Lacey sat alone in the woods—in the dark. This was a terrible idea. She didn’t know how she was going to find her way to Devan let alone back to the camp.
Blayd and Niva and the others had animal senses to keep them from getting lost. Probably every one of the Wished could find their way around the Wood with their eyes closed. Maybe there was a trick to it. She better figure it out soon or she was going to spend the night alone and hungry in the Wood, no better off than Devan.
The camp was behind her, so the cave was…at least she thought the camp was behind her. She stood up and turned around. Which way had they come from? Which way had Niva gone when she left? Lacey turned again and took a step forward. Black tree trunks rose from the forest floor, straight and regular like a picket fence, each one indistinguishable from the next. It was hopeless; she was too human. She sat back down.
The darkness began to expand like the heaving ribcage of a living thing. Her and her imagination populated the shadows with monsters. More than once she thought she saw golden eyes flashing in the darkness. Her ears swiveled in every direction and she opened her eyes as wide as she could, but it didn’t help.
When a noise broke the silence, Lacey instinctively threw her hands up in front of her. Something furry landed in her lap. Lacey shrieked and leapt to her feet.
An indignant rrr-eeow came in response. Two green eyes, big and round as twin moons, looked up from her feet.
“Meemu!” she said, scooping him up into her arms. “You found me. I guess even you can find your way around out here.”
Meemu purred and rubbed his head on her chin.
“Oh Meemu. What am I going to do? I need to find Devan. He’s hurt. I was going to bring him food and a blanket. It’s all my fault.” She poured her heart out to him the way she always did. She told him everything that had happened; he listened without interrupting and without judgment
After she finished, he leapt to the ground and butted her with his head.
“But I can’t just go find him! It’s dark. I can’t see a thing. I don’t even know which direction is forward or back.”
Meemu blinked at her and spun around in a circle.
She couldn’t figure out what he was trying to tell her.
He sat on the ground and blinked a second time, keeping his eyes closed.
It occurred to Lacey that this was bizarre. She liked to pretend he was talking back to her, but usually it was random cat behavior, which she chose to interpret as communication. This wasn’t just friendly feline encouragement. Closed eyes meant something. Like he wanted her to close her eyes.
Maybe she wasn’t too human, she just wasn’t wolf or cat or raccoon either. She was a bat. Other creatures relied on their eyes. Bat’s didn’t. Maybe that was the key.
Lacey closed her eyes and listened. At first, all she heard was the groan of the trees, and a hiss of wind. She kept still, calmed her jangled nerves, and let her troubles melt away. Then, it was like a whole landscape of sound opened up to her: scrabbling noises tiny claws in dirt, swishing of pine needles brushing against bark, drips of dew as nighttime condensation weighed too heavy from a leaf, and so much more. She lost herself in this new world. It was marvelous.
But she still had no sense of direction. Or did she?
The wind was blowing in the direction it always blew. She let the little breezes buffet her face and turned to what she knew was north. She had it!
She breathed in through her nose. The smell of pine was infused with the faint musk of Niva, and, even more faintly, the smells of civilization. The pungent camp of half-human creatures was west; chicken coop to the south.
Blayd had brought her back to the camp south and east from Devan’s cave. Lacey took a step forward, opening her eyes but keeping her gaze soft, only watching for the shadow of trees in her path. As she walked, she felt the slope of the land and the changes in firmness. The world was so much more than what she could see.
She kept walking and she sensed Meemu sauntering beside her. She sensed the entire Wish Wood, like she was a mist spread out through the pines knowing and seeing all.
When the canopy above her thinned and a small clearing opened up, the Night Mother was exactly where Lacey thought she would be.
Lacey halted on the edge of the clearing; it took a moment for her to feel anchored back in her body again. The cave entrance was ahead of her and a small light flickered on the rock wall just inside. Devan was still there.
She untied a rabbit from the string on her belt, and pulled the deerskin blanket from her pack. She was about to enter the cave when she remembered the harsh words she and Devan had parted on. He didn’t want to see her. And she wasn’t sure she could look him in the eye.
Lacey laid the rabbit and the deer skin blanket on a large flat stone at the mouth of the cave. Once back at the edge of the Wood, she turned and heaved a fist sized rock at the cave entrance. Stone clattered on stone, and she ran back into the waiting pines, lined up like a row of gray teeth.
***
Lacey ran headlong through the trees once again, sprinting as fast as she could without turning her ankle or colliding with a tree trunk, until she was out of breath. Finally, she stopped.
