The FEDS Pact

Chapter Nine

The road to La Rochelle was certainly a mighty long distance but having said that it was a considerable less than my initial campaign to Bourges. Once again we found ourselves relying on foot for travel, which undoubtedly contributed to the everlasting travel feel. Apparently some of the terrain was unsuitable for travel by stagecoach, well according to Artemis at least. Even if terrain weren’t an issue Artemis stressed travel in such forms was forbidden as it quite frankly weren’t discreet enough although I just thought it were a darn bad decision, delaying the progress of our quest. As for authority Lukas seemed to have adopted that role, leading the way and although Dredge had accepted his rule, it was only grudgingly so to keep a civil war within our troop emerging.

And so by and by we travelled, mainly through thick woodland which lay untouched and in full bloom. In fact there was very little change of scene and thus very little indication of how far we’d travelled or had to travel to our destination, so we merely had to take Lukas’s word on our bearings. What I’m trying to say is all I and the others knew for that matter was the forest beautiful a place as it was, was a mighty dangerous place, the threat from villains and animals alike. 

Anyways four days had passed, all seemingly in my memory very much the same. It were quite a repetitive time in all honesty with nothing unexpected or of great significance occurring. Things I have to say though heated up a considerable bit after those four days, so I’d best skip ahead and get to it.

It was the dead of night but with the pressing urge to reach our destination and leave the dense woodland behind us we had yet to settle for the evening beneath the stars. There sure were a lot of them and I swear there were so many clusters up there all the constellations must’ve been present. Almost instantaneously Lukas came to what I can only describe as an uneasy halt, holding out his hand, taking a deep breath and observing his surroundings. He stood there for a mighty long time, well it might have just seemed so being tense and all until Jaden spoke up quite nervously matter-of-factly “hey what’s up?”. “We’re entering the realm of the high-state bandits” Lukas started hoarsely only to be overridden by Dredge’s voice displaying a feared tone “why did you lead us here? Nothing but bad things happen here”. “Wh-What do you mean?” I asked bewildered and completely unaware of the true danger we were in. “They’re the most infamous highwaymen in France” Lukas explained “maybe even in the whole of Europe. All these centuries they’ve hidden here, untouchable by the French law”.

To me there was nothing I happened to notice that seemed drastically different from our trek so far. More of the same, generally speaking. The trees were all the same type, height and condition as always and even housed the same old wildlife which were just as plentiful and active as those I’d seen back down the trail. There was however an eerie sensation to the place although I don’t know if that were purely psychological. This being just mind games I’m going to rule out and say it were what came next that were the part with the real impact, something that I still can’t come to terms with today. There are some wounds that just can’t be healed as it’s said.

Still standing stationary my head had a mighty heavy feel overcome it, feeling myself lose all sense of coordination and a voice, yes a voice began to echo in my mind. The voice of Isadora. Yes I held my ears but the voice were simply amplified further as it was in fact coming from the interior as oppose to the exterior. Almost as if she were buried deep within my thoughts. “Careful Huckleberry, great dangers await you. Quickly defend yourselves…… If you wish to stand a chance at surviving the night”.

“Huck…. Huck, Huck what’s wrong?” Jordan asked in a concerned tone, grasping my half collapsed body. I looked up, observing his face in the moonlight, then raised myself a little back to a normal standing posture and spoke “s-something’s wrong”. “Hurrr, I can see that. We’re stuck in the middle of an enchanted woodland with no way out and for the past four days I’ve starved my arse off thanks to Mr Lukas over there and I haven’t even lost a pound of weight” groaned Dredge sarcastically. “No seriously…” I started to be cut out by Jordan’s yell “hey did you just see that?”. I must admit in the corner o’ my eye I caught a flash of movement, even heard a little rustle in the branches with my mighty sharp hearing.