The Blood Trails

Chapter 3 - The Feast

Peter glanced around the now full table to around him to notice for the first time several eyes staring at him as if he was going to do something against their law.  The speech wasn’t particularly interesting as of yet, it seemed whoever was talking was thanking everyone who helped put together the feast ‘on short notice’ he recalled the voice saying several times. As the thank you’s wrapped up he caught at the very end, "… and special thanks to Peter, whom is the first guest here tonight since the year of 2026, almost seven hundred years ago when the first human landed on this planet of wonders." After the voice concluded there was a long cheer from the thousands of Sairy's.  Wait what?  Was he the first guest in the last seven hundred years!  There must not be very many people that travel this far into the Enchanted Forest. "That's all for today dig in! Enjoy the feast of the gods!"  The thunderous voice trailed off as everyone started to eat off of the thousands of platters on the huge table. Conversation quickly picked up amongst the Sairys.

Peter felt a bit awkward amongst all the small Sairys, but he could tell they tried their best to make him fit in. It seemed like these Sairys knew Peter for a long time even if he only met them a few hours ago, or at least they tried to act that way.  Wanting to appear unafraid Peter grabed several rolls from in front of him as well as a scoop of some sort of casserole. To his surprise the food tasted great, he ate cautiously with all the Sairys.

A few of the Sairys around him introduced themselves, Aley who was a medic sat across from him, she explained that she was one of the better medics who learned in secret from a university in the city. Apparently their magic skills for healing were not very strong. He managed to get Genis, a quite Sairy next to him on his left to say she was a scholar. She researches the history of the Sairys, and the mythology of their people. Next to Genis was Beck, he was one of the top shooters in the Sairy first squadron, even friendly creatures like the Sairys have a formidable army. On the other side of Shen, to his right, was Cretan. Cretan was a scout like Shen, who would mark and track falling objects from the top of the trees to make sure no one got hurt. Across from him and on either side of Aley were two part time cooks, part time event planners. They both kept bragging about how good the cooking was while at the same time complaining about how busy their schedule is. Aley who was in the middle, seemed to be driven crazy by the two obnoxious cooks, several cold glances were shot towards them yet they both ignored and continued ranting on.

After a fairly harmless dinner Shen and Peter went to the guest room. After dropping Peter off Shen motioned good night and flew out of the room, allowing the door to shut on its own.  Peter felt a bit more comfortable around the Sairys after dinner.  Why would they let someone into Soulwick for the first time in seven hundred years?  He no longer thought it was something negative, they did seem pretty harmless. His body landed on the bed again and no longer feeling at all threatened he quickly fell asleep.

Peter woke up the next morning by surprise from Shen, who was in a rush, "Quickly eat some breakfast!" Shen said as he handed Peter a bagel and a glass of juice, "there's a small storm coming.  It's said to take at least five days to pass, if you don't continue your journey now you’ll have to stay here for five days to wait for the rain to end. You don't want to be stuck in a giant tree with a ton of Sairys to keep you busy for that long, it will drive you crazy!" Shen frowned and turned towards the door.  Wow, so they’re helping him out—yeah no threat at all.  Peter understood, if the leaves and trees here are giant how big must the rain drops be?  He got his stuff, which really wasn’t much, and was ready within five minutes to take off and continue on his trip.

Peter and the Sairy walked for half a day before finally coming to a grass clearing. Unlike the side of the forest that he entered the day before, where the trees gradually grew bigger and bigger the deeper he went into the forest, this side was an abrupt stop. The trees, still too large to see the tops suddenly ended in a straight line, a field of blowing green grass about four feet tall replaced the trees. The grass field went on for a good five hundred feet before stopping just as suddenly as the trees. The grass was overtaken by the dry barren surface of the desert. "This is as far as I go!" said Shen, doing one of his now signature twirls in the air.

"Why, do you have to stay?" Peter questioned.

"Yep! I have to stay here and get home before it rains so that I can help everyone else prepare for the five days being trapped inside!" Then without warning Shen buzzed off back into the forest leaving Peter alone, once again.  He couldn’t quite get that little guy.  On the surface he appeared so little, cute, and harmless, but he also was sort of cold—he didn’t really talk much when traveling—almost like it was his ‘duty’ to guide Peter, instead of doing it for fun or company.  But whenever the little boy’s mouth opened and he did a twirl in the air he couldn’t help but bring a smile to Peters face—nothing bad could really come from Shen, maybe he was just a bit protective and foreign to humans.  Maybe he was just as uncomfortable and unknowing as Peter was?

"What a nice strange little guy," Peter decided quietly to himself, then figuring no one else was around he continued talking to break the uncanny stillness of the edge of the forest, "Well, the map said that now I have to go through the Fields of Browene, and well everything here is dead and brown so this must be it!”  He then recited what he’d learned in school, “The Fields of Browene is a very barren desert, nothing grows in it, nothing visible lives in it, and the only thing in the desert is hundreds of miles of cracked, compact, dry, dirt.” He finished his recitation and continued on his own thoughts,  “I have to find out about this 'key' thing, and what my heart desires so much in Lor, the land past the mountains, and now I'm one step closer now." Peter started to walk off into the Fields of Browene.