The Call of Nys #5 (Waverly Stump and The 7 Realms)

34 - J U D S O N

Birdsong woke Judson up.

His eyelids fluttered open to behold a clear sky and clouds like clusters of cotton sugar. Though he could not remember falling asleep at all, he knew for sure that exhaustion was the reason he passed out like a drunk sailor out of the high seas. Perhaps somewhere along the way he had fainted. His legs screamed in pain, his insides were trembling out of hunger, and his mouth felt drier than the season. He craned with effort to look leftward, trying to recognize the environment.

Where he laid was cold, bare, sloping ground. In fact, he was nestled right in between two rising slopes that prevented him from seeing anything other than magnificent daylight.

With lots of effort, he pushed his tired body up. Then, the surroundings became clear.

Ahead of him was an obvious valley and great mountains covered in lots of green. Behind were canopies of imposing jungle trees. It seemed Wyvernwildé had again presented newer landscapes. The most recent one had not been at all friendly.

While he tried to make sense of how he had ended up in between the mounds, his mind trailed back to his friends. He stepped out of the depression, panicking over their whereabouts, and glanced about in hasty search. The last vague thing he remembered was running behind Diarmaid as they crossed the remains of that marshland.

Now, he could not see neither of the Elves.

"Olwirien?" He called out. His loud voice caused the singing birds overhead to rise in a flush. Their departure forced dead silence unto the environment.

Judson paused to listen closely for any noises and he up picked on a very exciting one. Rushing water. He followed the sound over more complicated slopes, thick bushes and trees, until he emerged into a bit of clearing. A river. It was emptying into a wide pool over large rocks. To his utmost surprise, Diarmaid and Phyllis were both seated by the mouth.

At the sight of him, Phyllis shot to her feet. "Oh, there he is!" She ran to drown him in a hug. "By Gayl, I thought we'd lost you!"

"Sorry." He grimaced with a little shrug. "I was just taking a long and lovely nap inside a hole."

Phyllis frowned in confusion. Her face was yet to be perfectly neat because she had washed from the looks of her, but she was no longer covered in dirt and dried blood.

"I knew we passed by something shaped oddly like a sleeping Shade." Diarmaid contributed from the distance and beckoned. "Come wash! You look like a pair of Ceylon's footwear."

The water went a long way to reinvigorate Judson on the outside as well as rid him of all the soot he had worn on his face for so long. However, his stomach made loud hungry noises similar to that of his friends.

As his own stomach rumbled, Diarmaid leaned forward with a smirk. "A great chorus we've made."

Phyllis laughed and slapped his arm with her single glove.

"I am sure there is food around if we can just look." Judson suggested.

During their narrow escape from a maddened Skut, his gift bag given by the Derews and their general luggage had been lost. It was a painful parting that he found difficult to let go of. The predicament reminded him of a very similar one in the past – when Waverly got upset over losing a bag of bourbon and lemon curds. Now, he understood her frustration.

The memory sparked a smile onto his lips that did not escape the notice of his friends.

"Sometimes, I can't deny that I feel eager to hear the conversations that go on in your head." Diarmaid confessed, staring at him with hidden humour. "Why on earth are you smiling like that?"