Chapter Thirteen

Forest Trail

Everyone was enjoying the time they had before participating in another activity. The fire was lit, it preserved the warmth. The chatter and food lit up the environment. For a moment they didn’t even realize the weather was cold or the danger that could be ahead of them in the dense forest that surrounded them.

“Where’s my bottle?” Raven questioned Jasper.

“I think you dropped it when..” Jasper cuts off.

“Okay, I guess I’ll go get it,” Raven announces.

“You could share mine,” Tim suggests.

“No, I’d rather drown in the river.” Raven rolls her eyes.

Saying so, Raven started to walk away from the crowd. It wasn’t a very long walk to the river nearby. It took her barely 10 minutes on foot to reach. She was looking for her bottle but couldn’t find it.

She decides to stroll around for a bit before returning since she wanted to have some time alone; walking around in circles she hears the sound of running water. It definitely wasn’t just a river.

For the first time in a while Raven wasn’t lost in her thoughts. She was rather content, since the incident with Trystan. She could still feel the warmth of his embrace lingering onto her skin. She wrapped herself in her arms in order to relive the moment.

She smiled and followed in the direction of the sound, and came across a beautiful sight. It was a waterfall. The view was breathtaking. The water flew from a huge height, gushing down the mountains. In Front of it, joined a river which again flew in the same direction. The water was clean and tinted with a shade of green, probably the chlorophyll from the plants that surrounded it. Rocks were arranged in a circle, blocking the path to that water body. Must be so because it could be dangerous.

It is when her eyes met the ground while wandering across the rocks, that she noticed a girl laying face down on them.

She quickly walks to her, in order to see who it could be, or was. Also, what was wrong.

“Hey?? Are you alright?” Raven asks in concern trying to turn her around.

NO response.

“Wake up, hello? You alright?” She tries to wake her up as she attempts to flip the girl's body which was completely drenched in water.

Still no response, at this moment Raven was starting to worry. She checked her pulse for any vitals, they were slow and barely noticeable. She had to think fast on how to save a person who could almost die from drowning. The girl’s body had lost all the warmth and was cold as ice. Raven was clueless, so she decided to head back to the group and get some help as she couldn’t handle this alone.

“Hang in there, I’ll be right back” She assures her and rushes towards the bushes, back on the path she followed earlier.

“Tim, Jasper, Valerie..” She calls out as she pants from all the running trying to catch a breath.

“Come with me, fast, it’s an emergency. Please.” She asks them to come along with her without explaining why.

“Calm down Raven, what happened?” Jasper tries to calm her down as he holds her by her shoulders.

“Just Follow me…” Raven says in a low voice, completely out of breath.

“Okay, Alright just calm down” Jasper replies and follows her, along with the others walking behind them.

All of them rush to the spot where Raven found that mysterious girl earlier who almost drowned and laid unconscious. But to their surprise, there was no one. Except Raven nobody had a clue why she had brought them there.

“Wha..What? She was right there, I swear” Raven speaks in hesitation.

“What are you talking about? Will you tell us what happened already?” Jasper cuts in to question what the rush was all about.

“She was right here...” Raven points out at the spot where she found the girl unconscious earlier, she could not believe what was happening.

“What is going on you people?” A voice interrupted from behind.

Trystan showed up out of nowhere at the scene.

He was holding her bottle and said “Looking for this?” as he put forward the bottle in front of Raven. Suddenly, Raven cannot recall what she came for and covered her mouth with her hands in disbelief.

“Hey, Lyla you seem to be walking fine on both of your feet” Tystan points out looking at her feet. She was standing on both of them. This made the rest of the group divert their attention to Lyla now.

Meanwhile,

Roxie was running, completely out of breath. She still kept glancing back, to see if it was still following her. It wasn’t clear who or what she was running from but it was clear she was running as if it was a matter of life and death.

She noticed someone up ahead in the middle of her way, but she had no control on her body and her mind didn’t want her legs to stop running. In a hope she gets saved, she closes her eyes and ends up bumping into that someone.

“Hey, Hey! What happened to you?”, The voice says.

“A..aa.. I” Roxie couldn’t decide if she were to speak or breathe.

Roxie fell to the ground with arms first, she slowly tried to open her eyes trying to respond to the voice she had just heard. They both were on the ground by this time, the guy on his back and Roxie to his side face first to the ground. It seemed he only got his shoulder bumped to Roxie’s.

“Here, c’mon; take my hand” he offers as his hands reach out to help her get up after he got up; he was quick to do so.

Roxie turns around and tries to open her eyes while heavily panting. She managed to open them partially. There stood a guy, his glasses were the first thing that Roxie noticed, they were round-metallic, and not so sharp from the edges. Under them, his eyes sparkled like the stars of the night sky, he stood there lending his hand with a half smile on his face. It was the cutest smile that Roxie had ever encountered.

