Seven

Chapter Seven

After saying our goodbyes, and a substantial amount of Asher's tugging, we finally set off on our journey. The trail Danya has pointed us to becomes fuzzier as we descend deeper into the thick forest, until we lose it completely.

"Time for your map skills to shine." I tell Asher.

They ignore my comment, instead simply proceeding to unwrap the map in front of them. They place the compass on it, and start tinkering with it.

Back in military training, I recall learning something about how to navigate using solely a map and a compass, but it's a blur; I can't be bothered to remember most of it.

"This way," they proclaim.

"How- how did you do that?" I ask clueless.

"It's called-" They pause to look at me. "-basic orientation skills."

"Pff, whatever. Lead the way, you big brain."

They scoff at the sight of my incompetence, but carry on with guiding us to our destination. I follow shortly after them, since getting lost in this obnoxiously hard to navigate forest would certainly be my end.

Speaking about the woods being hard to navigate; I don't know which path they've picked, but it seems like they decided to drag me through the most impenetrable part of the forest. The grass isn't too tall; however, the branches hanging from the trees are causing me to gradually lose my sanity, and potentially my eyes; if I won't be careful.

On most trees, the branches usually grow above a certain level, meaning they don't block your path, nor try to poke your eyes out. These trees however, have the branches starting right from the ground height, so not only they stick out at eye level, posing a threat to my eyes, but some are low enough to make me trip, and thus I also need to worry about what I step on; not even talking about the billion times one of these wooden demons scraped against the exposed skin under my torn up uniform. It's truly an outrageous experience.

Somehow Asher doesn't seem to mind though; they shoot through the forest like there was nothing in the way. I wonder if it's because they can heal so quickly, so they don't mind getting a few scratches here and there.

That being said, they could at least wait for me, as I'm not capable of healing so fast, and I care about my skin enough to not wanna have it covered in scars; although, not like I don't have a few already.

"Hey!" I scream at them. "Can you slow down a bit? I can barely keep up with you!"

"Ugh, we need to get there before sunset, so no; I can't walk slower."

"You surely can, or otherwise I'll be blind by the end of this journey!"

"Your problem." They spit back coldly. "Just cover your eyes with something."

"Or you could just wait for me! Wouldn't that be easier?!" I exclaim desperately, trying to make my way over to them through the wall of branches.

"Nah, I don't think so- Ow!" They yelp as I grab their arm, making them stop. "Don't touch me!" They yank the hand out of my grasp.

"I won't; just turn the pace down a bit, okay?"

They are about to say something, when I hear shuffling from a nearby bush.

"What the heck?" I whip my head towards the source of the sound.

More shuffling comes, and an outline of an animal starts to form behind one of those bushes.

"Shall we run?" I ask Asher worried.

"I think we might wanna back up slowly-"

Before they manage to finish, I start pacing backwards like a mad man. They stop me from getting far however; jerking me back into place.