27. II:10: The Forest Fights Back (1/2)

act ii: adolescencechapter 10: the forest fights backparty: ryu, nina, trinil

ryu came to slowly, opening his eyes with no small amount of effort. stretching, he glanced about. finding himself in the tent, he closed his eyes, surrendering to the gigantic yawn overtaking him. this task complete, he wondered where nina and trinil had gone off to; he was alone in the tent. if the sounds were any indication, they were outside.

ryu rose, leaving his bedroll in disarray. outside the tent, he found it to be dark. the darkness wasn't nearly as complete as within the forest. beside what was obviously once a fire was nina, who was just as obviously nodding off. trinil was splayed out nearby, dead to the world. "nina," ryu called softly, attempting to get her attention without startling her.

it failed. nina sat bolt upright and whipped her head around to spot ryu in one jerk. once she discovered what had occurred, a hand went to her heart. "you scared me," she accused.

"sorry," ryu responded, sitting by her. "how long was i out this time?"

nina grinned. "longer than last. it's very early morning at this point. you came out at, um, noon? so nearly a full day."

ryu cringed. "wow."

"yeah," nina continued, "i was starting to get worried that i'd have to keep watch the whole night."

ryu wanted to smack his forehead. let the girl sleep! "go to sleep, nina. i'll keep watch."

nina rewarded him with a warm smile. "thank you, ryu." she stood up, steadied herself a bit, then walked toward the tent, leaving ryu out in the clearing. he still had questions (had nina

ought the two of them unconscious all the way out of the tower?), but they could be answered later. he instead found himself thinking about the forest that they had to

ave that day.

the forest was dangerous when off the path, yes, but not as dangerous as lance had been implying. certainly not when the three of them were together. ah, trinil. what was he going to do now? he had, apparently, completed a test for donara, and given that his sleep pattern was even more off than ryu's, he assumed that trinil was gaining something in the same way that ryu had. he didn't want to assume it was a new form. hopefully it was control and awareness of his current form. or forms.

he didn't know much about trinil, really. and all he knew about the older guy's goals was the fact that he was supposed to fight alongside ryu inside the tower. that was over with. so that left trinil without a clear reason to remain with them. or at least, a clear reason that ryu knew of. this made it obvious that the first order of business would be determining trinil's plans and seeing how they could be accommodated while getting nina and ryu south through the mountains and into arad.

regardless, the plan was going to involve the forest.

by the time the sun had properly risen to the point that it was casting its light directly into the clearing, all three of the ascents had awoken and the packing had begun. "hey, trinil!" ryu called out to the woren, "help me with the tent!" trinil looked up at ryu and nodded, stuffing the last of his own bedroll together before heading over to where the partially dismantled tent was.

as the two began to fold up the canvas, ryu remarked, "so what are you going to do now?"

there was a short silence,

oken only by the sounds of the work. "i don't know," was the eventual response.

"well, you could go back to your clan, i guess," ryu postulated as the two young men

ought the canvas together again to make a neat fold.

trinil's head turned downward at this, as if studying the canvas minutely. ryu frowned, but he did not press the issue. he didn't have to wait all that long for a response, though he had to wait longer than the first silence trinil had given him. "they…" trinil started, before needing a deep

eath to go on. "they told me i shouldn't come back."

there wasn't anything other than "oh," that came to ryu's mind as a polite way to respond to this. they finished folding the canvas in silence and trinil turned to help pick up the stakes and the rope that held the tent up so that they could be packed as well before ryu said, "well, you could come with us."

trinil snorted. "there's no reason for me to inflict my company on you," he told ryu, picking up the stake and coil of rope where he was standing with more gusto than necessary.

ryu stopped his pretense of working to put his hands on his hips. "you don't have to come, but you are welcome to. and i'll give you a reason. there was nobody for me to train with in my ascended form when my village got attacked shortly after i had gained the ability, but in wyndia, which is where we'll eventually return, since we have to get the princess back there, they helped me. they helped luna too, and she's almost able to control when she transforms and when she doesn't."

trinil was staring at him. "they… they could help me?"

