Lost in the Crossroads

Fifteen - Forsaken Forest (Alexandra)

Passing through the expanded extension of the ‘Dawn’ river—the horses had a hard time wading through the waters—and to the thick forest of the East for the bandits’ trail, their company was hit by the eerie coldness of the forest. Alexandra was admittedly nervous with the whole ordeal and wanted to go back to ‘their’ forest. The Forsaken forest they were trekking was connected to their forest—yes, she had named it as theirs— yet there was something in the air. Something dark and ominous that she couldn’t describe and keep scratching on the back of her admittedly dull senses. Something different. The trees are thicker here and intimidating, almost forbidding the sunlight from entering. They were odd sounds she couldn’t recognized.

Sometimes a piercing silence would envelope the forest that made her squirmed anxiously and wildly look around.

And there was Abel coiled up tight and with her face the very epitome of indifference on the rear of their cavalry, with her. Her friend was silent, dangerously silent as piercing silver eyes stared resolutely ahead. As much as she hated the indifference on her friend’s face, it eases her mind. Bullets and knives will be flying first before anything remotely threatening could approach them with the soldier’s vigilance.

Kael was leading their group with his wonderful hearing along with Geneva, followed by the miraculously silent and un-flirty Dein and Drishti. He was as tensed as Abel and his golden eyes were eerily glowing under the darkness of the forest.

After their race on the fields, she had check up on his wounds while her friends rest their butts from riding a horse way too long. And found out that there was nothing to be worried about with the elf doing streneous activities for not even a line was left on his skin. She gaped at his body—clinically shocked and poked it for good measure to everyone’s amusement. Elves has astounding healing capabilities. She was curious as to how vastly different they were from humans. It seems their differences were not just about the pointed ears and high statures.

It took them two whole days to finally reached the tail of the marching bandits—with minimum amount of complaints from her friends. The mood of the dark forest affected them that much and they were too wary to create too much noise. The only conversation they had were about security inside the cursed woods of the East.

The funny thing was they were not even that deep inside the forest. They were not even that close to the fallen kingdom of the Dragons. They were just at outer ring of the numerous forests inside the East.

The Forsaken Forest it was named.

Her stomach churn uncomfortably with the chances of them going deeper in the cursed land. She could already foretell that things wouldn’t be pleasant if they venture further in the forest.

‘The chills’, as her friends’ solemnly dubbed, were nothing compared to the dark vibes she was feeling in the forest. It even beat the aura Abel tended to project when she was royally pissed and that was saying something.

Alex was truly relieved that they catch up on the bandits and now were camping on higher ground—hidden by the large intimidating trees and overlooking, with a relative safe distance, the tents of their soon to be enemies on the clearing. It had taken them a lot of detours and overwhelming perseverance to be quiet in order to avoid the scouts by the bandits.

The night in the Forsaken forest was ominous and way too dark for their own good. They all agreed to let their camp fire alive and crackling to keep them warm and provide light. Their makeshift shelter was carefully hiding it from the camp below them.

“This is starting to feel like we’ve landed on the set of Game of Thrones.” Kara noted wryly. Her brows furrowed as she stared on their camp fire.

“Yes.” Blake agreed, tapping her spoon on her wooden bowl. “Who would have thought they have knights.”

Yes. Who would have? Alex thought darkly. It was a complete shocker when they almost passed through a small camp of knights waiting for the freaking caravan of all things as they scouted ahead, even Kael was surprised.

“Are those really knights?” Drishti asked. “Why are they with bandits?”

“I’m afraid so.” Kael answered, his shoulders drooping like he was carrying the weight of the world. Poor kid. “They carried a banner.”

A banner that has the mark of a red bird with its wings spread were being carried around by one of the Knights. This whole ordeal was getting way shadier than your ordinary village-napping.

“And you don’t recognize it?” Abel inquired, looking thoughtful.

“Nay, my lady. I’m afraid, I’m not well-informed with human banners.” The kid looked disappointed of himself for not knowing such things she couldn’t help but want to pat him on the back.

His lack of knowledge when it comes to humanity made some sense for he was an elf. She hoped Abel was not pressuring the elf for information now that he knows they were from another world.

Speaking of her friend, Abel looked like she wasn’t surprised with the Knights meeting up with the bandits. The memory of the two of them up in the trees, talking, passed through her mind.

Alex narrowed her eyes at her friend. “You suspected this.” She stated, unable to suppressed the accusing tone in her voice.

All attention focused on Abel with keen interest with a touch of confusion from the furrowed brows of the Elf in their group.

Abel merely shifted her gaze to her and answered simply. “Sort of.”

Alex shot her friend a dirty look. Because seriously, a warning would be nice. How are they going to rescue some Elves when there are knights, bandits and mages on their way? That was a little bit too much for them to handle alone.

