When I felt my eyes begin to slowly open I couldn't stop myself from sighing with relief. My eyes opening was a good sign because it meant that I was at the very least alive. I had to blink several times as the sun light hit them. I must have out for quite some time because the sun light was so harsh that I had to squint for a few minutes before my eyes adjusted. My body on the other hand felt sore on every inch. It was the same feeling you receive when you're shocked by static electricity. My entire body tingled and hurt as if I had stood in side one of those orbs that has the electricity traveling to the glass sphere from a center piece. Opening my eyes I found myself lying on the ground branches covered in leaves above me.
I figured I would find myself staring up at the sky with towering canyon walls on either side of me. I thought that my body would be entirely broken from hit the ground yet I was able to sit up with no issue. I didn't feel like I had a single broken bone. My legs were bruised and cut from running through the woods without really paying attention to where I was going. Even my shoulder felt sore from how hard that guy with the tattoo had been pulling it. Was it possible that I had just dreamed all that? I could have fallen asleep without realizing it and had a very vivid dream. The only thing is if all of that had been a dream then where did all the cuts and bruises on my legs come from? You don't just magically wake up to find your legs with cuts and bruises on them. Yet if it wasn't all a dream how would I have survived a fall from that broken bridge in to a canyon twenty stories down?
"About time you woke up."
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard someone speak. Turning around I saw the man with tattoo on his back sitting with his back against a trunk of a tree. He sat with one knee close to him with his arm rested on top. In fact he looked a little irritated at the moment with possibly a hint of boredom. I groaned when I saw him realizing that everything that had happened wasn't a dream at all. In fact if it was all real how in the world had we ended up here instead of turning in to pancakes at the bottom of the canyon?
"What happened? The last thing I remember is us plummeting to our deaths." I questioned.
"What happened was me having to ruin a good shirt to save your nosy butt." he answered.
"No reason to be rude." I pointed out. "What do you mean you ruined a shirt?"
"You really are oblivious aren't you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
I took a second to take a harder look at him before I realized he wasn't wearing a shirt any more. I could feel my cheeks get very warm when I noticed his bare chest. Every muscle in his chest was well defined along with a few white scars around his abs. What the hell had happened to his shirt? I don't think anything that we had done would have caused his shirt to be ruined.
"When you're done ogling me do mind telling me what you were thinking in attacking Marcus?" he wondered.
"Not too sure any more seeing as you're clearly ungrateful that someone was willing to stick their neck out to help you. From where I was you looked like you needed help so I did what any decent human being would do." I explained.
He didn't respond right away watching me as if he was trying to figure me out. I wasn't too sure what his deal was but I've never met someone who was as ungrateful for help as he was being right now. Sure there are quite a few people in my life that don't even say thank you when I help them but I've never had someone question my motives for helping. After a couple of minutes he took a deep breath seeming to calm down a bit his shoulders seeming to relax.
"What's your name anyways?" he asked.
"Riley, am I assuming you're going to tell me your name?" I replied.
"No wonder you're such a tomboy with a boys name and you're a girl." he smirked. "I'm Will."
"Are you this rude to everyone you know?" I wondered.
"Well seeing as saving you has caused me quite a bit of grief then yes." he replied.
"Great. I managed to help out a complete jerk." I sighed standing up.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked noticing that I was fixing to leave.
"I'm going home before my mom has a heart attack wondering what had happened to me. If you don't mind I would prefer to distance myself from you as much as possible seeing as you are just an ungrateful jerk and that Marcus guy could show up at any moment." I said making sure that my backpack was secure on my back.
"What are you going to do if you run in to him out there on your own?" he wondered.
"I'll give him one hell of a fight."
"Well that would be an extremely short fight especially since you managed to burn your hand." he said pointing at my hand.
Looking down at my hand I then noticed that there was actually black fabric wrapped around the palm of my hand. I had been so focused on figuring out what was going on and the fact my entire body was sore I hadn't noticed how much my hand actually hurt. How had a burned my hand? I do remember the dagger I was holding was warm but it didn't feel hot enough to burn my hand. So when had I burned my hand during everything that had happened.
"You shouldn't have picked up his rinket blade. Those things burn anyone that picks them up that isn't the original owner or a blood relative." he explained
"That doesn't make any sense. What your describing sounds more like-"
"Magic?" he said finishing my sentence for me. "I would think so since the dwarves that make them charge a pretty penny for them."
"How hard did you hit your head back there?" I asked.
"Figures you'd be skeptical about magic seeing as you come from that world." he said shaking his head.
"So you expect me to believe because you say so that magic exist and now you're apparently from another world. Sounds like solid information from someone who took a pretty nasty hit to the head." I said rolling my eyes at him.
"It's not my job to convince you or even to protect you. So if you want to wonder off to go home be my guest but it might be hard to find home when you don't even know where you are." he stated.
"I know these woods better than most people that has lived in the area their entire life. I can find my way home even through the dark. I'm sure I'll get home in no time." I said.
"You aren't going to find your way home. Try taking a hard look around you. If you know the area around your home so well then you should be able to recognize where you currently are." he sighed waving his hands around him.
