Lightening, Witches and Dragons

Touch of the Grave

Chapter Two

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Iris's POV

Unrolling the scroll I looked at it. It was a crumbled paper slightly yellowed on the edges and corners. It was nothing special. Except, there were some dots on it spread all over the page. I tried to make sense of it all but to no avail. It just did not make even a lick of sense. I was going to throw the paper into the river but something stopped me from doing just that. A feeling saying the paper was of some kind of importance.

I opened the paper once more. I was again greeted by the same doted site. Frustrated I inhaled a lungful of air, holding it for a few seconds I blew it out slowly. A stress relieving habit. A movement on the peice of paper immediately caught my attention. As the air I blew out of my nose brushed the surface of the page the dots moved along the page slightly. Confused I flipped the paper to the other side but there was nothing there. Flipping it back to the front I brought it towards my face and lightly blew some more air on the paper.

The dots started vibrating and in a few seconds starting moving in random directions. They moved along the page in ways decided by them. Few seconds later the dots where pulled together to take shape of words. The words then moved again to form a sentence. After all this ordeal was over the paper contained a bunch of words written of it. It was written elegently and in cursive making it look like a royal message. The calligraphic words were spread along smoothly on the paper reading-

'Heart. Oak tree. Fifty-four steps to the right. Walk towards death. Woods will help you.'

Confused once again I scratched the top of my head in thought. Oak tree? Death? Woods? What is all this? Is this some kind of joke? I once again looked around the place and this time I was sure some one will jump out and yell punk'd. But I was disappointed, because no one came out from anywhere.

Looking back at the paper I tried to understand the words. Heart. My heart? No. Someone's heart? Huh? Okay I'll skip to the next one. Oak tree. There are many oak trees here. Which one?

Maybe heart of the oak tree? Does oak tree have a heart? Does any tree have a heart? Okay, so no heart of the oak tree.

Still thinking I threw my bag down and settled down on the grass. Death? I do not what to walk towards death. This is ridiculous. Why am I doing this? Maybe it is just a silly piece of paper, and I'm obsessing over nothing. Stupid. But after what I saw just a few seconds ago I could not put this down as a prank. Words do not move on a paper if you blow on it.

Okay, think again. Oak tree and heart. Heart of someone. Or maybe something. Maybe the Oak tree is it the heart of something. Trees are present in forest. Maybe it's in the heart of this place. This is not exactly a forest but it's the best I've got. Standing up again I pulled my bag back on my shoulder and shoved the paper inside my pocket.

I made my way deeper inside the -sorta- forest. There was a dirt path along the right side of the river. Making my way towards it, I walked through the trees, its branches brushing my bare arms.I did not exactly know where I was going, but a feeling inside me told me I was on the right path. So I followed by instincts. I pushed the last of the trees, emerging out of it. I looked up and found myself on a open patch of land. The place was surrounded by thick and tall trees in a circle on all sides.

And there it was. A lone Oak tree stood proudly in the centre of the place. It was a huge tree,I must say. It's thick branches were spread all over the place. Some of the branches thicker than most were so heavy that they were practically touching the ground. I stumbled towards it, still in awe. It looked magnificent. When I reached towards it's humongous bark I circled around it, looking at it properly.