The Night's Curse #3 (Waverly Stump and The 7 Realms)

Chapter 13

The forest blurred in and out as Waverly ran, zipping past trees and ducking under low hanging branches. She spotted Dermot's shirt as a blur amongst the trees. It was her third time inside The Great Jungle and she was not loving it. The vegetation was a hundred times thicker than that of a normal forest, and there were more than a million deadly things lying around, waiting to inflict injury. There, the trees grew closer, allowing for monkeys to swing with ease and for wild tigers to rest on their branches.

Waverly heard one of them growl when she paased underneath a tree, hoping to catch up with Dermot, who seemed to know his way around better. As she leaped over a fallen tree, one leg caught onto something, and tripped her face first. She groaned and pushed herself up, brushing the dirt off.

Looking ahead, she found that Dermot had disappeared; obviously unaware of her misfortune. Heaving a sigh, she stood up and glanced around. A large tiger from atop a thick bough glared in her direction, licked its nose then looked away.

Waverly sat down on the felled tree to brush down her shorts, hoping that Dermot would come for her whenever he noticed her absence. She had spent the last two days fielding the jungle with him, committing its outer parts to memory because he claimed it would do her a lot of good.

"What good?" She had queried on the first day.

"Let us just say that sometimes, it is necessary to run." He had replied, stretching out lithe limbs.

The Great Jungle was accessible through the Woodlands and was the very fabric of Alpgeton as a realm. It stretched through the mountains, flanked the royal palace from behind and dragged on endlessly past untouched territory. Dermot had explained that the deeper parts of the jungle was uninhabited because of a horrible tragedy that had once befallen Alpgeton long before the days of the Great War of Realms.

"What was the tragedy? Did it involve Heron?"

Dermot had covered her face with his hunting cloak. "You're starting to sound like Diarmaid."

She moved away from the tree before suddenly becoming aware that her ankle was sprained. Her bones grated as she walked, drawing a wince out of her with every step. She considered calling out to Dermot, but judging from the sheer mas of the jungle, it was unlikely that he would hear.

Since she could at least remember the way back, she decided to leave. Her walk was slow and the underbrush was loud under her feet. The air was humid, making plants and growth in the jungle appear wet. It reminded her of Yena Urwald, the jungle where she took a Trial to capture The Twinn Jinn – identical transfigurative golden statues that could change to horses. As she thought of them, she wondered if she was in the same jungle. Desi had refrained from telling her the jungle's location back then and it made her even more suspicious.

What if the Twinn Jinn resided in the uninhabited parts of The Great Jungle which was probably Yena Urwald?

Diarmaid would drink water off Waverly's palm were she to tell him something as exciting as that. He would give up his entire life to travel to find the Twin Jinn.

A cluster of broad green leaves ruffled by the side, causing her to halt. At first, she thought it was a small animal scurrying from sight, but the disturbance was too prominent to have been caused by a tiny creature. Her thoughts immediately went to Dermot. She brightened at the idea that he had come back to find her, but when the intruder stepped into the clearing, her face paled.

"Fancy meeting you here." He said quietly.

"Levi!" Waverly spat. She steadied herself to make sure her broken ankle escaped his notice, but if he had been stalking her then the attempt was quite useless. Nonetheless, he was inattentive to her occasional limps.