The Portal - Pain Is The Password

Chapter Nine - Injury

Audrey rests her head against the wall and despite the amount of bumping, she doesn't remove it. Her mirror is placed safely on the floor and it's has been for an hour. Now, it is six o'clock and they have been in this wagon for a little over two hours. Other wagons passing in the blink of an eye, loads of the turnings that go off into the forest pass and they take none of them. The sun is setting in the distance and drizzle is wetting the ground. They'll have to pull off and set up camp soon, the rain will be almost impossible to travel in. Seemingly, just as Audrey thinks about this, the horse and wagon turn off of the main road and into a thin path in the forest. The drizzle becomes heavier but the horse doesn't seem to mind and all the passengers remain untouched.

 This forest isn't like the one Audrey arrived in, the trees are all neutral colours and the wildlife, although doing things, are still ordinary, the forest looks like a still picture. What strikes Audrey as strange is that the trees look like they were planted only a few years ago, some still saplings. How does a forest simply pop out?

Audrey didn't expect to be travelling this late at night and with the storm hurling down, the raindrops hitting the wagon with such force. Surely the horse wants to stop now. Or has he been ordered to go farther?

Sias taps his heel on the floor four times and the horse stops and turns his head. "A camp." He yells out, nearly shattering the girl's eardrums. He leans back, cuddling himself into a pillow. The horse is moving faster and the wagon is bumping up and down so hard that Fate flies up in the air. Audrey follows.

"You both have seatbelts." The girls look at each other on the floor and shake their heads. Audrey takes her chance and sits up quickly, pulling two cushions down and she falls back to the floor. Using all of her speed to hold a pillow behind her head in time. She succeeds. 

Thunder cracks in the distance and lightning hit a tree in the distance. The smell of burning wood becomes apparent but it quickly distinguishes. The wind blows in the direction of the wagon and rain sprays the girls continuously, for a few minutes before they clamber onto the bench and stay cuddled close together.

"That was a bad decision," Audrey mutters and Fate nods, Sias ignores them resting his head against the headrest. All three are shivering and their warmer clothing are in the bags, none want to get out and sacrifice themselves to the rain.  

As the horse slows down, Audrey's eyes begin to droop and she struggles to hold open her eyes. Inside, her gut is calling to her "we're here, soon we can sleep." So she fights her eyelids. They turn multiple times and pass many signs, pointing them the way of the fields of berries and other campgrounds. Campgrounds they could be sleeping in by now. Fate falls into a light sleep beside Audrey and Sias is wide awake, staring impatiently out of the window.

The horse trots through a huge gate and the wagon follows. Wagons of all shapes and sizes, some with lights turned on in the inside and warm fires, under canopies, burning outside them, are in this camping ground. Others with only sleeping passengers inside. They pass a miniature wagon parked outside a huge one, the window betrays the two young children sleeping inside. Laughter fills the air and the smell of food being cooked, despite the rain, lingers in the air. The horse pulls them into one of the many free spots and Audrey breathes a sigh of relief but then becomes confused.

"I thought you had a tent, where would we put the tent?" Audrey asks as no one seems to be sleeping in tents.

"I checked this wagon and trust me, it's better than a tent," Sias tells her and hops out of the wagon, motioning for Audrey to follow him. Audrey stands up and glances back at the sleeping Fate, then she jumps out of the wagon, locking the door firmly behind her.

Sias walks around to the horse and begins disconnecting him from the wagon, unhooking bolts and unclipping chains from the horse armour he's wearing. Audrey continuously rubs the horses back, feeling sorry for herself, for not being able to help.