Rojuun

Chapter 7

“Aaaggghhhh!” Tathan woke with a scream, sword swinging through the air as he jumped out of his sleeping bag.  He landed on his toes, looking for danger.

Liselle jerked awake.  Her sleeping roll was wrapped around her and she struggled to get out.  When she did, Tathan was standing there looking sheepish.  “There’s no danger Cousin.  It was just a nightmare.”

“Oh.  Well I’m awake now and dawn is showing.  We may as well grab some food and head out.”  She shot a sideways glance at him, wondering if the nightmare was about the attack.  She had woken up with a nightmare too, just without the screaming and sword waving.

Breakfast was quick and simple.  As the sun rose, they mounted the horses to continue their journey in silence.  Liselle had never been this far north in the valley and spent a good deal of time looking at the scenery.  The rugged eastern mountains were closer, still capped with snow.  Liselle loved spring.  It was striking how green the grass and trees were.  Brilliantly colored flowers opened and bloomed as the day went on.  She smiled happily and pointed them out to Tathan.

“Hmm?  Flowers?  Yes.  They are very nice.  It’s like a rainbow barfed all over the grass,” he said.  She stared at him slack-jawed as he went back to riding, lost in thought.

With a shake of her head and a chuckle at his careless disregard for beauty, she continued to look around.  Green forests covered the east and west slopes up to the frost line.  The mountains were lower in the north toward the Willden Forest.

They reached the edge of the forest in the middle of the afternoon, just as thunderclouds were beginning to gather.  Thunderstorms every single afternoon became tedious after a while.  When Tathan put on a hooded cloak to protect him from the rain, she slipped into her jacket and put its hood over her head.  They turned east at the tree line and Tathan began to search intently for his path.

It was well hidden.  Had someone been looking at the trees straight ahead, or traveling to the west, they would have missed it.  The path opened to the side with underbrush covering the entrance.  They carefully made their way through.  From there, it curved to the north, going deeper and deeper into the forest.

Tall trees bordered the path, but never grew directly on it.  Drizzle pattered the leaves of plants and wildflowers covering the ground along with old fallen tree trunks and moss covered rocks.  The smell of moist wood was strong.  A deer watched them ride by, completely unafraid.  Squirrels, rabbits and various other small woodland creatures darted everywhere.  Birds of all types flitted from branch to branch singing a myriad of songs.

“This is about as far as I was ever brave enough to venture,” Tathan said.  “It’s an awe-inspiring forest and a little intimidating too.”

“If this is the farthest you’ve ever been, how do you know where the path goes, or that it goes anywhere?” she asked suspiciously.

“Well, I don’t know.” he said sheepishly.  “I always had the feeling it went somewhere.  It’s an instinct I suppose.”

“So we’re traveling on a path through a dangerous, possibly haunted, forest because you think it goes somewhere.”

He looked up the path ahead.  “I know it goes somewhere.  That’s not enough for most people, but I have a good feeling about this.”

Liselle rubbed her face with both hands.  It wasn’t much to go on, but she didn’t have any better ideas.  “Alright.  It doesn’t look like we have anywhere else to go, so we’ll find out one way or another.”

He nodded his head and continued.  “I don’t think it’s haunted if that’s any consolation.  It’s just a big, scary forest with standard violent beasts like dragons, bears and that sort of thing.  I doubt there are many ghosts.”