36 The Note and the Forest

  Sara opened the note and read the intricate handwriting.

  "Dear Princess Sara,

  Yes, I know who you are, and I mean you no harm. But for reasons I cannot get into, I cannot help you anymore at this point. I will lead the dragon off in another direction. You will find a compass in the pack. I will try to get you to the west of the road, and if I do, keep going straight west. You will cross a large stream, and then an old road. Follow the road in a southwesterly direction. At the end of the road, you will find the help you need to get home. Stay away from the lake road; the lord has many ships and will be looking for you. Be careful who you trust and avoid people on the road, especially soldiers; they are not your friends. I hope this helps.

  May the creator go with you.

  Sincerely,

  Dov."

  Sara shook her head. Who was this man, and why did he help her? She didn't know, but she was grateful. And if the man told the truth and she had no reason to doubt him. There was a road that would help her get home.

  With that, she sighed. The first time since being taken by the dragon, she now had real hope that she might get home. This time, her thoughts of getting home contained in them a hope that she might be able to help people other than herself. She wasn’t sure how, but if there was a way, she would help Dov, as it seemed he was in trouble. She wanted to help Abba-Avi and the people of the village, without starting a war, but most of all, she wanted to rescue David.

  Sara shoved the note back into the bag and pulled out the compass. She'd only used a compass a few times before, but it didn't take her long to get her bearings. Understanding that across the stream was west, she examined it and saw she could cross here without getting too wet. She considered eating some of the bread or a piece of the cheese but decided to wait.

  She didn't know what else she would face, and though she was still tired, she thought she'd better get moving, especially if this road could take her home or at least to somebody who knew how to get her home.

  She stood up, grabbed the staff, and crossed the stream, trying to be very careful not to fall into the water. The stream was deeper than the one that had been at the other end of the village, and she wondered if this was the same stream, but she had no way of knowing for sure.

  As careful as she was, when she took the final few steps, she missed a rock and ended up in water to her knees. She slogged out, shook out her sandals, and proceeded west.

  She was glad she held the bag up because it kept it from getting wet. Thinking about it now, she stopped, took the backpack off her back, and looked at the things inside of it. Since there was room, she decided to put everything together except for the compass in the backpack. She would hold the compass for now.

  With the backpack on her back, a staff in one hand, and a compass in the other, she set off again, heading due west.

  She walked, and as she did, she couldn't help but ask herself, "How does Dov know who I am?" And “Does this note mean that I'm close to Rishona?” Sara couldn't be sure. But everything about Dov seemed to have a question around it.

  He was a good man but seemed to have secrets. He knew where bandits were hiding and yet wasn't afraid to flag down a dragon to take on soldiers. Dov was a mystery, and the more she thought about him, the more confused she became. Finally, she told herself, "I'll figure it out later," and began focusing on trying to keep going in the right direction.

  The forest here was not nearly as hard as some of the others she had trekked through. She could guess that part of this was because the trees had been harvested at least in the last thirty to forty years. She could tell because none of the trees were as big as they would be otherwise. Sara was at least glad that traveling through this part of the forest was easier, but if this was part of a forest that was regularly cut, she wondered if she might run into someone.

  After another hour, the forest got thicker and seemed to take on a different feel. The feeling culminated when she took a step into an area of the forest that seemed to be in shadow. She stopped and took a step back. There seemed to be more light behind her. She looked up and around, but nothing looked different. It was a feeling. She took the step forward, and there again it felt like she stepped into a room that was just a slight bit cooler. The sun was not quite as bright. The trees in front of her were older, much, much older and thicker but with the increased tree size and less light, the undergrowth was not quite as bad, but Sara stopped and looked back again. She could almost see it, and she backed across one more time. She looked up and down, and it was almost as if there was a line in the ground where it was lighter on one side and darker on the other. She looked at her compass again, and sure enough, it pointed west straight into this darker forest.

  Sara wondered if it might not be safe, but she reminded herself that this was the way she needed to go. She went on forward into the darker forest. After five to ten minutes, it didn't seem as oppressive or nearly as disturbing as it did when she first crossed. She continued to listen carefully and walked a little slower. She could hear animals scurrying around. She saw a deer running off at one point and was wondering what other animals might be in here. Nothing, however, seemed dangerous so far. So, she plodded on.

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  Fifteen minutes later, she heard voices. She listened carefully. She moved closer in that direction. She pulled out her compass, and sure enough, the voices were coming from the west. So, Sara took gentle steps, trying not to make any noise as she got closer. She listened to the voices. She made out that there were three children.

  "Come on, Chaviva! We need to get moving!" said the voice of a young man. Sara wasn't sure, but he sounded like he was just a few years younger than her.

  Then she heard a little girl saying, "Don't hurry her, Azrael. She's not going to move.”

  “We need to get moving." Azreal asked, "You're hungry, aren't you, Aya?"

  "Yes, I'm hungry." The first girl said, "Azrael's got a point. Come on, Chaviva. We need to move.”

