Day 31

It is so refreshing to be back in the trees! The pains in my legs and feet have all but gone. Enaerixer is healing me now that I’m back in her domain, or perhaps it is Froadaelo, God of Spring, giving me a new energy as we move into his season.

The Shard-Blade has been sheathed all day and my newly crafted bow has been over my shoulder ready to be drawn at the first sign of trouble on the ground. As Lanua traverses the forest floor, I swing between the branches 30 feet above.

We have seen so much more wildlife today than I have done since I stepped out of Teeluw nearly a month ago. I hadn’t realised how much I have missed the sounds of insects crawling through the trees and soil and making their own little songs that, together with the songs of the other species that call the forest home, create a wonderful symphony of music for the birds to sing to. The distant feet, galloping through the logs, combines with the dripping splashes of water into puddles on the floor to provide the rhythmic beat behind the melody. Leaves rustle in the wind to signal a new song about to be played. Thunder rumbles from the storm in the South, but it isn’t scary any more. It is calming down, exhausted from its constant struggle over the last few days.

Lanua, never having been in a forest before, is overwhelmed by the colour as much as anything else. No more are we wandering through drab, grey and brown valleys, or over dull, grey and brown hills. We aren’t in the grey and brown village that she grew up in, and the sky is, at least for now, not filled with grey and black clouds. The blue sky, the green leaves, and the orange and red sunset - her eyes cannot be used to so much richness. And her mood has improved noticeably. No longer does she complain that I’m walking too slowly. Indeed, she has begun to hinder our pace as she studies every new thing she finds in a world in which she has never been before. More than once I have had to remind her that we need to move quickly so that we may give ourselves enough time to reach our destination in under a month.

But I do not deny that, by spending a few days moving a little slower, we will heal our bodies and minds so that we may quicken our pace later on in our journey.