Chapter Seventeen
Animal Instincts
The night air was getting colder by the second. Nothing looked familiar. Even the trees, that had a tendency to blend, looked strange and foreign. They hung over, as if they were too weak to stand on their own. She looked around and realized the rest of the world skewed in much the same way. Birds were starting their morning call not far off from where she was.
Sitting up, she concentrated hard, her head swimming. It became obvious to her that they drugged her. Reaching out with her mind, she tried to get a sense of her location from the birds, but her attempts were futile. She could barely keep herself awake. Normally she could connect with any animal near her.
Whatever they gave her rendered her power practically useless. Two armed guards stood not far from her. They paced back and forth unaware that she had woken. There were six guards all together and she wondered where the other four went. Probably to sleep. They had been walking for almost three days straight. She was not sure where they were going, but it felt like they had been walking in circles.
Lillian didn’t know what kind of person could stay awake for days at a time, but they had certainly expected her to. They had only stopped because she had nearly passed out from exhaustion. After her third attempt at escape, they started killing off the rest of her party. It was either a threat of what they would do to her, or a way to torture her.
Either way she had stayed put after that. They did not speak to her, so she had no idea what they even wanted from her. Her mission had not been easy, but it was a simple enough objective. Travel to the Forgotten Forest and retrieve an herb that her clan needed. Entering the Forgotten Forest was risky.
It had gotten its name because of the fact that most who ventured in to its depth forgot where they were, why they were there and sometimes even who they were. It was easy enough to find, a dense fog surrounded the entirety of it. Lillian’s connection to the earth made her immune to the forests compulsion.
Therefore, she traveled there quite often for rare plants or herbs that the village might need. However, the men captured her before she could reach the protection of the fog. Her world was spinning and she needed to figure out how she was going to get out of the mess she was in, and fast. There had to be something around her that could help clear her head.
Trying to focus, she shifted her eyes around, scanning the area for anything that might be useful. Not too far off, she spotted a ring of mushrooms around the base of a tree. She closed her eyes, trying to will herself enough energy to reach it before the guards reached her. Her best chance was probably going to be to roll over instead of crawling.
When both the guards had their backs turned to her, she prayed silently that her body do what she needed it to. She swung her knees hard to give herself enough momentum to get going and rolled three times before slamming in to the trunk of the tree. Her whole body reeled from the hard impact, but she had to hurry.
Propping herself up on her elbows, she started pulling out mushrooms from the ground, turning them over and checking the caps.
“Hey, what do you think you are doing?” One of the guards shouted.
Frantic, she kept pulling, he was only a few feet away, and she knew he would close in on her in a matter of seconds. Finally, she spotted a black and blue beetle on the underside of the mushroom. Ideally, she would have ground up the beetle and made a tea. Obviously, that was not an option so she shoved it in her mouth, along with the mushroom, just before the guard grabbed her by the ankle.
“You stay where I put you.” He growled.
He jerked her hard and dragged her across the ground. She screamed, not because she was scared or thought he would let go of her, but more as a reflex. Stopping where he had originally put her, he grabbed her arms and tried to make her sit up. Lillian resisted, she scratched at his face and managed to draw blood.
Instinctively he put his hand to his face to assess the damage. She took the window of those few seconds to wriggle free of his grasp and tried to stand up, hoping the beetle had worked its magic. Too soon. Her legs collapsed and she fell hard, hitting her forearm on a large root that was sticking up from the ground.
“Bitch!” He screamed.
She managed to get on to her hands and knees before he was on her again. Grabbing a handful of her brown hair, he yanked her onto her back hard. He dragged her back to the spot he had told her to stay and shoved her back hard against the tree.
“I suggest you stay put, or I won’t be as nice next time.” He said menacingly before he nodded to the other guard and stormed off.
Leaning her head back against the tree, she took a moment to evaluate her situation. Eating the Elder beetle was helping, but not as fast as she liked. The world no longer spun and she could focus and think better, but her body still would not cooperate. She lifted her arm, trying her best to wipe away the dirt and rocks that were embedded in her skin.
Swollen and bruised it would need care soon. It was going to take some time for the drug to clear her system. Until then she reminded herself she needed to rest and conserve her energy.
Closing her eyes, she let her mind clear. She called out in her mind to Alta, hoping just as she had the night before that she might reach her through dream walking. She was not particularly good at it. She spent most of her time on refining the gifts she had with animals and earth magic.
Communicating with animals had always come naturally. She did not even have to practice. It was not as if she could talk to them, at least not in the same way that people spoke to one another. It was more of an instinctual and emotion based language. Growing things was simple, depending on what it was she was manipulating.
Small plants, like flowers, barely required effort. A tree, on the other hand, took much more energy and concentration. She had recently begun land shaping, creating hills and valleys. Perhaps one day she would be able to create mountains and rivers. Alta had insisted she learn to dream walk for her own protection, but she was never very good at it.
