It was nothing short of a miracle that Lyna had made it this far. Looking up, she brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the sunlight, blinding and painful even behind the rain clouds. It made for a pleasant difference compared to the murky grey skies she had endured for the past few weeks.
"What's it say now?"
Lyna glanced at her companion quickly before she turned her gaze downwards. Pulling out the handkerchief (blue and pink, an odd combination, but Lyna didn't care enough to question Nature--although why they chose a handkerchief, that she did question), she studied the embroidered words, a glittering embossed gold that was pretty to look at if anything. They had changed again, she saw.
Off to the woods, they said, with an implied tone that made Lyna grit her teeth and narrow her eyes.
"The woods?" Jacob asked, reading over her shoulder. "Haven't we already done woods?"
"Apparently we get to do them again," she said tightly. Frustrated, she folded the handkerchief in half before shoving it back into her bag.
"Fantastic." Giving the cave wall one last pat, Jacob bid a sarcastic farewell to the tunnels they had painstakingly survived in for who knew how long. Yet the tunnels had apparently been only one quest of the three they had already accomplished, but also not the last.
"We should probably find an inn before we head off into the woods," Lyna suggested. Her stomach rumbled low in her stomach, reminding her that she hadn't had a hot meal or a warm bed in a long while.
"Nature would have said it if that's what It wanted." Jacob looked at her. "For someone who joined the Wicker, you sure don't listen to It very well."
Lyna narrowed her eyes and refused to look at him.
After a moment more of studying her, he shrugged and opened the small bag he hung around his hip. He shuffled his hand around in it for a moment before finally pulling out his Vane and holding it up. It studied their surroundings, a small green light flashing for a millisecond, before it finally produced a map.
"Woods are to the right," he said after a moment.
Lyna nodded. They should probably head out right away, but the idea held little appeal to her, the cold of the cave tunnels still settled in her bones. Across the way, she could only see sand, red and gold in the setting sun, and she could already feel sand in places she rather left unmentioned. It had already happened to her before, and for that she cursed Nature. Over. And over. And a couple more times after that.
The Wicker was something else she tended to curse, particularly in her dreams--or lack thereof. The time she had spent there had robbed her of them.
"We're really close this time. I can see the trees a couple miles away."
"Woo-hoo," Lyna said, rolling her eyes. "I'm thrilled."
"I am about to leave your ass here, Sourpuss."
She snorted disbelievingly.
Mentally kicking herself into gear, she grumbled one last time under her breath before following Jacob down the small hill and onto the sand path.
If only Nature was as kind as Under.