Deathly Flowers part 4

Branches kept hitting Éldorine in the face. The magic saturation of the plants was still terrible and preventing Éldorine from clearly seeing where she was going. Lyrienne had to keep hold of her and prevent her from running into a tree.

They could not keep this rhythm for too long. It was too dangerous. Sooner or later they would run straight into danger. The flowers had not targeted them directly, whether on purpose or by chance, but not everything in the forest would be as considerate.

They slow down to continue at a brisk pace, careful to reactive their anti-eavesdropping wards. Because of their mad run, they had moved away from the river and now had to correct their course to join back with it.

When Éldorine's dress caught bushes yet again she hissed with annoyance. Lyrienne huffed at her side and she glared at him.

He had the gall to send her a charming smile. 

He, of course, was managing to walk around without the indignity of getting his robes caught on things.

While they walked, Éldorine listened intently, but she could not hear anything nearby. The shouts of the faraway fight had quickly been muffled by the heavy atmosphere of the forest, and there was no way of knowing what was happening over there.

Lyrienne's hand took hold of hers and she startled. She glanced up at him, but his gaze was focused forwards as he led them through the vegetation. Éldorine let him guide her and attempted to focus on her magical sensitivity. The forest was just as filled with magic as before, and she could not distinguish the Northerners' magic among all the other lifeforms surrounding them. Which was the only reason why Arianie had been able to surprise them like that.

But it would not do to have a repeat of the experience so she kept trying, trusting in her companion to guide her steps.

It did take them a precious half an hour to finally find the river again. Unfortunately, it did not make walking any easier since there was no path and the bank was muddy and slippery and filled with dangerous lifeforms. More than a vine attempted to surreptitiously wrap itself around their ankles or to snag at their robes. Thankfully, the crafts on their leather and cloth were good enough that they only had to direct some of their magic into them to get a basic ward working. It would be sufficient so long as the plants were just testing the water and not attacking them outright.

Lyrienne was helping her step over a big root when Éldorine magical sensitivity finally picked up something.

Not good.

Not good at all.

She used their joined hands to drag Lyrienne towards her. He stumbled on the root and fell in her arms, making her lose her balance. They both crashed to the ground. Still, she did not let the shock distract her. She attempted to scramble away while dragging Lyrienne with her. As he was not an idiot, he immediately followed her direction.

They were almost not fast enough. 

Gigantic jaws as tall as they were and brimming with sharp teeth closed just a few centimetres away from their legs.