The Last Fairy Tale (25 page)

  “If we keep up a quick and steady pace, we should be through Whitewood before noon,” Jin added.

 He led the group into the forest, following the path closely. The path wound its way through the tall birch trees, lit by a soft glow filtering through the delicate leaves. Pale green moss and ivy covered the forest floor. The trees were spaced a good distance apart, making it easy to see deep into the forest. After a while, Olivia began to like Whitewood, until she noticed that she hadn’t seen a single other living creature since they had entered. No creatures walked between the trees and no birds chirped. She heard no sound aside from the group’s conversations. She was reminded of the world outside the orphanage.

 “Twigs, it’s quiet in here,” Locke hissed. “And it’s strange, the trees seem a little…it’s hard to describe.”

 “Aye, it seems eerie,” said Bren quietly.

 “Let’s just stick to the road, and we should be out of here in an hour or two,” Jin said.

 They walked in silence for a bit longer with Kili chirping anxiously every now and then, hoping to get a reply from any other penna that might be in the forest, but no replies came. After a while, Jin stopped. Everyone stopped behind him and peered around.

 “The road ends here,” Jin announced.

 “No, this road goes all the way to the Cerulean Sea. What do you mean, it ends here?” Rufus asked. He walked to the front of the group and stopped. “Oh, my. It does end here.” A sudden ripple of panicked chatter swept through the group. The road had abruptly ended at a thick tangle of trees.

 “Everyone, calm down,” Jin said. “We know that north is that way.” He pointed in front of them. “We’ll just continue that way until we come out of Whitewood.”

 “Cheep! I can fly ahead,” Kili chirped. “I will see what is ahead. Tweet tweet!”

 “That’s a good idea, Kili,” Jin said. “In the meantime, we’ll continue in this direction.”

 Everyone followed Jin into the forest and off the road. Kili flapped her tiny wings and flew off in front of them, twittering nervously. Olivia looked around and noticed that the forest felt far less spacious than it had at its beginning. The trees were closer together here, which made Olivia feel as though she were being confined.

 “What do you think about this, Locke?” Olivia asked, gripping her staff tightly.

 “I dunno,” Locke replied. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, too. The trees don’t feel normal. It’s like they’re lifeless.”

 “I’m ready to be out of here,” Olivia said. “How long do you think we’ve been in here, anyway?”

 “Longer than an hour or two, that’s for sure,” said Locke.

 Grimwitch and Gauntlet abruptly stepped in front of Locke and Olivia. They had been walking silently behind the group as usual, but now they obviously wished to tell Olivia something.

 “Fat cat,” said Grimwitch.

 “Gone,” said Gauntlet.

 Olivia spun around and looked at the group. Haunches  wasn’t among them.

 “Stop everyone! Haunches is gone!” she shouted.

 “What?” said Kai-Tu. “How could he…why?”

 “Everyone, we must focus on getting out of here,”  Jin said urgently. “Something is definitely wrong here. The sooner we’re out, the better.”

 “But what about Haunches?” Kai-Tu asked angrily. “Are we just gonna leave him in here? What if he’s in trouble?”

 “He may have tried scoutin’ ahead in a different direction,” Bren said. “I’m sure he’ll turn back up soon.”

 “Where is the Kili?” asked Thunc. Kili had been gone for quite a while.

 “I cannot answer your questions!” Jin shouted. “We must get out of here, and quickly, before any more of us get separated!”

 Olivia was shocked by Jin’s roughness, but she realized that he was reacting in fear. “Jin is right,” she said finally. “We do need to keep moving. If we go to look for the others, I’m afraid we may never find our way out of here.”

 The group reluctantly continued. The trees had become so thick now that they had to weave through them. Everyone was exhausted and frightened. After what seemed like hours, they stopped again. The forest was so quiet that they could hear each other’s stomachs rumbling.

 “I suppose a quick meal wouldn’t hurt,” Rufus said. “It’s better to keep our strength up than to have to camp here because we ran out of energy.”

 “He’s right,” Bren said, noticing the unsure expression on Jin’s face.

 “Okay, but only a very short meal,” Jin said. “Here, I have some leftover bread from the Archives. Everyone take a few slices.”

 The group ate in silence, peering around anxiously. They were about to begin walking again, when they suddenly heard rustling in the undergrowth nearby. Everyone froze and stared in the direction of the noise.

 A dark figure in the shadows suddenly appeared from behind one of the trees. Everyone held their breath as the figure approached them.

