The Open Sky: Eternal Forest Saga - Book 3

Chapter 2

 Sunrise was sure sleeping in the Wilds again would be easy. After several weeks on his own in the wilderness, he'd grown quite accustomed to finding what comfort he could on the ground with no roof overhead. His few nights in the home of Lady Viyana, the leader of the human city, provided pampering beyond anything he'd experienced. Now that he was with Firefly's camp in the Savage Lands, he was still able to sleep in a tent with more than a thin animal skin beneath him. Even with the frequent rains, the first night had been easy, lulling him into a false sense of security.

Then the weather turned cold.

The unseasonable drop in temperature seemed to happen in the course of one evening. He awoke his second morning shivering to find his breath clouding in front of his face. Thicker blankets were acquired and distributed throughout the camp that day, but they did little to make the next chilly night more bearable. The elven fugitive wondered how he'd be faring alone in the Wilds now. Even capture by the Temple seemed preferable to such a scenario. As consciousness returned to him in the early morning hours, he could feel a stinging on the tip of his nose and his long, pointed elf ears were all but numb.

"You awake?"

The voice startled him. In his early morning stupor, he didn't even realize he was no longer alone in his tent. Sunrise's blanket flew into the air as he shot to a sitting position. The flap of his tent was open, letting the first rays of the morning sun rest upon his lower body. There was a figure kneeling in the entry. He couldn't make out her features at first. The sun behind her coupled with his blurry vision let him see only a silhouette, but the voice gave her away.

"Orchid?" he asked in a groggy voice.

"I'm sorry to wake you," the elven woman said, "but the Prophet requests an audience with you and your friends this morning."

Sunrise's back cracked a little as he rose to his knees. There wasn't room enough in the tent to stand. Orchid moved out of the way as he emerged. The new expanse of space gave him room to stretch his muscles, which he did with a low moan. For some reason it made her giggle a bit.

"You get used to sleeping on the ground," she said.

"I've been used to sleeping on the ground," he groaned. "What I'm not used to is sleeping in the cold."

"I know of a few more blankets if you need one," she responded with an odd quickness. "Of course, if we take in any more converts, you'd have to give it back."

"We're not converts," he corrected. "We were out here looking for Firefly, not enlightenment."

"Months ago we were out here alone looking for nothing, and we found both," she retorted.

In their short time with Firefly's band, Sunrise hadn't learned a great deal about them, but he did discern a few things. The Open Sky group consisted nearly entirely of humans, with a handful of elves along with them. Regardless of race, each member dressed in the manner of the elves. The cut of their clothing, the braids in their hair, and even their tattoos were all elven in influence. Once Orchid explained to Sunrise the history of their gathering, it all made sense.

These were refugees from Faith-haven: a small, almost forgotten village south of Moon-hollow where the Harmonious dwelled. Ever since the Great War, the Harmonious had shunned the tree-clearing ways of their fellow humans to live in harmony with the forest like the elves. In the days of Shimmer, the Harmonious lived in the elven city within a segregated community. After the Blight, they built their own settlement and had called it home ever since. No one ever talked about the Harmonious, as they mostly kept to themselves. There were no Tri-leaf Safe Roads connecting their tiny village to the rest of the Lands of Order. Until Sunrise's first conversation with Orchid, he didn't even know it had been destroyed when the demon army marched south a few months ago.