Into the Forest Shadows

by J. A. Marlow

  "You set fire to an entire tree!" Kate said, horrified.

  Ayden joined her again, slipping the lighter into his pocket. "It's a Phoenix Elm. It does this all the time. If there is lightening around, it's the one that will be hit. Don't worry, it won't spread."

  Kate nervously watched the fire working its way higher up the trunk. At the first spot where the fire started the trunk glowed a deep red. Already she could feel a warmth in the moisture laden air around her. The leaves of the Phoenix Elm opened up.

  "You're sure it won't spread?" Kate asked.

  "I'm sure. Notice there aren't any other trees nearby? They know better than to grow really close to it." He set down the backpack and rooted through it. Bunbun hopped out of his coat to rub noses with a few local bunts.

  "Don't you mean they are burned down if they grow too close?"

  "Well, maybe that, too. Here, you can try these on."

  She turned her attention to him, finding him holding out a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and a pair of pants with a draw string at the waist. "Don't you need them yourself? You got wet, too."

  "My boots are water tight and my pants dried a long time ago. I'm fine, but you aren't." He nodded at the veil of leaves of the trailing willow, "Go ahead and change. I'll wait out there and start dinner. Take one of the blankets, too. You'll need to warm up. Call when you're done."

  The thought of getting out of her moist clothes practically made her shiver in delight. "Okay, if you're sure."

  She grabbed the clothes and stepped to the other side of the large trunk. Ayden lifted his backpack over his shoulder and left the shelter of the Trailing Willow.

  "Interested in a hot meal?" he called out.

  "Are you serious?"

  "The fog isn't here yet, and we have the tree."

  Kate sighed, "Something hot would be wonderful."

  She peeked around the trunk to find Ayden fishing one of the large nut pods out while Bunbun mingled with the local bunts. He set the nut on the ground near the Phoenix tree and pushed it closer with a long stick.

  "Might want to be careful about the cape," Ayden said.

  Kate's hands paused at the tie at her neck. Great. How could she dry off with a wet cape hanging over her? She decided to start with an easy choice: The pants.

  Ducking back to the far side of the trunk, she sat down on a wide root and pulled off her shoes, pouring water out of them. She set them upside down on another root along with her socks. Next came the pants. She wrung them out before throwing them up to hang over a branch. She reached down for Ayden's dry pants.

  And came face to face with a small group of bunts staring up at her. All of them with their eyes wide and their noses occasionally twitching, watching her every move.

  With far too much interest.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Kate felt herself flush. She pulled out the blanket, draping herself with it. Underneath she pulled off the rest of her clothes as fast as possible, including the cape. She let the cape fall over her bare toes. As long as she kept in contact with the cape fabric, she and Ayden should be okay.

  She pulled on the dry clothes, immediately warming up. She slipped off the blanket to find even more bunts watching the show. Two of them tipped over her shoes and nosed her socks.

  Great, the local bunt group mind was hard at work, with all the processing power focused on her.

  She scowled at them, "What do you think you're looking at?"

  "Who are you talking to?" Ayden called out.

  "Nothing! Just a few bunts," Kate said quickly. She took the rest of her clothes, including her under-things, and hung them up in the branches, arranging them to be the least embarrassing.

  Then there was the problem of the cape.

  She went around to the side of the trunk so she could bask in the full warmth from the Phoenix Elm. She settled on the ground wrapped up in the blanket with the wet cape draped over the tips of her feet as well as partially draped over a large root.

  "Okay. I'm done!" she shouted.

  The Phoenix Elm glowed brighter. Warmth radiated through the damp cloth of the cape, warming her cold feet.

  Ayden dropped the backpack on the ground and settled himself on the other side of a large root.

  A bunt nosed at her feet. Kate wriggled her toes, causing it to jump back. She waved her hands at a few more nearby that continued to cock their head and look her over.

  Ayden laughed. "Oh, I know what happened. They don't understand how we can take off our fur and have more underneath. You might as well accept it. You're going to be the focus of their curiosity until something else diverts their attention."

