Chapter seven

Bryony followed Aven through the forest, stopping every once in a while to look at some kind weird creature or animal she had never seen before. She got distracted a lot, that was one of her problems she needed to work on. If she was doing something, and one small thing that caught her interest, she would stop what she was doing and go check it out. That was why she was bad at school, she got distracted a lot. But this place was very weird, she wondered where in the world it was and if it was even on a map or something. Probably not, but she still thought about it.

Bryony gasped as she spotted a family of really weird frog looking creatures hopping around in the wet leaves. They were blue, and they looked like frogs but they had weird pointy horns on top of their heads, and sharp teeth. Their tongues was super long, longer than normal frogs and they had tiny spikes on them. Bryony stopped following Aven and went to walk over to them. The largest frog creature stopped and turned to look at her, letting out a low croak.

"Hi." Bryony said and smiled. "You guys are so ugly." She giggled to herself, watching as the smaller frogs caught bugs with their tongues. A tiny mouse skittered over and sat next to Bryony's feet, and she cooed as she watched it. That was the cutest mouse she had ever seen. It had huge adorable eyes, and its ears were pointy instead of round. It had black fur and its tail was brown instead of pink.

"Awww." Bryony cooed. "look how cute you are." The mouse looked up at her with its big eyes and she couldn't help but to smile. "Awwww!"

The largest frog suddenly shot its extremely long tongue out and wrapped it around the mouse. Bryony gasped in shock, eyes widening as she watched the mouse get strangled to death. The spikes on the frogs tongue were digging into the mouses body, and it made a tiny painful squeaking noise as the frog tightened its grip around it, blood pouring out of the poor creature. Bryony screamed as the mouses eyes suddenly popped out of its face and exploded by how tightly the frog was strangling it.

Bryony backed away as the frogs mouth opened enough for the mouse to fit in, and swallowed it in one bite. The frog grew bigger as it did and Bryony just stared at it.

It ate that mouse, and it grew bigger! That doesn't just happen. The frog croaked, staring at Bryony with its scary eyes, and she stood up. She backed away as the frog hopped towards her. She shrieked and kicked it as it tried to wrap its tongue around her ankle. "You can't eat me, I'm too big."

The frog hit a tree and then made a loud screaming noise. Bryony jumped at how loud it sounded for such a small little thing. The others frogs all turned to Bryony as the one she kicked stood up. Bryony froze, just staring at them, as they all watched her. They all suddenly just started hopping towards her really fast and she screamed, turning around, and running away to catch up with Aven.

"Aven!" Bryony shrieked and smacked a frog away as it tried to jump in her. Aven turned around, and then shook his head in disbelief as he saw Bryony running away, screaming, as the frogs all chased her.

"I didn't do anything." Bryony called to him before tripping over her feet and falling with an oof. The frogs all climbed on her and she cried out in disgust as she started smacking them off her. A couple tangled themselves in her hair and she shook her head, trying to get them out, but they held on tightly. She felt small pricks all over her body and saw that most of the frogs had wrapped their tongues around her. They were small, but with a lot, she got stuck. It felt like getting tied in small ropes, but spiky ropes.

Aven grabbed Bryony's arms and yanked her to her feet and started helping her smack the frogs off. The ones in her hair tried jumping out, and Bryony hissed in pain as they pulled her hair. They started freaking out, trying to untangle themselves out of her hair, but they were stuck.

"Ow!" Bryony yelled as the frogs yanked on her hair. She grabbed her hair and tried as best she could to keep the frogs from pulling it, but it wasn't really working.

Aven grabbed Bryony's hair and helped the frogs untangle themselves. They fell on the floor and made a hissing sound as Aven shoved Bryony behind him. The frogs tried to get her, hissing in anger. What did I ever do to you? Bryony thought. Stupid devil frogs. Bryony grabbed onto Aven's shoulders, hiding behind him as his arm was around her waist, keeping her behind him and hidden from the frogs. The largest frog that ate the poor mouse hissed at Aven, but he made a hissing noise back and the frog immediately stopped, hopping back as it stared at him. The other frogs stopped too and just stared at Aven, who pointed his finger to where the frogs were earlier and they all turned around and hopped away.

Bryony sighed in relief as she let go of Aven and took a step back. "That was horrible. I didn't do anything to them, and they just freaking attacked me. They're stupid, horrible, crazy, ugly and-" she stopped as she saw Aven kneel down next to one of the frogs. Its legs were bent in wrong angles and it was making a horrible wheezing sound like it was in a lot of pain.

"Well, at least one of them got a lesson." Bryony said, folding her arms, "that's what you get for attacking me out of nowhere."

Aven turned to her and gave her a look, and he didn't look too happy. She put her hands up in defense. "What? I didn't do that, they attacked me."

Aven shook his head and turned to the frog. He closed his eyes and put his hands on the frog. Bryony watched as a bright light appeared and then when Aven took his hands away, the frog looked normal again, and it immediately got up and hopped away as fast as it could. Aven squeezed his hands into fists, biting the inside of his cheek for a few seconds before he slowly relaxed and leaned back on his heels.

"What did you just do?" Bryony asked him. "Why did you save it? It attacked me."

Aven ignored her and stood up, walking past her. Bryony turned and watched as he walked away. She put her hands up and called, "Fine, ignore me for all I care." He didn't stop and Bryony groaned before running to catch up to him. "Wait up." She fell into step with him and took a deep breath. "Okay, so I was thinking, are we in Alaska? I hear they have beautiful forests and scenery. This could be Alaska, I have always wanted to go. Did you know my parents lived there before I was born? They moved when I was born, which sucks, because I would really like to see it. Oh! I also-" Bryony stopped when she noticed Aven wasn't really paying attention to her, he was checking on some trees as they walked past them, making sure they were well and alive.

