Jordan woke up. It was still night, he checked his watch. He must have fallen asleep, his shift on watch didn't end for an hour. He settled back against the tree, he felt like he had awakened by something. He shrugged it off, probably nothing.

He suddenly heard the sounds of a twig snapping behind him, he stiffened and froze. As if he was still asleep. The intruder, unaware he was awake, slowly approached. The only sound now was the rustling of leaves.

Jordan slowly pulled out his gun. Any sudden movements and he could die. His spine tingled and his heart pounded with fear. It sounded like the intruder was approaching Crosby. Jordan risked a glance. A single man, holding a silenced pistol crept up to Crosby. 

Jordan slowly lifted the pistol up and aimed. He held his breath, and shot. As if by some sixth sense, the man ducked and turned to see me, the bullet sailed where his chest should have been, instead it went above him by 2 inches and hit the tree behind him.

The loud gunshot waked up Crosby, he reflexively grabbed hid gun at the sound, seeing the intruder, he kicked out and knocked away his gun. He leaped to his feat pulled him to the ground. The man squealed.

"Please don't hurt me! I'm an innocent man, I have a wife and a family!"

Jordan walked up to him. "Did it occur to you  that we might have a family? Or might be innocents?"

"Your a thief."

"True," Jordan paused, "You got me there, I'm not really innocent... And I don't really have a family for another matter. You know what? This conversation just got depressing, maybe killing you will make me feel better."

He screamed, "No please! Don't hurt me! I'm under orders from the Flarers! Tie me up, leave me here! Just don't hurt me!"

Crosby leaned in, "Why would you be begging to be tied up here?"

"To avoid pain..."

"I think it's because Flarers are coming soon, and will rescue you."

He swallowed and moved to speak, but thought better of it and kept his mouth shut.

"Do you know which council member leads the Flarers?"

"No." He squeaked.

"It's Sirena Arlington, and if she finds you dangling upside down from a tree, only wearing underwear- do you think she would welcome you back with open arms?" He scowled, "after disgracing her she would have you returned to you home, just to be killed a few days later by 'Natural causes'. Do you want that to happen?"

"Nope." He seemed to be trying to shrink into the ground. "On a second thought, could you go a kilometre or two to the west and hang me by a tree over there?"

"Whats your name?" Jordan asks.

"Jeffery."

"Thank you Jeffery."

"Thank you?" He asked confused.

"Thanks to your wonderful information, we now know that the Flarers aren't heading west."

His jaw dropped. "You know, killing me wouldn't be such a bad idea..."

Jordan steps in, "were gonna let you live, on one condition."

"Whats that?"

"Leave Gurila, I want you to cross the border into Gastro and never come back."

"You-you would let me live?" he stammered.

Jordan sighed, "don't make me reconsider, I would leave right about now if I were you."

Taking his queue, he got to his feet and scrambled off towards the edge of the clearing, he tripped on a uprising root and took a mouthful of dirt. He groaned and didn't get up.

"Should we help him?" Crosby asks Jordan.

Jordan smiled, "Nah, he'll be fine."

"They trudged over to their horses and hopped into they're saddles." It was only a few minutes later when he realized how sleep deprived they were.

"So." Jordan Yawned, "this detour west, whats over here?"

Crosby grunted, "nothing much, mainly forestry, but we can't go to the town Bardleby anymore, they obviously are predicting our movements."

"Then where could Margerie be?"

"Well, if you were a Gastronian outlaw, where would you hide?"

"In Gastro, cause I wouldn't be an outlaw over there."

"We'll the borders are jam packed with Flarers."

"True," Jordan pauses in thought. "The Badger Beak tavern in Candly is my idea of an outlaws hiding place, of course not counting Bardlebys."

Crosby nods. "Then thats where were going."

Jordan sat back into his saddle, they had a days ride ahead of them, no Flarers, no assassins, just a calm morning to sleep...

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Advised Crosby.

He frowned, "Why not?"

"Because I just remembered, the western woods are said to be cursed."

