The Changelings Part 15

"The best way to get to the waypoint of the Gar, located at the High River, be to go that direction for seventy-two oaks and fifteen maples, making sure to continue in a south-westerly direction." He finished with a self-satisfied grin on his face and a sharp nod of affirmation.

"Please allow me to correct me mate Gander's directions just a wee bit so that ye will successfully reach yer destination. Ye must, in fact, go only sixty-one oaks, and fourteen maples, followed by six birch saplings, of course in a south-south west direction. Then fer certain, ye will be at the waypoint of the Gar."

Gander got a grumpy look on his face and turned to look crossly at Gilly. "Dear Gilly, ye know ye be hopelessly incorrect, as usual. Ye know direction is not yer strong suit. Now, if one needs to find a hidden tulip bulb, lost in the Spring frost, or the bones of a woodchuck, then yer the one to call fer certain. But when it comes to finding one's way in the Green Forest, I'm the gnome all the Gar can depend on." He jabbed himself in the chest with his tiny, stubby thumb.

Gilly rounded on Gander with her next volley of arguments against his sense of direction, raising her finger to wag it in his face.

Deciding we didn't need to stick around for this lover's quarrel, I said, "Tony, I think it's time we got the h.e.l.l out of here."

"I agree. Can you get your map?"

Gilly, in her excitement, had dropped it. It was lying on the ground a few feet away from her. I sidestepped over, bending down slowly to pick it up. I walked backwards towards Tony. He took my arm to guide me and we slowly moved away from the gnomes. They looked harmless enough, but their teeth were sharp and dirty and I know for sure I'd want to vomit if either one of them touched me with their creepy, lumpy hands. As soon as we were out of sight of the gnomes, we took off jogging.

"Are we following their directions?" I asked, breathlessly.

"Yes. They both said southwest-ish, so that's the way I'm going."

"How do you know?"

"I don't. I'm going the way they pointed."

I didn't count, but I was willing to bet that as we arrived at the waypoint of the Gar, we had pa.s.sed about sixty-one oaks and a couple of maples. Those two gnomes made a good couple.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

The waypoint of the Gar rose up out of the ground in front of us. It was an obelisk landmark of granite or some other heavy-looking gray stone, topped with a metal spike that looked like it was made of bra.s.s. It couldn't be bra.s.s though, I decided, because it was so s.h.i.+ny. Real bra.s.s would have been dark and weathered, being exposed to the elements like this one was. At my dad's house, the one he lived in with my stepmother, he had a bra.s.s bell outside the front door. My a.n.a.l, OCD stepmother would polish it every Sunday to keep it looking perfect, because if she missed a week it would start to turn a funky, mottled brown.

The waypoint was in the center of a small clearing. Where the forest had been full of the sounds of birdcalls, and bird flight, leaves rustling and wind blowing a the s.p.a.ce surrounding the waypoint was totally silent. It didn't feel right talking out loud when we arrived, so I started whispering.

"We made it, Tones!"

"Yes, we did." He grabbed me in a side hug around my shoulders.

"Hand me one of your flags," I said, reaching into my bag to grab one of mine.

Tony gave me one of his green ones.

We walked up to the obelisk together, looking for a place to tie our flags a one green and one purple. The entire surface was smooth and s.h.i.+ny. There was nothing to tie the flags to that I could see.

"Where are we supposed to put these friggin' things?" I asked, looking around.

Tony didn't say anything ... he just pointed.

Above my head and on the side of the obelisk facing away from me was a thick iron ring sticking out. It was rusted, and some of the mottled orange color had moved to the stone where the ring was embedded. It looked really, really old. Attached to the ring were the tattered remains of two flags a one yellow and one pink. Pink wasn't a.s.signed to anyone in our group, but yellow was. Yellow was Jared's color. But these flags looked like they'd been there for a while a faded from the sun and s.h.a.ggy, their woven threads beginning to unravel.

"Tony," I asked in hushed tones, "do you see what I see?"

"Two flags. Old ones from the looks of it."

"Yeah, but did you notice the colors?"

"Pink and yellow. So?"

"So yellow is Jared's color. And these have been here a while."

"Just because it's yellow doesn't mean Jared put it there."

"But what if Jared has been here before? And this is from another test he did ...earlier?"

"Jayne, you're being paranoid. We went over to that table with Niles and picked up bags randomly. I could have just as easily grabbed the yellow flags as the green ones."

"Yeah, but isn't it strange that you, Tony Green, got green flags, and I got my favorite color, purple? Don't you find that pretty coincidental? Plus with all of Jared's weirdness going on and ... "

"Enough, Jayne. You're starting to scare me with your conspiracy theories. And I don't mean 'scare me' as in I'm starting to believe you a I mean 'scare me' as in I'm starting to doubt your sanity. Just let it go, okay?"

I could tell he was irritated with me, so I dropped it. But only for now. I was still going to be figuring this out and watching for signs of Jared's previous partic.i.p.ation.

