I am very far behind, a fact that I can only attribute to work interference. Whether I finish this or not is up for debate, but I’ll certainly try – I’m aiming for another chapter tonight at least.
They spent the night quite comfortably in the tents, despite the squashed conditions. Sylar bunked in with Leo in the smaller one, and Sarah stayed with Julia and Kari in the larger one. Elfkin magic took care of the cold for all of them.
Sarah couldn’t really sleep well, but she dozed fitfully until the light started to brighten outside the tent. She slipped outside into the chilly morning with only her coat wrapped around her, trying to be as quiet as possible to avoid waking anyone up. The remains of the campfire still smoldered in the circle of logs, and there was an edge of frost on everything.
It seemed so normal. That was the most eerie part of the human realm. She expected to see the giant cities of legend, but this forest could have been any part of the Faewold. No snow, not yet it seemed, but the air was still sharp with the familiar bite of winter, and the pine needles underfoot crunched under her feet just like they did in the Darkenwood.
There wasn’t much wind, but she still waved a hand and drove the cold away again before it could whip the warmth from her exposed skin. There wasn’t even a trail that she could see leading away from the camp; nothing but trees and undergrowth in all directions, quiet and still. Yes, very eerie. Not threatening, as her innate sense of wrongness had not been triggered, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of displacement. This was not her home. It looked similar, and maybe the Faewold had been connected more directly to the human realm at one point, but this was not where she should be.
Inevitably, her thoughts turned towards her family. Sarah shivered in spite of the spell, and cast a wish into the morning sun that they were safe, and she would see them again soon.
“Hey, you’re up early.” Julia appeared from the tent, stretching and shaking out stiff limbs. She pulled her thick red jacket out after her, and wrapped it securely around herself. “We’ll be leaving as soon as we’ve had breakfast. It’s a long drive back to the Falls.”
“I slept a little yesterday, remember,” Sarah said. “I’m not that tired. Are we taking a wagon back to where you live then?”
Julia gave her a strange look, then chuckled. “Heh, yeah. Something like that. Just don’t mention anything about magic, okay? Humans don’t have magic, not like you do. We make devices to do things instead.”
“Alright, don’t worry.”
They both sat down on the logs, as Julia dragged over a large backpack and rummaged in one of the pockets. She pulled out a few small packets, a pan, and a couple of forks, then set to rebuilding the fire. Sarah watched her pile up some sticks and wood, then take out a small round cylinder and light it all with a flick of her wrist. Julia caught her eye, and tossed the little thing to her.
“Case in point – that’s a lighter. It’s just a device that makes fire. Put your thumb there and flick it down quickly, and you’ll see.”
Sarah did so, and nearly dropped it when a thin, bright flame leaped out of the open end. She repeated the action several times, fascinated by a device so small and useful. “Incredible,” she breathed. “I wish I could do something like that.”
“Magic won’t do it?”
“Not mine, no. Only the Summer clans have fire magic, just as only the Winter clans have frost magic.” She handed the lighter back, as the fire caught and Julia blew on it to keep it going.
“Good morning, one and all!” Leo clambered out of his tent, looking as wired and enthusiastic as he had been the night before. “And how are we this wonderful winter morning, then?”
Sylar followed him, rubbing his eyes and stretching uncomfortably. “That tent is just too small to sleep in,” he grumbled. “Honestly, I don’t know how you’re not as stiff as I am.”
Leo slapped him on the back, almost catapulting him into the fire. “Ah, you’re just not used to rough living, my elf friend. Give it a few nights and you’ll be just fine.”
“He won’t be sleeping in the tent if we’re going home today, Leo,” Julia called out. She pulled a large, flat object out of the pack and tossed it to him. “Go get some water, we need it to cook breakfast.”
Sarah laughed as Leo caught the thing and walked off through the trees. Sylar sat down beside her, and nudged her shoulder. “Hey. How do you feel? No pain in the head or anything?”
“No, nothing. I feel fine. Don’t worry about me, Sylar – worry about how we’re going to get home.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been awake thinking about it, to be honest. I think our best bet is to find a nexus, if one exists anywhere in this realm.”
“What’s a nexus?” Julia cut in, as she had clearly been listening.
“It’s a concentration of magical energy,” he explained. “Like, a pool or a convergence. They’re usually in protected locations back home – in the middle of a keep, or deep in a magical forest, or high up in a mountain. I’m not sure where we’d find one around here, though. I can scry for them, but it’s not likely I’ll find one right away and there may not be any.”
“Like a circle of standing stones, maybe?” Julia mused. “Most people don’t think magic exists, see, but the crazies think that there are certain places that are magical. I’m not so sure you’d want to go all the way to Stonehenge just to find out, though.”
“What’s Stonehenge?” Sarah asked.
“Just a big circle of stones, few thousand years old I think. It’s very far away from here. Some people think it was built by fairies.”
She and her brother laughed. “Really? Faeries can’t even build a nest that lasts from one year to the next, and some people think they could build a stone circle?”
Julia smiled wryly. “Well, maybe what we think of as fairies are different from what you know. Anyway I never said all humans make sense or anything.”
“Clearly not,” Sylar said, then waved vaguely. “We’ll tell you about them some other time. What have you got to eat?”
She held up the packets. “Genuine military grade MREs,” she said proudly. “As soon as Leo gets back with the water, we’ll have some good eats.”
Sarah stared at them suspiciously. They were covered in glyphs that she didn’t recognize at all. “That’s human writing, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah. You can’t read it?”
“Nope. I don’t think the attunement works that way.”
Julia looked at the MRE, then back at them. “That’ll be a problem, if you’re going to pass as humans,” she said. “It’ll look pretty strange if you can’t read.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Sylar said, and he took one of the packets from her, turning it over and over in his hands. It seemed very tough, and it rattled when he shook it. Sarah couldn’t imagine how to eat it. “So how do you cook this, then? It doesn’t exactly look appetizing, if you know what I mean.”
Julia just started laughing at him, as Leo returned with the water and Kari emerged, yawning, from the tent. The odd flat object had expanded into a bucket, of sorts, and she poured some of the water into the pan and began to boil it. Then she explained that the food was dried and preserved, and it would just take some time to cook it up in the water.
They tucked into a very strange breakfast. Julia ate hers with relish, and Leo inhaled his, but Kari picked over the odd food and sighed theatrically. Sarah forced down as much as she could, but the alien texture and taste didn’t help. Sylar just ate it all without complaint, and took the rest of hers. “We don’t know when we’ll be eating again,” he said quietly. “Be sensible, okay?”
She pushed it away, wishing she were at home and having some of the bread from the freehold bakery, but still feeling guilty for refusing some of their new friends’ hospitality.
The camp was swiftly packed up after they were done. Julia demonstrated how the rounded tent poles split into sections and folded up, and Sarah was given the job of collecting them all and packing them away. They helped without complaint, and offered to take some of the burden when everything had been reduced to three large backpacks.
“Nah, it’s okay. We carried these here, and we’ll carry them back. It’s not so far to the car,” Leo said. Sarah thought for a minute, concentrating on the word and trying to bring to mind what it could mean, but the only impression she had was of a large, covered wagon thatwas somehow missing its horses.
“What’s a car?” she asked.
Kari sniggered, and was swiftly elbowed in the ribs by Leo. “Ow – okay, stop it, I know I shouldn’t laugh, but still!” she said angrily, rubbing the sore spot. “A car’s a big device for moving stuff and people around really fast. You’ll see soon enough. I guess it’ll look a bit like magic, if you’ve never seen one before.”
Sarah glanced at Sylar, who shrugged. They began the trek through the woods, and onwards into new and unknown territory.
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