Lost and Found

Chapter 13 - Hecatura's Story

"Here we go again..." sighed Pat. Nya nudged him.

"Shhhh."

Many years ago, a few centuries after the birth of the forest, humans came, said Hecatura. I was one of them. We trampled in, thinking we had a right to this land. But when your mother came, Nya, even though she rambled about books and writings, we listened to her. We stopped. I don't know why, but we did. 

We built our houses and lived in peace, naming our forest home Lar, on request of your mother, Hester. We owned her our peace. One day, she brought a toddler to the village. Someone else from the 'other' world.

There was a terrible fire that day. People died. You were lucky. Hester swore she would never bring you back here, Nya. You left with a twig of the forest clenched tightly in a small fist.

The memory! thought Nya. When she had walked in Pat's house she had remembered the fire.

Hester did not come back for a few years. When she did return I was in my early twenty's. Full of enthusiasm for life. Your mother started to question people about the umbra. She was told the legend of the forest that you hear today.

She decided to find the umbra. To defeat them forever. She took with her a group of people willing to help on this quest, including me. We came to the cave but the rest of the group was frightened by the aura of  darkness.

Only your mother and I entered, guided by a bear. We made it through the maze to the umbra. We did not know that they did not weaken over time. They grew stronger. Hester tried to destroy them but the master overpowered her. It possessed her. 

I ran, only to be cursed to float around this maze as a voice. A voice, that once it had told its story, would cease to exist.

"What? No! How -"

Follow my mark. Read the old legend. Find the Evermore man. Good luck, young souls.

A light breeze blew and the air in front of Nya and Pat went up with a wisp. A cloud of misty air appeared and formed into an arrow pointing right. Then Hecatura's mark was gone.

Nya and Pat sat, stunned at what had just happened. Nya stared at the empty air in front of her as if expecting something else to appear.

"Did she really just go? Just like that?" she asked.

"Yep. Kind of weird. But I guess we owe it to her, and your mum of course, to follow her instructions. What was it? Follow my mark, read the old legend... There really is a lot of those legendy kinda things isn't there?" said Pat.

"Don't forget find the Evermore man. You have any idea who he is?" said Nya.

Pat shook his head. "Let's just start with the first one. We'll work it out eventually. I hope that arrow she left points us out of this place!"

"I second that!" said Nya.

"Third it!"

"Fourth it!"

"Fifth it!"

They began to walk in a  single file, Nya at the front, trying to go as close as possible towards where the arrow was pointing. It wasn't that easy when the maze curled around like a snake. They continued like that for what seemed like hours.

"One-hundred and fifty-fifth it."

"One-hundred and fifty-sixth it."

"One-hundred and fifty-seventh it..."

"One-hundred and fif-fif-" Pat yawned. "Fifty-eighth it."

"We've got to be almost there," said Nya, yawning herself.

"Do you see a light?" said Pat.

Nya squinted into the distance filled with never ending darkness. "Not really," she said.

"I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing."

They came to an intersection and chose the path closet to the direction they were headed.

"Maybe Hecatura got her left and right mixed up," said Nya.

"Maybe."

They took another step.

"LOOK OVER THERE IT'S GLOWING THAT LITTLE CORRIDOR IS GLOWING IT'S OUR WAY OUT IT'S FREEDOM IT'S -"

"A firefly?" said Nya, looking carefully at the glowing bug that had just flew into their view. It almost seemed to turn towards them, to see them. It zoomed back into the corridor below it, omitting a yellowy golden light.

Nya and Pat quickened their pace, speed-walking towards the glowing part of the maze (remember they're walking on the top of maze walls here so it would be quite risky to run). They came to the corridor and gazed down below.

The single firefly was flying in and out of a broken lamp head attached to the wall, overjoyed at seeing other life in the world. The maze wall broke off into a set of steps leading down to ground level, almost as if it had been made for them.

"You don't think... You don't think we've made it to the centre of the maze?" said Nya. Pat's eyes were following the firefly zoom around.

"I think we have."

They scurried down the steps into a room surrounded by four of the maze's walls. Nya stared up the steps they had just come down.

"You can only reach it from above. It was like it was made for us."

Pat was looking at the wall the lamp head was attached to.

"Hey Nya, look at this."

The firefly seemed to sense their interest and went and stood very still in the centre of the lamp. The room lit up. It was covered in engravings. Words etched into the stone, continuing on all the four walls. Nya read the first sentence, the lamp marking the beginning.

There was once a legend attached to this forest.

"I think we've found the old legend," she said.

The firefly glowed in happiness.

_______________________________________________________

Hi!

Short chapter again. I'm actually quite liking where this is going (I don't actually know what's going to happen next until I'm typing the sentence).

Vote and comment and all that stuff,

- FranVader