Chapter 17

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For a moment, Feyrith was frozen in place, barely able to breathe as the full reality of the situation hit him

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For a moment, Feyrith was frozen in place, barely able to breathe as the full reality of the situation hit him. He knew he needed to get moving. The sooner he did, the sooner he could try to look for either Ayd or the rest of their group, but Feyrith simply couldn't get himself to.

At least not until the voice spoke to him again.

Turn right. Go now.

Feyrith swallowed, finally managing to move his shaking limbs. But despite that, he barely felt in control as he climbed onto his quasir's back once more and did as he was told, making his mount start walking as quickly as possible in the instructed direction.

"Where am I going?" he asked out loud without meaning to say it. His voice was barely a whisper, and yet he felt foolish for speaking to someone not even close enough to hear him. It could attract the attention of whatever beast might be lying in wait even more than the quasir's steps.

Your friend.

Feyrith wished the voice was a little less vague about which friend it was leading him to, but he couldn't bring himself to care as much as he should. It was probably Ayd, anyway, given that the voice had said friend, and not friends.

Filled with new energy at the prospect of reuniting with at least someone, Feyrith nudged his quasir to go quicker, despite the thick undergrowth the animal had to navigate. The quasir let out an upset caw but did as it was told, flattening ferns and ripping through vines as it went.

It stumbled a little the last few steps before they reached a part of the jungle that was less overtaken by plant life. There were no shrubs or vines on the ground here, and while the ferns remained, those were not difficult to get through, which meant the quasir could go faster. And it did without Feyrith even having to tell it to. His mount was clearly as interested in getting away from here as much as he was, especially after their adventure in the desert that Feyrith still didn't understand on any level. He couldn't help but feel pity for the poor animal, but the quasir itself didn't seem terrified, only annoyed, so Feyrith supposed at least there was that.

He couldn't even look around for danger, too afraid of seeing some. He knew it was completely illogical, and yet his body refused to cooperate, too panicked to obey him. And so he just focused on getting to Ayd as quickly as possible, letting the quasir do most of the navigating. The voice was silent, which Feyrith assumed meant that he was still heading the right way, but he wished it talked more. He wouldn't feel quite so lost and alone if it did.

Once some time had passed and still nothing bad had happened, Feyrith managed to calm down just enough to take a proper look at his surroundings, noting how much darker everything was in this part of the jungle. Not only was there less light, but the plants themselves seemed to have darker leaves, the tree trunks surrounding him thicker and taller. Feyrith stretched his hand to some kind of ivy growing on one of them, ripping off an almost black leaf to inspect it, frowning when he noticed it had a purple sheen.

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