It didn't take as long as previously to get to the cave.
Marcie made the journey in little under two days despite the fact that she paced herself, only travelling in the day and sleeping at night so she was well rested.
She somehow knew which way to go to get to the cave and which route would get her there fastest. She found that she had a new sense of the forest and its inhabitants, for example, she smelt the small ravine before she heard its trickling water and somehow knew that if she followed it for a short while and then turned to the right she would come across a large old dried up willow tree, the branches of which made a perfect shelter to sleep under, and she also knew, that from the willow tree it would take her less than a day before she was within sight of the cliff edge.
She put this new understanding of the forest down to her connection with Dara who regarded this new ability as nothing, the feelings he sent back were a mixture of uninterest and surprise that she found it so strange and new. She experimented, somewhat hesitantly, with this ability, purposely walking in a completely different direction and then trying to find herself back, which she did, with ease. Of course being a hunter she had an idea of direction and had learnt early on to recognise routes through the barely passable trees and foliage, a few of the trees had symbols, their origins lost to time, etched into them, telling travellers how to get to the village. These symbols were purely for the recognition of hunters from the village and the few traders who were privy to the forgotten villages location.
However there were only a few of these markers and they were mostly centred around one area, one route for the traders to follow, if you wanted to go anywhere else you had to rely on direction and sense. Marcie had known, like all forgotten children did that the way to home was to follow the stars, this they were taught, along with reading and writing, by their parents so that if they did ever fall fool to the forest and its dangers they would know how to get back to the safety of the village. Hunters expanded on this knowledge of the stars and used them to exploit the best hunting spots .
So Marcie was no stranger to finding her way in the navigational nightmare that was The forgotten forest but this was something entirely different, and it scared her how as one she seemed with her environment. Her connection with the forest had never run this deep before. She didn't feel entirely human when she reached the sheer cliff side and Dara's excited presence did not help.
The cliff face was still as threatening as she remembered, its impression not lessened by the fact that she now knew what dwelled within it. Somewhere within her mind she felt a sense of comfort form the sight before her, probably brought on from Dara's feelings and yet Marcie could not help the lead weight that dropped in the pit of her stomach as she craned her neck upwards.
The sun was just past its peak and was warming her back as it streamed through the thinning tress around the base of the rock face. Marcie took off her pack and checked her supplies for the twentieth time when a shriek caused her to look up. A small black shape soared from the rock with a loud flapping of wings and then seemed to loose balance before tumbling end over end into a nearby tree. Marcie gasped and ran to the base of the tree, where she spied Dara caught between two branches, wriggling around to try and right himself, he managed to get his front legs on one branch and his back legs on the other, balancing between the two. Once he was sure he wouldn't be falling any time soon he sent Marcie feelings of smugness and achievement and stared down at her happily, his wings spread
"You can fly?!" she yelled up at him, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Dara just grinned, showing small pointed fangs. The branches he was on wavered slightly and his smile vanished and Marcie felt a stab of alarm and that was not related to her own.
"Stay there I am coming up" she called and grabbed the nearest branch of the tree pulling herself up, she reached the tiny Dragon quickly, noticing how easier it was than before. She managed to get an arm around Dara's middle and hugged him to her.
Dara immediately folded his wings tightly to his body and from where they touched Marcie felt his emotions clearer than she previously had, a sense of well being and completeness filled her. Dara lifted his head and nuzzled under her chin then gripped her shirt in his claws and crawled over her shoulder to wrap his small body around her neck like a cat would, leaving her hands free.
It took longer to get down the tree then it had to get up as Marcie was being particularly careful to not dislodge Dara from his perch, she needn't of bothered however as Dara had a tight grip on her shoulders and had wrapped his tail around her neck loosely to keep from falling off.
At the bottom Marcie took him off her shoulders and hugged him to her chest, Dara put his head under her chin and made a contented humming sound, similar but different to the purring of a cat.
She stayed like that for a while but then Dara got excited and jumped from her arms, he padded around on the grass then shook his wings loose and did a few leaping bounds and jumped into the air, his wings flapped awkwardly and just about managed to keep him aloft, then he squealed with joy and slowly began to make his way up the side of the cliff, until he disappeared over the ledge. Marcie followed him as soon as she could be sure he wouldn't fall down again.
Again she found the climb much easier than previously.
Dara was waiting for her at the top, he ran excitedly round in circles then sped off into the darkness, Marcie followed.
She didn't take a torch this time, knowing the crystals would give her light in the Mother Dragon's main chamber, however she found she didn't even need a light to get there, she could see perfectly in the dark, see each rock wall and stone on the floor beneath her feet.
Somehow she now possessed dark vision in addition to enhanced strength and a new awareness of the forest and its inhabitants. She shivered, swallowed down her unease and continued forward.