If an interesting tale was what someone was after, Jorri was their buck.
Was he sure he didn't need company? his best friends had asked. Did he really want to go so far?
No, and yes - that was a pioneer's destiny, wasn't it?
Of course, he did not actually go out without company. His friends were loyal ones, and there were many nouls who wanted to make the trek over to the new forest anyway, especially with the prospect of receiving a boon from Wanderlust.
It was a good thing, too. Jorri had never exactly wandered so deep into the Barrens before, and he probably would've gotten lost much earlier. And it was nice to have company, exchanging laughter and warmth in the Barrens' unexpectedly cool nights.
The sight of the mistfruit forest itself was a shock. It was visible from a distance, for one - trees were unusual in the Barrens, but more than that, hills that signified an end to the Barrens' lengthy stretch of flat land. The whole group murmured with awe at the sight of it. They had to be cautious of mirage, some old doe murmured, but the hills only grew more majestic as they approached.
It was real.
At the base they debated what to do - for a bit. Not everyone who'd come was patient enough to await the group's verdict, and members of the group peeled off when no one was looking, too curious about the fruit to stay still. Jorri would've gone with them, but he'd been absorbed into a quarrel defending his position, and then...
Well, when the group was small enough, it made more sense to disperse anyway. "We can meet up at the lake," Jorri conceded, and he and his friends split off into their own party. Two of them had come with him: Eshku and Unna, both fascinated with the idea of Mistfruit Forest for their own reasons. Jorri was happy to go with the flow here, once he and his friends were on their own: anything could be the start of an adventure.
Only his companions were not quite in agreement. "I want the fruit," Eshku said crossly.
"Everyone wants the fruit," Unna countered. "That's not interesting. We should set up a den, before anyone else lays claim."
"Claim?" Eshku laughed.
"You know what I mean."
Unna had tired eyes. They didn't like nouls much, except for their friends. They'd liked the prospect of someplace else that was hospitable.
Mistfruit Forest seemed to be that, though Jorri would've argued that it only barely qualified. There was long yellow grass - not tasty and likely devoid of nutrients. It was tough to the chew, or it'd snap in your mouth. Jorri was glad they'd come supplied. He wasn't sure where they might begin to search for other sustenance. There were plants, of course...but when they were all so dead, it was hard to tell what might be edible.
And mistfruit was a correct moniker. There was mist everywhere, and it made it hard to see where they were going. "None of us know where the fruit is at all," Jorri pointed out, happy so long as they stayed together. "Let's just...wander, for now. We should find landmarks."
There was supposed to be a river here somewhere. And a lake, which they needed to find if they wanted to meet up with everyone else and travel back home together. It was easier to search for that, maybe.
They climbed to the top of a hill first. It seemed reasonable that the river would not be here, but perhaps if they could see where it'd cut into the land, they'd know where to go. "Race?" Jorri asked, but he was already taking off.
He had a fright when he'd reached the top of the hill. He turned around and - where had his friends gone?
Their shapes outlined themselves in the mist eventually, though, and the trio looked downhill with apprehension once they'd all gathered together again. "There could be...there," Eshku whispered. The sentence was not quite complete, but Jorri had no trouble parsing it. He looked: there were a lot of valleys here, and it was hard to see anything clearly, but he could tell what she meant.
"We might as well," shrugged Unna.
The three crept downhill at a more sedate pace, looking at the sun - also blurry and indistinct, but a bright spot in the grey sky - to determine where exactly to walk. It was hard to tell, though, and of course the sun was also moving. But the general idea was downward, toward something that could possibly have been -
Jorri saw it first, because he'd pushed himself to the front of their little group, and he gasped as he did.
The trees in Mistfruit Forest, so far, had been thin but numerous. Their branches obscured less than the fog did, and they weren't in the best of health, but there was clear hope for them. They were getting some semblance of nutrients here.
But around the corner here, the trees just...stopped. When the Homewood edged into the Barrens you could still see trees here and there, and bushes receding into the distance until eventually it was clear you were no longer home anymore. Here, Jorri took but a step and the scant cover the trees had provided previously just vanished. Even stumps dotted the landscape, grey and pale and endless.
Eshku ran forward, too, when she saw them, examining each tree with horror. It made no sense that so many trees had been felled all at once, and though Jorri could see some of them sending little twigs upward again, it seemed frightful.
"Look!" Eshku called, and Jorri glanced at Unna before they trotted up in unison. There wasn't anything to see, though, except -
"They're all even," Unna marveled.
They decided eventually to map out the edges of this region, which was fortunate, because an hour in they heard the familiar sound of moving water.
"Let's go," Jorri decided. The field of trees was story enough to tell, and their goal had been the lake in the first place. Eventually, the river would feed into the lake, and then from there they could head home.
They took one last glance at the field before they left. It was hard to imagine what sort of monsters the Others had been. What had the power to cut its way through all of these trees as though they were blades of grass? None of them wanted to know - but perhaps they might need to.
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