14. Chapter 14
We made it to the next bend in the river by nightfall, the sky a dark, twinkling blue that shined through the limbs of the nimid trees.
It seemed the further we got from Sorrel, the wilder the forest became.
The north of Wellea was laden with nydles—trees with short branches covered with needlelike leaves—with nimids mixed in throughout, while as we traveled south, centenarian trees I had never seen before sprouted up, their roots dripping into the river like candle wax.
While evidence of winter was still prevalent as we continued to move south, it was just slightly warmer here, enough to let me drop my cloak from my shoulders, proof that a reprieve from the winter I knew all too well was needed.
The winter in Sorrel had been relentless, and while I had grown used to the cold, I often longed for the predictability of the seasons that the Shroud had taken away, wishing for the summers where I could bask in the sun, taking leisurely naps while its warmth cradled me.
The peeks of sun that came through the branches of the trees above warmed my skin, making me wistful for those summer days and curious as to how the little bit of warmth affected the roots.
I felt down into the ground beneath me, treading carefully, and noticed the roots' movements—here they were more languid and fluid, less constricted and more free than in the north.
It made me wonder what Wellea would be if man had never settled here when Yllsora was created, made me wonder what the uninhabited parts of Yllsora were like, if the forests would be wilder, the roots calmer, the land untouched and free to just exist without us taking from it to survive.
This part of the forest was quiet as we walked, deep enough in Alesi to let me fantasize about a world untouched by man.
Here, the nimids did not have rhyme or reason, growing where they wished.
The branches grew so wild that Malik and I had to duck more often than not, and pay close attention to where the ground dipped and surged, as there was no walking path to be seen.
It was almost peaceful to have nothing but the forest to pay attention to.
Here, I found I did not worry about what may lay ahead at Rida.
I wasn't worried about the rot, the mainland men or the revelers—I was just solely focused on the forest around me, and how different it was from what I was used to in Sorrel.
A crunch reverberated through the forest as we walked, a snap that would have made sense if we were closer to a village, but here, there were no signs of any sort of life, no indication that anyone had made a home here, before or after the Shroud.
It was a desolate part of the forest, so much so that not even a path was worn into the ground from Mother Blessed traveling through.
I scanned the trees as we walked, looking for signs of what could have caused such a noise.
I found nothing but the stiff branches of the nimids in front of us and brushed the sound off as some sort of animal making its way through the Alesi alongside us.
Fauna was rare here, but not unheard of.
Ever since the Shroud, the animals of Wellea had become sparse, sightings of them revered, and I had hoped for one in that moment until I caught a motion out of the side of my eye—a movement of something dark and imposing, a perfect contrast to the snow that dusted the surrounding foliage.
A cold voice caressed my ear, that same chant from my nightmare finding me once more. My…ael…la, it whispered.
I stumbled back from where Malik and I were walking, the reveler now in full view having stepped out from behind the nimids, its eyes a deep black, void of any color, looking right in my direction.
I did not know what was more unnerving—the sight of it out in the open, in the middle of the forest, or how it was unmoving, so unnaturally still, its attention focused solely on Malik and I.
"Allyra?" Malik asked when he noticed my sudden stop. "What is it?"
His gaze followed mine when I didn't answer, spotting the reveler watching us, its head tilted in curiosity.
Malik didn't hesitate to pull me back, his hand shaking while clutching my own, as we looked at the figure. I hadn't told him about the revelers I had seen in my dream, hadn't known how to describe them, as nothing could truly capture their essence and the death that rolled off of them.
We stood there for a moment, studying each other, the growing silence of the forest suffocating the air, the deepest of breaths even too loud.
It did not last long, though. The trees surrounding the reveler crumbled and split the air, their frozen limbs turning dark and soft, rotting from the inside out at its command.
Malik and I stumbled even further back at the sight, the ground beneath us squishing as the decay reached where we stood.
I looked down to find that the forest floor beneath us began to rot just as the tree did, just as it had in my dream, our feet now sinking into it.
The solid ground had become sticky and was inching outwards, the sweet smell of the rot filling my nose as the roots climbed over our shoes, trying to make us one with the forest floor.
"Run," I said, the word whooshing out of me.
The roots ripped from the ground as I moved, and Malik followed my lead. Together we ran through the groupings of trees, the patches of rot following us as we ran, the reveler not far behind.
I did not know what to make of the reveler now that it was not in my dream, but in my reality. Would it be like what I had seen in my dream, or something new altogether?
I kept my eyes ahead, focused on how to get away from the reveler, how to not let the fear it sparked consume me as it did in my dream.
Malik and I hopped over a small creek that wound its way through the forest and rounded another cluster of trees, putting as many obstacles between us and the reveler. But we needed more.
I stopped and knelt to the ground, digging deep into the roots below us, pushing past the pain, and willed one of the nimids to fall across the water, blocking the reveler from crossing the creek, unsure if such a thing would work.
Still, I pushed harder, pain radiating up my arm, a gasp leaving me as I felt my power surge, the crack of the nimid falling reverberating around me.
I stood and kept running, chancing a look behind me, my breath escaping me in hurried huffs, and my fingers twitching from the use of my power.
But it was all worth it as I found the reveler standing on the other side of the water, the fallen nimid tree blocking it, watching as we ran out of its reach, its pitch-black eyes trained right on me.