Chapter 32

Aicha

I guess I must have unwittingly taken a short nap before I continued my journey because the next time I opened my eyes, it was late afternoon. My head was aching so badly that for a few moments, I suspected that the Queen’s spies had somehow learned about our rebellion and tried to poison us. But before I could accuse some of my friends of being on the Queen's pay, I remembered the cider, so yeah…

I crawled out from under the bush that had involuntarily become my camp last night and desperately began to search for water. I was lucky that Bruno wasn’t as fond of the clear liquid as he was of cider, so my water supply was still intact. It was also lucky that the bush that had become my camp didn’t have any thorns or spikes, so my journey had started pretty well after all.

I found the bottle and took a swig. I still didn’t feel ready to stand up, and any rapid movement made my head spin, so I decided to rest a bit before continuing on my mission. At least I wasn’t scared of being alone in the wilderness, like Emma, I told myself and carefully peered into the woods.

In the end, it got late, and I still felt the effects of the cider, so I decided to stay here for the night. I assumed that this bush, which, to be honest, was pretty difficult to crawl underneath, offered fair protection against anything that would want to crawl after me. So, I decided to spend another night in this tried and tested camp.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt much better, and after a quick breakfast, I was ready to embark on my mission once again. Unfortunately, my backpack still felt really heavy, and I started to wonder if Alex hadn’t packed some stones into it as a prank, but unfortunately, that was not the case. I was really tempted to ditch some of the stuff, since I was pretty sure I wouldn't need it. But I didn't dare to, as I didn't want to leave any traces behind me for the Queen spies to follow. My mission was too important to compromise in such a silly way.

I continued walking through the thicket that day. It was harder than I had expected, but the thought of meeting the legendary Sara kept my spirit up. I could only imagine how happy she would be when I revealed to her what our group had learned about the Queen’s plans. A few scratches were nothing compared to the stories I would tell my friends when I came back.

At some point, I realised that I didn’t recognise any of the surroundings any longer, but I didn’t worry about it. With my tracking magic, I didn’t really need to know where I was in order to find Sara, and the fact that everything looked so unfamiliar only meant that I was really far into my journey.

Thinking about Sara made me realise that it was probably a good time to use my skills to find her. I walked a bit further until the wet ground under my feet indicated that I was close to a stream, and soon enough, I could see water shimmering between the trees.

I happily dumped my backpack on the ground as I halted by it and sat down on the soft grass, putting my feet into cold water. It felt so good that I could stay like this forever, but I reminded myself of what I had set out to do.

Tracking magic.. Yeah, I was the best at it among all of us, but unfortunately, that didn't mean I was as good as my uncle Jale. If I remembered correctly, what he had said was that you needed to be relaxed before you attempted to use it. It made sense.

So, following his advice, I decided to have some food first and rest a bit in the shade of the trees before attempting to have a go.