Missing

Chapter 9

A month ago

Aris pulled the stone from her pocket.

It fit in to the palm of her hand perfectly, the emerald colour glinting in the low light of the fire. It didn't look like much, but sometimes, when there was no birdsong in the trees and the wind had stilled, Aris could swear she heard the stone whispering. As if a voice had become trapped in the jewel.

On occasions, she would awaken suddenly, panting or yelping into the night. She had dreams – the voice from the jewel would lead her somewhere, and she recognised it. Then the dream would turn dark and strange things would happen and she's jolt herself awake in panic. There was never anymore.

She'd woken up with this stone on her first night in the forest – two months ago? More? She'd lost track. She'd found herself in a car park of a nature reserve in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, wearing trousers, a green t-shirt, and a brown jacket a few sizes too big for her. The stone had been in her hand, but Aris had no idea how she had gotten there, and no clue

as to who she was. She'd been barefoot, freezing, and confused. And then the wolf came...

Aris placed the stone apprehensively back into her pocket and took off the jacket. She rubbed her thumb fondly over the name tag. Half of it had been ripped off at some point in her adventure, and the rest was rubbed and smudged beyond legibility. All that remained was 'ARIS'. That was all that was left of her former life – if she ever had one, that is. All that was left of who she was. All memories, personality, years of her life gone, and only a name remained. Not even a full one.

She shouldered the jacket back on, squared her shoulders, set her jaw, and took a deep breath. There was nothing she could do and sulking over the absence of the past wasn't going to help anyone, least of all herself. If she was going to find out about anything, she would have to go get it.

*****

After Aquila teleported the five to the Lost Woods near the Jeger camp, they all set up camp, whilst Aquila vanished.

"Where'd she go?"

They all shrugged.

"We'll camp here for the night." Henrik decided.

"Should I get firewood?" Seraphina asked.

Cora grinned "I shouldn't think so." she said and shot her hands forward.

A burst of blue flame leapt from Furious' snout and created a giant flame in the centre of the clearing.

"Yes, I was about to do that." Cora exclaimed, glaring at Furious.

Henrik smiled and leant against Furious' warm, black scales. He watched Kestrel as she unfolded the instructions to her tent and pulled out the sheet of waterproof fabric.

She scowled at the instructions and unzipped the bag of the poles.

With her tongue sticking out, she put the poles in the tent. After several minutes and numerous glares at the instructions, it sprung open.

Smiling to herself, Kestrel walked to the pile of sheets and poles of Cora's tent and built her tent in seconds as Cora was tending the fire.

Mia, deciding to do hers herself, found herself stuck in between the sheets and poles. She tried to untangle herself, resulting in an even bigger mess.

"Erm, Kestrel?" she asked. It came out as a mumble from within the tent.

Kestrel took a moment to work out where Mia's voice came from and laughed and unwrapped Mia. Mia's face reappeared and her glasses perched, lopsidedly on her nose.