The Dream Sparrow

A Question Will be Asked, And Silence Will Fall

The only sounds (Aside from the horrifying screeches from the dark.) Were that of the the quiet chewing of our group of now four, and the crackling of the large dragon made fire, Burning orange arms reaching for stars and fireflies cutting through the dark with their eerie half glow that flickered on and off in the seemingly never ending pool of shadows. This was the only light protecting our awkwardly silent posse from the creatures of the night, who evidently, couldn't go near light.

For the longest time, not one word was uttered. And it seemed that eye contact was out of the question too now that specks, dirt, morsels of food, caterpillars and anything else in the general direction of "down" had become so incredibly interesting. Even Ash, who was normally an incredibly loud eater, was trying excessively to violently rip the heart out of his dead sheep , very, very quietly.

This went on for a never an endless amount of time. That is, until Artichoke, (go figure) Shattered the large void of silence in his usual fashion. With his mouth full.

"Shlawrihwurhuha orwashamalauetsh thrajisjfiashfuei?" It sounded like

"Excuse me?" Faye said, still trying to get used to the notion that elves and dragons did, in fact exist, and that they were sitting right in front of her. "Its better than no one" she thought to herself. And even they almost didn't let her join. The brown hair girl eyed her suspiciously from the moment she stepped out of the woods. The Dragon with amber eyes seemed appalled at having "Another lower life form" in the group, which just made the girl glare. The only one who seemed excited about her arrival was the elf. But after a brief but harsh questioning to which she gave vague answers as not to reveal her identity ( a lot of people were not to fond of the king.) She was finally grudgingly let in by two of them, who wouldn't make eye contact with each other, and was greeted with immense eardrum shattering fast chatter by the third. She snapped out of her little flash back (imagine a harp scale and a ripple effect here) By a particularly loud howl in the distance, which seemed indistinctly familiar.

"Please don't encourage him" Ixia said, looking particularly unamused.

"I said "Why is everyone so quiet?""

Ash momentarily stopped his horrific eating habits to join in the conversation "What I still don't understand is how you two navigated the forest!" He exclaimed with bitterness lacing his tone.

" I don't know about-What did you say your name was again?"

"Ixia"

"Right.Ixia. I don't know about Ixia, but I had a map for a bit, and the rest was just pure luck." Now, Faye didn't know the extreme hugeness of this statement, but as you the reader probably figured out, there is only one map in the world, and that is the Construer's map, and that map was stolen a long time ago. And you've also probably figured out that it wasn't luck that got her through the forest,she had just been in the places where the Construers had worked.

But I know that you know that Ixia knew what Faye's short and VERY revealingstatement meant. "So, this map, where did you get it?"

" Oh, just ,you know, around." As you can see, Faye is not the best of liars.

"Yeah right. Now tell me, where did you really get that map that you spoke of?"

"It was my fathers?" She said with a tinge of nervousness.

" Well, Faye was it? Your father is a thief. That map is rightfully mine."

" Oh really? And why would that be?" Faye said, her words dripping with suspicion.

Ixia looked at her like one might look at at a small and unfourtunately simple child.

" Tell me, why does nobody go into the forest?"

Faye sat up straighter in faux confidence. "Its called the forest of traps for a reason."

Ixia nodded slowly and said in what couldn't have been a more obviously sarcastic tone "Right! Very good! Now, nobody has dared step foot in there for what? I don't know, ten? Was it ten? right ten. generations. Not the most cunning of hunters, or the feircest of dare devils."

This is when Ixia lost it. laughing harder than anything you've ever seen. snorting and holding her sides, she managed to sputter out "And you thought that you MAGICALLY got through with luck?! Who do you think you are?"

The laughter bounced and mocked hollowly in Fayes ears. It did sound positively barmy when you put it that way.  Her cheeks flushed madly. At least no one could tell in the red off casting glow of the fire.

After enternal minutes of this self shaming and pity, Fayes senses snapped back to their places "You know," she said to Ixia, who decided that Faye felt idiotic enough for the night and had ceased her laughing fit (very nearly),

"This isn't really making me feel very inclined to hand over the map."  Faye said maliciously, proud of her new found force of blackmail.

Ixia rolled her eyes in a most dramatic fashion, well aware that every eye was on her. " I don't believe you know what you're dealing with here, okay?"

"Oh?" Faye raised a single eyebrow.

" I'm a construer. We have been working for every one of the ten generations. Training every spare moment of our lives to learn the forest. Bringing ourselve EVERY DAY torid the forest of every long left alone trap. We learn to fight the monsters. We learn to be afraid. A suffering and a weight only we share. We have been making this forest safe. WE were your so called luck!"

If this were a movie, the camera would have gotten progressively closer to Ixia's face, and the backround music would have gotten all crescendo-y.

Artichoke looked awed.

Ash looked mildly impressed (though not really. sort of. I mean, like, its not THAT impressive or anything, right?)

Ixia asked a final and intense question that wieighted the air with awkward.

"Got a problem with that, Miss. Lucky?" She spat out the last two words into the fire so they made a lasting impression. Sizzling and momentarily dousing a bit of the flame.

a deafining silence roared and growled around the clearing.

Faye tossed her the map without a second look. 

Its not like she couldn't steal it back in a heart beat. 

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