The Undertaking

Part 6

I woke up to a bright light. Looking up I was able to see the sun through the cracks inthe roof. Getting up, I stretched and grabbed a roll from the pack, looking in I had three rollsleft. As I ate the roll, I felt something off. I could not seem to describe the feeling, nor could Ireally feel it at all. I just knew something was off. Looking at my arm I found my answer. Mybandaging had loosened, and while it was not bleeding too badly, I could see my essenceleaking out. I grabbed the knot and untied it taking care to really cover the wound beforetying it around it again.Feeling some form of relief as I saw my wound tightly secured, I still felt almostblank. My essence allows me to do magic but must also give me the ability to feel in general.I shivered at the thought of losing some kay part of humanity. Hopefully, the healers backhome can fix me.I exited the hut and began moving forwards. Looking up I realized that I must haveslept till at least early afternoon if not midafternoon. Continuing to move through the jungleI noticed that it was less dense now, more like a forest than a jungle. As the hours passed, Iwas able to make quicker time through the tree filled canyon. Looking ahead I saw a giantoak to the right of the path. This will probably be the best chance I am going to get to seehow close I am to getting out of this wretched jungle. As I was climbing, I did think of thepossibility of getting attacked by the giant snake, but I felt that the more deadly side of thiswood was at night. Making it to the top of the tree I could see above most of the would andwas relieved to see I had only about three miles to go before I would be out.I did however notice that there seemed to be a small gap in the tree line. Passing itover as another clearing, I began to make my way down when I spotted it in the next treeover. I had to rub my eyes because this snake was all black instead of white, other than thatit was the same. It appeared to bee sleeping so I did not risk staying up there longer as Imoved to make my way down. Making it to the ground I began running forward with arenewed sense of vigor.It was early evening when I stopped next. I grabbed my canteen and finished it off, Ihad one left. As I rounded the corner, I looked down to see no ground ahead of me. Acrossthe gaping hole, which spanned close to fifty feet, were branches, all relatively thin. Whilesome did seem sturdy and alive, a lot of other branches looked like they had been dead forquite some time. Taking a deep breath, I put one foot onto a sturdy looking branch, andbegan to weave my way through the branches. Thank goodness I was always good at therope courses back home. Even without being old enough to get our weapons we were stilltrained to be quick and agile through different courses, we also began in self defensetraining, nothing in comparison to what we would learn when we were given a mentorafter the Call. While I was able to make it through fairly well, the branches began to movedue to how late it was getting. Making it near the end I realized that all the branches aheadwere broken I still had a few feet to go so I just jumped forward. Landing and tucking into aroll I got up with a sigh of relief. As I continued, I began to think. I wonder how I'll get backhome after this. Our mentor told us not to worry about what was after the caves, but toworry about getting through them first. After he had said that he left us all for the nightwatch. We had talked some while hiking the next day, and he told us some about his ownjourney, I never was able to confirm that there was a way back, because that night everyonewas killed.Shaking myself out of my own memories I looked up to see a clearing ahead, andbehind it was a giant cave entrance. Making it to the mouth of the cave, I looked up at thesky. It seemed that the sun was in its last stages of setting as darkness began to wake thetrees up. Not wanting to stay in the woods any longer I took a deep breath, and knife inhand, I ran into the mouth of the cave.