Prophecy

Chapter 2

           

As we made our way deeper into the woods, the sun rising high behind us, it began to get darker and the trees began to stretch higher into the sky gasping for a ray of light to touch their under nourished leaves. All around me green stretched and shadows twisted creating more shapes than you would think able. "Can you explain, where exactly we're going?" I stomp across the root that was reaching to trip me, eyeing it with a glare. Garmir continues walking, long strides meaning I have to jog to catch up as he heads down the right hand fork of the shrinking path. "Merely on the journey that you need to take." He answers cryptically and I sigh in frustration, if I wanted a prophetic answer I'd have asked my Grams.

The only comforting thing about walking through the woods was the constant chatter of creatures here and there. It only started to get worrying when they became quieter until we were consumed by dead silence; the only sounds made were my clumsy footfalls over the fallen bracken. The path begins to incline, the continuing silence becomes ever more eerie and I spot Rao freeze at the brink of the hill. I pause on the path, listening to the lack of sounds around me; Gamrir stops, frowning down at me "Come, girl something is watching us." I shiver picking up the pace as a sudden crack of a fallen branch echoes, snapped under stumbling feet, the sound of heavy breathing seems to be in sync with my own shallow breaths as it nears.

I stumble up towards Garmir, he grasps my elbow pulling me along behind him as within a blink, Rao bounds in front of me, heckles raised, fur on end and teeth glistening with a threatening glint of power that could easily break a leg with one crunch of its powerful jaws. Garmir shoves me behind him and I stumble, falling over a moss covered rock; he glances back at me assessing the surroundings "Stay down." He commands. Raoul's growling rumbles like thunder in the silence, as if a storm had suddenly appeared on the sunny afternoon. I try to move, staying low to see what the threat is, I gasp as a sting in my arm makes my eyes well. Blood drips down the length of my forearm, I must have cut it on the rock as dirt and moss mingles with the wound, I bite my lip to hold in a curse.

While I'd been focussed on my arm, Rao's body language had become more hunter like, body low to the ground, the tension building in his legs, the spring held down to its limits. Then, like a gunshot, he was gone. Disappearing into the dead undergrowth, Garmir snarls beast like and follows after the wolf pulling a curved sword from a scabbard. Scuffling and growls emanate from the thorny bushes. I scramble to my feet, flinching at the lancing shoots that run up and down my arm. Gathering a scrap of my shirt I rip away a strip to at least staunch the bleeding, I run forward towards the sounds of a struggle, my gut telling me to head in the opposite direction and hide.

I push through the curtained branches, thorns snagging on my new make-do bandage and tearing new scratches into my face and other arm. "Garmir?" I call out into the green abyss that lay in front on me. Glancing down I notice that the natural path is now forking as a new messy one leads the way down towards a bubbling creak that is making itself known loud and clear. I follow the natural path, standing at the top of a small waterfall, my breaths catching in panic and pain, my lungs feel like they're on fire as the water splashes in contrasting peace against the violence that seems to be unfolding below me. I go to jump down as the growls become louder, grunts and what sounds like metal on metal ring out as they fall through tree line into the shallow creak. A deep voice shouts obscenities at Garmir, along the lines of calling off the "hell hound." Garmir's voice is too low to hear his reply, the rumbling travels up over the babbling waterfall. A wave of power rolls over me and I stagger at the end of the drop, dizziness making it hard to see as another wave of power hits, this time like a brick wall.

Time stops as the power seems to encapsulate me, my breaths short and shallow as I feel a build-up of something unknown. "I... Excuse me... oh!" I groan as blackness dots across my vision. "Please... For the sake of the Oracle STOP!" I cry out, unsure whether that was aimed at the fighting or at the unknown power that seems to be pulsating through my head and body. I blanch at the pain, a flash of light permeates across the clearing, I take a step forward as shadows consume my vision, air rushes in my ears and I welcome the darkness that lessens the pain.