  After a pause, she whined, "I'm hungry, Chaviva!".

  "You heard your sister.” Azrael insisted, “Come on, let's move."

  Sara couldn't hear the third child say anything, and in her mind, she pictured a girl sitting on the ground refusing to move.

  Then she heard a voice that she assumed was the third girl. This girl sounded a little older than the first girl. Sara assumed it was Chaviva, and she said, "It's nearly time. We have.” A pause, “All right, we can go now."

  "Finally!" Azrael said.

  "Yes!" Chaviva said.

  "Maybe we can get something to eat if we hurry up," the boy answered. "We won't get anything until we get to Abba's brother down on the lake. We ate everything we had this morning."

  "Oh," Aya, the young girl who talked first, moaned.

  "All right. Don't worry," the little older girl answered, who Sara had guessed was named Chaviva. "Someone is going to share with us some of their food.” There was a pause, then she added, “If she hurries, that is,"

  Sara felt a shiver go down her spine. Somehow, this girl knew or suspected that Sara was there. Sara moved up a little further when she heard the voice of the brother, whom she had figured out was named Azrael, say, "Chaviva, I thought you said it was okay to move.”

  “It will be just a moment longer. She's taking her sweet time." Chaviva replied

  With that, Sara moved a little faster, not worrying about making noise. Azrael heard her and said, "Somebody's in the woods. Come on, get over here."

  "It's okay, Azrael. Wait!” Chaviva insisted.

  “What do you mean, wait?" Azrael said. "Mom said we weren't supposed to stop for anybody. Nobody was supposed to see us."

  "Yeah," Aya said. "I remember mom said that."

  “So why aren't you moving, Chaviva?” Azrael questioned.

  Sara saw the road and the children in it. The road wasn't much to look at, and it was as old as she expected. Grass had grown up, but it still had signs of having been a road.

  As she got closer, the three children stood together and stared at her as she walked out. Sara looked down. The road at one time had been paved, but the paving had long ago been overgrown with grass. But the path was clear of anything major. She looked up and down and could see where the road was. It wasn't much, and it was clearly not used often.

  This must be the road that Dov told me about, Sara reasoned.

  Sara looked over the children and said, “Hello, my name is...” She paused for a minute, almost giving her real name. “My name is Sari.”

  The children just stood looking at her, the child in the middle, who looked like she was no more than nine, maybe ten, elbowed the older brother, who Sara guessed was probably 12 or 13. He was standing there trying to be protective, but Sara could also see he was afraid. Beside him was another girl, probably six or seven, who Sara understood at once had to be the girl Aya.

  Aya was the first to speak. "Are you going to share your food with us? Because we're really hungry."

  "Aya," Azrael growled. "Don't ask those questions. That's rude."

  “But Chaviva said,” Aya said with a small whine.

  "Don't tell our names!" The boy said, trying to shush his little sister.

  Sara almost laughed but took another step into the road. She took the compass, reached back and stuck it in her backpack, then, with one hand forward, said as if showing she had no weapons, "I'm not going to hurt you."

  She looked at the girl Chaviva and asked, "How did you know I was here?"

  The girl just stared. But it was her younger sister who answered. "Chaviva has the gift, Mama says."

  "Aya!" Azrael said.

  "She's okay, Azrael, or Chaviva would have told us." Aya looked at Sara and asked again, “So are you going to give us something to eat?”

  "Aya!" Azrael said, shaking his head at the young girl and completely ignoring Sara.

  At this point, Sara couldn't help but laugh, which caused them all to turn and look at her.

  “Well, Azrael, Chaviva, and Aya, I don't have a lot, but I'm willing to share. Where are you from?" Sara volunteered.

  The girl who wasn’t speaking now, Chaviva, elbowed her brother and he looked over and said, "We're from the village around the way." And then, “we saw you coming into town with Dov.”

  “When Chaviva told our mother a dragon was coming. Momma said we had to leave, to stay away for a while.” Aya said like they were all old family friends. Azrael shook his head, but she continued, “She will come get us. She told us to take the old road down to the lake and to find Abba-Orr, our uncle.”

  “Oh, well, I'm traveling that way a little bit too.” Sara said conspiratorially, “And I'm also not supposed to be telling anybody either."

  The three children looked at Sara in surprise that an adult would tell them a secret.

  "So, I'll make you a deal," Sara said. "I won't tell anybody you're walking here if you don't tell anybody that I'm walking here, also."

  Two of the children nodded. But Chaviva just turned her head to the side and stared into the distance and said, "Oh my."

  Sara was waiting for her to say something else, but Sara quickly realized she wasn't looking at her, she was looking at someone else. So, Sara looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was there, but no one was there.

  It was then that her sister explained. "Don't worry, she's looking beyond you at something else that we can't see."

  At this point, Azrael tried to hush his little sister.

  "I won’t tell!" Sara smiled once again and sat down on the ground, taking off her pack. She waved the kids to sit beside her. To Sara's surprise, Chaviva was the first one to move up, and she sat down right beside her.