Testing For Hope

Chapter 5 - Collecting Resources

Out in the world, there is nothing but madness, but in the hearts of men, there is plenty more to fill the last of the void.

Hysteria walked out of her oasis and let out a sigh. She only just got home yesterday, but alas, no rest for the wicked. Her bag secured over her shoulder, she pulled out the map inside and started her journey to the mountains nearby where she got most of her wood. The journey was very long but short enough to be a day's walk there and back. She may have to set camp on the mountain, however.

Walking down the path she made years ago, she heard the crunching of the leaves beneath her feet. It turned fall recently and oh, how she loved every second of it. That was no surprise though because she was the witch of the woods and the autumn season was the trees getting ready for the winter when they weren't ready for it in the first place.

The path started going uphill as she got closer, the mountains looming over her with such a powerful stance that if she had not been there millions of times before, she might have fallen backwards in amazement.

The higher she got, the more the rocks on the trail gathered, until she was stepping on the stones only in fear of her foot getting stuck in one of the ledges. She climbed higher and higher when suddenly she was standing on a cliff at the top covered in tall beautiful spruce trees. She set down all her stuff nearby unprotected, as she was never well enough that the animals that were up here wouldn't want her berries and water when there was a meat rack next to it.

Chopping down the trees took a while, but she would only need a few before leaving. After getting all the wood she set it down in her bag and looked up at the sky. It was almost dusk and she had to get down the mountain and back home. She decided to find a cave on the mountain and set up camp like her plan B had been.

Finding a cave was fairly easy, especially when there was light coming from inside of it.

Going around the mouth of the cave, she saw wooden beams and dots of light swapping gracefully, then suddenly all the light poofed out. She saw some shadows near the end of the cave as she walked inside.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" she asked, her voice trembling in fear.

Mumbles at the end of the hall beckoned her further inside fearing for her life as she took one more step.