23 Mushroom Hunt

  When Draco came back, he growled something in his language even before landing.

  David had informed her, "Sara, get what supplies you need for a little trip."

  Sara looked at him and said, "You mean I'm leaving the valley?"

  "For a little bit," he said. "But get what you think you might need."

  Sara went into the house and wondered if this might be her chance. She grabbed her pack and threw in all the things she thought she might need to survive, but not taking too much. On a hunch, she threw in the bag of coins and the brooch. She made sure her knife was on her side. She threw a small pan with flint and steel into the sack and brought it too. Finally, she grabbed her staff.

  Just before heading out, David demanded to see what she had brought. As she opened it up, he took out the frying pan and a few other items, but left the coins, the brooch, and the extra knife, and gave it back to her, saying, "This should be okay."

  Sara was confused. After all the time he had spent preparing her to go out into the woods and survive, now he was taking away some of the very things she needed. But Sara didn't argue. What surprised her was that he left her, the extra weapon and the money.

  When she looked up at him and began to ask, he shook his head and said, "You know what mushrooms look like? The morels and the lion manes. Correct?"

  Sara looked up and said, “Morels aren't in season."

  David shook his head as Draco began to walk over. Confused, Sara said, "Yes, I know exactly what they look like."

  "Good," David said. "We are going to hunt some, or I should say you are going to hunt some. And since we want plenty, we are going to give you a lot of time, you understand?"

  There was a growl that Sara realized was the sound of anticipation from the dragon. Sara didn't realize the dragon even liked mushrooms. She had never gathered any for him before, but after the way he had acted the week before, she wasn't about to argue.

  The dragon came over and lowered himself. David climbed on, and then when Sara came close by, David lifted her. He set her carefully in front of him.

  Before Sara had any chance to say anything else, the dragon leapt into the air, his wings forcing the air down. Soon, she found herself being lifted into the air on the back of a dragon. Higher and higher, Draco flew. This experience was far different from what she had before. From here, she could see around her and could appreciate the landscape. As they left the valley behind, she realized she didn't recognize anything around her. Wherever she was now, she doubted she was in Rishona.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  What she knew was that she was leaving her captivity, at least for a while. Draco flew in Sara's estimation for an hour. Landing finally in a glade in the middle of a forest. She thought she had seen some cottages off to the south before they landed but wasn't sure. Next to the glade, there was a stream. It seemed like the perfect day for late summer and not the time of year to go hunting for mushrooms.

  Once down, David set her off the dragon, he shooed her away, and then he dismounted. He walked over to her. The dragon growled a few more times, and assuming that David was translating, David said, "You are to go into the woods and find the mushrooms we want. You are to stay on this side of that stream." David said, pointing at the stream not a hundred feet away.

  "Do not cross that stream," David said, pointing again at the stream. “Far beyond that stream, there is a town. Do not go to it. You are to stay here in this forest." Now pointing to the forest to the north.

  The growl came from, and a mumble of words that Sara assumed were in his tongue came out. And David said, "It will not be good for you if you try to run away."

  Sara nodded and looked up at David. David gave a small nod to the south, "Do what you have to?" he paused and added, “Sara.”

  And with that, David turned around, walked back to the dragon, climbed on, and they flew off.

  Once they were out of sight, Sara knew exactly what she had to do. She turned and went south, nearly running the whole way.

  When she reached the stream, she crossed it, and though it was a little deeper than she thought it would be, it didn't slow her down. She moved as fast as she could, hoping against hope that she could find some place to hide or someone to hide her before the dragon returned.

  Sara ran until she reached the tree line and then had to slow down. The trees in this forest were not like the ones back in the valley; there was a lot of undergrowth and thickets, and she soon found that trying to travel south was going to be more difficult. She had to slow down to keep the direction straight, but she kept moving. Sometimes she had to move this way or that to avoid a greater patch of thickets, but eventually she found a small game trail. It wasn't very wide, and thickets still crossed her path, but at least her feet were clear to walk.

  She tried to run again, but that just didn't work. The thickets grabbed her face and her arms, making it impossible to move fast without getting lashed by the thorns, so she slowed down.

  When she thought it was at least another hour and she looked up at the sky to see where the sun was located. It had been earlier in the morning, so she still knew from the direction of the sun that she was heading in a southerly direction. She paused and considered whether she should take a time to rest but immediately dismissed it and pressed forward.

  She followed the game trail until it turned alongside a stream. Sara had to decide whether to go in the direction of the stream or to cross and go south. She remembered that water was vital to life in a village, so following the stream might be a good idea.

  She thought for a moment longer and then turned and followed along the stream. The stream wasn't very deep, so at times she was able to walk in the stream, cooling her feet when the side was too thick with brush and thickets. She saw a variety of life and wondered not for the first time if she needed to be concerned about predators. In Rishona, there were bears, wolves, and other things that a lone traveler would be wise to avoid.

  But she couldn't go back at this point; it was just as likely she'd run across something going back as if going forward, so she pressed on.

  The water began to rise a little deeper, and she could no longer walk along the edge, but she tried to stay close to the stream. She traveled and noticed that the stream turned again this way and that. Then, finally, in a southerly direction. Once it hit that southerly direction, it seemed like an arrow going straight south.

  Seeing this new direction, Sara followed it with hope that she would soon find the village that David had pointed out.

  The way the giant had said not to go there seemed to tell her that it was exactly where she needed to go.