Chapter 8

The leather boots helped a lot as we were walking through the thick brush. A couple of times we stopped to eat at the non-poisonous fruit that we seldom passed. We came across a bush carrying a blood red, spherical fruit with thin silver stripes swirling on its skin, a yellow berry that looked a lot like a pinto bean, and a green squishy fruit that tasted like grass. Not that I have ever tasted grass…

We stopped to rest near a rushing river and Orin took a dry stick, muttered something which lit it on fire. He checked around the place we were sitting for any creatures that might be listening, or creeping around. Luckily, he didn't find anything and went towards the river. He started to say something under his breath and raised his arms. Moments later, a thin, pink shining wall spread out of his hands, creating a shield like wall between the water and us.

"In case of another run in with a kelpie." He said.

I walked over to a decaying tree stump and sat down. My feet and legs hurt from the constant walking. I took off one of my leather boots and shook out some of the pebbles. The boots were covered in mud already.

"I think our best chance of getting there is following this river to the edge of the forest and move on from there."

"Okay," I said but a thought popped into my head. "Tell me about what your childhood was like before the Fall Court came and took you away?"

He sighed and sat down on the wet grass next to me.

"I do not remember much, but I remember what it looked like. Everything was always blooming and the people were always kind. We have always been in war with the other fey, and I truly believe that that is what it will be like forever. We lived peacefully under the King, all up until the day Queen Tetra attacked. She burned down the entire village, killed the King, and made sure that nothing ever grew there. As the King died, your Mother stepped in to fill in as Queen, and evacuated everyone. It was too late for me though. Lady Tetra killed my parents as well, and she took me. I stayed in Morior for centuries growing up in the cold learning how to survive, the world's secrets, battle strategies, languages and everything else to help make me Tetra's personal killing machine. I grew up in knowledge, but I was still clueless of everything going on around me. I grew up in the cold, surrounded by the dying autumn leaves. However, I still had the power to make things become alive again, which you have seen."

I smiled. He grew up with no one, and nothing to help him live the life he was supposed to. All he had was Tetra's hate forced upon him, blinding him of everything he knew. I felt sorry for him; he doesn't have to live like this anymore. Surely my mother will help him, and I will too.

"Orin, do you mind showing me your, um … gift?"

"Certainly," He replied, beckoning me over to him. I got up off of the old, rotten stump and walked over to his side. He stretched out his arm and pointed his palm towards the stump, and soon enough, the stump started to turn a light brown color, and grew back into a large oak tree full of green leaves. He smiled as it grew, the same smile that was etched on his face in the meadow. But as quick as it came, it disappeared from his face.

"We should probably get going. Are you ready?"

I nodded to him, and we started walking up the banks of the river into the brush once more. Orin walked a little faster than usual, and his long strides put him a yard or two ahead of me. The sun had gone most of the way down, leaving faint traces of violets and oranges all over the sky. The forest was getting darker and colder, and the rushing of the river next to us started to get louder. Overhead, through the canopy, a few stars burned in the dark sky.

Soon, the forest became so dark that if I was still human, I wouldn't be able to see right in front of me. However, my eyes started to adjust with the new light and the forest became clear once more. That's not the only thing that changed with my new appearance. Around my neck started to burn, almost like a painful rash. I scratched it, but it didn't help, and soon I started to feel skin coming off around it. My necklace chain was burning into my skin. I looked down to right around my chest and saw the silver heart dangling proudly, but the skin around the chain started to grow black and chipped. It was too painful; it felt like all the skin around my neck was being pulled off with red-hot tweezers. Orin, recognizing distress, turned around and his already huge eyes became surprisingly larger. He quickly pulled off the chain, and threw it on the ground, almost like playing hot potato. My breathing became ad-normal and I started to have a dry cough-like breath. My skin was still chipped and burnt looking, but it was turning a lighter gray.

