The Element Table

Chapter 12: River Crossing

It's the next day, and the newly appointed guardians were on the move once again.

Like the day before, Henry took the lead, his eyes glued to the map. Alianor and Jacquelyn were in the middle, the older's nose deep in the black book while the younger looked out for more shadow bunnies. Philip and Ryia made up the rear, the two deep in conversation.

"What's in the book?" Jacquelyn asked Alianor after checking out what she thought was a suspicious sound

Her best friend had been into the book since they woke up, and was quieter than normal.

"I can't tell you" Alianor answered

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm not supposed to"

"But we're best friends and best friends share everything with each other"

"Except the contents of this book"

Jacquelyn groaned in disappointment. Why couldn't she know what was in the book?

At the front of the group, Henry stopped. He looked down at the map and back up in front of him.

Something wasn't right.

On the map, there was one line, indicating one path, but he was standing in front of two separate paths.

The others noticed his stalling and quickly made their way to him.

"What's going on?" Jacquelyn asked

"The map. It shows one path, but there's two" he explained

The other four took a look at the map, he was right.

"So, which way do we go?" Jacquelyn asked

Alianor studied the map. The path on it eventually leads to a river.

"Whichever way leads us to a river" she answered her best friend

At her words, Ryia began to observe her surroundings. If anyone knew how to find a river in the forest, it was her. Her many escapades and rendezvous in the forest, along with accompanying her father and brothers to work, taught her many things about the forest.

"I think we should go this way," Henry said pointing to the path on the right, before heading towards it

"Wait!" Ryia said before anyone could follow him "I think we should go that way" she pointed to the path on the left

"And how do you know that?" Henry challenged

"You want to question the Earth guardian?" Jacquelyn asked

"She's not the earth guardian...yet," Henry said

"It has nothing to do with me being the earth guardian. If you actually studied the map, like Alianor, you'd see that the path leads to a river close by. And if you listen, you'd hear the sound of water coming from that direction" she said pointing to the left

For the first time, the others paid attention to their surroundings and listened. The sound of moving water could be heard coming from the left path.

"She's right," Alianor said "It can hear the river"

Henry heard it too, but he didn't want to admit it. Not only was he wrong, but a girl had to correct him. This didn't look good for him, and his grandfather certainly wouldn't be happy about it.

Alianor took the map from Henry's hand.

"Hey, give that back," he said

She didn't answer and turned to Ryia, handing her the map.