Protectors of Purity

[Doriana Strati]

This topic follows these event: Deer in Headlights
While the linked topic was left incomplete, some facts to be mentioned in this topic will be considered as natural corollary.


With her wand lit, Doriana coursed the forbidden forest for a second time that day. Earlier she was caught trespassing and was sent at the head of her house to face the consequences of her act. It wasn't the deduction of house points nor the prolonged detention she had received that had her so devastated. It was the reason that had her wandering in the forest in the first place. The orphan foal unicorn that she was nursing back to health was missing and she was worried to death about what could have happened. The rocky outcrop of natural cavities had been so far a safe haven and Doriana was travelling every day all the way from the grounds to visit the foal, tend its wounds and feed it. Today though the foal wasn't at the outcrop when they visited it earlier that morning. The girl was going to risk everything to find it again. She didn't care she had just got a detention or she might got expelled for breaking the rules back to back. When the night descended, she found her best friend and together they ran back to the forest. She wasn't intending to get back if the foal wasn't found safe and sound.

She probably had never ran so fast before in her life. Jumping over fallen tree trunks or ducking to avoid the low hanging branches, Doriana was heading straight towards the outcrop where the foal was last seen. She tried to block the grim of thoughts of what could have happen and hoped that it had just strayed far and got lost. She hadn't stopped calling for the foal. "Corny! CORNY!" Shouting at the top of her voice that was coming out hoarse.
Somewhere behind her, Ulysses was following her, carrying food and medical supplies. They didn't know when or how they were going to find Cornelia the foal but a first aid kid and unicorn milk were essential no matter what.
For a moment, the bad thought of finding the foal dead infiltrated her mind and she welled up. She quickly wiped her eyes not wanting Ulysses to see this brief moment of weakness and brushed a few strand of stray hair from her worried face. Doriana slowed down a bit as Ulysses was left behind. "Come on, Uli! Get the move on!" her voice traveled through the trees and scanned the darkness for his wand's light approaching her.

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

Ulysses found himself meandering through the forest second time in a row that day. It was crazy if you consider they were just punished for doing so the first time. His friend however was intractable. There was no way to stop her from searching the baby unicorn they were fostering. He was also worried about Cornelia but he didn't believe they could do much now that darkness had cloaked the standard dim forest. His close vicinity was illuminated thanks to the bright orb of light glowing out of his wand's tip. Fortunately Doriana had done the same. She was running ahead and he could only follow because of her wand's light, dancing ahead as she was running amongst the trees like a drunken firefly.

Moving fast was had its pros and cos. They weren't staying for a long time at the same area avoiding unwanted encounters but at the same time, the were making more noise than needed, with twigs and dry leaves snapping or crunching under their shoes. Ulysses feared that the foal could be killed by the forest's predators. This place wasn't forbidden for no reason. Dangerous creatures were lurking around and the two of them shouldn't get separated while they were in such hazardous place. Two wands were always better than one. He was trying to catch up but he couldn't run fast enough when he was also carrying a backpack with a fully equipped first aid kit, some food and water. Doriana's light slowed down somewhere ahead of him as she called his name. "You do remember I'm carrying this backpack, right?" he panted, finally keeping pace with her. "Keep it quiet if you don't want another detention for tonight." he advised and he took the lead this time. They were a couple of minutes away from their destination.

They reached the rocky outcrop, towering over the trees' canopy. The light of their wands cast bizzare shadows on its sharp corners and cavities. Ulysses didn't say anything and just started looking for hoofprints on the ground surrounding the bedrock exposure. "Doriana! Over here!" he called her from his location, behind the outcrop. "See? These must be hers." he pointed his lit wand to the ground where faint hoofprints were showered by the golden light. "They get to that direction." he said with a glimmer of hope as his eyes followed the hoofprints that were pointing deeper in the forest. Ulysses couldn't determine whether they were fresh or not but now they had a valuable clue to continue their search. "Let's follow them." he suggested reluctantly. They were about to step into an uncharted for them, part of the forest. They had never wandered past the outcrop and they had no idea what was waiting for them there. "Stay close and keep your eyes peeled." he said and took a deep breath. He took the first step into the unfamiliar teritorry, the tracks showing him the way.

