Chapter Three:The Oracle/Enter The Forest

Neil learns that his arrival may be a bit more than coincidental, and the group journeys into the forest.

“So,” said the mysterious hooded woman behind the table. “The prophecies are true.”

“Huh?” He looked up from the table.

“The legendary Half-blood has crossed over.” She slowly looked up at him. “I see your human side has won the battle for dominance.”

Neil furrowed his brow and tried not to look into her cataracts. Looking at people while talking always made him uncomfortable as it was. “How do you know about my dream?”

“Dream?” she said with a slight chuckle. “Before you were even born, your soul underwent a battle between your demon side and your human side. ‘Tis true for all half-demons.” She slowly put her head down and opened her hand, revealing a bracelet made of silver, sapphire, and amethyst. “Take this, and the next phase of the prophecies will be achieved.”

He took the bracelet and put it on, but when he looked up to thank her, he was greeted by a large bald man. “You gonna buy somethin’ or what?” he said in a deep growling voice, arms folded across his chest.

“Umm,” Neil was confused and started backing up. Where had she gone? Could people just vanish in this world or was he seeing things? “No, just looking,” he said nervously.

“Neil! Time to go!”

            He turned around quickly, and there she was, in front of him again with her head down. “Don’t know who you are? It will take much struggle and sacrifice before you realize that.” She looked up, not moving her head. “The answer lies in the forbidden lands.” She grabbed the fabric of Neil’s jacket, pulling him close with surprising ease. He could smell what he thought was rotting flesh and her breath was stale and hot. “And the battle is far from over.”

After she finished speaking, her grip loosened and he immediately ran back over to the sisters. He stood there, slightly out of breath and incredibly confused.

“Where’d you get that bracelet?” Sentesyl asked.

“Huh? This thing?” He had forgotten about it already, but Sentesyl noticed it as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Some old lady gave it to me talking about a prophecy or something.”

“Prophecy?” She seemed a bit frightened.

“Why? Do you know what she was talking about?”

“No,” she said solemnly. “Let’s go. It’s time to start our quest.”

Neil and Tentesyl Just looked at each other and shrugged. As Sentesyl walked away towards the town gates, they followed her.

###

“What are the forbidden lands?” Neil asked as they walked through the overgrown meadow. He was trying to break the silence. Ever since Neil mentioned the prophecy, Sentesyl seemed like she was thinking deeply about something. It seemed like hours, but it had only been one.

“We don’t speak of the forbidden lands here,” she said coldly.

“Are you okay, Sentesyl?” Neil asked. “You seem like you’re trying to figure something out.”

“No.” She reluctantly displayed a soft smile. “I’m fine.”

“Good,” he said smiling back. “I was getting worried.”

Tentesyl was heard giggling behind them; Neil looked down at her. “What’s so funny?”

“Nuh-thing,” she replied in singsong.

Neil looked up at the blushing Sentesyl. Did he do that? Did she like him? He wiped the mix of shock and elation from his face. “Umm, so maybe you could give some sword advice while we’re walking,” He drew his sword and swung it around jokingly. “Sorry for oversleeping this morning, your nights are a bit shorter than what I’m used to.”

Tentesyl giggled. “He has no idea how to use that thing,” she whispered to her sister.

“I heard that,” Neil said with a final swing, just before the sword flung spinning from his hands. Tentesyl laughed out loud seeing it fly a yard in front of them. As it landed point down into the ground, she couldn’t help but laugh as hard as she could. Even Sentesyl was trying not to laugh. “You want some advice?” She said walking up to him, putting her hand on his shoulder, “Don’t do that.” Tentesyl was rolling on the ground laughing and by the time she had collected herself and gotten up, she realized how far they were and quickly jumped to her feet. “Wait for me!” she said running toward them.

Neil grabbed Sentesyl’s hand and started to run. “How ‘bout no?”

###

He lost his breath at the edge of a stream, in front of the forest. Actually, he had lost his breath well before that, he just did not want to seem weaker than Sentesyl, as she was easily able to run twice the distance he had, and wasn’t even short of breath. It seemed that his body was harder to move here, compared to back home. The brush around them was so thick, he could only see in from where the path started, next to which the stream ran. The stream came from their right, then turned into the forest, following the path. Sentesyl and Neil waited for Tentesyl to catch up. She didn’t, however, slow down and ultimately plowed into Neil, sending him into the shallow stream.

“How could you leave me behind like that?!” She yelled with her hands around his neck. She continued complaining while she kept his head underwater until, of course, Sentesyl yelled and pried her hands off.

“It’s not like you would’ve gotten lost,” she said to the girl, who replied only with a huff. “You’ve been to the forest a hundred times!”

“Yah, but he didn’t know that!” She yelled, pointing to the still submerged boy.

