The Long Way Home

Chapter Three

We walk in silence for what feels like hours, but I know it has only been minutes. I don't mind the silence. It's the eeriness of the forest that's making my skin crawl. Before walking too deep into Greenwood, Hades somehow created a torch out of fallen branches and made a fire for it with such ease that I wondered what other skills does he possess. Because of his handy skills, it's not too dark; the light from the hand-made torch illuminates our surroundings by just mere feet. It is enough that I can see the light from the fire bouncing from tree to tree as we walk, but not anything beyond those trees. Any slight movement causes my heart to cease for just a second before realizing it is only the ghastly looking shadows on the wide trunks caused by the fire. The darkness beyond the trees looks like a dark void, as if it can as well be the edge of the universe.

But it is not the ghastly shadows that is keeping the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. It is not the void-like darkness beyond our bubble of light that raises goosebumps on my arms that have nothing to do with the weather. It is the silence of the forest. It is eerily quiet, as if there is absolutely no life here besides the trees. The forest that was such abuzz with life earlier, from the strange insects crawling up the barks, to the array of birds chirping loudly, like the sound of tunes to my ears, is long gone. The forest is completely void of the never-ending, but calming sound of night insects that can be heard at this time in Mellway.

I double-check my compass to make sure we are still heading south.

"Do you come here often," Hades' voice breaks the silence, making me jump at the sound of it. "To that beach, I mean."

I turn to look at him. His eyes are focused in front of him, his stare hard and unyielding as if he's prepared for anything to jump out from the shadows and immediately end that thing with his bare hands. The light from the fire flickers across his face, hardening his features. "I did, once." I say, quietly.

"You never did tell me your name," he looks at me and his expression softens. Something inside me softens too.

I look away, stifling a smile. "You never did ask me, Hades," I say. The sound of his name coming from my lips surprises me. It is as if I have said his name a thousand time already; as if my tongue is familiar with his name

Something about the way he looks at me tells me he noticed it too. "Will you tell me your name?" he says, moving a branch that's blocking our path and allowing me to pass first.

"Ajalene," I say. "I was named after Aja."

Confusion is written all over his face, "Aja," he says so quietly that I wonder if he meant to say it in his head.

I stop walking.

He stops a few steps ahead and looks back at me.

"Don't tell me you don't know who Aja is." I say, putting a hand on my hip.

" I don't know who Aja is." he says.

" And he says it," I say, throwing my hands in the air exasperatedly. I start walking again, swifter this time.

"Okay so I don't know who she is," he says. "Why don't you tell me?"

"Where are you from anyway," I ask, ignoring his question. "I mean I know you're not from here because I can see your pale skin and your grey eyes. But that doesn't tell me where you're from."

"Well" he starts. "By your lilting accent and how your voice seems to love the letter L. I know you're from Mellway."

I look at him.

He's smiling. "Am I wrong?"

"I don't have an accent," I say. "You do."

"I guess that answers my question," he says, his smile widening. "And if your accent wasn't enough, the rich brown color of your skin, the slim set of your jaw, and your eyes that demand attention would have given your roots away."

"What are you, a geographer," I ask.

"I may as well be," he says. "I'm quite familiar with people from many different villages."

We stop at a fallen tree that blocks our path, its trunk taller than myself, growing way past my head. I look at my hands and feet. It was a good thing that I put my shoes on before soft sand turned into broken twigs and rough pavement, so this isn't going to hurt my feet much. But my hands... This is going to be a pain to climb.

"We can go around it," Hades suggests as if it wouldn't cross my mind at all.

"That will only slow us down," I say. "These trees are hundreds of feet tall."

Again, I check my compass to make sure we are heading south.

I start to climb first, my fingers gripping the bark before preparing my feet to find a steady piece to support my weight.

"You do that and you'll find yourself sliding back down," Hades says, walking closer to me. "Try touching the surface with your hand and tug on it to make sure it supports your weight. Find at least two and then pull yourself up."

I do as he says, finding two sturdy parts on the trunk. I step on the first one and then the next, easily pulling myself up, the rough bark hurting my hands a bit, until I'm sitting on the very top, looking down at the other side.

I look back to Hades. "How do I climb down?"

"You jump," he says.

I stare at him and back at the ground on the other side. It is a long jump. I can't do it.

"Actually," he says, passing me the torch. "Hold this."

I take the torch from him and watch as he climb with ease to where I am and jump over to the other side.

Does he have to be good at everything, I think to myself, a little annoyed.

He takes off his cloak and carelessly throws it on the ground revealing a white tunic, brown pants, and a satchel hanging at his side. Before I have time to admire him, he then he reaches for me.

"Okay" he says. "Jump and I'll catch you."

"What" I reply, a little dumbfounded.

"Jump."

"What about this," I say waving the torch.

"Just hold it high," he says, patiently. "I'll catch you."

I gulp. My body feels planted to the trunk.

"Trust me, Ajalene," he says. The sound of my name coming from him makes me go warm inside. It gives me enough courage to shift as I prepare to jump.

And so I do.

I jump and he catches me firmly at my waist, his hands strong around me. He puts me down and nervously, I turn away pretending his hands had no effect on me.

We start walking, this time in silence.

I look at the fire from the torch in my hand and watch as the flames billow with each step I take. I look from the fire to the trees; I look at how they seem to stretch above for miles. At how their branches twist every which way, and how they often seem to blend with one another, making it difficult to tell where one branch from one tree ended and where another branch from another tree began. A memory comes to me about the time my father told me about my name.

"She is the goddess of the forest," I say to Hades, so quietly that it's almost to myself.

"What," Hades says, confusion flickering over his face.

"Aja," I say. "She is the goddess of the forest."

He opens his mouth to reply, but before he gets out a word, a loud and thundering sound explodes around the silent forest. Like large footsteps.