Into the Forest Shadows

by J. A. Marlow

  "I have him. He found us after we were locked up," Kate said.

  "Don't let him get away. He gets frantic around Memory trees."

  Kate adjusted Bunbun's position as she bent to go under a thick limb. "So I've noticed. He's scratched my stomach a few times."

  On the other side a depression with webbing stretched across the trees and bushes created a sheltered grotto. On one side lay a long dark object that occasionally twitched.

  The spider swung over to the area, catching one of the tree branches. It looked down at the object, "Take him. He should return to his kind for healing."

  The beetle appeared to be a similar shape to the ones they'd encountered while hiking towards Grandma's house, only this one sported a multi-layered back shell with a long and tapered body. The thought of the encounter sent a shiver through her. She didn't want to approach the thing, much less help it.

  It lifted its head, the dark multifaceted eyes staring them over. It inched forward with four legs, dragging two others behind it. A ragged edge of a corner of the back shell displayed bite marks. It shifted in shuddering and abrupt movements that hurt her just to watch.

  The thing radiated with pain.

  And on the back was a large marking of bright red, in the same shape as the trees Kate had seen moving in her vision and the one cut in the Gatherers camp.

  The creature filled Kate with revulsion. She'd never liked bugs and a giant bug just made it all the worse.

  "That's a Watcher?" Ayden asked.

  "For the region on this side of the mountains, yes. Did you expect them to all be of the same species?" The spider asked.

  The beetle clicked, the two pincers around its mouth moving back and forth. It looked up at the spider and clicked more. The spider clicked back at it.

  The spider gestured past the grotto into the tangle of Memory trees, "I've told it you will take him out of this grove and to his kind. You will have to carry him, he is unable to fly or crawl on his own."

  Ayden sighed, retracting his staff and hooking it on his belt. "I guess that means me."

  He stepped forward. The beetle went crazy with the clicks. Ayden took a quick step back.

  "It would help if we could understand him." Kate reached for her shirt. "I'll get out BunBun. Maybe then we can understand him."

  "There aren't any bunts around here for Bunbun to use to learn the language," Ayden said.

  Kate stopped in the process of pulling Bunbun out, who didn't want to move. "What do you mean? Bunbun let us understand the Shadow Creatures."

  "A group of bunts will learn what is local to them. Bunbun has no way of automatically knowing a language," Ayden said. "For us, right now, the clicks are going to remain clicks."

  "Great. What do we do now?"

  The spider swung back to the web and it's dinner. "Only one marked with the red of a Helper will it allow near."

  Kate shuddered. "I guess that means me."

  She managed to pull Bunbun out and hand him over to Ayden. Bunbun Squeaked and complained the entire way, quieting only after he ducked down into Ayden's coat.

  She took a few cautious steps forward. The beetle clicked twice and then went silent and still, but she could see it watching her.

  She stopped next to it, looking down at the shell. The creature measured easily as long as one of her arms, if not a little longer. How was she supposed to pick it up without hurting it? Maybe the edges of the shell?

  She knelt down and extended her arms. The beetle clicked and shivered as she made contact with it. She shook her head and let go.

  She looked up at Ayden, "That's not going to work. I can't get a good enough grip. It's too awkward."

  "Maybe it has an idea. It's moving," Ayden said.

  Kate looked back down. Oh yeah, it was moving. It had just taken hold of a corner of the cape fabric. Despite the injuries, it climbed up onto her back. She reached up and flipped up the hood onto her head. A thin protection for her vulnerable neck, but it was the best she could do.

  The legs worked to settle themselves on each side of her back. The two front legs grasped tightly the fabric on her shoulders. The cape shifted backwards with the added weight, the ties cutting into her neck.

  She forced down a shiver of revulsion. An ugly insect was on her back! She grabbed at the ties, pulling them forward with one hand to ease the pressure on her throat.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  She hoped Grandma was right about the cape. She definitely needed a little protection now. If the beetle wanted to, it could kill her with one bite of its jaws and there would be no way she could stop it.

