Leaving Laurabelle Falls

Chapter 18

I was woken up in the morning by the feeling of the boat rocking as it ran against the shore. I carefully listened, and heard no sounds of the whispers that had plagued me the night before. I waited until I felt Deacon sit up, and heard the heavy fabric of his blanket hit the bottom of the boat as he threw it off of his head. I peeled the fabric off of my face just in time to see him stand, stretching his arms over his head and bending backwards.

There was a distinguished crack, and he winced.

"Well, it's not exactly tempur-pedic." He said, stepping out of the boat and onto the shore. The edges of the shore were gray, and his boots made soft sucking sounds every time he lifted them.

The rest of the trip was not going to be clean.

"Let's get up," He said, "We can have a small fire here. We won't be able to light anything over the next few days, so let's make the most of it while we can."

"What are we having for breakfast?" I asked.

Torrent and Sam were already walking into the woods, breaking small branches off of the dead trees. They couldn't pull any wood from the ground; it looked like the fog had seeped into the branches there.

"Eggs and toast." Bethany shouted. She was standing in front of a small contraption, made of a thin metal. She eagerly accepted a small handful of twigs from Sam, and put them to use underneath the base. Maddie was reaching precariously towards the lantern on the end of their boat, her shoes slipping deeper into the mud the closer she got to it.

"Oh, come on," She huffed, "Let's go, let's go."

"Is this enough?" Torrent asked, handing Bethany another small handful of twigs. Bethany sighed, looking at the pitiful pile.

"It's enough to cook maybe two eggs." She said. "Let's keep looking. We all deserve to have a little something before the beginning of the day.

"Hold on," Clyde announced, climbing out of the boat. He stepped over me, sinking into the shore. He walked towards the forest, and slipped between the trees. His hand rested lightly on the hilt of his sword.

He came back a few moments later with a much thicker branch. It had clearly been hacked away, with the edges looking broken and splintered. He had a wide grin across his face.

"Will a couple more pieces like this do?" He asked.

"Yeah, that's perfect." Deacon said. "But don't take too long. We have to get a move on if we want to find the safe house by nightfall."

"Find the safe house?" I questioned, my eyebrows knitting together. "You mean we don't have a map?"

"We don't need one." Deacon informed me. "We're going to be fine."

I felt anxiety rise but didn't say anything. After all, the blankets had worked last night, right?

I should have no reason to believe that we wouldn't be able to find it in time.

Ten minutes later, Maddie was kneeling down next to the fire. She had opened the little lantern, letting a small burst of magic pop out. It was no longer lit, but instead, it lit the flame. Bethany made quick work of cracking eggs on the stove top, laying slices of bread along the empty portion.

It wasn't long until everyone had their portions laid out, and passed to them. The bread was still a little too hot when it was handed to me, but it was an improvement over the cold of the night before.

"Everyone knows we're not going to be able to talk as soon as the fog gets thick," Deacon said, "So I think we should come up with some hand signals. Now is a good time,"