 

[Doriana Strati]

Doriana couldn't stop calling for Corny. She felt useless and it was the only thing she could do at the moment. Ulysses was right though. In the silence of the night their voices were carried some distance away. Professors and prefects were somewhere out there patrolling but she doubted they were venturing that deep in the forest. She reckoned that they had long crossed their patrolling zone. Yet her shouts could have reached their ears. She decided to take Ulysses' advice and follow him closely. The forest was giving her the creeps at night. It was a dramatic transformation. In the morning it was her favorite place to be but at night she would have preferred to stay away from it. It was just the veil of the night that made their visits there less perceived and thus, they were popping in and out to visit Corny that time of the day.

She still held a glimmer of hope that they might find the foal at the outcrop but this wasn't the case. Usually when they were announcing their arrival, it was out of its shelter to welcome them. Her heart sunk and her hope evaporated. They started searching. Ulysses went to inspect the perimeter of the natural landmark while she checked as many accessible cavities on it. Her wand's light was casting eerie shadows on the rocks. Everything looked scarier now. When she heard Ulysses calling, her heart skipped a beat.
She dashed around the outcrop and found him investigating the ground. "Definitely these are Corny's" She breathed in relief and a weak smile cracked on her face after a long time. This meant nothing. They had to find her safe and sound for Doriana to calm down.

It was true that they had never visited the forestland extending past the hollow outcrop. They were either sticking around it or they were taking for a walk or run the foal at a nearby creek. He clenched her wand determined to continue despite fear creeping in with each step. The trees were getting bigger around them. Imposing, gray trunks were spreading their thick roots everywhere on the ground. A vast blanket of fine mist suddenly swooped in from among the trees and skirted around them. It looked like an act of intimidation from the forest's part. Their light orbs were only strong enough to dissipate the haziness for just a few feet. When finally the silvery mist licked her face she got goosebumps and kept the wand closer to her face. At least its heat was somewhat comforting.

"Awesome. This helps a lot." She used sarcasm as they navigated within this bone-chilling, ghostly embrace. The temperature had also fallen and she rubbed with her free hand the other arm. Everything was pointing to the presence of dementors but even she thought that this was a bit of a stretch. The soul sucker couldn't be roaming the school's grounds. Except if they had wandered beyond its limits. "I don't see any hoof prints anymore." She noticed and looked at Ulysses hoping to hear him saying that they were still on the right track.

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

The moment they set their feet past the invisible boundaries of explored territory, the terrain changed abruptly. Roots were cascading from the baked hard ground, jets of rough brown bark looping and turning until they joined the trees that towered above. The forbidden forest gave them a first warning. In a matter of a few moments, the treacherous ground was swaddled in a veil of poltergeist-white mist. It wrapped around them, freezing, almost tangible. It loomed as far as he could see. "Stay close." he reminded her. The light of his wand barely managing to penetrate the haze. His job was a difficult one. Being the one who was better with spells, he had his attention both on the ground but also around them. He was feeling exposed and vulnerable but didn't let Doriana notice that.

The hoof prints were scarce now that most of the ground was covered with earthy, gray coils. "We're good." he reassured her once he found a faint one on the dirt. For some time he thought that they were going to the right direction, delicately picking their way through the holes between the roots which had grown larger and thicker. Pretty soon he realized that they had been lost in that twisted earthen forest. Hoof prints weren't to be seen anymore. "Don't panic but I think we're lost." he stated, instantly regretting they way he so straightforwardly put it. He pointed his wand upwards, to cast some light at the distant canopy. It was no use. Possibly, it was so dense that he wouldn't be able to see anything of the night sky. He approached to closest tree and examined it as far as he could see it. It was a bulky one with firm branches protruding just three feet above him.

"I'm climbing up." he announced and took off the backpack he was carrying to place it on the ground against the tree. "The stars can be the best kind of compass if you know how to read them." he explained. His voice's tone was inspiring confidence. This denoted he could actually do this. "Just stay here. Don't walk away for any reason." he told her and rolled his sleeves. "Ι'll be right back." he asserted and climbed on a large, turning root, sticking out of the ground. He jumped and wrapped his arms around the shortest branch. He wrapped around it his legs as well and carefully pulled himself on the branch. He sat on it and checked down at Doriana before steadily standing up. From there it was easily to climb from branch to branch. As he was getting higher, the mist cloaked everything on the ground. He couldn't see Doriana now but he hoped she was going to stay by the tree. The last think he wanted was to get separated around these parts.

