David Bishop and the Legend of the Orb by T.C. Crawford (tools of titans ebook .txt) 📕

them a couple of days in the woods on their journey to West Post. She grabbed two more thick blankets and rolled them up before tying them to the top of their packs. She explained to David they would be used as bedrolls. The thought of having to sleep in the woods at night left David a little spooked, but he would never have admitted that to Erin. Instead, he smiled bravely and nodded, hoping it was enough to convince Erin that he wasn’t completely terrified by everything that had happened, and would be happening, as they fled the city as fugitives.

At last satisfied they had everything they needed the pair left what remained of Erin’s house.

As they ran through the now empty streets, they noticed the sky had become almost completely smothered by the darkening clouds. The winds had mostly died down, but along with the calm came an eerie silence that caused an uneasy feeling at the pit of their stomachs. Suddenly, cries of terror erupted from the direction of the palace, accompanied by the sound of clashing steel and the screams of men in the heat of battle. They could see what looked like flames licking the night sky and the smell of burning wood reached their nostrils with a sudden gust of wind.

They looked at each other in shock and quickly set out at once toward the back of the city, thankfully away from the terrifying sounds, in the direction the Elders had told Erin to go.

They reached the northern wall bordering the outside of the city and Erin started frantically counting the buildings behind her. She rushed down the walkway that ran parallel to the wall until she finally stopped and put her back up to the wall right behind what looked like the back door of a Pub. She took five even steps to her right before stopping in front of the wall and pushed aside a small portion of the stone revealing an opening just large enough to squeeze the two of them through. When they were each through the passage, she quickly moved the stone back into its place, leaving it hidden from the unknowing eye. From here on out they were on their own in the wilderness beyond the city.

David saw a look of sadness drawn across Erin’s face as she stared motionless at the city behind her. Pillars of smoke from countless raging fires rose up in the distance and the sound of furious battles being fought throughout the city streets rang through the night air.

“I’ve lived here all my life.” she said. “It’s just so hard to go and leave it all behind. Especially like this…” she closed her eyes for a minute to hold back the tears, but they flowed freely anyway.

“It’s okay to be afraid, Erin. I’m afraid too, but we are in this together and I promise you I won’t rest until we get to the bottom of this and avenge your mother!” said David reassuringly, hoping he could keep his promise.

She looked up and smiled at David, wiping the tears from her eyes. She turned towards the darkness before her, wondering how long it would be before she would see her home city again, or even if there would be one left to see. Together they set out through the rolling wheat fields before reaching the line of dense trees and branches of the Outer Woods, then vanished down the hidden path into the darkness beyond.

Chapter VIII

David and Erin hacked their way through the forest for hours, hoping they were going in the right direction, in an attempt to get as far away from the city as they could before setting up camp. The path was fairly old and wasn’t well kept, so the trail was extremely overgrown making it difficult to determine which direction to travel in the little light the moon provided.

The thick canopy that towered above made it even worse, preventing them from using the stars to tell which way they were going. Even if the canopy weren’t so thick, they knew it would bring no comfort; those strange storm clouds still swirled overhead like a bad omen.

Eventually they stumbled upon the rubble of an old building and soon Erin realized it was the outskirts of the ancient ruins of Abington. She smiled knowing they were on the right path to West Post.

“These are the ruins of an ancient city lost long ago to the forest” she said, turning to David, “They were home to a fierce class of warriors who had mystical powers. It is said they were part human, part animal, and were one with the forest. No one knows for sure, but one day they all just vanished, leaving their city behind. To this day no one knows what happened to them.”

“Wow, that’s pretty strange…there are ancient ruins in my world too. I’ve read about them in some of the books at school.” While they set up camp for the night, Erin listened to David tell her more about the world he came from. He told her about some of the ancient monuments, like the Pyramids and the Great Sphynx in Egypt, and the Great Wall of China built on the backs of a million slaves to keep out the Mongolian hordes. When they finished setting up camp, Erin lay awake for a while longer, wondering where it was that David came from, and how it was he got here.

The next morning, they woke early with the mist clinging to the forest floor, leaving a light dampness on their blankets and hair that left them chilled.

After breaking camp and having a fair helping of bread, cheese, and dried fruit to eat, David decided to find a good climbing tree in order to see if he could spot West Post in the distance and hopefully get an idea of how much further they would have to march.

He found a suitable tree not long after