Ollie MacQuoid and the Journey To Rubius

Chapter Fifteen

Alaudidae returned with nothing but blue lips and a runny nose. According to him, there looked to be nothing but trees and endless snowy terrain for miles —even the lake they needed to get to was hours of walking away, not to mention buried under a foot of snow. Ollie found their whole endeavour completely hopeless, given the fact that they were hungry, ill-prepared, and some of them gravely injured, but Calladin refused to admit how dismal their circumstances were. Using his knife, he hacked away at one of the trees until the outer layer fell away and he was able to peel off long strips of sticky, green bark. It tasted awful and made Ollie's jaw ache, but he was hungry enough to eat almost anything.

"Do you think it's worth to return to the tree house?" Said Alaudidae, tearing a strip of bark off with his teeth, "There still might be supplies in there."

Calladin, sitting against the far wall, fiddled with the knots in his shoelaces. "No way," He said sharply, "That wood will be smouldering for days. It's too dangerous."

Alaudidae glanced back at the remains of the tree home, still distantly smoking, and sighed. "Yeah, maybe. I just wanted to say goodbye."

Calladin's face twitched with guilt. "We can get a little closer if you want," He kicked his boot off and removed his wool sock, throwing it onto Elora's lap before starting on his other foot, "I just don't think it'd be a good idea to get too close. We shouldn't breathe in any more smoke."

Alaudidae swallowed his mouthful of bark and grimaced at the bitterness. "I'd like that. I'd feel weird if I didn't say some sort of final words."

"Sounds like a plan." Calladin managed to wriggle off his boot and threw his other sock at Elora, who looked at them with distrust.

"You're the one carrying me," she said, "You should have them. I don't need socks."

"Must I remind you you're barefoot?"

"Hey, it's not my fault I don't wear my shoes to bed like a freak."

Her voice was tight, her laugh strained, and when Calladin didn't budge after a few moments she reluctantly pulled the socks over her feet and leaned her head against the dirt wall. A silence colder than the frigid air outside passed over them. Ollie, once again, was reminded of how ass-kickingly awful their situation was. The Nordenbound forests were said to be harsh, unforgiving, and filled with monsters scary enough to make the greatest wizard forget their own name, and here they were at its edge — young, injured, and unable to defend themselves. How did they even expect to survive?

It was common, almost routine, for any wizard child to fear the Nordenbound Forests. Ollie was quite surprised to find out that Elora had not been raised on stories of monsters attacking trains as they passed through at night, or hiding just out of view in a dark hallway or bedroom. She did not know the stories of the Ice Snake, or the massive wolves with glowing amber eyes (Ollie could not count how many times Bax had scared him with glowing marbles while telling that story), or even the tall, humanoid figures that hid in the trees and used their eight-jointed arms to snatch up anyone foolish to walk alone at night. Those stories, though Ollie knew were mostly fake (ice snakes never got longer than a foot at best, and were actually kind of cute), were so important to his childhood, and yet she knew nothing of them.

Ollie didn't need those stories now. As he gazed into the endless, shadowy expanse of trees ahead, he had the sickening suspicion he'd have stories of his own to tell.

Just before noon, when it was warmest, they gathered what little supplies they had left and started on their way towards the remains of the tree home. Few words were spoken on the half-hour journey there, and what little conversation Alaudidae and Calladin made wilted and blew away on the breeze as they approached the charred mountain of ash that had become of the place they loved so dearly. Elora, sitting on Calladin's back under his jacket, choked on her breath and buried her face into the crook of his shoulder; Alaudidae took hold of Calladin's hand and gripped it tightly. Ollie only stared ahead, his hungry body feeling empty in a different way. The smell of smoke was strong, putrid in the coolness of the air. Particles of dust and ash in the air made Ollie's eyes water.