Force of Nature or Forced Nature? Chapter 5
Hey guys, I’m back again with chapter 5 of my original story, Force of Nature or Forced Nature? It is also available on Archive of Our Own.
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"Do not worry. The Shadows are only truly dangerous to you if they can find leverage over you.
No matter what happens during your journey, you should never reveal any information aloud to anyone at any point, including your names."
"Well, that's just great! How are we supposed to do that?!" I guffawed abhorrently.
"I'm afraid that is all I can tell you for now. Good luck on your journey." The voice slowly faded away into a whisper.
"What? No, come back!" My sister begged frantically, ripping herself from my arms and running around the clearing trying to find the faded voice. "Hello? You can't just leave!"
I sighed heavily, somehow feeling thoroughly weary and utterly terrified all at once.
"I guess we're on our own now."
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It was too hot. The bright sun was beaming down on the forest trees without a cloud in sight. The trees were only absorbing the heat, making the air around us humid and almost unbearably thick.
My sister and I sat in the clearing in utter silence for a long time even after the voice had disappeared from our thoughts, wiped away from our minds almost like we had only ever imagined it in the first place.
The grass blanketing the clearing was much cooler in comparison than the rest of the forest, at least giving us some relief from the stifling weather.
My sister sobbed into my shoulder, still holding onto me with such a grip like her life depended on it.
I ran my hand up and down her back, my free hand running through her smooth, thick hair as I tried to soothe her. She had fallen silent a long time ago, but she still refused to move from her complacent position underneath my chin. I don't know which was harder for me to do- push down my tears or suppress another irate sigh from being audible- both sounded equally appealing to me at the moment.
But I couldn't do either.
I sighed internally instead, lightly patting my little sister on the back once more before standing up and plastering a grin across my face. I turned around with a quick huff and reached a hand out for her to take.
"Come on. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can get out of this weird place." She took my hand and pulled herself up, unsuccessfully trying to wipe away her tears and pretend they weren't there.
She crossed her arms around her chest, tightly tucking in her hands in a self-hug. "Where are we going?" As I followed her line of sight, I realized every direction out of the clearing around us looked nearly identical.
I bit my lip painfully, my eye subtly twitching in my irritation.
Would it kill anyone to just place a big, obvious flashing sign with an arrow sometime? Of course not.
I sighed, facepalming for a brief moment. I rolled my eyes, gently placing one of my hands on her back and pushing her ahead of me so I could easily watch out for her. "Let's go this way for now." She huffed at me, clenching her small fists at her sides and pouting until I nudged her forward again.
The forest got denser and denser with thick trees as we walked deeper into the forest. The weather was even more unbearable without the opening of the trees above us in the clearing, but somehow, the heat almost felt good on my skin.
I wasn't sweating like I normally would be on a hot summer day back at home. I knew it was hot in the forest, but the feeling of the sunlight on my skin and the humidity around us started to feel amazing, almost like taking a hot shower on a cold night.
I looked over to my sister, finally realizing that her clothes had also changed since we arrived here. Her favorite pair of baby pink pajamas had somehow turned into a black hoodie and satin skirt laid neatly over a pair of dark purple leggings, with a pair of low-heeled black boots to top it off.
She has to be burning up, that sweatshirt must feel stifling.
"Aren't you getting too hot in that hoodie?" I grabbed her hand before she could go too far, but she only shook her head at me.
"No, I feel fine." She shrugged her hand out of my grasp and continued forward into the forest. "Can we get out of here now? This place is starting to give me the creeps." She whined adorably.
All of a sudden, I felt a sharp tingling pain in my hand. When I looked down, my fingers had turned bright red and started twinging like I had just stuck my hand in a cup of freezing water. Her hand had felt like ice in my grasp.
We continued walking for a few more hours, pressing on further despite how tired we were getting. At this point, my feet were agonizingly aching with each step I took.
So far, this entire quest of ours was utterly pointless. We weren't even sure what we were really looking for. The only thing we could really do now was just endlessly search for something to help us or guide us somewhere else that we were never going to find. The scenery around us barely changed at all. We hadn't even come across anything other than more trees, and occasionally a few hills dividing the forest into higher and lower levels.
I sighed, trying to swallow down my cynical thoughts and continued the hike up the hills ahead of us.
This definitely isn't the time or place to be cynical. I need to be strong right now, for the both of us.
My wrists still felt as if they were on fire, still just as raw and throbbing from the rope burns I had suffered as before, even as I rubbed at them. That only seemed to make the pain worse, the friction from my gloves rubbing against the sensitive skin only managing to re-irritate it. They started to bleed once again, small red droplets beading from the wounds and running down my wrist until they dropped down into the grass below me.
My sister looked over in concern, glancing uneasily at the red streaks dripping down my hands. I waved her off easily, trying to pull down my rolled up sleeves over my hands to hide them from view. I ruffled her chestnut bangs and grinned as she tried to bat my hands away. "It's okay, I'm fin-"
A shrill cry suddenly echoed in this distance, sounding only a few meters away from us.
"What was that?!" I turned to look at my sister beside me, as she jumped and grabbed onto my arm in a death grip, cowering into my side.
A group of bushes directly to the right of us began trembling suspiciously and whispers could be heard emitting from it.
"There it is again!" I yanked her entirely behind me, making sure she was pressed tightly against my back, her fingers clutched in my shirt, as I quickly backed away from the brushes.
