Isle of Giants

Chapter Four

    Forest of Caelia, Rai'lun

    Ward Iancu of Grunbary Fort

    Iancu stood at a green cross road. Did he go left or right? He cursed himself a loud and took a moment to think. This was the third time that he had no idea which way he was heading, which routes and turns to take. There were no pathways for him to even decide upon, all he knew he had to do was walk north and even then he could barely see the sun for the canopies of the trees. There were so many of them. Much bigger than what he was used to, so full of life with their leaves and out stretching branches that crossed each other's boundaries, every single one of them racing to be the first to touch the skies.

    He didn't like it. It was in his way, clawing at his arms, tripping his legs up and curling around his neck. As if the forest itself felt the same way as he did, that he didn't belong, that they would both be happy as soon as he left. A range of colours filled his vision, greens, blues, reds and every shade in between that he had never thought existed before he had come to Rai'lun. It hurt to see, he was constantly blinking, feeling as though all the hues were drying his eyes out. Then there was the rain! He had never thought such downpours of water were possible, it didn't arrive in unexpected seasons as it did in his own lands, but fell almost every day, drenching him to the bone and chilling his flesh into cold shivers.

    There were no signs for him to identify, like he would search for when traveling through his own lands, here it was foreign and strange, he never knew exactly what would be waiting for him beyond the next tree, the oreiades realm was bursting with the unknown. Iancu despised it, from the moment he stepped foot on their land, perhaps even before that when he was crossing in a boat from his ship towards land. He was on edge all the time, his nerves sparking and jolting him making it impossible to relax even though he was assured that theirs was a land of peace. Peace? There was no such thing.

    He should have come to the green wastelands better prepared, he knew this now. But at the time he hadn't the slightest idea just what to expect, how anybody like the oreiades could live in such a state. It was impossible. They had no house structures and no defenses to protect themselves from the sharp-toothed beasts that surrounded them. Those beasts killed their people, and they let them. They did nothing to decrease their population nor made any effort to put up barricades and learn how to defend themselves. They were primal, uncivilised and he was angry that his chief hadn't warned him of such conditions. In fact, if he remembered correctly, his chief had told him that the reason why they were forging an alliance with the oreiades was because they were the most refined and intelligent of Rai'lun, and once they had the strength of their allegiance, all else would fall into line.

    Iancu shook his head and chose neither option and walked straight down the middle, fighting his way through the shrubs, bushes and branches. There were fresh stings and scratches from the lashes and thorns, but he didn't care to see whether or not he was bleeding. All he could hear was his own footsteps stumbling and crunching leaves and twigs under his feet and Iancu panicked for a moment, wondering whether or not Oana, the envoy of the oreiades, had turned and ran while he was preoccupied with his thoughts. When he halted to a sudden stop and looked behind him Iancu saw that she had been following him all this time, as silent as the blue clouds spiraling and circling above them.

    Oana came to a stop too and looked up at him with a sigh.

    "Have you lost your way again?" She asked giving him a casual roll of her eyes.

    Iancu frowned, glared, and said, "No," although this wasn't a complete lie since he had lost his way a long time ago and hadn't been able to find it thereafter.