Bloodline

Never-ending trees - Part 6

Taking a few steps into the forest seemed like taking a mile into an unknown pathway. As Damian looked above into sky, it being blocked by the impossibly tall trees, he looks to Osred, thinking to himself. "These trees sure do like to bunch up so close to each other, dont they?" Maralyne remarks as she tries to look ahead, many of the trees blocking almost all directions as they move. "It would be dangerous splitting up any more than we are right now, so stick together but dont leave the horses behind, they're the only way we'll get to the east fast enough to make sure the enemy won't send another attack." Zircon says as he touches the bark of the closest tree, vines suddenly appearing almost from nowhere, slowly wrapping around his hand before he recoils.

Lutol looks over at Tesath, who looks to be focused on something ahead, though it's near impossible to see. "I sense something...and it's not that far ahead..." Tesath says as she leads her horse to the front, the others focusing on her. "Would be nice if that something was the way to the other side, I would not dream of being stuck here when Tesath's magic wears off on us." Damian remarks as the others start to a jog to get closer to Tesath. She for some reason breaks into a run, and the trees seem to move out of her way, only to move back and block the others. "Tesath, wait up!" Damian yells nearly tripping on a root that seemed to stretch out of the ground in front of him. The others twist and turn as they narrowly avoid the attacking trees, their horses whining and bucking, pulling the group from Tesath even more. "Ditch the horses, we got to get to her fast!" Zircon exclaims as he briskly weaves through the forest ahead of everyone, them dropping their reigns and trying to move through the tight spacing of thick bark and roots.

Zircon eventually comes to a large clearing, and stops in his tracks, a campfire site can be seen in the middle of the clearing, and though it seems to be unlit, a small trail of smoke fades in the ashes just as it appeared. He turns back to look to where he came, only to see that the trees are completely different than what he came through, and walks towards the campfire site, observing the different things around it. He finds a small note under one of the rocks at the fire pit, and grabs it, reading it while looking around for anyone else.

"I've been stuck in this forest for what seems to be a week now, and the only thing that I can say distinguishes my location from every other part of this forest seems to be the fact that there is this clearing in what I assume should be the middle of the forest. This clearing appears to be significant to the rest of the forest for the fact that from what I've seen, none of these gigantic trees appear to go near this area, and I should be lucky even making it here. Looking at the roots of some of these trees, I can see they are avoiding this clearing, which confuses me since they cut me from the rest of my squad earlier, moving the way they do. Though I'm stuck in this situation, the trees appear to bear fruit, an apple or similar, so I can sustain myself for a while. The magic barrier we had wore off just at the wrong time, and now my squad is lost while I'm stuck in this clearing, and will probably be sent back here if I attempt to leave. This is Colonel Shaul, and if these are my last words, I hope you fare well in this forest jail."

Zircon puts the note in a pocket under his cloak, and looks around the clearing, observing the surroundings carefully. "Well this sure is interesting...so the middle of the forest, but the trees won't go anywhere near here?" He paces around the firepit of the campsite, looking around for any sort of clue on his whereabouts. 'Maybe I can make a homemade compass with some leaves and my kit...but does this forest allow such things?' Zircon thinks as he paces, kneeling down and observing the contents of his satchels and pockets. He grabs a nearby leaf, a tin, and a canteen, pouring water into the tin and laying the leaf on top, letting it float before putting a thin wire of metal on top. The compass begins to move wildly in random directions until it suddenly stops at one point, pointing behind Zircon. 'So I can use a compass, but is it really pointing to the north...? Could it be pointing someplace else to fool me...?' Zircon thought, as a figure observes from a branch high above, leaving before it could be noticed.