No one had any news of my
brother.
As the Southeast Road turned more
southward, it led into deeper forest, which we reached in the afternoon on the
fourth day. We didn’t want to camp in the forest the first night, so we stopped
early. Forro caught a rabbit and I found a wild tree growing near a stream,
bursting with Travel Fruit. We had stew and the yummy fruit for dinner. I showed Forro where the tree was and he
picked an armload and put them in a bag that he volunteered to carry.
“Do you like the Travel Fruit, too?” I
asked.
He made a face, possibly a grimace (I
was not sure of my ability to read Wolfkin facial expressions), and replied,
“It is very sweet and the meat of the fruit does not resemble the meat of an
animal nearly enough for my liking. I would
much rather snack on that squirrel on your shoulder.”
I decided to avoid further questions
about his food preferences. “I thought
perhaps one of your journeys as a guard might have carried you near Mim’s
Cottage. How much do you know about that region?”
“I’ve only skirted the outer edge
along the Weeping Pass. That was not what I expected at all, but still not as
bad as tales I’ve heard from fellow warriors who have gone closer than that.”
“The Weeping Pass? I’ve never heard of
that. Where is it?”
“It runs from the Deep Forrest along
the western border of the mountains. We
approached it from this same road – there’s a difficult path leading into it
once you enter the Deep Forest. We
passed by an even trickier path that I’m told leads into the mountains and
eventually winds up in the eastern edge where Mim’s Cottage sits atop a very
treacherous crag. We will have to be extremely cautious from the moment we set
foot on the Weeping Pass. I recommend we
pass all the way through the Deep Forest and seek some help in The Forest
Town. Then we can double back into the
Deep Forest and head up the pass.”
I pulled out the map Eidero made and
showed it to Forro. I hadn’t noticed it
before, but he pointed out where the Weeping Pass was marked. Zino chattered and danced around on a spot
that I thought was just an ink stain, but he seemed intent to point it
out. It was in the hills at the foot of
the mountains and there was no notation near it. I cut him a piece of travel fruit to distract him,
and then pointed to the Forest Town.
“I’ve been to Forest Town with Eidero.
He only took me once. He said it isn’t a very nice place, and from what little
I saw, I would have to agree. Are you
sure we’d be able to get help there? I mean, help that we can trust?”
“You can if you have me with you.
Since you were with Eidero, you probably only saw a few shady merchants and
maybe a charlatan posing as a mage or healer. We will be visiting with a
different sort of people when we get there, assuming you take your guard’s
advice.”
***
“Well, that went well,” I said later
that night. My sarcasm was lost on Forro, but not on Zino who loudly agreed
with me. He was still nursing a bald spot on his tail and shooting looks of
death at Forro.
“How can you say that went well? I’ve
never encountered such creatures on this trail before.” Forro was still
bleeding from an injury to his arm and I was attempting to find the herbs from
Dulabi to help patch it up.
“Well I hope there won’t be any more
surprises like that one. Is it safe to
light a fire? I can’t see what I’m
looking for in this bag.” Light suddenly
appeared inside the pack. I was startled and fell backward into Forro, who was
moving towards me to help. Feeling suddenly awkward, I sat up and looked in
utter wonder at the inside of the pack. “Did you do that?” I asked Forro.
“Maybe you should ask the furry
snack.” Forro was looking with distrust at Zino, who was doing a fair job at
pretending to be fascinated by a leaf and unaware of what had just happened.
“You really shouldn’t call him
that. Zino is a very resourceful
squirrel and has actually saved my life.
You never know when he might save your life, too.”
“He might have showed some of that
resourcefulness when we were surrounded by those…things. Have you found what
you need? I don’t know what those creatures were or if they follow blood
trails. I don’t want to lure them after
us.”
Thinking his pride was stung, I decided
not to chastise him further. I found the herbs and patched his arm as quickly
as I could.
We had been attacked in the middle of
the night while we were camped in a small clearing. Forro was standing watch
and Zino was curled up next to my head on my pack. I was attempting to read
Eidero’s notes by the campfire, but was distracted by thoughts and fears of
what might have happened to him. I couldn’t help thinking about the scorch mark
and the farmers’ horribly burned feet.
Forro was checking his weapons when he
stiffened and his ears started twitching. He slowly placed a hand on my arm to warn
me to stay put and made his way towards the edge of the clearing. I froze in place, but Zino awoke with a start
and jumped on top of my head. He was quiet but clearly very agitated. I was still trying to wrestle him down and away
from my face when the attack began.
