The Laila Mythology

The Treacherous tide

                                                                    Chapter Eleven

 

                                       The Treacherous Tide

 

 

The Green man was up and out bright and early with the dawn chorus as usual, foraging amongst the undergrowth when Laila awoke from her slumber. Lon meanwhile lay snoring in the foetal position on the opposite side of the fire upon a bed of dry bracken.

“You’re up early!” remarked the ever resourceful Jack appearing from out of the greenery, arms laden with food and firewood.

“I know” said Laila drowsily rubbing her eyes.

“I had this really strange dream last night Jack, about a dragon. It was lying in cave underground surrounded by water and it was calling to me as if it wanted me to help it, but I couldn’t do anything. It’s not that I didn’t want to, it was just that it was far too huge and scary”.

“I wouldn’t concern yourself with it Laila, it’s only a dream. It might be just your subconscious mind expressing the feeling of being trapped in this world and yearning to be back home” he said with a cheery smile.

“Yeah I guess?” she said resting her head back down again.

“The important thing is, we are on our way to the ancient hawthorn, so your dreams of home will soon be a reality” said Jack as he fed some more wood onto the fire.

“What was that you were saying about an ancient hawthorn?” asked Lon waking suddenly from his sloom.

“It is our reason for heading to Puo Landum” said Jack.

“What, to find a hawthorn?” he said. “But all the hawthorns were destroyed during the Banishing!”.

“Your assertion is based upon rumour my friend. Yes it is true that nearly all of the ancient hawthorns where destroyed but one still remains, the last of its kind known as the Omega tree, hidden beyond the axes of destructive ignorance”.

“You mean to say that a world tree still exists in Puo Landum?” asked Lon surprised.

“That is correct” said Jack.

“My word! That’s amazing!”  He gasped. “But how do you expect to get anywhere near it? I mean, Puo Landum is in the heart of Goblin country and everyone knows that the Goblins are a ferocious, barbaric race”.

“On the contrary Lon, the Goblins are a very civilized race”.

“But you said yourself that they didn’t take kindly to strangers”.

“Yes, but unfortunately they have been persecuted for so long now that they forced to be defensive, but that is not to say they are in anyway uncultured. After all it was they who recognised the sanctity of ancient trees”.

“That’s as may be, but how confident are you that we will be unharmed entering Puo Landum” Lon asked.

“I’m afraid I cannot answer that, but I have heard it said that their elder is an extremely wise and learned individual”.

“Well let’s hope he is as merciful as he is wise” Lon quipped.

After breakfast they cleared away any signs of their presence in the woods and continued their journey north following a tributary of the river Ura downstream. The terrain was steep and the weather fine so Laila and Lon decided to pause briefly for a swim in the inviting yet cold waters of a picturesque glen where ferns, mosses and broadleaf saplings issued from every crack and fissure of the towering vertical outcrops, fragmenting the sunlight into an illumination of crepuscular rays below.