Chapter 15: The Warning
1029 Words
"There's someone between those trees... Are you trying to play with me?" Kendrick asked as Caspian insisted on not seeing anyone where he was looking.
"I should ask you that, ah!" Caspian replied as he glared at Kendrick's serious face. "You said there's someone there, but there's nothing – just trees and bushes. Are you okay? Or are you stressed to the extent of seeing things?"
Kendrick ignored him as he realised he was indeed unable to see the woman pointing at him. He narrowed his eyes, pursed his lips, and dug his hands into his pants as he stared back at the figure between the trees.
The two maintained a staring contest without saying anything.
Seeing that Kendrick was no longer paying attention to him, Caspian followed his line of sight but still couldn't see anyone. With a shrug of his shoulder, he turned back to join the rest of his team while leaving Kendrick alone.
"What do you need?" Kendrick finally asked the figure, seeing how she made no attempt to leave. "Do you have a business with me? Or are you just passing by?"
The figure tilted her head to the side, her hands dropping to her side as she muttered some incoherent words. Unable to hear her, Kendrick tried moving forward only to be blocked by an invisible barrier.
Frowning, he took two steps back, and the figure did the same before pointing towards the direction of the blue mountain and then shaking her head as if to say. 'Do not go.'
"What did you say?" Kendrick asked as he tried to read her moving lips. Subconsciously he stepped forward again but was immediately thrown back by the barrier.
Frustrated, Kendrick kicked the boulder and let out a growl before turning back to the figure to see that she had disappeared. He curiously stretched out his hands to see if the barrier was still there, only to see it had disappeared.
"What was that?" Kendrick muttered to himself as he continued to watch where the figure had been while deliberating whether or not he should cross the stream to the other side and look for her.
As he stepped forward, he heard footsteps behind him; turning around, he noticed Elder Lydia walking towards him.
"You should rest; we still have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." She voiced as she stood beside him, her eyes focused on the running water.
"I will," he replied and went silent, making no attempt to return to the camp. The silence between them stretched for several minutes as they both got lost in thought.
"Something on your mind?" She asked.
"There's hardly ever a time something isn't on my mind," he replied. "The situation doesn't particularly call for me to be clear-minded."
"Worrying won't solve the problems. Neither will the problem solve itself when you break down," she replied.
"Let me ask you something," Kendrick muttered and turned towards Elder Lydia, who already had her eyes on him. "Why did you tell me that information? You should have gone to Collon with it."
Hearing his question, she shrugged and moved closer to the stream.
"Although I'm not a witch, my family has had multiple people with the powers of witches for generations. Hardly ever is there a generation without a witch in my family."
"We've got the seer. We've had the herbalist, we've had the fire elementalist, we've had psychics and many more. Only my generation didn't have a witch," she explained.
"Why are you telling me that?"
"Well, I don't know? Anyways, back to my explanation. I was told that I was born a twin, but he died three nights after our birth. So I always believed that he was meant to be the witch of my generation."
"Since there wasn't a witch, I was blessed with something else. Something that made me one of the best warriors in this part of the country. And that's intuition." She turned back to him with a smile.
"I've always had a very strong intuition. Which means my bets have always been right. And this time, I'm placing my bet on you," she announced. "No pressure, though. You don't have to be under any form of pressure; the goddess won't give us a trial that we can't overcome."
"You should sleep; I heard you are driving tomorrow," she added as she patted him on the shoulder before walking back to the camp.
***
"Damn it!" Caspian cussed and slammed the car door, his brows furrowed together as he placed his hands on his hips. "Is this some kind of test or something else?"
"What happened?" Elder Lydia asked as she walked out of the woods where she had gone to change her clothes after her shower at the stream.
"The car engine won't start up. I've tried everything; it just won't start."
"It was fine yesterday, wasn't it?" Kendrick joined in.
"Of course it was fine. It's one of the newest additions to the pack. I made sure it was in its top game before I took it yesterday," Caspian explained.
Checking his pocket watch, Kendrick realised that it was fifteen minutes to seven in the morning. He let out a sigh as he massaged his temple in frustration. Somehow, the encounter with the lady from the forest yesterday flashed through his mind alongside the weird dream he had the night before.
In the dream he saw himself surrounded by darkness, thick darkness. So thick that he couldn't see anything, not even his legs. And while he tried to find his way out of the darkness, a voice kept repeating the same words to him.
'Do not step foot on the Blue Mountain. It's forbidden. You are not welcome.'
Snapping out of his thoughts, Kendrick returned his pocket watch to its place and walked towards the rear of the car to pick up his backpack.
"You two stay here to try to fix the car; Elder Lydia will stay with you; the rest of us will continue on foot."
"We will follow the trail, so you will spot us when you drive by. We can't afford to waste time here."
- Writer
