The whispering forest

The Northern Forest

Going from extremely hot to extremely cold was quite a shock as soon as we entered the forest we were blasted in the face with snow. White cold snow sent instant shivers down my spine. The horses all whined in disapproval, Ace, however, ran headfirst into it, he does have a thick coat after all, and I was a little jealous of him. The snow was so blinding I could barely see a foot in front of me. I debated going back for a second, "Here catch" Ash said from my left as he threw me a piece of rope, "Tie it around your saddle horn this way we won't get separated from each other and keep your cloak up, I don't want you getting sick again" "Okay", Once we where all tied together we plunged into the forest I stayed low to Star and trusted Ash to find us some shelter. Ash was in the front I was in the middle and my father was behind me even though he refused to be tied to us. So I could only guess if he was actually behind us or not. This reminded me of the winter before my mother die, We were snowed in from a snowstorm, we had no food or water and before we knew it Ash had shown up on a rickety old dog sled to dig us out. I smiled at the memory, Ash has always been there for me, He always shows up when I need him the most. "Wolf" my father cried from behind me. I looked up and sure enough, there was the wolf and the raven not more than ten feet in front of us.

" I think we need to follow them," Ash called to us.

"I agree, we need to find shelter as it is," I said.

"Are you crazy?" My father asked

" Well do what you want I will find my own shelter, thank you very much," he said in a snotty tone. I rolled my eyes and gave Ash the go-ahead. The wolf stuck next to Ash while the raven decided to fly over me, landing a couple of times on my shoulder. We traveled through the bitter coldness, it felt worse than when I got sick from the ghost virus. At least then I was in a warm cave, but now it took everything in me to keep breathing, you never realize how thin a deer's skin cloak is until you follow your friend into a blizzard. In high site, this was kind of crazy, even for me who when I was little would fight those twice my size, but honestly, there was nothing I wouldn't do for him. So we continued on slow and steady, luckily the horses were used to this kind of weather, and bred for it too. I pulled my cloak closer to myself and shivered a little. Ash stopped, and beckoned me closer to him I stopped Star right next to him, he threw his blanket over my shoulders and tied and fastened it to my cloak with some leather string. "I can hear your teeth chattering," he said.

"What about you?"

" I will be fine plus I always carry an extra blanket, you know that" He smiled at me and I instantly felt warmer. I did know that he has always looked out for me ever since we were young. He started walking ahead again with me following behind we found a cave to settle in for the night. We put our blankets over the horses to keep them warm and we huddled together under the extra blanket and placed ourselves close to the fire to keep warm. "This reminds me of when I had to dig you out because you had gotten snowed in and it took us forever to get the fire started." He chucked.

"Yeah and you showed up on that rickety dog sled with Ace"

"Yeah probably wasn't the best idea" he laughed together at the memory.

Then he went on to tell me about what happened when I was sick, about meeting his uncles and being important to a prophecy. How they gave him the medicine to heal me.

"Wow, sounds like I missed a lot while I was out of it"

"Yeah but I am just glad your okay, and we learned some interesting information"

"Interesting more like mind-blowing, come on Ash you can't tell me you're not a little freaked out by this"

"Well yeah I am, but I don't have time to freak out about it, I don't know how to explain it but it's like I can feel we are running out of time."

"Well you have never been wrong before"

"That's what worries me the most"

We ate some rabbit stew and settled in to get some rest. I tossed and turned, and for some reason, I couldn't sleep, I rolled over and faced Ash he was closer to me than I had thought. He looked so peaceful like this, he was so beautiful in the soft glow of the firelight. Then he did something that surprised me he looped his arm over my waist and pulled himself into my chest "Warm" he whispered in contentment. As he snuggled even closer if that was even possible. I signed even when he was sleeping he knew what I needed, I wrapped my arms around him, and closed my eyes, I fell into a sweet dream about our future together. When I woke up there were three men sitting around the fire, Ash was still curled up in my arms. I watched them carefully something about them told me that they meant no harm.

"Shh, don't wake him," said the one in the middle, Pointing at Ash. I just nodded in understanding. "Ash told you about us we are his uncles, we mean no harm we are just making sure that you made it into the forest."

"We came here to tell you to be careful of the danger that is just beginning," Kip said.

"Okay, thanks we will be," I said. They all looked at me with sorrow in their eyes, before they all just disappeared. I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.