  She took a deep breath, using the staff to help her stand up.

  Ayden shook his head, "Wow. I've never seen a beetle do that. Are you okay?"

  "Yes, fine. Can we now get out of here?"

  Ayden surveyed the forest. "Our spider friend pointed this way. If we see a clearing, look to see if you can find that mountain you said you saw in your vision."

  Kate didn't turn to look, but she called out, "Thank you for your help, Mr. Spider."

  "Take good care of the Watcher," the spider called out. "Be careful of the Shadow Creatures!"

  "I hope none are around. I can't run like this," she said as Ayden helped her over a clump of large roots.

  "No guarantees." He led her through the trees onto a faint animal trail. "The good news is that we're heading away from the camp. Hopefully the Shadow Creatures in the area are busy with whatever is going on there."

  She hoped it stayed that way. With the weight on her back she had to lean forward. Only the staff kept her from falling over. Running through the woods would be impossible.

  The spores and trees took turns torturing her mind. Faces kept appearing in the barks of the trees, faces that took turns silently screaming or mocking her. She wondered if the forest knew that it only made her more angry, and the more angry she became the easier it was to hold the forest at bay?

  Ayden's steps flagged and he nearly came to a stop in the middle of the path. She poked him in the back with her staff, "Tell me about your Uncle. No, wait, that isn't emotional enough."

  He turned his head to scowl at her. "Oh great, are you trying to get me mad?"

  She shrugged, "It seems to work."

  He turned away from her after glaring at a tree. "Lord, these trees can stop with the faces."

  Well, at least he was angry, but she knew she didn't do it. As she passed she found the bark of a wide flatish trunk shifted displaying the moving face of a woman with hair piled high on her head.

  She stared at it for a moment. "She's your mother."

  "And he's still your father," Ayden said, jabbing a hand towards a male face emerging from the creamy trunk of a memory tree.

  The male face scowled at her as it turned towards her. Kate scowled back. "Okay, point made. We both have crappy members in our family."

  "At least yours is dead."

  She should be angry about that. She knew she should. People who told her they were sorry for her loss right after he died expected her to be. "He should have been a real Dad. At least you have your Uncle."

  "And you have your Grandma." Ayden continued down the path, keeping his attention straight ahead.

  She didn't blame him on that. The faces continued unabated along the path. Some she recognized, some she didn't. The others must be from Ayden.

  Wait, Ayden saw her face memories, and she'd seen his. She smiled at the image of Uncle Travis silently yelling at her. Great, she wasn't hallucinating. The faces really were appearing.

  The good mood enhanced by the disgust for the memories carried her the rest of the way, helping to abate the attacking emotions and memories from all sides. Oh yeah, the Forest of Shadows and Memories had lost its hold. She knew how it worked now.

  The emergence from the forest happened all at once. One moment they were still in the midst of the silent trees playing games with them with the faces and the next they were in a clearing on the other side.
<
br />   A different tension gripped her as they left the line of Memory trees behind them. Her attention turned from the shapes in the tree trunks to the shadows near the ground. Kate wasn't sure which one she liked better: dealing with the Forest of Shadows and Memories, the spores, or waiting for a Shadow Creature to find them.

  Ayden moved through the woods with a silence that drove her crazy. No matter how she moved or how careful she stepped she made way too much noise.

  He stopped, looking up through a wide break in the canopy at the top edge of a hill, allowing them a clear view of the mountains. "The fog is building."

  Kate pointed to a mountain barely in sight, "That one. That's where we need to go."

  "Wow, that's far away. I'm not sure I'm going to make it."

  Kate turned to glare at him, "Don't say that."

  Ayden looked down at her sadly, "You came out of it and helped us escape. For some reason you are able to resist the spores more than I. If something happens, you leave me and keep going. Go find the Ancients."