  "Like the fog?" Kate asked, motioning outside of the tree.

  Thin wisps of fog floated by but she couldn't see any sparkles. Instead, she saw small dark shapes suspended in the air. As they passed between the Trailing Willow and the glowing Phoenix Elm she caught sight of a little parachute of white.

  The bunts went wild. In one big mob they ran out from under the Trailing Willow, including Bunbun. They hopped up and down into the air, snapping at the hovering dots.

  "I take it dinner just arrived?" Kate asked.

  "Not all the fogs are electrical in nature," Ayden said with a chuckle.

  "Then we can't go out in this kind of fog, either?"

  "Oh, we can. If you don't mind picking the little bugs off of you. But the fog can switch types in a blink of an eye."

  Kate didn't like the thought of little bugs landing and crawling over her, either. She settled against the tree, pulling the edges of the blanket around her.

  "There, now they're distracted. How is the cape drying?" He reached over and felt it, tweaking one of her toes when he did it.

  Kate reached up and touched the hem of her pants. "I think the heat is working, but it's going to take some time."

  "We have all night. What did the trees bring to mind?"

  Kate looked at him, startled, "What?"

  "At the river you shouted for someone to go away," Ayden said softly.

  Kate shrunk down into her blanket, mumbling, "My father. I know it sounds really horrible, but we're better off with him gone."

  Ayden went quiet. Kate steeled herself for his reaction. That comment from her always brought one. In the past she would have prepared for verbal battle. She didn't want to do that with Ayden. She peeked over at him to find his face thoughtful.

  "When you say gone, you mean divorced?"

  She should have known he would react different than most. "No, I mean as in dead."

  Ayden blinked. "Well, I guess that's one way to be really gone."

  "For a couple of years now, which is why we ended up back here. He didn't file the Saturus citizen papers like he said. Probably used the money set aside for one of his many schemes."

  "Sounds like a match for my family."

  Kate turned to him, "You shouted something similar yourself the first time. Someone in your family?"

  One of Ayden's shoulders came up as he turned away. "My mother. I never knew my father. It's why I live here with my uncle. Hopefully this will be the one place she won't search for me."

  "Wait, you're hiding from your Mother? Are you serious?" Kate asked with a laugh. Her smile disappeared at his lack of a smile. "Sorry, but what do you mean? Why are you hiding from your mother?"

  "Because I'm a genius."

  Kate couldn't help the next laugh. But again his face didn't echo the amusement. She cleared her throat. "Sorry, that didn't make sense. What do you mean? A literal genius? That's a good thing, right?"

  "I love using my mind, but what I can invent isn't all of who and what I am. I just want to be accepted for what I am. Here in the forest I am."

  Kate leaned over the root, smiling, hoping to wipe the frown off his face, "Well, you've saved my life a number of times. That makes you a genius to me."

  A smile tried to appear at the corners of his mouth. "Thanks for the thought."

  He turned his head towards her and Kate r
ealized just how close their faces were. Her smile went lax. His eyes were so brilliant from this close. Sparkling in the crackling glow of the Phoenix Elm.

  A sharp squeal cut through the air. Ayden jerked back a fraction of an inch. A small distance, but enough to break the spell. Kate jumped, surprised to find one hand on his upper arm.

  She quickly snatched her hand back, feeling her face grow warm. She knew it was turning bright red, and she hated it. She turned away to look towards the sound. "I didn't make that noise."

  Ayden grimaced and moved further away, looking out the protective barrier of leaves. "No, it wasn't you, it was BunBun."

  It took her a few tries to find the familiar limping run of Bunbun among the racing bunts. He ran from the others but because of his malformed limb he couldn't outrace them. The other bunts bit and kicked at him.

  Kate jerked, pushing herself upright, but Ayden put a hand on her shoulder.

  "I'll get him." Ayden sighed, pushing himself up. "It's about time for dinner anyway."