"Uh, not another one!" Jordan complained, "everything is cursed these days!"

"I wouldn't say that about this one."

"Why? Are you actually saying its cursed?"

"Not  cursed, but something is definitely in there."

"How would you know?"

"Disappearances, they've been happening long before we were born. People would walk in there and never come out."

"Sometimes they do, right?"

"Its rare, but the Flarers once did a test, they sent out some criminal, said they would release him if he did this for them, he agreed. He went in with a GPS tracking signal, he went in fine and walked around everything was normal. 

"But suddenly the tracking signal disappeared, using helicopters they flew in on his last known location, nothing was found. Either he's another victim, or is still in there hiding. They made sure no one came out of there without them knowing."

"So... Were going in there..."

"We sure are."

"It also explains why the Flarers aren't going there, they don't think were stupid enough to come here."

"Probably."

"You know, I thought they thought more highly of us, like- Oh look Crosby and Jordan, yeah top stuff, best criminals out there- ya catch my drift?" Jordan said.

"Sure do, we'll probably be fine, no ones disappeared for months, and we have guns, horses and all the supplies we need. Were just as supplied as the crew of Flarers that went in and tried to kill whatever was causing the disappearances."

"They went in? And came out?"

"Well, some of them."

"How many went?"

"Fifty, a full squadron."

"Wow, did they find anything?"

"Nope, but they did lose things, they lost forty three people, the seven who escaped were either driven to madness from the expedition, or killed themselves soon after."

"So we might die?"

"Yup."

Jordan frowned, knowing Crosby, he wasn't one to make jokes... This was seriously dangerous. They would reach the western side of the forest in what? Twenty minutes? By then he needed to be on serious watch. He was surprised with how Crosby felt with upcoming danger, with a high possibility of death, well knowing his past, he shouldn't be surprised.

It also defined him and who he was, Crosby stuck around with him, half because he was just like Jordan, a dangerous criminal. And, because of the information he possessed, Crosby had confessed about himself after a few months of working together. After thinking about it, he could see it in his personality.

He stuck around because he needed to make sure he didn't spill any of his secrets... There were a lot of them. Jordan sighed, sometimes things got a little overwhelming, sometimes its best to have a nap. He lied back in his saddle as best he could without falling of the horse, he mumbled to Crosby.

"Wake me up when we get there..."

***

They arrived at dawn. The sun started poking through the leaves and branches of the trees, breaching the canopy above sending rays of light onto the ground. The first thing Jordan noticed was the trees'. Covered in ivy and vines to the top, they were darker, as if someone had spray painted the bark a deep brown, on the verge of black. The branches were thicker and twisted in odd ways, covering the tree tops above them.

Gnarled roots produced from the ground around them, tentacles on the ground tripping the horses. Strange mushrooms and plants grew around them, no doubt deadly to humans. The strangest thing? There were no animals, no chirping birds, no wandering bears or traveling deer. Just an unnerving quiet.

After Crosby's nearly launched from his saddle, "we should walk, the horses can't walk on these roots, we'll break our necks before anything can even kill us."

They dismount. The sun no longer came through the trees, the thick branches and large leaves blocking any light from reaching the bottom, throwing the area in a murky shadow. It gave him the chills.

"I don't like this." Jordan murmurs to Crosby.

"Me neither, but it's either this or death."

"This might be a painful death."

"True."

Crosby wasn't helping, sometimes he needed someone to crack him up. Crosby just didn't know how to joke.

"How long will it take to get through the forest?" Jordan asks.

"Were not going though the middle, we only need to pass through the side to get to Candlys. So about half an hour."

I nod and stare at the surroundings, they walked their horses for about ten more minutes. Jordan was so used to the quiet, that he was almost relieved to hear the wind. Almost.

The wind rushed through the western edge of the forest, flowing throughout the trees and plants. The leaves rustled and branches swayed. The forest seemed alive.

"I don't like this." Jordan tells Crosby.

He nods, "We need to leave now, this is unnatural. Somethings wrong."

And then the forest spoke.