SONGS AND TRAILS (Book 1)

CHAPTER 12

They were all standing at the foot of the mountain looking up at its thick woods and Arabella felt her stomach turn.

It was early the next day, very early. They had woken up before the brink of dawn, before the sun rise. Even the Phoenix Order hadn't felt the sunrise from their veins because even in their land, the sun hadn't risen on their horizon yet.

Arabella turned to look at Caldor but he didn't even look back at her.

"This is where we leave everything." Bella gets off her horse. "And by everything, I mean everything. We have to go on foot. Everyone carries their own weight."

"But the horses...." one of them said.

"The horses won't go even when you force them to. They know." Bella said. "It's either they go around the mountain or have them go back." she caresses her horse's face.

"We can't go by foot." one of them complains.

"If you don't want to, you can go around the mountain." Bella told her.

"Everyone, get off your horses." Caldor said as he got off his. "That is if you wish to go through the mountain."

"Fine!" they all got off.

"The distance from the other side of the mountain to the station is not as far. We can survive a walk." Bella told Caldor. "I suggest we send the horses back to Greyenvir. Going around the mountain might be dangerous for them. They'll get tired with no one to tend to them and the Valpreiz might feed on them." Caldor looked at her. "It... it was just a suggestion."

He turned to his horse and whispered something to it as he stroked its hair. When he stepped away, it neighed and ran off making the rest of the horses follow it.

"Where are they going?" Mia asked.

"Back to Greyenvir." Caldor said.

"You speak to your horse?" Daya asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Let's focus on the journey." Caldor ignored her. "Come on. Let's go."

They walked to the foot of the mountain and one of them suddenly stood still. "Whoa! Do you guys see that?"

They all concentrated on what he was looking at. "Are those..."

"...ward." Bella finished. "Enemy territory has wards too."

"Okay! Come on. Let's keep going." Eron said as he walked off with the others and they just went through the wards without thinking twice until they suddenly winced in pain.

"What is it?" some asked.

"What the fuck?" some on the other side of the wards, cursed. "I can't feel my powers."

"Of course, you can't." Bella told them. "You leave everything behind. That's the point."

"What?" they exclaimed.

"I did say we're going to be stripped of our powers." she reminded.

"You didn't say that last night." Mia complained.

"I said it when you guys kept insisting on coming through then decided to vote against me." Bella said.

The ones on the other side of the wards tried to go back but the wards held them back.

"You can't do that." she reminded again. "It's a one-way trip."

"Well then, what are all of you waiting for?" they asked.

Some of them started to go through groaning from their powers being stripped from their cores.

"This was the worst idea anyone ever came up with." Daya frowned as she crossed her arms.