Katherine
We followed Indigo into the safety of the forest. I brought up the rear, keeping an eye on Ashley who was in front of me, and any pursuers that might come after us. Way in the front, Indigo swerved suddenly to the left, off the main trail. We followed quickly, hoping to lose the Evils but not lose sight of each other.
The already dim forest only got darker as we ventured farther and farther inside. Branches scratched at me like bony fingers reaching out from beyond the grave. Unknown plants brushed my legs again and again, some wet, some dry, and some felt unnaturally wrong. I've never been this far inside the forest. The most our Herbs teacher ever led us in was within sight of the entrance, and that was walking on the main trail. We were carving our own path, twisting and turning and running over unfamiliar grounds.
Over the rush of the wind I heard howls and shrieks. They were coming closer. I realized with a start that we would be very easy to follow, since we had seven horses and were literally trampling a path through the forest for the Evils to follow. We would never get away in time.
"Indigo! We have a problem!" I shouted.
"What?" came her voice.
"We're too easy to follow! We're basically carving a path for them to follow!" I yelled.
"Oh! Shoot!" Indigo understood in a second. I think she cursed under her breath but her words were carried away by the wind. She took us around another sharp corner, into a small clearing, then halted abruptly.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" I tried to stop Legacy. We skidded to a stop just before crashing into Ashley. The horses shook their manes and stomped, restless.
"Indigo, what are we going to do? We're way too easy to follow," I said urgently.
"I didn't think about this—oh my gosh how could it have slipped my mind?!" Indigo wringed her hands, looking upset.
"No one thought of it till now," comforted Rachel. "Good thing Katherine brought it up in time. We can still find a solution. It's not too late."
"But it costed us valuable time! And now—"
"Every minute we spend here talking gives the Evils time to catch up," said Lucian sharply. "We need a solution now."
"You're right," said Indigo. "But what? I can't think straight right now, it's just too much..."
"What if we split up?" asked Ashley. "Will that make it harder for the Evils to follow?"
"I don't want us to split up," said Indigo. "We could get lost. Or get attacked and not have backup. Lots of bad things happen when we split up."
"Then what are we going to do?" asked Lucian, frustrated.
"Guys, you might want to hurry it up," I warned, pacing around the perimeters, eyes on the forest around us. "I think the Evils are arriving."
I could feel their oncoming presence. Legacy snorted and stomped the floor nervously. The back of my neck tingled. This did not feel good.
"We could always try and fight..." suggested Rachel weakly. The others looked appalled and frightened.
"No we can't. Nope nope nope. We can't defeat them, and besides, there's too many of them!" said Jason fearfully.
"Jason's right. We can't risk it. What if we die here? The quest haven't even started. Those people back there fighting for us? We would've let them all down," affirmed Aaron.
"Let's split up then," said Indigo suddenly. "It's the only way. We'll go in a group of three and a group of four."
"So, Jason, Indigo, Ashley would be in one group, and Katherine, Aaron, Lucian, and me would be in the other group," said Rachel. "Each has at least one person powerful enough to kill Evils, if it gets down to that."
"Guys, we have like a minute before the Evils catch up to us," I said tensely. "Indigo, give us the directions on how to get out of this place and where to meet up."
"Okay, the basic thing is, always follow the sun," she pointed up at the sky. Even though the sky was getting dark from all the evilness you could still make out the outline of the sun. "Keep the sun in front of you, and you're good. No matter how you weave through the forest if you follow the sun you won't get lost. Remember, you can double back, circle around, sharp corners, whatever it takes to lose the Evils."
"One more thing: in the forest is a river. We will cross it at some point. It's not deep, so our horses can walk in it. Walk in the river upstream. In the river. After you've walked for about fifteen minutes, cross to the opposite bank and head west. Eventually you'll get out of the forest and see a big road. If you head directly down that road, the first village you see is called Northbell. In that village is a small inn called George's Shack. We'll meet there."
"Guys, we have to leave now," I said, urging my horse forward to join my group. "If anything happens, we'll leave signs to tell the other group what happened!" With that, we split up. Indigo's group headed to the left as I led our group to the right. By the time the Evils emerged in the clearing we were already gone.
Keep the sun in front of you, Indigo's voice echoed in my mind. Well, the sun was too slow to do that. We went straight for a while, then turned to the left, then right, then left, left, right, left, right until I couldn't remember where we've already been and where we haven't. It wasn't until we burst out of the trees and into the same clearing we left did I realize we went around in a big circle.
"That was so confusing I'm sure the Evils got lost," said Aaron as we paused to rest for a second.
"I don't know about that," I said uncertainly. "We should keep moving."
This time, Aaron led the way. Soon, we reached the river that Indigo mentioned. The current wasn't very strong, and it certainly looked very shallow. Aaron urged his horse in to test it out. It barely went up to the horse's mid-calf. In a single file we walked upstream, trying to keep track of the time. When the scenery around us changed from dense oaks to shrubs and pines, Aaron deemed that enough time has passed. With Rachel taking the lead this time, we headed west with the sun in front of us.
Somehow, it didn't feel as scary. Maybe it was because the only sounds around us were bird chirps. Maybe it was because we'd gotten used to the surroundings and didn't feel like we were going to die any second now. Maybe because it was quiet now. Too quiet.
