Chapter thirteen:

Birds in flight

    We followed the road as we walked through the woods for a while then I realized,

    “So, any ideas where to go?” I asked.

    “I figured we just create some distance and follow the road for a bit,” Ella said.

    “I’m not too sure,” Zeke said. 

There was a bit of silence before I asked another question. 

    “Zeke, where were you from?”

    “It was a town called Selia,” he said. 

    “Was?” I asked.

    “Kenric burnt it down.”

    “Oh…”

    “Why does he always burn places down?” Ella asked. 

    “He gets mad when he can't find what he wants.” Zeke said.

    “I wonder if it's to find people too.” Ella said, thinking about something.

    “What do you mean?” I asked. Zeke also looked curiously at Ella.

    “Well, maybe… sigh you know, with all that death because he couldn’t find someone, they might feel more guilty and go turn themselves in or confront him to get the killing to stop, then he's found you.”

Zeke looked shocked at what Ella said.

    “You think so?” he asked.

    “Maybe.” Ella responded.  

We walked in silence for a bit then I asked.

    "How does he keep finding us? He burnt down your village Zeke, he found you again and burnt down ours, then he found us again just a few days ago." 

    "I don't know…" Zeke said.

    "Was he looking for us too? He looked surprised when he saw us, Orchid. I think he's mainly looking for Zeke." 

    "Yea maybe… hey Zeke, why is Kenric looking for you anyways? 

    "My race can use magic naturally, meaning we can oppose him and be stronger than his forces." 

    "Magic?" I asked.

    "Yea, like your necklace."

    "What?"

    "Your necklace, I could have sworn I felt a bit of magic. No?"

    "I dont think so."

    “Can I see it?” Zeke asked with an outstretched hand. 

    “Um.. Sure.” I said, taking the necklace off and handing it to him. 

He took it and held it up to the sun letting it hang from his fingers.

    “Yea, this has magic. I don't know what kind but it's definitely there.”

    “Really?” I was surprised as he handed it back. 

    “Yea. it's not a big spell, just something simple. Maybe it preserves what's inside so it won't age as fast, or it can hold a bit more than usual. That's what people usually put on things like that. Where did you get it?”

    “It was a birthday gift from a friend of Ella and me.”

    “I was with him when they bought it, we had no idea it was magic, it

didn't cost too much so I don't think the person selling it knew either,” Ella said. 

    “Hey! I have an idea! Zeke, can Kenric track people by using magic?”

    “Yea probably.” Zeke said. “The problem is that there's a lot of ways to do it and we have no idea which one he used.”

    “How many are there?” Ella asked.

    “A lot. He might be using a spell to make specific footprints more visible, maybe he is using a spell that lets him see things from a bird's eye view and follow us, he could have a magic mark, talk to animals, sense life force of a specific kind just to name a few. It depends on what magic he's practiced, how much power he has and some other stuff.”

    “If he had a birds eye view then he wouldn't have to search towns to find you he would know exactly where you were. And you can fly right? If you've ever flown from one place to another and he still found you, footprints wouldn't make sense either.” Ella said. 

    “I only listed off a few more common ways of tracking, there are still many others.”

    “Yea, but at least we know it's not anything that pinpoints your exact location or uses tracks.” Ella said. 

    “Yea, if he could see you at all he would have known me and Ella were there and he wouldn't have looked so surprised when he saw us.”

    “True,” Ella nodded.

    What seemed to only be out of boredom, Zeke took out his wooden sword and started to flip it into the air only to have it fall and catch it in mid-air, before it could get a chance to hit the ground. He started to swing it around himself, careful not hitting us. 

    I sighed. I looked up to see the sky, and I saw the hot glowering sun, and it seemed to be smiling down at us. I couldn’t help but smile just a little. 

    “Oh!” I said suddenly, which caused my two friends to look over at me curiously. I turned my head to look at Zeke. 

    “I have an idea…how about you scout ahead…? I mean, you can turn into that bird. Can’t you?” I asked. Zeke looked at me. 

    “Hmm. I suppose I could do that, alright.” he nodded in agreement. 

I watched as Zeke’s body had transformed into a smaller figure, and what had appeared before my eyes was instead, a small yet beautiful red and orange bird. 

    The small bird looked at both me and Ella, then with a flap of its wings, it was lifted into the air, and it flew off, leaving us two behind. 

    “That shocked me a bit.” Ella commented, staring off into the sky where Zeke was. I nodded in a sign of acknowledgment. 

