The Surviving Hunters - Rise Of The Hunters

Treehouse

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Lila's Perspective

We sped through the night, farther and farther away from the hospital. I didn't know where we're supposed to go, or why we're even going through a forest.

We stopped around 10:00 pm, (thanks to the what looks like Mara's human shield's watch, we kind of knew.)

"Hey, so where are we going?" I asked, panting.

There was silence, for no one knew where we were. No shelter, and just the empty night sky.

"Somewhere, obviously. This is the Forest of the Blue Delphiniums anyway, we can find something to work with, especially with the big trees," the girl who was wounded said. She was wincing, for some unknown painful reason.

"Forest of Delphiniums?" the other boy with blond hair asked.

The wounded girl nodded and looked up. "It's a very historical and sacred forest to the Delphiniums. It used to have very diverse amount of trees and right now... we're in the Charkoak part. It's a trail where the north star is visible in cloudless nights, like now."

We all looked up. A big bright beautiful star was there, illuminating the forest floor. It seemed to shine with the knowledge of a thousand worlds past. It shone with light I didn't know was imaginable. It shone with hope, and it shone with power. But this light was unlike Mara's. Instead of twisting, instead of tainting the world surrounding it, the star seemed to light it up, as if to show a way. The star was like a comforting beacon, a promise that even the lost will be found. I let myself bask in its light, briefly closing my eyes, as if I could bloom in its glow like a helpless flower.

"Who are you?" asked Mara's human shield, staring at the sky longer than all of us. It seemed to be directed at the wounded girl.

"The name's Dew, and why are you asking for my name?" the wounded girl questioned, as she stared deep into the woods, and toying with her spear.

Mara's human shield gritted her teeth, "My name's Angelina, and I was just wondering why you know this place. Only people who have been with Delphiniums a long time know this place well."

"Oh? I thought it was common knowledge. It's written all over books, and the fact that I've been in these woods for a bit," The wounded girl answered, "since me and Angelina have introduced ourselves, kind of, why don't we all say our names?"

"Alright, let me go then!" The assistant boy exclaimed, "Your boy David's in the woods and he's terrified! Kinda!" His slick, short black hair kind of bounced as he pointed towards him.

"I--uh... It's Brian, yeah. My name is Brian!" The blonde boy said, staring at his hospital tag with his misty blue eyes.

Then, it was finally time to introduce myself.

"I'm Lila! I come from the Gardener family!" I said, cheerfully. I'm pretty sure my green eyes are emanating with my cheerfulness. I don't know if it's bad or good.

"Hey, how'd you do that thing? Y'know, with the vines and all," David asked, "I don't think a Gardener of all families could do that..."

"Uh, unlike most Gardeners... I can summon plants and talk to animals... and I can produce these," I said.

A slight tingling in my back, and there a shimmery butterfly-like wings seemingly slipped through my back. Except, these didn't look like any butterfly wings ever seen. They seemed almost translucent, as if they were a ghost of true wings.

"What?! You mean you could have carried us and flew this whole time we were running and walking for hours?!" Dew exclaimed.

I looked down at my lap.

"Not really... I'm not that strong..."

I felt everyone's eyes on me and my face went red. Thankfully, Brian came to my rescue.

"Let's not blame anyone! we all have to work together to get to shelter," He said.

I smiled knowingly, "A shelter? Leave it to me!"

I looked around the forest full of trees. Suddenly, I had an idea. The idea popped up out of nowhere. At least I had a clear image of what I wanted to do. I had no idea if it would work, or if it was rational, but it was worth a try.

"Let me make a tree, where we could have shelter!"

Everyone stared at me like I was crazy. Brian started laughing.

"I don't want to sleep on a hard branch that some animal pooped on," Dew said scornfully, "Besides, how could a little weakling like you do such a thing? Bad enough for your seemingly bad coughing..."

I ignored her, "We're not going to sleep on the branches." I said, quietly.

"Then where? Why a tree of all places?" Dew said with a frown.

"I don't know! It's all I could come up with, and I think it'll be cool. Besides, it's the easiest thing I can make a house out of."

"I think it's a great idea!" Brian says with a little grin, "Sorry I laughed, the idea's a little weird but I believe you can do it!"

"Fine. Then make it, and make it quick. It's already dark out and we don't need to see any monsters," Dew replied.

Angelina snorted at the word 'monsters.' Dew must've known that that was silly -- there are no monsters (unless you count Mara) -- because she added with a grumble, "Mara may be looking for us, too, you know."

I closed my eyes and focused. I felt a little tug in my gut, and then it was pulled on. Hard. The ground started shaking a little from the tree that was sprouting out of the Earth. It was almost like I was connecting to the God of the Earth, and we were doing this together. I felt physically connected to Earth, but mentally thousands of miles away, playing with the stars. This was such a new feeling and it was all so... beautiful.

I could feel grass sprouting at my feet and all my friends feet as a big, tall, strong tree erupted from the ground after about a minute. The ground stopped shaking, but I did my work to make this treehouse perfect.

After about a minute, I opened my eyes and a large treehouse stood in front of us. Except for a small purple outline and small golden doorknob on the front door, you could hardly tell that this was a treehouse. There were purple-green bushy leaves at the top and strong brown branches, and it was filled with purple flowers from ground up. I grinned to myself, before that is, I collapsed from exhaustion.

Thankfully though, before I could fall on the ground, Brian caught me.

"Woah! Lila, are you okay?" He asked, his eyes wide in awe.

"Yeah... just... a bit... tired..." And then I passed out.

Chapter 5, Inside, will be released this Thursday!