Cǽrvelle-The Journey

Day 1, 18th Day of the Month of Ice

It was snowing. That was peculiar, but I couldn't possibly remember why. Had I suffered a concussion? Perhaps I had fallen on my head? My head did hurt quite a bit, as did the rest of my body. My name was Collin, I remembered. Collin Alastair McKinnon, from Falkirk, Scotland. I glanced over, wincing as my head ground against the gravel I was lying on, getting inside a potential wound. A girl was lying next to me, and she was astoundingly beautiful. Did I know her? Then I noticed her uniform, now splattered with snow and dirt, and recognized the symbol. This was Holly, from Strathallan School for Girls & Boys. I had a crush on her, I remembered. But why were we here? I felt like I could maybe move, but was too sore to bother. Regardless, I sat up, groaning from the wounds on my back. I rubbed my eyes, and when they opened, I became thoroughly confused.

The woods we were in were covered in a thick coat of snow, save the small spot we had landed in. Pine trees covered in powder stood like sentries all around us, showing only a small area of sky before merging to become dense forest. I lone lamppost, casting a bright white glow over the area, was the only sign of civilization. I leant over and shook Holly, trying to wake her. Her eyes groggily opened, as she rubbed the back of her head. When she saw me, she started a wee bit, thinking I was in her room. Then when she felt the gravel beneath her, she stopped, and sat up as I had, groaning. She took a long look around, as her brows furrowed into a look of confusion.

"Collin, where are we?" she asked, with an almost accusatory glare.

"I have just as much idea as you."

"How did we get here, then?"

"I don't honestly know. In fact, I can't even remember what happened."

I got up, dusting off my trousers before helping her up. She crossed her arms, shivering a bit from the cold.

"Are you cold?" I asked, cordially.

"Yes, very much so."

I took off my jacket and put it around her, ceasing her shivering.

"Thank you, Collin. What do you suppose we do now?"

"Well, let's just pick a direction and see what we find?"

"Well, it's better than anything I have, so let's go."

We started off, trekking through the 6 inches of snow, lifting our feet high with every step to avoid getting the snow in our measly uniform boots. For a while, we were silent, as the sun began to get lower and lower. Finally, around sunset, we stumbled upon a road, lined with the lampposts we had seen earlier, and faint marks of cobblestone underneath.

"Finally, civilization!" exclaimed Holly, throwing out her arms.

We stumbled into the centre of the road, sweaty and cold from the long trek in the woods. Looking in either direction, the road seemed to continue for miles.

"Well, it's almost dusk. What direction shall we take?" I asked, bringing our dire situation back to Holly's attention.

"Let's go that way, shall we?" she indicated in a direction, which seemed to have less hills than the other. I agreed, and we quickly started off, as the sun sluggishly made its way past the horizon. When it was thoroughly dark, with only the lamps illuminating our way, Holly moved closer to me, grabbing my arm as she whispered in my ear.

"Collin, there's something in the wood."

I slowly turned to look out past the lights, and saw that she was correct. A small pair of glowing eyes peered out at us, before it ducked behind a tree and reappeared ten meters ahead of us. I stopped, and Holly drew closer. The eyes stopped as well, blinking once or twice before moving a meter closer to us. I slowly began walking again, taking care to keep staring at the eyes. When we got past them, I noticed a small cabin, barely a shack, just past the next hill. Its windows, black as the night around us, showed its emptiness. I took another step, before whispering to Holly.