Floating Stars

Chapter 17: True

Spongy moss and crunching leaves lay underneath strange hands. Hands that have never touched this land before that very second. Hands, that belonged to one who had no other choice than to make this voyage. He got to his feet and swerved his body around on the spot, to take in his new surroundings. His mind was overwhelmed and his breath was catching in a panicky rush.

All that was around him were trees as far as the eye could see.

"Astrid!" His voice shot through the gaps of the trees and dissolved into nothing. He tried again, "Astrid!"

No response came back to him. The only sounds he could hear were the creaking of the branches and the swirling of the gentle late afternoon breeze.

After a moment he decided to just choose a direction and start to walk. Each step he took was heavy and he felt his boots sink into the spongy earth beneath them. His eyes darted this way and that as he tried his hardest to find any small sign of civilisation, but nothing met his eye.

After walking for what seemed hours, he was sure that he was going the wrong way. For no matter how many more steps he took the trees seemed to keep multiplying in front of him. He tried to make his way to various landmarks- fallen trees, an old stone wall, a boulder, but no matter how long he tried to keep motivated he still could not find a way out of the forest.

The greens and browns of his intimidating surroundings were beginning to dull as twilight lowered its sleepy head.

With a squint of his eye and a sudden rummage through the pockets of his khaki green coat- he searched for his pouch. He loosened the tightened strings and scooped out what it held onto his palm.

Disappointment left his chest through an elongated sigh, for what he took out was a transparent ping-pong sized sphere. The light that he expected to see shining from it had vanished. A heaviness pushed down on his heart as the hopelessness of his situation began to sink in. He was lost and soon it will be too dark to keep going. He reluctantly packed the sphere back in its pouch and replaced it back into his coat pocket.

Just before the worry managed to take over him completely, out of nowhere, two shining yellow eyes, three yards ahead of him, stared into his soul. A startled gasp left him and a sharp prickling drummed through his chest. He stared back and didn't dare to move an inch.

Those eyes blinked and made their way towards him. When the creature got closer he could see its soft fur and small, slender figure. A soft, "miaow," left its dainty mouth and then a deep "purr" vibrated through the air as it rubbed its coat gently across his calves.

He bent down to stroke the cat's head. As he did so the cat stopped and stared into his worried face. The look that the creature gave him sparked a memory suddenly in his mind.

"It's you, isn't it?" he asked the tiny face that pointed up towards him. Those bright eyes blinked and stared in response.

"Please, lead me out of here," he pleaded, taking the fact that the cat had not yet left his side as confirmation to his theory.

The cat then turned its body around and started to slink through the trees. He followed close behind, making sure not to lose the creature in the ever growing shadows. He managed to follow his small, furry accomplice to the edge of the forest and there in the near distance he could see the yellow lights of a village.

"Oh, thank Illuminare-Trabem!" he called out in relief at the sight of civilisation. Having no more trees around him now felt as if he had just been let out of a cage.

The cat stopped and looked up at him.

"Where to now?" he asked and the cat took this as its cue to start moving again.