“Guys, come on, please,” Cherry pleaded.
“ I haven’t grown up yet, eh?” Finn chuckled. “Well maybe you should speak to Arielleabout that.” He smirked and started walking ahead. Raoul grabbed him roughly by the arm and spun him around.
“Wha t are you talking about, Wessel?” “Watch yourself, Blondie,” Finn growled. “I mean it.”
“Adelaide, Taz, please help,” Cherry exclaimed, her lip quivering.
“Hey,” Clayton called out, stopping up ahead and turning around. “What’s going on here?”
“Raoul has a lower itch for my girl and he’s jealous of the excellent progress we’ve made,” replied Finn.
“Hey…I don’t have a…lower itch for her,” Raoul stammered. “So shut up, Wessel. I’ll kick your rump right here and now.” “Go ahead and try. Maybe you can defeat me in TOX consumption.”
“Shut up!” Raoul yelled. Cherry was now desperately clinging to his hand.
“I swear Finn, if you don’t shut up, I’ll rotting slug you again,” warned Taz. “Just leave Raoul alone.” “Why is he even here?” Finn laughed, extending his hand towards Raoul’s shaking figure. “We never liked him before The Tibris Guards. The minute my lady saw him she practically threw up. He says I’m immature, well he’s correct. I might still have some growing up to do, but at least I am not some spoiled, whiny wink.”
“You….really….want….to shut up now,” Raoul gasped in suffocated bitterness.
“Do you want to know what the two of us did last night, Blondie? Do you?” “Finn, please,” pleaded Adelaide . “That’s enough, everyone,” Clayton threw in.
“Come on. We’re…we’re all just tired,” Cherry pleaded. “Let’s just take a break.”
“You should listen to her, Wessel,” Taz hissed. “You secretly want her,” Finn continued, “b ut you don’t like her the way I do. You want her because…because in your winked mind she is some kind of beacon you crave to make your life more bearable. I just hope you don’t have your hopes too high, because last night she and I…”
“Shut your rotting mouth!” Taz yelled walking forward. She didn’t make it in time. Raoul’s clenched fist ripped out of Cherry’s clasp and connected with Finn’s left cheek. He stumbled sideways, falling just as Raoul leapt upon him, laying punch after punch on his unprotected head.
“I’m going to kill you, Wessel!” he screamed. “You’re going to die! Die! Die! Die!”
“Raoul stop!” Cherry cried in horror.
“That’s enough Raoul,” Clayton told him. “He’s had enough.”
Raoul’s punches persisted and only increased in magnitude. “Someone stop him!” Adelaide exclaimed. There was a bright l ight burning in the young heir’s eyes. His face was red and his mouth had a twisted smile of terrifying glee. He started to spit and sputter as he kept wailing down upon Finn’s head and kicking at him with his feet. Clayton finally managed to grab his arm and jerk him back out of hitting range.
“What the rot is wrong with you?” Adelaide yelled. She dropped to her knees and tried tending to Finn’s blood drenched face. His lips and eyes were already starting to swell up.
“You think he didn’t have it coming?” yelled Taz. “I was seconds away from beating the plug out of him myself!” “That doesn’t give him the right to…to try to kill him,” Adelaide cried. “Are you winked? Look at his face.” “Now everyone just stop! I said now, rot it!” Clayton yelled at the top of his lungs. The entire group froze. “ What is happening here? We are supposed to be working together,” he continued. “Once we start turning on each other, we won’t last another day! You got it? Raoul, you have Cherry to keep track of, so spend more time taking care of her and less time getting into fights. As for you, Finn, I consider you a good friend, but if you don’t grow up right now and stop causing trouble in the group,I’ll kick your rump harder than Taz and Raoul combined! You hear me?”
Finn nodded, his eyes glaring up at Raoul as he spit out a mouthful of blood. Cherry pulled Raoul away, trying to draw his attention to a colorful butterfly she’d found resting on a small branch. Her eyes were still swimming with tears, but she was doing her best to smile and stay calm as she spoke. Raoul kept muttering something under his breath as he walked along with her, his available hand opening and closing into a fist.
