The Lost Quest

“How do I know if this is not poisoned?” asked Yannic as the old man handed him a wooden bowl of soup.

“You think the person who raised you up is going to kill you now?” Laughed the old man.

“You told the role has ended. Who knows, you may have taken some other role to take my life this time. So you entered the car and made it plunge into the river. Left me alone on a shore, in the middle of an unknown forest.”

“I saved you from drowning, though,” said the old man.

“Whatever!”

“For your satisfaction.”

The old man took a sip of the soup with his old wooden spoon.

“See I’m not dead. You can have it. You look pale with hunger.”

“You don’t die,” Yannic looked at him on despise.

The old man sat on a plank of wood, next to Yannic and he started sipping the soup. In spite of the old dirty pottery where the soup was made and the mushrooms probably picked up from the door. Must be the hunger, it tasted well. Yannic could sniff the fungal muddy smell of the hut. There were strands of straws scattered random on the floor. There was a old grey bed sheet over the straw mattress. Potteries and green, blue, yellow fluids on glass jars and piles of books stack on the table.

“So, you are Zohar, the wizard?”

“Yes”

“You live alone?”

“Yes”

“How old are you? Out of curiosity. Because you don’t die.”

“I don’t remember. I have been living in this forest since a long time. There were different kind of trees then.” The old man gazed out of the broken wooden window.

“And you’re my grand pa too!!”

“That was just a role that…”

“……..That ended,” said Yannic “Okay! Okay!” “And how did you get into my car?”

“Because I’m a wizard. I do magic.”

“Oh! Magic. Do you know what I was heading for?” Yannic raised his eyebrows and stared at the old man.

“My little brother, Aiden, you know him right? His friends couldn’t contact him. He is lost in the woods of Tilaurai and I had to find him.”

Zohar nodded.

“I left my newly wedded wife alone in a villa at midnight hoping I would be back in few hours. Another day is about to pass and I’m here, talking to some wierdo, in the middle of an unknown forest, who claims to be my Grandfather, eating mushrooms picked from his old dirty door! What am I doing?” shouted Yannic. “Why did you bring me here?”

“Yannic, it’s not me who brought you here,” the old man tried to console him, but Yannic won’t listen.

“Give me my car and send me back to the highway, by your magic. I have to find my brother. I want to be with my wife again.”

“I’m also worried about him.”

“You’re making it. I know you’re not my

Grandpa. You may be a mind reader or something, but I don’t want to hear anything further. You send me or I’m heading out.”

Yannic got up and threw the bowl on the floor. He got out of the door. He could feel the cell and battery dried into his pocket. He took them out and placed the battery in cell. He switched it on, no signal he could see. Yannic raised his cell on a hand and started roaming around in the woods for signal. “Here’s the signal,” after roaming for a while, he found a trace of signal. He realized that he had reached far from the hut. Trees were different there. Some had cones and leaves like Pine trees but the trunks, they were all twisted in strange manner. All the trees had twisted trunks. There was something so magnetic about those creepy trees that made Yannic move further ahead. The leaves of the trees got wider and wider, different kind of trees, the wide trees, thin trees, tropical trees but the trunks all twisted, as if those trees were cursed.

He looked at the cell, there was full signal.

“Tiara, I must call Tiara.” On the first ring Tiara picked up the phone.

“Hello! Yannic where are you? How are you? When you’ll be back?”(Worried voice he could hear)

“I found the way out. I am okay, Tiara!”

“I am on the way to Tilaurai. As soon as I meet Aiden I’ll be home,” lied Yannic.

“Okay! Give me a call as soon as you meet him,” Tiara sounded relived.

“Sure! You take care.”

“Love you!”

Yannic was alleviated with her relived voice. He still couldn’t figure out which part of the forest he was heading to, though, he was feeling so dragged to the creepy forest with twisted trees.

To his wonder, there was no trace of animals or birds chirping in such a dense forest but a hideous silence. Suddenly, he felt something dripping on his shoulder. He looked on the shirt. He could see fresh blood dropping somewhere above him. As he looked up, he saw a woman in a golden dress hanging on a branch of the tree. Her face covered with her curly hairs with blood flowing through her mouth, she seemed still alive.

“He’s killing me! Save me! Save me! Yannic!” she said. The sound was familiar. Yannic was shunned as he looked the face carefully. It was his wife hanging on the tallest tree of the forest. “Tiara!” Yannic got terrified. He shivered and didn’t know what to do next.

“Save me! Save me!” the sound was getting bitter and painful every time. The blood flowing through her mouth had his shirt painted red. Yannic closed his eyes and ears and started screaming.

“Zohar! Zohar!” He turned around to the hut and shouted “Zohar! Zohar!” He felt her blood running down his body.

After a while, Yannic opened his eyes. Zohar in his white cloak was approaching the forest. “Zohar… Tiara….” Yannic stammered. He had nothing else to tell. He opened his ear, the sound was gone. He looked at the shirt, it was all white.

He pointed up, there was nothing but the tallest tree of the forest.

“She was there, hanging.”

Zohar smiled “The place has started hunting you, my lord.”

Yannic stood there surprised shunned, shivering.

“What do you mean? Why? ”

“I was not the one who brought you here. It was your destiny. I am just here to help you. Now your quest begins.”