Destyn woke with a start. He had been having trouble sleeping since the night his mother and the town had been captured. But it wasn’t the Seplini that had been attacking in his dreams. It had been him, he would always helplessly watch as his own body condemned the town to flame and the darkness would cover as far as the eye could see. It bothered him to even think such things.

He sat up and glanced over to his brother. Still asleep on the mossy patch they had found suitable for a sleep. The nights were growing cold and sleeping outside was becoming less comfortable. Destyn stood up and brushed himself off as he glanced around for any trouble. Dew sparkled in the grass as a ray or sun reflected off of the morning ground.

‘About nine I suppose…’ Destyn decided, not totally confident in his ability to tell time. They had been following a well worn path, about the width of a wagon, but it had shown signs of Seplini. They had been following them for three days now. But the path only grew colder each day. But it seemed Ternlei was right in heading north, they were about half days walk from Enbo Lake, and that would surely be a place the Seplini would rest, assuming they hadn’t already passed it.

His glasses glinted as his head bobbed. He was still tired but shook it off to find a morning meal. Grabbing a satchel from his pocket he began to grab berries from a bush just around a bend in the path. There were many ripe ones to his surprise it was a summer’s end blossom. Humming to his stroke of luck and the bird’s songs in the trees he looked around for another full blossom. His ears perked up as he smiled. Another one was across the path. He finished up filling the pouch and decided he should be returning to Ternlei.

As he continued back his whistling became a solo, the birds had fled. Destyn stopped mid step and looked around. Destyn whirled around as a shadow flew across the path quickly but silently. Losing track of it his heart began to pound. He had left his weapons with his brother.

“Ternlei!” Destyn shouted as it echoed through the forested area. He began to run back to their camp site when he was cut off suddenly. Stepping back he brought the opposing figure into focus. It wasn’t a Seplini, but it was just as threatening, a forest beast, which stood several feet higher then Destyn. A Foilern stood in front of him; there had been fairy tails where they were the evil vile creatures that the knights would slay to save a damsel. A lot more fierce then the stories had made them out to be mind you.

Vines hung off the oddly proportioned arms. It was easy to tell it spent most of its time climbing in the canopies of the forest. It smiled with its sharp carnivorous teeth as it mumbled something devious. Destyn couldn’t understand it, but all he could see in its deep inky eyes was ‘breakfast’. Bobbing his ears Destyn cowered slightly.

“I have really got get used to this…” Groaning he got ready for the Foilern to attack. As expected it began to progress itself towards Destyn. Running to his left he hauled himself up a tree, the Foilern gaining. It arms muscled the tree side to side, shaking leaves off of it as if it was baby rattle or something. Destyn slipped but quickly clung back on to a stray branch as his feet swung out just above the monsters head. Its matted fir on its back was covered in leaves now. He began shaking out leaves of his mane like fur he looked up and grinned slightly towards Destyn. Its jaw opened as if to take a bite from Destyn and all he could do was laugh a nervous laugh. Just then the satchel he had placed in his vest fell out and right down into the monsters mouth, catching it off guard. It began to choke as its eyes widening.

It was Destyn’s turn to be surprised though the branch snapped and with nothing more then a yelp Destyn fell right on top of the Foilern. Destyn was on top of its shoulders, as a child would sit on top of his fathers to see what was going on. Dizzily Destyn shook his head. The furry beast began to thrash around as it tried to gasp for air

“Hey, give that back, that was a good pouch!” Destyn laughed as he tried to hold on by grasping its matted hair. He felt quite uneasy riding the beast but he didn’t want to be flung and he had a feeling it wasn’t going to nicely let him down.

“Ok… I want off now… please!!!” Destyn felt sick to his stomach as the forest whizzed around in a collage of green. Just as he was about to let go a whistle ran through the air and the Foilern halted and in one massive lunge both Destyn and the beast were on the ground.

“Thanks for waking me up, I was having a good sleep.” Ternlei smirked as he raised the crossbow.

“Pff, I was having fun to…” Destyn pretended to pout as he stood up uneasily.

“I did have breakfast ready, but he got a little greedy.” Destyn laughed as he opened up the creature’s mouth and peered in. He grimaced then reached in and pulled out the mangled, but still recognizable pouch. Berries all squished the pouch seemed worthless now but still Destyn put it in one of four pockets that he had on his green pants.

“Why are you keeping that thing?” Ternlei raised a brow.

“Mom… made it,” Destyn said wiping his hands on this pants “I don’t want to lose that as well.” He looked towards his brother slightly smiling.

“Riight… well we should move on.” jokingly he pretended not to care as he walked up to Destyn and roughed up his hair and handed the crossbow over. He continued back towards where they had camped and he looked over his shoulder.

“We’ll have to eat later; we’ve wasted enough time with your friend there.” He disappeared out of site around the bend again.

‘Some friend, he stole my pouch.’ Destyn glanced at the arrow that had killed the Foilern. Iron shafted again.

“Hey, Ternlei, wait up would yah?” Destyn ran to catch up.