Skayre

Chapter Eight

Chapter eight
The whole group stopped and stood frozen, they had all heard it without a doubt in any of their minds, someone had just shouted out for help. They all turned at the same time and immediately realised what exactly was wrong, Ren was no longer with them, it must of been him screaming.

Abernacky ran straight down the tiny path back they way they had come, winding through trees and turning this way and that, “easy enough to lose the path” he thought, however this didn’t slow him down at all, he charged on and suddenly stopped, looking just off the path he could see what looked like a footprint, he stooped down for a closer look, and just off to the sides he could see some more much smaller prints, these looked like solid little boots instead of a foot. “gnomes” he hissed to himself.

There was movement behind Abernacky and he quickly jumped back up, Stripe, Beryn and Mert came down the path, “christ Aber could you of gone any faster” scolded Beryn, “oh haha sorry just a tad worried, it would seem as though our new friend has met with the felwood gnomes” he replied, a slight smile in the corner of his mouth. “I spose we’d best go after him” said stripe with any great sense of enthusiasm, Mert was another who wasn’t very excited about this prospect, “umm I like Ren but wouldn’t we just be going to our deaths if we go after him” he looked around his face full of fear thinking that this was the end.

Abernacky chuckled at this and all around there was quiet giggling in the darkness, Mert’s face was even worse now, pure horror displayed in all of his features, he didn’t want to leave the path but he also didn’t want to be separated. “oh fine whatever” he attempted to sound more annoyed with the effort then the fact he was frightened, “I guess we can go after him, but let me go in the middle of the group since I’m small and would get lost easily in this confounded darkness” he made the first remark as though he was in charge,
“off we go then master mert” grumbled stripe, though he had a slight grin on his lips almost as though he was enjoying the whole thing.

Abernacky went trotting off into the trees and the ever increasing gloom, he also looked like he was having a lot of fun, Beryn followed along behind, though she wasn’t having any fun, she wasn’t quite so scared as Mert, but she was certainly on edge, the hairs stood up on her arms. Then came Mert full of fear and worry trying to stick to the back of Beryn as much as possible, stripe followed along at the back setting a steady consistent pace.

Their progress was slow and arduous, small though their number was, the forest was plentiful of dangers and a never ending supply of thorny brambles to catch and grab at their skin and clothes and slow them down even more.

The three of them had scratches all over, Mert had them mostly around his face and the top of his head, Stripe’s were slightly lower around his shoulders and chest while Beryn being the tallest had them mostly upon her arms and around her waist. They entered a slight clearing where the bushes had reduced in number, “shall we stop for just a moment” called Abernacky, with a great lack of concern for being quiet considering where they currently were. The rest of the group slowly caught up with Abernacky, as each of them met up with him, they each noticed that somehow magically the only one unscathed was Abernacky himself, not a single scratch could be seen, he kept that grin on his lips the entire time as well which was most infuriating for the rest of the group. “How ugh, exactly uhn, did you, grr manage argh that” asked Beryn through gritted teeth.

“haha well you just need to be careful” winked Abernacky, stripe could of sworn he saw a shimmer around Abernacky that was almost pushing the air around him, but he didn’t say anything.
“have any of you got any food or water, now would be a good time to fill up even a little, we still have quite a way to go and it looks up hill from here”. “what exactly do you mean quite a way, makes it sound as though you’ve been here before Aber?” questioned stripe with utmost seriousness.

“Of course I’ve never been here” he grinned back, “I just had a feeling is all”, the forest around them was still full of movement and noise, almost as though there was a lot of animals running all around in the trees and laughing at them. “sh sh ah should we not be worried about the gnomes” asked Mert fearfully, “well in any normal circumstance, yes...” said Abernacky, “and do tell why this isn’t a normal circumstance” enquired Beryn, “because my dear Beryn, they have already acquired a hostage, it would only give themselves more work to capture us as well, so they will just herd us towards their village and then catch us all at once in a trap, much easier if you ask me” smiled Abernacky, there was silence for a few moments, Abernacky grinned at each of them in turn as he was passing them each some, horsh bread. There was a longer pause as they each aye some of their bread, it had the wonderful effect of revitalising each of them, that sweet taste gave them back some energy and the softness made it easy to eat, whatever it was made from they all felt much better for it.

Abernacky continued to look at them, Mert finally spoke up, “umm Aber, what exactly are we going to do and where are we going?” he asked “I’ve got a rough idea, we just have to follow the signs” “signs” sighed Beryn, “what signs exactly?” she asked, "they're almost like gnomish road signs if you will, in the forest there are quite a number of villages and one very large almost like a city, but from what I hear it’s mostly a ruin now" replied Abernacky.

“How exactly do you know so much” asked striped with a raised eyebrow, “as you know I’m quite the lover of books, I have a great number of old and very rare history books, one of my favourites is definitely 'gnomes and their gnomishness', it goes into quite the detail about the felwood gnomes' he said and added at the end 'oh I do love history” he sighed, they all looked at him a little bit stranger than normal now.

“we had best be off, there are some tracks here of there tiny little boots running off deeper into the trees, it seems a bit less dense and scratchy from here as well” said Abernacky, “which to be honest it looks like we need with all these scratches we’ve got” he continued, however Abernacky was the only one without a scratch or cut or even a slightly torn piece of clothing.

As they started to walk further in, the trees grew closer together and the gloomier it became, however there was no more sharp undergrowth, just clear ground crunched underfoot, on some of the trees strange little symbols could be seen carved into branches, each symbol was only carved on a branch pointing in a specific direction.

The direction they seemed to be going had a lump with a tree growing out of it, it looked almost too intricate to be done by hand, the tree had eight branch’s spread evenly on either side and the roots grew down into the lump below it, Beryn spoke up, “I assume the place we are going happens to be this tree village perhaps?” “ohh haha, I’m glad that someone noticed the little road signs, that is indeed where we are going, a fantastic little place” Abernacky said it sounded as though he was reminiscing of a past visit “or so I am told” his cheeks went ever so slightly pink but no one seemed to notice.

“I I g gu Gu guess we are almost there' stuttered Mert, clearly not glad to almost be there 'i assume so, the symbol is getting more frequent and the trees seem to be slightly less dense I guess” replied Beryn, though she wasn’t sure at all.They carried on Further into the forest not really quite sure as to where they wanted to go or actually more so where it was that they were going, any person that actually seemed to really know was Abernacky so oddly enough he didn't want anyone else to realise this.

The forest around them was getting darker and darker. Almost as though night time was setting in, the trees looked more ominous and overbearing yet there seemed to be less of them. Everything one of the group looked back it looked as the forest was closing behind them, as if the trees were blocking any escape they could take the way they came.  though there were some structures hidden up in amongst the trees however they were few and far between and no one was quite sure if they had actually seen anything.
Mert looked up.

He could have sworn that he saw a tiny little figure prancing around amongst the tree branches. He exclaimed out in fright. “What is that?” He shouted out. Everyone else around him turned and looked, Though obviously by the time that they managed to do so whatever it was in the tree had gone almost as if it had never even been there.”shhh what are you shouting for you idiot, anything could come out and kill us” hissed beryn, an arrow wooshed past her ear so closely that her hair flew upwards and it slightly nicked her ear drawing a drop of blood.
“everyone get down” growled stripe, immediately they all dropped to the ground without hesitation, they waited holding their breath and listening out for any sound whatsoever.