The journey back to the alcove seemed to take forever, though Colt knew they were making pretty good time. Shelly was still trailing behind him, and wouldn't even bring herself to walk alongside him. Every time Colt glanced back he saw a scowl on her face, and she was usually aiming her glare directly at him. They still hadn't said a word to each other the entire time, with Shelly being silent out of anger and Colt out of the fear of being attacked by her.
Colt looked down at his map as he walked. He sort-of remembered where the alcove was on the map, and if he was following their location correctly, they were getting close. They just needed to follow the path until they got to a certain large tree, and then...
Colt froze suddenly. He thought he'd just heard something move to his right. He looked into the trees, but saw nothing. Then something slammed into his back.
Shelly stumbled backwards after colliding with him and cursed. "Hey! What do you think you're doing? I ran straight into you!"
"Maybe pay more attention to what's in front of you next time."
Shelly glowered at Colt and was about to respond when Colt heard the noise again. It was a strange shuffling sound coming from the depths of the trees.
"There," he said. "Do you hear that? I heard it before, too, when we were walking."
"All I could hear was you fumbling around with that map of yours," Shelly grumbled. "I mean, you've been doing that the whole—"
"Shhh shh," Colt cut her off, shushing hurriedly. He looked slowly around at the forest, looking and listening hard for any sign of another presence. Then, finally, he heard the noise again and this time he knew exactly where it was coming from. "There!"
Colt dodged out of the way as a creature came barging out of the forest and barreled directly toward them. Colt got out of its path in time and saw it barely miss hitting Shelly. Not a direct hit at least. The creature hit her side and she fell to the ground. Colt stood back up and recognized the creature.
"Okay," he said weakly. "That's a bear. That's what's happening right now."
The giant grizzly bear heard him and turned toward him. Colt didn't waste any time as he sprinted in the opposite direction. He ran on the path a little ways, then ducked into the forest to try and better lose the bear. He found a large tree, the one he had used as a landmark on his map, and ducked behind it, using the thick trunk as cover. After a moment he heard the bear retreating back where he'd come from. Back toward Shelly.
Colt took a moment to regain his composure, then emerged from behind the tree. As he walked back toward the path, his foot hit something hard and he lost his balance and got a face full of dirt. He coughed and turned himself around until he was in a sitting position. Then he spotted what had tripped him. There was an unusually thick tree branch lying on the ground, no doubt from that large tree he had hid behind. As he stood up, Colt got an idea. He picked up the branch, which was extraordinarily heavy, and walked back where he came.
His leg still hurt from the fall, so he limped back along the path until he came upon the bear, who was currently standing over Shelly. Colt slowly but surely got closer to the bear, and as it prepared to attack Shelly, he heaved the tree branch at it as hard as he could.
The branch hit the bear directly in the head. Unfortunately, the bear did not immediately die. Nor did it fall to the ground and lose consciousness, which would have also been acceptable. It simply shook its big head in confusion and then looked up, directly at Colt.
"Oh," Colt said in a small voice. "Not good."
The bear charged at him. Colt raised his cutlass to defend, but the bear didn't collide into him like he'd expected. It simply stopped in front of him and swiped its right paw at him. Colt stepped back suddenly to avoid being hit but the paw still struck his arm. Colt lost the grip on his sword, which went tumbling off somewhere. When he looked down at his forearm he noticed that the bear had cut pretty deeply into it and there was already lots of blood.
The bear reared back for its next attack and Colt found himself completely defenseless. He staggered back but the bear still caught him and the pressure caused him to crash to the floor.
Then the bear cried out in agony. Colt grunted as he twisted the silver knife into the bear's side before yanking it out. He had just barely had enough time to take the knife from his belt and stab it into the bear in one swift motion as he'd fallen. It was a final, desperate move, but it had worked. The bear was only mildly hurt, but that was enough to get it to step back from Colt and go running back into the deep forest from which it had come.
Colt sat a moment on the ground, catching his breath. He looked down at the knife in his hand and studied it before tucking it back on his belt, where it was hidden beneath his tunic. He finally found the strength to stand up, but had to lean on a tree to steady himself as he did so. He was covered in dirt and cuts everywhere, and still had the large gash on his arm. But he'd worry about that later. He stumbled over to where his sword was lying and picked it back up, sticking it again in the loop of his pants. He then noticed that Shelly had already stood up and was just staring over at him.
Colt found it within himself to show a grin. "I may not be an Authority officer," he said. "But I can defeat a bear. So you tell me which is more useful out here, huh?"
Shelly scoffed and shook her head. "Let's just get to the alcove so I can grab my satchel and get out of here."
She continued walking, not bothering to check and see if Colt was following.
"Wait one second," Colt said, trailing behind her. "That's all you have to say. No 'thanks' for taking out the giant bear that seemed intent on killing you?"
Shelly turned toward him and stopped. "You ran from the bear and saved yourself, leaving me to die. And you didn't take out the bear, you gave it a minor injury with a knife. Not exactly something to brag about."
