Chapter 42

Jonas “Alright, I just linked Thorin that we left.” Emmett said as we continued to walk through the forest. It was too thick for our wolves to navigate, but hopefully we would be able to shift soon, otherwise this trip would take forever.

“And?” I asked. “What did he say?” We were already three hours away, thankfully, so he wouldnt be coming for us, I hoped. Though I got the feeling that not much would stop Thorin if he felt differently.

“I got a grunt. So I guess he understands the reasoning.” Emmett shrugged, looking over the map again.

“Hopefully Kelly won’t be too pissed when she wakes up.” I sighed. I know she wanted to do this herself so badly.

“Hopefully, we can bring back the moonflower. That should put us back in her good graces.”

“You think the old woman was telling the truth? You don’t think it’s a setup?”

“Do you?” He asked with a raised brow. “You were the one who spoke with her.”

“She seemed honest.” I shrugged, second guessing all of my life choices. “Detailed too.”

“She had a better map than what the man gave us, so I’d say it was a win.” Emmett shrugged.

“So, how does one extract tears from a flower?” I asked, changing the subject.

“They call it tears, but what they are referring to is the oil that comes from it. The easiest way to extract it is by steam distillation.”

“And you know how to do that?”

“Yes, it can be done in someone’s home actually, with the right tools, of course. We’ll need to send the moonflower home though. I don’t like the idea of trying to do it someplace else and having something go terribly wrong or carrying it around the entire time.”

“You can mail plants?” I asked, scrunching up my face.

“You can mail just about anything. Chickens can go through the mail.” He shrugged. “As long as it is properly labeled and packaged, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Won’t someone need to take care of it? Until we get back?”

“I will leave that up to Kelly to figure out.”

“I’m sure Kelsey or Kylie would-“

I stopped midsentence, putting my arm up to stop Emmett as well. Something was watching us. Or someone.

“What is it?” Emmett asked quietly.

Suddenly, a dart whizzed by him, hitting the tree next to him, only inches from his head.

“Run!” I yelled, ducking as another just barely missed me.

Emmett and I broke out into a sprint, running side by side together as a small army of natives began hunting us down. Darts were flying past us, letting us know how close they still were to us. We might be apex predators, but this was their home which they knew well. We made it to an area where the forest seemed to be less dense and I didn’t hesitate to shift. Emmett was on the same wavelength as me, and was starting to shift, until one of the darts hit him in the back. He roared in pain, reverting back to his human form. I dove for him, just barely managing to catch him on my back before he hit the ground. As soon as I felt him grab on, I took off in a zig zag, praying that I wouldn’t also get hit with a dart.

“Are you okay?” I linked, as I put more and more distance between the natives and us.

I felt him let go of me with one hand and slowed down slightly. I could hear him g***n in pain and then spit before answering. “I’ll be fine. It’s a natural paralytic, but it shouldn’t last more than a few hours. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Nope, just hang on tight. You can navigate us the rest of the way.”

I ran for hours, carrying Emmett on my back. It was almost sunset when we finally came across the waterfall that the old woman told us about. Thank goddess. That was one good sign, she was at least telling the truth about the map. It put me at ease knowing that Kelly would probably be fine staying at her camp until we came back. Of course, I’m sure she could handle herself, and if not her, then Keres certainly could, but the last thing I wanted to do was loose her somewhere in the middle of this forest.

“I’m going to shift.” I said, lying down so Emmett could flop off of me.

“Go for it.” He nodded.

Emmett sat up, pulling off his shoes and socks before slowly moving his toes. Well, some of them anyway. At least it was wearing off.

“What does this flower look like?” I asked.

“Well, from the one picture I have, it looks almost like a cross between a water lily and a cactus flower. Very beautiful.” He said, massaging his legs, trying to get the b***d moving.

“Alright, and for someone who isn’t sure what that looks like?” I asked.

“Didn’t you see the picture we had?” He frowned.

“Yeah, but only for a second before Kelly took it. I wasn’t really paying attention. You are the plant guru, I figured you’d find it, if it even existed.”

Emmett rolled his eyes but then took a deep breath and asked me to go find two rocks. I brought them back to him and he tried to draw a rough example of what it would look like. Unfortunately, either he sucked at drawing, or we were very unlucky, because to me, half the flowers in the forest looked like the one he was describing. I picked some of the flowers on my perusal and brought them to Emmett. He would point out features that I should be looking for in the moonflower. It helped me narrow down the search, but the sun was setting and we needed to get a fire going if we didn’t want to get eaten alive by bugs.

I set aside the flowers that I picked, with the intention of giving them to Kelly upon our return, before building a fire. Emmett was able to stand and slowly walk at this point. We were hopeful that by morning he would be as good as new.

“Oh, I sleepwalk sometimes, by the way.” I warned Emmett as we were settling down to sleep. I didn’t want a repeat of my night with Thorin. We could continue our search in the morning.

“I have an herbal tea back at home that should help with that.” He yawned.

“Eh…I’m not too worried about it, it keeps things interesting.”

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged.

I stared up at the sky. It was a cloudy night, but the moon still peered through some of the clouds. Hopefully, we can get out of the forest before any heavy rain comes. I said a silent prayer to the moon goddess asking her for help in our search. If anyone could find the flower, it was her.

– – – – – – – – –

“Jonas!” I heard my name being called. “Jonas!” I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Where was I? “Goddess damn it, where are you?” Emmett called, obviously exasperated.

I slowly sat up, my body aching from lying on the ground. I think I slept on a rock. Only…this wasn’t where I fell asleep. I was on the far side of the waterfall now, our campfire only a small orange dot in the distance. I must have been sleep walking again. I looked around, a bit paranoid that something might try to kill me at any moment, when my eyes landed on a beautiful flower. It was glowing a beautiful white color under the moonlight, but only when the moon was in sight. As soon as a cloud covered it, the flower stopped glowing, disappearing into the rest of nature. This must be it.

“Over here! I think I found it!” I yelled.

Emmett found me in record time, his face lit up in excitement the moment he saw the flower illuminate under the night sky.

“I had no idea it would possess such properties.” He gawked. “I cant believe you did it. You found it.” He laughed to himself. “Help me dig it up.”

“Are you sure you want me to help?” I laughed nervously.

“Definitely.” He nodded, his eyes transfixed on the flower.

We quickly extracted the flower from the ground, careful not to break any of the roots. Emmett used his shirt and a vine as a make-shift flower pot, his eyes wide with amazement as we watched the flower glow. We decided then that we would take shifts watching the precious plant, not wanting someone or something else to take it in the night. However, I’m confident that nothing will happen. I say this because I felt deep down in my gut that this was no accident. The moon goddess wanted me to find this flower. She was giving us her blessing.