Enemies of the Kingdom

Chapter Two

I opened my eyes. I was back in the clearing, but I was alone. There was no fire, no druids, not even Robert or John. Mist crept in around the edges of the trees. It was silent. Not even the sound of birds or the wind. The hair on my arms and back of my neck stood on end; someone was there. I whipped around.

"Oh, Robert," I said, my voice sounding obtrusively loud in the unnatural quiet. "I didn't see you there."

He stepped toward me, and I recoiled. It was Robert, down to the sprinkling of faint freckles across his nose, but he did not have his own eyes. Where Robert's familiar hazel eyes should have been were the large, strikingly blue eyes of the druid boy.

He came toward me and took my hand, trying to give me something. But it was as though I could not control my fingers, not make them close around whatever it was he was handing me. And then whatever it was slipped through my fingers, as I desperately attempted to keep ahold of it. It fell into the grass, and I tried to find it, but the grass kept growing longer and longer until I was lost in it, and everything became dark.

My eyes fluttered open. I was freezing. The forest was gray, just before sunrise. Birds chirped happily in the chilled morning air.

I stood slowly, stretching. I was stiff and sore from sleeping on the hard, uneven ground. There had been a rock sticking into my side all night. My neck ached.

My ankle seemed to feel better, though, so there was that.

John lay in a jumbled heap about five feet away, his mouth hanging slightly open. He was snoring.

"Morning," Robert said.

I turned around to see he was sitting on the fallen log. All at once my dream came rushing back to me, and I remembered. I squinted at his eyes. Hazel.

"We need to go back," I whispered.

"Pardon?"

"We need to go back to the clearing," I told him more forcefully.

"What? Why?"

"I... I dropped something."

Robert looked perplexed. "What did you drop? Surely I can just replace it for you."

"No, no you can't. We need to go back, I need to-"

"-calm down and accept the fact that we're not going back," Robert finished for me steadily. "It'd take too long and I'm not even sure we'd be able to find it again."

I knew Robert was right, but I felt anxious, worried. Whatever the druid boy had put in my hand last night was gone. I must've dropped it in the clearing. Robert was right. I needed to accept that I wasn't getting it back.

Robert stifled a yawn, bringing my attention back to him. He had dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, and was not only sitting on the log, but slumped.

"You didn't sleep at all," I accused.

"Someone had to keep guard," he shrugged.

"Why, thank you for sacrificing your sleep to ward away all the chipmunks."

"Those druids are still out here, Ria."

"They weren't dangerous, Robert."

"Tell that to the boy they killed."

I knew it was useless to argue with him. I frowned, instead, and turned around, walking up to John and nudging him with my foot.

"John. John, wake up."