Neil sat up and spat out a mouthful of water along with several small tadpoles. Without saying anything, he got up and rigidly walked over to them, his limbs weighed down by his soaked clothes. “Where do we go now?” he said slicking his hair back, as it was covering his eyes.

Sentesyl let out a giggle. “We follow the stream out of the forest.” She looked at Neil with a big grin and paused, covering her mouth. When she finally was able to collect herself, she continued. “It’s quite a ways out; we’ve only gone halfway through the forest a couple of times. We don’t really know what’s beyond that.” She took off her backpack and pulled out a map. “Somewhere in the middle of the forest, there’s a stream that crosses this one.”

He looks at the spot she was pointing and notices something strange. It was noted on the map that the currents of the two rives ran in opposite directions. “The currents cross?” Neil asked. “Is that possible? Can streams cross each other and continue running in opposite directions?”

She pointed to the creek along the trail. “Only this one, no one quite knows why; we think it may be some natural magical force.” Their eyes went back to the tattered piece of cloth on which the map was printed.

“Hey, look at that piece of land,” Neil said, pointing to the map. “It looks like a dragon.”

“That’s Dragon Peninsula,” she replied. “We want to go to the Clearview Mountains.” She then pointed to a band of drawn mountains, in the middle of which was a waterfall. “It is rumored that he resides somewhere in the most eastern mountains, Dragon Peninsula is right behind them.” She pointed to the piece of land. “As for the forest,” she continued, dragging her finger across the illustrated trees. “We’ll walk to the middle and take a rest, and then continue to the end. We should make it to the edge of the forest by sundown and we’ll set up camp either when we get there or when it gets dark, whichever comes first.”

“Well,” Neil said, seeming brave, “Let’s head into the forest!” He took a few broad steps, then paused. “But before we do,” he added, “are there any wild animals I should know about?”

“No, no dangerous ones.” Sentesyl said.

“Okay, good.” Neil let out a relieved sigh.

“Except werewolves.”

“Werewolves?!”

“But don’t worry,” Sentesyl assured, “You only have to worry about them tonight; it’s the last night of the full moon.”

“Great.” He started to walk again, this time with heavy steps, seeming hesitant to enter the forest. “Werewolves exist. Lucky me.”

###

Several hours of walking went by and Neil was practically dead on his feet. “Can...we...stop...now...?” He huffed with each step, but he might have been too far behind to be heard.

“Look! There’s the cross-river!” Tentesyl said, pointing out in front of them.

“Oh, thank god” Neil caught up and collapsed onto the ground.

“Thank who?” Sentesyl asked, but Neil was too out of breath to answer.

“I’m going to prepare lunch. Tentesyl, you go find those berries.”

“I’m on it!” she turned quickly around and ran into the brush, jumping over a log.

“Berries?” Neil asked sitting up, still slightly out of breath.

“Oh, yes. They must be the most delicious berries I’ve ever tasted,” she replied. “And they only grow here, in the middle of the forest at the very top of the trees. I don’t even know if anyone else knows about them.” She bent over and started taking things out of her backpack; He got up and walked over to her.

“So what’s for lunch, and can I help?”

“We’re having roast blue grouse and rice, and yes, you can help. You can find some wood for a fire. Then you can help with the rice. I’ll show you how to properly season�"my own special blend for rice.”

“Cool,” Neil said with a smile. “I’ll go get some wood then.” He then made his way through the brush to go in search.

When he came back, Tentesyl was sitting by the stream picking the leaves off of, and washing the berries. Sentesyl was laying out ingredients and plucking the final feathers off of a small chicken-like bird; off to the side lay a bow and several arrows. Neil was not at all thinking about how Sentesyl was a huntress, but instead was captured by the sweet melodic sound flowing from her beautiful lips.

His trance was soon broken by the voice of a little girl saying, “Neil, we need the wood, the grouse is ready!”

Sentesyl turned around as soon as she heard his name. “Neil, I didn’t know you were there.”

“Well, I didn’t know you could sing so well,” he said still standing there with the wood. She seemed embarrassed by the remark. There was about half a minute of silence, during which Neil and Sentesyl just looked at each other.

“C’mon, I’m hungry! Let’s get the food done!”

Neil broke from his trance and walked over to Sentesyl. He dropped the pile of wood as he said, “I’ve got some wood for ya,” a joke most likely only he understood. After an exchange of smiles, he knelt down on the ground and arranged the wood inside the circles of stone. Something suddenly caught the corner of his eye. “Hey,” he said looking up at a bird perched in one of the surrounding trees, “Is that a falcon?”

            The sisters looked up to where he was pointing. “Yes, but...”

Before she could finish, the falcon took off and flew quickly up and away into the distance.

“But what?” Neil asked, watching the bird disappear.

“Those kinds of falcons never come out here; you only see them near the mountains.”