Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog :) This is part six of a little story I'm writing. For anyone who is new here, I would recommend you start at part one and work your way through. Happy reading!
I want to stay with Josh, but my presence is clearly not helping him. He presses himself against the wall, trying to stay as far away from me as possible. I force myself not to rub my aching neck, not wanting to make him feel worse.
I climb back down to the bottom level, locking the trapdoor securely behind me. Jane is looking worried - I don't blame her. I'm sure I must have cried out before, when Josh was attacking me without being able to help it.
"It's the curse," I say before she can ask. "It's getting worse. I need to find the creators."
"How are you going to find them?" she asks. "I know you think this is a good plan, but you have no idea how to find them, no idea if they really are in this forest, and no reason to think they will lift the curse!"
"I have to try," I say shortly. "I'm not going to find them sitting in this hollow tree. Stay here with Josh - keep the trapdoor closed. I'm going out. I'll come back when I find them."
"What if you don't find them?"
I close my eyes for a moment, not wanting to consider the answer to her question. "I will," I say. "I have to."
I crawl out of the small tunnel and emerge among the roots of the huge tree. Looking around, I see that Josh and I slept for the whole day before the curse woke him. Night has fallen, and any search parties looking for Josh will have a hard time finding me, one person alone in the dark.
With no idea where I am going, I just start walking. The creators are in this forest, somewhere; I know it.
As I pick my way carefully over roots and logs in the moonlight, I try to work out where they would be. The legends say that the creators became angry when humans betrayed them. The humans wanted more power and betrayed their own creators to get it.
Yet that doesn't hint at where they would be. They have isolated themselves in this huge forest, cursing certain humans as punishment and leaving us to our fate. Now, I need to change their minds.
I stumble into a clearing where the moonlight shines brightly. A faint breeze lifts my hair from my neck, making me shiver. "Is anyone there?" I call. I don't know if it's just that I'm alone at night, but I'm getting the feeling that someone is watching me.
"I've come to see the creators," I say to the air. "It's important."
There is no answer. I sit back on my heels, wondering where they could be. I reason that the creators made water, so they probably need it, too. I consult the mental map of the forest I have from the hours Josh and I have spent wandering here, and make for the nearest river.
I can hear the rushing of a waterfall ahead and hurry forward; I know this place.
It looks exactly as it did before, but ghostly in the pale light of the moon and stars. More strongly than ever, I feel as though there is someone watching me silently. I spin around, but there is no one there.
Why have you come to our sanctuary?
I turn my head this way and that, but I can't find the source of the voice. "I'm here because I need help," I say. "I came looking for you."
Well, you've found us.
I wait for the voice to say something more, but it doesn't. Instead, I see something that freezes my breath in my throat. The waterfall is rushing down the rock behind it... but there is something more than the rock behind the water. Something big and black is emerging, pushing its way out of nothing. The water parts and I stumble back as the creator makes its way towards me.
To be continued
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