The whispering forest

Chapter 5: Burning Embers

I had no time to process the dream before my sister came into my room with tears streaming down her face, I knew what she was going to say without her saying it but I needed to know it for sure. I looked at her, "Mom's dying," she whimpered to me. I got up and gave her a hug, we went into our parent's room and my mom looked really pale, "Come here" she said with a raspy tone in her voice, We moved closer, She smiled at us and looked at us with her kind chocolate brown colored eyes, "Willow, my beautiful daughter your destiny lies here with your father, Ash my strong son, your destiny lies elsewhere, in the whispering forest, You must go there the land is under attack and your the only one that can save the forest and all the creature's that live there, beware for those you think are your friends might not be, trust your instincts you know the way, I love you both." she took her last breath and was gone just like that, Willow cried even harder I reached over and shut her eyes for her.

Tears raced down my cheeks, everything was quiet except are tears. It wasn't long after when there was a pounding at the door we all went to see who it was when we opened the door there stood old man Alfred with James, behind them a dark cloud of embers, "The village is under attack, there burning everything to the ground" Alfred said in a panicked voice. "Who is they?" My father asked I could hear the sadness in his voice. "I am not sure, they call themselves Jinx," he said with fear in his voice. My father looked at me with fear and sadness in his voice, "Ash, you have to go now", so I rushed into the house and grabbed my emergency bag out from under my bed. Once I had grabbed everything I needed, I ran downstairs and, out to the barn where everyone was waiting, Charlie was already saddled and ready for me. "Go through the back pasture and around, once you get to the road, follow it until you reach Sunny, got it?" My father asked, "Yeah I got it, dad," I said with sadness and a little bit of bitterness in my voice.

I saddled up and waved goodbye as I squeezed my thighs, I guided Charlie to the back pasture gate, collected my reins and we jumped it with air to spare. We were almost around the village, I had stopped to look at the village from the road, and all I could see was a red glow and thick smoke in the air, while embers continued to fall from the sky. I turned Charlie around quickly when I heard hoof's behind me, I prepared my bow and arrow, waiting in anticipation. When I heard a familiar voice, "Ash it's me, James don't shoot", he gasped out. When he had come out of the bushes on Star, he looked like he got dragged through the mud. "What happened to you?" I questioned with a look of worry on my face. " I got into a fight with my father," he said with a hint of anger in his voice. "Oh, sorry" "Yeah me too". We walked together side by side, I looked up to the stars and imagined my mom up there. "Do you think our moms are together now?" I asked with hope in my voice. "Yeah, honestly I do, there probably watching over us", he said in a quiet and hopeful voice. We continued our trek down the road, and when I heard rustling in the bushes I signaled us to stop and to be quiet. I held my breath when out stepped the white wolf with the raven sitting on its back, the same one from my dream. "It's you" James whispered, "You've seen them too?" I questioned, "I had a dream about them," he said. "What do you want?" I asked the wolf again, the wolf stepped onto the road and walked in front of us, I looked at James with questioning eyes, and he just shrugged his shoulders, "Why, not?", he asked. So we followed the wolf and the raven down the road, I was hoping I wouldn't regret it. I kept thinking back to that dream, I suppose it was more like a nightmare though. I really hoped it was just a bad nightmare but something told me there might be something more to it especially if we both had the same dream. "Hey, James, what dream did you have where you saw the wolf and the raven?" I asked him curiously, then he went into detail about his dream, even the end of it. I gulped and told him that I had the exact same dream. We shared a spooked look, I signed took out my journal, and wrote everything down so I wouldn't forget the details that could be important later on. The journal was given to me on my sixteenth birthday it was a leather-bound book with blank pages my family joked that it was to help me remember things because I was always so forgetful, of course, they were right, it has helped me a lot, with remembering everything important. It was one of my favorite things that I had ever acquired. I wrote and drew everything I thought was important, James let out a sudden gasp "Look at the sunrise" he yelped in excitement. I looked up and was greeted with soft pastel colors of oranges, yellow's and reds. It was so beautiful it was like looking at my mom's smile again. "How much further until the next village?" James asked, I could he was tired and the wounds on his face needed to be treated. "Not far just another couple of miles or so," I said, as I move Charlie closer to him, so I could offer him some water.