The Ascent

Chapter 41

Jasmine felt the waves of dizziness come and go as they clumsily felt their way through the forest, forced by the circumstances to stomp through it, unable to see what dangers could be lurking in the dark. However, Jasmine was happy that her headache and leg pain had subsided.

The only thing that kept bothering her was the wooziness. It made walking quite disorienting, causing her to stomp her feet too heavily or misjudge the distance of rocks and branches, tripping constantly.

It was exhausting to continually feel like the weak one, to be the one who always needed help. At times, it seemed Jasmine required more assistance than even the children.

"Dad, look! Bambi!" Arman exclaimed excitedly, pointing at a slim fawn standing in the single patch of moonlight that managed to pierce through the thicker part of the forest they were passing through.

The fawn looked magical, standing there with its huge eyes and brown body with pure white spots, the beautiful innocence that radiated from it was indescribable.

Maybe what added to the mystical feel of the beauty was that they hadn't seen any animals since the whole thing, invasion, whatever it was, first started. It was a pleasant surprise for all of them.

In Jasmine's books, that meant there was still hope. The chances of some other towns still being safe increased in her mind from barely any to quite a few. Her optimism increased so much that she believed they might go through it all unscathed.

"It's so cool," Arman whispered, lowering himself to the ground with his hand extended towards the fawn.

As he started to walk towards the fawn slightly bending over to be on the eye level with it, a light bulb went off in Jasmine's mind, one of those memories one has at the back of one's mind and which sometimes suddenly pop up at just the right time.

"Stop!" she exclaimed loudly.

The fawn fled immediately upon hearing the loud noise, disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared, reminding Jasmine even more of an ephemeral magical creature. One that appeared suddenly and disappeared in the same fashion.

"You scared it off," Arman said, pouting, already at the edge of tears.

"I'm sorry, but I remembered that when there are fawns somewhere, there are also parents nearby," Jasmine said, looking around cautiously. "And the deer have been known to hurt humans if they come too close to their babies. They don't mean to harm anyone. They only do their best to protect their babies."

"You're lying," Arman said, his lower lip trembling.

It wasn't the first time a child had said that to Jasmine, but this time, it hurt more than she thought those automatic words of children could. Because she usually knew those words were spoken in anger, she shouldn't take them seriously. But to her surprise, logic flew out of the window, and she felt genuinely upset.

"I'm not," Jasmine said, trying to keep her tone calm and reasonable. "Don't you know that every mother wants to protect her children?"

As soon as the words were out, Jasmine realized those were just the wrong ones to say to that specific child. They were the worst possible words.

"Yes, Jasmine is telling the truth," Asher said, intervening quickly before his son's loud crying could attract something dangerous. "Why do you think they have such huge antlers."

As he said that, Asher lowered his head like a bull, waiting to strike, aiming his head at the still red-eyed Arman.

It wasn't an easy feat to achieve while still holding the sleeping Ariyana, but the smile he received for his effort was worth the trouble. Making his children smile was what he loved doing the most, especially when they were on the verge of tears.