The Shadows of Erisdar (ON HOLD)

Chapter 16

The Worgen guards eventually lost the trail of the prisoners among the many hoof prints of the scattered herd. Alex and Darryl kept running as the darkness covered the land like a blanket, and she silently asked the forest to cover their tracks. By the time they stopped running, it was almost midnight. The mare had started following them when they turned north, and she was still following them along with a buckskin-coloured stallion and a speckled mare.

Alex was awestruck at the Permions. Their gaits were smooth, and they were not tired after the long ride. She had only ever read stories of these magnificent beasts, and to see so many alive and to be riding one was beyond amazing.

They paused briefly to let the steeds drink and stretch their legs. Alex had developed a strange ache in her thigh that cramped every now and then. She stretched and twisted to try to get rid of it, but she soon gave up and looked around.

She did not know where they were. Erisdar was an extremely large valley, and she was never able to explore every part of it, so she used the stars above to guide her north. Soon, though, they will have to stop to rest their tired and weak bodies, but she needed to find somewhere more secluded.

"We'll need to stop soon when the moonlight fades." She heard Darryl say from behind her as she mounted the silver stallion again.

She looked to the right at the sliver of moon disappearing beneath the horizon, and she trotted on. "Did you hear what I just said?" he questioned.

"Yep," she answered. "We keep going."

"How the hell do you expect to see?" he asked in disbelief. His sight was brilliant in the dark, but this valley was different, and it made it difficult even for him, especially this close to this forest, so he could only imagine how it would be inside it.

"With my eyes, of course." She retorted. She knew she was annoying him, and she took pleasure in it.

In the past, when she had discovered her unique connection to the world around her, and after Anja trained her to hone it, she had always asked the forest to guide her to shelter and safety, and she knew she could rely on the trees once more. Pushing her consciousness out to the forest around her, she began looking for shelter, and soon she veered slightly off course.

Before long, the moon was gone, and they moved into the trees. This was an area of the forest that was more like a rainforest or a swamp, minus the extreme dampness. Darryl did not say a word as he gaped at his surroundings. With the moonlight's disappearance and the darkness creeping up, the forest began to reveal its splendour. Small plants, flowers and mushrooms littering the ground, and various flowering vines that grew on the tree trunks, started emitting a soft glow, lighting their path.

Alex smiled at Darryl's silence as she was guided deeper into thicker areas where the forest grew brighter, knowing full well that she had won. Not only had the plant life revealed their true nature, but soon creatures that had scurried to safety at the sudden appearance of the newcomers began to emerge once they sensed the familiar energy of one blessed by nature. They could see she was a friend of the forest, and thus their fear dissipated.

Alex dismounted in a secluded area deep within the forest, and she began unsaddling the stallion before rubbing him all over. Darryl also dismounted and unsaddled, and she did the same for that stallion before turning them both loose in the small area to graze with the other three.

They would not walk away, of that she was sure. She settled down between the roots of one of the large trees that created a canopy over the area and used the saddle as a headrest. She began thinking about Seamus and how he wanted to stay.

He would have been a great Alpha had he not gone missing on Boronduin's borders five years prior. She wondered how she'd free him, but exhaustion overtook her before she could form a plan. Strange dreams of snarls and sorrow, and a winding tree atop a pool of blood, plagued her sleep again.