This section of the forest was
close to the main route so was busier with traders and merchants, but also
those who do not mean others well. The trees here were the same height but had
little branches until the top which spawned very large and broad canopies,
which cause the area beneath them to be in the shade, dotted with specks of
sunlight making its way to the ground.
When Ellyn
woke the following morning, Seth was gone and so was Acorn. But she didn’t
mind, in fact it helped as she lay in her hammock, gently swaying herself, and
thought on what Seth had told her. The way he said “which they used to blow up
the major cities and population hubs.” Got to her, he said it so casually as if
it didn’t matter that almost the entirety of the world’s population was killed
in a couple of days. As she lay there Ellyn started listening to the sounds of
the world, the animals skittering around in the undergrowth and in the trees, the “birds” , if you could
call them that, circled in high rings over the land. Ellyn heard footsteps and
turned expecting to see Seth, but instead there stood a hooded man, she could
tell it was a man as he wasn’t wearing anything but said hood and a somewhat
mouldy arpon. Naturally this caused Ellyn some distress; she looked away, and
pulled up the courage to talk to him;
“H-h-hel-hello?” Ellyn asked the man “C-Can I help you?”
The man just
stood motionless, eyes down and hidden by the hood. Eventually he spoke up
looking straight at Ellyn;
“You must be
new, little lady” his voice was gruff and raspy. “or you’d know not to be out
here on your own, eha eha eha” His laugh was more of a cough than a laugh, but
that only made it worse. “I do like a bit of woman-meat, Hmmmm” he rasped.
He started
coming towards the cart and Ellyn, who then started to walk backwards on the
cart. She tripped on something and fell on her back; the man was now climbing
up onto the cart. As Ellyn flailed around of the floor, she managed to get her
legs tangled in a mass of old cables. By now Ellyn was starting to panic as she
tried to escape the wires, and the man stood over her, licking his lips he
started laughing in that horrible laugh as he pulled off the hood, to reveal a
scarred and misshapen face. Suddenly he stopped, stopped moving, laughing,
everything. He started to tip forwards, Ellyn rolled to the side, to avoid him
falling on her, and came face to face with Acorn, who gave her a single lick on
the face then bounced off. Ellyn turned to the man to see a large knife
protruding from the back of his skull she then looked off the back of the cart
to see Seth standing there, a grim look on his face. Acorn bounced up to him
and his expression changed he smiled at his pet and picked him up, poked him on
the nose, then placed him on his shoulder. Seth hopped up onto the cart, in one
practiced movement and offered a hand to Ellyn, who had now freed herself from
the wires. When she stood up Ellyn brushed herself off, straightened he clothes
and gave one of her little sighs to Seth, who Pulled the hood from around the
man’s neck, as he said; “I warned him”
“WHAT?! YOU
KNOW HIM!?!” Ellyn Shouted at Seth, who mimed blocking wind. “depends on what
you mean by “know”, Seth said pulling the knife from the man’s head, blood
dripping from it ”yes, we’ve had….encounters….but that’s it really so I suppose
not…”
“What do you
mean encounters?” asked Ellyn, Seth was now dragging the man’s body off the
cart, “Well, ive been in this area a few times, and he keeps finding me and
trying to take my cart, and I told him the next time he went on my cart, I’d
kill him…so I did…” he shrugged as he threw the body off the cart. This
explained a lot about Seths character to Ellyn, about how he doesn’t seem to
care much for other people, which worried Ellyn as he seems to care about her…
“Right!” Seth
said “Time for some progress, eh?” he nudged Ellyn with his elbow as he made
his way to the front of the cart, he stored the hood, in a barrel full of some
foaming discoloured liquid. Ellyn shot a quizzical look at Seth, who took the
hint;
“it’s some
sort of strong soap solution, I have no idea what sort of things that guy could
have been carrying so it’s better to clean it before its used.” Explained Seth,
“Wait, used
for what?” asked Ellyn
“No idea,
something, anything, everything, just see when or if it’s needed” followed Seth.
Seth Was now
at the front of the cart, sat down and pressing buttons on the control panel,
Ellyn came and sat down on the jury rigged seat. Seth seemed to press the right
button and the cart roared into life, and he started moving it forwards slowly,
until they were firmly on the road, where he announced;
“Next stop;
Macewood!” and pushed the throttle all the way forwards and the Cart lurched
forwards, groaned a little then sped up and continued to trundle down the road.
Ellyn decided that the wobbly wooden chair wasn’t as comfortable as she thought
at the increased speed, she got up, using the miscellaneous beams and poles of
the cart to stop her from falling over, she found a soft arm chair to sit on
but first there was the case of a small animal to take care of. Acorn was
curled up asleep of the chair, she picked him up and sat on the chair with him
on her lap, she stroked his fur and he quickly fell back asleep. As Ellyn
settled into the chair and the rhythm of the cart, she looked off the side of
the cart and took in the surroundings; they were starting to leave the woods
and entering a large set of plains, which seemed to have been agricultural
fields, but have since been turned into a mix of dry rocky ground and dense
shrubs of mutated crops. As they travelled on Ellyn continued to gaze at the
surroundings, amazed by things shed never seen before…
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