Abel sighed, relenting to the dirty looks she was receiving. “It was just a hunch, you see. The scouts the bandits sent to search for Kael said something ‘about reporting to a Lord.’”

“I heard that too.” Geneva interrupted, scowling. “Then, this means they’re both working for this Lord.”

“I think the most appropriate thing to say was, the bandits were hire to their dirty work while the knights were to escort them back to their Lord.” Dein postulated, crossing her arms to her chest, obviously displeased with this new information.

“And the mages?” Hailey asked. “What the mages got to do with all of this? Why are they working together?”

“Indeed. Why there are mages with these people?” Kael asked, his eyes blazing. “They were known to be the main protectors of humanity alongside of the Knights. Why did they attack my people?”

“There are many reason why a protector would became a destroyer but in this situation, I could only think of one.” Abel answered.

“It was ordered.” Alex blurted out, realization dawning on her face. She was not liking where was all this talk was going. Mages, if she heard them, Alex always thought they were kind and righteous using their magic to protect and help people. Not like this.

“But why?” She jolted on her seat when her voice was accompanied by the others, all were anxious to hear the answer that maybe Abel could only give.

Abel gave them her famous unimpressed look. “What makes you think I know? Certainly, it wasn’t about wealth or something.”

“War, maybe?” Tabitha asked, “Medieval people like wars, don’t they?”

“I do not know what you mean by medieval but I have to agree with humanity’s fondness of war.” Kael commented sourly. “Even as we speak, there was a faction of them waging war against their own race.”

“Now, now. Let’s not jump to conclusion. If this Lord, whoever he is, really wanted a war. Don’t you think he’ll use his knights in the first place and not bandits to do his bidding?” Abel said, crossing her arms over her chest. “This is not just a petty want to start a war.” She said seriously.

Blake who had remain silent for most of the conversation, tapped her spoon on her bowl loudly. “With all the information that was gathered, it seems like Humans were planning something.” She postulated. “Something really big and bad.”

“I got a bad feeling about this.” Geneva grumbled, shifting in her seat.

Alex nod in agreement, feeling a wave of disappointment for her fellow humanity. What on earth are they thinking, doing all of this?

And fear for their future in this world. She may not be a history nerd like Abel but she does watch movies. Not mention, yours truly, Game of Thrones. Medieval life and wars are brutal. What compelled her friend to be fascinated by it was lost on her.

“What are we going to do?” Fenella asked.

Alex noticed how the elf, straightened on his seat and look over her friends anxiously. “We finished this rescue mission.” She answered, smiling softly at the anxious Elf.

She doesn’t want them to get caught in this problem once it gets bigger but that doesn’t mean she wanted to turn her back on the elf just when he needed help. He bit back his grudge on humanity to ask for their help, surely, they could risk a little bit in this endeavor.

“But my lady, what about your allegiance to humanity?” Kael protested, looking worried now.

Now, his lack of faith on them was quite a problem.

Kara scoffed and threw her spoon at him that he reflexively caught. His eyes widen in shock from the attack.

“We’re from another world, Kael. We didn’t pledge anything to any freaking Lord. Besides, what they were doing to your people can be hardly called ‘humane’. I would gladly deny I’m human If all them were dickheads just like those sorry excuse of knights. So, you can shove that imaginary allegiance to their asses once we got a hold of them.”

Alex chuckled softly, if Kara said that with all of her initial protests in helping the elf then that means everyone was still on board. They have seen how the bandits and those sorry excuse for a knight treated their captives from afar. They really weren’t going to back down now.

Kael sucked in deep breath. “I…Yes, of course.” He nodded, meekly. “Your way with words truly make you otherworldly.”

The anxiety and tension slowly ebbing from his form.

“Was that a joke?” Dein asked, glancing bemusedly at the Elf.

“I think it was.” Drishti chuckled. The mood lightening a little bit in their camp.

“Jokes aside.” Geneva interrupted, “How are we going to rescue the Elves? The numbers of our enemies increased.”

Once again, their attention focused on Abel who answered their questioning gazes with a smirk.

ABEL’S TIPS IN FIGHTING MEDIEVAL HOODLUMS:

1. Dodged the arrows with the best of your abilities. They may not look like it but they were the bullets of medieval age. Try not to get hit.

2. Don’t try to catch them too. What I did was just a fluke. I didn’t even know how did that happen.

3. If your opponent lost his weapon, do not, at all cost, engaged them in hand to hand combat especially a Knight. They have armors, you idiots. And I believe it was made out of metal, don’t try to punch it. It’s going to hurt like hell.

4. If a knight came riding on a horse, strike the horse down. The fall will surely break a few bones and hopefully the neck.

5. I have faith you can a handle some bandits but I still need you to keep your guard up. They’re quite a persistent bunch. That’s all.

