Genesis : Knights of Salvation Series

I’m shaken awake from my usual nightmares to see Harrison leaning over me. Like always a large proud smile sits across his face. The morning sun just barely rises to give a light blue haze to the still dark morning. I let out a slow grown, I would guess I only got about five hours of sleep, and yet I’m not that tired. I just want to lie here only for a little longer. I lift myself up onto my elbows and look around. Clare is already up rolling up her bedding, Enyo and Orion are both off by the rock I sat guard yesterday chatting about something. Harrison moves from my side to roll up his bedding too.

Talon is next to foxglove who is sitting up, they are looking over her leg. From this angle, I can’t tell how bruised she is but I don’t doubt her leg is covered in blues and greens. I lift myself up a louder groan coming from me as I notice the soreness and pain cascading through my back. Harrison looks up from his bedroll to me worry on his face.

“Are you okay?” I nod my head letting out a pained breath.

“I’m guessing the bruises from my reckless actions yesterday have set in,” I say giving him a faint smile. He just laughs as he walks over to me. He leans down extending his hand out to me. I take his hand wincing slightly as I stand up.

“Here, let me check you out, make sure it isn’t too bad.” He says with a faint smile. I let out a heavy breath and turn around pulling the back of my shirt up higher. Harrison reaches out slightly grabbing my shirt and pulling it higher than I can as I cross my arms around my chest to make sure I did not show any of my goods. I arch my back slightly with the cool morning air hitting my bare skin. Harrison’s rough, warm hands slide over my back sending another shiver over me. His hands move softly and gently as he looks over my bruised back. An odd silence settles around us as Harrison looks over my back.

“So?” I speak up. Harrison takes a second to evaluate me.

“Well, your back is covered with bruises, but they aren’t too bad.” He says. His hands drop my shirt.

“That’s good,” I say turning around and fixing my shirt, pulling it down further.

“I can give you some pain medicine if you would like?” Harrison says crossing his arms. I just shake my head giving him a smile.

“I can deal with the pain of the bruises, It’s not like I haven’t had a bruise before.” I shrug laughing slightly. Something flashes in his eyes faster than I can catch it and he just nods his head.

“Alright, let me know if you need any.” He says turning away to finish packing. My eyes go beyond him to see Enyo’s eyes on me as Orion stands beside him talking about something. I shake off the feeling of his eyes on me and turn around to pack up my stuff.

By the time I’m done packing my stuff onto my horse, the sky is just lighting itself with oranges and purples as the sun is still barely rising. Most of the team has already packed up as we get ready to leave. I make my way to my uniform shirt and look over it. The shirt is dry by now but also stiff from the odd angle of its drying. I analyze every part of it to make sure theirs no signs of blood still on it.

“Alright, let’s head out,” Enyo orders out grabbing our attention. I whip out my shirt getting it loose than before. I quickly throw on the uniform shirt and head to my horse. I wince slightly as I grab the nose of the saddle and climb onto my horse. Once everyone is saddled up, including foxglove who sits on her own horse and lets her injured leg hang loosely. We begin to make our way down the valley, as we ride most of the group sits silently still waking up from their already small amount of sleep.

We ride for about two hours as the sun rises brightly over us when Enyo in front of us begins to slow. In front of us, the valley breaks up into three ways. The two on the sides jaggedly turned off to the sides spanning off into parts unknown. The one in the middle wavers off into the distance until turning away. Enyo stops moving completely as we all wait for him to decide which path we will take. To say every single one of us waits anxiously is an understatement. For what felt like an hour or is it just five minutes, we sit silently.

Talon finally speaks up in a whisper to foxglove who rides behind me and in front of him. “He’s not making me feel confident in his decision.” I can’t help but smile at Talon. I take in a deep breath and look up, closing my eyes. The sun is just barely beginning to heat up the day and I’m thankful for the warmth. I’m not exactly a person with much meat on me making it very hard to stay warm.

As I sit with my eyes closed I feel a tugging. It’s not the kind I would feel if Clare was pulling on my shirt. It’s like my mind is being pulled away to something else. I allow whatever it is to pull my mind. That feeling settles over me, the one I felt while crossing the river. As if one of them is just around the corner. I can feel its breath as if it was breathing right down my neck. Its thumping footsteps seem to echo into my ears. And then another one breathing, then another. Until what felt like hundreds of them were surrounding me while my eyes are closed. My eyes bolt open as if a bolt of lightning struck me in the heart. I look around quickly, my breathing growing ragged at the sudden thought of so many around me.

" Like I had a road map I felt them. Hundreds of them to my right side, sitting as if waiting for Enyo to make the wrong call. On the farthest left of us sits a few of them just like anywhere we will be going but exactly in front of us sits the quiet. An eerie quiet, I don’t know which way we should go. I don’t know the maps as Enyo or even Orion does but I could feel my stomach turn when I look at the path to the right.

“Clare?” I speak up quietly pulling her attention. I scoot my horse up so I’m beside her.

“He can’t go to the right,” I tell her. I know she can see the worry in my eyes and on my face.

“What are you talking about?” She asks urgently.

“There are hundreds of them down the right path.” I try my best to explain.

“How do you know?” her face goes steel cold as worry fills her eyes just like mine.

“I don’t-I’m not sure I just... I can feel them! Hundreds of them! Clare, you have to go tell him he can’t go that way.” I all but scream at her my hand grabbing her wrist. She grabs my hand to get me to calm down.

“Aspen quiet down. Breath...” She orders and I try my best to follow her commands. She thinks for a moment then looks at me urgently with a stern stillness in her words.

“The other two paths? What do you feel?” She asks. I shake my head trying to remember the feeling I had, I blink for a moment.

“The middle ones dead quiet... like nothing alive lives down it,” I say swallowing hard trying to get a grip of my nerves.

“The left?” She pushes. I shake my head getting frustrated with her.

“What does that matter?” I argue.

“Aspen! tell me?” She pushes. I huff out an angry breath and think again.

“There’s a few that way,” I say confused. Clare nods and thinks for a second until suddenly Enyo up front begins moving down the middle sending a dark shiver down my spine. It’s like a cold wind blew right into my heart. I don’t like any of this, I especially hated the feelings I get from each of them. Clare digs her heels into her horse’s side surging up past Harrison and Orion. Her horse bolts in front of Enyo’s making everyone get quiet and confused.

I can’t hear what she says, but it seems as if the two of them are arguing as Enyo sits up straighter and Clare’s face gets angry and set with determination. After a few moments, the arguing stops as Enyo backs up and turns heading down the left pathway. The rest of us follow as Clare hangs back waiting until I get closer. When I do she rides into the line next to me. I whisper over to her making sure the others won’t hear me.

“What did you say?” I asked confused.

“I told him that I had information that said we should go down the left path.” She fills in.

“But there’s forsaken down this path? Why this one?” I ask even more confused.

“The path with the hundreds you felt is the small town, the middle where you said it felt empty is the rocks cliffs that kill everything, so the only sensible decision is this way.” She says but she doesn’t seem too confident in herself.

“And if I was wrong?” I ask worried that I may have been making things up in my head. That’s a sign of me getting sicker, starting to lose my mind.

“Well then...... were all about to die.” She shrugs way too calmly for my taste. We continue riding and a part of me can feel the forsaken growing closer. So I prepare myself for the next few hours in front of us.