 “Might I smellify food?” said Haunches. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

“Where have you
been
!” Kai-Tu exclaimed. “I mean…where did you get off to?” He crossed his arms, putting an uninterested expression on his face.

 “Why, I was waiting for you all, of course,” said Haunches, sniffing the air to find the source of the food.

 “Waiting?” Jin asked. “Where?”

 “By the Sweeping River, of course,” said Haunches. His nose led him to Jin’s pack, which held the bread. Jin took a couple of pieces out and handed them to Haunches, who took a large whiff of the bread before stuffing it into his cheeks. “That was the plan we degreed on before we entered the forestry, correct?”

 “Yes, I guess, but how did you come to the Weeping River?” Jin asked. “We followed the road until it ended, and we’ve been traveling north since then!”

 “I do not nose,” Haunches said, blowing crumbs as he spoke. “In-stink perhaps?”

 “Ha-ha! I don’t know what it is,” Bren bellowed, “but I’m sure glad you’ve got it! How about leadin’ us to that river, eh?”

 “As you wish,” said Haunches. He turned and started in the direction he had come from. The group hurried to follow.

 Haunches led them in a roundabout fashion through the trees for quite a while. Soon, however, they could see the edge of the forest before them. Everyone patted Haunches on the back, thanking him profusely for leading them out of Whitewood. Jin even gave him another piece of bread.

 The group had reached the end of the Camicara Mountains. To the south, the mountains rose into the sky. To the east, they saw a wide meadow, with the Weeping River running through it. To the north were more of the trees of Whitewood.

 “Since when does Whitewood stretch that far north?” Rufus asked.

 “I was about to ask the same question,” Holli said.

 “Things are indeed strange in these parts,” Jin remarked. “While the forest certainly concerns me, my biggest concern right now is how much time we lost in it. Look.” He pointed at the sun on the horizon. “It’s nearly dusk.”

 “We better set up some sort o’ camp,” said Bren. “But I’d suggest gettin’ as far away from that forest as possible before we do.”

 “A good suggestion. Let’s head east for a mile or two. We’ll set up camp near the river,” Jin added.

 The tired and nervous group began to walk toward the edge of the Weeping River. They had gone only a few paces east when Olivia stopped and looked back, noticing Thunc’s heavy footsteps were no longer coming from behind. Thunc was standing at the edge of Whitewood with his arms hanging by his side and his head bowed. Olivia ran back to him.

 “Are you okay, Thunc?” she asked.

 “The Kili,” Thunc said forlornly. “Gone.”

 Olivia reached up and laid a hand on Thunc’s massive arm. She, too, had been wondering where Kili was and hoped that Kili had lost sight of the group in the forest and was waiting for them elsewhere.

 “It’s okay, Thunc,” she said softly. “I think Kili is fine. She probably lost track of us and will catch up with us soon.”

 “The Kili friend of Thunc,” Thunc uttered.

 “I know,” Olivia said. She looked back at the others. They had stopped and were looking at Olivia and Thunc questioningly. “You can stay here and wait for her if you’d like. I wish I could stay, too, but I’ve got to keep going, or many others could be in danger.”

 “No,” said Thunc. “Thunc go with the Wickworth. Thunc must help push evil man out.”

 “Thank you, Thunc. I’m sure Kili will return,” Olivia said, hoping that what she said was true. Seeing Thunc so upset was painful, and Kili had become a good friend of Olivia’s along the way. She paused, staring into the depths of Whitewood. After a moment, she said, “Well, we’d better get back to the group. We need to hurry so we can set up camp at the river before dark.”

 “Okay. Thunc follow the Wickworth,” Thunc said, slowly turning away from the forest.

 Olivia hurried back to the group with Thunc loping behind her. Nightfall was approaching fast, and soon the beautiful meadow became a dark sea of grass and flowers. When Bren finally announced that they were far enough away from Whitewood for his liking, they stopped and dropped their gear, exhausted, in the center of a small grove of large oak trees that blocked most of the chilly wind coming across the meadow. They all huddled in a circle around Bren’s jar of flame.

 “It gets quite chilly in this region at night, eh?” Bren said, making the fire in the jar warmer.

 “Indeed, it does,” Rufus said. “I fear that we will require a little more protection against the weather than these trees.”

 “I think I’ll be okay,” said Jin. “Did anyone bring any blankets or anything?”

 “I have two.” Locke opened his sack and pulled out two light blankets.

