The Silencing of Esteria

Chapter 22

"Where are we?" asked Katrina once she had stopped shaking.

"Somewhere to the southeast of the village. The river back there is the one that feeds the well, so if we follow it, it should take us in the right direction. The only problem is that it goes underground before reaching the village."

A howl echoed through the trees.

Kat picked up Feran, putting him on her back and they began making their way north, following parallel to the water.

They walked for about ten minutes before the river disappeared into a cave, heading deep into the earth. With it gone, they had no choice but to fix a direction and march unguided into the darkness.

After another ten minutes of walking, Kat turned to Toland.

"We're lost, aren't we?"

Toland scratched his neck, looking about for anything familiar, but one shadowy tree looked the same as any other to him.

"If we head east," Kat said, "Towards the mountains, we will eventually come across the mountains, we should be able to see the village from there."

"But which way is east?"

Katrina bit her lip in frustration, "Well we have to keep moving or the wolves will catch us."

Toland couldn't argue with that, so they pressed on.

The adrenaline from the fight was wearing away from Toland and welling up to replace it was a flood of exhaustion. Soon he found himself tripping over undergrowth as his feet dragged and colliding with trees.

Another howl came from the depths of the trees.

The sound gave him another burst of energy, but it soon faded, and he was quickly back to stumbling over rocks and logs.

"What was that?" Kat asked suddenly, pointing ahead of them.

Toland squinted, trying to see what she was pointing at, but all he could see was darkness.

Then a green light flickered at the base of a tree.

Kat gently lowered Feran to the ground and readied her spear.

"Wait," Toland hissed, and took a few steps towards the light.

Circling the base of the tree was an orb seemingly made of pure light, about the size of an apple. It looked reminiscent of a very bright firefly.

"What is it?" whispered Katrina.

"Its... I think it's a linuri," Toland said.

He reached into his shirt and pulled out his charm necklace, showing it to the fae spirit.

The linuri did another circle of the tree then floated up towards Toland's face, hovering in front of the charm. It changed to a warm yellow colour then bobbed in front of him, circling and spinning towards the left.

"Come on," Toland called back to Kat, "We can follow it out of the forest."

"Are you sure?" Kat asked.

"Positive."

Kat shrugged and picked Feran back up again and they followed the linuri as it spun and circled slowly away from them.

It gradually faded back to green, and they settled into a gentler pace through the forest.

After twenty minutes of following the linuri they saw a flickering orange light through the trees. Then another and another.

They stumbled out to meet a villager holding a torch aloft with one hand a spear in the other.

He startled as they seemed to appear from the undergrowth but he soon recognized them.