Peregrination - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

After two weeks of recovery, Serena stated everyone well enough to return on their Peregrination.

This time around they went around carefully through out the woods, with Weather and Anneliese as their guide.

"NO! We need to go this way! The land will lead us straight to the desert if we cut through here!" Anneliese said arguing with Weather.

"But if we go that way we will run right into Nettle Thistle nymphs! Do you value your life at ALL?" Weather replied arguing back.

"UGHHH! It will be quicker this way!"

"It will be safer this way!"

"SERENA!!" They yelled in unison.

"What?" Serena said cautiously.

"Which way should we go since your the leader?" Anneliese said, gesturing towards the way she predicted to go.

"Umm, well we want arrive alive don't we? Even if it does take longer." Serena said slowly then blocking herself a ready to attack Anneliese.

"HA! Told you, Annie my friend! This way we go boys!" Bosted Weather as she leaped towards the long way.

Anneliese gave Serena the evil eye for the longest while while traveling..

They approached many challenges during their expedition through the woods, encountering disturbing dryads, of which Bard got hypnotised again, and nearly got lead off by a nymph. It took them 2 weeks to get to edge of the forest, where it meets the desert.

"We made it through the forest, ALIVE. Who knew," Serena said out loud to herself. When entering the forest she had had her doubts about making it through alive, or just backing out completely to go home. But she knew this mission she had to complete, or die trying. However, she would prefer not dying. What is in store for us now? What sort of dangerous will we come upon in the desert? All we know that lives in the desert is the faeries, great wyrms, and the world portal. It's oging to be nearly impossible to find the world portal, even if we do we are going to need a faeries help to navigate through it.

"Serena," Eric asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Huh, yes? Sorry, I was just trying to organize my thought process for the moment there." Serena said.

"Forgive me for interrupting, but what shall we do now? It seems like we are at a dead end even though we have the whole mass of a never ending desert in front of us."

Serena had yet to consider what to do yet, she thought that at first that they should go quickly to find the mountain, on which, the faeries reside on. Then again, maybe they should visit the Great Wyrms, because they could be useful later on. "Lets camp here tonight, so we can discuss our options."

After the had prepared a meal of plants (that were safe to eat), and everybody had pretended to eat the strange looking salad, except Weather who ate it up. They sat around the small camp fire they had made and started to debate upon what they should do next.

"I think we should go to the Great Wyrms and ask for their aid in combat and their wisdom in other such matters!" Eric stated, Bard agreeing with him.

"We should find the faeries! That way we can go straight to the world portal!" Weather argued.

"Who knows how long it's going to take to find them?" Anneliese replied.

"May I suggest something, my fellow travelers?" Serena said clearing her throat to gain their attention. The group quieted down to listen. Standing up on a rock so the group could see her clearly she said: "We shall go visit the Great Wyrms, that way we can gain their alliance, and possibly they will have an idea where we can find the faeries."

"I Second the notion," Eric stated standing up.

"Me too," Bard said getting up to stand by Eric.

Anneliese also stood up to go stand with the guys. Weather however was still sitting, pondering whether or not to go along with. Slowly she got up, saying: "Only because thats whats everybody is going to do anyway, so I might as well go with it."

Serena smiled, "Atleast we have came to a conclusion, let us depart tomorrow morning. Good night."

~.~

It was a very solemn morning when they set off, not that anyone was mad at each other or anything they were just very tired. The silence of the group seemed very peaceful, so nobody wanted to be the one to break it first. So no one even spoke until lunch time.

"Does anyone have any idea where we are going exactly?" Weather asked, of course she would be the one to break the calm silence. The group looked at each other shrugging, when they turned to stare at Anneliese.

"What?!" Anneliese said, who was in mid bite of her jerky.

"Your suppose to be out navigator! Do you know where we are?" Eric enquired.

"umm, yeah. We are approximately, like..." Anneliese started as she pulled out her map collection. Thumbing through several maps she found the one she needed. Going along the map with her finger she passed the Forbidden Forest, going down along a dark brown area. "We are about an eighth into the desert, so we should be headed near the area where the Great Wyrms inhabit." Anneliese finished, wiping her brow. Whew, she thought, for a moment I thought I had gotten us lost.


The group continued on into the desert, after lunch, everyone started getting tired and grumpy, quibbling was soon to take place.

"UGH! It's so hot!" Serena complained, Anneliese agreeing with her.

"This is the usual weather for me," Said Weather, leaning her head back as to soak in the heat.

"Hey! Remember we live by the ocean so we are use to cooler weather!" Bard said.

"Boo hoo hoo, you wimps! If you can't take a little bit of heat, who do you expect to be amongst the dragons? They are HOT!" Weather laughed.

Oh yeah, Serena thought, I forgot about that. Wyrms, breathe fire. Of course they are gonna be hot.

"Wow, guys you know something?" Weather started, beads of sweat starting to form on her forhead. "It is kinda hot out here.." She said starting to breathe hardly.
Then everybody started to notice it too.

"Wow! Why is the heat even mroe intense than usual?" Eric said as he started sitting on the ground, becoming drowsy with the heat.

"I think I know why," Weather said who also sat down on the hot dirt. "DRAGONS!!!!" She yelled pointing ahead of us. And sure enough there was a dragon, not one but 3 of them!"

There was a reason the dragons were called Great Wyrms, was because the were great! In size that is, they had yet to prove themselfs in wisdom. The smallest of the dragons were atleast the size of 3 elephants. The largest of the group was about 3 times the size of the smallest, so 9 elephants.

As the group drew closer, the heat became nearly unbareable.

"Ugh.." groaned Anneliese, as she started crawling on the ground to become closer. When she started coughing from all the sand.

"We hafta keep going guys!" Eric said as he and Bard took off their shirts which were drenched in sweat.

I hate you, thought Serena over and over in her head, since obviously she was drenched in sweat and couldn't take off her shirt. But that thought soon left her head when she felt something, almost like a cool breaze. She looked around trying to see where it came from, when she saw the dragons blowing cool air onto them allowing them to get closer. Slowly the group got up, they started walking to the wyrms cautiously. When suddenly Serena heard something, but she didn't hear it with her ears, but it was as if it was in her brain.

Why do you come here, Serena, Dauphiness of Oceanus?

Whoa, yep, I'll give them credit for being wise too. How could they know my name? Serena thought staring at the dragons, trying to guess which one said it.

Are you going to answer my question or not? Said the voice again, when out of know where a higher pitched voice came in.
Hey, Marty! Your scaring the kid! Hey sweetheart are you coming to ask what we think your going to ask?

What the-? Serena thought, then she shook that out of her mind, then she thought: Yes, probably.

Well then come with us then, said the friendlier voice.

Okay, thought Serena.

"Hey guys! They want us to follow them!" Serena said guestering to the dragons.

"Are you sure they just don't want to eat us or something?" Weather said, shivering at the thought.

"No! I'm serious! Come on guys!" She finished as she trotted off after the dragons, who were not to mention pretty fast for their vast size.