He wore denim with a sweater and a scarf over his neck, his hair fleeked as the wind blew and was well groomed. His hair must have been his most priceless possession, Roxie thought to herself.

Weird enough it seemed like he was glowing, as if there was a blue light emitting all over from his body or maybe from behind somewhere, very faint but noticeable. For a second Roxie wondered if she had hit her head but she hadn’t.

“Here, let me help” The voice said again, as Roxie sat there in awe.

It took awhile for Roxie to come back to her senses, eventually she managed to get hold of herself a little.

“Who..who are you?” Roxie questioned him as she gathered herself and dusted off the dirt.

“Me? Think of me as a friend of yours for now. I’m here to help” He smiled again.

“You do have a name don’t you?” Roxie questions back as she finally gets on her feet.

“Sky..umm.. You can call me ‘Sky’ ” He replied with a broken smile.

“What are you doing here? Why were you running?” Sky continued.

“It looked like you were running from someone” he adds.

“Oh.. right.. That.. well, I can’t clearly recall” Roxie responds while scratching her head.

“Well whatever it is that you were running from, you are safe now that you’re with me or that I’m with you.” He assured Roxie with his cute word play which spread a faint smile across her face as well.

While on the other side;

Raven was moving forward as she removed the branches infront of her using her hands. It seems like she wandered off again. Once her sight was clear, she noticed a girl in front of her with her back facing Raven. She was dressed up in a similar set of clothes that Raven was familiar with.

Raven, without wasting any time, approaches her and puts her hand over her shoulder. It seems, it’s the same mysterious girl Raven came across earlier.

“Hey, Aren’t you…” Raven breaks off.

“You are the girl I found unconscious!” Raven tries to recall.

“Are you okay?” Raven asks as the girl turns around.

“Umm..Yes. I’m okay now”, she stutters.

“I was just talking to ...”, Roxie tries to introduce Sky to Raven but she turns around only to find there was no one standing in that spot anymore.

“Uh.. yeah?” Raven stood there perplexed.

~footsteps approaching~

The sound of the footsteps caught Raven’s attention. She turns her head around to see who it was.

“You alright there?”, Trystan questions Raven from a distance while removing the branches in front of him with his hands.

“Yes, I’m fine I found what I was looking for earlier.”, Raven says cheerfully.

“What Raven?” Trystan asks, perplexed.

“The girl from the waterfall” Raven speaks as she turns around to point at Roxie.

“A girl?” Trystan shows a confused face.

“Umm.. She was right here” Raven trying to prove her point.

“What are you talking about?” Trystan questions with no change in expression.

“For all I know, you are the only girl I’m seeing now,” Trystan laughs lightly.

Raven turns around to find no one yet again, Roxie is gone; she disappeared. Raven could not process what was going on with her and this girl.

“I think you need to rest, you have been through a lot today” Trystan suggests as he puts his arm around Raven’s shoulder.

“I think so too” Raven answers perplexed.

“It’s already time for us to head down, it’s good that you will get to rest in the cottage tonight” Trystan speaks with concern.

They start to walk away in the direction of the original spot to join the group for the next activity.

Meanwhile from behind a tree;

“Shhhhh.. Don’t make a noise or he’ll find us” Sky had taken Roxie into hiding with him, he said so while covering her mouth with his hands.

Roxie didn’t move or dare to make a noise, as if she was aware of the danger that Sky just mentioned.

Trystan and Raven join the rest of the group soon enough and start gathering all their stuff to finally head down through the forest.

“Everyone assemble” Trystan orders.

“Has anyone seen Sharon?” Lyla questions concerned and lost, as everyone except Sharon gathered around.

“No I haven’t seen her ever since the mushroom hunt” Valerie replies.

“Where is she?” Valerie starts to panic.

Soon everyone started to put all events together and realised that Sharon had been gone for quite a long time.

“Everyone calm down, she must be lost here somewhere, we will find her” Trystan reassures everyone.

“Maybe we can look for her as we proceed with our next activity” he continues.

“We must do so, it’s not safe to stay here for long”, He adds.

Weirdly, Raven kept quiet during the whole fuss. She didn’t question nor showed any signs of worry. It was almost as if she was hypnotised to stay calm. She was still not over the fact that the mysterious girl yet again suddenly disappeared from infront of her. On the other hand, it was clear that Sharon’s disappearance only brought calm to Raven.

“For our next activity we shall blah....” Trystan starts to blabber the instructions which were quite vague this time. It appeared so, Trystan’s mind wandered elsewhere this time.

To be continued…