The Ever Jungle

Chapter 6

1436 words :)) All in one day. enjoy!

In which traveling to The Ever Jungle begins

After finding an inn to stay at, Cataleya and Piercer were off again, this time headed towards The Ever Jungle and towards the little dot on their magical map, indicating what they searched for, the rest of their team. They began hiking south, to the peninsula of The Ever Jungle, to the ocean.

Two days flew by as Cataleya and Piercer walked, camped, and then kept walking. I can tell we are nearing the Jungle, the forest is changing, and indeed the forest had changed, from the thick trunked trees and shadowed woods near Ocean Town, now the forest displayed huge ferns, massive thorny vines curled around tree trunks, small creeks and streams flowed over black rocks, with the occasional fish jumping into the air. The air was hot and humid, and smelled thickly of pollen and wet animal fur.

Perfect humidity for conjuring Ice Cataleya thought, pleased. Piercer and Cataleya hardly spoke a word to each other on the journey to the Jungle, both were to deep in thought wondering what happened to their friends, and why they had gone into the Ever Jungle of all places, Not even the king of Jourana, the most highly respected ruler of military could penetrate the Jungle's thick man eating plants, monsters, and most deadly, the sinkholes which no one ever returned from. Cataleya had heard of stories of this place when she was young, just a trainee Ice Fracturer back in Ion Soul, the kingdom of her and Piercers birth. The stories spoke of haunted dungeons deep beneath the lush forest floor, with endless tunnels leading into unknown darkness, deep beneath the surface. But, how can any of that be true if supposedly no one returns from the jungle to tell the stories?

She didn't know, and did not want to know at any rate, if any of the horrors told in the stories were true. I do wonder what's down there... No matter, the most important thing is to find Kenna, Konner and Larken, and get them out of here and back on track.

A bird fluttered down from a tree and perched next to a stream to drink water, suddenly, a thorny vine lurched out of the water, and circled around the bird, its thorns stabbing the bird so it couldn't fly away. Piercer shot out his hand, he shot a blast of Ice at the vine, freezing it where it was wrapped around the bird, the bird croaked pitifully, wheezing as blood oozed out of its stab wounds and over Piercers pulsing blue ice, freezing onto it. The vine stopped twitching, and so did the bird. " Dinner for us," Piercer said. Looking at Cataleya with a solemn expression on his face. He reached down and used a rock to chip away the ice until he could pick up the bird, he walked to a nearby tree the pick a leaf to wrap the bird in, he reached out grabbing a leaf bigger than his face and yelped, withdrawing his hand at lightning speed, "You dummy, you should know better than to touch anything in the forest especially here, it's all poisonous." "I forgot" He said sheepishly, cradling his hand to his chest, smearing bird blood on his tunic in the process, "Here give it to-" Cataleya didn't get to finish, and the vines and plants around her began to sway to and fro, then twitch, finally they began shaking violently, What in the world? She ran over to Piercer and backed him into a tree, stretching out her hand so she could shoot ice at anything that came their way.

It grew dark in the jungle, buds and veins in the vines and roots began to glow neon red, pink, orange and greens. Pulsing like the Jungle had a heart beat. Venus flytraps, hung down above the small clearing where she and Piercer stood, flexing their big green mouths, thorny vines with blood red veins climbed off trees and lay on their ground, lifting their tips as if they were heads, inspecting the two commissioners. Snakes, beetles and ant crawled out of the holes in trees and formed lines beside the vines of the ground, each ant had a different shade of blue glowing in their abdomens.

"What's going on?" Piercer said, "I know as much as you," Cataleya said, eyes never leaving the odd plants and insects. The center of her palm glowed deep blue and white, slowly growing brighter and brighter as she summoned more ice at the ready, Piercer extended his uninjured hand too, next to Cataleya's. She was sure between her and a Piercer, they could freeze all their enemies before either one could get seriously hurt.

"On two," Piercer whispered, She had Piercer had a thing where they always attacked on two, and not three, enemies who heard them counting expected three, and therefore would be unprepared when the blow came earlier. "On two" She confirmed. "One" But before Piercer could say two, before Cataleya could muster all the Ice she would need, a Venus fly trap, bigger than the rest, slithered down from the branches above, and came to hover directly in front of the two Ice Fracturers. It growled, how a plant could growl, Cataleya didn't know.

The giant weed grumbled again and opened its mouth, revealing spiked thick green thorns, and feelers inside its big pink dungeon for whatever fell prey to it. "You. You seek those who've been caught, caught in his grasp don't you?" It said, "Who do we seek?" Piercer asked, aiming his hand down the throat of the enormous speaking plant. "You seek the one who knows all, the one who plans chaos, the one who needs your comrade to complete his plan. The one" It paused, flexing its jaws "The one who needs your demise.

But fear not. I've been ordered by Her Majesty to guide you. Give me your map ""Our what?" Piercer exclaimed, then, a thorned vine reached out from behind the Venus fly trap and snatched Piercer and Cataleya maps out of their bags, and tossed them into the undergrowth. "Hey! We needed th-" Piercer started, but then the giant plant, lurched, shivered, and threw up a new map, form the back of its throat, the map looked exactly like the map they had just had, the one they bought from the Seller back in Ocean Town, only now this map was covered in black goo, and next to the goo covered map lay a small pile of some gold coins. How odd, Cataleya thought.

"That goo looks like the goo Seimeth used on the pub window" Piercer said, speaking her thoughts aloud. "Oh it is, I ate the 'magic map seller' he was only conjured by Seimeth to sell you those false maps" A smaller venus fly trap piped up. "Then that means these maps are fake?" Cataleya asked, "Yes, but use these" The plant nodded at the still sticky gooey map and coins at her feet. She bent over to pick it up, unrolling the sticky piece of paper, much larger and more detailed than the previous false map.

It had the same dots and markings as before, but now the blue dot where her team was, was deeper in the jungle, farther away from the coast, where her and Piercers dot indicated they were. There were areas shaded a darker blackish green than the rest of the map. "What are these?" Cataleya asked, looking up at the plants, "Those are ruins, they're old buildings that were-" "I know what ruins are." Cataleya cut the small venus fly trap, She turned to the biggest one, looking inquisitively at it. "Erm, yes those are ruins indeed, i recommend steering clear, very clear of those areas. Those places are known to have night time workers and the most sinkholes out of the entire Jungle" So there are sinkholes here, interesting. But what are night time workers?

"Night time workers" the plant started, as is reading her mind "Are what remains of the dead of those lost in The Ever Jungle, they come out at night to rebuild the ruins, but to no avail, because there work disappears during the day, just like they do."

"I see." Cataleya said, thinking this over. "I guess we should start heading in the right direction then. Thank you for helping us, and uhm, tell whoever Her Majesty is we said thanks." "Yes, thank you." Cataleya and Piercer looked at each other, as the vines, bugs and venus fly traps receded back into the jungle, as if they were never even there.