A new, unexpected voice spoke up in the distance, getting louder as it got closer, "See, that's exactly why I told you to wait for me. Maybe if you had actually listened-" A different, younger voice interrupted the first.
"How was I supposed to know there was a hill there?" The voice whined loudly, clearly trying to nurse some type of injury.
The first voice spoke up again in it's smooth, light German accent, this time rising in volume. "Don't interrupt me! I'm just trying to keep you safe. We don't even know where we are right now, what if you had gotten mauled by a bear or something?! I told you to stay next to me, and you didn't listen, and look what happened! You can't just go running off just because you feel like it, A-"
"Hello? Who's there?" I asked warily, raising my voice and keeping a good distance from the bushes.
The owners of the voices finally peeked out of the bushes, heading in our direction. A head of long, golden blonde hair popped out from behind one of the trees before us, walking carefully through the thorn bushes as a much shorter and younger brunette boy followed closely behind her, still rubbing at a blossoming bruise on his elbow.
"Who the hell are you, exactly?" A pair of bright green eyes blinked suspiciously at me, pausing several feet away and refusing to move an inch closer, placing her manicured hand to push the boy back towards the bushes, further away from me.
She was dressed almost oddly, wearing a tied white blouse over her fitted lilac t-shirt. Faded denim shorts sat just above her mix-matched length black mesh leggings, and black heels that seemed far too uncomfortable for walking graced her feet.
Almost in an opposite nature, the young boy she was shielding behind her wore a simple black hoodie unzipped over a warm cotton grey sweater, accented by his casual black jeans and white and purple converse.
"I'm-" I quickly caught myself before I finished, blinking hard. I tried another approach instead, "Look, I could ask you the same thing!" I retorted. "What are you doing here?"
"How the hell should I know?" She retorted, an irritated snarl curling her lips up. "Maybe you should ask whoever thought it was a good idea to just drop us in the middle of nowhere. I don't know, just an idea!" Sarcasm was dripping from her tone like a deadly acid just waiting to snap at someone.
I shifted uncomfortably and glanced away, unable to handle the strength of her glare burning back at me. "Well, it's not like I know why we're here either." I bit back at her with the same viciousness. I was never one to back down from a fight, even ones I didn't start or had any business getting involved with. My dad always told me I was too much of a hothead.
I guess old habits die hard.
I nibbled on my bottom lip, turning back to her emerald gaze with even more fire burning behind my hazel one. "We didn't come here looking for any trouble, we don't even want to be here, period. So, why don't you just leave us alone?"
Fury blazed in her eyes. "You-"
"Woah, woah, wait!" The little brunette boy beside the girl shouted, pushing her hand off of his chest and walking between the two of us, trying to quell the tensions rising off of us.
"What is wrong with you guys?! Didn't you hear the voice?" When we stared at him blankly, blinking in confusion, he rolled his eyes and huffed loudly. "You know, the creepy, bodiless one; tried to scare us to death when it started talking in our heads; kind of hard to forget?"
He shook his head, getting back to his point. "The voice said we were going to meet four other people who we would be our friends! We aren't supposed to be biting each other's heads off! We're supposed to be helping each other."
"He's right!" My sister piped up, wrestling out of my tight grip to peer from around me. "We heard about that too." She looked up at me, silently pleading for me to let the issue go. I grunted in response and looked away.
She knows I can't refute her puppy dog eyes. I frowned.
When I finally looked back up at the blonde, She was glancing over at the boy in front of us before looking down at the ground in shame, kicking the dirt around in her embarrassment at being so spiteful.
After a long moment of silence, she spoke up in a much kinder tone. "I guess they're right. If we want to get out of this stupid forest, we need to be working together, not arguing. I'm sorry."
I sighed quietly, stroking the top of my sister's hair. "Look, I'm sorry too. It's just… It's been a long few hours."
She nodded, clearing her throat.
"Well, now that that's over with, I guess we should introduce ourselves." Looking up at me for permission first, my sister walked over to the brunette boy, and extended a hand between them with a watery smile gracing her freckled face. "Nice to meet you, I'm-"
I cut her off immediately, wrapping my hand around her mouth and shaking my head. "What are you doing?" I whispered loudly next to her ear.
She pushed me away, pursing her lips irately. She hated admitting I was right, although I normally was. "Well, we have to call each other something!" She whisper-yelled back to me.
The blonde girl piped up, clearly eavesdropping on our not-at-all quiet conversation. "What if we used fake names? That way we could call each other something, without any problems."
I pondered it for a moment, before nodding. It was the best alternative at the moment, and at least it would make things slightly easier.
My sister tapped a finger on her chin, thinking of a good name to use. Finally, a lightbulb went off in her head and she grinned sweetly. "Oh, what about 'Abbie'? I think that's a good name, don't you?"
I smiled back at her, my eyes crinkling at the edges. "I think that's a great name."
The brunette boy piped up next to her, snapping his fingers in satisfaction. "I like 'Alex'."
The blonde walked up behind him, closing off the small circle we had formed. "You can call me… 'Emma'. I think that's a good one."
Everyone turned to stare over at me next, awaiting my answer. I blinked blankly back at them, unsure what to say. I thought long and hard for a name that would suit me, before a thought popped in my head about an old tale I had heard once as a child. My lip twitched briefly as I finally settled on the perfect name. I coughed briefly to clear my throat, and answered. "'Kai.' You can call me 'Kai.'"
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew my life wouldn't be the same after today.
