The Enchanted Path (Book 1 of the Dreamfarers' tales)

Chapter 29 - The Sunset Woods

Another glorious morning broke with Dianthus jolting awake his two friends at the first ray of sunrise.

I knew it, Birch thought miserably as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. I knew he'd want to make up for the time lost yesterday. Usually, he wouldn't complain that much about waking up at such ungodly hours in the morning, but his schedule in the Forest didn't include any forced march under the scorching summer sun. It was yet another story for Cassidy: just like birds, she awoke way before the sun came up but this time, she, too, looked a little groggy from the rough wake up.

"Sorry guys, I'm so sorry!" the unicorn said, bouncing on the tip of his hooves.

"He doesn't seem that sorry to me," Birch muttered with a half smirk. Dianthus looked ready to burst where he stood.

"Hey furball, what happened?"

"I had another dream!"

Birch snorted to himself. "Of course, he did."

"Don't you see? I have one almost every night now! I didn't expect another tonight; this means we are close!" Dianthus pranced a little and gave a shake of the tail.

It's good to see him confident again, Birch thought, but he wouldn't be caught death saying something like that out loud. But...does this mean we are following those nonsense dreams again? Oh, Gaia so help me if that's his plan...

"Come on, come on, come on!" Dianthus urged impatiently.

"Chill out, Dianthus, we are going!" Cassidy laughed at his enthusiasm and preened her feathers quickly.

"Oh, we should've come here from the start!" Dianthus complained, dancing restlessly on his hooves.

"Do you mean the portal is here?" asked Cassidy.

"No, I can't say so, but this is the right direction," Dianthus insisted. "I get it now. I get how it works: I woke up with this feeling and...would you two get a move on?"

"Okay, okay! Birch, let's go before he faints from all the excitement," she joked.

"Finally!" Dianthus sprinted ahead.

"Hey! Wait for us!"

Birch and Cassidy blasted off after him.

"This is the place of the dream, I'm sure now!" Dianthus shouted back to them as he dashed through the tall olm oaks.

"No way! Really?" Cassidy and Birch struggled to keep up with him running on that uneven ground. More than once the two risked slipping and wondered how Dianthus could be so comfortable skimming through the woods at full speed.

"Has he always been that fast?" Birch rasped.

"This may be Sir Chrysantos' former territory," Cassidy answered. "It must run in the family."

"Was that a pun?"

"Just run, you saphead!"

Dianthus burst through the barbed gorse shrubs and halted abruptly on the edge of the cliff just in time not to fall. He was so excited to be there that not even the thirty wing-strokes' jump was much of a bother to him.

"Just like the place of the dream!" he gasped, the emotion taking his breath away more than the breakneck run. "It's just the same!"

The cliff, the shimmering expanse of the sea, the bushy plants and that salty smell! He almost couldn't believe his own senses.

"We have to go there!" he announced as Birch and Cassidy finally made it through the tangle of the gorse.

"Where is 'there' exactly?" Cassidy asked, gazing at the endless stroke of ultramarine before them. Wow, she mouthed. She had heard of the sea but to see it was another story. Even Birch was impressed and stayed silent.