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Silas walked toward them.
Scab ripped up another handful of grass. “I’ll talk to you later,” he whispered.
“She can feed herself, you know?” Silas said.
Scab dropped the grass.
“I was joking. You can feed her all you like. But not now, I must take her to hunt.” Silas climbed onto Vala. “Same rules, stay in sight of the cabin.”
“Okay.”
“Good. I won’t be long.” Silas made a clicking sound, and Vala walked away.
Scab was bored, so he wandered around. He reached the edge of the forest and stared into the trees. Most of them had white bark that looked like it was peeling away, some were a lot thicker and brown, and the biggest ones were almost red.
Glittering lines of sunlight shone through the leaves all the way to the floor. He wanted to touch them. He looked back. The cabin looks small from here. Silas had made it clear that he was not to enter the forest alone. I’ll just go a little way in, touch the lights and go straight back.
It was cool in the shade of the trees, and the old leaves crunched as he walked. He couldn’t work out why the sparkling lines kept moving further away until he noticed the spots of light on his arms. He pushed his sleeves back to the elbows. The light warmed his scarred skin.
He threw a stone at a tree. Missed. Two more tries at closer, bigger trees, and he hit them both. Got ya. He peeled the white stuff off one tree; it was green and wet underneath. The big red trees felt furry and stained his fingertips orange.
A wall of rock stood in the distance. The bottom of the mountain. I’ll go see, then I’ll go straight back.
By the time he reached the wall, he couldn’t see the edge of the forest where he’d entered, but he was pretty sure of the way back. The smooth rock warmed the palms of his hands, and he pressed his cheek on it.
He jumped when a branch cracked to his side. What’s that? A small horse? The brown animal with two small spikes on its head limped through the trees. Is it hurt? It looked over at him every few steps. If I can catch it, it could be my Vala.
As he crept toward the animal, it disappeared behind the trees to appear further away. He crouched and upped his pace, but the gap continued to grow. Then it was gone. He stood tall and looked hard. Where did you go?
Another crack echoed to his left. A cave. Another crack came.
“I’ve got you now.”
Old smelling, cool air brushed his face at the entrance. A faint sound of something clacking came from inside. The cave was dark. He squinted and moved his head from side to side, trying to make out what moved in the black. Is that the horse, o
r something else?
He took small steps. As he got closer, the thing in the dark looked like two white lines swirling. He moved closer still. The white lines became arms, wrinkly, and old. Scab held his breath and raised his own arms in front of him as he stepped away. Stay quiet.
Long-nailed, white hands flashed towards him, scratching the backs of his hands, then pulled back into the dark. Scab yelped and pulled his hands to his chest.
A sniffing sound replaced clacking. He wanted to run but didn’t want to turn his back on whatever this thing was.
He took another step back. The thing in the dark sounded like it shuffled with him, wheezing. I shouldn’t have come here. I should’ve stayed at the cabin.
Something else grabbed him from behind and pulled him backwards by the clothes, his heels dragging. He flapped his arms, trying to grab something to hold on to, then found himself thrown into the light and got a face full of dirt from the forest floor. Silas stepped between him and the cave. He saved me.
“I’m starting to think you want to die.” Silas stepped backwards, knelt, and pulled him up.
“What was that?”
“That was about to be the end of you, boy.” Silas didn’t look away from the cave. “Get on the horse.”
“What was it?”
“Get on the horse, now.”
Scab climbed onto Vala.
