Captain Strykar was fiddling with a twig, turning it end over end while seeming to be lost in thought. “It’s interesting that your father was so intense with your magical training but only did the basics when it came to weapons and combat,” he said eventually, flicking the twig away. “Is it possible he thought either you or your brother could be the next Vessel for the earth god?”

I scoffed, waving a hand dismissively. “No, not at all,” I said with a chuckle. “That would make our family members of the Arbor royalty, and we are definitely not that. Da just said that was how he trained in the royal army during his youth.”

The Captain hummed and nodded his head in acknowledgement. “The Arbor royal army were known to be formidable,” he admitted. “I wonder how the Tarnished were able to overrun them during the fall.”

I shrugged. Neither mum or Da spoke much of the fall - the time when the country of Arbor was taken over by demons and the Tarnished - and I had been too young to remember any of it. Mason was able to remember a few fuzzy memories, all of them bad. I’d never considered how the Tarnished had managed to orchestrate it, I just knew that they did.

We lapsed into silence, both chewing on some of the food rations. The rustling of small animals could be heard through the mist around us. I got the niggling feeling that something was missing, but couldn’t put my finger on exactly what.

Was it just because I couldn’t see through the mist?

“Can you hear the horses?” the Captain asked suddenly, startling me from my thoughts.

I paused, listening intently to our surroundings. It clicked what I felt missing. There was no jingle from their bridles, no shuffling or stomping as they moved, no snorting and nickering at each other. I quickly sent out a magical sense to our surroundings, frowning as I pushed through the headache that still pulsed along my head.

“I can’t sense them nearby,” I told him, beginning to broaden my search.

I felt the Captain place his hand on my shoulder. “Rowan, don’t push it. I’m sure they’re near-”

I hushed him, holding up one finger to stop him mid sentence so I could concentrate on my search. I pushed out further, not just searching along the path I’d made but also through the surrounding dense forest in case they’d wandered away and gotten lost. I began to feel a shiver of panic run through me. If the horses were lost, all of our equipment and the majority of our food were gone, we’d essentially be stranded.

“Rowan, seriously, you need to-” I cut him off with a ‘shh’ again, spreading my awareness further and further.

Still I could find nothing larger than a squirrel in the surrounding trees and shrubs. My headache was back to being as intense as it had been before we’d stopped to rest, and I felt the warmth of blood begin to drip out of my nose again. I ignored it, focusing solely on my search. Finally, I felt the telltale stomp of horse hooves vibrating through some surface level tree roots.

“Rowan!” Captain Strykar had grabbed both my shoulders and given me a gentle shake, causing me to open my eyes and see his glaring face close to mine. “Dammit woman, just stop. I just told you pushing too far will injure yourself. We’ll find the horses, mine is trained to stay near me unless commanded otherwise, they’ll be nearby.”

He released one of my shoulders to hold a clean handkerchief to my nose to catch the blood. He squeezed a bit hard, making me wince. I grabbed the handkerchief off him, shooing his hand away and holding it to my nose myself.

“I found them,” I told him, ignoring his frown. “They’re next to the lake.”

The Captain looked surprised. “The lake? Isn’t that hours away? How did they get that far so quickly?”

I shrugged the shoulder he wasn’t holding. “Dunno, that’s where I sensed them. Did you want to keep lecturing me or can we go find them?”

He pursed his lips, staring at me with narrowed eyes. “We’d best go get them, but don’t use your magic anymore.” He felt around the ground near the tree for a moment, lifting up a long mostly straight stick. “I’ll use this to feel for the edges of the path you made. You are not to use any magic for at least an hour, understood?”

I sighed and resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Yes, sir,” I replied, severing my magical connection to the nearby trees.

The Captain frowned at me for a moment longer before jerking his head down the path. “Let’s go then.”

I linked my arm around his quickly and began to walk beside him so I wouldn’t lose track of him in this damned mist. I felt him startle a little at the sudden contact, but he otherwise didn’t react. It was likely not proper conduct towards someone of higher standing, but I wasn’t going to risk him disappearing just like the horses had.

The light reflecting through the mist gradually faded, changing the constant white wall in front of us to a dull grey, almost black. We walked in silence, at first due to me concentrating on walking while being dizzy, and then so we could listen carefully to our surroundings. The occasional chitter from small critters and the chirp of a nearby bird floated through the mist, accompanying the scrape and thunk of the stick Captain Strykar was holding out in front of us, swinging it side to side to find the edges of the path.

A faint glimmer caught my eye through the mist, near where I thought the edge of the path would be. I blinked my eyes hard, straining to see through the mist.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Was it a hallucination? Maybe a will-o-wisp?

As I stared intently in the direction of the glimmer, I began to notice more glowing spots alongside it, flickering with a faint bluish light.

“Do you see that?” the Captain asked, pointing to the glowing lights I was staring at.

Not a hallucination then.

“Yeah, I can,” I responded. “Wait, is it just me or is the mist getting lighter?”

It wasn’t just me. Outlines of trees we hadn’t been able to see before were steadily becoming clearer despite the failing light. Looking up, I found that I could see the twinkle of stars appearing in the deepening blue sky, and could make out the shapes of the tops of the trees around us. I noticed the glowing light was multiplying, now forming little strings around the bases of the trees. I dropped my hand away from the Captain’s arm and went over to look at them closer.

