Into the Forest Shadows (15 page)

She pulled on the dry clothes, immediately
warming up. She slipped off the blanket to find even more bunts
watching the show. Two of them tipped over her shoes and nosed her
socks.

Great, the local bunt group mind was hard at
work, with all the processing power focused on her.

She scowled at them, "What do you think
you're looking at?"

"Who are you talking to?" Ayden called
out.

"Nothing! Just a few bunts," Kate said
quickly. She took the rest of her clothes, including her
under-things, and hung them up in the branches, arranging them to
be the least embarrassing.

Then there was the problem of the cape.

She went around to the side of the trunk so
she could bask in the full warmth from the Phoenix Elm. She settled
on the ground wrapped up in the blanket with the wet cape draped
over the tips of her feet as well as partially draped over a large
root.

"Okay. I'm done!" she shouted.

The Phoenix Elm glowed brighter. Warmth
radiated through the damp cloth of the cape, warming her cold
feet.

Ayden dropped the backpack on the ground and
settled himself on the other side of a large root.

A bunt nosed at her feet. Kate wriggled her
toes, causing it to jump back. She waved her hands at a few more
nearby that continued to cock their head and look her over.

Ayden laughed. "Oh, I know what happened.
They don't understand how we can take off our fur and have more
underneath. You might as well accept it. You're going to be the
focus of their curiosity until something else diverts their
attention."

"Like the fog?" Kate asked, motioning outside
of the tree.

Thin wisps of fog floated by but she couldn't
see any sparkles. Instead, she saw small dark shapes suspended in
the air. As they passed between the Trailing Willow and the glowing
Phoenix Elm she caught sight of a little parachute of white.

The bunts went wild. In one big mob they ran
out from under the Trailing Willow, including Bunbun. They hopped
up and down into the air, snapping at the hovering dots.

"I take it dinner just arrived?" Kate
asked.

"Not all the fogs are electrical in nature,"
Ayden said with a chuckle.

"Then we can't go out in this kind of fog,
either?"

"Oh, we can. If you don't mind picking the
little bugs off of you. But the fog can switch types in a blink of
an eye."

Kate didn't like the thought of little bugs
landing and crawling over her, either. She settled against the
tree, pulling the edges of the blanket around her.

"There, now they're distracted. How is the
cape drying?" He reached over and felt it, tweaking one of her toes
when he did it.

Kate reached up and touched the hem of her
pants. "I think the heat is working, but it's going to take some
time."

"We have all night. What did the trees bring
to mind?"

Kate looked at him, startled, "What?"

"At the river you shouted for someone to go
away," Ayden said softly.

Kate shrunk down into her blanket, mumbling,
"My father. I know it sounds really horrible, but we're better off
with him gone."

Ayden went quiet. Kate steeled herself for
his reaction. That comment from her always brought one. In the past
she would have prepared for verbal battle. She didn't want to do
that with Ayden. She peeked over at him to find his face
thoughtful.

"When you say gone, you mean divorced?"

She should have known he would react
different than most. "No, I mean as in dead."

Ayden blinked. "Well, I guess that's one way
to be really gone."

"For a couple of years now, which is why we
ended up back here. He didn't file the Saturus citizen papers like
he said. Probably used the money set aside for one of his many
schemes."

"Sounds like a match for my family."

Kate turned to him, "You shouted something
similar yourself the first time. Someone in your family?"

One of Ayden's shoulders came up as he turned
away. "My mother. I never knew my father. It's why I live here with
my uncle. Hopefully this will be the one place she won't search for
me."

"Wait, you're hiding from your Mother? Are
you serious?" Kate asked with a laugh. Her smile disappeared at his
lack of a smile. "Sorry, but what do you mean? Why are you hiding
from your mother?"

"Because I'm a genius."

Kate couldn't help the next laugh. But again
his face didn't echo the amusement. She cleared her throat. "Sorry,
that didn't make sense. What do you mean? A literal genius? That's
a good thing, right?"

