The day was almost half done. Sun at its peak, the forest cast little protection from its heat. The mornings and evenings might have been cold, but midday still would scorch anything in the sun. To make matters worse Destyn hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. Moaning he began to put on an act to get Ternlei to stop. Pretending to hobble he moaned louder trying not to laugh.
“I’m wasting away… food~” Ternlei only glanced back and continued to advance. Destyn stopped and folded his arm. He began to moan louder.
“I don’t think… I’m going to make it…” he began to stumble running into Ternlei.
“Still a child,” Ternlei mumbled “have you forgotten how serious of a situation we’re in? I think it’s a little more important then your own well being.” Ternlei seemed serious this time, and Destyn knew it as he stood up straight. Ternlei had become quite serious in the past year, but a lot more then Destyn had realized. He couldn’t blame him, but they hadn’t eaten in so long.
“I know how serious it is. I just think if we are to keep up at this rate we should eat.” There was no reply. Destyn’s shoulders slouched as he grumbled. ‘I won’t be a child for long’ he thought. Glancing about keeping his mind off of food he noticed the path began to thin, grassy patches with flowers here and there were covering it. Certain patches were flattened as if something had stomped all over them, probably the Seplini. Now catching himself looking up at the sky he noticed that clouds were starting to fill in the seemingly endless space of blue. The darkness storm appeared to be growing beyond the town now and at a very fast rate.
Stomach growling he couldn’t deny being hungry anymore, just as Destyn was about to make a comment Ternlei stopped. Taken back by this sudden movement Destyn narrowed his eyes and bobbed his ears as he looked past his brother’s broad shoulders.
“A fork in the path, it seems.” Ternlei commented. Turning around he focused on his brother.
“We’ll eat. I need to think about this, I don’t know which way to go.” Destyn almost didn’t hear. He was busy examining the path to the right. It got very thick and dark, thorny bushes appeared to stick out and there almost was no path. The grass was flattened though, if the Seplini had passed through here, they had taken that way.
The meal was very quiet, neither spoke and all that could be heard was the monotonous drone of crows off in the distant. It had also gotten very cold as the sun hid behind the swirling clouds.
They ate provisions they had grabbed from the town, they only had enough for a few more days, so it was a meager meal. Destyn sighed slightly as he took his last bite.
“How far are we from the lake anyways?” Destyn was sick of hearing crow’s already.
“It would have been ten minutes if we take the right, another day if we go left.” Ternlei adjusted his pony tail and armor as he stood up. He had eaten his meal fast as if to try and ignore the fact that he was hungry. The gems on his armor and swords glinted as the sun peaked out.
“It could have taken ten minutes?” Destyn stood up and buttoned his vest as he shivered. The path look tormented and mangled, no part of the forest had been like that.
“Aye, they seem to have tried to slow us down, they probably smelt our approach. The wind has been blowing on our backs all day. Made it faster for us, but scent travels fast, and has brought the clouds.” His brother pointed up, the clouds looked like dark ink now. Destyn wasn’t feeling too good all of the sudden, the darkness always put a lump in his throat making it hard to breathe.
“But how could the Seplini have caused that?” Destyn frowned as they slowly approached the fork.
“They didn’t, they do not have such dark powers. I am afraid of what does though.” Ternlei admitted as he examined a bush that was half thorn and half green and healthy as everything else in the forest. Destyn walked up to a tree and ripped off a piece of bark, beneath the bark the wood was black. He quickly tossed the bark away into a bush, a crow croaked an uneven caw and flew just inches above Destyn’s head making him flinched. Ternlei quickly turned to his brother and then looked at the tree. He nodded then spoke.
“Let’s go the other way.” He began to head towards the left.
“Wait! We need to catch up to them, I’m sure that it won’t be so bad, you said ten minutes? You can endure ten minutes in the dark, can’t you?” Destyn shuddered as he looked down the path. The darkness seemed to have no end. He didn’t want to go that way, but he was desperate to see his mom again.
“It’s too dangerous. We have no clue what this new enemy can do. It’s more then likely a trap. We need to go the long way, we might not catch up to them, but we might not even see light again if we go that way.” Ternlei made a painfully true statement. But Destyn couldn’t stand not catching up to the Seplini. His eyes darkened as he stared at his feet. His boots were covered in mud from the slough they had to walk through several days ago.
“No. We’ll go through the right path.” Thoughts of the night his mom had been taken raced through his head. Anger swelled up, and the lump in his throat hardened.
“Destyn are you mad!? Do you want to die?” Ternlei placed his hand on his sword. Something wasn’t right. Destyn wasn’t himself. He hadn’t been since he had rescued him.
“If you aren’t going to rescue mom, I will!” Thunder echoed throughout the forest. It began to rain just off in the distance of where Destyn and his brother stood. Destyn’s fists clenched as he tried to settle down. But he couldn’t, the anger had control of him.
“Look, I want to save mom to, but killing ourselves isn’t going to help!” Ternlei looked to the south, the rain was approaching. “We have to get out of the rain. I don’t think it will be to kind to us if it touches us. Come on.” Ternlei took his hand off his sword in a friendly gesture. He approached his brother slowly ready for anything. He placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder, quickly Destyn shrugged it off.
