Chapter 25: In the Still of the Night

~ Jaden woke with a start, confused at the lack of surroundings. It took him a moment to realize that someone must have turned off the lights at some point, and that Andrew was shaking him gently by the shoulder.

"Jaden...Jay...Wake up."

"Ok, I'm awake," he moaned in response. He sat up groggily and rubbed his palms over his face. "I'm up. My turn?"

"Yeah." He heard Andrew unhooking his sleeping bag from his pack.

"No, no just use mine Andy," he offered.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll go back to sleep if I stay on it." He stood and pulled back his sleeve to look at his luminescent watch face. 10:o0. He circled the room, shaking his limbs in an attempt to rouse himself. He heard Takyle turn over and groan quietly in her sleep. Jaden cracked open the door and looked out. The clearing was black, the edge of the woods only slightly darker. Jaden listened hard for anything at all out of the ordinary. The woods were absolutely silent. He felt a shiver run down his spine and he closed the door. He felt his way over to the fireplace and sat down on the cool, stone hearth, leaning back against one of the mantle posts. He found the profound darkness hard to deal with, finally relenting and digging out his journal by the light of a tiny LED.

"Day 2:
Today I met a wizard. He is very arrogant, but kind of nice in a weird sort of way. He also seems shifty, like he wants to trap us, but I don't believe that he will be underhanded when he tries to do it. I have to think that this task will be a difficult one...Not that the last ordeal was easy!

"In my opinion we're doing fairly well so far. We appear to be making decent time, and no one has gotten seriously hurt. As long as we can keep dealing with the obstacles quickly, we should be good. I can't wait to get another update and see how we're doing compared to everyone else. I wonder if anybody more has died...Seems a tad extreme, but then, who am I to talk?

"This little white building is a bit spooky, the woods are absolutely quiet tonight, and that is just not normal. I wonder where Väinämöinen went to... ~