Heed My Warnings and Survive (Second Draft)
Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

We slept through the night finally, we hadn’t been able to for days now, and it was of great relief to us. I sat up and stretched out my arms. I looked around, the other two were snoozing still, so I decided to get up, and replace some food, didn’t know much about what things you could, and couldn’t eat, but I did replace some mushrooms that looked exactly like the ones at home, so I decided they were safe, and brought them back. The other two had woken by the time I had finished roasting them. We ate them quickly, and continued walking. A few hours passed, and I felt terrible, I was light headed and felt like I needed to puke. I groaned, and fell to my knees.

“Draven are you ok?” Kiara asked weakly. I shook my head.

“I feel terrible.” Sweat started to bead on my forehead, and my hands got clammy, and that combined with the cold was not good. It didn’t take long before I passed out due to lightheadedness, and cold, the last thing I heard being the snorting of a pig.

I woke sometime in the night, but I was extremely drowsy, so I fell asleep again quickly. The next time I woke, the early morning sun was creeping through the window of the small wooden cabin I was in. I sat up, and looked around. I was in a small room with four beds, my friends occupied two of them, and a man occupied the other. My head pounded but the queasiness, and claminess had left. I put my hand to my head, and groaned. The man in the other bed shot up.

“Oh you’re awake,” He said, sounding a little nervous. “How are you feeling?” I furrowed my brow at him.

“I’m fine,” I squinted at him. “Do I know you?” I asked. The man shook his head rapidly.

“No no no, I’ve never seen you in my life,” He said with a nervous laugh. My eyes widened as I recognized him. “It’s not what you think I promise.” My face heated.

“Then what is it?” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. The man sighed, and sat on a nearby stool.

“I didn’t want to leave, I had to.” I raised an eyebrow. “I tried to come back, I got lost, I couldn’t replace my way home, and when I couldn’t I built a farm, and I have lived here ever since.” I scoffed.

“That’s not an excuse, how could you do that to us?” My voice was getting a little louder, but I didn’t care.

“Listen, I didn’t want to leave. I just-”

“No you listen, you left me, you left my mother. Did you even know you had a daughter? Did you know you were leaving your wife pregnant?” I said definitely getting louder this time, anger, and resentment began to boil in my chest..

“Shhh you’ll wake your friends, and they need the- wait, Milo was pregnant?” I nodded. “Did she have a boy, or a girl?”

“Girl. Her name was Asterina, she was kind, funny, and the sweetest little girl you’d ever meet,”

“Was?” I curled my legs up to my chest.

“She’s dead, and so is Milo.” The man put a hand to his forehead.

“How?”

“I-” I turned my head away, as tears pricked the corner of my eyes, I did not want this man to see me cry.

“Oh of course. I’m sorry, that was insensitive.” I laid back down with my back towards him, curling into a ball.

“Of course. I’ll go make some food.” He turned away, and left them room. I turned around, and observed my friends. Kiara groaned from one of the beds. I got up, and walked over to her, sitting at the edge of the bed. Her eyes fluttered open.

“Hey,” She said, her voice rough with sleep.

“Hey,” I said, trying to put some of the sorrow I was feeling into my greeting. She sat up.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, noticing the tears in my eyes. I put my knees up.

“My father is alive,” I said. She smiled.

“Well that’s great.” I shook my head.

“He left us because he “got lost” after a battle,” I said stiffly. “And for ten years he let us believe he was dead. He didn’t even try to get home, and he just asked me how his wife and daughter, who he didn’t even know about, died.” Kiara gave a sympathetic look, then scooted over next to me. I laid my head on her shoulder, and she put her arms around me.

“It’s gonna be ok Draven, I promise.” Her embrace was warm, and comforting, and I didn’t want to leave it, but alas Finley woke, and she released me, then my father rentered the room.

“There’s breakfast on the table,” he said, gesturing to the room behind him. We all stood, Finley was a little shaky.

“What happened to us?” He said, grabbing the bedpost for support.

“You ate poison mushrooms,” My father said.

“No, we have those mushrooms in Tarni,”

“Well we’re not in Tarni. The trees they grow on have poisonous sap,” He told us. “I’m gonna go feed my pigs,” He exited the room after saying this.

“So that’s him?” Kiara asked. I nodded.

“My mother used to tell me I looked like him,” I said. I wrinkled my nose

“Maybe if you had a beard, and any amount of muscle on your body,” Finley said, I gave him a deadpan look.

“Hey I’ve been practicing my swordplay. I have some muscle.” Finley patted my shoulder.

“You can keep telling yourself that, but the rest of us can see the truth.” I rolled my eyes, and we walked into the other room to eat breakfast.

After breakfast, I wanted to leave immediately, but Finley was still shaky on his feet, and Kiara was still light headed, so we stayed a few more nights, I chose to stay in the room farthest away from my father, which was a small room by the kitchen, just big enough for a bed.

The next few days I spent staying as far away from my father as possible, which wasn’t that hard, seeing as he spent all his time with his pigs. It wasn’t long before we said goodbye to the pigs, and were once again on the road.

“Draven, do you think the way you treated your father was very fair?” Kiara asked. I shrugged.

“I don’t know,” I replied. I didn’t hate my father, but I held resentment toward him, and I knew I would for quite some time, but until then I wouldn’t know how to feel toward him.

“Ok, well just keep in mind he’s the only family you have left,”

“Thanks for reminding me,” I said I scoffed. She sighed.

“I’m only asking that you don’t disregard it. Family is a powerful, and important thing, and once you lose it, your world starts to cave in. just be mindful,” I nodded.

“Thank you Kiara.” She smiled at me.

“Of course. I’ll always be here to give you sound advice,” She promised.

We had left my fathers farm three days ago, and I hadn’t been hounded by nightmares since then, so we were finally able to camp, and sleep, but we still needed food, so we were currently in search of a village, or town, and so far we were having no luck. We were in the middle of nowhere and there was no end to the nothingness. I groaned as my stomach grumbled.

“Come on you guys, there’s gotta be something around here,” Kiara said. It was odd for Finley to not be the upbeat one, but alas he never was when he was hungry, or at least, not when he was this hungry. “We can do this. Just a bit further,” Little did she know how far off she was from the truth.

We went for a few more days before coming across the last thing I wanted to see. Zanders camp.