"I love using my mind, but what I can invent
isn't all of who and what I am. I just want to be accepted for what
I am. Here in the forest I am."

Kate leaned over the root, smiling, hoping to
wipe the frown off his face, "Well, you've saved my life a number
of times. That makes you a genius to me."

A smile tried to appear at the corners of his
mouth. "Thanks for the thought."

He turned his head towards her and Kate
realized just how close their faces were. Her smile went lax. His
eyes were so brilliant from this close. Sparkling in the crackling
glow of the Phoenix Elm.

A sharp squeal cut through the air. Ayden
jerked back a fraction of an inch. A small distance, but enough to
break the spell. Kate jumped, surprised to find one hand on his
upper arm.

She quickly snatched her hand back, feeling
her face grow warm. She knew it was turning bright red, and she
hated it. She turned away to look towards the sound. "I didn't make
that noise."

Ayden grimaced and moved further away,
looking out the protective barrier of leaves. "No, it wasn't you,
it was BunBun."

It took her a few tries to find the familiar
limping run of Bunbun among the racing bunts. He ran from the
others but because of his malformed limb he couldn't outrace them.
The other bunts bit and kicked at him.

Kate jerked, pushing herself upright, but
Ayden put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll get him." Ayden sighed, pushing himself
up. "It's about time for dinner anyway."

He stepped out away from the Trailing Willow,
the small floating dots clinging to his shirt. Through the running
packs of bunts he reached down and grabbed Bunbun. The other bunts
milled around his feet until a cloud of the little floating insects
distracted them.

Ayden stuffed Bunbun down his coat, grabbed a
branch and fished several objects away from the Phoenix Elm. He
made several trips back to Kate, bringing with him not only two of
the large nut but several other empty nut hulls with other things
in it.

Kate scanned the contents, happy for the
distraction. "Where did this come from?"

"While you changed clothes I found more to
eat. I like a little variety to my meals," Ayden said, settling
down again, plucking a few clinging insects off his shirt. Bunbun
climbed down to eat a few of the insects himself.

She looked up from the inviting smells. "You
could have been attacked."

"I stayed near the Phoenix Elms which I've
never seen move." He pulled a small box of silverware out of his
backpack and with a fork started pointing, "White-root with a
little spice on top. They grow together and they taste great
together. The nut you know. It tastes just as great cooked. And
some forest peas."

Kate pointed at one of the husks with water
in it, "And that?"

"Boiled water. We need to have something to
drink. It won't taste all that great in the husk, but I don't have
any flavoring."

A package of wet plastic smacked Kate on the
shoulder. She scowled up at her drying pants.

Ayden reached over and picked it up. "What is
this?"

Kate looked down, rubbing the top of her
shoulder. She almost groaned when she recognized it. "Grandma's new
tea. She said it's super healthy and has been experimenting with
new flavors to make it taste better."

Ayden unwrapped the protective plastic and
sniffed. "Doesn't smell bad."

"The first batch tasted horrible."

"Maybe this batch tastes better," he said. He
took out one of the tea bags and dropped it into the hot water in
the nut husk.

"Eww. I don't think you know what you are in
for."

"You wouldn't have liked the water by itself,
trust me. This should make it palatable." With silverware passed
around and two collapsable cups to hold the tea, Ayden set out the
meal. He toasted her with a cup. "And I'll even try it first.
Cheers!"

Kate watched him take a sip, waiting for him
to spit it out.

His face turned thoughtful. Bunbun captured
another one of the insects and then climbed back up to Ayden's
shoulder. Ayden reached over and speared a slice of root, "Not bad.
It definitely took the bitterness away from the nut husk."

Kate took a fork full of the roasted nut
pulp. At least she knew what to expect there. The roots with the
spices didn't taste bad, either.

Thirst building, she decided to be brave. She
tried a sip of the tea.

She grimaced. She still didn't care for the
flavor but it didn't taste as vile as before.

"More fog," Ayden said before chewing on one
of the large peas.

Past the leaves the fog had changed to the
more familiar sparkling fog. Yet, through it, came the clear view
of the glowing red Phoenix tree.