“Clayton…” Taz started as Adelaide and Finn marched up ahead.
“I know,” he whispered. “I won’t let it get this way again.” The group soon arrived at the base of the cliff. Pockets of open ground sat positioned between clusters of boulders, both big and small. The group started setting up camp, laying out their blankets and knapsacks in forced silence. As they all finished, Taz finally declared her intention to go hunting.
“Hey King, feel like joining me?” she asked. Raoul shook his head, his eyes cast downward at a line of ants perfectly synchronized as they marched diligently between his feet. He whispered something in Cherry’s ear as she ran her hands through his thin locks hair. She blushed bashfully and skipped over to help Clayton dig the rest of the lorb pit.
“You know, with any luck, we’ll be eating deer, squirrel, or rabbit tonight,” laughed Taz.
“Clayton here has some masterful trapping skills,” Adelaide replied. Clayton chuckled and shrugged modestly. Little by little, the events concerning Finn and Raoul were being put behind them. Kind, yet cautious smiles were spreading from face to face as various colors danced for supremacy across the landscape under the quickening call of dusk.
“ Oh, come on, now,” Taz said, seductively beckoning Clayton over to her. “Let’s see what you can do. I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
Clayton threw up in hands in surrender and followed her back into the forest. Adelaide prepared a plate for Finn and did her best to clean up any remaining crusted blood on his forehead. As she did so, Cherry walked slowly up to them and tapped the back of Adelaide’s shoulder.
“Look, Adelaide….I know you’re busy, um, cleaning up your….Finn, but could we maybe talk?” Adelaide smiled up at Cherry before turning back to Finn. She placed a kiss on his cheek, handed him the cloth, and followed Cherry over to behind a nearby boulder for some privacy.
“Ok,” Cherry started, her hands clasped together in a nervous fit. “I have a question for you, and I honestly don’t exactly know how to ask it.”
“Is everything alright? Has…has Raoul done anything to you?”
“Oh goodness, no, far from it; he has been nothing short of kind and wonderful towards me.”
“I see.” Adelaide had expected a different answer entirely. “I have been trying to get Raoul interested in me ever since we slept together back in Pinewood. We didn’t do anything, of course, just laid in the same bed and talked. I know I am young and he is a gentleman, but I would like his attentions to become more…feral. I was hoping, since you and Finn have already done it, that you could teach me how to get him more physical with me.”
Adelaide was taken aback. Apart from her childhood friendship with Mimi Varrow, she had never been approached before on matters of female concern. She could not, in a hundred years, have anticipated that one day a young squirm like Cherry would ask her what she had to do to get a boy to want to “be” with her. The question caught her completely off guard. She took a moment to compose herself while struggling to find an appropriate answer.
“Um, well……you see, the thing is….do you really want to hear this from me?” “Of course I do,” Cherry sweetly declared. “I don’t like talking to Taz about it. It really upsets her, you see, given what she had to go through back in Pinewood.”
Adelaide nodded and ushered Cherry to sit down on the ground, squatting down beside her.
“Well Cherry, there’s something you should know. Finn and I didn’t do anything last night.”
“What do you mean? He said you two…” “Ye s, well he was just mad at Raoul and wanted to hurt him. We did fool around a bit, of course, and got a little further than I’m used to, but in t
he end we didn’t go all the way. I do like Finn, and he likes me. At the moment though, it just didn’t feel right.”
“So you’re an Untouched?” Adelaide winced at the name and nodded. “Yes, I still am. I plan to be for a long time, too, from where I stand at the moment.”
“Why?” “Look…what you’re thinking about isn’t something you can just jump into. It is a special act that happens only when two people are very much in love, or at least that’s the way it should be. Sometimes, people tend to get a little carried away with it and forget its importance. I suppose I just believe in it too much to just have it whenever the feeling takes me. That is what I believe.”
Cherry smiled and hugged her arm tightly. “I like that you told me the truth. I know I can trust you now.”