"i don't know what they can do about your inability to control your form," ryu admitted, "but i do know that if anyone can help you with it, the people i stay with can. and, as a bonus," he thumped his chest, "you can train with me."

ryu noticed that nina was watching them silently as trinil replied. "are you sure i won't be a burden? i can't transform without endangering the two of you…"

ryu waved it off. "you're a capable warrior without transforming, and if you don't transform then you're an extra pair of eyes and an extra weapon against the monsters we'll be running up against. we… we were separated from the rest of our party, and we'll probably need a few more hands to handle the monsters. you don't have to transform to be a help, and it may be that without transforming you are more useful, but that certainly doesn't mean that you aren't useful."

trinil looked dubious, but also hopeful. "and they would help me? or at least," he amended, when ryu opened his mouth to correct him, "they would try?"

"they will help any ascent that asks for it," nina said, joining the conversation as she pulled her pack shut. "i have a feeling that this includes you. so you should come with us." she managed to include an indication in her tone that there was no way to argue this point, something that ryu was mildly envious of.

trinil smiled at the winged girl. "i guess i should." decision made, the three finished up the work of packing in short order.

however, that decision had nothing to do with where they were supposed to be going.

"we can figure out directions well enough from here," ryu pointed out, looking up at the sun hanging in the eastern sky, "but keeping a straight line south to the mountain range would be difficult, at best."

"it's our best option," nina groused, gesturing around. "while we're reasonably sure we're close to the north end, we'd have the same trouble trying to hit the northern range, since it's still below the canopy to our eyes. not to mention the time it would take out of our trip to go the full long way around."

"i think we'd hit the mountains eventually, even if we got slightly off of the southern heading," trinil said. "it might take a little longer if we stray off of the straight path, but we'll eventually get to some edge of the forest, and if we start out going south, the most likely edge to hit is the southern one. that or the eastern one, but that actually makes it easier to find the southern one. i don't see where we could go wrong."

"that only leaves the monsters," ryu said.

"

ing 'em on," trinil grinned.

so the party ventured, as best as they could figure it, due south into the trees. it was not long before they were hassled by monsters, but they kept a wary eye on their surroundings when they were attacked. they managed to keep a bead on their direction even as they were forced to circle, parry, slash and cast their way through multiple adversaries. at least one of them managed to point out the right way to go each time that they were stopped by one of the local monster population, which had not changed since the previous day.

it was nearly impossible to determine how much time was passing when they were beneath the canopy, as the light seemed to never change beneath the ceiling of leaves. ryu had tried to keep a rough track of time, but he had lost it pretty quickly. so it was that ryu had no idea how long it had been when the party spotted what was obviously the path in the distance. ryu smiled. "i see the path."

"i see it too," nina said, though her visage was more worried.

"what is it?" trinil asked her.

"well, when we were on the path the last time, stepping off of it launched us a significant distance away," nina explained to him as she regarded the path with dubious eyes and chewed lip. "i'm not sure it's a good idea to try to cross it."

ryu had to agree. "yeah. i think you're on to something there… best i can think of is to follow the path. it might let us step onto it, but not off of it. or maybe it would recognize that we're attempting a direct route?" he let out a frustrated sigh, which nina echoed. trinil merely shrugged. "safest to walk beside it, i think. the trouble though is that we don't know whether this part of the path is a part that leads away from the pass, or toward it."

"you should follow the path."

there was a beat of silence. "who said that?" ryu asked.

"the path is the way to go."

"i didn't hear anything, ryu," nina said, turning to him, now concerned. "do you hear something?" then her eyes widened as she remembered the warning that lance had given them before they had entered the forest at all. don't listen to voices, don't leave the path. "ryu, if you're hearing voices, they're lying to you."

"but… they're telling me to follow the path…"

"the path is the only safe place to go. you should get on the path."

don't leave the path. "but we left the path," nina argued. "lance told us not to leave it, but he didn't tell us anything about getting back on it. and he did say to not listen to the voices." her worry was rising, and she felt that it would be a good idea to grab ryu's arm. he turned to look at her with mildly empty eyes. "snap out of it, ryu!" she yelled at him, starting to get more desperate.