Sixteen-year-old June Bae may very well be your typical high school student, but the Rose Cross Academy is not your typical high school. Instead of history assignments and English papers, June trudges through Alchemy mixes and Demonology homework.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chapter 21
Go Climb a Tree
by Rissa Renae
The group traveled through the thick forest for a good half an hour without too much difficulty. Most demons in the forest sounded as if they were moving away from them of their own free will. Once, the group had come across a large cat-like demon that fell easily to Johann and Stella's combined effort. But other than a few ghost-like monkeys the size of kittens and a particularly large snake that paid them no mind, nothing else wandered into their path to give them any trouble.
"I've never seen the forests this calm before," Karlin said with a quiet voice, eyes searching the trees. The Whisp holding Jackson followed along behind her like an obedient puppy.
"Maybe Johann scared them off when he burned down half the forest earlier." Petra's voice held a twinge of half-hearted humour. Despite her wit, her triple-barrelled revolvers made wide sweeps behind them, eyes wide and uneasy as she followed June through the forests.
"Hey, I love my job," Johann said with a chuckle.
Noel glanced over his shoulder before he turned to walk backwards for a couple of paces. "I agree with the professor. It's too quiet." A gun picked out a few rustles in the trees. "That demon with the snakes seemed awfully confident we wouldn't get June out of this forest—that he wouldn't allow us to get June out of this forest." Glancing to his teammate, he found June only half attempting to hide a yawn behind a hand.
"He said something similar to me too." Johann shifted his large claymore until the dull end of the blade rested on a shoulder. "I'm willing to bet whatever that thing is watching us. Professor Karlin, if we do find a Fraxinus tree, can that demon climb after us and get into the Waking World?"
Karlin nodded mournfully. "It can. Hopefully someone from the Order is waiting for us back in our world so the tree can be chopped down before anything slips through."
Noel reached out and tapped June on the shoulder. "How much further, do you suppose?"
June hobbled along almost as if sleepwalking. His face rose slowly, tired and worn. "Just over there." A dismissive wave of his hand gestured to a random portion of the forest.
Squinting, Noel peered through the trees but saw nothing but leaves and white-barked trees. "How in the world can you tell?"
June yawned long and loud. "It's just right there." Again, he pointed. Noel scrutinized the trees, but they all looked the same to him.
"He found one!" Karlin laughed, startling Noel from his survey of the forest. She brushed past him, causing the Whisp to jerk to catch up to her. Ducking under a few branches, the professor came to the foot of a tree with grey bark, oddly camouflaged among the white-barked trees with the black fissured trunks. "I don't believe it!" She laughed again.