    Zeke had returned back to us minutes later, Zeke then turned back into a human. 

    “What did you find?” I asked Zeke. 

    “Well, nothing much, unless you count the forest.” He said unhelpfully. I sighed once again. 

    “But,” Zeke said quickly, “There is a big forest up ahead, I don’t know why, but it looks way different from this one.” He pointed in the opposite direction of us as he spoke.

    “Well, that is not helpful at all.” Ella said, shaking her head. 

    “Sorry.” Zeke quickly apologized. Ella gave him a look that was

guarded. 

    “No. It’s fine,” I spoke before she could say anything. “Right, Ella?” 

    “Yeah, I suppose.” Ella looked at both of us, then sped up so she was in front. Zeke stared after her.

    “Is she okay?” He wondered, sounding worried. 

    “Yes. She is just fine…just, ah, she gets like this from time to time.” I answered. 

    “Okaaay, then.” Zeke said. I spotted a touch of doubt in his voice so I decided to just ignore it. 

    We all continued walking in silence, which was strange to me. As we walked, Zeke started to make this sound with his mouth that was vaguely familiar to me. 

    “What are you doing?” I asked curiously. He stopped making the sound and looked at me. 

    “What do you mean?” he returned the question sounding confused. 

    “I mean. The thing you're doing. The sound coming out of your mouth? What is it?” I inquired.

    “I’m whistling.” he replied. I tilted my head still confused. 

    “Whistling?” I echoed. 

    “Yeah. Wait. So, you're telling me that you never heard of whistling?” he asked another question. 

    “Nope. Not at all. It’s very interesting though.” 

    “Huh,” Zeke laughed a little. “I’ve never heard of anyone who hasn’t heard of it before.” 

    “Is it common?” I yet again asked another question. 

    “Pretty. I guess.” 

    “Cool. I did recognize the song that you were playing however. We used to play it in Rivia at festivals, that was a while back though.” I recalled the use of the song. “Could you teach me how to do your little whistling trick?” 

    “No problem. I’ll teach you.” Zeke chuckled. I nodded, my brain trailing off into thoughts.

     I looked down at my necklace as I rubbed it. I found out that I rubbed my necklace whenever I was thinking about somthing.

    It’s hard to believe that this thing has magic added to it…then again, we wouldn’t know. I mean, Eagle must have not known, or even Ella. Hm. 

    I tried to put together how the process of buying the necklace went. I imagined there was an argument between the two. Then I wondered if Ella even got a say in the present or not. This doesn’t seem like the kind of gift that she would get for me. 

    I smiled as I thought about it more. 

    I suddenly bumped into something solid. I looked up, surprised, and I saw that I bumped into Ella. 

    “Oops. Sorry.” I said sheepishly and quietly, but it seemed like she didn’t hear me. I looked up and saw a forest, it did not look the same as the one we were in. 

    “This is the forest I saw earlier when I was scouting.” Zeke remarked. 

    “Seems…what’s the word? Eerie,” Ella observed. “Do you two want to go in?” 

    I glanced at Zeke and Ella. After I exhaled I said, 

    “Sure. Why not? It seems like the only way to go.” I considered. 

    I walked forward, taking my first step into the forest. And with that, we walked in. 

Chapter fourteen:

Forest of despair & agony

    The trees stood tall over me and my friends. They were casting shadows that were looming everywhere. The branches were long and crooked, but the leaves seemed to be woven together so there was barely any sunlight coming in. 

    I saw countless bodies of water. Some of them were so murky with mud in them that I could not see inside. 

    This forest so far was making me nervous, it sent chills up in my spine, all the way down to my fingertips. 

    “Has anyone got any creepy feelings about this forest?” I asked the others.

    “Definitely.” Zeke and Ella agreed together in unison. 

The unsettling silence had soon filled my ears and they started to ring. I felt a little light-headed. 

    Soon the quiet atmosphere felt awkward and the need to say something to break the silence felt like a necessity. 

    “Why is this forest so creepy.” I commented.

    “Why do you keep saying that?” Zeke responded. 

    “What do you mean?” I asked. 

    “You keep saying the forest is creepy, do you want to turn back?”

    “No, why do you think I want to turn back?”

    “You just said it was creepy.”

    “We can't go back.” Ella said.

    “I know we can't go back!” I said.

    “Then why do you keep saying this place is creepy!?”

    “Because it is! Don't you think so too!?”

    “Well yeah, but complaining about it all the time isn't going to make it any better!”

    “No guys, we can't go back just because it's creepy.” Ella said.

