Exile

by Forceful Will

Rest

Jinx eased slowly to wakefulness. He yawned and stretched, working some of the stiffness out of his limbs. It had been a very quiet night, which surprised Jinx. He had expected the area to be teeming with insects and other fauna, but he hadn’t heard so much as a night bird. It was mildly disturbing, but Jinx couldn’t place why. He looked up at the sky to try and judge the time, but the canopy, while not closed, blocked more than enough of the sky so Jinx couldn’t figure out where the sun was. It seemed to be full daylight at least, and the sun wasn’t directly overhead yet, so Jinx assumed it couldn’t be more than late morning.

He ate a quick breakfast out of some local flowers and greens. While palatable, he decided to stick with his supplies for any further meals in the riverlands unless things started to look dire. He had no way of knowing how far north the area extended, or if whatever was at the other end would be as bad as the barrens, but he would only find out one way. After refilling his water from the stream, he drank his fill of the cool water and continued north. As he pushed through the foliage, Jinx realized that he still felt tired; his trip through the barrens must’ve been more exhausting than he thought. He decided that he would stop earlier this evening than he had last night.

Jinx continued until he realized the sky was getting dark. He didn’t think he had lost track of time while he was awake, but he only judged it had been a few hours. How could I have lost so much time? I never even ate lunch. Something about that seriously bothered him, but there wasn’t much he could do about it at the moment. He had passed a few more streams during the day, but didn’t want to spend the night among the dense part of the plant life. He resigned himself to pressing on until he found a clearing, or at least a relatively open area he could spend the night in. When he tripped over a fallen tree he hadn’t seen right in front of him, he realized it was far too dark to keep looking for an ideal spot. Granted, the tree had been covered in a thick layer of moss the same color as the rest of the plants he was walking over, but if he was tripping over trees he didn’t want to press his luck and end up hurting himself.

In frustration, Jinx kicked the fallen tree. He was rewarded with a large strip of bark that flew out from the impact. Jinx paused at that; he ran a hoof along the rest of the tree, feeling the dry, yet oily bark. He could do something with that. A few minutes of work produced a trio of usable torches. Each likely wouldn’t last long, but if he could light one, he would be able to continue onward hopefully long enough to find a suitable resting place. He tucked two of the torches into the top of his saddlebags, and stuck the third hard into the ground in front of him so it stood upright. After striking his flint several times, a spot on the torch began to burn. Jinx waited patiently as the fire spread, and he tucked his knife and flint back into his bags. He knelt down, took the torch firmly in his jaws, and then straightened back up. The surrounding area was cast in a weak orange glow. Jinx noticed something different about the foliage from how it had looked before the sun went down. Small pods of fungus were growing everywhere. Each grey-brown mushroom appeared to be swelling rapidly, but they shrunk momentarily whenever Jinx tried to bring the torch close enough to examine them. They must only grow in the darkness, Jinx surmised. A quiet, almost imperceptible puffing noise drew his attention behind him, and his eyes widened as a small cloud of dark-purple spores shot out of a mushroom that had grown to the size of his hoof. Immediately after expelling the cloud, the fungus started to shrivel and disintegrate. Jinx stepped backward from the spores, starting to grow worried. Off to his left, another mushroom burst, sending a near-silent cloud right at his face. Jinx inhaled reflexively and immediately wished he hadn’t. A wave of exhaustion rolled over him, almost causing him to drop the torch. The spores must have a soporific effect! Jinx suddenly realized that he hadn’t lost track of time during the day; he had lost track of time during the previous night. He knew he had to get out of there, and fast.

Comments

[Regidar]

Hm... well, a nice chapter. Love the fact that Jinx is using every plant he finds. I have a feeling this is going to come in handy.

[Ezn]

The giant block paragraphs weren't really bothering me before, but that last one was grating. I really think paragraph breaks are a powerful pacing tool, and you're not making use of them as well as you could. I don't like to see the most actiony bit of this story so far tucked into the second half of a wall of text.