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eighteen

Luka

L uka crouched and picked up Noa who’d been following on his heels, he looked around the place. It was unimpressive, just a mass of nothing but trees. But what caught Luka’s attention was the bird calls going on, which meant they were safe. He frowned. Something else was nagging at him but he couldn’t figure out what it was. It was something about the forest.

“Well, this is disappointing,” Fida said, sheathing her sword back in its scabbard, her stance was still tense though as though she was waiting for something to attack.

“I agree,” Tanen said, folding his arms across his chest. Luka frowned.

“Shouldn’t we be grateful we didn’t get attacked?”

“Yes, but the only action Fida and I have gotten was with the chimeras, we need more,” Tanen said, and Fida nodded in agreement. Luka scoffed, turning to Morai to say something, only to remember he was not talking to her. It’s not that he didn’t want to, but he thought giving himself some distance away from her would at least start the process of getting over her when she moved. It was proving difficult when she was also so close.

“I for one, am grateful we haven’t gotten attacked yet,” Neoni said. Morai, who was standing beside her, didn't respond. She was looking around, trying to take everything in. Luka never understood her curiosity with new places, she always wanted to explore whenever the opportunity arose. But that’s probably why she made such a good thief.

“There is something…” She started then shook her head.

“What?” Neoni asked.

“Just the forest feels…”

“I feel it it too,” Fida said her stance relaxed a notch. Luka let out a sigh so he wasn’t the only one.

“The forest feels what?” Neoni asked. Morai shrugged.

“I can’t put my finger on it.” Everyone stood still listening.

“It’s not really going to come to us if we just stand here,” Luka said.

“True. Now that we’re here, do we know the exact location of where the dragons could be?” Morai asked, turning her attention to Fida. Luka didn’t dwell on the fact she’d agreed with him. Instead he turned to Fida as she pulled out her map. She frowned at it.

“Well?” Fida started, then looked up at Morai. “I’m not sure where we are.”

“What?” Morai said as Luka held out his hand.

“Let me see,” he said. Fida offered him the map, he perused it and sure enough he couldn’t tell either. For one, the Chepi territory, while it was marked in Hevon, the one in the forest wasn’t. The map showed only how to get to the dark forest, from the entrance of the forest, and showed how to get to the dragons from there.

“How are we going to get anywhere if we’re lost,” Morai asked, and Luka shifted. She’d moved to look at the map behind his shoulder.

“We could go back and ask the Chepi or ask around for help. I’m sure there’d be someone or something willing to help,” Neoni said. Luka frowned; going back would take too much time.“Going back would take too much time,” Morai said as though reading his thoughts. Neoni shrugged.

“Onward then, until we get someone to help us,” she said; with everyone in agreement, they started on their way. Luka, who was still studying the map as they walked, didn't realize that he and Tanen had fallen behind until Tanen bumped his shoulder to get his attention.

“What?” Luka asked with a scowl on his face when he saw the look Tanen was giving him. He knew that look, that was the look Tanen gave whenever he felt he needed to be the big brother. Which was laughable because he was older than Tanen, only by a year but still.

“Why are you avoiding Morai?” he asked. Luka glanced up at Morai and the girls who were walking ahead of them; they were far enough away that they wouldn't be able to hear the conversation.

“It’s nothing,” Luka said, and Tanen rolled his eyes.

“Come on, brother. I may be dense, but I can tell you’re avoiding her. What happened at Hevon?” Luka sighed, rolled up the map and shoved it in his bag.

“It was nothing you don’t already know.” Tanen cocked his head to the side in confusion then his eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me you told her.”

“I did not. Well, not like that. But I don’t think she was impressed with my wording.”

“Huh,” Tanen said, “did she tell you why she’s leaving?” Luka shook his head.

“I mean she did, but I think she’s hiding something else.” Tanen’s silence had Luka looking back at him.

“What?” Tanen only shrugged.

“I just think she’s not the only one hiding something.” Luka was about to respond when a shrill scream had him turning around back to the girls, and Tanen cursed as he unsheathed his sword. Fida ahead of them did the same with relish.

“Finally,” Tanen yelled, running forward as Morai and Neoni came back towards him. Luka picked Noa up as the girls reached him, his hands itched.

“Are any of you hurt?”

“It shot something at me,” Morai said, shuffling in her bag for a healing potion.

“It? What is it?”

“I don’t know,” Neoni answered since Morai was busy guzzling down a healing potion.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen something like that,” Neoni said, ruffling through her bag, and pulling out her book. Luka frowned when Neoni started scribbling in it.

“I should have been more careful,” Morai said once she was done, getting another potion out of her bag. He thought she was getting it out just in case Tanen or Fida got hurt, but she drank that one as well, making him more worried. And the itching in his hands didn’t seize.

“Are you sure it’s working?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. Look.” Morai held up her arm where a red stain was slowly fading, the itchiness in his hands subsided into a dull ache. He frowned, well…that was a first. Which meant whatever the creature did was still there, but he couldn’t see it. And it’s not like he could heal them, he wasn’t ready to make it known yet.

“We got it,” Tanen said. Luka jogged towards his brother to the corpse of a creature he’d never seen before. It had large front and back paws, with huge claws, and had spikes all over its body.

“The spikes spit out some kind of red liquid,” Tanen said as she went back to Neoni who continued to scribble vigorously.

“Do we know what the red liquid is?” Luka asked.

“As far as we know it’s harmless,” Fida said, accepting a healing potion from Morai, she was covered in the red liquid and so was Tanen. Luka frowned at the creature. His hands still had that dull ache in them.

“Are you certain? What use would it be to the creature if it was harmless?” he asked. Neoni, who was scribbling, stopped. Fida, Tanen and Morai stared at the creature. Even Noa, who had a paw raised to touch the creature's snout, paused.

“Morai, you were the first to get sprayed. Do you feel anything different?” Neoni asked. Morai shook her head.

“No.” Another long pause. “Maybe it doesn’t affect us because we’re humans?” she asked.

“Let’s hope that’s the case,” Luka said.

“Let’s just keep going. If we start feeling any effects, we can let you know,” Tanen said, looking pointedly at him.

“Why would we need to tell him?” Morai asked with a frown. Luka gritted his teeth, while staring at his brother who grinned at him.

“He has more healing potions.”

“Oh,” Morai said, causing Luka to turn and look at her. She seemed disappointed by the answer.

“That makes sense. I’m running low,” she said.

“With that settled, let’s take some of those spikes with us,” Neoni said, pulling gloves out of her bag and putting them on with glee. A few minutes later, each of them had at least three spikes.

“Why do we need this much?” Luka asked, frowning at the spikes. On closer inspection, the spikes had tiny hairy thorns on them.

“We can give some to Kirnon. It would give me some brownie points with him,” Neoni said. Done with gathering up the spikes they headed off again, but Luka still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. The dull ache hadn’t subsided either, but maybe he was just overthinking things.