100 Words: The Hidden Library pt 2
They’d been walking for awhile. The day was cool, breezy, the sun bright overhead and shining through the thick canopy of leaves they walked under. They were dappled in sunlight and in shade, their feet crunching branches and dried leaves underfoot.
“Glas and I used to come back here.â€
“She’s too big now, huh?â€
“Yeah. She’d have problems getting through the trees. They grow so close together.â€
Akin nodded.
“It’s down here.â€
There was a ravine in front of them and they skidded down, reaching for slender tree trunks, moving as slowly as possible so as not to lose control and fall head over heels down the ravine and into the smooth bouldered creek at the bottom. Akin started drifting to the left when he was about ten feet from the bottom. He fetched up by a wild bramble of tangleberries. Serai lost her footing and skidded a bit, took a few stumbling steps, and then righted herself. She was glad for her tall boots. She leaned forward, grasped the slender trunk of an ash tree, and made her way back up the cliff side to Akin, who was standing in front of the thorny bush.
“It’s behind there?â€
“Yeah.â€
“Well… well, shit. We should of brought a machete or something.â€
“You think so?†He smirked at her.
“You have a better solution, Akin?â€
He reached up one of his sleeves and removed a slim, mostly straight wand the length of his forearm. He tapped the bush with it and gestured to the right and it slowly… crawled… out of the way. Serai shivered. Akin looked over at her and saw her response.
“It’s… it’s just an illusion. The bush isn’t really real. It doesn’t really exist.â€
It looked real enough, however.
So did the dark hole gaping where it had been.
302 words