“No.” Was all he could say as he began to walk into the darkness of the forest. It was so thick the rain wouldn’t reach the ground anyways. Destyn would do things on his own if he had to, his brother didn’t seem to care enough to put his own life at risk. ‘That’s probably why he’s still alive and fathers not.’ Destyn stubbornly thought.
______
Ternlei could only watch as he disappeared into the darkness. He would have to do something, but his brother wasn’t who he had left last time he was home. He quickly found an old hollowed out tree and entered it. The rain hit hard, the trees darkened and began to creak and moan, as if in pain. Ternlei tried to think of a plan, but his mind was too busy thinking about the wellbeing of his brother. He seemed to have a relation to the darkness. He had noticed it ever since the Knight’s Hall and he had gotten angered. But he seemed to be losing control more and more and at a very fast rate.
“Blast.” Ternlei blurted out as he slammed his hand against the tree. Rain splattered off and around about making a hissing noise as it hit the ground. He now had his brother’s life to save as well as his town. The night his father and fleet had been killed kept playing through his mind as he tried to find a clue as to where he could go for help. Not many people knew of the darkness yet, and there weren’t many people that would be willing to just get up and leave their home, not around here anyways. The closest town was Sidri, a three day walk, at least. With the rain it would make it longer. That is if it followed him. He had a strange suspicion it was following Destyn, not him.
Restless Ternlei moved around in the cramped trunk as the rain slowly began to let off. The moon now shone through the clouds providing a dim light upon the forest floor once again. Deciding it would be foolish to travel during the night he nodded off into sleep deciding he would depart for Sidri in the morning.
________
Destyn had long lost track of time. And to make things worse he was pretty much lost. The path only appeared every couple of paces, and he could barely see in front of himself. Now and then the moon would peak through, rain dripping down from the canopy from the rain storm that had just recently finished. It seemed he had been traveling for several hours in the dark part of the forest, when it should only have taken several minutes. The forest showed no signs of letting up this demonic trap of horror either.
Regretting his choice, he really didn’t want to spend the night alone in this mess. And there didn’t look to be any good places to set up for the night. At least he wouldn’t go hungry for several more days, he had grabbed the backpack with all the food in it before Ternlei and him had fought. But he grew quite weary and his feet were sore. He had used a lot of energy early in the morning against the Foilern, and he hadn’t gained anything from it either.
Trotting on Destyn was about to give up finding a good spot and just sleep where he stood when he spotted something shimmer in the distance. A fire, barely recognizable, but it was. This slightly exciting Destyn he woke himself up and hurried towards the light. Slowing down to a silent pace, crouching in a bush he peaked out.
Everything opened up, he had made it to the lake. It looked like a vast sea, endless and calm it was like a giant mirror. Destyn swelled up with pride, he had made it. His brother thought it was a trap, it was just a trail they had made. Not a very welcoming trail though. It was the group of Seplini that had attacked Destyn, he could tell because the leader had a patch over the eye Destyn had gashed open. But there was another figure there, an unrecognizable one. It had large wings and long spiky hair that had been brushed back, with bangs almost completely covering his eyes. White eyes shone forward as he calmly talked to the Seplini. Warped in odd shapes he was covered in armor with boots that had feathers coming off of them. Destyn could now tell that he was a demon, his ears etched in a bat wing shape, and very long, almost double the length of Destyn’s ears.
Destyn’s scar on his chest began to burn unbelievably, as if it was on fire, patting it trying not to make a fuss he silenced himself and narrowed his eyes on the demon. He laughed at something the Seplini had said and looked in Destyn’s direction. Destyn held his breath without thinking, he felt paralyzed he was so scared. The demon squinted slightly then smiled quite wide.
‘I didn’t expect you to reach us tonight.’ A voice echoed through Destyn’s mind. It was the same voice that he had heard in the cellar.
‘It’s you… you’re the one that healed me?’ Destyn was surprised and quite confused.
‘Yes. And I see you’ve recovered quite well to follow me here. I sense that you are mad, now why would that be?’ he had a very cocky tone and his laugh rattled through Destyn’s mind like a hammer to nail. He was talking to Destyn through his mind… and yet, he wasn’t letting on to the Seplini that he was here.
‘Where’s my mom, I know you’re responsible for this.’ Destyn wouldn’t even bother attacking, there was no way he’d be able to take on the demon. Not alone, and yet he couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t of thought about that before he left his brother. ‘You aren’t about to make a foolish mistake of attacking me are you? I think you are confused. Perhaps you should rest, you’ve had a long day, fighting with your brother and all.’ His tone of voice was very calm, so much so it haunted Destyn to listen to him anymore.
‘How did you know about that? What are you?’ Just as Destyn tried to get up a pounding sensation began to pulse through his head. Falling back to his knees and grasped his head with both hands. Gasping he couldn’t move or anything.
‘Remember Destyn. I’ve given you power, just learn how to use it. Just pick your battles a bit more wisely before rushing in.’ He laughed once again and Destyn could just imagine the toothy grin as he blacked out.