The Wishing Tree - Book Two [Completed]

Endings and Beginnings - Part 44

I look up into the sky and coming over the tops of the trees isn't just one gotwit, there are several, too many to easily count. Terror jolts through me like an electrical shock. There's so many of them.

"To the trees!" Clara screams from the Wishing Tree. She is clinging to the side like a squirrel trying to determine which way to run next. The tree is so close to fully healed; I hope we don't damage it in the fight.

Then, it's chaos as Journeyers run into the forest, obscuring themselves from the easy clutches of the gotwits and whatever magical powers Grayson has managed to accumulate in this realm. There are a few weapons in a bag at our feet and I grab them, pulling my mother toward the trees, toward safety. I just found my parents; I won't lose them again.

I scan the clearing and the branches for Mason as I run, but I don't see him and that stirs the panic in my stomach. Riven is perched in a tree, not far from me; his bow is drawn tight. But, I know we don't have enough bows and arrows for everyone, many of them will be forced into hand to hand combat or up against a godwit. I hope Mason managed to give enough power to enough people that we aren't outnumbered and outgunned.

"Stay out of the clearing. Keep to the trees. Attack carefully. Stand your ground. Protect your Queen!" Mason's voice bellows across the clearing – he's on the other side, across from me and my chest clenches with a frisson of fear.

The whoosh of the gotwits' wings are close enough to create a breeze through the canopy of trees and I shiver a little beside my mother. She squeezes my arm and selects a weapon from the bag. I'm glad now that neither of them is old, that I don't have to worry about their ability to fight. Years spent in the tree must have dulled their skills, but I can't worry about that. I need to focus on staying alive.

Two godwits land, but they are so massive that more can't land without the first two leaving. It's a small mercy that they drop Grayson's army and disappear back into the sky and out of sight. There are maybe fifty people in the clearing, looking around; I don't recognize the clan or the tribe they're from, but I guess Grayson has been recruiting from all over the realm as he tried to track me. I wonder what he's promised them.

There is a brief moment of calm before arrows start flying out of the trees and felling the men and women who are clutching their weapons. They're a motley crew, and I feel a twinge of sadness that they've been led so far astray by lies. The next round of godwits land just as those who haven't been hit by arrows start to storm the trees. As more and more people pour into the clearing off the backs of the godwits, I search the skies for Grayson. It would be like him to send his army and never appear himself.

My mother and I are in the tree closest to the Wishing Tree which has been largely ignored by the ever growing mass of men and women from a variety of tribes or clans that keep piling off the godwits. Looking out, I see a mix of Journeyers at the tree line starting to engage in hand to hand combat. I glance over and see Riven still in the tree, firing off a never ending stream of arrows. I notice the Journeyer sitting beside his arrow bag, occasionally touching the bag, and I wonder if it's being refilled by magic.

Then, as if a switch has been hit, I start to see sparks of magic all around the perimeter of the trees, but I can't figure out what's happening. My mother touches my arm, and I turn to her, curious.

She flicks her wrist. A spark flies out like a mini-fireball and shoots towards one of the rebels, engulfing them in flames. The smell of charred flesh and hair hits my nostrils almost instantly.

"Our powers are coming back," she says gleefully. "You stay here – I'm getting out of the tree to help fend them off. You should stay hidden from Grayson: no unnecessary risks." She hops down with more athleticism than I thought she possessed, and I wonder if their strength and stamina are also returning.