Iris and Jude talked well into nightfall. They went over their stats and skills once again, trying to gleam the slightest hint on how to proceed from their status screens. Unfortunately, neither of them had any kind of appraisal skills, so they weren’t able to find out the extent of how powerful their new clothes were, and whether they had any skills. However, they did notice a change to their attributes when they checked their status screens again. Iris had gained 100 extra points to her health stat and 50 extra points to her mana stat, essentially doubling her stats. Jude had simply gained 150 extra points to his health stat. His mana did not increase. That told them that the clothes analyzed something within them and increased their stats based on that. Whether the clothes would adapt to their progress in the future, or would remain as they were when the two first put them on was unknown.
Another difference between their clothes were their colors. Unfortunately, they had no way of guessing what the colors of each of their sets actually meant. By that moment in the conversation, they really wanted some kind of skill that would allow them to analyze objects, but alas, that was not to be at that moment.
The next point of order was whether they would help the Fae or not.
“It’ll be even more dangerous,” Jude said.
“I know, but I really feel we should help. Even if indirectly, they have helped us with these clothes,” Iris persisted.
“I understand. All I’m saying is that we are already in an unfamiliar space, brought here by an unfamiliar power, and if we do help them, we’ll have to fight whatever is running around at night.”
“Yeah…”
“That said, we may get more items to help with that if we find their settlement.”
“Right, the largest tree in the forest. Do you have any idea where it might be?”
“I have no clue. When we get to the river tomorrow, we could try to follow it upstream. A tree that large would need a regular supply of water. If that doesn’t work, maybe we go downstream?”
“It’s an idea… It’s been a while since the birds stopped singing. The thing should be coming out soon.”
Jude looked at his pocket watch then. It was now 11:48 p.m. At least, that was the time where they came from, but it was also how they were telling time in this new place.
“Another ten minutes,” he said.
They both stared at each other then, and Iris said, “We’ll survive this. We have to.”
“Yes. We will.”
He held her.
She didn’t cry, but her body shivered at his touch, and then, she nuzzled closer into his arms. She had told him the truth when she had said she probably wouldn’t have survived alone. It wasn’t because she wasn’t smart enough or strong enough or quick enough. She just knew that after a while, she would sink into her thoughts, and the drive within her to continue would fade. Loneliness in the face of adversity could be just as bad as all the things that were happening to them at that moment.
Ten minutes passed with Iris in Jude’s arms, then a couple more, and suddenly, the howling started again for yet another night.
“Time to go on watch,” Jude said, but Iris didn’t move. In those twelve minutes, she had already dozed off, and not even the sound outside had woken her up. Jude didn’t move her. Instead, he took her faux fur coat and covered her body with it.
They had decided to get rid of their old clothes the next day, but the coat and his jacket they would keep in the tree to serve as blankets when it was too cold. It wasn’t too cold that night, but Jude felt compelled to cover her all the same since she was sleeping so deeply.
Three hours later, he would wake her, and they would alternate their watch like they had done every night prior.
In the morning, as the birds chirped, they walked out of the tree and headed for the river. Food was fish again, and they sated their thirst with purified water. While they ate, they threw their old clothes in the fire. They wanted to burn everything. Anything that might have their scent had to go, so they didn’t leave their tiny campground before everything had turned to ash.
Once everything was done, they headed upstream. They had decided earlier that they would only walk for three hours before heading back. Despite the fact that the howling only started at midnight, they wanted to heed the warning on the stone and not be caught out at night, at any point of the night.
So, upstream they went. As they walked, they could see the water turning a deeper red, and even the dead trees around them seemed to redden further. An hour passed, but they found no sign of anything. The birds, however, were steadily increasing the sound of their song.
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Another half an hour upstream, and they glimpsed something large in the distance. It seemed almost like a wall, but when they looked up, they saw glimpses of the wall rising further even than the canopy of leaves above them.
The wall seemed very far away, however, but they continued on. They still had an hour and a half of time to use up, so they walked in the direction of the wall.
