A few days after their terrific ride through the nightly forest, the twins had gotten used to the place. In the rare nights when the forest shone, the plants now grew away from them as if the twins were poisonous. Therefore, the horses were calmer again and the twins decided to ride at night and sleep throughout the days when they didn't have to be scared to lie on a forest glade covered in grass.
The supplies which they'd bought held for many days and Faolan was very thankful for it. He didn't want to try any of the berries and mushrooms growing in this forest. He'd often scan the trees warily and sometimes he thought he'd seen something move, but nothing happened.
Three days after they'd entered the forest, their road turned away to the northwest. They left the road because they wanted to go southwest, only to find out why the road had taken a sudden turn. They stood in front of a loudly rushing river. It crossed their way and they couldn't see any way over it.
'Maybe the road leads to a bridge somewhere nearby,' Moira said.
'I don't think so. If it did, they'd have built the bridge right here, why make a circle first?'
They looked around and got off the horses, but it seemed to be impossible to get to the other side. Swimming wasn't an option since neither of them could swim and they didn't believe they could get the horses through the ice-cold water. The river had dug into the ground and they stumbled down the steep riverbank, dragging the unwilling horses with them. Having reached the water, they stood there not knowing how to continue.
'What a shame, if we were in the other forest, I'd only have to wish for a bridge and I'm sure one would form, one made out of roots and branches,' Faolan said after a while. To his surprise, Moira had heard him over the noise of the river.
'How come the forest listened to you anyway? And how did you do the trick with the protective sphere the other day?' she nearly shouted to be heard. Their eyes met for a moment, but Faolan looked down quickly.
'I don't know...' he mumbled.
'What?'
'I said I don't know,' he repeated more loudly.
She just looked at him as if she didn't believe him. 'Did you try it here?'
'Of course I did. I can't control it, sometimes it just happens, I don't know...'
Sunk deeply into their conversation, they didn't see what was happening behind their backs. Only the horses did. And they didn't like it. When Faolan saw the horror in the horses' eyes, he turned around quickly. What he saw took his breath away and now Moira could see it, too.
While they had been talking, about a dozen small creatures had climbed out of the river. Their skin was greenish-grey and they were walking on two webbed feet. When they came closer, Faolan felt an uncomfortable cold emanating from the small creatures, which reached up to his knees. They had long tails and no ears and, instead of arms, they had fins with long claws forming something reminding the twins of hands. But most horrific of all were their faces. They had huge round eyes as black as coal and there was no nose. Instead, there were huge mouths with uncountable tiny teeth, sharp enough to cut through flesh and bone.
'Hush!' said Moira to the horses who were about to gallop away and when she started talking to them as calmly as she could, they trusted her enough to stay for a little longer. Meanwhile, Faolan knelt down to be on the same level with the creatures, which didn't seem to want to attack him.
'My name is Faolan. Who are you?' he said shakily. The creature closest to him answered with a weird hissing and the other creatures joined in moments later. 'I don't think they can understand what we're saying...'
'Tell them to go away anyway. They scare the horses too much. I won't be able to hold them for much longer.'
Faolan rolled his eyes. 'And how do I do that without speaking their language?' he shouted.
Moira sighed and told him to hold the horses. When he did so, she turned to the creatures. She showed them her empty hands and knelt down like Faolan had done before. Then she communicated with gestures and facial expressions. Moira pointed at herself and Faolan and then to the other side of the river. One of the creatures quickly jumped into the water, disappearing underneath the waves only to reappear on the other side moments later. It made a movement as if it was waving at her to follow.
'How do I tell them we can't swim?' asked Moira.
The weird conversation went on and at times some of the creatures would go back into water whereas others came out. One of them even had a much smaller one on its back. After a long time, one of the creatures came closer and carefully touched Moira's hand with its fin. As soon as Moira grabbed it tightly, the creature walked to the river and wanted to jump in as if to drag her to the other side. Moira let go of it immediately.
