A Questionable Quest

Chapter 14... in I climb a tree, and that's pretty much it

It took much longer than I'd expected for Van to find the tree. We wandered through the forest, always keeping the path just barely in sight (neither of us particularly wanted to get lost in these woods, after all). Every few seconds, Van would look up.

After nearly an hour of searching, the sun was high in the sky, my hair stuck to the sides of my face, and I was quite certain we'd checked every tree on this side of the Harvenmor-Portsburring border.

(I was hyperbolising, of course, as one does when they're sweaty and tired and frustrated. Still it felt like we'd been out here for hours.)

I'd just tied back my hair with a strip of ribbon pulled from the waist of one of my extra pairs of trousers, and opened my mouth, when Van stopped. He looked at the tree. Then circled it. Then looked up.

He hadn't told me what he was searching for, but I hoped beyond all hope that he'd found it. My arm had begun to tingle from Dero's grip several minutes ago, and I'd switched him to my shoulder. Now my shoulder tingled too.

I looked up with Van, and examined the tree.

It was a big tree -- possibly one of the biggest in the forest. If I stretched my arms out wide, then multiplied myself three times, I still wouldn't be able to reach all the way around it.

The branches were low-hanging, but they went up for as far as I could see. The top was just barely visible.

My gaze turned to Van. "Is this it?"

He nodded. "This is it."

"Okay." A pause. "And what is it, exactly?"

HIs lips pursed. For some reason, he looked grim. Then again, that might have just been his sleep-deprived gaze and dark-circled eyes. I looked again. No, definitely grim.

"It's his nest."

"His nest?" Of all the things I'd expected, that wasn't it. Then again, thinking about it, I should have expected it. I mean, Van said he'd found something pertaining to the baby dragon. What else could it have been?

"I was trying to find the stream," he explained, "when-"

SQUEEEAAAAAAAAAAKKKKK.

I grimaced. This noise hadn't been as loud as before, but certainly loud enough to make my ears hurt. Jester threw back his head, but Van quickly pulled him down.

Dero pushed from my shoulder. His wings flapped frantically -- despite now clinging to the bark of the tree with all four claws. He SQUEEAAAAKKKed again.

"-when he did that." Van jutted his chin at the dragon. "I'd climbed about halfway up the tree when I saw the nest, and decided you would murder me in cold blood if I climbed all the way up without you."

I lifted both brows, then moved to Dero. "So you just climbed."

"Mhm."

"Well then," my fingers carefully pried the frantic baby dragon from the trunk (it didn't work and, after a moment, I gave up), "let's climb."

Van had already tied his horse's lead securely to a nearby (and much smaller) tree. I tossed my bag to the base of the trunk, and rubbed my hands together. Then jumped.

And missed.

Even the 'low hanging' branches were far too high. I jumped again, and missed. Again.

Van laughed. "I used a boulder to climb up last time. Here," he pushed a large rock to the base of the tree, just below the lowest branch, "use this."