“More forest?” Yelena moaned. “Ugh. I’m sick of forest.”
“We know the mountains aren’t far now,” Julian replied, but he sounded just as weary as the rest of us – the energy from the flowers had drained quickly. The end did seem to be in sight though. Now, when we looked up, we could see the peaks of the mountains through the tree branches in the distance—but at least they were in sight.
“So then we’re going to have to scale that massive thing?” Yelena whined.
“Do you have any better ideas?” I retorted.
“I do—we can at least rest and eat something, and I can get rid of the pebble in my boot that’s been driving me crazy for the last three miles.”
I looked over at Julian, who shrugged.
“Okay,” I replied, “let’s wait for Horatio and Aisha, and then we can stop for a bit.”
A split second later, the jinni couple joined us. Ridan had flown on ahead already, making sure no danger lurked in wait.
Aisha surveyed the forest. “Horatio and I should span out,” she announced. “This seems to be the densest past of the forest, an ideal location to hide, and the pixi-wagon gives me reason to think that jinn may be nearby. If you head north,” she looked at all three of us, “Horatio and I will go east and west, we’ll cover more ground that way. Call us if you see anything – or if you sense danger. We’ll hear you.”
I nodded in agreement, not wanting to bring up the subject of us having a rest. There would be time enough for that when we found what we were looking for.
“Be cautious,” Horatio murmured, raising his brows in warning. The next moment, the couple had vanished, and we were left to walk ahead.
Yelena started whining again almost instantly. After I snapped at her, she huffed something under her breath and marched on ahead. I wanted to tell her to stop stomping about—she was only advertising to the rest of the forest that we were approaching.
“Let her be,” Julian said, before I could open my mouth.
“That much noise and her blaze of red hair? She’s like a police siren,” I muttered.
“I don’t think there’s much around here that’s interested in harming us—they would have hunted us down already.”
I looked about at the new stretch of forest. I wasn’t so sure that Julian was correct. This part seemed even gloomier than the last. Thick mists settled along the floor, and the place was totally silent—no birds, no rustling in the undergrowth. Nothing. The temperature seemed to have dropped as well. I shrugged off my backpack and pulled out another robe to wear.
“We’ll get warmer as we move,” Julian pointed out.
“Yeah, but it’s damp too—can’t you feel it?”
He didn’t reply, but started moving faster, trying to shake off the chill. I followed him, using my walking stick to feel the steps ahead. In some parts the mists were so dense I couldn’t see the forest floor.
“Aghhhhhhh!”
I heard Yelena scream.
“Yelena!” I called out, running forward with Julian, forgetting to use the stick. We didn’t hear another sound from her, and I started to really panic.
“We’re coming!” I yelled, moving as fast as I could without falling flat on my face. I was about to take another step when Julian yanked me back.
“Hey!”
I stopped. He’d been more cautious and seen what I couldn’t. We were standing in front of a massive pit, our feet inches from the edge. I peered down, trying to see beyond the mists that had covered it from view. Sure enough, I could see a flicker of red hair at the bottom.
“I think I twisted my ankle,” Yelena cried pitifully.
I groaned. “Okay,” I called. “We’re coming to get you.”
I looked at Julian. He was scratching his head, trying to work out how we were going to get down without falling in ourselves.
“Over there?” I pointed to the edge that looked the least steep.
“Hmm… Looks pretty slippery. Maybe we should just call for Aisha and Horatio?”
“Good point,” I sighed. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I started to yell out their names – annoyed that we were calling them back so soon. It had hardly been five minutes.
“Help me!” Yelena called again, looking up at us with indignation.
“We’re going to wait for the jinn,” Julian replied.
“I want to get out now! This place smells weird.”
Despite Yelena’s grumblings, we ended up waiting until the jinn arrived—she clearly wasn’t badly hurt.
“What’s going on?” Aisha asked, appearing suddenly and peering past us into the pit.