Blythemus

Chapter 9

 (A/N- I just want to take a minute to thank y'all. I never expected my story to get 81 reads in 3 days. Hell, I didn't expect it to get a single read. You all make my day. It would be great if you all could leave some comments and vote :)

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“You all work at the pace of old grannies!” complained Chanel, who was all dressed up for a day of hiking. She was tapping her foot impatiently on the ground, arms folded in front of her chest. “Come on guys! We’re losing the daylight!”

The other three were getting quite irritated by Chanel’s continuous chatter and her inability to help them clear their camp. “Help us out a little, Chanel.” said Dean, while folding the tent neatly and handing it over to Lynette.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked, with obvious reluctance.

“Well, for starters, learn how to SHUT UP!”

Chanel winced, clearly not used to being scolded. Austin chuckled and put an arm around Chanel, pacifying her.

“Don’t be hard on the baby sister, bro. At least she is interested in this trip, unlike our other female companion.”

Lynette’s head snapped up. “It’s that obvious, huh? What gave me away?”

“Well, if I had to pick from the list, it would be you faking a fever, just fifteen minutes ago. But the list is long, so there are other options to choose from.” Said Dean, ducking as Lena threw a packet of nuts at him.

 “I agree,” Austin nodded, “Lynette is a lazy bum.” Her eyes grew wide and her face flushed with embarrassment. “Oh come on guys. Let’s just be done with this so we can all go back to civilization and take a nice warm bath.” Lena said, handing over a list to Chanel, which she had made her prepare.

“Ok Deeney...” Chanel started.

“Don’t call me that!”

“Ok DEAN. I’m going to read the list out. Just check if we have everything.”

First she looked at Austin with a serious face. “Do you have the map?” Austin nodded his head, supressing a laugh.

“Water?” the expression on her face remained the same.

“Check.”

“Rope?”

“Check.”

“Knife?”

“Check.”

“Duffel bag?”

“Check.”

“We’re only going to trek Chanel, not to assassin,” Dean looked up at the heavens as he sighed.

Chanel stuck her tongue out at her elder brother, and then turned towards Austin and Lynette, who were both enjoying the show.

“Alright then, let’s go” she said.

The day was warm and the sun shone brightly in the sky, glorifying in its light. The forest was as evergreen as it usually was at this time of the month, the trees hung over their heads, forming a dense canopy and keeping it cooler. In short, it was the perfect day to go venturing out in a forest. The four of them had not decided on a specific route, but Chanel had shut them up by telling them that-“We will go where the path leads us.”

 For the next hour they walked through the woods, Dean following Lynette, Lynette following Austin, Austin following Chanel, who kept rambling on and on. First about some bird which was famous in this forest, and then slowly drifting to baseball, gradually floating to the first man on the moon and finally to clouds. None of them bothered to keep up with her, not that they could either. Another reason why Dean and Austin could not keep up with Chanel and her talks was because they were busy looking out for Lena. Austin had to keep turning behind, making sure Lena was still alive, and Dean, on the other hand, had his right hand raised permanently in front of him, to either save himself, or to catch Lena if she tripped yet again.

And Lena? Well, let’s just say her hand eye co-ordination was giving up on her. She kept cursing the things her feet tripped upon. “Stupid piece of earth”, she had muttered, when she tripped on a small piece of stone. Austin and Dean were trying their best not to laugh at this spectacle, but with little success. But, after an hour, when they reached a small creek with fresh water, all four of them ran towards it with relief.

“Ok I don’t think my legs would appreciate more walking.” Lena announced, while the others were busy washing their faces.

“We could set up our camp here. It’s nice and cools plus we have fresh water available.”

 Dean nodded at Austin’s suggestion, and was just about to open his bag when Chanel interrupted.

“I don’t think this is a good place guys. Animals might come here too, you know, for the water. We obviously don’t want to encounter THAT. Why don’t we go a little ahead? The map says that there is a small grassy area just ahead.”

“Yeah Chanel. The map, incidentally, also states that the area you are talking about is a part of the Inner Forest. We can’t go there. Are you dragging us there because of your weird interest in the Inner forest you were displaying last night?” Lynette asked, while drying Dean’s hair after finishing Austin’s.

From a rock on which he was sitting on, Austin started chuckling. The three of them turned their heads towards his direction.

“Wanna share the joke?” Dean asked.

Austin looked up from the piece of paper he was reading. “This brochure is just ridiculous. I mean, who prints legends about this place? According to this piece of paper, the Inner forest houses a stone podium, the same one used by Vladimir, the dude who is famous in this town, to carry out executions and sacrifices. Hahaha. ”

“Vladimir, as in the guy who was behind those three warrior kids...Um...What were they called? Gosh I can never remember their names! Oh yes. The Abasators. Yeah Yeah. I remember now. He was the one who wanted the power of the Warlock, and he thought killing one of the Abasators would do the job. I am surprised I remember this stuff. My grandmother used to tell me all these stories with such interest; I could never get myself to tell her I was not interested in them.”

As soon as Lynette and Austin had started talking about the Abasators, Dean and Chanel shut up. They kept staring at their feet, waiting for the topic to pass. But no sooner did Lynette mention the Warlock, than Dean stood up straight. He quickly glanced at Chanel, his eyes accusing her and conveying to her that he had pieced together her plan, and there was NO WAY IN HELL he was going to let her get away with it.

“We are going to set up camp right here. No one is going to go anywhere near the Inner Forest. We can start a fire to keep animals away and we are returning home tomorrow.” Dean said this in such a way that no one dared to argue. And secretly Austin and Lena were glad their trip had been cut short. They were not forest people.