It was a good thing that he used to climb trees all the time when he was younger. He finally made it to the top, stable branches and on his tip toes, he could see over the canopy. It was an endless sea of dark foliage as far his eyes could see under the pale light of the moon. "Nox!" he flicked his wand and the light faded. His eyes adjusted to the dark and now they were able to see the brightest celestial bodies against the dark canvas of the night. Ulysses quickly spotted the group of seven stars known as 'Ursa Major'. Five of them were forming an arc but the remaining two known as 'pointer' stars, were excluded from that formation. They were pointing at a lone star that he identified as the North Star. It was sitting directly over the North Pole. He looked in the distance behind him and also spotted the castle. They must have been really far from the grounds as it looked like small spots of light in the horizon. He shifted his attention back to the night sky. He was looking for Orion's belt but his mind was somewhere bellow at Doriana. He had to get down as soon as possible.

 

[Doriana Strati]

Doriana had expected a more comforting reply from him. "Why should I panic? We don't know where Corny is and we got also lost in a forest that's called forbidden for some reason. Oh yeah, everything's fine." Her sarcasm was her only defense at the moment. She didn't stress much about their disorientation. One way or another, they were going to find their way back. It was just the possibilities of finding Corny were growing too slim now. The forest was opposing them in every possible way. It was hard to even walk around now that the trees' roots had grown to a human sized labyrinth and the mist wasn't helping either.

She eyed her friend as he revealed what he was planning to do. This could actually work. Since Ulysses was obsessed with stars, she couldn't doubt his claim that he could read the night sky to get them out of there. This wasn't though in any way guaranteed her that they were going to find the unicorn. "Okay starchild. Do your thing." She decided to go with his plan. "Just be careful there! You're not a demiguise!" She shouted as she watched him climbing up the branches. The light of his wand disappeared in the blurriness and she sat down on a root to wait for him.

Her hair clung dankly to her head in the thick mist and she wished she knew a spell to dispel it. The girl pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around her legs to get warm. She rested her chin on her knees, looking absentmindedly at the ground when a cringing sound somewhere ahead, got her jump back on her feet. "Corny?!" She whispered in tense voice. She pointed her wand towards the direction the rustle came from but she couldn't see anything. She looked up at the tree for a brief moment. She couldn't see Ulysses either. She heard the sound again. She glanced back at the tree, debating in her head with Ulysses' voice who had just told her to stay there.

She raised her wand and cast a wand writing charm. She moved her wand in a circular manner to form a fiery, sparkling circle in the air. It was going to be some kind of beacon in case she got lost. Of course she was going to inspect the strange sound. She jumped off the root and carefully headed to the direction of the rustle. She kept calling for the unicorn foal, keeping her voice as low as possible. She could no longer hear the sound that had lured her away from the tree and when she looked back at the point she thought she had started, she could no longer see the fiery ring. She tried to convince the voice inside her head, screaming that she was lost, that the way back to the tree was just right behind her. Doriana was even considering to return back, that's how horrified she was but the soft rustle became audible again for a brief moment, not far from her. Holding her breath, she proceeded. The mist wafting on her face as she took more, uncertain steps towards the source of that sound. Suddenly, the earth underneath her feet disappeared and she fell in the emptiness.

She held tightly her wand as she tumbled down on the dirt. Her wand's light petered out she was swallowed in darkness. She was now sliding down but she couldn't see to where. She used her hands to slow down her descent but it didn't really work. After an endless minute she landed on softer ground. Her free hand blindly recognized the touch of wet leaves. "Lumos!" She said with shaking voice. Her surroundings were illuminated and she found herself sitting at the beginning of a tunnel. It was big enough for a human to walk it but she didn't want to do that alone. Actually she wasn't in an exploring mood anymore. She stood up, feeling an acute pain on her knee. Her jeans were ripped there and a wound was bleeding. She sighed desperate but tried to remain calm. Now she wished she had heard Ulysses in the first place. Doriana pointed her wand's light at the ascending tunnel she slid down. She had to find a way and climb back up there.