Charlie considered how best to approach this question. Especially since she hadn't the slightest clue as to how to explain everything. Though, as she debated on how to explain it, she noticed the elder's face looking rather impatient.
Finally, she decided the only real way she had to explain it was to show the elder. "I'll show you what I mean," Charlie merely said, as she pulled on her magic, and sent the images of her story to everyone in the room, even the boy who wouldn't talk to her as he led her to the outhouse.
Charlie wasn't sure how long it took, but primarily, she started her story from when her earliest memories started, back when her sister was still an infant, all the way to where she is now. However, she felt like the process hadn't taken that long to complete. Especially since the sky was still darkening outside and the lamp that the elder had brought with her was still full of fuel for the light.
When Charlie stopped using her magic to directly show everyone how she got there, it was like they'd just endured a severe earthquake. Some of the started gasping for breath, others couldn't stand anymore with how badly their legs were shaking, Aina and Bith, along with the other pronghorn-kin children Charlie had brought here were curled in the fetal position, they eyes wide, clearly terrified of something.
The reactions lasted a few minutes, except for the children, who seemed to have a hard time adjusting to what happened. Charlie wondered if maybe she shouldn't have included them in sharing her story. At least in regards to considering what their reaction to it was, she told herself. Though, she wondered if it could have been the method that she used, but couldn't be sure. She didn't think it would be a good idea to experiment to find out which.
When the elder recovered, she looked at Charlie with less suspicion. "I take it you used your… 'magic' to show us that?" she asked.
Charlie nodded. "Yeah, I figured that it was really the only way I could explain it without having to go around in circles, especially since I really don't know how to phrase it so it makes sense," Charlie answered.
The elder nodded. "While I wouldn't care to do that again, it would seem like you answered any questions I would have had about what you told me," the elder said. "However, what is it that you propose to do with the area around the entrance to the unicorn's forest? I didn't catch the details, but it did seem to me that you have something in mind about that area."
Charlie nodded. "Yeah, I made sure to put that in there. I wanted to bring over some arachnoids and let them create a colony for their people. The pronghorn-kin could live beside them and not only protect Petals' forest, but also to maybe facilitate trade across the colonies of the arachnoids," Charlie answered. "They could probably benefit your people as well."
The elder nodded. "Rest tonight in this village. I will speak with you again in the morning. Those who you brought with you will be allowed to stay as well," the elder told Charlie. "We will have food brought to you, though I can't say how well you'll care for what we can provide. Emea will also head back to where he found you and lead your friends here when they return with the other pronghorn-kin."
Charlie nodded. "Thank you," she said, hoping that the hard parts were past her for now, at least on this world.
The elder turned to the young man again. "Please show our guests to our guest housing," the elder instructed.
The young man nodded, then motioned for Charlie and the pronghorn-kin to follow him. As Charlie passed Emea, she was surprised to see him looking so miserable.
"What's wrong?" she asked him, pausing in following her guide.
"I'll have to wait out there all night and possibly all day tomorrow," Emea lamented. "Until your friends arrive, I won't be allowed to return, no matter what happens."
Charlie smiled at him. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be along soon enough. Just think if it as a break from what you normally do," Charlie replied, hoping that would cheer him up.
"It wouldn't be so bad, but I still have my raspberry bushes to tend to," he said. "If I don't get it done soon, I might lose some of what would grow."
"I'm sure one day won't hurt that much," Charlie replied. She hoped she was right, because she'd once thought about growing her own raspberries, but decided against it when she learned how much work it could be. Especially when it was about spring time. There was a lot to do to prepare them for spring, when they would start to begin to start growing green leaves again.
Charlie wished she could stay and help bolster Emea's spirits, but she knew if she didn't try to catch up to her guide, she probably would be lost, and she had a feeling that her guide would get in trouble for it, which could create problems for her later on.
Fortunately, her guide had stopped at the entrance to the building and was waiting for Charlie when she got there. As Charlie came up, he didn't say anything, but merely turned and started leading them through the village. There were many turns that they took, and Charlie couldn't help but think of when Emea was showing them to where they met with the elder. In regards to how lost she felt shortly after they started.
Fortunately, there were small lights around that made it easy for them to see their surroundings. Some of the lights looked like they were occurring naturally in the trees, which made Charlie wonder if that's where the bear-kin got the lights to help light the way or if they had a different way to light the path.