  He stepped out away from the Trailing Willow, the small floating dots clinging to his shirt. Through the running packs of bunts he reached down and grabbed Bunbun. The other bunts milled around his feet until a cloud of the little floating insects distracted them.

  Ayden stuffed Bunbun down his coat, grabbed a branch and fished several objects away from the Phoenix Elm. He made several trips back to Kate, bringing with him not only two of the large nut but several other empty nut hulls with other things in it.

  Kate scanned the contents, happy for the distraction. "Where did this come from?"

  "While you changed clothes I found more to eat. I like a little variety to my meals," Ayden said, settling down again, plucking a few clinging insects off his shirt. Bunbun climbed down to eat a few of the insects himself.

  She looked up from the inviting smells. "You could have been attacked."

  "I stayed near the Phoenix Elms which I've never seen move." He pulled a small box of silverware out of his backpack and with a fork started pointing, "White-root with a little spice on top. They grow together and they taste great together. The nut you know. It tastes just as great cooked. And some forest peas."

  Kate pointed at one of the husks with water in it, "And that?"

  "Boiled water. We need to have something to drink. It won't taste all that great in the husk, but I don't have any flavoring."

  A package of wet plastic smacked Kate on the shoulder. She scowled up at her drying pants.

  Ayden reached over and picked it up. "What is this?"

  Kate looked down, rubbing the top of her shoulder. She almost groaned when she recognized it. "Grandma's new tea. She said it's super healthy and has been experimenting with new flavors to make it taste better."

  Ayden unwrapped the protective plastic and sniffed. "Doesn't smell bad."

  "The first batch tasted horrible."

  "Maybe this batch tastes better," he said. He took out one of the tea bags and dropped it into the hot water in the nut husk.

  "Eww. I don't think you know what you are in for."

  "You wouldn't have liked the water by itself, trust me. This should make it palatable." With silverware passed around and two collapsable cups to hold the tea, Ayden set out the meal. He toasted her with a cup. "And I'll even try it first. Cheers!"

  Kate watched him take a sip, waiting for him to spit it out.

  His face turned thoughtful. Bunbun captured another one of the insects and then climbed back up to Ayden's shoulder. Ayden reached over and speared a slice of root, "Not bad. It definitely took the bitterness away from the nut husk."

  Kate took a fork full of the roasted nut pulp. At least she knew what to expect there. The roots with the spices didn't taste bad, either.

  Thirst building, she decided to be brave. She tried a sip of the tea.

  She grimaced. She still didn't care for the flavor but it didn't taste as vile as before.

  "More fog," Ayden said before chewing on one of the large peas.

  Past the leaves the fog had changed to the more familiar sparkling fog. Yet, through it, came the clear view of the glowing red Phoenix tree.

  A few bunts milled around Ayden's feet, lured by the smells, before scampering back out into the fog. Bunbun watched them go, but stayed on Ayden's shoulder.

  "Why did they attack Bunbun?" Kate asked. "The other groups he's met didn't do that."

  "I'm guessing he became a little too interested in one of the females. He does that once in a while, even though he knows better. Cripples are tolerated in the groups so long as they don't try to mate." Ayden scratched Bunbun's head, "Another reason he'll be with me for the rest of his life."

  She jabbed at another piece of root. "Tell me about him. You have to tell me how he got that name."

  "Pretty easy how I found him. We heard a commotion outside one night. The next morning it was pretty obvious something had been hunting down the local bunts. I found Bunbun under one of our log loaders, his back foot badly mangled. I left him alone most of the day hoping the mother would come back for him. She never did."

  "Aww, poor Bunbun."

  "Yeah, I felt sorry for him, too. He just kept hiding, but he was still moving around. So, I took him in. Somehow he survived. Bunbun is pretty spunky. The problem came with some of the women in the camp. They started talking baby talk to him, and one of the things they did was shorten the word 'bunt' and then turned it into Bunbun." Ayden glared at Bunbun who had climbed down to sniff at the water. "He imprinted on me, but wouldn't you know it, the idiot imprinted on the name. I tried renaming him, refused to call him by it. But no, it's the only name he'll respond to."

