by Laura R Cole
*
Natalya stood impatiently in the garden waiting for the mages to finally be ready to transport them to the edge of the Ferryn Plains. Hunter had tried to dissuade her from going with him, saying that it could be dangerous, but she wasn’t about to just sit and wait for someone else to fix things. The Queen was in trouble and she needed their help. And she couldn’t help Natalya find Alina until she was properly back on her throne.
They had spent several days back and forth from Charles’ house to the Alamanni Manor, and though it had tried her patience to have to wait so long to get on their way, it had finally given her some time to pick Charles’ brain about his adventures with the Queen. What she heard only further solidified her respect for the woman. Natalya was proud to have her as their Queen and would do anything to help her in her time of need.
Hunter and the mages finally made their way over to where she was standing inside the circle, ready the moment they were, and she held out her hand to him. He took it with a fair amount of hesitation, which was understandable given the warnings they had been given about the uncomfortable nature of the spell. She was slightly surprised that he was willing to go on this mission, though he seemed to be getting more and more convinced that she was correct about the Queen, and did seem to want to help.
They took their places and Natalya squeezed his hand slightly as the mages started the spell. It was a gut-wrenching experience, as though all her insides had been taken out and then stuffed back in.
Bile rose in her mouth and she swallowed repeatedly to keep from throwing up as her feet found solid ground once more. Next to her, Hunter was looking rather queasy himself, and both took a few deep breaths before looking around. They were inside a room at an inn and a man was standing before them with his mouth hanging open.
He shut it quickly and nodded to them. “Magi Harnet said you would be arriving, welcome.”
“Thanks,” Hunter answered for them and they stepped out of the circle carefully. They would need it for the return trip. Natalya wasn’t looking forward to it nearly as much now that she had experienced it the first time.
“These are for you,” the man said, handing them each a backpack. “They are already filled with supplies so that you may set out on your journey as soon as you feel up to it. We have also readied a room should you feel the need to rest up for the night. They weren’t sure how much the,” he seemed unsure how to put into words the method of their arrival, “travel,” he finally decided on, “would affect you.”
Natalya looked up at Hunter and he shrugged. The experience had been unpleasant, but it appeared that he felt the same that it hadn’t been so bad that they needed to rest first. “Let’s go.”
Hunter turned to the man, “You heard the little lady; I guess we’ll be on our way immediately. Do you have any information to indicate where we might start?”
“There’s a map included in your bags which marks the most likely area that you should start looking in. Unfortunately most of the landscape on the map is a guess as no one travels that far out there.” He looked uneasy for a moment and stared at the two of them. “You do have something to defend yourselves with, right?” He didn’t look very convinced of their abilities.
Hunter smiled thinly and Natalya prickled. She took out her knife and threw it against the wooden door, the blade twanging feet from his head. Once deciding she could trust Hunter and no longer needed to have the knife as protection from him, she had insisted that he teach her how he threw them.
Hunter gave her a reproachful look, but the man looked satisfactorily cowed. She ignored Hunter and retrieved the knife, tucking it back into her hidden sheath.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it then,” the man said, ducking out the door and closing it behind him.
Hunter didn’t say anything, but shook his head slightly. They looked quickly through the bags, making sure that they really had everything they would need. Hunter determined there were a few items missing that his time on the Plains had deemed necessary for their survival, so they made a detour into the town for the extra supplies before setting out.
Natalya felt a rush of excitement. Despite the dire circumstances, the adventure was exhilarating. Wait until she told Alina everything that had happened to her.
The excitement soon wore off as the day wore on and they did nothing but walk for hours. They had to pass through a fairly wide section of the North Woods here to even reach the Plains, and despite the stories she had heard of the horrible creatures lurking here, they ran into nothing.
Weylyn, Hunter’s dog, somehow caught up with them though Natalya could find no reasonable explanation how he had been able to both locate them and make his way up here so fast. When she questioned Hunter about it, he simply shrugged. “He’s always been like that. He’ll disappear for days, like when we were in the towns, and then suddenly pop up when you least expect it. I’m surprised you didn’t ask Charles about him.”
“Why would Charles know about him?”
“Oh,” Hunter said, “I guess I never mentioned; he used to be Charles’ dog.”
“No,” she grumbled, annoyed that she had potentially missed her opportunity to discover the mystery of Weylyn when she had the chance to speak with Charles. “You never mentioned that.” She patted the dog’s head affectionately.
“I think that there was something about how he used to be one of the blood-beasts that Lady Jezebel had sent against Queen Layna and that she cured him somehow. He always did seem to be more than just a dog.”
Natalya looked down at Weylyn with sympathy. He had been used by the evil Lady Jezebel for her blood-magic experiments? The poor creature. She dug out a piece of jerky from her pack and fed it to him.
