“Just
admit it!”
“No.”
“Why
do you always do this?”
“Do
what?”
“Why
can’t you just admit that you made a mistake.”
“I
will when I have made one.”
“Arrggg,
you are so frustrating!”
He
let the branch snap back.
She
uttered a few expletives as the thin twig cracked in her face, slapping thick
green leaves still heavy with the recent rainfall. In annoyance, she ripped the
branch from the tree and tossed it carelessly aside. Perhaps not the most
befitting behaviour for a Defender of the Wild but right now wasn’t the time to
care about posterity.
“Alright
then, if you know so much, where are we headed.”
“Away
from those things.”
“And
out of the woods?”
“With
any luck.”
“Just
say it already, we’re lost.”
“No.
I know exactly where we are.”
“Oh?”
“We’re
right here.”
She
frowned.
“Was
that your attempt at humour?”
“I’m
a fighter, not a lover.”
“So
why did you run away from those bugs.”
“Just
trying to keep up with you.”
There
were days when she could just kill him. Today was shaping up to be one of those
days.
She
sighed, shifting the weight of her quiver on her shoulder. The thin leather
container wasn’t that heavy any more, not since most of the arrows had been
loosed. She only had six left which her brother was forbidding her from using.
He wanted them to have something to go hunting with and he kept saying she’d
need all of them just to hit the broad side of a temple.
Kait
looked up to the forest canopy. It wasn’t the densest she’d ever seen, the sun
still shone through large breaks in the leafy roof. Judging by it’s passage,
they’d been walking for almost three hours. And her legs were starting to feel
it.
“Can
we take a break yet?” she called.
“Just
a few more minutes.”
“That’s
what you said half an hour ago.”
“Well,
the longer we walk, the sooner we’ll get out.”
“I
can’t walk if I keel over from hunger and fatigued.”
“You
don’t hear Calos complaining.”
“I
don’t hear Calos say anything.”
She
turned back to make sure the third member of their little party was still
keeping up. He was a short man, with curly hair and green eyes that looked like
they had been stolen from the scenery around them. He gave her a weak smile
once he realized she was watching him, picking up his pace to keep in step.
“You
make that sound like a bad thing,” her brother smiled.
It
is when someone doesn’t shout for help because of some misplaced piety towards
a vow of silence, Kait frowned, thinking of the little encounter they just withdrew
from.
The
scene had been pretty much the same. The three of them were marching through a
trackless forest with each tree and bush looking like the last. She had been
bickering with her brother mostly because his pig-headedness demanded that he
refuse to acknowledge any mistake he’d made. And this mistake happened to be a
detour through some forsaken brush ominously named The Forbidden Woods or
Abandoned Forest or whatever Creshnalik was supposed to mean in the local
tongue.
For
whatever reason, Keirn was under the impression that she should have been the
one leading them: that somehow she was supposed to have some natural affinity
for trail blazing foreign landscapes. The only landscape she was use to blazing
was the single story, single room school with the tiny dirt path connecting it
to the rest of the small hamlet the two of them came from. She had no
familiarity with animal trails or a keen eye for identifying one type of scat
from another. She was lucky if she could get through her own grammar lessons.
And
Calos wasn’t much of a help to their current circumstances. He had mentioned
only a handful of words since he joined up with them. It was easy for Kait to
sometimes forget that the young man was even with them. And it was during a
particularly heated debate between herself and her brother that Calos decided
exert his existence. It took a few seconds for Kait to identify the strange
tugging sensation on her clothes and when she turned around, all irate and
ready for a confrontation, she saw a looming ten foot insect descending from
the branches and leaves towards them.
With
compound eyes brimming with bestial malice, this creature appeared intent on
inserting the long, sabre like proboscis protruding from its face into their
pale, soft flesh. Face with such a monstrosity, the three of them did what any
common, decent individual would do.
They
ran as fast as their legs and packs would allow them.
So,
whatever intuitive path Keirn may have been following earlier had been
abandoned in their hasty retreat. But would he stop and let them rest, gather
their bearings and perhaps try to find a suitable way out of this endless wood?
No, of course not. He was hellbent on getting them inextricably lost till they
ran out of food and water and starved to death. Or worse, become some fertile
host for these ravenous arthropods’ larvae, destined to be eaten alive in their
early stage of maturity. Kait quietly wished Jeremiah or Derrek were still her
to help argue some sense in him
Kait’s
stomach growled loudly and she raised a hand to quell it. She looked up at her
brother, balancing on a rotted log with some cast off stick in his hands like
an explorer’s staff. He looked at the underbrush with a discerning eye, as if
he could pierce the foliage to find some hidden path beneath.
“How
about a rest for some food?”
“I’m
not sure, we don’t want to eat everything right away,” he cautioned.
“Well,
that’s all well and good, but I’m starving.”
“Just
think how bad you’ll feel in a few more days without any.”
“We’re
in a forest! Even if we don’t catch a rabbit, there will be some mushrooms or
berries or something else we can eat.”
“Really?”
Keirn asked. He straightened, looking about the empty wood. “Aside from those
gia-normous bugs, I haven’t seen anything that’s edible. Unless you like the
taste of ferns.”
“You
obviously haven’t been paying attention then,” Kait scolded. “It’s a forest,
obviously there’s going to be food.”
“Have
you seen any?”
“Well,
I haven’t been looking since I’ve got some perfectly edible food in my pack.”
“For
three people, for however long it takes for us to find civilization again?”
“Look,
there’s going to be something around here.”
Kait
turned, stomping into the undergrowth. She recognized some of these plants but
most were useless ferns and grasses. Sure, she could probably do something with
a few of the mosses if she had to, but there surely had to be some rabbit
tracks or bush berries around here.
