To The Elf in Kornor Village: A Prelude

VII. Journey

Leigh's journey through the woods took about one day and one night. On the first day, the same day she had gone from the start, it had rained late in the afternoon prompting her to seek shelter on a tree. It didn't last for long and she went back at it again. But the night was cold and later on the rain came back and already shivering in the cold Leigh could do nothing but wait for the break of dawn. And by the cold blows of the wind she fell asleep.

The fresh scent of morning after the rain lingered on the woods the next day. The grasses and leaves were still coated with raindrops and the soil reeked of the smell of its meeting with the rain. Leigh did not waste any more time, she dashed through and to the seemingly opening and the end of the trees where light shone through.

***

Leigh definitely had her expectations broken by reality. The journey would not be easy even with her prowess. Not at all. She was halfway there, halfway wanting to give up and just go home. Well the worst has just happened. She lost it. The compass that Aster gave her. The white pebble engraved with a moving arrow pointing to north.

It was when she had just got out of the woods when she noticed it was missing in her pocket. There was one pebble there, the gray one, when there were two. Perhaps it slipped out somehow. She tried to find it under the fallen leaves on the ground or on the branches, but to no avail. She was out on the country road, tired and feeling lost.

But as quickly as she got upset over the lost compass, she remembered the Rose, her fellow sentinels and the goal of her journey. It's all for the rose. And it was her decision to shoulder the responsibility, so she should bear it.

But alas, she's too tired to even take a step forward. She was exhausted from the continuous use of her magic and all the traveling. Although unwilling she laid down her body on the side and the heaviness of her eyelids took over.

—

The blue sky greeted her sight and that reminded her again that she was not not in their realm but out of it, out to find the elf.

She quickly got up. And picked up the twig to ride on it. She had lost some time by sleeping and she wouldn't lose some more. Time waits for one, not even her, or the rose.

It didn't budge though, or flew. She tried enchanting it again but still it didn't work. Then it dawned on her.

Her magic was gone.

Leigh was upset and disheartened. She relied more on her magic ability that she felt she wouldn't be able to make it across without it. But she has to move on; left with no choice but to walk the long country road–which is headed to north, according to the last time she checked the compass on the woods–and to the Kornor village.

Still she was tiny compared to the long way ahead that she had to take. It took her another day and night of walking and puffing and walking again before coming across a field of corn. And by that she knew she was getting near the village.