Into The Woods (Sequel to the Hunter and the Healer)

Journey

Amy couldn't make herself sleep since she felt preoccupied, so instead she spent the night making sure she was prepared for the journey in the morning, wishing she knew what to expect or at least how long they would be gone. She practiced her magic by starting a fire normally and using her powers to extinguish it.

Eventually she shouldered her fully packed bag she made herself on her back and jogged to where the others said they would meet at. She was surprised to find Matthias talking to two men she didn't recognize. One had black hair and tan skin, and the other had short brown hair and a neatly trimmed goatee.

"Amy! These are my brothers J-Fred and Bryan!" Matthias introduced the brown haired man first, then the black haired man with a grin.

"We're coming with you guys, Felix's orders." Bryan spoke, his voice lower than she expected since Matthias's was so high pitched in comparison.

She nodded in acknowledgment as she scanned the area for signs of the others. Eventually, she spotted everyone else but Nate walking towards them with Bob showing off his control of weather by creating a ball of purple lightning in his hands that crackled with energy.

"Where's Nate?" Amy asked once they reached her, frowning in confusion. Had he changed his mind?

"Sorry I'm late, I accidentally slept in." Nate apologized as he quickly joined the group, a guitar strapped across his back and a messenger bag slung over his shoulder.

Amy made sure everyone was there before taking a deep breath and stepping into the unknown.

They barely made it a few feet before Wade ended up tripping and spraining his ankle much to the annoyance of Matthias since he was the healer of the group.

"God dammit Wade." Bob laughed jokingly as Wade grimaced in pain and tried to brush the snow off of him, his face flushed red in embarrassment.

Matthias pulled out a gold coin like charm and pressed it to Wade's ankle, muttering under his breath before he stuck the charm back in his pocket and had Wade stand up to see if it healed correctly.

"That's pretty awesome." Wade admitted as he rotated his foot in a circle.

"No biggie." Matthias shrugged nonchalantly before they continued on.

Wade used his power of controlling fire to melt a path for them as they walked on for what felt like hours.

"Can't you like make the weather warm or something?" Ethan asked Bob with chattering teeth. His fingers were beginning to turn the same color as his hair.

"I don't control weather that way. I just can harness the power of weather in my hands, like lightning." Bob explained.

"Why did you bring your guitar out here in the woods?" Tyler asked Nate.

"That's how I can hypnotize people, it's kinda like my own charm except a lot larger and way more fun. Watch." Nate moved his guitar off of his back and strummed a couple of notes before singing.

"All that you know you'll be leaving it behind,
Look deep inside and soon enough you'll find,
The courage to win now you best be on your way,
For you have a demon to slay!"

While Nate sang, J-Fred felt rooted to where he was standing, his mind feeling numb.

"You are a chicken." Nate told J-Fred, still strumming his guitar to keep them hypnotized.

"Bckah!" J-Fred crowed, pecking at the snow while making more chicken noises.

After awhile Nate stopped, laughing as J-Fred spat snow out of his mouth.

"Is that something you can teach me?" Matthias asked hopefully.

"Maybe." Nate chuckled as they once again pressed forward.

"What do you guys do?" Amy asked J-Fred and Bryan.

"I control fire like Wade, and J-Fred controls wind." Bryan stated, creating a small red flame in the palm of his hand, as if to prove his point while J-Fred used the wind to let him fly in the air for a moment before touching down on the ground again.

"Remember when we used to do stupid stuff and call ourselves Team Edge?" Matthias chimed in.

"Man I loved when we did that!" Bryan grinned.

"We always made up really wired challenges." J-Fred chuckled, seeming to stare off into the distance for a moment.

Abruptly everyone went silent, trudging down the path Bryan blazed for them since Wade was growing tired.

It wasn't long until Amy started getting hungry, her stomach grumbling quietly in complaint. The sun was now high in the sky above the trees, warming the group up slightly and slowly melting the snow around them.

"We should eat and rest for a bit before we go on." Tyler suggested as Bryan melted a large portion of snow to give them a large enough place to sit together, Ethan draping a black fleece blanket over the wet dead grass.

Matthias flopped down and took a bite out of an apple from his bag, chewing quietly as if afraid to attract predators.

Tyler noticed Bryan not touching any food, instead creating a small flame in the palm of his hand and shaping it to look like a small smiling child waving at him with a grin on their face, joined by another small child and a woman holding a baby. He sadly smiled and waved back as if they were real people.

"You miss your family."

Bryan quickly closed his hand around the flame, not realizing that Tyler was watching him with a sympathetic expression.

"Well I'm certainly not the only one." Bryan jerked his head over in Matthias's direction.

"He has a wife and baby girl waiting for him at home." Bryan distracted himself by absent mindlessly digging through the bag he packed and taking a large bite out of a hunk of bread he found.

None of the rest of the group had family except J-Fred, who had his brothers with him.

"I'll be right back." Ethan promised the group as he stood up and walked out of sight. He came back a couple moments later, his eyes full of panic.

"You guys need to see this." Ethan urged the group. They exchanged glances before following him.

There was a word written in blood in the snow:

Run