Escape from Kraznir

Chapter 4 - Poisonous or Not?

'BANG!' I wake with a jerk. I look around to find the cause of the noise. All I see is Athor sleeping soundly, and Touchfire sitting up doing the same. My mind suddenly starts racing. 'Where is Doughty!? Doughty is gone!' I look around frantically trying to find him. Touchfire grabs me and forces me to look at him. I try to squirm out of his grip but it is no use. He holds me and looks into my eyes.

“If you just calm down" he begins "then we can go out looking, Okay?" I pause and then nod my head. He lets me go and turns to wake Athor up.

"Wait no, don't. Let him sleep." He stops.

"I will go look for Doughty while you stay here and make breakfast." I get a stern look from him but he agrees.

I get up and walk into the forest where the sound came from. Looking around I see broken branches and crushed grass.

I instantly start running in the direction of the leaves. I come to an opening. I see Doughty lying there on the ground moaning. He turns his head and sees me. He sits up and starts to giggle.

"What's so funny?" I ask in a stern voice.

He stops and looks at me with a smile. "What?!" I ask again. "It's just you're so concerned" he finally replies, "It's so cute."

My mind is racing! 'Did he just say I was cute?' A little shiver goes down my spine. "Are you okay?" he asks looking a bit puzzled with my shiver. "Yes, the question is are you okay?" He smiles again and replies by getting up as though nothing happened. "Yup I fine totally fine." his voice is hoarse as if he got punched in the stomach. He gets up slowly trying to hide the pain in his face. I walk over and help him up. "What did you do?" I ask him while he walks over to a bunch of scattered orange & blue balls.

"I was climbing this tree" he says "and you fell out of it didn't you?" I ask with a smile. He gets up and nods while making sure the orange & blue balls are secure in his shirt. "What are they?" I ask. "I don't know" he says, "I think they are a fruit of some kind. I've never seen them before." "Neither have I." I join in, "their colour is very strange, blue on one side and orange on the other. We could ask Touchfire if he knows what they are."

I show him the way back to the clearing where the others are. "Hey you found him" Touchfire says in a joking voice. "Yeah he was lying on the ground cause he-" Doughty gives me a little nudge to stop talking of his embarrassment. I say no more a giggle to myself.

"What have you got there?" Asks a curious Athor. "Um just some blue & orange fruit I found in a tree just up that way" Doughty points to the direction we came from. "We were wandering if you could tell us what they are Touchfire." I say as Doughty bends down and shows it to him. As Touchfire sees the fruit his face goes pale. "What’s wrong? Do you know what it is? Have you seen it before? Is it edible?" Athor says out loud what everyone is thinking. Still no answer form Touchfire. Doughty and I sit down while Touchfire thinks. "BIPOIN!" Touchfire shouts while straightening up. "Bipoin?" Athor repeats. "Yes Bipoin," says Touchfire. "I dealt with it before. But there is one thing wrong with it - wait you didn't eat any of it yet did you?" He says in a panicky voice. "No" Doughty says looking at me "why?" "Good, because the problem is that it is poisonous!" As he says this Doughty throws the fruit straight onto Touchfire's lap and stands up as if he’s trying to get away from it. "Only half of it is, and only if you eat it" Touchfire adds in addition to his laugh. Doughty straightens up his shirt and sits back down getting the bipoins that have fallen to the side. Athor Touchfire and I sit there clutching our stomachs in laughter. Doughty sits up with the fruit and asks "so what do you mean only half is poisonous" we look at him and the seriousness in his face and laugh even harder. I try to consume my laughter and try to stop. Athor and Touchfire settle down also and Doughty asks again "so what do you mean only half of it is poisonous?" We all look at Touchfire while he begins to explain. "Well it is said that only have of this very fruit is poisonous and the other half is not. Which one is which that I do not know." "Well how are we supposed to figure out which is which without getting poisoned?" I ask looking at anyone to see if they will volunteer. "Well there is so trick to it," Touchfire begins, "I believe its all in the name. Remember I am gathering this information from when I studied it when I was 11." we sit in silence waiting for him to figure it out. Finally Doughty says "what do you mean it’s in the name?" "Well, there is some kind of code in the name. Something to do with its properties." Touchfire's words float around in my head, when I suddenly think. Code. Code meaning abbreviation! "Is the message abbreviated?" I ask my thoughts aloud. "Abbreviated indeed!" Touchfire shouts, "the fist letter of each word is in the name." "so b would stand for?" Doughty questions. "Blue. Obviously." Athor points out. "You’re right!" Touchfire begins muttering to himself untangling the message. "B stands for BLUE. And I for IS. P for... POISENOUS!" Touchfire blurts out "Orange is not!" Athor adds. "You did it!" I share. I grab one and as I bring it up to my mouth Touchfire hits it out of my hand. "What's wrong?" I blurt out in confusion. "Sorry but there could be a slight chance that we are wrong" he replies. "Well I am willing to take the risk." I grab another and bite into it. They all sit there looking at seeing if anything is happening to me. I swallow and take another bite. I look at the bipoin to make sure that I eat the orange. There is a little bit let so I take my last bit when Doughty asks "how long until you die from the blue side?" we look at Touchfire and he says "as soon as you take a bite." Doughty nods his head and picks one up and takes a bite. Athor joins in and eventually so does Touchfire. Once we finished the bipoin we pack up our stuff and head back home. We walk deeper into the forest, Doughty and Athor carry the chest and I and in front with a map to get us home. Touchfire walks at the back in case something attacks us. "The forest is going to end soon and then we will be in the Stony Desert" I shout back. "The forest is getting lighter which means we are getting closer to the end" We get to the end and as I step out into the sun I feel an immediate heat. I retreat back into the shade. "Are you sure we need to go this way?" Athor asks. I look down at the map "yup" I reply. I walk out into the sun again but this time I keep walking. The others follow me and off we go on our next journey into the heat.

