3. Juniper Lily

Sybil had to blink in the very low blue light here. The orbs in the cavern floated near the ceiling and it was rather dim. But that was more than the guardians needed. They had damn good eyesight from what she heard. She shivered slightly. Walking through the portal kind of felt like pushing through water.

                There was no one in the tunnel and she was happy about that. Confrontation wasn’t what she wanted. She tried to avoid it. Didn’t mean she couldn’t hold her own. She just preferred the quiet approach. Hence why she didn’t tell Kal that she was going to go by herself. She was sure he’d have kept an eye on her. Tried to stop her and she was going to go. Better if she just nodded and left than anything else.

                As she got closer to the mouth of the cave it definitely dropped in temp. She zipped her coat up and was cautious. It looked like it was still light out as she came to the small opening no wider than eight feet tall by five feet wide. It was decent size, and she stayed along the wall and peaked out. About sixty feet away to the left trees started. To the right was a massive open field area. She knew that a river flowed through it and then into the mountain, which was the area she was in. However right now everything was white. To the right a rather warn path was there in the snow and she could see two figures talking not looking her direction. Sending up a silent prayer she darted for the trees and once she was inside she breathed a sigh of relief.

                Looking back the two figures were looking toward the cave opening and then toward the forest. One pointing and it was hard to tell if they might have seen her or not. They moved back to the cave and stopped there, and glanced at the forest. They didn’t seem like they were going to follow at least not yet so she took off at a run.

                She needed to cover ground and fast. Especially if they decided to come after her, she didn’t know if they would. If they could smell her or something. They were part wolf after all, or something close to it. Where she ran into the woods was rocky and didn’t leave much tracks as it was icy but that didn’t mean much. These people were good at what they did, and they’d been doing it for a long time.

                Sybil could run for a while. She liked to run actually and was glad for it now. Even though the snow slowed her down. At least the trees were thick here. Offered a buffer from the wind and bit of snow that was coming down. Man she didn’t know how they survived here with this weather. Though they were high up in the mountains. From what she’d heard even the lower valleys were struggling with colder temperatures. Brahi was in trouble from what she was hearing back home. However that wasn’t her concern at the moment.

                It was a struggle after several hours as the snow was a chore to walk through. Sybil kept going and she would stop from time to time. Touching the trees around her for information. She was definitely heading in the right direction. It was dark out now, and she refused to use her flash light to worried about what might see her out here with it. A few times she heard odd sounds, and once saw something fly overhead. Other than that it was silent. She stopped and drank water, took one of her energy tubes and kept going. Though she was feeling chilled and exhausted even with them. It was hard work going through the snow and forcing herself to make it a day trip. Which it might be more like a day and a half. She wished she’d brought another tube with her, she might need it.

                She made it through the night and stopped only once for about an hour to rest eat and warm up best she could. It was really when she stopped that she felt cold. It was dangerous seeing her body was drench in sweat now from exertion. As she came down a large slope into an opening in the forest she smiled. She could see the thick stand of juniper lilies and there was a slight glow to them.

                Feeling a new rush of energy finding them she half ran and slid down the slope. Sybil fell to her knees at the first one that she came to. She felt like crying, she did it! The sky was getting lighter, if the weather had been better she’d have done this in less time. She figured she got here originally sometime in early afternoon Brahi time. Now it was predawn light, but snow was starting to come down.

                “Hello.” She commented taking off her gloves and burying her hands in the plant. “I need some of your flowers, I’ll heal what I take. Will you let me?” She said to the plant bleeding her good will and desperation to it. There was an instant response and the flowers bent in her direction. She sent her thanks to the plant and felt that it would only give her twenty flowers. Which was more than enough.

                She was surprised when twenty of them fell off into the snow and she was fast to gather them and put them in her box. Sybil then stuck the box back in her bag being as careful as possible. That was a new one, but things here were different. She knelt back down and gripped the thicker branches and increased the energy of the plant. She could feel that it was starting to starve with the little sunlight coming through, but she pulled up what she could through the plant and soil. Which the plant seemed grateful for. It was wrapped around her arms by the time she finished. It felt like it was going to try and keep her there but she got up and grabbed her pack and went back up the slope. She now had enough for her father and all the rest that were sick and that made her smile. That made this exhausting trip worth it. See she didn’t need anyone to come help her, she did it on her own.

