Lost In The Woods

754 37 29
                                    

"Wow, I never thought the Xadian forest would be this big!" Soren said as he brought his horse to a stop and Enya did the same. "Okay, one quick break because my butt hurts from riding for so long."

"I haven't done this since I went looking for my dad." Enya groans as she climbs off her horse and rubs her sore rear. "And that was like...two weeks ago?"

"Speaking of which, did you find him?" Soren asks as he climbs off his own horse and starts digging around in the saddle bag for his water skin.

"Yeah, but I left him in the village near the Caldera." Enya says with a nod as she seats herself down on the grass. "Amaya was supposed to stay with him, but as usual she went running after me."

"Well I hope she didn't come running all the way from Katolis to here, her poor paws will be sore!"

"Like her namesake, she's a stubborn girl." Enya chuckles as Soren seats himself next to her to hand her his water skin. "I didn't pack food, did you?"

"Uh...no I forgot too." Soren admits sheepishly. "Buuut I'm sure there's some berries around here we can eat, like those red ones growing near the moon lady's home."

"Moonberries, packed with plenty of nutrients. But I don't think we should randomly start eating anything that looks weird or questionable."

"Relax, at camp we learned what sorts of things we could eat if we were stranded in the wild."

"Soren, we're in a Xadian forest, not one of the ones in the human kingdoms." Enya points out. "Anything that looks edible here can be deadly for us. For instance, those bright green berries may look tasty but can probably burn a hole our throat and stomach."

Soren gags at the thought, not wanting to know what that was like. "Okay fair point, but we never had a course covering what you can eat if you were stranded in Xadia."

"I want you to stay here and watch the horses, I'll go looking for something edible." Enya said grabbing her saddle bag off her horse. "In Lujanne's home there were some berry bushes and fruit trees she said were from Xadia that were safe to eat, so I'm going to go looking for those. If anything, I'll call out for you, okay?"

"Please be careful, I want us to get to the others in one piece." Soren said as she started walking towards the woods. "And I mean it! Don't die on me, your dog will probably murder me for it!"

"And anyone else I am very close to!" Enya yelled back before she disappeared into the foliage.

Okay Soren, time to make yourself useful and find some food. Soren thought as he rubbed his hands together and looked around at his surroundings. Enya might have outdoor skills to use from her childhood to save us, but I'm gonna do my part to help too!

⚔️⚔️⚔️

"There you are!" Enya murmured to herself in triumph as she knelt in front of a bush to pick the familiar berries off it and drop them into her bag. There weren't that many, but she hoped it would be enough to sustain them for the next few days until they arrived at the Storm Spire that Soren told her they were supposed to be heading to.

Once she was sure her bag was filled with enough, she began to walk back to where she last left Soren. Much to her horror, she couldn't find him or the horses. The saddle bags were still where they left them, but where were they?

"Soren? Soren!" Enya called out in panic as she looked around wildly. Did some kind of carnivorous Xadian creature eat them? Did Viren actually send one of the cursed soldiers after them and dragged Soren back? Enya couldn't even think straight as she ran back the way she came, screaming out Soren's name and praying that he was alright.

Oh I'll never forgive myself is something happens to him! I know he's a well trained soldier, but that doesn't mean he can't be taken out so easily by something!

As she was searching, Enya heard the sound of someone singing. Panicking and thinking it was an elf, she immediately dove behind a tree to wait for whoever it was to pass. As the voice hot closer, she noticed it sounded almost familiar and a bit slurred, like whoever was singing had just went through several bottles of wine and was now drunk out of their minds. Curious, she carefully looked around the tree and gasped when she saw who it was.

Soren seemed alright, but he was staggering around and singing loudly like some drunk coming out of a tavern as the horses followed. The sight would have been quite funny if Enya hadn't noticed that his tongue looked like it was glowing blue.

"Now I know you're my true north, cause I am lost in the woods! Up is down, day is night when you're not there!" He loudly sang as he swung an arm over the neck of his horse. "Oh, you're my only landmark, so I'm lost in the woods! Wondering if you still care!"

"Soren, what happened to you?" Enya asked as she slowly approached the swaying knight as he tried to stand up straight and brace himself against the horse. His attention seemed to be on her as he reached out to suddenly grab her hand and pulled her to his chest in a hug before swinging her around. "Soren!!"

"But I'll wait for a sign! That I'm your path, 'cause you are mine! Until then, I'm lost in the woods!" Soren sang loudly before he stopped spinning to hold Enya close, his head resting on the top of hers. "I'm lost in the woods..."

"Soren! Snap out of it!" She groans, breaking free of the hug to grab him by the shoulders and shaking him wildly as he started rambling.

"Oh hey I found you!" He slurred. "Oh and guess what?! The grass is magical and can make the horses sing!"

"Stars above what did you eat?" Enya asked, prying open his mouth to see his tongue glowing slightly blue. "I told you not to eat anything weird, your tongue is blue!"

"Your eyes are blue! Unlike violets!" Soren said with a drunken giggle and patted her cheek. "Just like in the poem!"

Poem? Wait is he talking about the poem I received a few days ago? Enya wondered as she started to walk Soren back to their horses and she had him sit down on a nearby rock. I never told him what was in the contents of the poem! Unless..."Hey Soren, how did you know what was in my poem?"

"I wrote it!" He responded proudly and gave her a goofy smile before abruptly jumping to his feet. "Claudia told me...write a love letter...and I did so, poetically! When that nice red dragon broke my back I discovered my poetic talents! And now I can write you lotsa lotsa poems!"

"Okay okay sit down!" Enya says as she tried to keep him from toppling and managed to get him to sit. "Okay stay there and... don't move. Please?"

"Anything for the love of my life!" Soren slurred and have another drunken giggle. "You so pretty I wanna...kiss your nose!"

Enya felt her cheeks bloom with heat and immediately turns away. Then that's when she noticed what looked like a weird orange mushroom with bright blue spots at her feet that looked like it had been ripped out of the ground and had a rather large bite mark taken out of it.

"Soren, did you eat this?" Enya asks, gently kicking the fungus away from her. Soren squints at the object before nodding rapidly.

"I found food! Mushrooms taste great!"

"Well now we know not to eat these- at all." Enya sighs before walking back to him and helped him up. "Come on, we still have a long way to go and we need to make camp for the night if we want to get rest to stay ahead of your dad."


*******

Stay tuned for future announcements!

Savior ||The Dragon Prince|| [Completed]Where stories live. Discover now