***

We have been walking for hours now; we are all tired and hungry and hot. It is getting dark and everyone is tired. "We need to find a good place to rest for the night" Doughty says to us, muttering under his breath. I was very tired of holding up the map and trying to read it with hardly any light. "This looks like a good place to stop and rest for the night" I say to everyone trying to sound as cheery as possible. "Well I guess so" Athor says. I fall to the ground. I am so tired from walking, my stomach keeps on rumbling and my arm sling has completely fallen off and gotten lost somewhere in the stony desert. We set everything down and sit down to have a rest. My eyes are closing slowly when all of a sudden we here a loud panting noise. I sit up to listen. It is now really dark. The sound is coming closer; I glance at doughty in a worried look.

"What is that?" I ask quietly as I get up,

"I don't know" he replies

"I think I know", I look around to see who said that. Surprisingly it was Touchfire.

"Um... Okay what is it then?" He pauses to make sure he is right. "It is a Dragon that eats people". "Whew I'm glad I'm not a person" Athor said to us.

"Umm..... I meant it eats anything" Touchfire said to us in a shaky voice.

Suddenly I feel a faint breathing on my neck. I reach down very slowly to my dagger, grab it out but the dragon notices what I am doing, "DUCK" Doughty screams at me and I fall to the floor as I feel the dragon push me down. I feel like I am falling down a very steep hole with no one to catch me, as I reach the ground everything goes blurry. I lay there for a second in pain from falling on my arm until I realise what is happening. My vision goes back to normal and I see an awful sight in front of me. Doughty is trying to fight off the dragon with his sword but the dragon is too busy focusing at me, Touchfire is behind the dragon trying to calm it down and I notice scorch marks all over his robe, and Athor is standing back in fright trying to defend the chest. I get up trying to ignore the pain in my arm but I find I stumble back to the ground. The huge face of the dragon appears before my eyes. I close my eyes, when nothing happens. I open them again to see the dragon has backed away and has turned around to see Touchfire who is trying to calm the dragon down. I get up very slowly, trying not to make any sudden movements. When the dragon lets out a huge roar and Touchfire falls back to the ground. The dragon turns around and looks at Athor. "HELP" Athor screams as he runs away from the chest. "Athor don't leave the chest" I scream at him but he doesn't hear me. I run as fast as I can over to the chest and see Doughty lying on the ground exhausted from trying to keep the dragon away. He just looks up at me and closes his eyes. Tears start to stream out of my eyes and down my face and I think about giving up. It would be so much easier to just sit down and die. But then I think of my Family, my friends and the people of Slinsil. I get up and see Touchfire and Doughty lying on the ground still not moving, Athor trying to run away from the dragon and not get killed at the same time and see that I am the only hope to keeping Athor and I alive. I grab out my bow and arrow with the little strength I have left and aim. My hands are shaking, my arm is aching and my heart is pounding and I let go of my arrow. I shoot another and another just to make sure. I close my eyes and fall to the ground waiting for something to happen. Waiting for Doughty and Touchfire to come back to life, waiting for Athor to shout at me for killing the dragon, waiting for everything to be okay. When all of a sudden I feel a hand on my shoulder. "You did well", I turn around to see Touchfire standing in behind me. "I.......I Thought you were dead" I say to Touchfire as I put my bow and arrow on my back. Athor comes up to us exhausted from running away from the dragon. "Thanks, Zora" Athor said to me panting hard. "You saved my life". I sit down and open up the chest "We have no food left" I say to Athor but I find Touchfire is over by Doughty. "He is still breathing" Touchfire yells over to me. I quickly grab out the blankets from the chest and rush over to Doughty. I cover him up with blankets and see that his eyes are open now. He says to me in a very faint voice "we need to keep moving" I look at him and reply "No, you need to rest" Touchfire makes a small fire with the little energy he has and sits by with me. Doughty and Athor fall asleep. We eventually fall asleep too.

It has been a few hours since Doughty and Athor woke up and now we are walking across the stony desert. The sun has just come up and it is blazing hot. We are out of food and everyone is starving. My arm is really starting to hurt again and I cannot bear the pain anymore. I want to cry out in pain and lay down on the floor, but I won't. As team leader I need to stay strong. We keep on walking for hours, when we see green. I think it is a mirage but Athor says "Everyone sees that too, right?" I suddenly start running. The rest follow me. I stop at the edge of a very big forest. "Where..........Where are we" I ask out loud instead of in my head. I look over my shoulder at Touchfire and Doughty, and Touchfire's face looks very grim. "We are at the forest of Haag"