Take a break

It was day three of being in the forest, and it would seem that the more they went deeper into the forest, the less chance they had of finding the end to this forest.

It was like the trees got thicker and thicker as they moved deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest, and it was starting to get darker as well.

"You know what I find weird?" asked Matt as they were all making their way through the forest.

"What?" asked Maddie and Annie as they looked at Matt.

"The fact that every single place we go, there is always a stream" said Matt as he could hear a stream peacefully flowing not too far away, it was calming for his ears, but he could not help but wonder of the coincidence of there being a stream everywhere they went.

"Yeah?" asked Maddie as she did not get what he was trying to say.

"I can hear another stream not too far away" said Matt.

"You know what, that is weird" said Annie.

"But a good kind of weird, because without these streams, how would we have been able to get water to drink?" asked Annie.

"Yes, that is true" said Maddie as she looked at Curtis who was just quietly walking, she wondered if he was okay, because he had not said a single word for a long time now, and sure he was usually always quiet, but she wondered if he was feeling weak and lightheaded and hence why he did not talk as to save his energy.

"Which makes me wonder if all these streams are from one source?" asked Matt.

"They probably are" said Ollie as he replied.

"It is highly probable that all these streams are from one main water source" said Ollie as he thought that it would be cool to explore further, but they just had no time for that at all right now, they had to keep on going and moving forward.

"Now that's just disgusting, think about it, if something pollutes the main source of water, then that means that all the streams will be polluted as well" said Maddie as she almost gagged just thinking about the fact.

"And that is why we boil the water before we drink it" said Annie as she smiled.

"Mhmm" said Maddie as she shook her head, in all her seventeen years of life, she had never had to live like this before, she was used to the common, basic luxuries of living, which were beds, light, safe water to drink and much more but now, for what seemed to be for the past month, she had been living like a barbarian it was so funny, but not funny at the same time.

Not to even talk about the fact that she had lived without magic for such a long time now, it was unreal, that they had actually survived this far without magic, she was actually proud of herself, but now they knew how Annie felt without her powers, and she could tell you that it was one of the worst feelings ever, you felt like a part of you had been taken away.

"The stream right there" said Matt as the trees around them stopped as they gave way to an opening that led to a peaceful stream.

"You know what, maybe we should take a break, my feet are killing me" said Maddie as she sighed, her feet were hurting from all the walking, she was even surprised that she did not get any blisters from all this walking.

"I agree let's take a break" said Annie as they walked closer to the stream.

"Alright then" said Matt as Maddie sighed in relief and she sat down on the ground, she had to get off her feet for a while, they were really doing a good job by walking all this while, and Matt placed down all their bags son the ground.

Ollie went to take a closer look at the stream as he saw his reflection in the clear water, and he tried to look ahead to see if he could see the end of the stream, but he could see nothing at all.

Matt walked to where Ollie was by the stream as Annie sat beside Maddie and they were talking as Curtis looked around as if he was trying to remember something, but he seemed to give up on that as he walked to where Ollie and Matt were standing as he looked into the stream, he had not seen his reflection for a while, and now that he did, he realized that he looked very weak, his eyes were dim, and the colour of his skin was pale, and that was saying something considering that he had brown golden skin.

It just showed how much blood he had lost and it was very dangerous, he himself wondered if they would be able to make it in time, before it was too late for him.

Matt and Ollie were talking, when suddenly Matt's ears picked up something that sounded like somebody stepping on a twig as he turned to look at the forest.

"What's wrong Matt?" asked Ollie as he turned to look in the direction where Matt was looking at.

Matt narrowed his eyes as he saw no one in sight, they were the only ones here, and there were no animals as well, and Annie and Maddie were not standing, they were sitting, so they could not have stepped on a twig.

"It's nothing…" said Matt as he shrugged off his thoughts, he thought that maybe he was only hearing things that were not there.

"I see" said Ollie as he did not think that it was nothing at all, but well, he just continued on talking.

Curtis bent down to touch the stream, it was very cold, he only want to touch it to see if he still had feeling in his hand, and he did, which relieved him, so he dried his hand and he stood up again.

Matt's ears twitched once again, and he wondered what was wrong with them, was his brain just playing tricks on him?? There was no one here except them, so Matt decided to ignore his ears, no matter how annoying they were.

As Matt was trying to ignore the rustling sounds that he was hearing as he spoke to Ollie, in that same moment as Curtis turned feeling that someone was watching them a white arrow came flying straight for Curtis's face it all happened so quickly that Curtis had no time to react at all.

He just stood there frozen, he could not move in time, and the arrow was aiming straight for his head, all Curtis could do was close his eyes waiting for the impact, and in that same moment, Matt's reflexes kicked in as he caught the arrow right before it could hit Curtis.

"*Gasp*, Curtis, Curtis, are you alright?" asked Annie as she gasped and she quickly stood up and rushed to Curtis when she realized that there was an arrow aiming for him.

"I'm fine" said Curtis as he opened his eyes and he looked at Matt who had the arrow in his hand as he looked at it.

"Who shot that arrow?" asked Ollie as he looked at the arrow, everything just happened to quickly that it took him a while to react, he just saw Matt move, and the next thing he knew, he had stopped an arrow that was aimed straight for Curtis.

"That arrow was aimed straight for you Curtis, gosh" said Maddie as she walked to where the others were beside Curtis as Annie worriedly made sure that Curtis was okay, if not for Mat catching that arrow, they would be doing something different right now.

"We are not alone" said Matt seriously as he looked at Curtis.

"What do you mean that we are not alone, you mean that there is somebody here?" asked Maddie in confusion.

"Yes" replied Matt as he closed his eyes and he focused, he could hear his own heartbeat, as well as Annie's racing heartbeat, along with Maddie and Ollie's as well, Curtis also had a steady heartbeat, but to his surprise, he heard another heartbeat, that was beating very quickly not too far from where they were standing.

"There is someone else here, a human" said Matt as he opened his eyes, he could hear their heartbeat.

"But that's impossible, we are the only ones here aren't we?" asked Maddie as in that same moment Matt heard a tree branch break and so did everyone else as they turned to look in the direction of where they heard the branch break.

"Hey, you stop right there!" said Matt as he saw a cloaked figure quickly stand up and take off running as fast as they could and Matt quickly followed after the person.

"Huh??" asked Maddie in confusion as Ollie quickly ran after Matt.

"You both stay here, we will be right back" said Maddie as she quickly ran after Ollie and Matt as they chased after whoever that person was.