Maybe around ten minutes after they left the elder's building, the young man stopped at a small hut, indicating for them to go in. Charlie had been at the rear of the group, so she was the last to enter the hut.
When she looked inside, she found it amazing how much they were able to fit inside such a small hut. There were only a few mats that Charlie assumed were for sleeping on, which had pretty much been occupied by the pronghorn-kin. Not that she minded. She was sure she had something packed in her bag.
When she removed her bag, she felt like collapsing then and there, from the relief she felt to not have that weight on her back. She wondered if she'd be able to bring herself to put it back on in the morning.
Regardless, her body was telling her to at least sit down, so she first looked through her pack and when she found her sleeping bag, she could only stare in shock at what she saw. It was the Barbie sleeping bag that had been hers on the hiking trip she'd taken with her friends and Shirley and some of her friends. She had no idea who had packed this in there, but she had to acknowledge it was too late to so anything about it now. She probably should have looked through her pack before they left, but could only blame herself for that. She'd been maybe a little too eager to get started on the expedition, so she had merely put her pack on and walked through the gate after Heathcliff had put the enchantment on them.
Resigned, she rolled her sleeping bag out and laid on it, using her pack as an uncomfortable pillow and closed her eyes. The elder had said that food would be brought to them, but at the moment Charlie just wanted to sleep.
It was warm enough out that she was able to lay on top of the sleeping bag without getting too cold. So, it wasn't long before she was asleep. Though, she briefly woke up when the food had been brought, but she was out of it again before she even had a chance to see what it was.
Charlie slept peacefully and was grateful when she woke up that she couldn't remember any dreams. As that meant she didn't have to deal with any unpleasant ones. Even good ones seemed unpleasant lately to her, simply because she probably could see the problems in them when she thought about the dreams.
_
Beth opened her eyes slowly. She felt like the entire world around her was shaking, but when she woke up, she noticed it was the woman who's daughter she'd healed. When Beth was awake, the woman motioned to her side which is when she noticed Ralph.
Ralph was sleeping so peacefully that Beth hardly had the heart to wake him up, but all around them the pronghorn-kin were getting ready to move. The horizon was getting lighter, which told Beth that she'd slept through the entire night.
Beth wondered if getting this tired was going to be a daily occurrence for them during this expedition. It certainly wasn't something she looked forward to, if so. Either that or it was because they'd used so much magic that it made them especially tired. Which she considered a possibility. Though, she wondered if maybe they should try to limit their magic usage to see if that made any difference for them.
After all, walking around so much alone would make pretty much anyone tired. Just using magic didn't really help with it. Although, with what they encountered in their first world, she had to wonder if limiting their usage of magic was possible.
Beth sighed as she got up. Even though her body was complaining of getting up right now, she knew that they needed to get moving. If nothing else, they needed to escort the pronghorn-kin to Petals' forest, although, Beth wondered if they would have much success with that. Especially since the pronghorn-kin only knew her as one of the people who saved them, Beth couldn't help but wonder if they'd accept her, through Ralph, that they needed to leave their village and build a new one nearby.
She shook Ralph awake, pushing those thoughts to the back of her head, as she thought they should discuss it with the rest of their friends . Or at least once they got moving. If she tried now, she doubted all of her friends would be awake at this time, even if they were conscious.
"Come on, Ralph," Beth coaxed. "You need to get up."
"C'mon mom, five more minutes," Ralph mumbled before his breathing returned to the deep, regular breathing of sleep.
Beth couldn't help but chuckle. Later when he'd calmed down, Ralph would probably laugh at this as well. Though, she had to keep from laughing out loud herself at the moment just thinking of it.
She motioned the pronghorn-kin nearest Ralph and when they moved away, watching expectantly, Beth pulled on her magic to create some water that was ice cold, around maybe thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit, just above the freezing point. Then she slowly poured it down the back of Ralph shirt.
When Ralph jumped up freaking out over the very cold water going down his back, Beth couldn't help but just laugh. When she started laughing, she lost her focus on using her magic, so it quickly dissipated and Ralph was able to remove his pack and shirt so his back could warm up.
When Ralph glared at Beth, she couldn't help but laugh. A few of the pronghorn-kin who were watching laughed a little to, but it seemed more of a nervous laughter and didn't last as long as Beth's laughter.
