Destiny: To live, to be exiled or to die.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Chapter 6: The Silver Woods

    When Midnight opened her eyes, Comet was already feasting on a hare. "Since when are you awake?" she grumbled. It was the second day of her quest.
    "I didn't really sleep," said Comet. He pushed another hare towards Midnight. "I thought you sleepy-head might boost of energy."
    "Oh, shut it," said Midnight before joining Comet in eating.
    When the two were done, Comet bounded ahead, and Midnight followed. If Midnight didn't calculate wrong, it took another hour to reach the woods. A sparkling river snaked round it as a border, and Midnight took a sip to quench her thirst, which Comet did shortly afterwards. "Here... the silver trees," said Comet.
    "Thank you," said Midnight, and she prodded off. Then, she realised Comet was behind her. "What are you doing?"
    Comet raised an eyebrow. "Remember? This is my favourite hiding spot," he chided before disappearing by blending with the silver trees.
    Midnight sighed and trudged forwards. "Just leave me alone."
    Comet's muffled reply said, "Will do."
    "Good," said Midnight.
    As she walked, she couldn't help by looking around and not at her path. The leaves on the trees glinted under the sunlight, and some had fruits, glittering in a golden-sort of light. She could hear some birds, singing songs like chiming bells, and the wind rustled by and ruffled her fur. Maybe I can move here if I'm exiled, Midnight thought.
    Then, she thought about Comet. Then, there's this Comet-wolf. Still, he helped me...
    "Shut those thoughts out," chided Midnight. She didn't need to pity anyone but herself. If she fails, she'll be exiled in four days. She didn't want to leave Wisp on his own.
    She ran through the forest of hazy silver, some glittering hints on the fruits made her wonder if they were edible.
    "Darn," she muttered, "I'm starved."
    Just an hour's walk and she's starved. "Wonderful," sighed Midnight.
    As Midnight positioned herself to spring on plump, grey rabbit when a series of chirps stopped her. Midnight, agitated, looked up and saw a bird of grey feathers. "What?" snapped Midnight. She couldn't understand the bird, but it looks tasty.
    For a moment, she was tempted to bite the bird out of the sky, but a wolf with pale grey fur emerged from the silver forest. "These animals of the Silver Woods are sacred," her voice spoke as a whisper, a soft lullaby. "They are not to be harmed."
    "W-what if I'm hungry?" asked Midnight, though her voice shook. It was like the wolf radiated a power of a high position. "Are you not too?"
    The wolf, in fact looked puzzled, "You are hungry?"
    "Yes," Midnight said, puzzling why it was a weird question to the wolf.
    The wolf sighed. "You... I am sorry, but I must tell you something," she said, her voice cracked once. "You were lied to. Your life is a lie."
    "You're a lie, then!" Midnight snapped.
    The wolf shook her head. "When someone enters this place, they are given infinite feeling of satisfaction, and will never starve. They will never go thirsty. Anyone who eats one of us will be cursed eternally as they live."
    "Geez, thanks for telling me," mumbled Midnight.
    "They will receive their blessing, unless their life is a lie," said the wolf.
    Midnight took an unsteady step backwards. "Impossible!" she stuttered.
    "I do not know where the life of your lies start," said the wolf.
    Suddenly two dark silhouettes appeared behind the wolf.
    "Who's the newbie here, Zeta?" asked a wolf, his face revealed in the light of gold and silver.
    Before Midnight were two equally large and alike white wolves with dark black touches to the tips of their tails, paws, muzzle and ears. "Uh," muttered Zeta.
    "A black wolf," said the wolf with mismatched eyes, one being blue and the other one being yellow-gold.
    "Ah, with her life as a lie," said the wolf with mismatched eyes.
    "Who are you guys?" Midnight asked.
    "We're the immortal wolves who guard the Silver Woods," said the wolf with mismatched eyes, his chest puffing out in pride.
    "Is it a punishment?" asked Midnight as Zeta urged her to walk alongside the two.
    "Punishment, no!" the wolf with mismatched eyes laughed. "Right, Omega?"
    The wolf with two mint green eyes nodded. "I'm Omega, my twin, Alpha, and my sister, Zeta."
    Midnight looked at them. They didn't look aged, they look about Midnight's age. "What if you're bored with your job?" asked Midnight.
    "Oh, bored?" laughed Omega. "We're never bored here!"
    Zeta laughed. "This is our haven."
    Midnight felt a pang of guilt in her heart. What about my haven? she thought. She kept her thoughts silent and continued walking.
    "Funny thing about this place," said Alpha, "is that no humans are allowed to enter."
    "No humans," echoed Omega.
    Alpha smiled at Midnight. "Come on, I think I know you'll be on your way, yes, Miss...?"
    "Midnight," she replied.
    "Miss Midnight," said Alpha, continuing is sentence.
    Zeta spoke up, "I'm not sure what will happen, but I have a feeling that your quest will be much more enjoyable than this."
    Omega laughed. "I know, we're boring."
    How does he know...! Midnight suddenly thought, taken aback, but she wasn't given much time to ponder. Zeta began chatting away.
    After a few minutes of talking, knowledge seem to fill her mind and her stomach. She slowly felt less hungry the more she talked, the less suspicious of the wolves.
    "Y'know," said Alpha. "Usually, ten wolves pass this forest every year, and most of them are tempted to reach out for some of our sacred animals too."
    "I remember a few who ran away with the prey, and I remembered one wolf who was punished to only speak the truth when she returned the next day," said Omega.
    "Another one with brown eyes and dark brown fur attacked a deer, and was cursed with loosing her agility," said Zeta.
    Ouch, Midnight thought coldly.
    "Funny thing," said Alpha. "They're always female."
    They have no idea about the Pack Quest, thought Midnight. Then, she almost freaked out. It was her Lone Quest, and she's stalling! "Um, Alpha, Omega, Zeta," said Midnight. "I just remembered what I had to do, and it's a big hurry, so... can you point me the directions?"
    Omega kindly offer a smile and directions before Midnight quickly made her way out, hastily shouting goodbye behind her.
    I can't believe I got distracted, Midnight scolded herself. Really, really distracted! 
    According to the position of the sun, about two hours had flown away, and Midnight didn't want to lose her haven.
    Zeta's face keep coming back to her, her words sweetly spoken. She said again and again, haunting her thoughts: This is our haven.


Author's note: I really like how I ended this, but I think I don't have a constant schedule of posting. Let's say, I'll post every weekend. Try to, at least. This weekend, I think I can't, I have a practice coming up for a concert. Well, Midnight pst the Silver Woods. Good for her. 

No sign-ups yet? No sign-ups? I might as well close the page if there no sign-up of a character until 2 March 2015. Random date! Okay, bye.

2 comments:

  1. I just read the story!! It is a really good story and I might make a character soon.

    ReplyDelete