~ Jaden hurried after the faint glow emanating from Väinämöinen's staff, blindly bumping into trees and stumbling over roots in his haste to keep up. Behind him he could hear the rustle of footsteps and Takyle and Andrew whispering to one another occasionally, and thus knew that he hadn't lost them. He clambered over a log and nearly fell into a small gully. He noticed that Väinämöinen didn't seem to be slowed at all by the many and varied woodland obstacles. Jaden disentangled his arm from what he dearly hoped was a vine just in time to miss catching a branch that swung back and hit him in the face.
"Väinämöinen?" he panted to their escort.
"Yes?" came the answer. Jaden jumped. It sounded as if Väinämöinen were speaking directly into his ear when he knew for a fact that the wizard was up ahead of him. That wasn't disconcerting at all.
"How can you see where we're going?" Jaden asked.
"One should not always trust their five baser senses, young one. Sometimes, one must look beyond." All the while that he was talking Väinämöinen's voice drifted around Jaden, sometimes seeming to come so close as to caress him. He shuddered involuntarily.
As they went deeper into the forest, to Jaden, the woods seemed to be getting thicker and thicker, pressing in on him.
"Perhaps it is your imagination," he advised himself.
"Are you frightened, young one?" Väinämöinen whispered in his ear. He felt his stomach tighten.
"Yes," Jaden said aloud. "I am. Do I have a reason not to be?"
"I will not be unfair. I will not hurt you needlessly, young one," said Väinämöinen. And, to Jaden's surprise, he believed him. Jaden turned his head to make sure that his companions were still there and heard Andrew quietly, reassuringly muttering vague curses and oaths behind him. ~
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