The Changelings (War of the Fae: Book 1) (25 page)

We walked for another hour, picking our way carefully across logs and branches and through brambles and other sharp pokey things.
 
I had scratches all over my wrists, neck and face.
 
I was glad I had jeans on to protect my legs.
 
My hoodie protected most of my arms, but I had pushed up the sleeves a bit because I was so hot.
 
All this walking and climbing over shit was making me sweat.

"Are we there yet?
 
How much longer?" I whined.
 
This was like road trips I had taken with my parents when I was younger that seemed to go on forever.

"I think we should turn back east soon – not yet though.
 
I'm not sure.
 
I wish I could see above the trees."

I thought about this for a minute then came to an abrupt halt, grabbing Tony's sleeve.
 
"Why don't we climb one?"
 
Looking up, I could see that some of the trees would be good candidates.
 
They had lots of branches.
 

Tony looked up too.
 
"I was never much good at climbing trees.
 
I panic when I get above ten feet."

"Shit.
 
Me too.
 
But I think we should try anyway."

Tony cinched up his backpack, making it tighter.
 
"Fine.
 
Let's do this.
 
Which tree?"

I picked the one that had the most branches.
 
It wasn't nearly as big as the one we'd hugged earlier.
 
I walked over and put one hand on the trunk.
 

"Hello, Tree.
 
We need to climb you to see above the forest.
 
I don't want to hurt you or be disrespectful, but it's important."
 
I tried to send my thoughts into the tree.
 
I got only an answering glow back.
 
I'm not sure if it was a response, permission, or what – but it didn't feel angry or anything, so I figured we were good to go.

Tony just watched me, not saying anything.
 
As soon as he saw me start climbing he walked over to the tree too, putting his hands on its bark.
 
"Hi, Tree.
 
What she said.
 
I'm ... uh ... gonna climb you too."

I was already a couple of levels up. "Did you feel it?"

He shook his head.
 
"Nope."
 
He grabbed the lowest branch and started to come up behind me.

I was touching the tree with various parts of my body.
 
I could feel its welcoming green glow going all through me.
 
I'd never felt this as a kid, climbing trees.
 
If I had, I probably never would have come down.
 

Tony was a few feet below me, his pace slowing.
 

"You okay down there?"

"Um ... getting a little nervous, actually."
 

He looked up at me and I could see the sweat on his upper lip and forehead.

"Just stay there, I'm fine.
 
I'll go the rest of the way alone."

I was now up higher in this tree than I'd ever climbed in my life, which was kind of ironic, because as I've grown up, I've learned to have a greater appreciation for my mortality.
 
When I was a kid, I never worried about falling and hurting myself or possibly even dying – it never even crossed my mind.
 
But now that I was older, I didn't climb trees anymore because I
did
worry about that kind of stuff.
 
I fully appreciated at this moment what a bummer that is – how limiting it makes your life when you walk around always afraid something tragic could happen.

I reached a spot that didn't have any handy branches I could use to help me get to the next level.
 
I stopped and looked around, trying to figure out what to do.
 
I looked down and could see Tony's small form, still below me but much farther away.
 
I just needed to go another ten feet or so...

"What are you doing?" asked Tony.

"Trying to get higher.
 
But I can't."

"Why not?"

"There aren't any branches nearby."
 
Shitshitshit
.

Then I remembered the leafy toilet paper incident.
 
I bit my lip, looking around at the nearby trees.
 
The one I was on didn't have any branches that could help me – but the tree next to mine had some really big ones up here.
 
Branches that, if they moved, could get me as high as I needed to go
.
 
Should I do it?

"Come on, hurry up!" said Tony as loudly as he dared.

I made my decision.
 
I placed my arms around the tree trunk.
 
The energy that had been tingling through my hands as I climbed was amplified a bit, now that more of me was making contact.
 

So, how does this work
?
 
I wondered.
 
Do I ask in English?
 
"Tree, move a branch for me so I can see higher."
 

Some branches nearby moved a bit, but it could have been from a breeze, it was so slight.

Okay, not English.
 
French?
 
No, that wasn't going to work.
 
All I could remember how to say was
Je vais à la plage
– I'm going to the beach.
 
Not helpful.

Okay, how about pictures?
 
I closed my eyes and imagined in my head what I wanted the tree to do.
 
My mind's eye saw one of the big nearby branches swinging over to where I was standing, positioning itself to hoist me up to the highest level of the tree I was latched onto.
 
Then I pictured myself looking out over the treetops off to the east.
 

I was so busy picturing every little detail, I wasn't paying attention to what I was actually physically doing on the tree.
 

Tony's voice cut through my daydream.
 
"Holy crap, Jayne, what are you doing?"

I opened my eyes.
 
The branch that had been fifteen feet away from me had moved.
 
The tree it belonged to was groaning, but the branch remained still, extended out directly in front of me.
 
I tentatively put my foot out, left one first, onto the big branch of the larger tree.
 
I kept my hands on the trunk of the smaller tree.
 
I realized then that I hadn't thought this out very well.
 
I had nothing to grab hold of.
 
I swallowed the panic that began to rise up and quickly closed my eyes, imagining a second branch being there for my hands to hold onto.
 
