
He started packing up his things and then started off towards the forest in the direction the tracks Erin left behind. Without warning, everything went black.
“Sorry, kid. It’s for your own good.” said Rex, dropping the large branch.
He hauled David onto his shoulder and headed back to camp.
“We better hurry and get your friends, Rex, or that boy’s going to blow a fuse and kill us all!” said Orin urgently. “He’s a ticking time bomb until he gets control over his powers, and I would hate for us to be on the receiving end of his wrath!”
Rex agreed.
They gathered their things, put out the fire, and headed off swiftly into the night, Rex in the lead with David over his shoulder, and Orin following quickly behind.
Chapter XIII
It was early morning and the sun was just barely starting to light up the forest around her, giving her a better view of her surroundings. Erin crouched in the fading darkness just outside the walls of West Post, waiting to make sure there were no soldiers patrolling the outer walls before making her way past the outskirts of the village and taking the road back to Eldergate.
She knew if she followed the main road, she would find her way back to Eldergate faster than trekking her way blindly through the forest, but she also knew it would be littered with soldiers. Her plan was to follow the road just off the path to avoid any patrols while still moving in the right direction.
She started out towards the gate but stopped and crouched into a dark recess behind the wall. She heard the unmistakable sound of iron-clad footsteps and knew that soldiers were patrolling the path ahead and quickly approaching.
“This is going to be harder than I th
ought” she breathed.
She slowly made her way closer to the gate to get a better look at the soldiers and the direction of their patrol. When she got close enough, she peeked around the wall. There were five soldiers all clad in armor and equipped with long swords, the standard for Royal Guard patrols. They were moving through the town, ensuring no one left their houses except for essential business. The streets were packed with soldiers. She knew she had no chance in a direct attack by herself.
She quietly watched as a few of the soldiers patrolled the grounds to the left and right of the entrance, never straying more than a few feet off the path, and always staying near the entrance to the village. She realized the soldiers weren’t letting anyone in or out of that town, assuming it was because of the recent events surrounding their visit and the commotion they caused with the local soldiers outside of Orin’s cabin.
She decided she would have to go through the woods to get around the village and make her way back to the path if she were to get past without a fight.
The canopy overhead was extremely dense and even worse, the sky was mostly blocked by dark clouds overhead, so she had little to no light to see by except what was emitted by the torches on the outer walls of the town.
This meant that visibility would be limited to her immediate surroundings, and she wouldn’t be able to spot any potential threats until they were right on her.
As she creeped her way through the thick undergrowth, peering through the dim lit forest at the outer walls to make sure she could keep an eye on the soldiers, she suddenly tripped on a fallen branch and crashed through a cluster of dry bushes. She cringed as she hit the ground, twigs and branches scratching her face as she fell, but not from the pain – she had made quite a ruckus and knew she would be attracting the attention of the soldiers patrolling nearby.
She sat frozen in fear for what felt like an eternity as she frantically looked around, trying to see through the thick vegetation. When she felt she had stayed hidden long enough and the coast was clear, she slowly stood up and brushed herself off.
Phew, that was clo-
“Gotcha!” came a voice from behind as a strong grip took hold of her shoulders.
Erin quickly spun in an attempt to brush off her attacker, but his grip held fast, and a powerful kick landed on the back of her knees, knocking her to the ground.
Just as soon as her knees hit the ground, another soldier appeared to her left and wrapped her arms around her back before tightly tying them with a rope.
“Well, well…what do we have here.” said the soldier.
“Let me go!” she screamed, spitting in his face as he inched closer.
He swiftly backhanded her across the face before wiping the spittle from his cheek.
“You better watch your tongue, girl, or I’ll have you hung before you ever reach the dungeons!” he threatened.
As the men stood her up and led her to the gates, a company of soldiers stepped out from their patrol and rested their gaze on the pretty, young girl before them.
She furiously tried to break free, but the soldiers held on to her and kept her in place. She fought them with all the strength she could muster, but quickly discovered it was useless. She didn’t have a chance of escaping now and started to fear what would come next.
“Oh, the things I’d like to do with this one.” said the captain of the soldiers. “She’s a pretty one, isn’t she?” he said, a cacophony of hoots and cheers erupting from the men around her.
“You’re all cowards!” shouted Erin, “You wouldn’t dare face me in a fair fight!” she slammed her heel down on the toes of the man holding her and he grimaced in pain before shoving her down to the ground. She hit her head hard on a stone and immediately her vision began to blur.
“Enough!” cried the Captain. “Take her back to the castle and put her in the dungeons. We will have some use for her yet.”
“Yes, Sir!” came their reply.
