Walking Between Dreams

Chapter 31

I felt pain spasm through my muscles as someone kicked my side. "Hey, wake up! We need to go now."

With heavy lids from drowsiness I glanced up, Lolos was fully dressed and concern was shining in his eyes. There was something off about the room: smoke clouded the ceiling and the door was charred black. A scream erupted from me as I rolled over and hastily stood up.

Urgently, Lolos gripped my shoulders and reassured, "You are safe. There is nothing to be afraid of."

I shakily nodded and went to strap on my weapons, the weight of my swords comforted me. Twisting around, I saw Lolos ready to exit the room and he handed me half a loaf of saw-dust bread.

"Lets go out of the window," I suggested as I examined the darkened door, it appeared with foot prints from the door to put out the fire.

I walked over to the window and pushed it fully open. Birds were chirping in nearby aspen trees with the sound of livestock singing in harmony. A fresh breeze opened up my lungs, the sun caressed my face warmly, so I leapt out onto the morning dew grass with the bread in my mouth. I heard a light thump behind me as I began walking to the road behind the inn; no people were out this early.

"Do you know where we can go to?" questioned Lolos from behind me.

I mooted with a shrug, "We should go southward since Ewllye is that way. I thought you would have a plan."

Sheepishly grinned Lolos. "Not really. I did not think it all the way through."

"Thank you," I said while looking at the loose dirt road and nibbling on the tasteless bread, "for the help even though you are severely lacking in common sense."

"Just doing what I do best," chuckled Lolos, his eyes glimmering with pure joy.

In agreed silence we tread through the overcast day, there was little blue sky to be seen. The trees thinned out into grassy plains as we traveled further south. No villages or cities could be seen from the lonely road and no travelers wandered through there.

White flowers sprung up in the never ending fields with large leaves jutting off, as we passed them I would pluck a few up and the leaves tickled my fingers. The flowers smelled heavenly when compared to our odors. Patiently, I weaved flower after flower, each with needed gentleness until it formed a circle.

I crept up on Lolos who was ahead of me, quietly pacing up, and sprang into action. I flung it up swiftly onto his head and darted away from him. He picked up the crown to examine it; nonetheless, without a care he plopped back onto his head without a word.

"Nice crown, Prince Lolos," I pestered once I caught up to him.

He playfully mocked, "Why thank you. It looks better on me than any woman."

"You are not wrong there." I started then got distracted when the scent of smoke became overbearing, panic surged through my veins, "Look up there."

Up ahead there was a smoke billowing from a patch of thin trees with a trail of trampled grass leading away from the road. There were not other signs of life.

"We should go check it out just to make sure they are okay," Lolos advocated while his eyes widened.

I debated, "What if they try to harm us?"

"You can ask what if all day except they could be hurt," urged Lolos, "We don't even have to go to the camp. We could just sneak a peak and go."

"Fine," I caved so we ambled down the trail.

It became oddly silent, no animals made a sound, and there was no sign of the wind. We crept towards the smoke being sure not to make a noise; it was hazy as we got closer. Behind a large, vibrant bush we discovered a man of tall height and long onyx hair with black eyes to match manning a too big of a fire. Cruelness laced every aspect of the man's face and he had pointed ears showing through the cascading hair; he was fae.