A few bunts milled around Ayden's feet, lured
by the smells, before scampering back out into the fog. Bunbun
watched them go, but stayed on Ayden's shoulder.

"Why did they attack Bunbun?" Kate asked.
"The other groups he's met didn't do that."

"I'm guessing he became a little too
interested in one of the females. He does that once in a while,
even though he knows better. Cripples are tolerated in the groups
so long as they don't try to mate." Ayden scratched Bunbun's head,
"Another reason he'll be with me for the rest of his life."

She jabbed at another piece of root. "Tell me
about him. You have to tell me how he got that name."

"Pretty easy how I found him. We heard a
commotion outside one night. The next morning it was pretty obvious
something had been hunting down the local bunts. I found Bunbun
under one of our log loaders, his back foot badly mangled. I left
him alone most of the day hoping the mother would come back for
him. She never did."

"Aww, poor Bunbun."

"Yeah, I felt sorry for him, too. He just
kept hiding, but he was still moving around. So, I took him in.
Somehow he survived. Bunbun is pretty spunky. The problem came with
some of the women in the camp. They started talking baby talk to
him, and one of the things they did was shorten the word 'bunt' and
then turned it into Bunbun." Ayden glared at Bunbun who had climbed
down to sniff at the water. "He imprinted on me, but wouldn't you
know it, the idiot imprinted on the name. I tried renaming him,
refused to call him by it. But no, it's the only name he'll respond
to."

Ayden pulled BunBun back from the water. He
took a cupped leaf and poured some tea in it. Bunbun started
drinking greedily.

Kate laughed. "I wondered. I just couldn't
picture you naming him that."

BunBun looked up from the tea, peering off
into the distance. A second later Kate heard a rushing noise, a
combination of what sounded like wind and moving leaves.

The fog showed no wind, but the trees acted
like there was. Even the Phoenix tree across the small clearing
waved and bowed with the force. The red embers along its bark
sparked and twitched. With a start the bunts turned and scurried
for holes among the roots of the trees in the area.

A moan accompanied the movement. Emotions
erupted out of the trees, pressing down on her. She shuddered,
putting down her fork, no longer hungry.

Ayden sighed, "I wish I knew what that was
about."

"Something bad happened."

Ayden looked at her, curious, "You heard it
coming at the same time as the bunts."

Kate shrugged her shoulders. She felt another
shiver go through the trees. A moment later a lesser wave went
through the area.

She smiled weakly, "Girls are supposed to be
able to hear better than boys. Maybe that's it."

Ayden took a deep breath. "Yeah, right. Let's
finish this up. We don't want anything left to attract unwanted
attention."

#

Mary hardly slept that night. She tossed and
turned, the bed too hard and then too soft. Noises from the
apartment made her jump. In the end she gave up.

Surrounded by the oppressive emptiness of the
apartment, she left, only to find herself in the deserted offices
of the Blackstone Corporation. She sat down at the desk she'd
worked at when her mother had still been general manager. Before
she'd retired from the position to go live in the forest.

Flight schedules, load manifests, delivery
and arrival permissions and contracts. She could still bring them
up through the computer system by memory. And among them was a
confirmation of the mystery Uncle Elliot had alerted her to.

While many of the old contracts were still
there, she found product instead going to new contracts. And not at
good rates.

The more she dug, the more furious she
became. Slow business? That was why she and Kate had to return to
Oburos, because the money ran out? No wonder it did!

Several cups of coffee later, and the start
of the sunrise, and she'd altered the plan for future deliveries.
Uncle Elliot and the primary contracts would be fulfilled first for
top pay. The other contracts she put on hold with a password to
protect the changes.

Looking at the time, she slipped out of the
office. She had to face Travis soon enough, but not yet. Once she
slept, she would have to tackle the source of the problem, with or
without her mother's help.

She found the corridors unusually empty. Two
of the office workers from her company rushed by, one of them
saying to the other, "Two hours on the balcony and I didn't see a
single one of them come out the entire time."