12. Chapter 12:
Chapter 12:
The ground very quickly became very sparse. Whereas previously, the ground beneath my feet had ben smothered in an assemblage of dead leaves and twisting vines, it was now dry and cracked, with barely any plants being able to be seen on its surface. It was not noticeable at first, but I soon came to understand that it was because of the hundreds of feet that must have been hitting the ground constantly, killing off any hope for life that the ground may have had. Foxglove soon told me that she believed that it was neccesary to air on the side of caution now, especially was we were approaching the conglomerate's territory, and that the border was very likely being guarded now.
"Put on any old cloak you have, and take off your boots. Bare feet make less noise." She told me, wrapping around her an incredibly thin cloak made of spider's silk and with sead leaves glued onto it. I was astounded at how tightly ity must have been wound to fit in her tiny satchel, but held myself back from asking because I now understood just how much danger we could be in. I pulled out a scruffy dark green cloak that i had brought with me to serve as a makeshift blanket, and wrapped it around me. I put my boots in my pack, and we bagan to walk towards the border.
As I alked over the cracked ground, I felt each and every bump, each and every fracture of the soil, and every so often, I felt small insects and other arthropods crawling all over my feet. I should have been repulsed, but soon found myself enjoying the feeling, it made me feel much closer to the world around me, almsot as if I was part of it, instead of the previous feeling of being hated by the trees around me, though it had only subsuded, not entireely dissapeared. At one point, wheh she believed that we wee safe from being spotted, Foxglove brought out the small bag she had fastend to her belt that i had seen her put leaves and fruits in along out walks but never thought of asking ehr about, and plopped it on the floor, opening it.
As I peered over her shoulder to see what it was, noticed a distinctive slimy trail and pale brown colour. Snails. She had been feeding Snails. I jumped back, almost screamed, but stopped myself by stuffing a fist in my mouth. I turned the other side, and tried to slow m breathing. Foxglove walked over to me, perplexed. "Stuvlok, what's happened?" she whispered, carefully looking around to make sure that nothing had seen us. "Snails. I am afraid of snails." I said, slowing my shivering. She paused for a while, then began to laugh, short, high pitched sounds that almost sounded like a rock being skipped across water. she stopped herself soon enough, then walked over to me, bringing the bag with her. "You can't be serious. Do you want one?" she asked, before throwing one into her mouth. The crunch of the shell and the squshing sounds of the flesh repusing me. I saw a snail almost escape from the bag, and begin to crawl towards me, before I threw a small pebble at it, and I hid behind Foxglove.
"Stuvlok, are you actually afraid of snails?" She asked me, completerly serious yet trying to surpress a smile. "Yes. Do not ask me why,, because I do not know. I know that they can't hurt me, but... well... it's always been this way." I said, shameful. "Well, have it your way. I won't eat them in front of you." she said, closing up the bag and reattatching it to her belt. I was thankful.
As we continues to walk, Foxglove began to look around anxiously. She had noticed a characteristic stone formation, and knew that it signalled the beginning of the Western Conglomerate territory. She was sure that there must be some kind of scout or guards somewhere, and was searching for them incessantly. Once, we saw fox standing guard, holding what seemed to be a blowgun, and a small shield made of woven together shields. We managed to crawl through a series of bushes and get to the other side without being noticed.
Foxglove told me that there is a penalty of death upon any enemies of the conglomerate that are seen in its territory. "You might think that you are safe," she told me slyly, "but If they can't tell what you are, they assume you to be an Enemy spy, and out you to death too." She told me the story of the owls, who chose not to take part in the war for the woodland, as they were not stationalry creatures. An owl called Gheel ocne wandered into Conglomerate territory while hunting a small mouse, and was caught by a group of ravens who were patrolling the area. It was sentenced to death, as they had doubts that it was working for the weasels, and it was duly drowned in the lake, and its body sent back to the weasels. I was surprised, but knew that as long as I avoided getting noticed, the rest of the journey should be fine.
As we were reaching a place Foxglove had decided to set up camp in, We heard a sudden beating sound from above us. I looked up, and saw a large crow circling above us, each flap of the wing sending pulses of wind down towards us. I looked at Foxglove. Foxglove looked at me.
We decided not to split up, guessing that it would only ever lead to more problems than it was worth. We dived beneath a small boulder, and waited for the crow to leave. It only came closer down. Eventually, it landed, and I closed my eyes, childishness overtaking my mind.
" I may not have seen you, butI know where you are. Come out." It said, its voice deeply resonant and with a distinctly sinister timbre. Seeing no other option, we both stood up and carefully walked over to where it was stood. This crow was massive, it came up to my chest in height and seemed almost too heavy to be able to fly. Foxglove had told me not to seem intimidating, so I looked down at my feet.