Adelaide smiled and patted herhead gently. “So, you still want to try your luck with Raoul tonight?” “Not just yet. I do like him, I like him a lot! He’s the manliest man I’ve ever met. But maybe we should wait a little bit before making something big out of this…given the present circumstances. You know, I’ve never had a sister, but if I did…I’d want her to be like you.”
With that, Cherry rose to her feet and started humming a lively tune as she skipped back to camp. Adelaide remained behind the boulder, contemplating their talk for a couple minutes before getting up to join her. It felt good to be needed in such matters. The only advice anyone had ever asked her before that day concerned little more than cooking tips and good reading recommendations. A relaxing sigh escaped her lips as she made her way back to Finn, feeling fulfilled and thoroughly pleased in herself.
Clayton and Taz returned half an hour later with a pair of dead rabbits slung over their backs. Cherry ran to greet them and stifled a laugh as she beheld the dried leaves still stuck in Taz’s disheveled hair and the teeth marks lingering on Clayton’s neck. Regardless of the success of their hunting, it was fairly obvious that a rough, passionate encounter had transpired as well. Adelaide bit her tongue as she too witnessed the results of their activities. She muttered something rude against Taz under her breath before returning her attention fully back to Finn, turning her back entirely to Clayton. It was then that she saw Raoul approaching the camp, ducking in and out from behind a collection of boulders at the base of the cliff.
“And where have you been?” she asked him. Raoul merrily laughed, which was an action very unnerving to Adelaide, and glanced upwards toward the majestic wall of stone.
“What? Don’t tell me you did some climbing,” Taz exclaimed
from nearby. “One wrong step and you’re dead.”
“True, true,” the pasty Red Hand chuckled. “But the thrill of it all, I swear….it’s the best thing I’ve felt since TOX.” His newfound sense of contentment, though unusual, seemed genuine. This led to calmness throughout the group, as the earlier event finallydrifted to the back of everyone’s mind. The rewards of Clayton’s trapping were swiftly skinned, cleaned, and laid out over a shallow, lorb-filled hole. Each wondrous sphere gave off a natural heat that readily cooked the group’s dinner without added effort. As with so many other things in Sanctumsea, this curious feat again went over everyone’s head. It might as well have been an everyday occurrence, like the rising sun or chilling wind of a winter storm. And so the food was sufficiently prepared and readily devoured. Every meaty bone was picked clean and every piece of fruit was nibbled down to the core. With smiles as full as their stomachs, the six travelers discussed past regrets, future hopes, and various strategies in dealing with the cause of their present situation. There were gleeful laughs, somber tones, wistful propositions, subtle flirting, and above all else, ease and gentility. Hours rolled by as, one by one, the companions began drifting off to sleep. Taz volunteered to stand watch till midnight, and then pass the task along to Finn.
It was around halfway through the night when Adelaide woke up and groggily noticed a shadow darting past one of the closer boulders in the distance. She quickly dismissed it as a trick of the moonlight and dozed back off to a slumber of poisoned dreams.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Adelaide awoke the following morning with a sudden unease. Clayton was sleeping soundly a few yards away while Taz snored gently beside him, her arm resting gently over his shoulder. Cherry was nestled nearby, her face one of comfort and ease. The ground around the camp site was moist with early morning dew. The lorbs burned ever brightly from within the hole, releasing soft, soothing waves of warmth that coated the sleeping travelers. For a second, Adelaide could have sworn there was one missing. Heaving a great yawn, she rubbed her eyes and passed it off as a mere miscount. Before she could drift back to sleep, nearby footsteps drew her attention. Raoul was strolling around the campsite, his eyes darting up and down peculiarly. A low, scattered hum sounded from between his lips. He turned towards Adelaide with a start and broke out in nervous laughter.
“Good morning , Adelaide. Did you sleep well? I slept like a swaddled squirm. Nice morning we’re having, wouldn’t you agree?”
Adelaide nodded. Her restless feeling remained as she scanned the campsite in search of someone.
“Raoul…did Finn go somewhere?”
The heir’s back rigidly straightened. Adelaide attempted to catch a glimpse of his face as he hastily turned away. “I don’t know,” he finally said, shrugging his shoulders. “He said he was going to check for paths or nearby markers to the north, but that was a while ago. He could be anywhere up ahead by now.”
