"Elvina!"
My eyes flew open to find three elves looking at me. Aiden, who had yelled my name, said, "Elvina, what happened? We're losing time!" "What- what happened?" I stammered.
"We don't know. You just stopped while we were walking. We tried to wake you up, but you didn't. You didn't even budge." Arden said. "What's wrong?" Maple asked, looking concerned. My knees felt weak. What had I just seen?
The vision Nalvia had showed me left me with even more questions than before. But I didn't have time to ponder on them now. "I'll tell you later. Right now, we really need to go. The sun's going to come up soon." I said, pointing at the the sky beginning to lighten.
"We need to go fast. Guys, let me take us using the trees." Aiden said, looking frustrated. Arden and Maple glanced at each other, unsure. I took a deep breath. Though I didn't really want to, his idea was our best option. "We'll have to risk it."
"Okay." Arden agreed after a pause. Maple nodded. "Ready?" Aiden asked. I glanced at Maple, who grimaced back at me, like 'it was your idea'. I nodded at Aiden. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. For a moment, everything was silent.
Then Aiden snapped his fingers.
Vines grabbed me, blurring my vision and pulling me into a tree. I caught a glimpse of the same thing happening to my friends before I was flung from tree to tree. This continued for an impossibly long time. Of course, it would be for a long time, because we had to cross a five-days' journey on foot to the old camp, and then continue to the palace.
Finally, vines pulled me out and I was flung on the ground. I rolled on to my back and stayed there, gasping for breath and trying to quell the churning of my stomach. A face appeared in my vision. "Here." Aiden offered me a hand.
"Thanks." I said, grabbing his hand and pulling myself up. "You okay?" He asked. I nodded. He didn't let go of my hand (not something I was particularly irritated about) as we turned to face the others.
Arden was hunched over, hugging his stomach. Maple was leaning with a hand on a tree, but at least she was upright. "You actually did it!" I said, looking at Aiden. He looked a bit grumpy at this. "What, you didn't think I could do it?"
I laughed and squeezed his hand. "You can't blame me for being worried." He humphed. "Fine." But he still didn't let go. Arden finally stood up straight. His eyes flickered down to us holding hands and flickered back up to meet my eyes.
I cleared my throat. "Where are we?" Maple asked, thankfully bringing his eyes to her. Aiden cleared his throat too. "Well, I wasn't powerful enough to take us straight to the palace. We're almost too our old camp. And I think we should walk for a while, so I can rest a bit."
"Okay." I agreed. He glanced down at me. "Let's go, then." He finally dropped my hand. I hung back to let Maple catch up with me, holding my hand to make up for the loss of warmth. "Wait. Elvina, what happened back there?" Maple asked.
The boys, walking ahead, glanced back. I sighed. "Keep walking, I'll tell you." As we walked, I told them the whole story, starting from the first vision. Thankfully, they remained silent through it all, letting me talk.
Aiden didn't mention I'd already told him about the first vision, which I was grateful for, because I didn't want the other two to think I didn't trust them.
When I was done, there was silence, giving me room to mull over my own questions. I had a ton of those. At the very top of the list: What had happened to Ivy?
It didn't seem like she'd been forced into having a child with my father, as we'd always thought. In fact, she had seemed happy about having a baby. Even if it was a girl. She and my dad had both seemed overjoyed at having baby Laurel.
So what exactly had happened?