Summer's Frost

Chapter 20

Woohoo!! We've hit the 20th chapter mark!! I have a note at the bottom to continue about this, but I'm sure you just want to get to the story, so here you go.

       Have you ever played hide and go seek in a dark house? Have you ever wondered outside where there are no street lights, when the sky is a mass of smears of light and dark blues; when the stars and moon are covered by clouds; when the ground is pitch dark since nothing is there to illuminate it?

       Running through the woods without sight is similar, yet oh so much worse. My only guide is Slick, who is at least ten times faster than me — plus he can actually see where he's going.

       I trip over every branch and rock, run into every low hanging branch; it gives the feeling of ice knives poking at my feet, and frozen whips slapping against my face.

        Despite my pain, we keep running. Slick's hand hasn't left mine since we fled the kitchens. I can't fall, because the momentum of his pull keeps me moving. I keep my free hand out, avoiding few obstacles.

       I can still hear voices and footsteps distantly behind us when my breath starts running out. "Slick! Slick — we need.... to stop... I need a breath!" I pant.

       "We can't stop! Some of them have horses! They'll find us instantly." It irritates me how easily he controls his breath. "We've only run a half a mile, we're almost there."

       "Only?! And.... where.... is there?"

       The only answer I get is another branch in my face. There are gentle trickles of blood on my feet and forehead, coming from the same sources as that of the stinging on my skin. I will have bruises, of that I'm sure.

       "Do you know... where we're going?"

       The opposite of what I expected and hoped for, he's silent.

       I feel terror swarm me. We're lost. No no no. We can't be lost. There are so many soldiers after us, who knows what will happen when they catch up to us.

       "I — it's in this area. Er, it should be. It's well hidden," Slick tries to reassure me.

       I get a sudden flashback to another time, traveling through the woods, but those trees had no snow, and I wasn't running.

       It's scared of you. The forest. The trees. They aren't sure of you.

       As if in a movie, I feel time slow to match the beat of my heart. I hear the trees creak and groan, moving.

       They don't like you, yet.

       I don't have the time for the forest to not like me. I am here to solve problems I didn't know existed; if anything, the trees should be thankful. I'm protecting the ground from which they grow from the blood that would spill on it, should there be a war. The woods should be my ally, not an enemy bent on tearing up my feet and face.

       I slow to a stop, resisting Slick's pull as hard as I can, grabbing a tree for support. Wind cools the clammy hand that held his. I hear muffled yelling to keep going, but I'm on my knees.

       I only hear the trees moan, small animals rustling in the bushes, and the distant sound of crunching snow underneath horse hooves. There are sounds I can hear that I know aren't anywhere near me.

       I guide my hand up the bark of the tree. A hand shakes my shoulder — I shrug it away.

       There is life at my fingertips, an energy that flows through this tree, and all the trees in these woods. The energy moves and changes to be near where my hand rests. The energy is connected to me. I don't know how I know, but I do. I feel it. I understand, how Eric had talked of the forest as if it were a living creature. It's one big system of living things, things that are more than just plants.