To Rhial

19

Desmond

A stench of sulfur seeped through the dark forest like beckoning death. The fireblood was nearby, I just couldn't place its exact location. It was near the road, probably preying on passersby. The odor grew in strength about a hundred feet into the forest, from a nearby thicket of gray bark trees with jagged and sharp spade-shaped leaves. Thorny vines crawled up the bark, weaving into a chaotic net that would tangle and shred any unlucky animal caught inside. The thicket was the only section of forest with these trees and vines, the rest of the forest being gargantuan needle trees, reverse ferns, and blue fungal spires surrounded by dead insect-sized creatures. About fifty feet in diameter, we were gonna have to take the fight into the fireblood's den.

Sifting through smells was difficult, like my nose was being bombarded by everything around me. The earthy smell of dirt, tree needles and leaves with their own distinct forestry scents, the clean refreshing air. It all piled in around my nostrils until I realized I needed to train myself better before trying to track something precisely.

If only I had more time to figure my senses out. My nose could find the general area of things, but it couldn't pinpoint anything well yet. I'd just gotten used to managing the sensory overload, but learning to use my senses properly would take a lot longer.

I let out a quick whistle and pointed to the thicket, then waved Tells to the front.

She stepped forward and stopped, staring aimlessly ahead. "What-" she lowered to a whisper, "what do you want me to do?"

"You got the sword, cut a path in."

Brenden snuck up behind me and I almost punched him from startling me. "Hey- whoa, easy. Don't you think we should lure it out, maybe?"

Adam stood there awkwardly, a frightened expression growing on him as the concept of going inside reached him.

I shook my head. "It's an animal, it ain't coming out if it's outnumbered. Especially with a big fucker like him, even if he is a pussy." I pointed at Adam, who nodded, not taking his eyes off the trees. "We gotta go in if we want it."

"Can't we like..." Brenden searched the trees for an answer, his heart racing almost as fast as Adam's. "Burn it out?"

"We're not in an African savannah, we're in the middle of the fucking forest, Brenden, and a pretty thick one at that. And it's summer. We light that tinder pile and the whole forest is going up."

He shook his head in concession. "I'm just trying to think of ideas."

"Yeah, I know. And I'm tellin' you to trust me cause I've been huntin' longer and I already thought of every other way we might be able to do this. This is how we get it, by goin' in and snatchin' it."

Holy shit, maybe this was a bad idea. I think I see what Rowan was talking about now.

Tells emerged from the thicket, leaves and bits of sticky green vine choppings in her hair. "It clears up a little ahead. You guys coming?"

I sighed. "I'm comin'. You know what," I turned to the two behind me. "If you guys don't think you can handle it, then just do me a favor and while you wait out here, cut this thicket to hell. Alright?"

Adam trepidatiously stepped forward against his instincts. "I-I-I-I go-got it. Goin' in."

Brenden swallowed. "Yeh, me too."

Another expected win for ye olde reverse psychology with a dash of peer pressure.

The comfortably lit day seemed to become dusk inside the thicket. Very little light made it through the dense canopy of large, heavy leaves. In fact, I hadn't even noticed, but the forest in this area was dead silent. No animal calls, no chirps from bugs or birds, nothing. Every time a branch shifted, I heard it. Every time a whisper of wind slipped through the thicket walls, I caught it. We were in its den, but it didn't know I could hear it slowly slinking along the edge of the path Tells cut, waiting for us to enter. I didn't see it because it wouldn't get close enough to see, not until we were in the heart of its trap. Sure enough, about 15 feet in, several rotting stumps and a whole lot of animal bones made sure nothing would grow for about a ten foot space.