A/N: My deepest apologies for my first chapter! In my rush of excitement about posting it I may or may not have quickly skimmed over my work and not noticed quite obvious mistakes. :/ Again, sorry. I'll be sure to attempt to not make the same mistake again. Enjoy :)
Chapter 2:
Averie slumped against a thick tree trunk. She was exhausted, hungry, and sore. Ever since she had found the tracks she'd been relentlessly following, only stopping to give them a further inspection and clarify that she was actually going in the right direction. She only stopped now because her body refused to move until it had been rested. She supposed some rest and sleep wouldn't hurt her. It would give her the energy she needed to continue but… It'll waste my tracking time, she thought sadly. As if they knew she was considering continuing for the night, a painful cramp jolted in her legs reminding her why she had stopped in the first place. After a while she decided that she would sleep, but when she woke she would immediately continue.
From her makeshift bed on the grass she gave the late night sky a worried frown. The black abyss had a vast amount of stars scattered throughout it. Stars that were not scattered like they were in the Southern Hemisphere. She shivered and forced her eyes away from yet another concerning oddity they had seen today, and focused them on herself. Apart from being in need of a wash her clothing was fine, her other attire however had seen better days.
Her converse had been a gift for her on her fifteenth birthday. Back then they had that lovely, new shoe smell and were coloured with a solid black. Now their smell was an undetermined odour and the colour was a mixture of murky green-greys and several different shades of brown. They were covered from heel to toe in rips, holes, and slashes, and the thick rubber sole was beginning to wear down dangerously low. She was surprised they had managed to survive five years given the physical nature they had endured.
She took off her tattered converse and sweat-soiled socks, her feet rejoicing in the cool open air. Averie scrunched nose with disgust as she studied the small ankle appendages. She strongly loathed feet. She didn't like the look of them, the feel of them, and she did not like the smell of them. She absolutely loathed them, especially her own. The very thought of feet caused her to shudder and squirm where she sat. She knew it was quite an absurd phobia, her father had told her many times, as she herself and the general population of the world had feet. And for that, Averie was very thankful for shoes and socks, particularly the ones she was putting back on.
She felt her hair in its thick braid. Strands of hair were beginning to fall out of the simple French. She would need to re-braid it soon. However, tonight she lacked the patience and energy. Instead she sunk lower to the ground and curled herself into a ball, her oilskin jacket dwarfing her small frame during its use as a blanket.
Slowly, her eyes drooped as she allowed herself to relax in the cool night air.
When she woke she knew it was early morning. She also knew that rain was beginning its descent, as it had been what initially woke her; rude droplets of water dripping down her face. She sat up hurriedly, quickly rearranged her jacket for travel and began and a fast, stiff walk following the tracks.
The rain was only light- for the moment. She could tell by looking at the heavy onset of dark clouds that it would pour buckets for at least a day. Usually she would be giddy with joy and jumping childishly at the thought of rain. However, at those times she wasn't relying on a set of tracks to aid in her survival, and it was universally known that rain washed away tracks. For Averie that was not a good thing. The smell of rain was already beginning to cling to the air.
Although she did have other means of following the group such as the regular horse droppings and clumps of malted horse hair, not to mention they bruised and flattened vegetation EVERYWHERE they had walked, she would rather use tracks to continue her pursuit.
The rain was had begun transitioning into a slight shower not even ten minutes after Averie had woken. She knew that she shouldn't have been worrying too much about the tracks, they did follow the dirt trail, but if the group was to leave the trail she would most likely be hopelessly lost regardless of the horse excrement. As the rain became heavier the tracks were already becoming disorientated and smudged. She feared that soon they would be unreadable.
Sullenly, she continued to follow the trail. Mimicking her mood, the rain became heavier as she trudged along the damp trail. When she had lost most of the tracks to the unfortunate weather a few that had remained had broken off of the trail, forming their own little path and leading her into a secluded opening of scattered trees. In the very middle of what she assumed was an abandoned campsite, she found small remnants of a fire pit and patches of flattened grass. She held her hand over the fire pit and almost yelped in excitement; the coals covered layers of dirt were still noticeably warm. The group she was following had been here last night, and if she'd kept bloody walking instead of succumbing to cramped legs she would have found them!
She made her way back to the original trail with a hurried skip in her step that screamed "Fuck off rain". This however, seemed to piss off the weather; as soon as she had placed her foot on the trail the light shower became a torrential downpour.
For someone as disadvantaged herself, she was doing surprisingly well; Averie was tired, cold, hungry, and absolutely soaked to the bone, but she was still alive and moving.
Although she had a resemblance similar to that of a drowned rat, she at least didn't need a shower anymore. The rain had caused her thick braid and loose strands of hair to appear a very dark brown, and to be matted heavily against her head. She'd been walking bare-footed through the slick mud for a while, as she had taken her shoes and socks off earlier. She hated the feeling of mud on her feet and between her toes, but ignored it as best she could. Better than foot rot she thought to herself.