  "Don't you dare say that! We're going to get there together," Kate said, furiously. She also felt afraid. She didn't know enough about the forest to survive in it alone and she knew it. She punched him in the arm with her free arm, "Come on. Start walking. We're getting there tonight!"

  "Tonight? Are you crazy?"

  She pushed him forward. The rage and fear of traveling alone kept her going for a long time. Abandon Ayden? No, she wouldn't leave him to the mercy of a forest that hated humans, or the Shadow Creatures.

  Perhaps not hated. The trees around her showed no signs of attacking them. Instead, they urged her on, pushing her forward, registering expectation and excitement.

  Ayden yawned widely, "We should rest. Look for a trailing willow."

  "No, we aren't resting. The sun is still high in the sky. Keep going," Kate said, pushing at his back.

  "Just for a short time," Ayden insisted.

  She might not get him going again if he rested. Not with the strength of the spores. A parasite just waiting to take them down.

  Then she realized something literally was tugging at her. A dark hairy leg pulled on the right side of her cape. A glance in the direction showed nothing but a wall of trees. A series of clicks joined the tugs.

  Kate paused with a sigh. "Ayden, wait."

  When she turned to the right the leg stopped tugging. She turned her head towards Ayden, prompting the leg to start tugging again. "I think we've been asked to change direction."

  Ayden's lips compressed. He turned in the direction and found a small path, "This is leading away from the mountain."

  The ground dropped away sharply. Between the staff and Ayden she managed to follow the trail without falling flat on her face. Or tip over backwards on the Watcher.

  "Maybe the Watcher knows of a better way to get there?" Kate said.

  "You better hope so. We have only today to get there. Tonight is the twin full moons," Ayden mumbled.

  Kate grinned, "Go ahead. Be resentful. It should help."

  Ayden turned his head towards her, his eyes fiery. "It should be possible to keep the spores back without anger."

  "But it works so well! Have other suggestions?"

  "Flatter me. How about raving at how cute I am! And you'll be glad to go out on a picnic with me when this is all over?"

  Kate felt herself blushing. "Picnic? We could do that."

  "You forgot the first part," Ayden said.

  She blushed again. Then she saw the corner of his wicked grin. "You don't need a swelled head. You've already rescued me several times now."

  "Well, you know, a guy likes to hear that his date at least thinks he looks okay. But I guess I can't have everything," he said with a shrug.

  "Wait a second! Who said anything about a date?" Kate demanded.

  "What do you think a picnic is? And you can't back out now, you already said yes." He glanced back at her, his eyes sparkling.

  Oh great, now he was keeping the spores back by giving her a hard time. Shouldn't she be the one doing that? When did it switch?

  Kate's mind flew back to when she might have said yes. Okay, maybe she implied it. She snorted, "I prefer you mad."

  "I don't like anger. It's too exhausting," Ayden said. He rolled his shoulders, "And I'm way too tired right now for that energy expenditure. I don't know how you keep angry all the time."

  "Not all the time. For you survival has been hiding from your mother. For me, it's keeping the idiot men around me from destroying my life. Anger seems to do a real good job of it."

  "I don't want to talk about my mother."

  Kate said with a shrug, "I still don't get the selling part. The Alliance has laws to prevent slavery."

  "There are loopholes, such as what my mother found. A corporation liked what I was doing for science projects. They wanted me to develop something for them. Mother got money for a signed permission to allow me to go to a special school the corporation owned, giving them full custody. In essence they would have owned me and everything I did until I reached adulthood."

  "That's horrible."

  Ayden pushed his way through scrub. "I called my Uncle. He'd just received permission to come here and has a botany degree. He snuck me on the ship and I've been in the woods with him ever since."

  "Wow, what a change. From a lab to a forest."

  "The forest is a lab. It's given me lots of ideas. I think there are a lot more tree byproducts than what we produce now."

  Kate laughed, "You sound like Grandma!"

  "Your grandmother is a genius at things like that. I hoped to work with her. Then all this happened," he said, waving at the forest around them.

