Encounter

We hopped over the edge of the wash, and headed back in the general direction of the trail that I had mentally conjured between the glade, and the spot that Rilah had last been seen.

The slick, wet earth and leathery textured leaves along the way slapped and sloshed noisily, as we closed the distance between absolution, and nowhere at all. The darkness choked out any room for warmth, or comfort, from the air as we trod silently.

I was, suddenly, so very tired. It had only been a short time since I had gotten thrust into this nightmare, but it had felt like the hours stretched into days, and those days into weeks moreover.

My feet began dragging behind me, threatening to undo the bindings that Fimbs had so delicately and purposefully wrapped around my sliced up soles. Noting my lagging gait, Janny quickly adjusted his stance so that he could more easily support me.

"Ah-ah-ah!" he chided, with a slight chuckle under his breath. "You're not gonna quit on me, little wayfinder. Not yet, at least."

I smirked, "I don't plan on resting until I've found any signs worth celebrating about."

"You say that like we're still on the outskirts of the stalks, Zoel. You said it yourself; we're close." He reminded me with his characteristic stiff upper lip.

Fimbs sighed, "What a relief... I honestly can't wait to get out of here. This place gives me the wingle tingles."

"What doesn't give you the wingle tingles, Fimbs?" I laughed outright, causing her to flush entirely.

"That's not funny! I'm... not brave, I know, but I didn't hesitate to come and join you all the same! That's got to count for something."

But Janny shook his head, and assured her softly. "That's where you're wrong. It's because of how afraid you are, that your choice to come proved how much courage you actually have."

"Janius," she whispered, almost as if it were a prayer.

He smiled kindly back at her, and started to reply, but he was cut off with a shrill sounding, "Eeeiigh!" from overhead. It was closer, now.

I scanned the surrounding foliage with discerning eyes. The firelight from the lilting torch bowed and danced across the distant foliage; casting long, unwieldy shadows against the already too dark forest floor, which made the silhouettes look like a living creature as its shape changed so eagerly, from moment to moment.

It was only after staring in such a fashion for a minute or two that I came to recognize a familiar vista.

My mind flashed back to a scene from hours ago, where Rilah leaped from the top of an oblong, slightly off-kilter, half suspended rock; the size of a boulder.

"It couldn't be..." I marveled, awestruck at the foreign nature of its presence in this world that seemed so unnaturally twisted in perception from the gleeful casualness of how it had appeared; when Rilah was still here.

"What is it?" Janny asked, unable to read anything of consequence from the same black shadows I saw.

Fimbs also added, unhelpfully, "I don't see anything."

I gestured to the smooth ellipse of darkest olive against a wall of pitch black, and clarified. "There's a boulder in the ground that I saw earlier, with Rilah. We're almost back!"

Fimbs squinted, and then looked back at me. "...I still don't see it. Are you sure you're not imagining anything?"

I just scoffed, and tilted my head forward, saying, "Come on, It'll be obvious what I'm talking about, in a minute."

She rolled her eyes at my flippant disregard of her demonstrated impropriety, and hustled to match my lilting gait. The Calling Cards continually grew louder, above.

"Eeeiigh! Eeeiigh!! Eeeiigh!!!" They belted down upon us, like projectiles launched from a sling. Each call was like a strike to an anvil, sending showers of paranoia like sparks of splintered metal at the impact of the forger's mallet.

My resolve would not break under such heat, and pressure. Indeed, like the act of a blacksmith compressing iron flecks into a blade, my focus would be only reforged by the pressures they subjected upon me.

Rilah would for sure be long gone, by now, but I was too close to the crossroads now, to start losing hope. If there were any clue, or any shadow of a doubt of what I was to expect in the hours, or even days ahead, I would have to cross this final stretch and only witness the evidence available there.

It was only with this goal in mind that my vision tunneled and my pace revitalized. I hadn't felt so excited since I first saw Janny's concerted face when I informed him in the fields, not so long ago.

The harrowing clamor of bestial voices was growing to a crescendo, the closer I got to that inevitable slope.

We were growing close to the Calling Cards' hunting grounds, and by extension, the location that I had been separated from my young friend.

"She's going to be all right," I promised myself, as we drew upon the oversized stone. "We're going to find her before her time runs out."

Fimbs opened her mouth to say something, but Janny shot her a look that made her nod, instead. I suppose it was clear that I needed to clear my head in order to actually do my job. I silently thanked him for the wisdom that was so uncharacteristic of a boy his age.

The three of us at any length approached the boulder, and I rested my open palm against its mossy, slickened surface. It was warm to the touch, almost as if it were the protrusion of a living creature.

I raised my voice to be sure that my friends could understand me above all the noise. "This boulder, right here, was the same one that Rilah was climbing over, when we were running through this forest; earlier."

They both shared a look, and nodded back. We were close.