As Zech and Jaden began to complain to Anice about her rash actions, Lily commandeered the conversation as she spotted a beautiful bird atop the branch of a nearby tree. “How pretty! Do you know what kind of bird that is, Emely?”
Alistar recognized the creature in question, a unique brand of bird that tended to hibernate during the winter. It seemed that currently, it had climbed free of the hollowed-out section of tree trunk that it had built its nest within, the little bird having left its home around the time that they happened to pass by it.
“It’s a jacketed-finch,” smiled the shortest of the girls, who walked over to the trunk and raised her free hand in an inviting gesture. “Come on, girl. It’s okay.”
Before her friends’ disbelieving eyes, the little bird dropped down from its perch with a flutter of its gorgeous wings to land on her outstretched index finger, though it quickly flew back to its nest when Anice ran over to get a closer look.
“I’m sorry!”
“It’s okay, Anne.”
“Alright,” said Woods, “now I’m kind of confused.”
“I still don’t think she can actually understand them,” muttered Jaden, who appeared equally as shocked as the others as they stood stalk still in their winter wear. “Still, though. That can’t be normal, right?”
“Animals are no different than us,” said Emely, “it just takes a little…”
Alistar tuned out the voices of the others, tracking the buck’s life signal as it continued on with its swift-footed flight. He was sure to take note of several other life signals in the vicinity that were significantly smaller than the large animal’s, keeping an eye out for any possible threats.
They were currently following a game trail that was entirely covered with snow, though they were able to stick to the meandering path by keeping track of the trees that were missing bits of bark at their bases. These marks had been left behind by deer that had been hungry enough to nibble at the tree trunks, as well as territorial bucks that had scratched at them with their antlers.
The group began to veer westward once the landscape became more uneven, the ground sloping upward at regular intervals as they neared the base of the closest mountain to the county. From what they had learned from local hunters and trappers—and Alistar from his books—the wilderness within a league or so of the county walls was fairly safe, but any farther and one would run a much higher chance of encountering wolves, bears, or other predators.
They walked on for over two hours before they decided to stop and rest, Woods and Jaden going off to gather wood from nearby trees and then entrusting Anice to set the branches aflame. She did so a bit too enthusiastically, which forced everyone to hurry backward when the resultant flames lashed out with momentary zeal.
“Ms. Parsnip, come back!”
Turning their gazes, the group watched on as Emely’s little companion leapt from her arms in a fit of fright and dashed off into the forest with the speed that her species was famous for. Seeing this, Emely wheeled on Anice with a rare look of anger before making to run after the rabbit, but Alistar stopped her with an outstretched hand.
“I’ll go get her. You guys stay here.”
“I’ll come too,” said Corrie, whose eyes continued to track the rabbit in an accurate manner despite the growing distance and the fact that it was the same shade as the shin-deep snow. “It’s not a good idea to go off alone.”
“I can keep track of her just fine.” Hurrying off after Ms. Parsnip, he called over his shoulder, “It might take a while, so stay here unless you all want me to get lost!”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
This was impossible, of course, as he’d left another energy imprint on the county walls that was still within the significant range of his perceptions.
A short while later once the others were well out of sight, Alistar wiped a bit of sweat from his brow and mused to himself, “Still running, huh? She must have been quite scared.” He was now fairly far into the hilly areas of the forest, with the rabbit only a hundred paces ahead of him. Not wanting her to get killed by another animal, of which there were several unknowns in the vicinity, he infused some swordsman’s aura into his legs and picked up the pace.
A prickle of unease settled in his heart as he rounded a thicket that was dense enough to obscure the sights beyond it despite lacking any foliage, for the little rabbit’s life signal had abruptly disappeared. Raising his guard, he began to look around with rising angst as his unease transitioned into an alarming sense of wrongness.
Where is she?
There were no other life signals within fifty paces of where he’d lost track of Ms. Parsnip’s tiny aura, and there were no signs of blood on the clean, undisturbed snow. The absence of tracks told him that no animals had passed through here since the significant snowfall of the week before, at least aside from the trail of tiny paw prints that he had been following. These, he noticed with deep confusion, came to an abrupt end within the centre of a tiny clearing.
How is this possible?
Drawing his short sword, Alistar proceeded forward with cautionary steps, his cloak silently dragging over the snow. The moment that he passed the point where the rabbit had disappeared, he suddenly came face to face with a large, looming cave that jutted out of the ground in an unnatural manner. As soon as this happened, his body was racked by a strong tingling sensation that told him that he had just entered into the domain of a powerful spell. Realizing this, he was overtaken by a surging sense of unease as he stared into the dark depths of the cave that had evidently been hidden from sight by unknown illusion magic.
This is no normal spell, he observed as he glanced around for any signs of life. Can it be…high magic? Even Mr. Albeck could only use a limited number of high magic spells, which spoke of the capabilities of this spell’s caster. Was this the doing of an arch magus?
Ms. Parsnip was nowhere in sight, and it was only now that he realized that the forest had gone completely silent, unnaturally so. Just as he was about to abandon his mission of retrieving the frightened rabbit, a series of spine-tingling cries reached his ears from the depths of the darkness. The source of these anguished whimpers was undoubtedly human, though he didn’t sense a shred of life from within the cave. What was worse, he couldn’t sense anything ahead of him at all.
An urgent voice within his mind told him that he needed to leave as soon as possible, though this was waylaid by the curiosity that he’d carried with him all throughout his life. Just as he had decided to crawl into that little crevice where he’d found his precious crystal so many years before, he subconsciously found himself drawn forward into the cave, towards the cries of the unknown person that echoed off of walls of perfectly-rounded stone. Without a doubt, he thought, this cave was the product of powerful earth magics.
The cries abruptly stopped at the sounds of snow crunching beneath his feet, though a tortured groan came a moment later along with a string of disoriented, sputtering words.
“W—who’s there?”
The voice was ragged, as if its owner’s throat were dry as a desert during a heatwave. Stopping in his tracks, Alistar didn’t dare to respond.
“Who…who is it? You…of course it’s you…” The speaker was forced to pause as he was subjected to a terrible bout of coughing. “Dogs, all of you! Blasted dogs…here at the beck and call of your wretched master!”
Again, Alistar kept quiet. Feeling a tickling of horror, he realized that the snow beneath his feet had disappeared, the ground around the cave’s entrance now inexplicably characterized by dull, lifeless dirt. Peculiarly enough, no light entered from the outside and the temperature was surprisingly mild.
“Won’t even speak to me anymore, hmm?” rasped the unseen man, his voice all that seemed to exist within this strange place. “State your purpose! Come to take what little I have left? Or are you back to torture me again?”
Now that the voice had gained more clarity, Alistar felt a sudden pang of pity amidst the heart-pounding fear that was building up within him. Even though he had grown up in the most trying and tragic of environments, he had never heard a voice so defeated, so rife with suffering and sadness and unspeakable trauma. Just what sort of person was living here?
“You go back to Limnin and you tell him, you tell him that I’m still here. That I’m still waiting…that I still haven’t forgotten… What was I saying? What haven’t I forgotten? Surely something…something important…”
Limnin? As in Saint Limnin?
Next came a fierce fit of coughs, at which point Alistar’s curiosity won the fight against his wariness and he took a subconscious step forward, noting that the darkness seemed so familiar and yet so alien to him all at once.