When I crouched to inspect the glow, I found it was coming from small mushrooms that almost carpeted the forest floor. Some larger ones were also attached to trees, and seemed to glow with a more greenish light. I cautiously reached out and touched one lightly with the tip of one finger, prodding it magically at the same time. It felt a little strange, seeming to resonate with my magic in a way I hadn’t experienced before. The Captain had followed me over and peered over my shoulder, watching as I carefully plucked the little fungus from the soil. Once it was separated from the dirt, the glow it was emitting quickly faded out to nothing.

“What are they?” he asked quietly as I set the mushroom back on the ground.

“Mushrooms,” I replied, dusting my hands off before standing. “I haven’t seen this type before, which doesn’t mean much since I’ve never left the Strykar Duchy before, but they seem to use some kind of magical energy to emit the light.”

We began walking along the path again, the glowing mushrooms seeming to guide us towards the lake.

“I don’t think I’ve heard of magical glowing mushrooms before,” the Captain said quietly. “I wonder if they have anything to do with the mist easing up?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. I couldn’t really tell exactly what the magic they used was doing, or even what kind of magic it was.”

He flicked a look at me. “You mean it's not earth magic?”

“No,” I shook my head, “definitely not earth magic.”

I realised after a little while that we had linked arms again, although we could now see relatively well despite the darkness and didn’t need to worry as much about losing track of one another. I decided to just continue with it since it wasn’t uncomfortable, and reasoned that the mist may reappear as quickly as it had left.

We continued following the path, occasionally crossing paths with an owl which would take flight once we were close, and at one point a small cluster of fireflies bobbing through the air around our heads. My feet had grown sore from the long day and now night of walking, and I was sure I would be greeted by blisters once I took them off. When I noticed the moon peaking its face over the tops of the trees, I became impatient. It felt like we’d been walking for hours already.

Surely we’re close to the lake by now?

I reached out a hand and brushed my fingers along a nearby tree, linking with the root system below and sending out a quick ping to locate the lake. I found it quickly, and stopped mid step when I felt where it was, pulling Captain Strykar to a stop with me.

“What is it?” he asked, sounding startled.

“The lake,” I replied, feeling dazed and double checking its location to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. “It’s.. it’s just over there.” I pointed to our left into the dense trees where I could feel the void which was the lake sat, mere metres away from us.

He stared at me with a frown. “Are you sure? How is that possible?” he asked.

I stared back up at him, completely baffled. “I don’t know, I really don’t. It should be at the end of this path, that’s how it was when I found the horses, but now….” I scratched my head, shoving loose strands of hair back out of my face. “It’s like the path I made got moved, which should be impossible unless I or another earth magus moved it without either of us noticing. The only other explanation is that the lake itself moved and we both know that’s not possible.”

Frustration and confusion bubbled in my chest, leaving me with the rising urge to punch something. I grabbed one of the Captain’s hands, pulling him through the trees towards the lake’s new direction. The light from the moon didn’t make it through the thick canopy above us, and the glowing mushrooms weren’t anywhere to be seen once we left the path. The Captain spluttered out a couple of protests, stumbling over protruding tree roots and small shrubs he was unable to see.

I tried my best to guide him around them since I could sense where they were while I was linked to the surrounding trees, but couldn’t completely prevent him from running into them. Before he could pull me to a stop we stepped out from under the trees and into the clearing that held the lake.

The moon hung clear and bright in the sky above, stars glimmering alongside it, disappearing when a small cloud drifted across and sending shadows flitting across the lake. Wispy grass brushed over our ankles as we walked away from the treeline, feathery ends holding seeds seeming silver in the moonlight. The lake sat calm and serene before us, ripples showing the path of small gusts of wind travelling across it and distorting the reflection of the stars and clouds above. The shore of the lake seemed shallow and rocky, small stones shining wetly from the tiny waves that lapped at them. The only sound I could hear was the gentle shushing of leaves and grass being shifted in the wind.

“Oh shit,” Captain Strykar whispered, looking around. “It’s actually right here.”

A familiar faint nicker caught my ear, and I turned my head to see both our horses trotting over to greet us, the rope we’d tied between them still attached to their saddles. I realised I was still holding the Captain’s hand and quickly dropped it, reaching out to stroke Echo’s nose once she was close enough instead.

“Am I glad to see you girl,” I told her, sighing with relief.

The Captain hummed in agreement, giving his own horse a scratch around his ears while he untied the rope on the saddle. He glanced around the clearing again, and began to untie his swag from the saddle, nodding for me to do the same.

“We may as well get some sleep here,” he said, grunting as he lifted the swag off the horse. “I don’t know why the path moved, but we’ll worry about it tomorrow.”

I silently agreed, and retrieved my own swag from Echo’s saddle. Now that the prospect of sleep had been brought up, I found I was completely exhausted to the point that I struggled to keep my eyes open long enough to roll the swag out on the ground. I forced myself to stay awake, limbs feeling sluggish when I took Echo’s saddle off her back and gave her a quick brush while murmuring my apologies to her for leaving it on her for so long. Dimly, I thought of speaking to the Captain about who would be on watch first for the night, but couldn’t seem to stop myself from laying down and falling into sweet oblivion the moment my head touched the ground.