5 - Starved Plans

One Month Later

Lenny slowly turned a stick with a pair of skinned rats skewered on it over a campfire. Iago had limped off to go try and find some mushrooms, which took him quite some time normally.

Setting the rat skewer on their makeshift cooking stand she pulled her journal and quill out and began to write.

This plan was terrible! Plan, find the spirit and get rid of it, then come home a hero. But no of course it had to go wrong. Now I'm living off rats. I miss my soft sheets, my bed oh and I'd kill for a hot bath let alone some real food! But I heard the priest talk to my mother about giving my job to Iago! I am Lenette Mary Oakman! That's my job! I'm supposed to be in charge, and once I am I will be the Oakman who takes Crosswoods into a new era!

Seeing Iago come back into the little camp they had made Lenny snapped her journal shut. She smiled at Iago as he sat on the ground next to her rubbing his underarms.

"Find those mushrooms?" Lenny asked which took a few seconds for Iago to respond.

"Uhh... mushrooms?" They sat silent for a moment before Iago laughed weakly, "Well I sorta, kinda, forgot...?"

"How can you forget? There's nothing out here!" Lenny shouted as she pulled the rat skewer off the fire and slammed it onto the rock they had been using as a table.

"I fainted, Len." Iago responded pulling himself over to their table as he started pulling apart his rat.

"You haven't had a problem with fainting for a couple years." Lenny pointed out. She tore apart her rat, taking out her frustration on it.

"It happens more when I'm not eating as well, plus I've been fainting every so and then for over a year now, you've just been more busy with your sword lessons you definitely aren't slipping away from your mom to do." Iago paired, clearly trying to change the subject of their lunch conversation.

"I'm doing what I can, Len, I can hardly tell what's real out here."

In The Woods An Hour Before

Iago sat up, he was laying on the ground. He was trying to remember what he was doing out here, he couldn't remember. Iago called out his voice shaking with fear.

"Lenny! Len, where are you?" A voice answered, but it wasn't Lenny's.

"There you are Iago. I thought you'd never come looking for me, I wanna introduce you to some friends of mine. They say they know you." It was Cass, Iago's childhood friend and before Cass passed from Illness and Iago's first love, Cass had fallen ill before Iago's parents died and he passed away only a year after them.

Iago looked over at the source of Cass's voice, it was a black wolf that didn't seem completely solid. The wolf had Cass's warm chestnut eyes, and to a perfect match, his voice. Before Iago could respond four wolves made of the same black smoke had shown up, now all five wolves had circled Iago. But it was Cass that spoke.

"The others can't talk anymore, yet they all died after me. Funny how that works." Iago slowly looked around at the other wolves, his stomach dropping. He turned back to Cass and asked.

"Cass, Why are you the only one with eyes?" The wolf with Cass's eyes lunged at Iago, as its jaws shut on Iago's neck he jolted awake.

Iago was lying on the ground in the forest again. Iago felt light headed and as if he was going to puke. Without letting his head or stomach settle he pulled himself up and set off to get back to him and Lenny's camp as fast as his crutches would allow.