By the time three hours had passed, they realized that the wall was wooden and was no wall at all. It was a tree, larger than any they had seen or even imagined, but it was still far away. Judging the distance, they would have to get up at the crack of dawn and walk there immediately to make it just before nightfall. It would be a trip they would have to commit to, with no turning back.
With that realization, they turned back and made their way back to the tree. On the way, they gathered more water and took the time to analyze the dead leaves and trees around them. Looking at the trunks, down to the roots, they could see a reddish growth rising up. On the leaves, they found that the veins of every leaf were blood red. Whatever the rot was, it had seeped into every living thing in that forest.
“I’m now realizing how overpowered your Purify skill is,” Jude teased.
“Of course! Who do you think I am? Just the best, prettiest and most intelligent Healer you’ve ever seen!”
“Aren’t you the only Healer I’ve ever seen?”
“Details!” she replied, brushing off his remark.
They teased each other that way to keep themselves distracted, but even then, she held onto his arm as they walked back to the tree. The levity allowed them to forget the seriousness of their situation, and how they could die at any moment.
Another night fell as they readied themselves for the trek in the morning.
“You sure you wanna do this?” Jude asked.
“Yes. We can’t stay here forever. The stress of it all, for a month?! We have to move forward,” she replied.
“I agree. I just wanted to make sure. It might all go south tomorrow.”
“It might…”
That night, instead of keeping watch, after taking in the realization that they might not survive to see another night, they drowned themselves in each other. It was their first time together like that, and it happened out in the middle of that dangerous forest, in the hollow of a dead tree trunk. Still they held each other hungrily, as if asserting one final instinct of humanity in all the dead that surrounded them.
They were both up early that morning, even before dawn, having decided that they would leave for the largest tree as soon as they saw light outside.
The chirping and the light appeared in unison, and off they went. They walked the same path that they had walked the previous day, but they did not stop to eat. Instead, they refilled the flask with clean water and continued on deeper into the red.
When three hours passed again, and they found themselves in the spot they had reached the previous day, Jude turned to Iris and said, “Final chance to turn back.”
“No turning back,” she replied, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him forward as she did.
“And who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning?”
“What’s that?”
“Nothing. Just a poem that came to mind.”
“What’s it about? By whom?”
“Tolkien. It’s about the last king of Rohan. Part of the Lord of the Rings history. The king became king early and died young, but what really brought it to mind was all the dead wood around us. The poem is called Lament for Eorl the Young.”
“Do you often quote things like that?”
“To be honest, I don’t… It’s weird. I never remember any lines from anything.”
“Maybe it’s another one of the perks of your skill. All the same, although grim, I like it, and feel free to quote more things in the future. I know enough Lord of the Rings, and I prefer The Hobbit, but I’m not one of those people who've read The Silmarillion.”
“Like I said, I don’t even know where that came from.
“OK, Mr. Library.”
“Library?! The whole building?”
“Would you prefer to be my sexy librarian?”
“No! I mean! Uhmm… Mr. Library is fine,” Jude replied flustered.
“You’re so cute when you are embarrassed.”
“That!... Sigh… Let’s just keep going,” he said almost defeated.
Iris smiled brightly behind him. She had come to enjoy teasing him like that, and remembering the previous night, she concluded that his embarrassment was entirely superficial.
Another three hours passed, but they still hadn’t reached the three. Still, they had left very early, so they had another few hours as a buffer, but like Jude had said, going back wasn’t an option at that point. They had committed.
In fact, as time passed, they tried to look for another hiding spot where they could spend the night, but the trees were getting more and more rotted, to the point where a simple touch would make them crumble. And inside every trunk they looked into, they saw a pool of black tar, residue from the fully corroded trees.
Another hour passed and things just kept getting worse, but at the same time, they were getting closer. The tree was taking almost the entirety of their views by then.
By the time they had maybe another hour of sunlight left, they faced the massive trunk of what they thought was the largest tree in that forest for no other they had seen came even close.
They looked at each other then. Iris took Jude’s hand, and he said, “Of the wood I’m borne, and to the wood I return!”
As soon as he finished the sentence, the sound of birds that had started to fade away with time rose to a deafening pitch, and a flock of feathers swirled around them before encasing them completely.