Maybe because of her connection to the earth, entering such an ethereal plane was too difficult for her. Whatever the reason, she sure wished that she were better at it now. She had thought that she had reached Alta before, but if she had, it was extremely brief. Feeling the weight of her tether to the world lessen, she concentrated on Alta, willing herself to enter her thoughts.
Feeling a presence, someone’s mind was allowing her to merge, but her sense of relief was short-lived. It was not Alta’s mind she found. Whomever it was felt oddly familiar, but strange at the same time. She was about to pull away when someone called out to her.
“Lillian, you are safe here.” A voice said.
She looked around trying to force a picture to come. Several seconds passed and she found herself in a bare room with only a table and chairs. It must have been all her mind could muster.
“I don’t have much time. Who are you?” She asked the mystery woman.
“My name is Alex, we are looking for you. Help us find you.” She said.
“I don’t know how.” Lillian responded.
Alex calmly said, “Anything will help.”
Lillian thought for a while.
She was not sure what information she could give her that would help to locate her, “I don’t even know where I am. Everything looks familiar and wrong at the same time.”
“That’s okay, just think, did you pass a stream or an odd tree, anything that might be recognizable to someone?” Alex asked.
“No. No there’s nothing.” She replied frustrated and losing hope.
How could they ever find her if she was in the middle of a bunch of trees? Just then, an image of a specific tree came to mind. She had fallen on some large raised roots. Perhaps she could use her powers and lift them up more.
“There might be something, but it’s a long shot.” She said anxiously.
“I’m listening.” Alex said willingly.
Forcefully opening her eyes, she woke with a start. They didn’t have mu
ch time to speak. Lillian was not able to stay connected for very long. She just hoped that the plan they came up with worked. Steading herself, she placed her hands by her sides, palms against the base of the tree she leaned on.
Using every ounce of energy she could muster she willed the tree to listen to her command. To stretch out its roots and lift them from the ground. She only needed one, just one root to do her bidding. Imaging it growing long, searching out Ferrentri. Winding throughout the forest like a vegetal snake.
It was a slow process, but she kept at it, until she no longer had the energy to maintain. She did not know how long she had worked her magic, or if it would even help, but the sun was well up over the trees and she knew they would expect her to move soon. Fatigue won out and she drifted away with her last bit of hope going out to Alex.
“What the hell is going on?” A frantic voice called out.
Lillian recognized the voice as the guard who attacked her. She looked around and could barely see anything. A hot thick cloud of steam had enveloped the entire area and she could barely see a few inches in front of her. Fear started to overwhelm her, she was about to call out, but then stopped herself.
If there was ever a time she could escape, it was in that moment. Hesitant to run into the strange fog blind she took a few moments to work up the courage. Feeling much more alert, she was certain that most of the drug they had given her was gone. She stood easily and moved as normally as ever.
Reaching out her arms in front of her she concentrated on the forest around her, allowing her earth senses to guide her and keep her from running in to anything. She heard several of the guards cry out, some in confusion and others in pain. Trying hard not to break her focus, she did her best to ignore the others, even when they seemed close enough that they may find her.
After wandering around aimlessly, she began to think that the fog was thinning a bit. Stunned that they did not intercept her, she quickened her pace and made it into a small clearing. She could see clearly and was shocked to see Alex and another girl with long fiery hair standing not far from her.
They were facing one another, palms raised as if they were about to touch and Lillian could see flashes of fire and water. The fog had come from them. It was amazing. She had never seen anything like it. They noticed her and Alex gave her a small smile and a wink before turning back to the other girl and focusing.
Alta stood not far from them and Lillian was half way across the clearing before she even realized that she was running toward them. Alta smiled at her and opened her arms as if to embrace her, but before she reached her a looked of fear crossed Alta’s face. A strong hand grabbed Lillian’s hurt arm. She cried out in pain. The same guard from before had caught up to her and gripped her wrist so hard she thought he might break it.
He was about to say something but stopped in the middle of a word. Releasing her arm, he clutched at his chest. It looked as if he were gasping for air. Falling to his knees he looked just behind Lillian, she turned and followed his gaze. They were both staring at a stunning petite blonde girl.
“Right now, your heart is beating so slowly, that soon it won’t be able to pump enough blood through your body.” She whispered calmly.
His eyes widened and he shook his head as if pleading for her to stop.
“I don’t want to kill you, but I will if I must.” The girl said sadly.
The guard shook his head more violently.
“You are going to sleep now.” She said.
He passed out and collapsed on the ground. The girl looked sad and Lillian thought she might have even seen her brush a tear from her eye.
“Is he dead?” Lillian asked.
“No. He will wake up with one hell of a headache though.” The girl replied.
“Come. Let’s go, before the rest of them find us.” Alta demanded.
Lillian was not about to argue, there would be time for questions later. She acknowledged a few elves that she did not recognize with a quite nod. They picked up the man and carried him off toward the village before she could protest. She reminded herself that he probably had useful information and tried her best to put the image of him attacking her out of her mind.