"Crow, We are not here to hurt you, or to take part in the war. We jsut want to get to the lake." Foxglove said, her voice remarkably mature now, and her body trying not to give away any of the fear that had gripped both of us.
"I would have eaten you otter, and killed you halfling For the other one... well I cannot tell what it is, but it is nothing good. But I fancy that I am not going to." it said. I looked at its eyes, seeing them covered by a milky while membrane. The crow was most certainly Blind. "Thank you, dear crow." Foxglove said, not quite believing the crow. "I sense an almost sinister energy coming from the three of you. I would not dare consume such foul-souled creatures." I focused on the fact that he was blind yet able to sense us in some way, but soon found myself questioning why it had said that there were three of us here. I would have told myself that it must have been because it was blind, but it had been able to tell an awful lot about us from his other senses. I felt a prickly sensation somewhere inside of me, but I decided to ignore the questions swirling around my mind, and focus on the danger at hand. The crow walked gracefully backwards, before taking flight again. With a few low calls, Foxglove startleing every time she heard one of them, the crow was gone.
We began to hurry, to our destination. "That damn crow must have called out to his accomplices. We are probably being followed right at this moment." Foxglove said as we pushed through the forest at a determined speed. I thought abouyt asking her about my doibts, but one look at her furious and determined face told me that I would much rather prefer to stay silent, She would definitely not stray from what she had to do. I felt as if I was being left bahind at times, but Foxglove always made sure that I was never too far away. Night fell, but I knew that we would not stop this night. i was tiring, but I knew that Both Foxglove and I would prefer aching muscles to almost certain death.
"It would be better If we went another way, through the denser part of the woodland." Foxglove stated, shoving a few snails in her mouth for sustenance. I had found a large edible tuber the previous day, and was munching on it as I walked. It managed to fill my belly, and though it was astringent in its flavour, it revitalised my energy reserves and allowed me to keep up with Foxglove. The way we took was thick with vines and trees, the ground was covered again in a type of grass that I had never seen before in the woods. It was a sort of diffused blue, dark yet distinct from the other grasses around it. "Be careful not to get the grass in your mouth," Foxglove commented once she noticed me staring at it, "It causes hallucinations." I grabbed a handful of grass as we walked and stuffed it in my pack, to investigate later.
I felt a sense that I was always being observed, though I did not know from where and by whom. It was quite alienating, and It stopped my from sleeping. Luckily, this was not as unhelpful as it would have otherwise been. Foxglove had been up for almost three days now, and seemed as if she was going to collapse.
An hour after I first noticed this, she did.
She crumpled down into a patch of leaves while running. I went over to her, and gave her some water, and put the bag to her paws, so she could extract a snail to eat, while i looked away. I soon hoisted her onto the back of my pack, and fastened her carefully to the top so she would not fall over while sleeping. I thought that this was the least that I could do for her, since he had helped me so much over the time we had travelled together. It did slow me down, however, and she would occasionally jolt back into consciousness to give me directions and make clicking and squeaking noises. The night soon approached again, and I used my lantern for the first time in a while. Though I knew that it made me - us - much more visible, I needed to avoid tripping over a knot in a tree root and causing both of our deaths. I soon began to feel sleepy again, but the terrain I had been forced to manoeuvre around kept me awake with its terrifying, ankle-destroying bends and drops. I Had never known tree roots to be so dangerous, and understood now why Foxglove had chosen this root. Another think that kept me from going to sleep was the fact that the image of the creature that had come top me during my fever kept my mind at a low, continuous drone, which was just enough to keep me alert and so therefore alive.
When the dawn of the next day was approaching, I was able to turn off the lamp, now having used up most of its fuel, and wait for Foxglove to wake. Once she did, she scoped out the surroundings, and told me that I should be heading slightly northwest, which I did.
She eventually felt strong enough to begin walking with me again, which gave my back some welcome relief and speeded up the progress of the entire team. She was able to gather some sorrel and mix it with a fish powder she had brought to make little cakes which we could both eat to give us some strength. I found some ramsons to season it with, and we used a warm rock to act as a fire, as we were not sure that whoever must be chasing us was far enough away for it to be safe to light one. I needed warmth, It was something I had not felt in a long time, it seemed, but the warmth of our combined fervour and determination was all I needed, an compelled me to keep on going with the walk-turned-run.
We soon came across the things that were following us. They made the surroundings crawl as if the trees were walking, and gave the otherwise formless darkness at night a shape. They were much smaller than both of us, though I knew that, together, we would not have a chance. They were rodents. They made low grumbling noises when they moved together, and we only ever saw them when we were resting. Whenever Foxglove or I saw one of them, we immediately got going, because we knew that it must only be the emissary of a much larger group against which we would be able to do nothing.
We spent our hours running breathing heavily and snacking on anything we could find, the regular rhythm of our feet soon coming to mirror the laboured beatings of our tired hearts.