Lost

When Rumius arrived infront of the line of trees that visibly separated the mountain plain into two, he realised how tall the trees here were. It was as if more animals just decided to come here, or the sun had decided to favour this particular section a little more than the others. The woods surrounding their teleporting shack had been slightly more dense, Rumius noted, but the trees here were at least three metres taller and more spaced out. 

The thick bark shot up into the sky almost like bamboo. Rumius ran his hands over the dark-coloured skin, finding it surprisingly smooth. At the top, branches created small canopies full fully filled with needle-like leaves that reached out in layers. They resembled pine trees, and for good reason, considering the chilly mountain climate. 

Rumius stepped into the forest, walking straight forward without too much of a destination in mind. Rumius looked around, trying to find his bearing and grasp a vague sense of direction. He was also keeping a lookout for any craters or broken branches to might signify that a spell came through. 

" Maybe that way." He muttered as he tried to picture his position from an onlookers' point of view, puzzling out the possible trajectories of the blasts. But the large trees threw him off, and the fact was that he had never been anywhere like this before. 

' I should probably head further in. I probably won't find anything here. It's too shallow.' 

Rumius briefly considered the idea of finding that one tree that was unfortunate enough to be the subject of his mistress's demonstration when she had lost it on him earlier, but soon dismissed the idea. 

There probably wasn't much left of the tree to be seen, anyway. 

Rumius's journey took him far into the forest. And somewhere along the way, the little pit stops to catch his breath had become something Rumius looked forward greatly to. The ambiance of the forest, the trees, the sounds, the air. Rumius could taste the magic in the air.

At each turn, Rumius would find a new creek, whose gentle melody and little watery inhabitants brought a smile to his face. If not a creek, it was the glimpse of a new animal, or species of vegetable that he had never seen before. There had been a group of deer-like creatures earlier, but Rumius hadn't approached them for fear of them being aggressive. 

Two magnificent blue antlers sprouted from their head and a cloak of either black, white or brown fur covered their bodies. 

When Rumius rounded the next bend, he nearly sat down on a clump of beautifully spotted mushrooms. In fact, they were the largest mushroom she had ever seen. If not for his current mission, he would have taken some back. The bread and cheese with salted and peppered hot water three times a day was beginning to become boring. 

Rumius took a seat next to them and observed the surroundings.

' God...how long have I been walking?' He wondered. 

' It feels like forever.' He looked up at the sun which was still shining brightly above. However, it was directly overhead now. When he had left, it had still been behind him. Rumius estimated that he had about three hours left, four at most, before he had to return. That was before the sun began its descent down beneath the horizon.

Rumius looked around, and from the corner of his eye, noticed a slightly farther off section of the forest where the greenery seemed to have been uprooted, leaving a slightly naked plot of land, the colour of sand and dirt. Rumius went to check. 

Rumius stumbled slightly through the bushes and came to face with a crater in the forest floor. Calling it a crater was probably an overstatement, but at least that was what it looked like to him. 

The diameter hole was nearly two metres in length, not to mention its depth. It was at least half a metre deep. The incline was sharp and the immediate surroundings looked as if a typhoon had come through. This further out got it a little better, but they still looked rather roughed up. The dirt from the crater had been blasted aside haphazardly, creating a scene of chaos. 

Rumius stepped into the mouth of the crater, taking in the sight of the destroyed earth with a sense of awe. 

' I…did this?' He almost couldn't believe his own eyes.

' Haha….oh my god..' 

' What would happen if someone got hit by this?' He suddenly thought. 

Casting another look at the gaping crater on the ground, Rumius could only reach a single conclusion. 

' They'd get pulverised.' As he said the words, it was like a weight was pressing down on him. 

' No way a normal human would survive something like this. But..' 

Rumius remembered all the times he had seen magic used in his mansion. Especially his mother's magic that allowed her to fly through the sky so quickly and freely, and the guard captain's prowess with a sword, if that's even magic at all. 

' That's right. None of the people in this world are normal people. I'm going to need a lot more than this if I want to excel here.' 

The thought instantly got Rumius to concentrate. He made sure to look at every nook, every cranny and at every last detail that the impact site offered him. He burned the very image of it into his mind. And when he was confident and done, he quickly found that lot of time had already passed.

Rumius had also fired off several spells off into sky at an angle such that it would not hit any of the trees. The chantless casts were coming along so much more smoothly. Hell, he'd probably made more progress in this single hour than in the last two days of firing away from the hill combined!

 The imagery of the outcome was taking significantly less time. Rumius found himself reliably able to cast a proper spell. Although Its power and speed still left much to be desired, Rumius decided that would be enough for today. 

He cast one more look into the darkening sky and it told him into that he was overdue to return. Taking one last look around, Rumius pumped his legs with mana and raced off again into the forest, retracing his steps. 

Without the sun directly above, Rumius suddenly found the forest a lot darker as he weaved through the trees. He tried using the small streams and creeks that he'd found along the way as waypoints, but it was futile. Eventually he couldn't tell one tree from another tree. It was all blending together, and it was getting worse.

Rumius looked upwards again, the sun was already gaining traction on its downward descent. He had an hour of good daylight left at best. 

A small seed of panic planted itself in his chest as he surveyed the darkening fauna. It wasnt as if everything was pitch black yet but still, Rumius could begin to see the gradients of colour shifting. 

' Shit.…., well great job Rumius you're lost.' He said to himself, wringing his hands slightly. 

'Arghhhhh… I'm not getting anywhere like this! If I continue on the ground, I'm just going to end up even more lost. I….need to see things from a vantage point to know where the hell I am.' He thought.

But Rumius also knew that it was there which lay the rub. It was all forest around here. Where was he supposed to find a position that was taller than these trees....oh. 

Rumius looked up into the sky again, but this time, he wasn't looking at the sky. He was looking at the trees.

' You've got to be kidding me.' He cursed.

Making a decision quickly, Rumius backed up several paces and ran. When he jumped, he aimed for the nearest branch and caught it, handing from the wood on one hand like a trapped kite. The branch swayed for one beat, creaked for a second, then held firm. Rumius shifted his grip further inwards and then pulled himself up. 

By the time he reached the top, Rumius felt like a porcupine. A out of breath, dirtied but alive porcupine. There were spiky leaves in his hair, on his clothes, in his clothes. But at least he was here. Rumius slicked back his hair and shook off several loose leaves. He looked around. And smiled.

Turns out, he had been travelling in the right direction after all. Rumius was only two hundred metres from the end of the forest. He could see the little hill which he had been blasting from in the distance. The panic in his chest melted away like the cheese in the soup he was already looking forward to have tonight.

Then he looked down, and everything changed. The relief turned into horror and his heartbeat shot straight through the roof. At the feet of the tree, there was something moving. And it was big.