Enar's Vacation - Open Beta

Chapter 18

3522 Words

This is a beta version of Enar's Vacation. Changes can - and probably will - be made as a result of reader feedback. I hope you'll enjoy it and I hope you'll take the time to give me some feedback. It will help me make this story the best it can be.

+++

Down on the road Bolvar turned left and kept walking - continuing in the direction Enar and Rolf had walked earlier. Enar came a little bit behind, careful not to get too close to the dog. When he reached the road he stopped and looked to the right. That way lay Rolf's burrow, and the orchard, and safety. To the left lay the unknown - in the company of a dog so big he'd first mistaken it for a pony.

He could turn right, try and sneak into the guest burrow and hide there all day and then pretend he'd been to that tree on the hill. He pushed the idea away - probably the stupidest thought he'd had in years, or at least this week. It'd never work. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he tried. No way he could look Rolf or Beired in the eye when they found out. His mom would have been disappointed in him.

He went left.

Bolvar stood a bit further up the road and waited for him, but started walking again as soon as he saw Enar moving.

The sun warmed the road and the trees. Flies buzzed, and butterflies flew from flower to flower, doing the things butterflies do. To his left and right, the pines grew dense and dark, but the road was wide, and where he walked no shadows fell.

Good thing he didn't bring his coat. He'd have had to take it off and carry it. Maybe he could have hung it on a branch and picked it up in the afternoon. It would probably have hung there still when he got back. People here didn't steal things like they did in the city. Everyone was nice and no one locked their doors at night. It was that kind of place, right?

He toyed again with the idea of moving out here. Perhaps when they went to the inn to help out he'd meet Jolene again. Hopefully he'd get to spend some time with her. It could work. He'd have to try at least. It couldn't hurt, could it?

A bit up ahead Bolvar had stopped. The dog waited for him at the top of a low rise, where the road made a sharp left around large boulder. When he was sure Enar had noticed him, he turned around and continued straight on, off the road and down the other side of the little hill.

"And so it begins..." Enar mumbled to himself.

When he reached the spot where the road turned, he saw a trail lead away from the road, down into the forest. He stopped for a moment - to catch his breath and have a look.

Ahead of him, the trees and branches opened up just wide and high enough to let the path and its wanderers through, like the mouth of some mountain tunnel. If Bolvar hadn't alerted him to it, he'd surely have missed it and happily wandered off as far as the road would take him - for better or for worse.

The beast was in there somewhere, waiting for him. Enar shaded his eyes with his hand and squinted. Nothing moved in under the trees - that he could see; it looked pretty dark in there. Perhaps Bolvar was further in. Maybe he'd run off.

There was only one way to find out. He'd made up his mind, and he'd said he would go. He'd follow where the dog would lead him. He would not chicken out.

Enar swallowed, stepped off the road and onto the trail and into the tunnel.

The world changed.

Past the first low branches the forest opened up. What had seemed a compact darkness became a grey twilight once his eyes adjusted to it. The pines still grew as close as ever, but their branches had long since withered and died - all but the top ones; the ones that still fought to catch some light.