Her fourth tip was met with a few protests—led by Fenella. Alex agreed that there was no point in hurting an innocent animal all because of its rider but Abel ignored all protests, explaining the probability of them being skewered to death when met by a charging knight was ninety-nine percent. The one percent depends on them, if they were able to kill the horse, which was a bigger target than the knight, or able to outrun the goddamn horse inside the forest without getting hit by a flying lance. The forest maybe dark but there was no guarantee their enemies couldn’t actually see them.

That is why stealth was important in their rescue mission.

At 0201, they started infiltrating the enemies camp. Perfect time for a night attack where most of the watchers were sluggish with the need for sleep.

“I looked ridiculous.” Geneva grumbled, dressed in one of the bandits clothing, walking nervously towards enemy territory. She was holding the lamp that was lighting their path.

Alex tried not think where was the man wearing her clothes was now lying naked and dead somewhere hidden in the forest or the knights that tried to grudgingly relieve them off their watch and how Abel and Geneva managed to make them look like they were just sitting in front of their small camp fire and chatting when they were actually dead.

Just a few sticks here and there. Abel annoyingly informed her. She suppressed a shudder from that one simple sentence. Too much information.

Alex risk a glanced on her Geneva and silently agree. They all look ridiculous, earth standard.

Gaia standard? It seems like they were blending in amazingly with their stolen bandit clothing. Tunics, overcoats and rough trousers that felt chaffing her thighs. Their long hair was braided into a crown, by Drishti and Fenella, and was hidden beneath bandannas.

Kael and the others were on the other side of their forest and away from their camp, preparing for the diversion plan if their infiltration mission somehow failed. The elf wanted to join them but Abel pointed out that his height was abnormal for human standards compared to them with average heights. Even Tabitha and Hailey were left with them, the reason was more on because they were afraid those two were going to ruin the whole plan by abandoning it and started shooting bandits and knight alike to death.

She stiffly walked alongside her friends, feeling uncomfortable with her clothes and whatever they were doing. The doctor part in her was protesting for what they did and about to do, reasoning that there is no point hurting these people when they were just following orders. Maybe they could just capture them?

But an angry part of her, that bristled dangerously with Abel’s low blow: There are children, you know. Didn’t you notice?, wanted to do this. She felt annoyed with Abel for being cruel, pointing that out. She managed to suppress the overwhelming want to say that they weren’t like her who have no qualms in killing, making it look like it was as easy as breathing. That was way too low even for her standard. Not to mention she would undeniably regret it after.

“Hey, that one tent has guards.” Geneva murmured, their steps slowing down once they reach the campsite.

The enemy territory has twenty tents in total lined up neatly in left and right, including the large one at the head. Abel assumed the large was were the Commander of the Knights resides and probably with the mages. It was easy to recognized the tents of knights from the tents of the bandits. They were separated, right for the knight’s tent and left for the bandits. It was just like as Abel said, they may be working together but that doesn’t mean they’ve gotten chummy with each other. Bandits and Knights are like oil to water.

Alex saw the tent her friend was talking about, standing on the right of the large one. There were two guards sitting on crates and guarding its entrance. “Kael’s brother must be in there. He’s the only one who could use magic.”

“Yeah.” Abel said.

“I think they’re asleep.” Geneva said, eyes focused on those guards who look like they were busy nodding off instead of actual guarding.

“Wow. They suck in their job.” She murmured back, eyes taking in the lack of activity in the camp. Most of them were already asleep, if the loud snores were any kind of indication.

“The presence of those mages gave them quite the confidence boosts to be this complacent in the so called cursed land of the East.” Abel remarked, frowning lightly.

Kael had informed them that the curse lies deeper in the East, where the fallen kingdom of the Dragons once stood. Even he was not aware what true meaning behind the ‘curse’ of the East. Though, he knows the story behind it.

Apparently, the darkness roaming in this forest came from the war that was waged on it four-hundred years ago. The despair of those who died in the war were imprinted on it, darkening the once lush and vibrant forest.

“Well, lucky for us then.” Alex commented. Feeling relieved that they weren’t about to start engaging enemies to a fight.

“Yeah. You two better start securing the hostages. I’ll handle the weapons. We’ll meet on that tent.” Abel said inclining her head to the direction of those two sleeping guards.

Her heart beating loudly in her chest, Alex nodded, briskly following Geneva towards the direction where the carts of captives were seen.

Abel nodded reassuringly at them before she silently walked in the dark and towards the tent where they had spied that store food. She looked like she was just out to take some food instead of someone planning something dubious with the casualty in her stance.

Alex sucked in a deep breath, steeling herself for their mission and try to imitate her friend’s casual air. Geneva’s snort indicated that she was failing miserably.