“We’re going to need that…” Hunter started scolding her waste of their rations, but stopped himself. “He does know how to get what he wants.” He shook his head, pausing to let the two of them catch up so that he could pet the dog as well. “It was Weylyn that made us stop at your town you know,” he told her, “otherwise I was planning on going straight through, but he kept nipping at the horse’s heels to make her go that way. I thought he was just bored and bothering the horse, but…”
“Maybe he knew I’d need help,” Natalya said, her innocent mind having no trouble imagining that the dog would be able to foresee such a thing.
They suddenly emerged from the forest into an entirely new landscape. The trees simply stopped and a grassland spread out before them. Natalya resumed her enthusiasm for the journey. Hunter’s familiarity with the landscape allowed them to pass unhindered through most of it, though he several times had to stop her from stepping on a poisonous plant or divert her path away from a dangerous snake-hole. She got the sneaking suspicion that he was trying to shelter her from the Plain’s dangers. When she caught sight of one of the “snakes” her suspicion was confirmed.
She had side-tracked to go and look at a beautiful flower that was protruding out from a group of rocks on a long stem when Weylyn had suddenly nipped at her. She was about to rebuke the dog when Hunter had pulled her quickly away.
“Snakes love rock nests like that,” he told her, leading her with slight pressure on her arm.
She glanced back, sad to have not been able to appreciate the flower’s beauty further, when it suddenly twitched. Her gaze followed the stem to its base where she was horrified to see that it was attached to a gigantic mouth set with long razor-like teeth. The ‘stem’ protruded from the creature’s forehead, putting its prey directly in front of its mouth when they went to see it. And it was much, much larger than any snake; its pudgy body blending into the rocks. As it shifted, she saw that it was actually about the size of Weylyn, packed into a compact ball.
She swallowed hard. Hunter had her wait several times while he went on ahead, always coming back rather disheveled, and Natalya refrained from asking what he had run into. She decided she’d rather not know, though waiting
for him to return while imagining larger creatures like the one with the flower bait was torturous, even not knowing. The confidence she’d felt in the safety of the inn, throwing her knife with such a cocky attitude, now felt false, and her cheeks blazed red with embarrassment.
They eventually could make out the dark shapes of trees in the distance, and it soon became obvious that they would be entering another forest area soon. But Hunter stopped them before they made it to the trees, suddenly veering off to the right.
“Over here,” he motioned, and Natalya watched as he pulled back a swath of grasses to reveal an opening in the ground.
“Are you sure there’s nothing down there?” she asked with trepidation. The opening was big enough for all sorts of nasty things.
“I’m sure. See all these plants here?” he asked, pointing out an area of short dense foliage of green leaves among the yellower plains grasses.
“Yes,” she agreed, not sure what they had to do with the safety of the cave.
“These are chokeroot. They dampen magic. I know you don’t have any talent so you can’t feel it, but the Plains are wrought with wild magic, swirling chaotically about. Pretty much all of the creatures out here have adapted to live with it, so an area completely devoid of it makes them nervous. None would willingly enter this cave without being able to already sense what was inside. And the chokeroot makes that impossible for them. Come on.” He led the way down into the dark cave.
Moments later, a light sprang to life as he lit a torch.
“Where did you get that?”
“My father and I used this cave when we came out here looking for ingredients. We also cultivated the chokeroot so that it would continue to grow in large numbers around it. It’s nice to see everything is still here.”
They made camp for the night and settled into sleeping rolls. Natalya blinked her eyes sleepily, but curiosity kept her awake. Weylyn came over and nestled himself next to her, and she stroked his head distractedly.
“How come people never speak of the forest beyond the Plains? I’ve only ever heard it described as a grasslands that goes on forever.”
“I don’t think there are many people who’ve ever come out this far,” Hunter shrugged. “I often asked my father why we didn’t simply continue on to make camp in the wood, but he was always insistent that this is as far as we would go. Perhaps the forest holds even more dangers.” He seemed to realize that he was bordering on facts about the Plains he was trying to keep from her and he trailed off.
Natalya’s weariness soon overtook her desire to ask more questions and she drifted into an uneasy sleep, dreaming of monsters all around her.
In the morning they set off for the forest, Hunter alert for dangers, and Natalya trying not to show her fear. They hadn’t traveled far when they were suddenly surrounded by several large men. Natalya jumped at their unexpected appearance. They were dressed in camouflage for the woods, so she had never even seen their approach.
“Halt,” said one of them, and she and Hunter obligingly came to a stop.
Hunter held up his arms. “We meant no harm. We are just passing through.”
Natalya stared at the newcomers. She hadn’t thought there were people out here. Were they more like Hunter and his father, collecting things from the forest? Maybe they had seen a group of mages hiding out, stealing Princesses. Surely they would’ve noticed. She didn’t get the chance to ask the question, however, as more of them appeared around them.
The first man just grunted at Hunter’s assertion and pointed in front of him with the long staff he was carrying.
“This way.”