  Ayden pulled BunBun back from the water. He took a cupped leaf and poured some tea in it. Bunbun started drinking greedily.

  Kate laughed. "I wondered. I just couldn't picture you naming him that."

  BunBun looked up from the tea, peering off into the distance. A second later Kate heard a rushing noise, a combination of what sounded like wind and moving leaves.

  The fog showed no wind, but the trees acted like there was. Even the Phoenix tree across the small clearing waved and bowed with the force. The red embers along its bark sparked and twitched. With a start the bunts turned and scurried for holes among the roots of the trees in the area.

  A moan accompanied the movement. Emotions erupted out of the trees, pressing down on her. She shuddered, putting down her fork, no longer hungry.

  Ayden sighed, "I wish I knew what that was about."

  "Something bad happened."

  Ayden looked at her, curious, "You heard it coming at the same time as the bunts."

  Kate shrugged her shoulders. She felt another shiver go through the trees. A moment later a lesser wave went through the area.

  She smiled weakly, "Girls are supposed to be able to hear better than boys. Maybe that's it."

  Ayden took a deep breath. "Yeah, right. Let's finish this up. We don't want anything left to attract unwanted attention."

  #

  Mary hardly slept that night. She tossed and turned, the bed too hard and then too soft. Noises from the apartment made her jump. In the end she gave up.

  Surrounded by the oppressive emptiness of the apartment, she left, only to find herself in the deserted offices of the Blackstone Corporation. She sat down at the desk she'd worked at when her mother had still been general manager. Before she'd retired from the position to go live in the forest.

  Flight schedules, load manifests, delivery and arrival permissions and contracts. She could still bring them up through the computer system by memory. And among them was a confirmation of the mystery Uncle Elliot had alerted her to.

  While many of the old contracts were still there, she found product instead going to new contracts. And not at good rates.

  The more she dug, the more furious she became. Slow business? That was why she and Kate had to return to Oburos, because the money ran out? No wonder it did!

  Several cups of coffee later, and the
start of the sunrise, and she'd altered the plan for future deliveries. Uncle Elliot and the primary contracts would be fulfilled first for top pay. The other contracts she put on hold with a password to protect the changes.

  Looking at the time, she slipped out of the office. She had to face Travis soon enough, but not yet. Once she slept, she would have to tackle the source of the problem, with or without her mother's help.

  She found the corridors unusually empty. Two of the office workers from her company rushed by, one of them saying to the other, "Two hours on the balcony and I didn't see a single one of them come out the entire time."

  Balcony?

  The snippet of conversation made no sense to her at all. After finding even the main cafeteria empty, she carried her muffin with her out to a balcony overlooking the spaceport. They had to be talking about the illegal ship Ranger Tottori brought down manually the day before.

  Every table and chair on the fourth floor balcony was taken, the people of Oburos CIty watching the scene below avidly. As if they were watching a show.

  Mary found a place against the railing and looked down. She nibbled at the muffin, watching the patrolling Rangers. The ship didn't move, but she could tell from the glow of lights that the onboard generators were still functional. No glow from the engines, though. Ranger Tottori must have successfully shut them down from the computer link he'd used to bring down the ship.

  "Do you know the ship model?"

  Mary blushed as she turned her head towards Ranger Tottori. She quickly swallowed and nodded, "Durasia class freighter, of the B-model. Rather standard as freighters go."

  "We're going to open her up before they figure out how to get the engines going. We need someone who knows the ship to shut all the systems down as fast as possible once we are inside." He glanced up and down the balcony, "And your office manager is not welcome on the mission."

  Mary placed the empty plate on top of a serving robot as it rolled by. She dusted off her hands, "I don't have a problem with that. Do you think you'll have trouble with those inside?"