The Chosen Dawnseeker

Chapter 10

Hannah opened her eyes again and found herself laying on a grassy expanse. She stood up quickly and looked around, trying to decipher where she was at. She recognized the area, it was the forest from her first dream. She began to slowly walk forward, pushing past drooping trees and navigating through the flora at her feet. When she emerged from the forest area, she saw the Druidic Council of Eldrers, with Branor at the center of it.
"Hannah. The choices you make will shape our destiny. Don't blow it, Chosen Dawnseeker" Branor simply said, his voice booming and echoing through the entire area, the sound reflecting off the walls back towards Hannah's ears.

Hannah awoke with a startle, this time back in the treehouse. She saw it was morning and signed and laid back down, staring up at the ceiling. Her thoughts were interrupted when Blaze, Kieran's big red fox, jumped on top of her. Hannah laughed. "Morning, Blaze" She said as she began petting the fox. She sat up, grabbed her Dawnseeker stuff and put it on, and walked out to the town. This time, all eyes were on her. The mark on her neck was more than visible now, and everyone saw it. And everyone knew what it meant. Hannah just kept her head down as she shuffled her way into the townhouse where the Dawnseeker meeting was happening at. When she entered, Ethan was there. Thalia was there. Rylan was obviously there, and so was Aria, who was standing close to Rylan. Aria waved to Hannah and Hannah waved back.

"So what did you want to call this meeting for, Hannah? What is it now?" Thalia sneered. Hannah took out the ethereal Codex and flipped to the page on Eldran. She handed it to Thalia. "That's the main goal, right? Find Eldran and kill him? Well if the gem, which is apparently called the Baneclaw Heartstone according to this book. If the baneclaw heartstone was able to find that structure in the jungle that found this book and the dagger, maybe it could lead us to Eldran" Hannah suggested.
"But what if it doesn't?" Ethan asked.
"Then we look further into the codex, see if there's anything we can find. Thalia, I'm not breaking the rules this time. Killing Eldran was apparently a rule here before Misthaven even existed. You have to let me and some others go back out there" Hannah pleaded.
Thalia thought for a second and rolled her eyes. "Fine. Choose whoever you want to take with you" Thalia said, handing the book back to Hannah. "But I swear to god, if one more person gets killed, I'm gonna feed you to the Baneclaws myself. I don't give a fuck whether you're the Chosen Dawnseeker or not" Thalia threatened. Hannah thought about who to bring but didn't have to think hard. "Rylan, Aria, Ethan and Kieran. That's who I want with me" Hannah decided.
"Alright. You go in at noon, make sure you're all ready" Thalia said and then the meeting concluded.

Hannah, Rylan, Aria, Ethan and Kieran stood at the edge of the Veil of Mystique, preparing themselves. Everyone was in dawnseeker armor, even Aria. But she had her bow and quill full of arrows with her as well. Hannah looked to them all. "You guys ready to do this?" She asked. They nodded. "Let's go get this son of a bitch" Rylan commented and Hannah and Aria both laughed a bit. Hannah grabbed the baneclaw heart stone and let it connect to her shoulder, like it did the first time, letting Hannah's vision change like it did the first time, turning green. Hannah cracked her neck and took off running, with the other 4 following closely behind her. They ran along the same path that Hannah and Rylan took the last time they were in the jungle. It didn't take long before they were back in Shadowthorn Hollow. Hannah, being at the front, stopped. That lead to the rest of the group stopping.
"What? Why'd you stop?" Kieran asked.
"We have to be quiet if we want to do this properly. Baneclaws are everywhere here. Just ask Aria, the sheer amount of them is the reason why she was stuck out here for a year and 2 months" Hannah responded to him. Kieran looked to Aria and she nodded, confirming what Hannah had said. The baneclaw heartstone pulsated, giving Hannah a direction to go by highlighting another object, this time, away from the structure that she unlocked before.
"Come on, this way" She whispered as she began to slowly sneak around the baneclaws and into the labyrinthine expanse of dark, dead oak trees with no leaves and the body of the trees rotting away. It's like this place was like the Ethereal Grove, but has been forgotten for centuries. Hannah almost felt sorry, which is strange because why would she be feeling sorrow for a bunch of trees?