Bryony put her hands on her hips. "Why don't you ever listen to me?" She gasped, suddenly realizing something. "Do I talk to much? Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I will stop talking now."

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Bryony twisting her hair in her fingers, and Aven occasionally checking on the plants and animals they walk past. He really did care about this place. Bryony would only help something if it was hurt or dying, not check on them everytime she walked past it. Maybe there was a sickness passing through, killing the plants and animals? Like in some books she read. Wait, that stuff wasn't real.

"So," Bryony said as she bent over to see what Aven was doing,"whatchu doin'?" She gasped when she saw a baby bird chirping on the floor and she put a hand to her mouth for a second before removing it. She opened her mouth but Aven put a hand over her mouth when she was about to say something, making her give him a look. He really didn't like her talking all the time. Bryony watched as Aven picked the chick up with one hand, the other still over her mouth. The chick chirped quietly and immediately flapped its wings as it attempted to fly, but it couldn't.

"Where's its mommy?" Bryony tried to ask but it came out as a muffled noice.

Aven ignored Bryony and removed his hand from her mouth and stood up. He turned and started looking around for a nest or something. Bryony looked up when she heard a chirp from above her, and she saw a big bird perched on a tree branch looking down at her as it chirped. Bryony pointed up. "Is that its mommy?"

Aven looked up to where she was pointing at and immediately shook his head, holding the chick out of view as the other bird eyed him, chirping. Bryony walked towards the other bird, hand outstretched to touch it. "Hi there, did you lose your baby?" She stroked its beautiful green feathers and it closed its eyes like it was enjoying it. Bryony laughed. "It likes me. Aww its so cute."

Aven grabbed Bryony's arm and she turned to look at him. He shook his head, slowly lowering her arm, but keeping his eyes on hers. The bird chirped from above them, but Bryony just kept staring at Aven. His eyes were the most gorgeous eyes she had ever seen, and she smiled while staring into them. "Your eyes are really pretty."

Aven blinked in surprise.

Bryony's smile quickly vanished and she put a hand to her mouth. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I just said that. That was embarrassing."

Aven didn't say anything, he just turned Bryony around, eyes looking behind her and at the bird for a second, before they were back on hers. Confused, Bryony turned to look behind her, but Aven quickly turned her back and shook his head. She gave him a look. "What?"

She heard the bird behind her screech suddenly and she jumped at how close and loud it was. Her eyes widened when she felt it right behind her, she could even feel its eyes on her. She looked up at Aven. "What is it doing?" She looked down at Aven's hands, but the baby bird was gone. "Where's the baby bird?"

Aven just shook his head, pulling Bryony with him as he started walking away from the bird. She heard it let out an angry screech before she felt something grab the collar of her shirt. She cried out in surprise as Aven's hand slipped out of hers. The bird started dragging her away, trying to fly up, but she was too heavy for it. It wasn't a huge bird. She tried to punch the bird, but she couldn't see behind her so she kept missing. "Why does everything attack me?" She cried out, angry now. "I didn't do anything to any of you, so you better stop attacking me!"

She felt something grab her ankles so she looked up to see Aven pulling on her. The bird screeched at him and yanked Bryony really hard, making Aven accidentally let go of her and fall on his face. Bryony would've laughed if she wasn't being dragged by a killer bird who wanted to do who knows what with her. Aven immediately got up and started running after them.

"Let me go you stupid bird." Bryony exclaimed and grabbed onto a small tree trunk, making the bird let go of her. She fell down and was about to get up and run, but the bird grabbed her pants leg and started pulling on her. She wrapped her arms around the tree trunk again, holding tightly onto it, but her hands were slipping. Right as her hands slipped off it, Aven was grabbing her arms and pulling.

It was like tug a war, but Bryony was the rope.

"Ow ow ow!" Bryony exclaimed. "That hurts, stop it."

The bird tightened its grip on her and yanked really hard, that it yanked Aven forward and so now both of them were being dragged on the ground. Aven was on his stomach, holding onto Bryony's arms while being dragged. Bryony gave him a look as he stood up and yanked on her really hard, making the bird let go and both him and Bryony fell forward. Bryony landed on top of Aven, who landed on his back hard and gasped as he closed his eyes in pain. Bryony looked back behind her shoulders as the bird opened its wings wide and screeched at them, but it didn't take a step forward. It tried stepping past a line of trees, but it immediately screeched in pain and took a step back.

Why couldn't it come any closer? What was keeping it from entering the line of trees?

Finally, the bird took flight and left with an angry screech and Bryony sighed, dropping her head in relief. She laughed. "We didn't die." She lifted her head off of Aven's chest and looked down at him. He was staring up at her, and their faces were so close. Aven blinked a couple times, staring up at Bryony with a really intense curious look as he studied her closely. She moved back and quickly got off of him and sat back. "Sorry."

Aven slowly sat up, wincing slightly as he did and Bryony watched him curiously as he sat back and up against a tree. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Aven looked over at her and shook his head, before slowly standing up. "We need to see Langston."

Bryony stood up. "Who is Langston though? You never answered me, and why do we need to see him?"

"He knows where your parents are being held. He'll tell us." Aven said quietly, running a hand through his black curls and inhaling deeply. "I don't think this is going to end well."