The tracks had been completely washed away and the trail was quickly becoming a small swimming pool. She could still tell the group had been there though, as they had left deep, dragging slits in the mud. She couldn't tell how long ago they had been made but she hoped she wasn't too far from them, if she was being slowed down by the heavy weather perhaps they were too.
It wasn't long before Averie was cursing the very existence of the changing terrain. The trees were beginning to thin out, scattered rocks seemed to be popping up out of nowhere, and the trail had followed varying levels of sharply inclined slopes.
"Shit" She groaned as she pushed herself up from another fall. She could feel that this time she would find more than small grazes and scrapes. She checked her leg and discovered a worrying injury underneath her knee; the rain was causing the blood pouring from the shallow gash to cascade down her leg in crimson streams. It wasn't too serious but would easily get infected if it wasn't given proper treatment. Averie ripped part of her drenched t-shirt to use as a crude bandage, wrapped her leg as best she could and continued.
She'd already collected numerous bruises and sprained her right ankle. If she continued she would most likely receive worse but still trudged onwards; she wasn't likely to find any shelter anyway and she could be close to the group. It was a large 'could' but she didn't have anything else to put her hope in.
By then end of the day she was literally dragging herself through the mud, still managing to hold onto her converse and socks. She had lied face down in the mud and gave up momentarily, but her well-known stubbornness was determined for her to live and somehow forced her get to her knees and crawl under a tree with large drooping branches. She bought her knees up to her chest and hugged herself tightly in attempt to cling onto any warmth which was not likely considering everything was sodden, cold and miserable.
The rest of her saturated night consisted of tired, annoyed sighs and Averie staring into the deluge of the night, every so often falling in and out of short episodes of sleep.
The next day's events were very much the same as the previous one; more rain, mud, and blood, and Averie moving with slow and sluggish movements through the downpour. The day after that however, began in a much different way.
She woke to the sound of chirping instead of rain. Sun instead of cloud. Her surroundings were still soaked but beginning to dry, leaving it with that strange but welcomed scent of dampness. She smiled weakly as she limped in the warmth of the sun, it was the best thing to happen to her in the past few days. Though all signs of the group had been washed away by the rain she still followed the soggy trail; if she didn't find the group she would at least find a town or some form of civilisation along the forest pathway.
She'd been forced stopped several times during the day to rest her ankle. She could walk on it and move it, but it hurt like a bitch. Now in the light she could see the dark bruising and angry swelling, it was badly sprained but would heal with time and rest. When her black socks were dry enough she pulled them on gently and tied the laces of her (now brown) converse tight enough to give her right ankle sufficient support without cutting off the circulation.
When it was nearing sun set the trail had ceased. There wasn't anything blocking its way, the trail along with the trees just stopped. The thick grass and boulders continued on, as did the flat ground she had been travelling on for the past hour only now it ascended on a steady incline.
Had she been in a physically healthy condition her thinking would have been more logical and cautionary but she only shrugged at the drastic change of environment and began limping up the slope, her paced slowed by her ankle.
As her hindered ascent continued up the small mountain, clumps of trees had formed again and the ground began to level but still maintained its small incline. Averie's energy dwindled dangerously low and by the time the sun had disappeared, was sprawled face-down across the soft grass; pale, sweating, and utterly exhausted. She was perfectly content to lay there in the cool bed of green and sleep forever.
Her stubbornness however, was not agreeable with her easy acceptance of death. Get off your arse it whispered to her. "No" She groaned "I want to sleep. Sleep is good" Get off your arse before I kick the shit out of you. Now Averie. Her head snapped up. The voice had jogged her process of thought, if she didn't move now she would most likely die. She couldn't die, she told herself. She had to get home. Standing up took more effort than usual but she gritted her teeth through the process and was soon limping again through the small plain of grass and up the small hill.
At first she didn't hear the soft nickering of horses, too focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Gradually as her feet took her closer, the sound was loud enough to be noticeable. Averie stopped and strained her ears towards the familiar noise. She thought her lack of energy was making her delirious, but then she heard the horse, rather horses, anxious neighs sound reverberate through the calm early night atmosphere
From what she could hear she seemed to be going in the right direction and quickened her pace to a staggered jog. She tripped over three times as she continued further up the small hill, the third landing her at the top.
She let out a choked sob at the sight of the ponies but contained her tears of relief. She hobbled towards the anxious mounts, a ridiculously large smile breaking over her face.
"How many more dwarfs is hiding 'round these parts?" Bert asked Ori, the troll giving him a shove with his finger when the young dwarf shook his head adamantly.
"None? Rubbish! The furglarburglarobbit said there was none others but 'ere you lot are" Bert paused a looked over the soon-to-be meals and gave them all a sinister grin, "Tom go find more dwarvses. We'll be 'aving a big feed tonight"
Tom excitedly ran off in the direction of the ponies they'd found earlier, as quickly as his lumbering figure would allow him through the layers of trees.