Darkness of the Woods

Chapter 9

Cammi

It took her a while, but Cammi finally found her sister, Akili. Cammi was secretly glad she wasn't alone in this mission. Her first mission as a fully-fledged member of the Velent United Army. Sort of.

            She's still considered a beginner, a newbie. But still her first mission and she has two other Beginners as partners, Akili being one of her partners. She still doesn't know who the other one is yet, though apparently he's not getting here till tomorrow. That leaves Cammi and Akili to fill him in later on the mission.

             Cammi had just gotten to the meeting spot, Akili is already pacing. Impatient. They were meeting the Headmistress at a small clearing with a cottage at the far edge. The cottage looked like a cute little place on the outside and most likely equally as cute on the inside. She wasn't sure if they were suppose to go over to it or not, so they might as well wait. She moved to stand in front of Akili, forcing Akili to stop walking around.

            "Did you get here okay?" Akili asked looking a bit disappointed that their leader still wasn't here yet.

            "Yep, but my clothes didn't." Cammi said faking cheerfulness. "You?"

             "As expected, but I wish Alison would get here all ready. I'm tired, messy, and wet." Akili complained.

             Cammi looked around at all the trees and leaves. It had rained earlier making the path muddy and the air feel damp and muggy. They were silent for a few minutes, then Cammi faced her sister and said quietly. "What are we going to tell Elfrida?"

             Akili was silent for a minute. Just when Akili was about to answer, a stern voice came out from the darkness saying, "You will tell her nothing. You would just make her worry about nothing."

            Cammi and Akili looked where the voice came from and sure enough Headmistress Alison came out of the night. Cammi let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, feeling foolish for thinking that it could be anyone but the Headmistress.

             "We should go inside where it's more secure before we talk further." Alison said, looking around. Cammi looked around also but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, even though she felt eyes on the back of her head. It's nothing. You just don't like being in the woods at night. She knew she was lying to herself but she couldn't hear, see, or smell anything out of the ordinary besides smelling some beautiful tansies growing wild in the forest.

            Akili, Cammi, and Headmistress Alison walked to the cabin. Alison grabbed a key from around her neck and opened the door. All three went inside. But before Alison went in to join them, she looked around outside.

            Cammi tried to look around her to see if there was anything there but she didn't see anything, still. Nothing there. Sigh. Strange. She'd thought she heard something. Just the faintest sound of life. But there was nothing. Cammi turned back around and looked around the cottage.

             Instead of finding nice furniture, she found an old torn up couch, a chair in front of the couch, a coffee table, a fireplace and a wooden table in the small kitchen. There were some other doors that lead to somewhere else but Cammi thought it was best not to go exploring right now.

             Cammi joined her sister on the couch but nerves forced her to get up and start pacing. The Headmistress sat down on the chair across from Akili, while Akili watched her sister, growing irritated by the minute. Finally Akili sighs and says, completely irritated. "Cammi stop your pacing. It's driving me crazy." Cammi stops pacing. "Why are you even pacing in the first place? It's not like this is going to be a particularly dangerous mission."