Gift- Book 1

Chapter 31

The team is only a few yards from the forest when Leiea feels that pressure again. Not only her mistrust and hate of the place, but that of all these other people right next to her that will see the panic. And of course, a certain obligation to "defeat" the forest, or the strange creatures. Because they instilled these fears into Leiea and hurt innocent Fleya.

She tries to hide her fidgety and sweaty hands. It's a bad feeling when everyone else around you is confident- or maybe they just don't know how bad it might be.

Therin is far ahead and he breaks through the tree line first. He keeps going until he's hidden behind all the trees. Vaeic taps Sheyric's shoulder and points in that direction but he shakes his head. "I'm sick of him. It's his fault that he's going to get lost." The two of them walk in side by side and the others follow.

Leiea is last to step into the forest. She even risked interacting with Ailpein to linger on the grass. Hania looks over her shoulder a couple times to urge her over, but Ryn eventually stops her from trying. He's the only one besides Sheyric's that understands her difficulty.

Clenching her fists, she trudges in. Moving fast and not thinking about it seems to work, and she catches up to the group quickly. A few people look back- including Therin who must have come back quickly. Hania does as well and sighs, backtracking to stand next to Leiea.

"I really hope you don't stay scared the whole time," Hania says. "I know a few of us are looking to you for encouragement. Including me."

Leiea responds with a nervous laugh. "Why would they look to me when there's Sheyric? I was a wreck in that meet-"

"What about all those people you asked to join?" She interrupts. Leiea shakes her head, knowing she didn't bring in nearly the same amount of people as Sheyric did.

"Don't underestimate your influence," Hania stops her from walking and holds her hands. "You were brave to come back after all that. Yes, I was told about it. Come on," She tugs them forward, slowly hurrying up to the group.

Of course, Leiea likes that she has an influence, but it doesn't seem right. If she was in her normal state, not enterally shaky and frightened, she would like it. And why would Sheyric tell Hania what led up to them coming back. That's something she's never liked about him. That he's particularly social, but enough to be a trader and start a good rumor. Still, she couldn't deny telling that to the girl she's holding hands with.

The group keeps walking for a while. By the thing everyone looks positively bored and tired- especially Vaeic lodging knives into the passing trees- Sheyric calls for a water break. They pass around the water skins and find a place to sit one by one, mostly spread out by wherever more fallen trees are. Suddenly, Hania, who was sitting near Leiea, throws her water skin in the dirt and clambers up a tree. She makes it to the middle branches in mere seconds, with the skill of a squirrel.

Therin, sitting across the area, clenches his fist and puts a Mischievous smile on his face. He runs across the clearing to a large tree and swings up onto the big branch. Although he is much heavier than Hania, he makes it to the point she is that much quicker, either because of his long arms or impressive strength. Hania then glares at him and continues up the tree, getting lost from view in the pine needles. Therin grins again and keeps going in the same manner. Sheyric, sitting close to where Therin was, sighs and immediately jumps when Heron reappears next to him.

Vaeic walks from behind Leiea and crosses to the tree Therin's in. She shakes it vigorously and clumps of pine needles shower her. A shout echos from in the treetops and Therin falls down the middle of the tree, hitting every possible branch and scaring all wildlife away. At a point where he's finally visible from the ground, he flips around a branch and latches onto the next one down, stopping his fall. Vaeic frowns when he makes a landing on his feet.

"You get the star treatment and don't even make a rightful entrance..." she states sarcastically, clicking her tongue.

"What about Hania?" Therin says, pointing to the tree she's in. "You like her. Why doesn't she get the star treatment, too?"

Sheyric buries his face in his hands and Vaeic barks a laugh. "The stars, in this case, are complete idiots that deserve to stumble down ancient trees and break a few bones. Leiea, would you be a dear and call her down?"

Leiea nods and looks up the tree, catching a glimpse of Therin staring in the distance and trying to make sense of all that was said. She yells for Hania and hits the tree a few times. Sheyric stands up and clears his throat as pine needles start falling from the tree with her climbing down.

"Once everyone's back on solid ground, we need to get going. I don't know where you went," he looks at Heron, "but stay near. Some one should find Ryn and Ailpein. I believe that went that way." He points behind him, where the trees are more dense. Leiea feels her stomach sink at the thought of what those two may be discussing. She didn't even know they were with each other for the water break.

Pine needles strat falling more and Hania jumps from a branch without making a sound. She grins at Therin's look of competitive disbelief. Sheyric nods and walks off to where he said Ryn and Ailpein are when no one else volunteers to go.

Not long after, he returns with the two of them in tow. Everyone regroups their weapons and starts walking deeper into the wood. Through the tall, thick pines, Leiea can just see the sun nearing noon, even though the dew and cold is nothing different from how it was in early morning.

"We're coming near," Sheyric annonces after another hour of the hike. The pines have changed to normal deciduous trees, all of them with warm colored leaves. Some are even lacking the leaves like they should in a month. She doesn't know enough about plants to be sure, but Leiea takes this as a sign for an earlier winter than usual. It's the first time she's thought of winter happening in the encampment. It makes her shiver as everyone else nods at Sheyric's statement.

All the frost is melted from the trees, a strange thing. It all went into puddles layered on top of the leafy carpet. Therin takes jumping in the puddles and splashes everyone with icy water. He stops after Vaeic gives him a very real death stare.

Sheyric makes the group come to a complete stop and he looks around a tree. His shoulders slump as Therin plucks a red leaf from the tree, about to set it on his head. Sheyric stops his arm midair and motions to the group to be quiet.

Ailpein, just ahead of Leiea, clenches his fist around the sword's hilt. He pushes away everyone out of the way and goes directly to where Sheyric was looking. They're powerless to stop him.

Suddenly, they hear the unmistakable sound of the sword cutting into a tree. Following that is the horrible, scream-like noises of birds Leies knows too well, accompanied with the screaming of Ailpein, Therin, and Sheyric.