Chapter 17

Potentially cut this section

Chase lay perfectly awake with his eyes closed. He could also tell that Elie wasn't sleeping but he didn't say anything, his head was also spinning.

It had been quite a while since he had killed someone, or maybe it was something? He wasn't sure. All he knew was that he felt guilty.

He didn't know why he felt guilty, whatever... That was... it wasn't human. Brushing Elie's hair eased his mind slightly, but even the fact he hadn't slept properly in days could stop the gnawing sensation at the pit of his stomach. If he hadn't felt it before he might have mistaken it for hunger.

And besides that, the creature across the river still haunted him. He could still hear the sound of it groaning unnervingly. Chase wanted to say he remembered what it looked like, but he couldn't. Only vague shapes and its squirming form stuck to his mind, it lacked any features he could latch onto, any similarity to things he had seen.

Just another reason he wanted to go home.

He rolled over and hugged Elie, hoping that it would help him get some sleep.

The next morning they started moving. They needed to find a place to stay for a bit and recuperate, they were dying at this rate.

It was around when the sun was peeking overhead that he noticed something strange on their path. It felt like a trail near the edges of the forest, the ones they would cut out with an axe.

He brushed his hand on a severed branch but didn't notice the random markings of an animal and instead the rhythmic and methodical cuts of a huntsman making a path through the forest. They might have found a trail. He grabbed Elie's hand excitedly and started following the trail, praying that it would at least lead them in the right direction.

After a minute his excitement cooled as they came across an abandoned campsite. There was a small pit of ashes and a few discarded items. Chase looked around cautiously before whispering to Elie, "Stay here."

When he got closer he saw a bowl made of the stomach of some large animal, he guessed a bear, although he couldn't be sure. It seemed intact and was an awfully expensive item to leave behind.

There was obviously something that had been cooked in it last night. He hurriedly put it in the bag and looked around for anything else of value. A tiny ember caught his eye and Chase got a little nervous. He brushed his hands over the ash and felt how warm it was. When he removed the top layer there was a bed of fresh embers still glowing, it hadn't been more than an hour since the fire had been put out.

"Elie we are leav-" There was a snap.

Chase felt something tugging on his legs and suddenly he was upside down, his body swung wildly and slammed into something hard and rough, his armoured shoulder cushioned the blow but he still hit his head against it.

When he finally managed to gather himself, he saw Elie running up to him a few feet off the ground. He felt slightly dizzy but fumbled around for his knife, when he looked up at his legs he had unfortunately got both of them caught in the trap. He tried to pull himself up, folding his body in half to get at the rope, but he couldn't quite reach.

When he let himself back down his ears rang and he had a piercing headache, he had to hang for a moment and let it pass.

"Can you... you pass me the spear."

Elie quickly knelt down to pick up the spear.

"Oh no you fucking don't." Said an eerie voice.

Chase didn't quite catch it but a man ran out of the bushes and kicked Elie aside, she let out a short yep before rolling on the floor in a heap. His heart started pounding and he reached out to stop what was happening out of instinct but could only flail around helplessly.

"STOP! NO, GET AWAY... GET... GET AWAY FROM HER! I'LL-"

Chase felt his head snap to the side and his headache worsened. He grabbed his head and noticed that his hair felt sticky and matt with blood.

"Shut the hell up! I swear to god if you shout one more time I will make both of you wish you were dead." Said the bearded man, Chase glared at him but the more he looked the more confused he grew. Even upside down, he recognised the man he killed, except now, for some reason, he was wearing nothing but a small rag around his waist to cover his... bits.

The man put his foot down on the spear and planted his own spear next to it. Elie got up and charged at the man trying to swipe his legs with her knife. He smacked her arm with the butt of his spear, there was a small crack and she dropped the knife. She bit down on her lips looking at the man with venom in her eyes.

"You lot are animals! Tell her to back off! I don't care how old she is, I'm not into killing kids."

Chase looked at Elie, "Just stay still." he said as calmly as possible, he was breathing heavily to try and ease himself. "We... we can talk."

"Oh, now you want to talk." He said mockingly, "After you bled me out. You know the rules, keep things civil, don't touch each other's stuff, if you're gonna kill each other at least be quick about it. Basic shit."

"I... We can..." Chase struggled to give an answer.

The bearded man just looked at him disappointed, "Looks like I did your head in. Let me just kill you and we can talk this out tomorrow, I'll hold onto your shit until then." He said, brandishing his spear.

"Wait! I... I mean wait," said Chase lowering his voice, "I'm sorry, I didn't know the rules. Can you at least... at least spare her."

"So you can talk? Why the fuck didn't you do that from the beginning!"

Elie tried to sneakily reach for her knife again, but the man wasn't having it and pointed the spear at her instead.

"No! Wait, wait we'll give you your stuff back, you can take everything we have, here, here." Chase started to undo his belt and take off the armour, letting it clatter onto the ground.

When he looked back at the man, he looked startled, he looked at the pile of stuff wide eyed before rubbing his forehead. "Hold on a second, so you're telling me, the reason you asked me to spare her wasn't so that she could look after your stuff whilst you sprouted... but because you don't want her to die." He knelt closer looking Chase in the eyes.

