Creepy woods

ANASTASIA’S POV

            I never knew my Lord was not in his room until Sage sent me to call on him when the Master could not wake up. I had knocked several times on his door and got no response, then walked in on my own due to the urgency of the matter. However, I found the room empty; he did not even make use of the bath I had earlier prepared for him.

 

            I could not recall anywhere he was likely to be that I had not checked so far because I had gone to the seashore, searched the woods, and searched the Master’s garden, yet he was not there. I even checked the Throne-room and the temple, but he was not.

 

            I only realized that my Lord was nowhere around the Shore after I had contacted the search--party of Coral shore and they still could not find him. He could not have followed Lord Damien, nor could he have gone after him. All I was praying now is that nothing terrible had happened to him as it did Master Lucerne.

͞

 

                        WAYNE’S POV                                                                                               

            “How much longer do I have to hold on?” I mumbled with a groan. We had been standing on this darn slow-moving canoe for more than an hour now and my feet were beginning to hurt.

 

            “Are you always this impatient?” Phyllis snapped. She stood behind me.

 

            I huffed, “Are you not a witch? I thought you could just conjure a portal or make use of the potions you normally do,” I retorted, but got no reply. I still did not understand why she had me go through this stress. I had not started such a Journey before, and I did not realize it could be this strength draining. I reached my hands to my hair and wrapped the ponytail into an onion.

 

            “We are arriving soon,” Phyllis announced and she was right. We did arrive at the Sea bank and I was finally able to see the mountains that I always saw from Coral shore, with the dark clouds that seemed to linger over the mountains. The screeches of Hawks filled my ears as Phyllis and I hopped out of the Canoe. I then helped her pull it out of the water.

 

            I dusted my hands as I watched Phyllis finish the work, then my eyes locked on the vast sea. On this side of the water, shearwaters hovered lowly on the sea, unlike the sides at the Coral shore. I watched them for a while as they perched their beaks lightly on the water and took off again to the air.

 

             By now, Phyllis was done and walked towards a murky cave at the bottom of the mountain. “Do you call the water Coral sea on this side, or Waterfalls Sea?” I rested my hands on my waist as I felt the question was not literally necessary, but then I was seriously finding a way to piss Phyllis off, only that Damien was better than I was in stuff like this because I did not grow to be cheeky.

                                                           

            Phyllis gave me the perfect reply. “You should be solemn. You have not even asked what awaits your future, yet you engage in so many irrelevant questions,” she snapped, oh well!

 

            I watched her walk ahead of me to the dark cave, which was at the bottom of the mountain, and I shrugged. Anyhow, I did not want to think much of what may come, and I knew it was not something I would like.

 

            I followed the witch into the cave. It was with the help of my super-sight that I was able to see through the pitch darkness in it. Thankfully, Phyllis, who was before me, lighted an oiled wood that lit the cave. She stopped and thrust the wood to me, then tugged at my cloth sleeves and pushed me to the front.

 

            We soon arrived at the other end of the cave, seeing the foggy woods that overlooked the mountain from there. The waterfall at the cave’s mouth left us drenched from the crown of our heads to the sole of our feet before my eyes locked on the petrifying view of scavengers hovering in the sky above the woods that I did not realize on time, the rock-strewn path before me, causing me to misstep and plunge backwards. Except that I did not completely fall, I however felt a strain on my neck and it took me no time to realize that the witch had caught me by the collar to prevent me from falling.

 

            I helped myself up, turning around and reluctantly muttering, to Phyllis, a thank you. She huffed and walked ahead of me. “You should watch your steps, does this look like the shore to you?” She snapped.

 

            We made our way down the gentle slope. This time, I watched my steps so as not to steer another embarrassing moment with this witch. The cascading waters at the cave mouth caused the rocky paths to become quite filled with water, of which came the stream, which led down the slope at our right hand side.

 

            “This wash-down stream leads to a forest where the Gordian-crack werewolf Pack resides.” Phyllis rejoined, pointing to the stream. I narrowed my eyes. Did she say Pack?

 

            I racked my brain to recall if I had read anything about Werewolves and Packs, yet nothing came to me. I was sure I had come across something like it, though I remembered flipping past the page, as I did not find anything of interest in the topic. “If only I knew what a Pack was,” I mumbled as I increased my pace to catch up with Phyllis. She turned to me, giving me an indefinite look.

                                                                                   

            “How did you not come across it in your boring books?” She asked instead and my brows creased. “Fine, to the Werewolves, a Pack is what you ‘frekes’ considered clans.”

 

            “There is nothing like ‘clan’ to the demons,” I responded, laying emphasis on the word ‘clan’.

 

            “Then it should be the humans then.”

 

            Thankfully, I did not have to be wary of my footing anymore. We had finally arrived at the woods and I must say that there was something off about it. I mean, what was with the numerous Vultures, why the fog, why the utter silence? I could not even hear a Bird’s song or a tiny Cricket sound. Everything about the woods was just so creepy that I felt Goosebumps run through my skin.

 

             I turned to Phyllis, utterly surprised that she was very comfortable with the situation. “How are you not bothered by the condition of this place?” I asked and a smile crossed her lips.

 

            “Because, I am used to it,” she threw me a glance and once again. I saw a silver-flash in her eyes. “This covert is one of the habitats of a creature called the ‘Firne’. Though their Lair is far from here, this territory is still not safe for any ordinary person. If I was not with you, they would have attacked and ripped your skull already, so you better think of that than asking me questions!”

 

           I shut my mouth, realizing that I should do better than provoking this witch at such a time. After all, I could recall Father telling us a tale about the mythical creatures that had disappeared out of sight for centuries. He did not leave to state that they were called ‘Firne’. Moreover, they were also not creatures to come by, as they were very vicious and precarious beings, I however never knew that they were real and hiding in these dodgy woods for long.

 

            We had finally come out of the woods and gone up and down a hill. Now, we arrived at a desert valley and I could tell from the fact that the sun had arched across the southern sky that it was already past midday.

 

             Meanwhile, my feet bruised, my back throbbed and I felt cramps on my knee. I still could not comprehend why this witch would not just conjure a portal and make us go through it, why she let me go through this long ride without even a single rest!

 

          I stopped and crouched with a loud groan. “How many more hours do I have to keep walking?” I grouched, and I was so sure Phyllis heard me because she also stopped. Nonetheless, she did not look back.

 

          “You have to continue, or do you want me to apply the method of torturing you along the way?” She yapped, stretching her hand and causing a whip to form in it. I instantly stood straight; I needed no soothsayer to tell me that this would not be fun, so I shuffled to her side. “That is more like it,” Phyllis mumbled and kept on walking.