Trickery #13
You are hopelessly lost.
It has only been a few hours since you encountered the chimera, but the land changes so swiftly and with such variety in this strange, unconventional world that you cannot retain any sense of direction. Wandering aimlessly, you have found your way into an area that is composed of lush rainforest, the air thick and humid with moisture clinging to your fur. It is difficult to traipse through this even more hostile environment, but you are grateful to find many pools and rivers along the way, so you are able to finally quench your burning thirst. Although, you learn to drink with a wary eye and only from the shallows after the first crocodile rears out of the water, teeth bared dangerously. It had seemed to have done it more for sport than anything else, sinking back so that only its eyes and snout remained on the surface, watching you retreat.
To your surprise, apart from the reptiles lurking in deeper channels, there is very little wildlife to be seen and hardly any birds sing, flitting by from a distance. You try to shake off the sense of unease this gives you, focusing on your task: to find the hand mirror. Vaguely, you know that you are heading north, as the scroll said that the caves would be found to the north, but you do not know where these are - how are you to find them in this jungle? Shaking your head, you push on through a tangle of vines, whining quietly at the thorns, which snag painfully against your fur.
There is a pressure on the top of your head, as if you have a headache, although it is a foreign sensation – something abnormal about it. Without your consent, your paws cross over one another, edging off your chosen route and on to harder ground, stone biting at your pads. You stop in your tracks, hesitating against this force tugging on the corners of your mind. You don’t understand... You want to veer to your right and to a rockier area, which looks a great deal more difficult to traverse. Shaking yourself energetically, you try to keep to the more open path, not really wanting to go up over the rocks as it looks difficult to traverse and tiring on the paws...
But could they lead to the caves? Is that why you ‘want’ to investigate? Is the genie interfering with your head?
Written by Amethyst Mare on 12 July 2012