But,
after a few minutes, Kait hadn’t found anything.
“Well?”
her brother smugly pressed.
“I
haven’t given up yet!” Kait shot back.
However,
there was a disturbingly lack of edible life that she could see. In fact, as
she stood still in the underbrush scanning the endless stretch of trees, she
was struck by the unnatural stillness of the forest. She hadn’t noticed before
because of the arguing and the enormous insect, but there was a shocking lack
of life in these woods. There weren’t any chirping of birds, shaking
undergrowth from frightened animals or buzzing of normal sized insects.
“How
peculiar,” Kait muttered.
“Isn’t
it?” Keirn asked, jumping from the log and stepping beside her. “I noticed it a
while back and have been keeping an eye out for anything: a deer, boar or bear
even. But there’s nothing.”
“How
is that possible? An environment cannot continue without a diverse ecosystem to
support it.”
“I’m
sorry... what?”
“There’s
no way this forest could be here without animals.”
“Ominous...
still want your lunch break?”
“Of
course!” Kait exclaimed, making her way back to the rotted log, plopping down
and removing some leaf wrapped bread. Calos and a reluctant Keirn joined her,
and she broke off some pieces for them. She enjoyed the quiet moment, savouring
the crusty and slightly mouldy taste of the bread and the lukewarm water kept
in the water skins.
As
she munched away, she let her mind puzzle over the peculiar ecological
phenomenon she was sitting squarely within. She may not have been a classically
educated scholar, but she did enjoy reading. While she spent her days in the
tiny school, filling the vacuous heads of those bratty merchant children with
basic arithmetic and spelling, she filled her evenings pouring over the dusty
journals and manuscripts she purchased from those same merchant families. These
varied from the natural sciences and philosophies to advance algebra and
medicine. While most of it she didn’t understand, her favourite books were
those on the natural world and the tomes on rocks and animals shared the
prestigious place above her hearth with her cherished childhood tales.
None
of the scholarly works, however, ever mentioned a forest or wood existing
without any animal life to maintain the natural rot and fertilization of the
plants. The only scholars she recalled mentioning anything remotely similar were
those espousing the horrors of lumbering upon the inhabitants of the forests.
Course, the absence of wildlife in those instances was caused by the clearing
of the trees they nested in to build the massive navies kings seemed to crave
nowadays.
“Alright,
let’s get going,” Keirn replied, stoppering his water skin and tying it to his
belt.
Kait
wrapped the remainder of her bread and tucked it into her pack before following
her brother.
It
was another good hour or so of quiet trekking as Kait mused over the
strangeness of the forest with Keirn continuing his aimless wandering and Calos
walking quietly behind them both. Kait once again turned her thoughts to their
absent companions. Surely Derrek would have some strange anecdotal story or
obscure fact to make sense of this situation. He was far better at dredging up
seemingly useless information from the dark depths of his mind.
But
he, too, was not here to lend his unique abilities.
Kait
was so wrapped in thought that she failed to notice the soft tugging at her
shirt at first.
“What
is it?!” she spun around, frantically scanning the trees.
“Wait,”
was the solemn reply.
The
curly haired youth then ducked around her, quietly tugging on her brother’s
shirt to get his attention as well. Then all three of them stood, the Faden’s
wondering what had caused their companion to stop their progress. Calos simply
raised a finger to his lips, signalling for them to be quiet before crouching
low to the ground. The others followed suit.
They
stayed as still as possible, not even breathing, straining to hear any telling
sign of some danger approaching. Instead, they only heard the rustling of
leaves in a gentle breeze.
“This
is stupid,” Keirn muttered, standing suddenly. Calos’ hand quickly reached up
and pulled him down again, pointing a small finger into the distance of the
woods. Keirn and Kait leaned forward squinting in an attempt to see what was
causing so much consternation.
Calos
looked from one sibling to the other. He was greeted with silent looks of
confusion. Slightly frustrated, he waved them forward, still keeping low to the
ground. They trudged through the forest for a little, until they came over a
small mossy mound and Keirn and Kait saw the thinning of trees with a
stretching field beyond.
“Damnations!”
Keirn muttered, falling behind the grassy protrusion.
“Why
are you cursing?” Kait whispered, “we’re out of the woods!”
“And
right into Angallan territory,” Keirn whispered. “That’s clearly farmland. I
thought we were going to emerge at the Ukalie Plains!”
“And
what’s so wrong with the Angallans?”
“Other
than their xenophobic nature and propensity for arresting foreigners? You think
this little trek through the woods was for fun?”
“We’re
not wanted in Angalla, are we?”
Keirn
gave a hurt expression.
“You
make me sound like some irreputable scoundrel.”
Kait
frowned.
“What
did you do?”
“Nothing,
I swear.”
“Keirn.”
“It
wasn’t my fault! Come on, let’s go,” he said, turning back from the field.
“I’m
not going back into the woods!” Kait declared. “Not with those monstrous things
trying to eat us inside.”
Keirn
paused. He looked from Kait’s stern expression to Calos curious look. He
nibbled his lower lip in thought, scrunching his face as he realized that there
was little chance of persuading his sister.
“Alright,
how about we skirt the farmland? My guess is we just came out a little too
east. If we head north, we should be able to follow the forest edge to the
Plains. That way, we don’t get eaten and we don’t get captured.”
Kait
thought about it for a second, but failing to come up with a better plan,
nodded slightly. Keirn walked around the mossy mound, Kait following closely
behind. Only Calos took time to examine the mound with a curious look, noting
its odd bulk and reminiscent shape of something completely different then a
large pile of earth. However, he abandoned his observations in order to catch
up with the others.