Alcingeria

Chapter Thirteen: Departure

Chapter Thirteen Departure:

Wednesday June 23rd 1690

The sound of crickets and other insects filled our ears and the smell of moss and wet leaves hung on the air. I spotted the place where I had been standing when I passed out from Ignacio's poison.

"Which way do we go?" Macalister asked.

We all looked around. There was nothing to give us an incentive as to where we were, so we had to go on a hunch.

"Anyone care to take a wild guess?" Asked Robert.

Don raised his hand and pointed a finger to our left.

"That way." He said. "Trust me, I can feel it."

Don began marching in the direction that he indicated. I looked to Robert. He shrugged and I walked after our friend. I looked up to the sun when we came to a part of the forest where the canopy was less dense. It was past its apex in the sky and was starting to descend towards the horizon. I estimated that it was at least four hours past noon. The trees passed in a slow haze of green as we walked by them, animals running around in the underbrush, and I reflected on how good it was to be alive.

"If we don't find a town before dark, we'll go another night hungry." Macalister grumbled.

"Don't worry about it," Robert shrugged. "It's only a matter of time."

I felt my hunger spike at the mention of food. I also began to feel the weight of my injuries. Now that all the excitement was over and the adrenaline stopped pumping, my body became aware once more of its needs.

"Well, one thing's for sure," Don piped up, "we can't view the world as we once did. We need to look at it through our new eyes."

"We don't know what else is out there, how will we keep an eye out for something that we don't know about?" I asked, which made Macalister frown and stare blankly at me.

"But we could see Ignacio just fine."

"We have to always be on guard and on the lookout for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary," Robert answered. "If we stay sharp, we're bound to find something eventually."

Upon hearing Robert say 'stay sharp' I instinctively looked around. The forest that we were in grew thicker as we walked on. As we walked deeper and deeper we had to swerve more and more often to avoid hitting trees. I looked up at the sun. It had sunk towards the horizon more since we started talking. The sky took on the color of the early stages of twilight, or maybe it was a bit before. I then realized with a chuckle that I had misjudged the time we left the cabin.

After walking a while more, I heard a voice. It belonged to a man and was quite loud. I could make out the words;

"Hey! I got one!"

There was a thud as well as the sound of boots crunching over leaves.

"Would you keep it down?" Asked a second man voice in a quieter tone. "What if there are people nearby?"

"Are you mad? No one would be out in this part of the forest. We're not far from that cabin. Rumors spread, you know."

"It doesn't matter," cut in the second voice. "We have what we came for, so let's go back to Riverguard. Queen Yuka will have our heads if we don't have this brought to her by nightfall."

I looked to the others. They had their heads inclined towards the voices as well.

"What should we do?" I asked.