  The Watcher tugged again, guiding them to a smaller trail angling off to the right.

  "We're heading further away from the mountains," Ayden warned.

  "You talk to the Watcher and tell him he's wrong."

  They broke out of the trees to find steep cliffs dropping off into a deep gorge. Only the path they were on continued to the gorge floor at an angle, a stream having cut away the sharp drop of the cliff.

  If they'd come out anywhere else...

  "The Watcher did know of a way," Ayden said quietly.

  Above them the dense forest and brush grew right up to the edge. Kate gripped the staff hard. "We could have walked right off the cliff before seeing it."

  "And I see a way up on the other side," Ayden said, pointing across the gorge. "Time to descend."

  She had to use both hands to climb down, leaving the cape ties to bite into her throat. Her arms and legs shook badly by the time they climbed half-way down the decline. By the time they reached the bottom Kate was falling more than climbing.

  They paused at the river flowing down the middle of the gorge long enough for a drink. Kate tried not to worry about the dangers of drinking without a filter. First they needed to survive.

  Ayden lifted his head from the stream. "Still have the tea?"

  Kate wiped the moisture from her mouth. "We don't have time for tea."

  "For your Grandmother's tea we do. You said it did something with the spores."

  She searched around in her pockets until she found the wrapped package. "That's what she said. That it took time to build a protection."

  "And we only had one dose." He took the package and looked around the area.

  "Well, I've had at least one other. Maybe more."

  "Which means I need more."

  He stood up and went into the trees and came back with large cupped leaves. Filling them with water he dropped a bag into each one.

  He toasted her with one. "It's cold, but it'll do."

  The bitter taste she recognized. It lingered lightly in the cold water, so the last cups she had before all this started must have been a huge dose. She grimaced even while forcing herself to drink most of it.

  She pulled Bunbun out to drink the last little bit, even though he didn't want to come out of the warm sleeping nest he'd made in the side of her
shirt. "Yep, I've had more than one dose."

  Ayden dropped his empty leaf. He took a deep breath. "I hope it works fast."

  She turned to him in alarm. His face had gone pale again.

  Getting to her feet with the help of the staff she put a hand on his shoulder. "Keep fighting it. It'll get easier."

  Ayden rose so quickly she almost fell backwards in surprise. "I'm fine. Let's get going. We need this ended."

  Ayden found a slow shallow area where they could cross away from the few Memory trees bordering the shores. On the other side the Watcher led them to where a portion of the cliff had crumbled away. By the time they climbed to the top Kate had been reduced to crawling on her hands and knees.

  Ayden made it to a log, sitting down hard. "Okay, this time I'm the one insisting on a rest. My ribs are still killing me."

  Kate was too tired to object. She pulled herself to her feet and stumbled to the same log. "One good thing about having the Watcher with us: Not one tree has taken a swipe at you."

  "Small favor."

  "I would say a big favor. We couldn't have crossed the gorge easily if we were forced to hold hands." Although she didn't mind the holding hands part, but she wasn't about to say that out loud. She leaned forward, pulling the ties to her cape off her throat. "I don't know how you carried the backpack for so long. This is killing me."

  "You're not used to it. When we go out into the forest we always take our gear. I feel naked without it." He pulled BunBun out of his coat, setting him down on the ground between his feet. "Go. Get something to eat."

  BunBun shook himself. He took a few minutes to groom his fur, scratching and stretching. A local bunt nosed his way out of a nearby hole, sniffing in their direction. BunBun looked up, and took a few hops in its direction. The other bunt disappeared, only to reappear a moment later with two others.

  Beyond a nearby trailing willow Kate could see the mountains. They were much closer, but still seemed forever away. Her eyes narrowed, studying the hills heading up to the mountains.

  With a start she realized it wasn't the mountain she wanted, but the hills at the base. Where she'd seen the strange ship take off from. The one with the really flat top. That might be more do-able.