Hawthorne slept on the floor; the room was so small he didn’t have any space to stretch his wings. He groaned and sighed sulkily, shifting this way and that to try and get comfortable.
I could not sleep. My mind was full of horrible thoughts. I could hear Jack snoring loudly from the room next door and suddenly I felt immensely alone. Helena, my mother and my father had been taken. The only person in my life at the moment was Jack, who felt a million miles away.
Hours later I woke to see that sunlight was streaming in through the open curtains. The night had passed in the blink of an eye.
I hoisted myself from the bed, my stomach growling loudly.
In the kitchen, Jack rummaged in his pockets and pulled out what little money he had. I did the same and we piled the coins together.
‘Well, we can afford breakfast,’ said Jack once he had counted the small pile, ‘but not much else. We might have to make do with just buying some ingredients.’
Once we were dressed and presentable we ventured into the little village. I had sent Hawthorne into the woods so he could find his own breakfast and we would meet him back at the house after an hour.
I took Jack to the small markets in town where we bought supplies to last us a few days. We bought bread, potatoes, rice, water and a pheasant. Since I was a Fire Mage we would always have a way to cook our food. I refused point-blank to have any part in skinning or cleaning the pheasant. That would be Jack’s job. We bought two cheese buns for ourselves, which we ate greedily as we walked back to the house. When we returned, I saw that Hawthorne had found a squirrel and he crunched the bones noisily. The sound made my stomach churn uneasily.
‘I packed a blanket,’ Jack told me as he hoisted a rucksack over his shoulder.
‘I have the food and the map,’ I noted, checking my own bag, ‘and what little money we have left.’
It was pitiful, really, but I ignored the nervous feeling in my stomach. After all, hadn’t I travelled to Frost Arch with nothing but a few morsels of food and very few coins? This felt different though because this time, I was dragging Jack and Hawthorne along with me.
‘We will have to fly at night so no one spots Hawthorne,’ Jack told me. ‘We will go as far as we can on foot until it gets dark.’
~
Jack and I followed the path that lead out of town. We walked through the trees, only straying a few meters from the winding trail. The ground was uneven off the beaten track and Jack tripped clumsily several times. Hawthorne walked over the potholes and tree roots as though they weren’t there at all. As we walked, Jack reviewed the map, pointing and muttering things under his breath.
Jack nodded to himself. ‘Yes, I think we should walk for three hours, have an hour break for lunch before walking some more. When it gets dark we can fly for another hour before finding somewhere to stay the night.’
‘Okay,’ I agreed. My stomach was already rumbling even though the cheese bun had not been that long ago.
Jack and I talked very little while we marched through the woods. Every now and then Jack would deviate from under the cover of the trees to make sure we were still following the adjacent path. Sometimes Hawthorne would spy a small critter in the distance and would bound off in pursuit of it. This did not bother me because I had no other way of feeding Hawthorne. He was exceedingly self-sufficient.
It became rather awkward when the time came that Jack and I needed to relieve our bladders. It was all well and good for him; he could disappear amongst the trees and emerge only a few seconds later – task completed, but I was not so lucky. I fidgeted, whined and danced on the spot until Jack was so sick of my complaining that he ordered me to go. I was not enthusiastic about this.
‘It’s embarrassing,’ I said as Jack pushed me towards the depths of the forest.
‘Just go’ he said rolling his eyes.
‘You will forever remember me as the girl who went on a tree.’
‘It’s either that or I remember you as the girl who went in her underpants,’ Jack retorted.
Fair point, I thought.
With a sigh I ducked and weaved through the trees until I was absolutely sure that Jack was out of sight and earshot. I had only just lifted my dress above my ankles when a tantalising smell reached my nostrils. Sniffing the air, I turned this way and that; trying to figure out which direction the smell was coming from.
I followed the delicious smell deeper into the forest, before emerging in a clearing. Little houses sat within a valley; smoke billowing merrily from their chimneys. Then I spotted it, an Inn.
‘Jack!’ I called over my shoulder, into the trees. ‘Jack!’
I figured he couldn’t hear me, so I ran back to find him. When they came into view, I saw that Jack was leaning casually against Hawthorne.
‘Done?’ he asked.
‘No’ I panted. ‘There’s a village on the other side of the trees.’
‘A village?’ Jack frowned, pulling out the map, ‘The closest village to Mortlock is … Hew town.’