022 JOURNEY INTO THE WILDERNESS 2

SAFIA

We got to the forest late in the afternoon. There were birds in the sky, and the breeze at the forest's border was a bit violent, as if we were at the edge of a new dimension.

"Can we still go through the forest today?" I asked Mai'Aljanu. He did not answer me. Instead, he alighted his horse and walked toward a tree at the border of the forest.

We watched him lean on the tree as if trying to communicate with it. It looked bizarre, but it was Mai'Aljanu; everything was weird. After a few minutes, he came back and mounted his horse.

"We ride on. My grandchildren do not have long. If night falls while we are still in the forest, the tree deities promised to protect us." He explained.

My legs were killing me. If we were going to ride through that forest, I knew I needed to exercise my body to fix the blood flow to my thighs and legs first, feed and hydrate both myself and my horse, and then continue.

"I don't know about you two, but I need to sit, eat and feed my horse," I said