Into the Dark

Chapter 44

It was probably an hour later before we ever got going again. My neck was bandaged up by some supplies a random witch had on her, and Kade's stomach was patched up too until his fast healing took over. I could tell he didn't really like that, and neither did I considering it only made him weaker.

Delilah was once again leading the bunch, the goblins scattered ahead and the others noisily following behind. I walked alongside my original gang... and the fear on everyone's faces was not very well hidden.

"So what happened?" I asked Odis and Maeve, just to make conversation. "Salazar said you were a coven leader and you were a pack leader." I pointed at each of them. "What happened to that?" I didn't smile just in case it was painful for them to talk about... which, based on their expressions, it was.

"My coven was wiped out years and years ago by a group of demons. I'm sure you can guess who led them," Maeve mumbled. "I stumbled across the Freelancers not too long after that and they took me under their wing."

"I already knew the Freelancers when I was a pack leader; long story but we were already allies. My pack used to be strong, well mannered... until some nasty wizard became displeased with our ways and cursed them. They went rogue... did horrible things. I had no choice but to kill them one by one myself," Odis informed.

I felt bad for asking after that. I was sure both situations were highly upsetting and hard to move on from.

"What about you?" Kade said, elbowing me in the side. "You haven't told us much about your life."

I was a bit dismayed at that, but even more surprised at myself. He was right, I really hadn't told them anything about me. I kept everything short, though: my parents, siblings, school, and some aspects of our modern society. I felt it wasn't important to go into much detail, considering I probably wouldn't be here much longer. Either I'll be killed or I'll finally return home.

I'd be separated from them either way.

More of our awkward and totally natural silence followed that short discussion. Hours passed after that, and eventually, the sun started plaguing the sky with light. I don't know how I walked for so long without much rest but it was strangely encouraging, like knowing that I was capable of something normally difficult proved my bizarre strength.

The most exciting part of the quest was when we finally reached the edge of the forest, a vast hilly land stretching out after it. Verdant, yes, but not completely reassuring. Although it seemed cheery, all I saw was a longer and more tedious walk ahead, and I mentally collapsed into an exhausted heap.

I said nothing of my fatigue, though I saw the same thing on the others' faces. We all sensed it but silence clogged our throats and we continued. I never really checked the crowd behind me because I could hear feet shuffling through grass and wings batting in the air. Roll call was not needed considering there was never a change in volume of the sounds.

Eventually, the luscious green hills came to an end. More precisely... they just stopped coming across as a bright color and flattened into an enormous field. The color sure did dull, all that stretched before us was a sort of army green and mixtures of brown. The land looked dead, honestly, and gave off that eerie feeling I was all too familiar with.

There were no trees, no houses, no... anything! Just dead grass that continued on for probably a mile. It was so flat I could see its end out in the distance, trees scattered here and there on that tauntingly green side.

Something seemed very odd about this.

I turned around to our halted group of fifty or more and frowned. "Anyone know why the land is like this? It doesn't seem natural to me," I announced loudly.