As We Go Along - Ch. 3

 I'm five feet tall, so I had to fall another five feet before I hit the ground. And when I did hit the ground, I felt partly relieved that the ground was there, and partly disappointed because I'd landed weird on my right ankle and also smashed by backpack and tangled myself up in the paperclip chain.

The black mist no longer surrounded me. It was dark, but the air was clear and cold. I was glad I'd put on a sweatshirt but wished I had something warmer. I looked up. Panic time: there was no mist, no mirror frame. Just black branches against a dark gray sky. I had two choices now: scream in terror, or try to calm down.

I took the second option. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. When I opened my eyes, I was calm enough to wonder where the heck I was. I looked up - tall, straight, thin black trees with a tightly-woven canopy of twisty black branches. No leaves. From what little I could see of the sky, I decided it was nighttime and overcast. Then I looked down: my backpack and I sat in mushy black leaflitter. So the trees must have had leaves at some point, which meant it was fall or winter here now. Then I looked around.

There was no underbrush in this forest, just the unnaturally straight trees and the tops of their roots. The trees were spaced far enough apart that I could easily walk between them. There were no overt red flags: no glowing eyes, creepy howls in the distance, etc., but my spine tingled with the prescience of evil.

Then I saw it - a strange glow in the distance. Soft, sibilant voices. Heavy muffled treads.

My breath came short. I gathered the paperclips, stuffed them in my backpack, pulled the straps over my shoulders, and stood up. I stifled a gasp. Maybe I'd landed on that ankle at an even weirder angle than I'd thought. Running was out of the question; I'd trip on the roots anyway. I unfolded my pocket-knife and watched the distant glow, holding my breath.

The glow came closer, and the voices grew louder. They were human, I decided, and the glow was a lantern. The thumping steps were decidedly not human - more horse-like. Centaurs? I slipped behind a tree trunk as they approached.

They came into view. My imagine had overshot reality: they were four men on four horses. Now my mind flitted to the Book of Revelations. I shut off that train of thought.

The men were talking, and they were lost. Or at least, one thought they were lost, one thought they weren't, and the other two were silent on the matter but peered into the woods warily. The four men were distinctly different in age and appearance: there was one perhaps a little older than I, then one in his thirties, then one in his forties, then one in his fifties, if I had to guess. The youngest had dark curly hair and held the lantern. The next-youngest was the one who thought he knew exactly where they were. He had a little brown goatee. The second-oldest was the one who adamantly thought they were lost. He had a gruff manner about him, and a bright sword hung from his belt. The oldest was somewhat stout and sported a short, graying beard and a smirk, as if he enjoyed the argument immensely.

"Well, Vesperzo, if you say we aren't lost, then where are we?" the gruff man asked.

"In the Darkwood," goateed Vesperzo said.

"Never would have guessed," the gruff one said snarkily. "And how, Mr. Know-It-All, do we get out of the Darkwood?"

"Mind your temper, Braydon," the old stout one said.

Braydon snorted. "My question stands."

Vesperzo sighed, as if he didn't want to deal with idiots all day but accepted it as his burden to bear. "We just keep walking this way, and eventually we will come to the edge," he said.

"Any fool would know that! That's the nature of bounded space!" Braydon said. "Which edge will we come to? North, south, east, or west? Do you even know which side of the River we're on?"

Braydon and Vesperzo kept arguing while the stout one chimed in occasionally for civility's sake. The young one remained quiet this whole time. He looked nearly as skittish as I felt.

"Shh!" He suddenly hissed. "Do you hear that?"

"Oh, what is it now, Colin?" Braydon said. "Another terrifying bullfrog?"

Colin ignored the jibe. "Breathing. Human breathing."

I promptly held my breath.

"How do you know it's human breathing?" the stout one asked. "All breathing sounds much alike."

"Because it stopped just now when I pointed it out. Whoever it is doesn't want to be found."

I ducked back behind the tree. The four men fell silent. Whether they were listening for me or trying not to be heard by me, I had no clue. But I couldn't hold my breath much longer.

A painful fifteen seconds of silence passed.

"It's probably a trick of the wind," Vesperzo said.

"I don't think so," Colin said. "The wind stopped at sundown."

Another fifteen seconds. I was getting a panicky feeling in my chest now. Move along! Move along! I'm not here!

"Come now, Colin, relax. We're alone in the woods except for each other," the stout one said. "Let's see if we can find an inn before morning."

I heard the horses start to walk away. I gasped for air.

And found a sword at my throat.