Orin's hands were rummaging around in his pockets. Within a second, he pulled out a ripe, small black berry.

"Damn iron. Why were you wearing that! I knew I smelled something on you. From now on, leave iron alone. It is poison to us. This berry might help it heal faster. Careful, it stings a bit. "

Liar. It stung A LOT. One hornet-like sting and a minute later, the chipped look was gone, and now the skin on my neck was a pale grey.

"Where was that berry when you got shot?" I asked, grimacing from the aftermath of the berry.

"I found it when I was exploring the rivers edge. They are very hard to come by, and I knew we might need it since we have someone as clumsy as you around. I swear, its like every time I turn around, you find a new way to almost kill yourself. You wouldn't last a minute in this forest without me."

"I've always been clumsy. Both of my arms have been broken before," holding up my right arm, "I fell down on a rock while hiking with my dad in Cuyahoga Valley," and holding up my left, " I broke this one when I was riding a horse while visiting family in Wisconsin."

He laughed and kept walking ahead of me, and I immediately face palmed myself. He doesn't care! I thought. Looking down, I carefully picked up the silver heart that was next to the iron chain, and placed it within my dress.

We kept walking for what felt like forever. I looked up in the sky and marveled at the 2 twin moons up above. This is one very strange world. I daydreamed once I was bored with the silence between us. I thought about my dad and his company, I thought of Emma, Hannah and Tommy. I thought of my mother, what I thought she would look like and be like. I even thought of Laura, and what she was doing right now. But most of all, I thought of Orin, even if he was 5 feet in front of me. But then again, don't we all?

Walking along the banks of the river was calming. The soft, fertile soil around my feet sank in with the pressure of my boot. The banks were covered in small patches of weed and vine, and pebbles of all sorts sat around the dark rushing water. The dark sky quickly became covered in dark grey clouds. The first raindrop hit my hand. The rain didn't stop after that. Soon the river was flowing faster and it started to overflow and little bit. The trees provided barely any cover, becoming heavy with the rain, and soon both Orin and I were soaked. My dress stuck to my golden skin and my boots were slowly getting filled with water. Orin grabbed my slippery hand and started to run forward. It probably wasn't the safest thing to do, but splashing through dozens of puddles made me feel like a little kid again.

I saw what he was running to shortly after that. A stream was flowing into the river, and that stream was coming from a waterfall up ahead. Since the water was so high, the stream was overflowing and moving at a rapid speed. Are flashfloods common in Chaos? The waterfall clung to the rocks that formed a small, but very steep cliff, and about halfway down the top of the cliff was the entrance to a small cave. It looked dangerous; soft, slimy, and slippery algae clung to the gray rocks and water dripped of just about anything. The rim of the cave was partially dry, but it still looked deadly with just one slip-up. Great, slip-ups are my middle name. We reached the entrance to the cave, and I could feel the spray of the waterfall hit my red cheeks. I tightly held Orin's arm and we started to sidle across the edge of the rock. There was nothing to hold onto except the smooth rocks, so I clung to Orin for my dear life. He made it look easy. He moved along the wall almost like a ninja. He was a tall, handsome, fairy ninja. I was slowly creeping along the wall when the inevitable happened: I slipped. My foot barely touched the surface when it slid right off and plunged shin-deep into the freezing cold water. My boot immediately came off my foot under the pressure of the water, but before I washed away like my boot, Orin clutched my arm and single handedly, pulled me into the mouth of the cave.

"I'm not surprised. It was bound to happen," Orin said with a smirk. His eyes twinkled for a moment, but it was lost when he turned away into the cave. He took a long dry branch from in the base of the cave. With a few mumbles, fire erupted from the tip.

"Shall we?" he gestured to the tunnel that erupted from the cave's mouth and into the cliff. I nodded to him and he took my hand again. My bare foot, still glimmering gold, was muddy and grimy; but I didn't care. Then, we took a few more steps into the cave, with Orin's torch guiding us along.