Aleron watched, biting his lip. He hoped it would work; he was growing tired of the forest and missed the villages; he couldn't remember the last time he was in one. It couldn't have been that long, but still it felt like ages. And, well, at the very least, Kilarhas needed medicine, and anything that could help would be greatly appreciated.
He watched Kinn give the incantations, and began to wonder how they had met. In fact, now that he thought about it, he couldn't really remember how he met any of them.
He slightly remembered Lorin robbing him of his coins, of the old, blind air wielder named Gen who sard his money. But how had they joined together, traveling as a single party across the land?
Well, and why were they even traveling? Here was Kinn Dice, mousy young Mage, yet where did he come from?
And it was then that Aleron, shaken to the core and mouth agape in dread, realized he couldn't even remember where he came from. This was wrong. How had he forgotten it all, with just hazy images of the clouds as they soared upon Keyne and the rich manor he had snuck through?
He looked about him, suddenly the pulsing murmur of Kinn fading into the distance. The world became an overwhelming roar of bird calls and rustling leaves and the breeze. A black crow cawed, and fluttered down like the Reaper himself approaching to his victim, giving him the grim message that death was waiting. It landed on his bag, cocked it's head to the side, and stared at him with a Brady black eye. He could swear he saw the glimmer of a smile grotesquely spread along its charcoal beak.
It was the forest.
This enchanted forest, of which had just been tropical and now as the touch of death; the woods of wandering demons and sicknesses that fall upon its travelers, and roaming Spirits of the Earth.
Somehow, primal instinct over took him, telling him that they had to leave the forest, for whatever fate awaited them inside the towering trees and shuddering leaves was not good.
"We need to leave the forest," he whispered, then repeating it louder. He looked to Lorin, the thief-turned-friend. "This is an evil place. I think the sickness of spreading, not in the same way, but spreading nonetheless; I can't remember anything."
