The whispering forest

Chapter 7 The Cold

      I swam after James I always got so close but then right as I could reach out and touch him, it felt like the river sped up, once he had finally got caught on a log I caught up to him and helped him to shore and to my relief Ace was waiting for us on the side of the bank, but Alfred and the horses were nowhere to be found. It was so cold, ice cold every time I breathed in it was like, I was suffocating, I laid there for a while, before getting up, I helped James onto his feet and we trudged on into the forest, I was looking for shelter and I had found it in an empty cave. The stone felt rough under my fingers. I stepped cautiously into it, I wasn't sure if a bear was inhabiting it or not. I could feel James shivering next to me, well only one way to find out, so we continued deeper into the mouth of the cave, I stopped every once in a while so my eyes could adjust to the darkness, and we stumbled our way the rest of the way into the cave until we reached the back of it, it was pretty shallow, "Ace, sticks'' I said he shot up and out of the cave, he came back with a mouth full of sticks, with his tail wagging, I made a fire, it was small at first but it grew gradually.

I stared into the flames, it reminded me of when I and James went camping by ourselves for the first time we were only twelve, and it was an interesting experience, we had gotten lost and found a cave like this one, it had taken us a week to get home, and through it all we had fun, we had challenges like who could start a fire faster and which could make the bigger one, who could swim the best and fastest, who could jump the highest on there horse, I smiled at the memory, I heated my hands over the fire and took of boots, coat, cloak, and rolled up my sleeves I helped James do the same as we warmed up,

"Where do you think my dad is?" he questioned with concern laced in his voice,"

"I am not sure but, tomorrow we can go looking for him," I said while using my pocket knife to me a new bow since I had tied my other one to Charlie before jumping in. I took a piece of string that I always carried in my pocket and tied it to the stick, well this will have to do for now. " Let's get some rest" I yawned, he agreed and so we curled up next to the fire and passed out. I woke up shivering, my teeth chattering.

I stood up the fire was out and James was still sleeping, I brought the fire back to life and ventured out of the cave in search of food with my bow and quivers in hand, I followed what looked to be rabbit tracks, I climbed up into a tree and waited with my bot at the ready, I managed to catch one rabbit and a few fish from the river when I had gotten back to the cave James was awake and tending to the fire, he helped me clean the fish and rabbit we cooked them over the fire and once they were done we split it evenly between us making sure that Ace got some to, once we had finished we put out the fire and cleaned up the cave, we wanted to make sure we covered our tracks so no one could find us. We left the cave, and the sun felt warm and comforting on my face, we walked upstream but made sure to stay hidden as we did so every once in a while I would whistle for Charlie, we had traveled upstream for about two hours when we heard movement from behind us, we ran as fast as we could, I, however, wasn't watching where I was going and tripped over a root when I went to get up but I could feel a presence standing over me, I rolled over when I opened my eyes I had come face to face with none other than Charlie, I signed in relief

"James you can come out"

"Okay if you say so" James walked out as I stood up it was only Charlie though no Star and no Alfred. I patted him on the neck,

"It looks like he was tied up and broke away from the reins," James said while inspecting him for any injuries, I was sure he was right, he had his saddle on but no bridle. I inspected his teeth, lucky, they seemed to be okay. We hopped on him, I turned him around so we could follow his tracks maybe this way we can find Alfred and Star, he walked along the path back the way we came we came to a fork in the road, they both had hoof prints, I got down and took a closure look at the prints they were similar however the path to the left was slightly bigger than the prints to the right. I headed to the right Charlie followed behind me. We came to an empty campsite. It looks like there was a struggle. I ran my hands over the fire pit, it was still warm. They were here recently when I, looked at the tracks there seemed to be six different hoof prints, Charlies being one of them which meant if Alfred was here then he was attacked by three different people all on horseback. There were arrows stuck in tree branches but there was no blood, just arrows, a warm fire, and hoof prints.

"What do we do now?"

"Well we could move on to the next village or we could set up a trap",

"What do you mean, how is setting a trap going to help us?"

"Well, we could trap those who, by the looks of it, took your father and ask them where he is, or we could assume your father got away and is headed to the next village." I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice. James looked at me a little upset, dang it.

"Let's set a trap then."