Chase gulped as best he could upside down and spoke slowly, "I don't know what sprouting is... but yes. I don't want her to die."

"Where are you from?" He snapped.

"What?"

"Where are you from?" He said growing impatient.

"Well my village is in the green lands, they normally just call it Mare. After the pub got fam-" The man cut his ramblings short.

"Never heard of it. Is it close to anywhere?"

"It's west of Felicitas and north of-"

"Felicitas... is west of that outside the forest?" He said, he was now so close Chase could almost make out each stand of his beard

"...Yes."

Chase had never seen someone's jaw drop in quite the way this man's face had, he stood there mouth agape, mind utterly blank. It took him more than a dozen seconds to recollect himself.

"So you two aren't immortal?"

"No? Why would we be?" Said Chase.

The man grabbed at his hair and gazed at him as if he was a lunatic, "What kind of crazy mortal fucker goes through the forest of life, with his..." he turned to Elie, "How old are you? Twelve or some shit?"

Elie didn't respond, "Honestly, doesn't matter. Who goes through the forest of life WITH! HIS! DAUGHTER!" The creases on his forehead grew worse and he rubbed at them with his palm trying to make sense of things.

"You piss off the wildlife and antagonise an immortal. It's a miracle neither of you died on your first day."

Chase cut him off, "Again, why would we be immortal?"

The bearded man just let out a short bark of laughter, "Excuse me for not assuming your mortality, most people don't step into the one forest that can fuck you over FOREVER! How on earth did you get from outside the forest to the northernmost tip of the forest of life without dying?!"

"I don't know! Ok, I just don't! I don't know where we are! I don't know where we've been! I just know that I want to get home!" Shouted Chase, wincing with every word.

The bearded man opened his mouth like he wanted to say something and instead sat down covering his eyes. Elie saw an opportunity to grab the knife, the man didn't react to it, "You. Don't do anything stupid you little shit, if you stab me I swear I will hunt you down. I got more lives than both of you."

Chase was starting to feel sick so he tried to get an answer out of the man, "So, can we leave? I can give you your stuff. No, everything. Just leave me a knife and some water, we'll get by with-"

"You don't need to ask, you are free to go." He said, cutting a small rope by the base of the tree. Chase fell on his arms and flopped onto the floor gracelessly. "Than- Thank you."

"Just know that if you were immortal I would have gutted you and left you to die. If you ever see me again, which I hope you don't, just ignore me and walk the other way."

The man got up and started walking away, Chase could only repeat his thanks in increasingly slurred speech. His headache reached a breaking point so he vomited on the floor, rolled onto his back, and passed out.

Conleth looked back for a moment and felt a pang of guilt, the daughter looked so lost and the father vomiting after a blow to the head was bad news, they might die if they came across anything in their current state. "For fucks sake."

Conleth turned around, the faint smell of puke making him wrinkle his nose. "You. How old are you?"

"How old?"

"Your age. Are you 20? 30?"

"I'm six."

"Oh boy... how much can you carry?"

"I don't know." She said, trying to figure out why he had come back.

"Come with me. I'll give you guys a place to sleep for a few nights."

Conleth started gathering all of their stuff and putting it into Chase's bag, by the end of it there was a small sack around half her weight. He tied it around her waist. "Make sure to follow along." He said, before hoisting Chase onto his back.

Conleth watched her strain to keep up with him, he felt bad that he had broken her arm but there was nothing he could do about it now. Just offer them a place to recover and send them on their way. Chase seemed to wake up for a moment half way through their journey, he pushed himself off Conleth and started vomiting again.

They sat and took a small break whilst waiting for him. Elie hadn't said a word to Conleth the entire time, he found it a bit weird that she listened to him without question and was so quiet. He didn't remember kids being like that.

"So, how long have you guys been travelling?"

"I don't know."

"Ok then, do you know where you've been? Anything happen to you?" He said, trying to keep the conversation going.

"I don't know, but the deer tried to eat us."

"Listen here you little shit, do you have any idea how little that narrows it down."

He cupped his face in his hands, "Do you know anything?"

"My name."

"Wow, the bar really is that low." He put on his best smile, "So what is your name?"

"Elie."

"Nice to meet you Elie, I'm Conleth."

"Coneth?"

"Conleth."

"Conlef?"

"Con-leth."

"Con-lef?"

"Patience, patience. She's not doing it on purpose" He muttered to himself, "Coooon-leeeeeth."

"Coneth."

Conleth suddenly got up, "Fuck this, just call me Connie."

"Connie."

"Atta girl. Now let's get moving."

They dragged their respective burden until Conleth reached the clearing outside his house, he dumped Chase on the ground and sat down. There really was nothing like home.

Elie sat down next to him and asked "Connie, can I ask a question?"

"You just did. But go on."

"Why are you helping us?"

He didn't really have an answer. Why had he helped them? Instead of thinking about it too deeply he said "Because I've never seen white hair," ruffling it. Elie pulled on his beard in retaliation until he winced. She started giggling as he carefully pried her hands away.

This was the first time his home had ever heard the laughter of a child.

For some reason he felt a little sad when he thought that.