The soldiers saluted their captain with a fist to their hearts before dragging Erin through the gates. They carried her up to a wagon that was hitched to a team of horses clad for war. The door to the wagon had iron bars covering a single window on the front and looked big enough to carry several prisoners. One soldier opened the door to the wagon and the other two roughly threw her into the darkness.
She landed hard on her side and, after hearing the door slam and lock behind her, she felt the wagon jump into movement. As she rode alone and in silence, trying to remain conscious through the throbbing in her head, she wondered what would come of her once she reached the palace, but even more so, she wondered if she would ever see her new friends again.
Chapter XIV
David woke with a dull throbbing pain in the back of his head. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself sitting propped up against a large tree trunk at the edge of a vast wide-open plain stretching to the base of an enormous chain of mountains. It appeared to be late in the morning, as the sun was already climbing high in the sky and was slowly making its way towards the top of the mountains in the West where it would eventually set.
He quickly sat up after remembering that Erin had gone off on her own. When he tried to stand, he stumbled, realizing he still needed to recover from the blow he had suffered.
“You're awake!” he heard Rex shout behind him.
David turned around to see Rex and Orin slowly packing up a camp site they had made for resting overnight. They quickly came over to where David sat and started to explain to him what had happened since he was out.
“We had to do something, kid. We knew you’d go on your own after Erin” explained Rex. “We couldn’t take the chance of you going off and getting yourself captured or killed!”
“He’s right, David.” remarked Orin. “You weren’t listening to us when we tried to explain, but Erin has to do this on her own for now until we can find the help we need. Otherwise we won’t stand a chance at taking back the kingdom and saving anyone.”
“You’re right.” exclaimed David. “I understand why we can’t go after Erin…we can’t do much good with just the three of us against an entire legion of soldiers.”
“I’m sorry, David.” Rex said apologetically.
“It’s okay, thanks.” said David still rubbing his head. “Now where exactly are we, and how long have I been out?”
“You’ve been out for a few hours. We’re about a day, maybe two, from Ravenfell depending on how quickly we can move. We’ve made it to the Southern edge of the Outer Woods. Now we just have to cross these plains by nightfall, and we’ll make camp in the foothills before reaching the mountains beyond.”
“These must be the plains that I woke up in when I was brought to your world” said David. “That means we need to be careful; these fields were sprawling with dozens of those beasts from the Wolf Guard when I first came through the portal. I almost got eaten by one of them.”
“We’ve been seeing bands of them here and there since we arrived at the outskirts of the forest. They seem to be spaced throughout the entire plains surrounding the forest like they want to keep anyone from going in or leaving” explained Orin. “I don’t like it one bit, but we have to find a way past these creatures if we’re going to get to your people” he said, nodding towards Rex.
“I’m afraid you’re right” he replied solemnly. “David, got any ideas? How did you get past them before?”
“Well…I ran as fast as I could. I got lucky, honestly. Had I not been close to the forest I would have certainly been caught.”
“Well running isn’t an option; they’ll see us and swarm on us like a bunch of angry bees” replied Rex.
“We could try to use the cover of the high grass and crawl our way across” suggested David. “But we would need to find something to cover our scent, so they don’t smell us coming. That’s how they spotted me last time.” said David, recalling the horror he felt when he was spotted by the beast. It still sent shivers down his spine.
“I know just the thin
g for that! A special spell of mine, works real well for concealing smells!” exclaimed Orin with a grin.
✽✽✽
“Mud? That’s your special spell?” griped David, clearly displeased with the horrible smelling muck that now covered the companions from head to toe. “Couldn’t you have obtained some better smelling stuff?”
“What? It’s not so bad, quit being a baby!” teased Rex, clearly more in his element than David.
“Yeah well at least it will keep our scent from attracting those beasts. It’s not like you had any better ideas!” stammered Orin defensively, knocking David on the head with his staff.
“Ouch! What’s with you two hitting me in the head? Can’t you pick a new spot for a while and let this one be?”
Rex and Orin chuckled, but David wasn’t so amused.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Let’s get going, before those beasts learn to smell ‘stupid’ too.” David teased.
The companions started off towards the edge of the high grass and knelt down to the ground before starting off through the thick, dry plains, crawling painstakingly through the field.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, getting pierced by the peaks of the tallest mountains by the time they were nearly across the fields. It had been a long and arduous task crawling through the high grass. It was hot, uncomfortable, and the grass had a strange way of making you itch all over.
They had been lucky so far and had avoided any encounters with the creatures in the field. They had a couple of close instances, however the mud seemed to cover their scent well enough that the company of approaching beasts walked right by merely a few feet ahead of them without catching their scent. David silently told himself to remember to apologize to Orin later for complaining about his idea.
David Bishop and the Legend of the Orb Page 12
