Solitary [NaNoWriMo July 2014] [unedited]

5: Sundress

      Note: I'd like to give a shoutout to Avid_Joker for being amazing and designing some character profiles for me. If you need any help with any of yours, feel free to hit her up! She'd love to help! :)

     They arrived back at Mr. Tendor's Inn exactly an hour later. As expected, Dylan was waiting outside on the patio, eating leamon cakes with Mrs. Tendor.

     They had everyone, and miraculously, much to Roy's surprise, they had managed to fit everybody in the trailor. Needless to say a couple of grils had to sit on others laps.

     All together they had the Tendors, Roy, Georgie, the Darrel twins, Grant McAllister, Lois, Lily and Lionel Little, Dracon Meer, Imogen and Raine Rocarto, Dallas Michman, and the Serbas family. All of them in their late teens at least, and then there was Roy, the fifteen year old boy who had decided to tag along.

     Mr. Tendor loaded everyone up with guns and ammunititon galore, and also made sure that everyone understood that you don't shoot unless someone is in danger.

     We split up into groups: Mr. Tendor, Georgie, Lois, Imogen and I would comb through the west side of the forest, as that was where most of the Farcus bloomed. Mrs. Tendor would take Rod, Tilda, Grant, Dylan, Lily, and Dallas, and thoroughly check the East side, which was wear the pond was. That would be the most likely cause of the mud that was on the fabric the old man had found. Dracon would take Lionel, Raine, and the Serbas family and check the borders.

     And off we went. All eighteen of us out in the forest, putting ourselves in harms way to find a girl who half the town now rallied against. At that moment Roy felt as if their town was going to divide against itself over this young girl who only needed care and a place to stay until she remembered what happened.

     Roy shook the thoughts from his head and continued to follow Mr. Tendor and Georgie to the side of the forest they had marked on the map. Imogen and Lois trailed behind, the shotguns they were given aimed and ready as they kept an eye out for any signs of movement.

     The trees seemed to be duller today, less lively than they usually seemed. The green pigment in their leaves appeared to have faded and turned them to a boring shade of grey. Most of the sky was covered up by the trees and their overhanging branches, letting barely any warmth through from the sun.

     The air was filled with a musty, mossy smell, like the smell of old people. The sort of smell that you remember smelling before and that brings back memories and sends you into a nostalgic trance.

     In Roy's case, not all those memories were good.

     When Roy was younger he remebered being told stories of this forest, and many tales were about what happened to bring the Ichar here. Some say they were there to protect them from the outside world, and others spoke of how it was to keep the most evil of people in the town. Back then he believed them to be true, but now he didn't believe anthing. He was sure the Ichar were a plague brought down upon their town from above, just another pest they had to deal with in their everyday life. But even so, Roy knew there was some hidden secret about the Ichar's existence, which made them even more terrifying.

     "What are you thinking about, Roy?" He turned around to see Lois smiling at him. She was a chubby lady, twenty-two years old last month, with a round face and long, golden hair. She cocked her head, turning back around to scan the forest.

     "I was thinking about the tales, you know, the ones about the beasts you're told as a child." Lois nodded, and he knew she was listening. She was good like that, always paying attention to the small things. "I remember one that flew around faster than a rumour at school, when I was five or something. It said the Gods banished the Ichar from their land because of the chaos they cause, and sent them down to earth until one savior could conquer them all and destroy the mayhem they created."