She leaned her back against a tree, gasping. Meemu was sitting nearby washing his face. Suddenly, the tree moved and Lacey leapt away from it. Was that the wind? She looked around. The trees shifted and groaned. The wind wasn’t blowing any more than before, but the trees were more…animated.
The hairs on her arms prickled. She needed to see the open sky. She needed to get out of the Wish Wood. She wasn’t lost; she knew what direction she could find the Wished camp, the village of Pine Ridge, and the cave. She could go to any of them right now, if she wanted, but she knew was only welcome in one place. She turned toward the Wished camp, then hesitated.
Were the trees in a different configuration than they had been a moment ago? She wasn’t sure, but the sudden chill in the air, and the growing feeling that she was being watched, made her think this was yet another place she wasn’t welcome.
She was listening to too many ghost stories from Niva.
Lacey laughed out loud, and regretted it instantly, as the creaking of the trees stilled suddenly, like a hush falling over a crowded room.
Lacey had a bad feeling, like any moment the trees were going to pull up their roots and start walking. In her imagination, pines crowded around her, crushing her between their rough bark.
Lacey crouched down to Meemu’s level. The cat swished his tail against her knees, lifting his nose to the air. At least she was not alone.
“Maybe we should get out of here Meemu,” she whispered. She stared hard at the roots of the trees, as if her gaze could keep them in place.
A soft rustling disturbed the silence, like steps. Getting closer. Was that what walking trees sounded like? A low growl vibrated in Meemu’s chest.
Something brushed her cheek and she screamed, kicking back and swatting at her face. Meemu leapt clear. Lacey landed on her backside, panting.
Meemu’s tail. That was all it was. But the steps were running now, straight for them.
Meemu squared his paws and hunkered low to the ground, tail lashing dirt up from the forest floor. His growl escalated from the barely audible rumble to a screeching yowl. Something crashed through the trees right in front of them. Lacey screamed again.
Blayd skidded to a halt.
Lacey held her hand to her chest, trying to keep her heart from completely flying out of her ribcage. “Meemu!” She shouted at the cat, who was spitting fury. “It’s OK.”
Blayd cocked his head as his tiny assailant backed down. Meemu’s tail was puffed up like a bristle brush. Lacey felt exactly the same way.
“Blayd! What in the name of the Founders are you doing sneaking up on us like that!”
Blayd edged around the cat. Meemu wailed long and low, making it clear he would not think twice about attacking a beast many sizes bigger than himself, if the wolf-boy made the wrong move.
Blayd turned his attention from the rag-tag tomcat to Lacey. He gently placed his clawed hands on her shoulders and patted down her arms.
“I am alright,” she said, shrugging his hands off her. “I can take care of myself. You didn’t need to come looking. I just got spooked because of all Niva’s ghost stories.”
Blayd’s eyes flashed at the fox-girl’s name.
“No, this is not Niva’s fault, Blayd. I wanted to try to find my own way. And I have figured it out now. I couldn’t have done it with her leading me.”
Blayd threw his hands up in the air. He walked a few steps away and then spun back, jabbing two clawed fingers toward the trees and then his eyes. Meemu growled louder at the wolf-boy’s forceful movements.
“I don’t understand,” she said. Lacey scooped up Meemu, smoothing his fur and hopefully his nerves.
Blayd repeated the gesture several times, but she couldn’t figure out his meaning. Finally, he let out a bark of frustration.
Lacey laughed. It was the first time she had heard him make a sound, and it was not the one she had expected.
Blayd shook his head and huffed. The trees groaned and creaked around them like they were having a conversation. The wolf-boy shuddered at the sound and gestured for her to come with him. He seemed to be urgent about getting out of there, and she was not inclined to argue. Meemu watched the trees over her shoulder as they walked away at a swift pace.
“I don’t need you to guide me, you know.” Lacey quickened her steps to carry her ahead of Blayd, and led the way back to camp. The cat squirmed in her arms and hissed at the big wolf face following them, until Blayd settled back down onto all fours again.
Once they put that part of the forest behind them, the feeling of being watched faded. It was as if… “Ohhh,” she said smacking her forehead. “The trees have eyes? Is that what you were trying to say?”
Blayd whined in response.
“But not here, though? Just back there.” She frowned. It was strange for only the pines in one particular part of the Wood to be haunted. A thought occurred to her. “Were we close to the well?” She glanced over her shoulder.
Blayd nodded.