Before long, the rest of the group had risen. Raoul retold her story concerning Finn and suggested they all shoulder their supplies and try catching up to him. Clayton readily agreed, making it a public opinion that Finn needed to be more careful about sticking together, even in the security of the Obrillo Forest. They had barely set a course before Adelaide suddenly stopped dead in her tracks and gasped aloud.
“What’s wrong?” asked Clayton.
“His…his bag was still there!” she exclaimed. “I saw it!”
Raoul, who was walking directly in front of her, turned around and shook his head vigorously.
“No it wasn’t,” he brashly declared. “It was gone, just like he was. I already told you.” Clayton turned to face the rest of the group. Taz started to look from him to Raoul curiously, while Cherry stood at the rear, the same innocent and excited smile livening up her face.
“ Yes it rotting was!” Adelaide continued frantically. “It was next to one of the boulders, up by the base of the hill. I didn’t think much of it when I noticed it after breakfast, but it had to have been his bag!”
“He…he probably forgot it.” Raoul replied, laughing nervously. “A winking guy like him wouldn’t remember his own head if it wasn’t screwed on right.”
Clayton shot him an uneasy look. “Alright look,” Taz said. “Finn has obviously disappeared. Whether by his will or someone else’s, we don’t yet know. I’ll head back to the knoll and see if I can find any trace of him.” “No. I want you here with the group,” Clayton told her. “I
have my mallet, so you take the Hammerstahl and continue on. I’ll go look for him. You all keep moving. If we passed him up or he got lost, I’ll find him and bring him back.”
“You know, he…he could be just ahead, waiting for us,” Raoul suggested. His brow was now started to moisten, something he seemed adamant to ignore.
“Maybe, but I’ll go fetch his bag regardless. I should catch up to you guys fairly quickly. If you haven’t come across Finn by the time I arrive, we can plan our next move to locate him.”
Everyone nodded. Clayton wished them all luck and began retracing his steps. They had only been walking for fifteen minutes, and even now as he looked up towards the distant sky, he could see the tip of the massive hill they had all slept under. Taz took control of the group as he disappeared back towards the knoll and ushered Adelaide to walk close behind her. Cherry stayed behind with Raoul, clasping his hand firmly as she pulled him along.
“I’ll stay here with you,” she an
nounced. Raoul gave a slight nod before kissed her hand. As they walked along, no one noticed the dark ominous shapes slowly growing visible behind the trees around them. Not a sound could be heard in the forest, not a bird singing or animal running. The silence should have interested them, but with the early light of dawn still growing in the sky and their goal nearly achieved, these oddities went unacknowledged. They strolled on as the shadowy figures became more and more exposed, their bodies catching brief rays of sunlight that reflected off their scaly armor.
As minutes passed, Raoul’s face began to soak. Neither Adelaide nor Taz seemed to notice, but every now and again, Cherry would look up at him curiously.
“It’s alright,” he murmured down to her. “All this exercise is catching up to me. I’m fine. I just….I just think we need to move a little faster, that’s all. We are just going so rotting slow.”
Cherry stood on her tip toes and kissed his sweaty cheek. “Don’t worry,” she assured him.“We’ll get some water and you’ll feel much better. You’ll see.”
As she spoke, Taz stopped ahead, her hand jerking upwards in a halting motion. Adelaide hurried up beside her and reached for her knife.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know,” Taz whispered uneasily. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
A branch cracked behind them. The group swung quickly around with weapons raised. Nothing was there. “Please,” Raoul begged. “I think we should hurry now.” “Quiet,” Taz hissed.
“No…no, no I am being serious,” he continued shakily. “I’ve….I’ve done a really bad thing.” He looked hastily to his left, and then to his right, his hand squeezing Cherry’s until she winced and pulled it away. “We have to…to leave. I’ve…I’ve…doomed us all.”
Taz edged her way back towards him, her hands gripping the Hammerstahl. The forest seemed peaceful, but somehow she felt like a dozen eyes were watching them, hidden securely behind the trees and bushes.
The Acryptus Tree Page 20