    “I know!” Zeke said.

    “It's natural to want to go back if it's scary but I don't want to!” I said

    “This was your idea to go in! We're not going back! Why did you want to go in if you were scared!?” Zeke responded, very annoyed

    “I know it was my idea! I just said I didn't want to go back! You guys could have just said no to going in if you didn't want to!” I retorted

    “Yeah right! Ella goes wherever you go and it's not like I could just leave you guys with a clear conscience!” Zeke said.

    “So why did you ask me if I wanted to go in or not!?” I said, now getting mad.

    “Because I didn't have much time to think with a murderer marching behind us! If you want to go back then just go!” Zeke yelled.

    “I never said I wanted to go back!” I yelled.

    “No! Guys we can't go back! Listen to me, we can't!” Ella said.

    “We're not going back, Ella! For the last time!” I snapped at Ella.

    “Oh are you not scared anymore!? Guess the forest is fine then!” Zeke snapped back at me.

    “There's literal skulls!” I said spotting a horse skull on the ground. I picked it up and shoved it in Zeke’s face.

    “Who wouldn't be scared of this forest!” I said defensively in anger.

    “Then go!” Zeke said.

    “No!” I said.

    “No guys we cant!” Ella said.

    “Then what! What are we going to do huh!? Are we going back!? Are you scared or not!?” Zeke yelled.

    “I am scared but I don't want to go back!”

    “Guys we can't go back I'm telling you!” Ella said worriedly. 

    “I know!” I shouted as loud as I could, “I never said I wanted to go back! Never once did I say that! You just assumed! So stop getting mad at me for something you thought of!”

    “You said you were scared! Sorry for caring!” said Zeke. 

    “Just because I'm scared doesn't mean I want to go!” I said.

    “Guys don't go back!” Ella said.

    “I'm not going back! Do you want to go back!” I said turning to Ella.

    “No! You guys keep talking about going back!” Ella said.

    “We're not going back!” I said

    “We're not going back then!?” Zeke said.

    “No!” I said marching forward. 

Later it became quiet again as we started to calm down again. I could not tell if it was night or day because we were deep into the forest. I felt something like a cool breath on the back of my neck as the temperature seemed to drop. 

    I turned around with the skull still in my hands. Suddenly, out of nowhere. Mist soon surrounded me. I looked down at my feet, but they were nowhere to be seen. 

    I looked around, and panic entered my body as I didn’t see Ella or Zeke.

    “Ella?” I called out, walking in the blanket of white. I tripped on my own feet–or a tree root–and I stumbled forward. I fell to the ground with a hard thump. I scrambled up, ignoring my hurting, and yelled.

 “Zeke! Are you guys here?” 

    “Where are you?” I whimpered. I tried searching the place, but the thick mist made me unable to. 

    The mist had started to go away and the trees and their trunks had

become visible, and I could actually see the ground. 

    The image of the forest started to change a little. I watched as underneath my feet, the ground was filled with liquid. I had soon recognized that the dark colored liquid was blood. 

    The whole clearing was filled with blood as It was surrounded by fire. The familiar sound of crackling chimed in my ears, but it sounded faint and distant. 

    I let out a gasp of horror as I saw dead bodies in the ring of fire. There were bodies that were hanging from the tree branches, others lay in the blood. 

    Before my eyes appeared two shadowy figures. I peered at them, and what I saw made my whole body go numb. 

    I saw both my mother and Eagle, both staring at me, their eyes were pure white that were shining so brightly that you could have mistaken it for the sun. 

    I was too stunned and shocked to do anything. I opened my mouth to speak but instead it came out as a feeble horse whimper. The ring of fire

was sending out smoke, but it was barely affecting me. 

    Mother and Eagle both gazed at me intently, as if they were staring straight through me. I saw both of them open their mouths to say something, but instead of words coming out it was blood. 

    Like a cascading river, dark blood was pouring out of their mouths and fell onto the ground. I watched as more was falling down, and their skin was turning a burnt black color. 

    As their bodies were turning into char, they were lit on fire, and together they collapsed onto the floor. I watched as more dark figures were flying down.

    I saw ravens fly down to the dead bodies that surrounded the place. They were flapping their wings until they reached the bloody ground. 

    They stood on the bodies, of which I figured out they were the people of my town and my friends. They also sat on branches, and they all made a shrill noise that made them sound like an alarm or warning. 

    I had come to a realization.

    Ravens…are the sign of death. I thought as I gazed at them, their