"That's not funny, Beth," Ralph informed her.
"It is to me," Beth managed to say in between laughs.
Ralph merely rolled his eyes as he opened his pack to get a fresh shirt out. "You could have just shaken me to get me up," Ralph said.
"I tried that. You told your mom to give you five more minutes," Beth replied as she was starting to calm down from laughing.
Ralph sighed. "Well, just for that, I wont tell you about the mark of honor, or something like that, that you have on you," Ralph informed Beth.
"What are you talking about?" Beth asked.
Ralph merely smiled, getting Beth annoyed with him. "What I'm talking about is something I just told you I'm not going to tell you. I mean, you could try to get one of the pronghorn-kin to tell you, but I doubt you'll be able to understand them," Ralph said as he put the fresh shirt.
"Whatever," Beth said, not wanting to get into it any further with Ralph. "I thought I should wake you up so you can start getting ready. I think we'll be moving soon."
"Okay," Ralph said, putting his pack back on. "I'll go let the others know."
"Where is everyone?" Beth asked.
"Didn't you try using your magic to talk to them after you woke up?"
Beth shook her head. "I just barely woke up myself. You were asleep yourself, so I thought they might be asleep and I doubt they'd respond if they were," Beth replied, yawning.
Ralph merely nodded. "Yeah, I can understand that. I mean, I had expected that we'd be able to take it leisurely and sleep in and stay up late," Ralph said. "I didn't expect to have to get up at the crack of dawn."
Beth smirked at Ralph as they started walking towards the center of the camp. "Yeah, maybe we would be able to do that if we didn't help the pronghorn-kin when they were captured by the deer-kin and planned on escorting them to Petals' forest," Beth replied.
"Hey, I didn't hear you complaining," Ralph retorted.
"You didn't either, but you're complaining now from some of the effects of what we did," Beth commented, her smirk turning into a full smile as she couldn't help but find Ralph's reaction entertaining.
"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up," Ralph said, rolling his eyes. "I'm just saying I'd have like to sleep in and not get up so early."
Beth couldn't argue with that, so she let the subject drop. They then walked through the camp quietly, occasional conversation and various sounds could be heard around them as they made their way to their friends.
"You know, I think we might have bitten off more than we can chew," Ralph commented when they were nearing the center of the camp.
"Why's that?" Beth asked.
"Because apparently the pronghorn-kin are discussing here and there about us being, uh, I think it's 'forest spirits?'" Ralph answered. "I'm not really sure if that's what I'm hearing. They're being too quiet for me to be sure."
"Well, nothing we can do about that," Beth said. "All we can hope to do is what we'd set out to do."
Ralph nodded. "Yeah… just would be nice if we knew what they meant by that."
"True, but remember, they have a different culture than we're used to, so who knows what differences there could be from theirs compared to ours," Beth said, and had to scowl at Ralph who suddenly had a smug look. Almost like he was aware of something she wasn't and wasn't going to tell her.
Sighing, she put that out of her mind as they continued on. She wasn't going to entertain Ralph any more than she could help at the moment. There was just too much that she wanted to find out, but had to wait until it was time to share information with their friends.
Though, even as they arrived at the center of the camp, all the found were Tim, Amelia, and Hannah. Beth looked around in surprise when she couldn't find Wes. Though, the three she did see were awake.
"Where's Wes?" Beth asked.
Uh, I think he's somewhere around here," Amelia said. "Though, he might still be asleep."
"Feeling better, Tim?" Ralph asked.
"Yeah, thanks for helping me get up here," Tim said.
"No problem," Ralph replied, sitting down next to Tim.
"So, what now?" Beth asked. "How would any of you suggest we get these people to listen to us with getting them to Petals' forest?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure they think we're something like 'forest spirits' or something, but we do have two of us who they consider warriors who have a 'mark of honor' on them," Ralph commented.
"What are you talking about?" Beth asked.
"Yeah, that sounds like there's story there. I mean with the 'mark of honor' thing," Hannah said.
"Well, actually, it turns out that Amelia and Beth have the mark of honor on them. You know, with the blood on them," Ralph answered.
Beth stared at Ralph in shock. "Why didn't you try cleaning the blood off of me? I'm sure you could see it," Beth demanded.