Scroll of Starlight

Chapter Twenty Four

I smiled, thankful for the check up. "Yeah, Adrian. We're cool." He looked back at me and winked before placing the map in his pocket.

"Let's get rolling then." We pushed off and followed Adrian down the road. My legs were okay, but we had to pause a few times so I could take a break, but as soon as we reached the woods, we decided to keep off the bikes.

There was nothing but greenery and bark in front of us, but to the side we spotted a path leading inside the forest.

"Alright, final confirmation." Adrian called back to us. "We doing this?"

Dean chuckled, while walking in front. "Scared, A?" Then he looked back just to say, "We should hurry, if we do find anything, we don't want to leave when it's getting dark out here."

As I continued to follow, a grumbling Adrian walked beside me pushing his bike. "Me? Scared? I am a journalist, for Christ's sake." I rolled my eyes but chuckled under my breath, following into the pathway.

There was nobody else walking on the pathway and the sun was still shining through the leaves. Plenty of sunlight left for us to explore and run, just in case anything happened. Or in our situation, bike away. But I hoped that wouldn't have to happen and quickly jogged to catch up with Dean. Amused, he glanced down at me before setting his eyes on the path once more. "What's wrong, Brannie? Afraid of the woods?"

"How are you not?" Adrian spoke out from behind us. "It's so full of trees and no signs of human life that you could easily get so lost in!"

"Well, one might think it's safer that there's no one else. Humans can be the worst creatures on the face of the planet." Dean said and we both knew that was true. These past few weeks were the complete compilation of the worst things that could happen to both of us.

We walked a little more before Adrian took out another map and sighed. "Alright, we're going to have to leave the path, which is what every stupid person says in a horror movie, but I got us covered!" Reaching into the satchel he brought everywhere, there were small circles in a plastic bag.

I squinted, not knowing if I was seeing anything correctly. "Are those...beans?"

"Where'd you get red beans?" Dean asked, both of us thoroughly confused.

Adrian gave a frustrated sigh. "Am I the only one not wanting to get attacked by a monster today or a chainsaw man?" He took a bean out and threw it on the floor, where compared to the ground it was on, the red was vibrant. "It's so we can find our way back easily if we get lost."

Dean and I 'ahhed' in unison. "That makes sense." I shrugged. "Alright, I'm curious enough. Let's hurry."

We quickly pushed our bikes up the small hill, following the path drawn on the smaller map Adrian had printed out. All the while, he made sure to drop the beans in a consistent pattern. Up ahead there was a clearing in the path and the trees somewhat moved out.

"Alright, the path ends here, but I'm not too sure where to start looking now." Adrian placed his bike on the side of a tree, Dean and I following suit.

I looked around and there was seemingly nothing before my eyes landed on a tree that looked suspicious. I voiced my concerns aloud and Adrian frowned. "How does a tree look suspicious?"

I walked up to it and looked up. Among all of them, this was the tallest one, but there was something carved onto its bark. Little dots were scattered and to the untrained eye, it would look like nothing. But I had scoured my constellation book front to back since I was a small child and it matched the constellation we were following. "Guys, it's the star pattern from the symbol."

Dean hurriedly took the note out and placed it on the tree. Just as I had predicted, the patterns matched. I locked eyes with him and we looked down. Just off from a patch of grass, there was freshly dug up dirt. The dirt on top was brighter and had more hydration than the patches around it. Besides that, it looked like it was messed around with. Luckily, we came prepared. Dean turned around and let me open his backpack up to grab a small shovel.

"Hey, hey! This is adventure worthy, please let me dig it up." Adrian mentioned from behind me and I relented.

He quickly set his satchel aside and dropped on his knees while grasping the shovel in his hands. Quickly, he dug in and while we stepped closer to keep an eye on what was going to be discovered. As he continued to dig for a while, a clunk hit and we all paused. From the side, there was something sticking out. Adrian instantly out the shovel aside and tried to grasp the object.

"Box!" He felt around and finally being able to put his hands around it, brought up the object from the ground. It was a small box, perfect to fit small jewelry and had intricate designs around it.

"Well? Are you going to open it?" I asked, the impatience finally starting to settle in.

"Fine, fine." Adrian grumbled and stood so that we could all see. Pulling the lid up, which was attached with hinges, something gold flickered from the inside.

"A key?" The Key of the Vine. "Dean, might this be the key the book was talking about?" I stared down at the item, which had the symbol we had also seen in the book attached on top.

"It sure seems like it would be." Dean murmured, an entranced look in his eye as he reached to grasp it.

Adrian widened his eyes as he tried to step back to get away from Dean with the box. "Wait, stop!" But it was too late, Dean had already touched it, but while stepping away, Adrian tripped on a stick and sent the key flying to the ground.

"What just?" I went to say and get the key before it fell, but as soon as it touched the ground a flash big flash appeared and I was blinded by the light. A couple seconds passed without me being able to say anything and the whole world seemed like it was slowed down. But as the light became dimmer, I completed my statement before opening my eyes. "Happened?"

I winced and rubbed my forehead. "Dean?" I finally opened my eyes and my jaw dropped. We definitely weren't in the woods anymore and the man in front of us was definitely the one I saw before.

"It took you guys long enough."