Spirit of Shadows

| Chapter Nine |

Luckily, the two humans and one Swan Maiden, made it up over the hills before Em had a chance to meet any Splinters. For that, she was thankful.

"I think it's time for a quick lunch break." Svana said, dusting off her white feathered cape.

Em was squinting at her through the darkness of the swamp. She had missed Svana's cozy cottage ever since they left and winding up back in the territory of nightmares wasn't exactly Em's idea of fun.

"Sure." Matthias replied.

The group had settled down in the corner of three trees, their roots twisted around one another before digging into the dirt. Em glanced hesitantly at each tree making sure it wasn't the Wailing Willows that Svana had mentioned.

Though, the maiden herself didn't seem worried so why should she? Em thought. If there was a problem she wouldn't have stopped here...right?

Em snapped out of her thoughts long enough to see Svana glance at the branches of the trees, her chin cupped in her hand as she thought. Suddenly, she wiggled a feathered finger at a particular tree branch and before Em's eyes grew a collection of large, juicy red apples.

"How did you–" Matthias began, absolutely amazed with Svana. Em tried not to feel too deflated with herself as she watched him watch the maiden.

The girl shrugged, pulling three apples off the tree and handing one to each of us. Em was hesitant to take a bite, suddenly not trusting the maiden entirely. She waited for her to make the first move and then Matthias had gone ahead and bit into his first.

Em gasped involuntarily as she heard the crunch of the apple's skin cracking open. Matthias' eyebrow rose, chewing his food slowly. Em waved it off and glanced at Svana who was also watching Matthias intently. Her blue eyes glittered with something resembling mischief.

Em decided that she didn't want her apple and offered it back to Svana. The maiden took it, hiding a smirk, and bit into it.

Matthias gave Em a strange look as he saw her pass up food, which was something she never did, and then he was looking at Svana too.

"Alright, let's keep moving." Em began, standing up hastily.

She pushed ahead of them and began waking back up the steep slope of the muddy hill, mosquitos buzzing around her face. She swatted at them annoyed and tied her hood tighter to her neck.

When she did glance back, she noticed that Matthias and Svana were following her. Slowly and deep into a private conversation, but following her no-less.

Just as Em was about to shout something to them, asking Svana for directions she didn't need, her foot slipped on mud and she could barely yelp before she was pulled down the hill.

On the way down she had gathered an impressive collection of twigs and leaves into her hair. Once she had stopped rolling she noticed that her cloak was now completely mud-splattered. She let out an annoyed sigh and sat up, glancing back to where she had fallen. The hill was peaked so high that it could resemble a miniature mountain.

Em thought it would take Matthias and Svana awhile to actually catch up to her and that made Em upset for some reason.

Just as she was about to get up and try yelling to them over the hill, a sharp pain shot up through her injured ankle and she fumbled, falling back down. Her bandages had been completely taken off and she saw the wound had re-opened itself, blood trickling down her pants and into her boot.

"Shit." She cursed. She crouched forward to inspect the actual damage and winced as she saw the mud surrounding the blood. The wound needed to be sanitized immediately, otherwise she could get an infection.