                Sybil made it to the top and went back the way she came. After a while her foot prints were wiped clean by wind and falling snow. She had to take her last energy drink and was swaying slightly. She kept touching trees because as it started to get dark, she was finding it harder to focus. The energy was wearing off, and she had been up for nearly two days now.

                “Come on, you don’t have that far to go.” She said to herself reading the trees to make sure she was on the right path. She wasn’t moving as fast and an eerie howl went up some distance from her. It was meet with a few others that sounded closer but ahead of her. She ignored it and kept going. She ate the last of her food and it was dark now, but she was close. At least she thought so. She should be there by the time the sun was coming up if she was gaging it right.

                Was the snow here deeper? It felt like it, felt like it was a struggle. A few times she caught herself leaning against a tree rather than moving. She cursed herself and pulled out a lily inhaling it. It acted like a smelling salt but sweeter and woke her up a bit. She put the flower back and started a half jog, but her muscles were screaming at the over use. She really wished she’d have packed more energy or even ibuprophin. A headache was starting but she refused to give in.

                “Come one Sybil, you got here just fine. You can get out the same.” She mentally chanted to herself that she was capable of this. Even as her body was starting to scream.

She went up a rocky slope, happy to see it because that did mean she was getting closer to the cave system and portal. She just needed to come down another slope, before one more climb. She came down the other side moving slower because her dexterity was obviously suffering. She slipped twice, but caught herself. However third time was obviously the charm and down she went. It was a really hard fall down an icy rocky hill. Her pack came half off and she felt a branch slam her side winding her. Something else clipped her head.

                Sybil moaned a bit as she came to a stop and grabbed her bag sitting up. The world spun and she tried to stand feeling stunned. She swayed heavily touching her head feeling something on her forehead. Which it was blood and she kind of looked at it confused. Shaking her head a couple times she walked forward and went down again to her knees. She chanted to herself again to get back up. This wasn’t good, she hit her head pretty hard. She might have a concussion.

                The world was rather blurry, and hard to focus. Actually you know it wasn’t feeling that cold out here right now and she was so tired. No, no she couldn’t stop! Especially if she just received a concussion, sleeping wouldn’t be good. Sybil was positive that she was moving to stand up and felt confused as a white wall rushed at her, then ice cold was against her face. She blinked looked up at the tree tops and her head throbbed. The snow was silent coming down and it was nearly pitch black, but the snow had its own luminance that let her see.

                She was in her own head telling herself to stand up. She didn’t have a choice but it was hard. She might have blacked out there for a moment because next thing she knew she was looking into the forest and something was moving a short distance away. Everything was blurry though, and she was cold again, really cold. She was aware that a howl had woken her.

Damn it Sybil get up! She mentally said to herself and whatever was moving toward her was huge. Shit she couldn’t afford to meet something. Why wouldn’t her body obey her? But she knew, it was shutting down with the abuse she’d put it through over the past few days. That hit on the head had been far more severe than she realized. Yet she kept her gaze on the figure moving toward her. Some part of her brain told her she should be worried, afraid. She was in a world that her people had run from. Dangerous things lived here, deadly things. Yet she just felt like laying there and giving up at the moment.

                The creature was down on all fours, it looked possibly wolf-like in appearance. The closer it got the bigger it looked, was it going to kill her? At this point she didn’t really care, she didn’t feel fear. Sybil just felt like she was starting to drift off somewhere. Her eyes were barely open and things weren’t registering right. She just couldn’t find the will to move. It stopped before her it wasn’t a normal wolf that was for sure. Though it looked canine in nature, but man this was the biggest freaking wolf like thing she’d ever seen. It looked dark in color but it could have been hot pink for how well she was seeing at the moment. She was coming in and out of it, she thought she felt it’s snout touch her for a moment. Sybil realized she was being picked up. But all she had was the sensation of being lifted off the ground not the visual.

                She felt her head hit someone or thing’s shoulder. Her forehead slid to against their throat. She got the sensation of fur. Thick fur that was really soft, like silk and she pulled herself closer. There was heat to this body, really blissful hot heat, was she that cold? She knew that they were moving but she couldn’t tell you how fast. Just that she was being carried and sleep felt really good right now. Maybe she was imagining the whole thing, and she was shaking slightly.

                “Thanks.” She managed to mumble. Whoever this was, was really strong. Their arms felt large and rather comforting. As she slid into sleep she really hoped she didn’t wake up face down in the snow and this wasn’t real. Or worse, she didn’t wake up at all.