'Wait,' she said, holding her hands up to make the creature understand. It bowed its head a little and blinked while she was walking back to Faolan and the horses. 'There's no way the horses will come with us, we have to leave them behind. Help me take their headgear off. They might step onto the reins and hurt themselves, it's much too dangerous. I'm sure their instincts will guide them out of the forest where they're safe.'
Faolan obeyed and the horses let them do their jobs. They were constantly watching the creatures but behaving calmly otherwise. When Moira gently laid a hand on the horse's head, Faolan thought he'd seen its eyes glow with a golden shine for a moment. His sister whispered a few words and he stroked his horse softly.
'You've done a good job. I hope you find your way back home safely,' he whispered. The horse whinnied quietly and pushed its head against his shoulder. A little overwhelmed, Faolan tickled it.
'Now off you go,' said Moira but the horses just stood there and watched them.
'Why won't they leave now?' Faolan asked.
'I don't know. Maybe they like us?' Moira suggested. 'Oh, we have not yet named them! Alright, I've been thinking about this for a while and I think I will call mine Brownie the Brave.' Moira smiled.
'Really?' Faolan asked with a raised eyebrow.
'Yes, it's brown and it was very brave. I'm telling you, names should reflect who you are.'
'Alright, then I'll call mine Sand the soft. I mean, it was way more terrified of everything than yours so I can't call it anything with bravery... But its fur is very soft and looks like the sand we're standing on now.' When Faolan finished his explanation, Moira seemed content but the horses still didn't move.
Not knowing what else to do, Moira turned to Faolan and they went down to the river where two creatures came to help them to the other side. Faolan picked up a branch that lay somewhere close by and told Moira to hold on to one end of it.
'Just in case, you know. You won't get rid of me that easily,' he said and gave her a weak smile.
Then they took a deep breath and the creatures dragged them into the water, accompanied by the horses' fearful whinnies. The river was much deeper than Faolan would have thought and he now felt more and more creatures laying hand on him. But he couldn't open his eyes and the ice-cold water made him nearly unable to move.
He was overcome by the sudden fear of the creatures trying to drown them instead of helping, but there was nothing he could do now, so he started counting to keep as calm as possible.
After what felt like an eternity, he found himself standing on firm ground again. He breathed quickly and the air felt nearly hot compared to the water, but as soon as he was all out of the river, the wetness of his clothes cooled him down. Without thinking, he took most of them off and earned an evil look from his sister. Then he, under the watchful eyes of the creatures surrounding them, took a blanket out of the bag. He'd hoped it would be dry but had to face the fact that the bag and everything inside it was just as wet as he was, since it had been under the water with him.
'Great,' he muttered. When he looked at the other side of the river, he saw the horses still standing there. He waved at them and so did Moira. The horses whinnied once more before they disappeared into the forest, probably heading back home. Faolan quivered with cold when he turned to the little creatures. They all stared at the branch in Moira's hand. The branch was glowing in an intensive green, like Faolan had never seen it before. One of the creatures pointed at the branch and Moira just looked confused.
'Give it to them,' said Faolan. Moira looked even more puzzled when she saw that the branch was shining.
'It's green.'
'Yes, it is, go on. They helped us over, so they at least deserve to have a weird branch, don't they?' he said, wrapping his arms around himself because of the cold.
One of the creatures took the branch in its mouth and, making weird clicking sounds, they all disappeared into the water moments later. For a second, Faolan could still see the green shine but it soon disappeared under the waves.
'And now?' asked Faolan shakily.
'Fire, warmth,' answered Moira. 'But not here, let's go somewhere where the wind is not that strong,' she added while Faolan picked up his clothes, put his pants and shoes back on and stuffed the rest of his clothes back into his bag.
// Me again, who'd have thought? Uploading all of these at once so no long comments here, please don't forget to vote and comment below, thanks!