World Of Beauty (Arula: Four)

Chapter 11

Karma led the way through the frostbitten Umber Forest. She followed step by step directions that her dream had told her. Looking down at her book, the pages opened revealing drawings and description of her dream, Karma guided her friends. "Are-are y-you s-sure th-that your dr-dream was r-real?" Jason asked shivering. The temperature had dropped tremendously since the last few days. The companions wrapped their fur coats tightly around their bodies, hoping to keep the cold air away. Only Dagner wasn't cold, he breathed in the fresh cold air like it was the sweetest thing in the world.

"No." Karma answered looking at her book and at the woods around them. "But there's only one way to find out."

"Gr-gr-great." Muttered Jason, burying his nose in his coat.

"Here, lad." Dagner said coming up beside Jason holding up a flask. "This outta keep you warm." Jason shook his head.

"Y-you do know, that st-study shows th-that dr-drinking alcohol does-doesn't keep you act-actually war-warm, right?" Dagner blinked up at him.

"Studies of what?" He asked then shrugged. "Oh well, more for me then!" And Dagner took a big gulp from his flask. "Ahhh. Nothing gets better than that." Jason rolled his eyes and kicked his horse to get it to move a little faster. The horse caught up with Karma and Jason manage to get look at the "map" Karma drew. It was full of pictures and words that were scattered and a little confusing. Jason didn't understand a blink of it, but he could tell that Karma did, because she looked very determined.

After what seemed liked hours of useless wondering around, Karma slowed down her horse. "Whoa," she said to it. "Easy girl." The horse, Pepper slowed to a stop, and Karma patted the horse's neck. To the others she said, "I believe we're close. I recognized this area from my dream." Mika joined Karma by her side and also looked at Karma's journal with the open page of the map.

"What are we looking for?" Mika asked looking around.

"This," Karma said pointing to one of her drawings. "It's supposed to be a cave with vines. It's going to be hard to find so keep your eyes peeled." The group separated to look for the hidden cave. Neither one went out of hearing range just in case they found something. Jason jumped off his horse and guided it with the reins. The terrain had too many roots and rocky bits for a horse to ride through with a rider on its back. As he looked around, he heard a loud squawk. He looked up to see the weird winged-rat creature that belonged to the cloaked man.

Jason swallowed hard. The creature gave Jason a curious look. "Go away." Hissed Jason at the creature. "I won't go through with it, so tell your 'master' that I decline his offer." The words that Jason spoked sounded brave, but with the cold, each words spoken came out with a stuttered, making him sound more scared than brave. The creature gave Jason one last look before deciding to take off. It flew off the branch, swooped down toward Jason's head and squawked loudly. Jason yelped and fell down on his butt. His horse gave a nervous whine and trotted the ground. But when Jason looked back up, the creature was gone.

"Over here!" Jason heard Karma yell moments later. Regaining his senses, Jason joined the others. They were standing in front of a cave that had vines hanging from it. Just like in Karma's dream.

"You alright, lad?" Dagner asked.

"Huh?" Jason answered.

"Heard you scream like a little filly over there."

"Oh, that. I just... tripped." Dagner raised an eyebrow at him but didn't question him. Karma looked at the cave and took a deep breath.

"No turning back now." She out aloud and everyone nodded in agreement. They walked inside the cave.