Before my brain had registered the fact a dark shadow lunged out at Rachel. Her horse reared back in alarm, nearly throwing Rachel off. Aaron, who was behind her, pulled out his sword and stabbed at the monster. I notched an arrow on my bow and fired, while muttering a spell that Ashley had taught me.
Poof! The monster exploded in a shower of black dust. An Evil had just been vanquished. But now I could see more shadows looming out in the surroundings.
"Let's try to lose them!" I shouted before urging my horse forward. "Don't let them get to you!" We galloped in a diamond shape, with Rachel in the front, Aaron bringing up the rear, and Lucian and me on either side. If anything showed up around me I shot it down with my rosewood-tipped arrows while saying the spell that activated the power. Aaron, with his control over the wind, knocked Evils down with powerful gusts. Lucian managed to burn several Evils into crisps with fire, and Rachel concentrated on trying to lose the Evils.
Right, left, left, circle back, left, left, right, right, turn around, right, turn back, left.....I was getting dizzy. Our jobs were to keep the Evils at bay while Rachel's sole mission was to get us out safely. But more Evils appeared. I was running out of arrows. Lucian and Aaron were getting tired. How could there be so many? I only saw one group coming towards us back at school!
I had to conserve my arrows. I opted for a spear, its tip also coated with rosewood. Lucian pulled out his sword. Aaron managed weak flurries of wind that whipped up fallen leaves and branches to attack with. So just like that, we fought our way through the forest, twisting and turning, trying not to die.
It seemed like hours before we finally managed to shake the Evils off our trail. We didn't dare slow down to catch our breath. Commanding our already tired horses forward, we raced to get out of the dangerous forest.
"Ah!" Rachel couldn't halt in time and went tumbling into a river, horse and all. Quickly dismounting, we pulled them out, all dripping wet.
"Another river?! I thought Indigo said only one!" exclaimed Lucian. "What if we crossed the wrong river?"
"There's supposed to only be one river in the forest," I said quizzically. "The map said so."
"You have a map?! Why didn't you say so sooner?!" said Lucian angrily. "Could've save us some time!"
"If you didn't notice, I was busy saving your sorry butt from Evils with my arrows," I shot back, glaring at him. "I wasn't aware that we had time to sit down, have a nice chat, and pore over a map!"
"Guys! Calm down, please!" Rachel got between us and held up her hands. "This is what the Elders warned us about! We need to focus on the task at hand. We can't be breaking apart when the quest barely started!"
"Yeah, Lucian," I muttered as I sat down on a rock and began digging through my pack for the map. He huffed and turned away to throw pebbles into the river. I took out the map and some sandwiches for us to eat. All that running and fighting had made all of us hungry. Within seconds, the sandwiches were devoured.
"Any more food, Kath?" Lucian asked, smacking his lips. "I'm still hungry."
"Why didn't you bring your own food?" I retorted, still grumpy. "These were for me."
"I have food, okay? Can't you guys make peace?" said Rachel, irritated. She dug out some muffins. "If you apologize to each other you guys can have some." As if to prove that, Aaron reached over, plucked a muffin out of Rachel's hands, and started chomping on it with exaggerated relish.
"Mmm this muffin is so good," he taunted through a mouthful. "So, so delicious."
"Fine. Kath, I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier," said Lucian gruffly.
"And I'm sorry for snapping at you," I said grudgingly. We stared at each other, then broke into a smile at the same time.
"That's better," said Rachel. "Here, eat a muffin." As we munched away at the treat we studied the map. I pointed at the thin blue line snaking across the forest. "That's the river. And see, there's only one."
"Where are we right now?" asked Aaron. Rachel studied the map. Turning it at a certain angle, she seemed to be aligning it with our current position.
"Here." Rachel pointed at a part of the blue line just after a bend. "See that boulder? It's that one over there." We followed her finger to see the same boulder just past a grove of trees.
"So where did we cross before?" Lucian wondered. Rachel traced the blue line with her finger, stopping at a section way downstream.
"I think here. See how the trees changed farther up? That's where we went to the other side. So I'm estimating, if we walked for fifteen minutes downstream, it should be around there."
"What do you think Indigo meant? Do we walk upstream again or just cross and keep going?" I pondered.
"Well if you look here," Aaron stabbed his finger at the sign for a village. "That's the first village you would encounter once you get out of the forest. I'm assuming that's Northbell, where we're supposed to meet up at." Moving his finger diagonally down, he stopped where we currently were. "We're here. I think the shortest path to go would be to head upstream again, cross, and then exit the forest to the road. What do you all think?"
"Hm, I think you're right," said Rachel slowly, tracing the path herself. "Because if we cross the river right now, we would have to go through dense thickets and lots of trees. Those are great hiding places for Evils and other dangers. But if we head upstream and then cross, we go through plainer areas. Easier for our horses and more open. Less places to hide."
"Okay. Sounds good," I agreed. Two smartest kids in the school making decisions, and I wasn't going to argue.
"We should get moving. I want to get to the town before nightfall," said Lucian, standing up. So we remounted our horses and splashed into the river, once again heading upstream. Alert and tense for any suspicious movements, my head buzzed with questions. Where were the others now? How were they doing? Did they get attacked? When will we meet again, and—I didn't want to think about this one—will we see each other again?
A/N: I hope you guys are all enjoying the story so far! I'll try my best to keep the story line moving and keep you all entertained. Please don't forget to comment, vote, and share! Thanks!