 “I have Locke’s cloak. I can use that for a blanket,” said Olivia, patting her sack.

 “Thunc make blanket out of grass,” Thunc said.

 “That’s an excellent idea, Thunc.” Holli said. “A blanket of grass sounds quite nice, actually. Would you be able to make another?”

 Thunc looked up for a few moments, scratching his chin, a small shower of dirt falling off in the process. “Thunc has idea,” he said after a few moments. He stood up and walked a few paces away.

 In the dim light, Olivia saw Thunc leaning low over the soft grass. He waved his hands over the ground and closed his eyes. Suddenly, Olivia heard the sound of roots snapping. The ground was rising under Thunc’s hands. When it had formed a hill almost as tall as he was, he stopped and looked at it, thinking. Then, he began to sink into the ground and was gone within a few seconds. Everyone looked around at each other, wondering what Thunc was doing. Then they noticed that one side of the hill was disappearing into the ground. Soon, the whole inside of the hill was hollow. Thunc reemerged from the ground, motioning toward the hollow hill.

 “Thunc make small house,” said Thunc, bowing.

 “Thunc, you’re amazin’!” Bren shouted and scurried over to the hollow hill and looked inside. “It’s perfect!”

 Olivia, Holli, Haunches, Kai-Tu, and Locke hobbled over to the hollow hill and sat underneath it. The entire inside of the hill was coated in soft, green grass. Olivia spread Locke’s cloak out on the grass and laid back on it. Lying down felt good, even if it was on the ground of a chilly meadow. The last few days had been rough, especially on Olivia, who wasn’t used to so much walking.

 Rufus and Holli made a small bed using their hats as pillows and one of Locke’s blankets. Bren found a comfortable spot in the back of the hill, where he immediately fell asleep. Kai-Tu and Haunches fell asleep sitting with their backs to one of the walls of the hill. Jin, Thunc, Grimwitch, and Gauntlet all stayed outside. Locke was the only one who wasn’t lying down. He sat at the front of the hollow hill, his knees pulled up to his chest. He gazed up at the moon, a thoughtful look on his face.

 “Locke,” Olivia whispered, “Are you okay?”

 “Yeah,” Locke replied, turning to her and smiling. “Just thinking…”

 “About what?” she asked. The flames in Bren’s jar were dying down as he began to snore. Olivia scooted over to Locke. She closed her eyes and formed a new flame inside the jar.

 “A lot of stuff,” he said. “It’s just weird, you know? You being here, and us on this ridiculous journey…none of it really seems real. Maybe that’s why everyone is taking everything so lightly.”

 “I know exactly what you mean, Locke,” Olivia replied with a sigh. “Just a few days ago, I was sitting in my room in the orphanage, and Mr. Gloome was my greatest fear. But now, I suppose I’ve changed. A lot of things have happened recently. The Great Fairy has explained everything to me, and everything I knew was pretty much a lie. Then there’s magic…”

 “I know,” Locke said, looking back up at the moon and chuckling. “It has to be even harder for you to grasp everything that’s going on, I’m sure. But what I can’t understand myself is the reason why someone would do what the Lich King is doing.”

 “I’ve been thinking about that, too,” Olivia said, pulling her knees up to her chin. “I’ve been trying to piece together what we’ve found out so far. All I can tell is that he’s obviously a human and he’s very powerful and is doing terrible things. What I was thinking, though, is that maybe he doesn’t know he’s wrong. That’s just a theory.”

 “You might be right,” said Locke. “Maybe we’ll be able to reason with him.”

 “That would make things easier, for sure. But there’s no way to know,” Olivia said. “We have to figure it out when we get there, which is the scariest part of the whole thing.”

 “Yeah, I know what you mean.” Locke was beginning to shiver, but Olivia couldn’t tell whether it was because of the cool air or fear. “I’m not scared, though,” he said, smiling. “I believe that no one can stop an awesome group like ours. And, based on how the Great Fairy and the hjorthovin talk about you, we have nothing to fear.” He chuckled. “I don’t mean to sound like it’s all up to you. I’ll be right beside you the whole time.”

 “Thank you, Locke.” Olivia smiled as tears formed in her eyes. She had never had a friend like Locke. He seemed to always have a smile on his face and was there to comfort her if she was upset about something. She brushed a tear from her cheek. “You know, you never played that song for me again,” she said, looking over at Locke. “The one you played when I came through the Door.”