Yngvild and the Forest of Dreams

Finding the Path

Wide gnarled pillars support the verdant sky. Skeletal brown fingers and arms rise out of the leaf litter. Nothing moves, except the dappling shadows. A sussuration of leaves in the wind provides a backing to invisible birdsong. The forest smells damp, yet fresh, a feeling of reassuring calm.
I walk through the wood, leading Whiteface. Stepping round fallen branches and patches of bracken. There are deer somewhere in the woods but I can't see any of them, only their tracks. There are no branches with leaves below my head height. So I don't need to duck and I can see a fair distance ahead.
'We've been here before Jerre.'
'I don't recognise it, Yngvild.'
'It's familiar. I've seen these trees before.'
'The ground is soft Yngvild, and if we'd been here recently you'd be able to see the tracks.'
I looked at the ground, it was soft in places, I could see the hoof prints behind us when I looked back. Was I losing my mind? Maybe I'd spent too long wandering in the woods and it was all blending into one.
'Maybe I still haven't recovered from the lack of sleep. I'd have sworn that we'll pass a fallen tree on our right just as we come to a shallow stream.'
'Perhaps you should have a nap when we next stop?'
'I don't think we want to stop for that long. The further we get the less chance there is of them catching us.'

We push on while I puzzle over it. Every step seems familiar. With each passing yard I'm more sure that I've been here before.
But Jerre is right. There are no horse or human tracks amidst the deer. Before we've gone more than a hundred yards I see a patch of forest ahead where the sun shines brighter. It's a break in the canopy, and as we got closer I there's a fallen tree to our right.
Then I hear the gurgling of water over the stones.
'The Goddess!' it hits me why this is familiar. 'She told me to find my own path, and to follow it well!'
Jerre looked confused.
'I know where we are now. Just follow me.'
Without waiting for a reply I follow the path I've followed so many times in my dreams. Calling it a path is stretching it, there's no actual path on the forest floor, but I recognise the trees and other features.
Our walk is accompanied by birdsong, and after a while the gurgling of a brook that we follow down a gentle slope. We stop for a rest where an outcrop of rock sticks through the forest and the stream falls from a cleft in it to form a pool circled by boulders.
Jerre and I feed the horses from the last of the feed bags after we've lifted Noren to the ground and propped him up by a tree. Jerre fills our waterskins from the flow while I rummage in saddle bags for something for us to eat.
'There's not much left that doesn't need cooking properly.' I held up some stale bread. 'Just some bread and a bit of cheese.'
'I think we can do better than that.' Inibrakemi appeared from behind me.
'Inibrakemi!'
She smiled and embraced me. 'Well met, Yngvild!'
'Well met indeed. Are we close yet?'
'The temple is a couple of days away, but you seem to have lost your pursuers when you crossed the ridge.'
Jerre returned with the filled waterskins.
'Inibrakemi.' He nodded.
'Jerre, come here.' Inibrakemi held her arms wide for Jerre.
He put the waterskins down and hugged Inibrakemi, lifting her off the ground.
'That's a proper welcome!' she said when Jerre put her back on the ground.
'I'm not alone, I met some of your other friends Yngvild, and they have spare supplies.' Inibrakemi said.
Jerre looked around, staring into the trees. 'Where are they?'
'Not far, a mile or so through the trees there's a major road out of the Cobre Mountains.'

Knowing that friendly company was nearby we cut our rest stop short and moved to join them. Inibrakemi stayed with us to lead the way. Apart from Noren, we all walked to avoid pushing the horses too much.
The road was a little more than a wide clearing. Maybe a hundred yards between the woods and a slow moving brown river that was wider still. Grass grew between the wagon ruts, and there was plenty of evidence of horses that passed either way. As we broke out of the wood we saw a a groups of pack horses, another of mules and a handful of wagons going in both directions.
Over the river in the near distance, maybe several miles off, was a small city. It had high walls and more than one watchtower. The land across the river was mostly open fields, crops I didn't recognise stood tall and green in the closest ones.