“So what’s the plan?” Jun asked as he trailed along behind me.

“Uh…” I knew that as a Sister Earth, we could create creatures - but it was frowned upon to make large quantities and also I had never been taught how. So that was just a minor flaw in my plan.

I felt like I was trapped in a spider’s web, flapping my useless wings all while waiting for a swift death to come. Jun would leave me in an instant if I told him that I didn’t know what I was doing and wasn’t sure how to make good on my promise to the wolves. I needed to come up with a plan - fast.

“You see, as a Sister Earth, we are granted special abilities,” I took the lead and walked steadily in front of Jun, careful not to let him see the panic on my face.

“Mhm.” He didn’t say anything else, pressing me to continue.

Beads of desperate sweat gathered on my brow, I felt my heart pounding - almost like it wanted to leap out and leave this useless, powerless body behind. I cracked my knuckles and gently shook the front of my shirt, allowing the damp morning air to cool down my body.

“I can create creatures,” that much was true except I had no idea how to do so.

I could hear the cracks of the branches breaking under the weight of Jun’s feet, he was so close behind me that I worried he might be able to hear how loud my heart was beating.

The morning air had a slight, sweet smell to it almost like strawberries. The sunshine managed to just peek through the thick canopy, warming my cold, nervous hands. This forest was beautiful and it would be so lovely to exist inside it forever, never worrying about the outside troubles.

“Anything else?” Jun’s voice startled me back to reality. He kicked a small pebble out of his way, I heard the thunk of the rock on a nearby tree and a worried squirrel darting away in fear.

“Yes, before I can create a new creature, I need a… sacrifice.”

Jun stopped dead in his tracks and his breathing became laboured, turning around to face him I saw his mouth was ajar and his eyebrows were raised. I began to panic as I didn’t know what was happening.

“Is that why you want my help?!”

“What? Of course not! I need a sacrifice of the same creature, I need an elk!”

Jun’s posture relaxed as he scratched at his head, “oh, that’s a relief.”

I took a deep breath and turned my back to him again, “don’t worry, I would never sacrifice a human.”

“Still, that’s gruesome that you need to kill an elk to make another. I’m not sure I understand how the world of God's works.”

Yeah, me neither.

Trudging on, I turned my thoughts towards the King and how I would fulfill my promise to Krivat. It was getting more difficult by the day to activate my powers, I hoped this wasn’t some cruel trick by the mage.

The King would surely be heavily guarded by his Knights, I would need to infiltrate and assassinate quickly and quietly.

I’ll figure that part out later…

The wind whistled gently through the trees, shaking branches and whipping loose leaves into our faces. I took a deep breath of the fresh air, feeling it fill my lungs and clear my mind.

Jun came up beside me, pushing a lone branch out of his way.

“So how do we find the elk?”

“You have a lot of questions.” Peering out the corner of my eye, I saw a small smirk appear on his face.

“Well, I am travelling with a God through a magical forest. Seems natural to have a lot of questions, no?”

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“Fair enough. It’s relatively warm in this forest, so the elk will most likely gather on higher slopes of mountains where the trees are thick but there’s a cool breeze. Or, we might find them in an open field foraging for food, but that’s usually early in the day or in the late evening. We should also look for wet meadows as there is typically plenty of food and quick access to shelter.”

Jun scoffed, “too bad these damned trees are so tall that we can’t even see if there are any mountain ranges.”

“Yea- oh, wait I can fly,” without another word I lifted myself off the ground and floated up through the lush tree branches. Pushing aside branches, I leisurely propelled upwards feeling the soft foliage tickle my face.

Reaching the tops of the trees, I peeked through the leaves and surveyed our surroundings. Straight ahead was nothing except miles of trees, this forest was endless. Turning my head to the right, I could see something large in the distance, perhaps a mountain? Squinting hard I tried to bring the object into focus but the sun was piercing my eyes, causing them to water uncontrollably.

“Do you see anything?” Jun’s voice sounded far away and foreign, almost like I was underwater.

“There’s something to our right, but I can’t quite make out what it is.” I lifted my hands to my face, trying to bring some shade to my watery eyes. Judging by the size and shape of the thing in the distance, it must be a mountain or a hill - what else could it possibly be?

I dropped back down to the ground and saw that Jun was gone. Swivelling my head around I couldn’t find any trace of him. Am I going crazy, did I just imagine him? Immediately after that thought crossed my mind, I heard him whisper my name.

“Yin, come here.” Closing my eyes I focused hard to bring a picture into my mind of where he was. A grainy image appeared of Jun crouching behind a large tree to my left, my powers were dwindling and this confirmed it. I floated gently over to him, careful not to make a sound. Approaching him, he looked back at me and motioned for me to be quiet. Confused, I crept up beside him and peered around the side of the trunk.

Behind the tree, the ground sloped down to a small valley with a stream trickling through it. To my surprise, there were plenty of tents and horses littered around in the gorge. Each horse bore insignia of a striking white clover. The Knights from Kranen!

Jun chuckled, “guess we’ll have to find those elk later.”

I nodded in agreement, we couldn’t possibly pass up this opportunity. The King’s head was almost in the palm of my hands and the sooner we fulfilled our promise to Krivat, the sooner I could have my full powers back.

We sat in soundless excitement, listening to the chatter of the men below us. There were approximately 80 knights, this paled in comparison to the massive army that Kranen had. I supposed that the King had only taken his best men, this would prove to be difficult for us to sneak in and assassinate him.

All of a sudden Jun stood abruptly up beside me and pulled me to my feet. I opened my mouth to protest but he raised a finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet.

I clamped my mouth shut and obeyed him, Jun started to walk quickly away from the valley; it seemed that he wanted to run but was careful not to make too much noise.

The farther away we got from the valley the faster Jun began to run - his hand never left mine as he dragged me along. Once we were quite far away from the King’s camp, Jun dropped my hand and turned to me.

I doubled over and put my hands on my knees, wheezing hard. He runs so fast! I had tried to fly but I was exhausted from using my powers earlier.

“There was a man.”

I felt all the blood leave my face and my hands instantly turned cold and clammy. I stood up straight and strained my ears to listen if there was anyone else around us. There was only one person it could be.

“I didn’t notice him for a while, but I think he’s been following us this whole time. Yin, you haven’t been telling me the whole truth, have you?”

Fuck.

“Uhm, Jun I can explain everything but please tell me, what did this man look like?”

Jun’s piercing stare caused my body to involuntarily shiver. With his brows furrowed and the wind rustling his hair he looked almost ethereal. I bit my lip in quiet anticipation and tried to avoid his gaze.

“Just some guy with orange hair, that’s how I spotted him.”

We are really in trouble now. That is Carlsen and he has been following us he’s probably watching us right now. I wondered how I hadn’t been able to sense him at all.

A small part of me hoped that maybe Carlsen would play nice and just kill the King for me and then we could go our separate ways and never see each other again. I knew that was simply wishful thinking and that life never goes the way you want it to.

“Yin, are you going to tell me?” Jun sighed as he ran his hand through his thick hair. I was starting to feel uneasy for another reason now, but this was not the time for that. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and took a seat on the soft, slightly damp ground.

I motioned for Jun to sit down as well, with a reluctant frown he plopped down in front of me, hands on his knees.

“This is going to be a long explanation, isn’t it?”

“Ah, you have no idea.” And with that, I launched into my story of the past week and everything that had happened to me - desperately hoping that being transparent would cause Jun to stay and help me.

Please, Jun, I just need someone by my side.