The Chosen Dawnseeker

Chapter 9

The funeral was at the wake of dawn, early morning. They didn't have a casket so they had to carry Aelar's body. Thalia, Ethan, Rylan and Hannah all carried his body as the rest of the village followed behind. They lowered his body onto the peaceful waters of the lake and pushed his body down into it. And that was that. There was no service. There was nothing anyone could say to loosen the weight of the loss they had just experienced. They just.....all went back to work. Hannah was getting prepared to run in the jungle with Rylan and was fitted into the armor shoulder pads and the leather breastplate. She had a satchel full of weapons that she knew didn't work against the baneclaws, and an empty blade holster attached to the side of the belt on her waist. She assumed it was for some of the weapons in the satchel but she didn't put anything in the holster. Hannah walked up to the Veil of Mystique where Rylan already was and looked at him.
"This doesn't feel right. Not without Aelar here" Hannah commented. Rylan looked to her. "Hannah. Trust me, I'm devastated about his death. It's a damn shame what happened to him, but I'm not just gonna sit on my ass" Rylan said, repeating Hannah's words back to her. "Look, I've known Aelar for as long as I can remember. And I know that if Aelar was still here, he wouldn't want us to stand here and sulk about his death. Now Hannah, are you gonna run with me or not?" Rylan questioned her. Hannah swallowed.
"Yeah, I am. Let's go" Hannah said, ready to go. The Veil of Mystique withered away and Hannah began sprinting out to the jungle immediately, and left Rylan behind a bit. He smirked and laughed a bit and ran after Hannah. Hannah slowed down, letting Rylan lead since he's been here more than she had. They ran past and through the major stream that stood in their way and pushed past the twirling labyrinth of seemingly endless trees and plants. Hannah took a moment to look around her at the jungle. It was actually beautiful when it wasn't littered with baneclaws. The trees swayed peacefully in the tranquil atmosphere of the jungle. The smaller critters like the bugs and bunnies and such went on about their days, not even caring about Rylan and Hannah. The sound of the running water in the stream was calm enough to put someone to sleep.
"Hey, Rylan. Do you have the gem?" Hannah asked. Rylan stopped and looked at her. He opened up the satchel and handed the gem to her. Hannah placed the gem in her hand and it began to glow brighter. Her eyes flew green again and the gem shot out of her hand and attached to her right shoulder. Literally, it was like it stuck in place in her arm. Hannah's vision changed, everything was green and there was something that was a brighter green than the rest. Almost as if it was highlighted.
"Weird" Hannah commented.
"Weird? You wanna talk about weird? How about you talk about that glowing eye trick that you're doing?" Rylan commented.
"What?" Hannah asked, confused.
"Your eyes. They glowed green. They did it when you killed the baneclaw, when you broke yourself out of Whispering Willows, and they're doing it now" Rylan explained to her.
"Huh" Hannah said, not knowing what else to say to that. "The gem, it......it's changing my vision. It's all green and different but there's something highlighted" Hannah said and turned around to look at Rylan.
"Highlighted? Maybe it's telling you where to go" Rylan suggested.
"Only one way to find out" Hannah said, and she began running forward, following the highlighted thing in her vision. She didn't even realize where she was going, as her mind was focused on the highlighted thing. After a while of running, Rylan stopped her in her tracks. "Hey hey wait. This is Shadowthorn Hollow, the place is always crawling with baneclaws. Are you sure you wanna go in there?"
"We don't have a choice, I have to find what this is" Hannah said.
"You could die in there" Rylan tried to change her mind.
"It's a risk I'm willing to take" Hannah said. Rylan rolled his eyes. "Fuck it. Fine, let's go. Lead the way" Rylan said.

Hannah stepped forward into what was known as Shadowthorn Hollow. It was a dense, tangled forest with gnarled trees and thorny vines that seemed to move on their own accord, creating a shifting maze of shadows and darkness. Sinister glowing eyes peered from the foliage, and the ground was littered with ominous markings and cursed relics. Hannah didn't even get 15 steps into Shadowthorn Hollow before hearing the growl of a baneclaw somewhere nearby. She and Rylan hid, ducking behind a tree and waiting for it to pass. Once it did, they began running again, with Hannah following the highlighted object. After about 15 minutes of running, the highlighted object disappeared and the gem fell off her shoulder. She caught it and looked at it. "What the hell? It's just a fucking dead end, we're literally in the middle of nowhere. There's gotta be a reason why this was in a baneclaw and is leading out here to Shadowthorn. It's also weird how Lyra has one just like this" Hannah said, but the gem pulsated with green light the moment she said Lyra's name, it seemed like, and Hannah and Rylan felt the ground shake slightly. They steadied themselves and looked forward, watching as some sort of building emerged from the ground. It was a dark and foreboding structure with intricate carvings of twisted vines and claw marks, emitting an eerie aura of ancient magic and power.