I opened my eyes in time to see it swinging over to join the first.
 
As soon as it came close enough, I let go of the trunk and swiftly grabbed hold with a death grip, telling myself not to look down, no matter what.

"Jayne, don't do that!
 
You're going to fall!"

"Shush, Tony!
 
Don't upset the tree.
 
I won't fall."

I could hear him muttering below me.
 
"Upset the tree.
 
Upset the tree?
 
She's nuts, upset the tree ... "

Please lift me up,
I asked the tree, showing it in my head what I wanted it to do.
 

It was like being on an elevator in the forest.
 
The tree strained, lifting its two branches as high as they would go.
 
I heard the groaning of the wood and then a cracking.
 
Okay, stop!
 
Hold me here for just a moment
.
 
It made it difficult to concentrate on anything else, this picturing stuff to communicate instead of talking.
 
I kept closing my eyes to make it easier.
 

I quickly opened my eyes to look around.
 
I was now above most of the trees in the forest.
 
The sun was barely shining, the clouds covering most of its brilliance.
 
No wonder it's so dark down there.
 
The forest seemed to stretch out forever in all directions.
 
I couldn't see an end to it no matter which way I turned.
 
"Fucking A," I said to no one in particular.

To the east and a bit south, I saw a break in the trees and what looked like a small sliver of something shiny peaking out.
 
It must be the second waypoint
.
 
I strained my neck to see farther.
 
I was hoping to see the third waypoint, but I couldn't.
 
We must be too far away.

"Okay tree, down we go."
 
I pictured the big tree putting me back where I had been on the other one.
 
Within seconds, the groaning and creaking began again and I was transported over to the smaller tree.
 
As the branch started to move to its original position, I reached out and touched it again briefly with my hand.
 
Thank you, Tree
.
 

I felt a burst of energy in return.
 
Love.
 

I was definitely going to plant some trees when I got home.
 
I'd make a mini forest right in my mom's back yard.
 
Front yard too.
 

I looked down to report my observations to Tony but I couldn't see him anymore.
 
"Tony?"

No answer.
 

I began to get worried.
 
I was thinking he might have fallen.
 
We were out here in the middle of nowhere – and now I'd seen just how out in the middle of nowhere we really were – and if he was hurt, I wasn't sure how I was going to get him out of the forest or even to the next waypoint.

I scrambled down the tree as fast as I could.
 
When I got to the last branch, I dropped to the ground and stood, anxiously looking around the base of the tree, trying to locate Tony.
 
He wasn't there, but his backpack was.
 
And his axe was lying on top.

"Holy shit ...
Tony!
" I whisper-yelled because I was afraid Niles and his little buddy were still close by.
 
"Tony!"

I heard the sound of a voice – a female voice, coming from around the other side of the tree.
 

That's weird.
 
I walked around in time to see Tony standing in front of a crooked old hag, getting ready to plunge into what looked like a heavy-duty makeout session.
 
His hands were on the hag's waist and his head was tilted, angled to the side in expectation of a real juicy liplock.

"Oh, shit, Tony, that's
disgusting!
 
Get away from her!"
 
I ran over to break up the love fest.

She saw me coming and pulled back a few inches from Tony, anger brightening her beady eyes.

"SSSStaaaay awaaaay human giiirrrrl," she hiss-screeched, foamy spittle collecting at the corners of her mouth.
 

I nearly gagged, thinking of my Tony getting his first kiss from that ugly-ass woman.
 
She looked about two hundred years old with stringy, greasy gray hair hanging down past her shoulders.
 
One of her eyes was a cloudy light blue, the other one black; I couldn't see any iris – just one big, inky pupil, sunk within a wrinkly, mottled skeletal face.
 
She was wearing a shapeless, dingy-gray cloak, stained and ragged.
 
I looked with disgust at her rotted and crooked yellowish-brown teeth.

"No fucking way are you kissing my Tony with that mouth," I declared, stepping towards her with my stick in one hand and Tony's axe in the other.
 

She took a step back, releasing his arm.
 

Tony stood still for a second as I approached and then looked up, turning his head to face me.
 
His eyes were open, but I saw no recognition in them when he looked me.
 
Tony turned and moved towards the hag again, his arms reaching for her waist in a bid to finish their disgusting business together.

"
Huh-uh
, Tony Baloney, not so fast."
 
I reached out and gripped his shoulder, pulling him back away from her.
 

He put up little resistance.
 

The hag backed farther away from me, her eyes not on the axe but on Blackie.
 

I noticed she seemed to be worried about it, so I held it up.
 
"You want a taste of Blackie?
 
Well then
bring it,
bitch."

The hag raised her chin, staring at me malevolently.
 
She growled out in her rusty, acidic voice, "You know nothing of what you do, of what you have.
 
I can see it in your eyes."

"Look again, hag." I brandished Blackie in front of me.
 
"Come on, put your money where your mouth is, old lady.
 
Don't think for one second that I won't stab this motherfucker right in your ugly, cloudy, beady-ass eye.
 
Or maybe I should go for the good one!"
 
I adjusted the point of my stick a smidge to the right.

The hag considered me for a moment and then looked at Tony.