The droning silence took its hold and, torturous within, I told a miserable bout of cold to bear its fangs away.
The reticence then grew emboldened by the callousness unloaded, and unfolded foetid mold; to bring my fears to bay. The mildew soaked into the gashes that my running had amassed, in lines across my feet and ass, and so I howled in pain.
I hopped about, impassioned brashness draining from my form, at last, and cursed aloud, of how aghast I was; to ache in vain. Not all that closer, now, was I than when I had set out to find the slightest trace of friend of mine; who had stolen away.
I journeyed deep, and far, and wide, to sate the pain I seared inside. The cause of which, if said, belied a toll I had to pay—The softer, fairer friend, denied the opportunity to climb the ranks of myths of humankind; the girl who wasn't prey.
I knew, if found, indeed, in time, then promise there remained; reminding animals, and trees, the climb to apex could be swayed.
I hung my head, and wrung my hands, giving into my flesh demands, until I noticed on the land—a flickering light of day!
I rushed my pace, and my heart swelled, and words could barely suit to tell the relief that I'd finally felt in leaving far behind this hell of blade, and blood, and bilious smells, and all the beasts of brawl as well, who made me meek, and small, to dwell upon the thought of what befell my friends, my foes, my final knell, my fears, my falls, my fate foretelling furious, ferocious failing—filling filing after filing full—for fear and loathing, still, could hardly hide my focus willing hope with its revoke; fulfilling every chance of cope with killing roasting over smoke instilling confusion and lope, unwilling, into the sprint I had been drilling home, through every pose displayed.
The open glade I'd been expecting, when I saw the light suggesting open fields, and sunlight resting ahead—come what may—turned out to be the flames reflecting off my fellows' unsuspecting gazes as I burst, deflecting ferns into the cay.
"What the five?!" Fimbs screamed, clutching her chest at my sudden appearance of a disheveled, half-dead mannequin; drenched through with water, and a stain of bright, neon green across what pitiful excuse I could claim to have once resembled a poncho. "Zoel? Is that you?!"
I couldn't believe my eyes. The two of them sat, warmly, behind a modest little cooking fire, with a handful of stakes in hand for the roasting of some freshly butchered caiman meat; under the shade of a single, oversized leaf from the arm of a coriacious spurge.
It dangled overhead, like a fan shaped umbrella just large enough to have kept the fire from getting drenched, without being too large to suffer damage from the heat pooling up, under its wide, dichasial venation.
It fluttered in the updraft of the heat, as if to gloat at how easily it excelled in such a task.
I stumbled forward, mechanically, as if numb to the entire prospect of the miracle that had unfolded before me, or unwilling to move too sharply, and let this fantasy break like all the other visions induced by the flower that had tried to swallow me whole, and nearly succeeded.
"H-hey, ...buddy? Are you all right?" Janny asked, beginning to sit up as I drew wordlessly toward the fire that was my current lifeline. He climbed to his feet, and went to wrap an arm around my back for support, but held back his hand when he saw the bright red mass that had appeared where, once, my back had been. "By the Great Blue...! What happened to you?"
I wordlessly slumped down, before the fire, and peeled off the useless thing that stood between my chest and the open flame; spreading my palms open, and extending my arms to more efficiently accept its warmth. He looked at Fimbs, and she could only shrug.
Janny kneeled down to my left, and patted me on my shoulder—one of the very few places of my torso that remained uninjured, despite it all. He sighed, softly, "Listen, I know that you've been through a lot, and you don't need to tell me what happened, but I just want you to know that I never stopped believing in you."
I wasn't yet ready to talk, so I sufficed him with a stolid nod of the head, and I waited for him to continue. "I'm glad that you made your way back to us, and that we can help save your life, as you saved mine, but I haven't given up on Rilah, either."
Fimbs sauntered over to my right, just out of the way of the fire; so I wasn't blocked from its warmth at all, but could still clearly see her face. The look she wore seemed absolutely baleful. Janny ruffled through his pack.
"I'm going to take care of your wounds, and we're going to get some food in you, but I know that you will not be at one hundred percent, right away. I also know you know that her time is running out—whatever situation she's wound herself in, she's not going to last much longer." He pulled out a demoralizing length of gauze, and a foul-smelling salve that I could already tell would hurt like the dickens. "But there's one thing I know, that you don't."
Fimbs looked up at him with wide, glassy eyes, at this statement; as if heedless without a direct order. I turned to follow her gaze, and peered into his eyes, questioningly.
He smiled, "I know that you're not even close to giving up. You might have forgotten what you came out to this forest for, but let me give you a reminder!" and he slapped his hand against the broad side of my back, spreading the salve across all the nooks and crannies that had been exposed to untold horrors beyond the bounds of sanitary lacerations.
I gritted my teeth, and puffed out my cheeks with air, as a meaty, growling cry threatened to escape from my throat. The pain—the intolerable, unquenchable, blinding pain!—It was like nothing I have ever seen before, in my life. My hand grew to his thigh, and I ground, and I twisted my fingers into the flesh as my only recourse to endure the pain.
He grimaced, in a way that only served to broaden his smile, as he chuckled approvingly, and clasped my left arm with his free hand. "That's right. You're my foragin' wayfinder. Aren't you? Are you a junior wayfinder?!"
He circled his medicine-covered palm across the other assorted peaks and valleys in a way that made my whole body jerk, and spasm, involuntarily. I nodded, fervently, as tears streaked down my cheeks unwanted; and he smiled that broad smile back at me, so openly that I didn't even notice that I had started smiling.
I was grinning wildly, and shaking my head feverishly; because I knew he was right. I had forgotten whom I was. The forest had tried to take that from me, and the scalding embers of chemical burns on my back were the bracing flames that I needed to awaken my determination, and brand it into my soul anew, with a spoke of iron.
I was not an insignificant speck in the superorganism of The Stalks, but the biggest diving idiot that ever got spit out of my native glade. How could I ever feel small again, when I hung so large within the eyes of my best friend, Janius? He chuckled, and mercifully removed his hand.
"Yeah..." I choked, halfway between a sob, and a gasp. "I promised you that we would bring her back together, and I don't think this is nearly enough for me to give up, yet."
He leaned forward, and wiped the excess off on my left foot; saving me from whatever unsavory infection the mildew had planned on enacting on my defenseless little toesies.
"Diving right," He swore, locking eyes with Fimbs, before handing her the small tin of odious salve; and trusting her to figure out the rest. He gestured to the fire. "Now, eat something. We're gonna need your strength up, if you plan on guiding us through this insanity of a domain."
I nodded, grabbing a kebab, and digging in, while only managing to make a small handful of faces as she rubbed more burning paste into the open sores on my right foot. Janny immediately set about wrapping my torso in layer upon layer of bandages and gauze, until eventually he announced that the bleeding had completely stopped.
Fimbs had long, since, completely finished bandaging my feet, but she looked up from her task of holding my poncho close to the fire to dry, to smile at us both.
I smiled back, wiped my mouth, and stood up, proudly. "I'm ready."