Fred and Draco had quieted down and went deep into thought once I revealed to them my knowlege of the limbo we were stuck in. The dark coldness of the forest began to grow a bit warm which made me believe that it was sometime in the day. We were all hungry so we set off to find some edible plants to eat for the time being. We walked for several minutes before I stooped down to take a look at a berry plant that Draco picked out. I was fascinated by the little design that grew on the berries as it reminded me of a tiny skull and cross bones. My breath caught in my throat and I quickly stood up. My eyes flittered around the forest as my ears listened for anything.
"What is it?" Fred asked me as he took a step forward.
I kept listening and looking not wanting to let my attention be pulled away. Those berries were a bad omen as it was a sign that it had feasted.
"Are they edible?" Draco asked. "I mean look they are everywhere so we could eat them."
I felt my heart try and jumped from my chest and slowly I looked down. Sure enough there were atleast a hundred of these plants scattered about in a 40 foot radius.
"We need to move... fast" I said.
Right on cue as if it heard our plan to move it let out a hideous ear piercing gargled screetch. I threw my hands up over my ears and looked to Fred and Draco who looked terrified as they too covered their ears.
"What is that?" I saw Draco mouth.
The moment the sound died down and all was silent I uncovered my ears and looked around. Sometimes I wish I hadn't read the Hogwarts a History book because now I knew what our possible deaths could be. Then again I was grateful because I also knew how to avoid them.
"That was the hunger screech of a Wendigo. It screeches when it is hungry."
Draco and Fred both looked around with terrified looks on their faces.
"We are going to be eaten alive" Fred gasped. He moved closer to me and attempted to pull me into his arms but I quickly pushed him away.
"No, not yet. A Wendigo has a slow process only because it has a slow mind. It only let out one shriek meaning it has just realized it was hungry. When you hear three shrieks that is when you should be worried because that means it is in hunting mode. Then four shrieks means its found something it wants and then five means you are dead." I finished. "But we can avoid it"
"How is that?" Draco said taking a step forward.
"We need to find an Encantado"
"Okay then lets go, where do we look?" Fred replied in a quickly jumbled sentence.
"We need to find water, where there is water it will be." Fred took out his wand and went to wave it over his head before I grabbed his arm and covered his mouth. "What are you doing!?"
"I was going to use point me aguamentacio it will point us in the direction of water." He explained.
"I know but we can't just walk into water with a Encantado and live to tell about it."
Draco make a groan before he bowed his head in his hands. "Then how?"
I really wish these boys did as much reading as they normal did goofing off or bullying one another. I mean seriously I didn't really like having to be a leader in a life or death situation. If one of my friends died I wouldn't be able to bear it.
"Blood. You have to cut yourself and rub anothers blood onto the wound, only then will you be safe."
The idea of having to cut an open wound into my own body made me quiver repulsively.
"How are we going to cut ourselves" Fred asked.
Draco bent down and picked up a rock shard and brought it down on the inner crease of his elbow, immeadiately his arm began lightly bleeding. Draco passed the stone to Fred who did the same and then passed it to me where I mimicked them. I moved over to Draco and rubbed my bloodly wound up against his and then he rubbed his against Freds. I nodded once to Fred who rose his wand.
"point me aguamentacio " Fred chanted.
Before our eyes a path illuminted. Everything seemed hopeful until we heard it three shrieks. I froze in my steps, not noticing that Fred and Draco had already headed off down the path. I took in a deep breath realizing that I had held my breath and it felt like my lungs wanted to explode. I looked around and I was alone. Seconds later I let out a scream when something grabbed my arm, it was Fred, Draco was 2 feet behind him.
"We have to stick together" Fred breathed. I nodded my head before we took off running along the illuminated path.
I have no idea how long we were running for but we stopped when we came to a dead end. The path made it clear that we would have to climb, what was on the other side I have no idea but then I heard the splashing of water.
"We just need to get over this wall and then we will be safe."
Fred nudged me forward. "You go first then Draco and then me"
I looked to Fred in shock and so did Draco. I nodded my head and Fred and Draco boosted me up. I scaled as best as I could up the rest of the wall that held back the water and then sat on leg over either side. I looked down and breathed in relief.
"There is water"
"Are the Encantados there?" Draco asked.
I looked back at the water below me I strained my ears and sure enough I heard what sounded like muffled music. I looked back to Draco and nodded before I dropped into the water below.
"Its safe, come on." I told them as I came back up to the surface and began treading water. I suddenly froze when I heard a 4th shriek. Its found something it likes. "Hurry up guys" I panicked. I wish I had went last.
In less than 10 seconds I saw Dracos blonde hair pop up before he pulled himself onto the wall. Before I heard the 5th shriek I felt everything go calm around me. The trees seemed to move with the breeze but they made no noise. The water moved against the rocks and there was no splashing sounds. "Fred!" I screamed.
I watched as Draco leaned back down from the wall. What was he doing? Before I could blink twice I watched Draco strain as he seemed to be pulling Fred up onto the wall. Something moving in the trees grabbed my attention and I screamed in fear. Hovering a few feet above my friends was the darkened silhouette of the Wendigo. "Fred! Draco! Jump!" I screamed as I pulled my hair in a deranged movement. I saw them look up the moment the monster lunged for them. Fred pushed Draco over the wall into the water as the Wendigo bit him. Fred screamed and as the Wendigo latched onto his arm. Suddenly the creature fled and Fred fell backwards into the water.
Draco moved towards Fred and pulled him towards the shore before coming back for me. I was so panick stricken I couldn't stay afloat. The moment he got me to land he moved to Freds side and took his arm into his hand.
"Genesis what do we do?" He gasped. Without waiting for another word he took off his shirt and wrapped the wound up to try and keep the bleeding down. Draco applied pressure over the covered wound causing Fred to scream in pain before he turned to me. "Genesis! Focus, how do we fix his arm." he all but yelled at me.
I closed my eyes as I tried to focus on what I had read in the book. Chapter 39 - Wendigo. The page flashed before me and it was as if I was reading straight from the book.
For those that happen to cross the path of a Wendigo and survive you are surely lucky. More wanderers have died from a bite inflicted from the creature then by being eaten as the creature likes its meal to be dead before it eats. When you are bitten you will have between 5-30 minutes (time varys depending on the degree of the bite) before they die. In order to heal the wound one must find the Wendigo berry and squeeze the juice onto the wound. The berry itself is the size of a plum but has a very distinct skull and cross bones mark on it. The Wendigo berry grows wherever a Wendigo has feasted. Retrieving the berry is more so a suicide mission as one will most likely die in attempting to find one.
I opened my eyes and looked at Draco who was still holding pressure on Freds wound. "To fix his wound we have to retrieve the berries we saw earlier."
Draco looked around. "Come here Genesis" he said to me.
I moved to his side and he took my hands and pressed them onto Freds wound before he got to his feet and headed towards the wall.
"Wait! Where are you going?" I asked.
"I'm going to get those berries." I lifted up my hands to try and protest. "What are you doing, apply pressure!" He snapped at me. "Fred is too weak to get them himself and you need to keep pressure on the wound or he will die faster. I am the only one able to go."
I shook my head in disagreement. "No, not even. I am healthy I can go."
"You must be crazy if you think I am going to let you go out alone. I owe Fred he saved my life. If he wouldn't have knocked me over it would have been me getting bit not him."
"But I'm smarter"
"But you are the only thing keeping Fred alive. Your hands are a bit busy at the moment."
Without another word Draco began climbing the wall. He mumbled something to himself before he disappeared over to the other side. I sat there with my hands on Freds wound hoping that he would return soon with the berries. I didn't want both my friends to die.