We set off at once, despite every dendrite and axon begging me to slow, to rest, to catch my breath. I could not be more prepared to handle the challenges that lay ahead, and the powers that be would not be so kind as to wait for me to fully recover.
Rilah was out there... somewhere..... and I needed to be there when she was found, or I would never rest in the completeness of my will.
Janny helped me to my feet, and I would have been miserable about putting weight on my injuries, if I hadn't already been walking on them, myself for what felt like hours already.
My feet lanced with pain at every footstep, but the pain was much greatly diminished by the bindings that Janny had brought, and Fimbs was so kind as to apply for me. There was no hiding from agony, in the shadow of these trees.
Even though the poncho had been horribly rent by the mouth parts of that massive creature, I still felt very charmed by the warm embrace of its fabric, after it had been toasted by the fire.
Fimbs had already reignited her snuffed torch with the pit—now reduced to embers, as we responsibly extinguished all our open flames—and was looking to me with vapid, open eyes.
I sneered, thinking back to Rilah, again. I had no idea where we even were, and it was my job to direct the lot of us back towards her.
"Which direction did you guys come from?" I asked, hoping to narrow down the slightest hint of a trail. Fimbs pointed further up the hill, almost opposite the direction that I had come from.
I gasped, considering how sure I was that I would be swallowed up by the forest, only a few minutes before. "I guess I was always on the right track..." I mused, almost to myself; astonished at the fact that I would have still found my way back to her, despite everything.
"That's my little wayfinder!" Janny cheered, vigorously clasping me by the same shoulder again.
He grinned widely, and smirked at our third companion. "I told you, didn't I?! See—Look at her face!—She was so worried when you wandered off, but I told her, you'd be back! I told her all we had to do was sit tight, and eventually you'd be back. And sure enough, there you are! We'll never be lost, when you have you around!"
She simpered, a little embarrassed at her worrisome attitude, but whispered regardless, "It wasn't like that. I-I was... so scared, when you wandered off... I've never been this deep in the forest, before, so... you know."
I nodded. The forest place was a terrible place to be; for the inexperienced. She had every right to fear for her life, without any assurance that she would make it back to the sunlight, again.
Trembling, she stepped toward me, with tears in her eyes. "Why did you have to wander off?! I didn't think we'd ever see you again!"
I felt a flash of anger rise up in my neck, before it was quickly doused in a cold bed of shame. Janny started to speak up, to intermediate. "Hold on, Zoel, I think what she's trying to say was that you seemed pretty out of sorts when you wandered off.
"That gas did a pretty big number on the two of us, when you were away, and we only managed to stay safe because you warned us. We had each other, too, but it was mostly because you were here to prepare us for it that we pulled through. And we're all just kind of wondering... and a little amazed, too, how you could have managed to restrain yourself."
I held up my hand, to assuage his concern, before clarifying, with a nod. "No, she has a point. I shouldn't have wandered off, like that. It's one of the cardinal rules of the forest; you have to stick together. I was actually thinking the same thing, myself, when I was walking away, believe it or not. Since I was the one responsible for guiding the two of you, I believed I was smarter than you. The plant... used it against me." I looked her in the eye, and offered her my right arm. "I shouldn't have wandered off. I ought to know better than that, and I'm sorry."
Tearfully, she wrapped me up in a tight hug, that had me shouting with pain almost immediately. "Yeowch!" I shouted, the echoes densely populating the shadowed edges of the forest with unseen reflections.
She quickly jumped back, and reapplied her usual meek posture. "Oops! Sorry, I forgot..."
Janny chuckled, as I strolled and waved, and hopped around as was my only recourse when the pressure was applied to my freshly bandaged, open sores. I motioned back to her, comfortingly, as a way of signing that I was still okay.
"It's all right, I know you just got excited, and everything." I was sweating, and gasping for breath. Eager to walk it off, I suggested, "Why don't we uhh— Let's go- get started, huh?" already heading up in the direction that she had pointed out, before.
Janny was still snickering, as he filed, dutifully, behind me. Fimbs could only manage a mouse-like "I'm really sorry, Zoel... I'm usually more careful!" as she trailed behind him, with her folded hands closed around the torch.
The pain was already beginning to fade, as the motion carried us onward and upward. I looked back down at her, over my shoulder, and sighed. "I told you, it's fine. You're not gonna keep apologizing like this forever, are you?"
She shook her head, silently, and averted her gaze. I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. Hand me that torch, will you?" I felt oddly naked without the pitchfork in my hands. She handed it over, and I scampered up the meager incline.
Around the swell of the hill we were on, I leaned forward to scan the surroundings. It was rare to get any sort of vantage point in The Sunset, so I took every opportunity to take in as much information as possible; while we were still given the benefit of the high ground.
The torch's light caught a flash of a bright yellow and red patch about half a mile away. I gasped, "The caiman! It's just over there! Then that means..." and I scanned the foliage; mentally drawing a map of our general heading, in relationship to the place I had lost Rilah.
We were almost there!