Stay On the Path

Chapter 2

The maps and atlases of the world tell you an endless ocean surrounds it, but I have never seen this ocean. What I have seen is the dark and seething forest sweeping over the land like wildfire. The creak and groan of its limbs make the very air tremble, the canopy turning sunlight into lightning as it smothers the endless blue. That is the type of infinite I believe in.

-Algreria Blackwood

They were stopped at the gate by one of the Woodlins, and unfortunately Judas knew who she was immediately. His cheek still hurt from the punch she'd given him earlier. She, or Old Solomon.

Esther the Prickleback was a squat woman of middle age with enough pups to start her own dynasty if she wanted to, save for the terrible fact she'd been Preyborn. Luckily, this didn't seem to bother all that much. It did make her a tad bit mean, however.

"Where in the three hells are you two going," Esther demanded.

"We're going to bring the children back," Peter said honestly.

Judas winced. The Dogman had a nasty habit of that, he'd noticed.

"With him?" The Prickleback shot a hard look over at Judas, and deep down he knew he deserved it. Instead of his bag, he calmly rubbed at the stump of silver where his horns used to be.

"With him," Peter said.

"And your sure he isn't leading you into an ambush for the Forest Folk to kill you?"

"I trust him."

Judas winced again. He didn't like hearing that. Living up to other people's expectations had never been his strong suit, and with the Dogman it would be damn near impossible.

"I'm coming with you," Esther said.

"Out of the question," Peter said. "You'll be safer with the others."

"Need I remind you that the majority of children stolen today belonged to me? I have a greater stake in this than anyone else in the village. So I'm going and that's final."

"That's not how this works. Besides, It'll be more trouble with you around. I'll have to watch over the both of you if we get into any danger."

"I can handle myself." The quills on Esther's back prickled up along her back, one of them cleanly stabbing through a clay pot, contents dribbling onto the ground.

Peter stared down at the mess and gave a weary sigh. "I cannot promise you'll like what you see once we find them. You know the Forest Folk are without mercy. For the Scripture tells us so."

"I don't care," Esther said. "I need to find them. One way or another." She turned her dark eyes to Judas. "And I won't let anyone try and stop me."

In the end Peter relented. Judas never had a choice from the start.

They left the village by the time the storm cleared up, sunlight bouncing off the many puddles and pools littered about the land. Judas struggled at first with the mud, hooves sinking up to his calves in the unstable ground, but by the time the sun had reached its zenith it had baked the land into one, solid mass again.

They followed the old markers left behind by the Old Gods, tall wooden poles with spools of long, gray earth wrapped around, connecting them together at odd intervals. A dark road stretched out beneath it, an unnatural straight line in the middle of nature's chaos.

All roads lead back to The Forest, as the saying goes, till the ground becomes tainted and you walk the paths of the Old Gods, their feet as hard as stone.

By the time they'd reached The Forests' edge, the sun had begun its descent. It had grown in the three years Judas had been gone. When he'd first emerged from its inescapable grasp, there had been a lake nearby, and an old farmer waving at him as he fished along the edge.