"Yeah, except I didn't leave you to die. I came back."
"After you ensured your own safety first. I was an afterthought, and the bear could just as well have killed me by then." She pointed a finger at him. "You might try to hide it, but you're selfish. All you care about is yourself, and getting to the Authority base. You won't even let me know why you want to go there to begin with."
Shelly shook her head and kept walking. Colt couldn't really think of a response to this, so he just followed along behind her, pulling out the map again and checking where they were. They passed by the large tree again and pretty soon they were getting close to where the alcove was.
What a waste of time, Colt thought. Just to get back to where they'd been the night before.
When they got to the alcove, Colt sensed some movement from the corner of his eye and froze. His heart sank, with him recalling the bear attack. He couldn't deal with another incident like that. Not today, and maybe not ever.
But when his view fell upon the creature it was not a bear at all. It was much smaller, and at least 300 pounds lighter. A small animal was sitting in the center of the alcove, rummaging around in Shelly's satchel.
"Hey!" shouted Shelly, when she saw what was going on.
She darted toward the creature, who looked up at the two of them, spun around, and scampered. Its curly tail was visible for a second more before the tiny monkey vanished into the trees.
As Shelly crossed over to the satchel and took the food's attendance, Colt focused on the spot where the little creature had disappeared. "That was a monkey," he said intelligently.
"Yeah," grumbled Shelly. "A bear, then a monkey. Can you believe our luck? I can't wait to get out of this place."
Colt considered things for a moment, completely fascinated by the creature, before saying, "We should go after it."
Shelly snorted in reply. "Are you crazy? No way. I've got my satchel, I'm getting out of here."
Colt nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. I think I'm gonna go after it."
He took a step forward toward the trees where the monkey was last seen, but felt a hand on his shoulder as Shelly stopped him. He turned toward her, eyebrows raised.
"You're kidding, right?" she asked.
Colt made a gesture with his arms showing he didn't know what she meant.
"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" she exclaimed. "You do whatever you want to do, no matter what anyone else thinks. You're running blindly into the forest because you feel like it! All you care about is yourself."
Colt put his hands up in defense. "I just want to see if the monkey's okay, is all."
This time it was her who couldn't think of a response. So this time it was her that trailed after him as he ventured into the trees. Colt swiped branches and leaves out of his way as he walked deeper and deeper into the forest, hearing Shelly cursing behind him as she got on the wrong end of the recoil. Colt thought he noticed something move up ahead and so he started to pick up speed. Sure enough, he saw the figure of the monkey. It wasn't running anymore, apparently having settled upon sitting between the branches of a tree. Colt looked up at it as he got closer.
"This is a bad idea," Shelly said.
Colt ignored her. He was able to get up to the base of the tree, right under the monkey. Colt looked up at it in fascination. It was a brown capuchin with a pair of highly intelligent eyes. Colt also noticed a small scar running across the top of its head. It was looking around furiously, as if it thought it was being hunted by someone.
Probably us, Colt thought.
Unfortunately, the monkey then decided to glance down. It spotted Colt instantly and let out a cry. Before Colt could act it flew down from the tree, pouncing on him. The tiny monkey was able to kick him to the ground before flipping him off and running away again.
Colt got to his feet, noticing that Shelly didn't seem too concerned for him.
"The monkey is obviously fine," she said.
"Well then I guess I am selfish."
Colt turned and continued to follow the capuchin.
"Come on!" Shelly protested.
But Colt had his mind made. He was following the monkey. Something seemed off about it, and if it was digging for food in a forest like this, it wasn't safe. He just wanted to see if the monkey had a pack, or troop, it belonged to. And he'd never seen a monkey before, so it was extremely fascinating to him.
Colt was able to loosely follow the monkey without losing track of him for a couple minutes. Then the monkey entered an extremely thick area of the forest, jumping easily between the tops of the trees. For Colt and Shelly it was not so easy. There was hardly any space between tree trunks now, and that space had been totally filled in by overgrown branches and thick leaves.
Colt grabbed his sword and hacked through the obstacles. He didn't know where the monkey was anymore, but that wasn't what he was even after anymore. He could barely see it through the barricade of leaves and branches, but there was a faint light shining ahead.
"Let's just go back," Shelly said.
"Hang on," Colt replied. "It could be a village or something. Maybe they can get us safely to the base."
Colt cut through branches, vines, leaves, and lots of other growing things as he got closer and closer to the light. He cut one more layer of leaves away and walked slowly out into the light.
The clearing that he came upon was nothing like he'd expected. There was no village ahead, not even so much as a hut. Instead the area was filled with oddly tall trees with light green leaves. There were wooden bridges between them, hammocks made of leaves within them, and bright lanterns hanging from them. But that wasn't the strangest part. Occupying the trees were creatures of varying sizes and colors. They moved between the trees with ease, hanging from the branches and laying on the hammocks. There were more of them than Colt could even count.
And they were all monkeys.