The Sky Demons Part One: Journey

Chapter Nineteen- A shadow missing

Senka- A shadow missing

I woke up when the sun finally got too bright for me to ignore it anymore. Squinting angrily at the light of morning, I watched it slowly dim and then disappear into complete darkness. Hmm. I reached out behind me and felt my hand slap lightly against Ri- I mean the shade dweller’s flank. A moment later his breath ruffled my hair.

“Thanks for the concern, but could you remove the shadows please? Forests are hard enough to navigate in daylight when you can see.”

I felt a flicker of something at the back of my mind and then the shadows slowly began to dim, allowing me to become accustomed to the light without having to squint.

“Neat trick,” said Tigre, “I wish you could do that Nightshade.”

Nightshade snorted and suddenly trees sprouted and grew tightly in a prison around Tigre before she could get out of the way.

“Very funny Nightshade, now let me out,” laughed Tigre, “Nightshade? Nightshade, let me out.”

The dogriff waited for a few seconds before allowing the plants to disperse and release her friend.

“I see you’re all already terrorising each other,” called Asher, emerging from between the trees with freshly gathered food and Gensan hopping behind him.

“I don’t know what you mean,” said Tigre.

A few moments passed and I frowned as Serefk’na failed to appear behind Asher and Gensan.

“Wasn’t Serefk’na with you?” I asked.

“Nah,” replied Asher, “Gensan told me she went on ahead to make sure everyone at The Hideout knows we’re coming, we’ll see her soon.”

“Eat up, we’re leaving straight after,” Tigre told me.

I took some of the food that Asher offered me and stood, placing a hand against the shade dweller’s neck.

“I’m happy to eat and walk if you feel like setting off now.”

“Sure,” replied Tigre, and we set off into the deeper forest with Asher leading the way. For quite a few hours we made our way through the thick undergrowth, Asher and Tigre chatting the entire time, until eventually we heard the sound of rushing water and a little while later came upon the river itself. We took our first opportunity to rest as soon as we reached its banks; the forest had been too choked with undergrowth to offer much in the way of a place to sit down and by now I was feeling grateful for the opportunity to rest. I turned around to guide the dweller safely to the edge of the bank for a drink and found him… not there.

I scanned the spaces between the trees, trying to spot his hard to see dark coat and gloomy aura amongst the shadows of the woods, but as far as I could tell he was not there.

“Senka, what’s wrong?” shouted Tigre from the riverbank, scrambling to run up to me.

“I can’t find the shade dweller,” I told her.

“He’s blind, you won’t help him find you by just standing there, you need to yell for him.” She winked at me, turned and yelled into the forest. “HEY! SHADE DWELLER, WE’RE OVER HERE. COME ‘ERE BOY!”

I leaned away from the noise and watched birds rise up from the forest canopy, squawking in surprise and flying away backwards. They must have been ouzelum birds- nothing else flies so ridiculously; I considered myself lucky that the birds were not quite as startled as they could have been. Unlike the birds the shade dweller continued to fail to appear.

“I’m gathering that the dweller’s gone missing,” said Asher as he and Gensan joined us at the forest edge.

“Oh, really? I wonder what could have given you that impression?” I replied, glaring at Tigre who seemed oblivious to the ringing in my ears. She stared into the forest, her entire face pulled into a frown, her yellow eyes clouded, and then she sniffed the air.