I frowned as I began looking around me. I felt my jaw tighten when I began to realize I didn't recognize the area I was in at all. The bark on the trees around me seemed lighter than what I was used to seeing in the forest around my home. Even the leaves on the branches had a different shape to them. The grass under my feet was growing quite thick with tiny white flowers poking up every few feet. As far as I could remember flowers like this don't grow anywhere in the forest around my home. Where in the world was I? I was very clearly far from home and if I go wondering aimlessly I could potentially make things worse by getting lost. I had no choice but to listen to what Will has to say.
"So if you're so smart where are we then?" I sighed.
"We're pretty deep in to Maemoor Forest. I know of a town nearby where I have some friends that might be able to help you get home and out of my hair." he answered standing up wiping dirt off his pants.
"I didn't realize I was such a bother to you since I am the one that saved your life." I pointed out.
"I would have been just fine without your help but since you did butt in it's not my responsibility to make sure you don't end up dead." he said. "Don't be mistaken I'm far from a hero just don't feel like cleaning up the mess when Marcus catches up."
"If I thought you were some kind of hero I would think they wouldn't be so rude to the person they seem to claim they are about to protect." I said.
"Fine by me. Now can we get moving. I'm pretty sure Marcus is still looking for us right now and I would rather not have to fight him again while having to protect you." Will said.
"Lead the way."
Even as I began to follow I was getting the feeling the maybe I should go the opposite direction. Something in my gut was telling me that following him would just lead me in to more danger. Yet as much as I boasted that I can take care of myself I clearly remembered how they fought. If I were to come across Marcus again on my own I wasn't sure how much of a fight I would be able to put up. From what I could tell Will was clearly an ass but at the same time he didn't seem to really wish me any harm. He did wrap my burnt hand which was something he didn't have to do. At the same time he could have just left me on my own in the middle of nowhere. For now I was just going to have to be very careful with him.
As we were walking I was a couple steps behind Will. Since I was behind him I was able to see his bare back with the full tattoo exposed. It appeared to be a tribal tattoo of wings that had some delicate tendrils that came out the wings around his shoulders. Each feather in his tribal tattoo had so much detail to them that I nearly tripped over my own feet staring at it. I've never seen such a simple tattoo with so much detail in it at the same time. I was pretty sure though if my dad could see me walking with a shirtless man with an enormous tattoo on his back he would have fit. He always sees those with tattoos as bad news and would prefer if I stayed far away from someone that might be trouble. So far since I met him my dad may be right about him.
While we were walking Will didn't bother with trying to make conversation with me. My mind began to wonder and began to think about what Will had said to me earlier. He seemed so convinced about that dagger I had picked up after Marcus had dropped was magical. I had pulled back the bandage around my hand and was able to see the clearly burned skin. I was now going to have a permanent imprint of the hilt from the dagger on my palm. Was it possible that he's right about the dagger being magical? The burn on my had is evidence that the dagger clearly burned me but with it being enchanted that was the hard part me to believe. I was even having a hard time believing that we're in another world in the Maemoor Forest. I could probably believe a magical dagger but not traveling to another world. Maybe when we got to his friends I can get home where things actually make sense.
We walked for what felt like hours and Will refused to stop till the sun was actually setting. I fell on to my butt my feet throbbing from all the walking we had done. I've never spent an entire day walking before so my legs felt like they were lead. I barely had a moment to rest before Will pointed out we need to collect some fire wood to make a campfire. Once we had a good pile of wood that would keep the fire going well in to the night. The ground may be hard but after all of the walking we did today it felt as soft as my mattress does back home. I opened my backpack glad that I had it still because I had made sure to pack with it with quite a bit of food. Will on the other hand muttered something about going hunting and disappeared in to the darkness.
As I sat there in the darkness munching on a bag of trail mix my eyes kept darting every which way. The fire at my feet made the shadows around me jump and dance. I kept seeing things that weren't there. The fact that Marcus is still out there only made sitting around the fire alone all the more unnerving. I wasn't too sure how I was going to fall asleep tonight wondering if Marcus was going to catch up to us in the middle of the night. I sighed a little when Will came back but I felt my stomach tighten a little when I saw two dead rabbits in his hands. He then pulled out a knife from inside his boot and actually skinned them in front of me exposing the rabbit's muscles. I immediately put my food back in my backpack no longer hungry after witnessing the rabbits get skinned. I had to look away when he stabbed long sticks through the rabbits so that he could cook them over the fire. I've cooked meat over a camp fire in the past but I've never killed the meat myself. My family and I always just got the meat from the store. I didn't even want to know how Will had killed those two rabbits. The thought alone unsettled me a little.
"How much further to do we have to go?" I asked when he finally finished eating.
"We should get there by tomorrow night." he answered lying back on to the ground hands behind his head. "I suggest you get as much sleep as you can because we aren't stopping till we get there."
"Great." I muttered.
I laid back on to the ground as well placing my backpack underneath my head for some cushion. I laid there for nearly an hour staring up in to the branches over my head. I could just make out some of the night sky between the branches. I could tell that the night sky was clear from how bright the stars shined and the way the moon light came through the branches. I was really hoping that Will's so called friends could help me get home because I could all ready see my mom hiking through the forest looking for me. I knew my mom well enough to know that she would keep looking for me till she found me. The last thing I would want to do is hurt my parents and with every minute I'm gone I was causing them more pain. When I finally fell asleep it was through tears that silently fell from my eyes.
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