Mark of the Ranger

XVII. The First Steps

          I spun out the window during my jump. David went for a can opener, Elena took a swan dive, Karen twirled, like an autmun leaf, and Jeff threw Ko down and cannonballed himself. We all had good fun before we realized we were beginning to plummet twelve stories. "And, Grand Wizardess, what is your plan to stop us from getting killed?" I asked Isabel as we fell, yelling over the rushing wind in our ears. Isabel clicked er tongue and waved me off with a don't worry about it gesture. Isabel held out her hand, just as she had done the night of the ball. Unlike the last time, however, a piece of crystal flew to her hand. She pointed it down, towards the ground.

          "Power Circle--Prohibere!"  Isabel cried out, and drew a circle in the air. The word prohibere appeared in the circle's center, and the circle became solid. Isabel landed on it, then her escorts, one by one. Isabel gave us a smug grin. "Now we are a safe jumping distance from the ground." With that, she hopped onto the grass under her, and we followed. We were her escorts, and following her was our job. The power circle, with a light hum, disappeared. "Nice trick, madam," I congratulated our charge as I donned my crow's-head mask. "But will your power circles be able to save us every time?"

          Isabel pondered my question for a moment. "No, probably not," she answered. "But, then again, we'll never know unless we try." My teammates caught up to me and donned their crow's-head masks, as well. Not only did it make us look more official, we also looked more mysterious. We began our adventure on the trail to the grand council when the sun was just passing morning, and I made sure to remember that. It seemed like an important detail.

          The beginning of the trail was beautiful. It was  a cobblestone path carved out carefully to avoid the wheat and barley that grew next to it. There were many other grains, I'm sure, but I didn't know much of the farming business. All I knew was the necessary combat training for being an Outland Ranger. It had always been my dream, until it had been fulfilled. Whether or not I was having what we in the Five Lands call Dreamer's Remorse was up to debate. While the job was very difficult, and sometimes boring, as it was right now, as we passed through fields of crops. Sometimes, it was extremely interesting, and even more difficult, just like the time when we fought those three jewel creatures.

          After quite a bit of grain, oats, peat, beans, and barley, Isabel turned and said something I had almost been hoping to hear. "I do believe its time for lunch. See, the sun is at noon," she told us, then pointed up at the sky. I followed her finger, and covered my eyes, for she was correct. The sun was at noon, and so was my stomach. I had been almost starving for the past half hour, but a Ranger never admits weakness. It's just not that impressive. Isabel reached into her backpack and pulled out seven little bars. I wasn't often one to question my superiors, even if they were far superior to me, like Isabel was, but I couldn't help it. "Those are...not lunch. Those are, in fact, what a snow elf would eat for teatime," I questioned. Ko nodded his crow's-head mask in agreement. "Except we have scones, which are actually quite a bit larger," he added.

          "I rest my case," I finished. However, I was not one to look a gift Outlandish Falcon in the beak, so I took one bar. It was blue, and it seemed to be smooth and spongy. There were little red bits sticking out of it, and I had never seen a food like this before, so I was willing to try it. I took a tentative bite. Power and flavor filled my mouth. I felt like my insides were a dying fire, and someone had just thrown a dragon's core onto it(you see, dragon's cores are highly flammable objects, and, like all cores, should be treated with care). Instantly, my hunger was sated. I finished the bar off greedily.

          "Do you like it? Minnie and Maddie made them for me. They called them 'mana bars,' and they said they were specifically for regenerating energy for magic. How are they?" Isabel asked us, then took a bite out of it. As soon as the bar touched her lips, her face looked as powered-up as I had felt. "I want more," I said greedily, but Isabel stopped me. "If you eat too much of these, namely two, your insides will burn and your core will melt. We can't have that, now, can we? I'd be short an escort." I nodded, and resigned my search for more mana bars. It seemed silly after she explained it, now, so I just put my crow's head mask on and waited silently for us to start moving again.

          The rest of the new escort team put their crow's-head masks back on and stood up. Isabel shouldered her backpack, and we grabbed the messenger bags she had given us. Without a single word, we set out back on the trail. I saw Ko was holding a map, so I asked if he knew
where we were. "I think so," he answered me. "A few hundred feet ahead, there should be a forest made of dark trees. That's the pass from the Outlands to the Highlands. Do you people see any dark trees?" I nodded, and pointed a few hundred feet ahead of us. Ko looked up from his map, and saw the magnificent forest. Just like Ko had said, it was made of dark trees, with nearly black leaves and white trunks. The leaves formed a canopy, so it was likely that the forest had almost no light.

          "What's the name of the forest?" I asked Ko. He looked at the map again.

          "Shamblethorn Wood."