I slowly reached up and tied our flags to the pole, touching the others gently with my fingertips as my hand came back down. I wondered who had put the pink flag there, and where he or she was now. I sent up a silent prayer that this mystery person was still alive and happily drinking hot chocolate in front of a crackling fire at home with a mom, dad, and a family pet.

Tony interrupted my nonsensical daydream with, "I guess at the very least, this means we're not the first ones here. This isn't the first test they've had, I mean."

"I guess not."

"I wonder where the flag owners are now."

"Stop reading my mind, Tony."

"I wasn't!" he said, a little guiltily.

I shot him a look.

"Okay, fine, I was feeling you a little."

" 'Feeling' me sounds a little weird, don't you think?"

"Okay, I was vibing you then."

"Vibing me. Okay, well, stop vibing me."

"I would if I could, believe me."

"Yes, I know, you've already told me how nutty it is in there a in my head."

"Not nutty, that's not the right word. It's just ... intense. Sometimes I just can't keep up and I get a little lost. Anyone watching me probably thinks I'm having a major brain fart or something."

I laughed, reaching over to hug him tight. "Tony, thank you for saying brain fart. That really brought me down to earth."

He smiled. "Down here on Earth where there are vampires and gnomes, you mean?"

"s.h.i.+t, don't remind me." I pulled my map out of my bag again. "Tell me where we need to go next, would ya?"

We looked over the map together. The next waypoint was directly south of this one. The color on the map was a slightly darker green through the area where we had to travel, so we a.s.sumed that meant the forest would be thicker. That seemed hardly possible. I wondered if the trees there gave hugs.

"What?" asked Tony.

"What, what?"

"What were you just thinking about?"

"Why?"

"I was accidentally vibing you ... sorry. It's just that I was feeling something like when you and Becky were messing around in the forest earlier."

I smacked Tony on the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"For saying I was messing around with Becky. We were peeing, that's all."

"Well, then you get way too much pleasure out of peeing with another girl." He ducked, moving his head out of my reach and wagging his finger at me. "No hitting!"

"If you keep hinting around that I'm hot for Becky I'm gonna do more than hit you, brain fart boy."

"Well, tell me what that vibe was all about, then. You seemed so happy and excited."

I gave him a warning look.

"Not excited in a s.e.xual way a just really happy."

I sighed. I didn't like keeping secrets from Tony; and it wasn't like I was intentionally not telling him. It just seemed too weird to talk about. I decided that it would just be better to show him.

"Come on, follow me."

"Why won't you tell me?"

"I'm going to show you, not tell you. It will be better that way."

Tony got a gleam in his eye. "Are we going to play doctor?" He jumped out of the way before I could smack him again. "Missed me!"

I shook my head. "What's gotten into you, Tony? You're not normally this hyper."

"I don't know. The joy of being alive, I guess. Where are we going, anyway?"

"Just farther into the trees."

We got away from the clearing and the trees began to get bigger. They were close together too, blocking out most of the sun. A little light filtered through, but not much.

I stopped, surveying the area around us. "Pick a tree."

"Pick a tree? What, are we going to pee together?"

I sighed. "Just say that one more time and see what happens."

"Okay, okay, fine." Tony looked around. "Should I pick something special, like a certain kind of tree?"

"I don't think so. Just pick one and we'll see."

"That one." Tony was pointing to a giant reddish brown tree. It was nearly twice as big as the first one Becky and I had touched.

I looked at its base and then slowly ran my eyes up to the top of it. I actually couldn't see it very well, since it was so obscured by its own branches and those of the nearby trees. I walked over, urging Tony to come with me. "Come on, we have to touch the tree."

I arrived at the trunk and put my feet on either side of a huge root that was running from the tree quite a distance across the forest floor. "Stand here next to me and put your arms out, towards the tree."

Tony didn't say anything a he just stepped up to the tree and stood where I told him to, putting his arms out in front of him. I loved that he just followed my directions without question. It showed me how much he trusted me, even when I was being weird. That said a lot about our friends.h.i.+p.

"Now, put your arms out to the side, like this. We're going to hug the tree."

Tony looked at me like I was crazy. "Hug the tree? That's what this is all about?"

"Shut up and hug the d.a.m.n tree, Tony. Maybe in a second it will all make sense."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Here goes nothin'." He leaned towards the tree, steadying himself with his hands and then stretching his arms out to lay them horizontally against the bark. "Now what?"

"Just wait a second." I put my hands out to steady myself against the trunk, getting ready to lay my body against it. Already I could feel the energy, with only my hands touching. "Yeah, I think this is going to work."

"What's going to work? Come on, Jayne, I feel stupid standing here like this."

I leaned into the tree, moving my arms out laterally into hugging position. I stretched out my right arm so it rested on top of Tony's while also touching the tree. I had my face purposely turned towards Tony's so I could see his reaction.

His face instantly lit up as soon as we touched. "What the h.e.l.l ... ?"

I smiled. "This is what Becky and I were doing in the forest."

Tony closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. "My G.o.d, the feelings ... Can you feel that? It's ... it's ... unbelievable."

"I know." There was nothing else to say. This tree was ancient. I didn't have to see its size to know this. It had been here a very, very long time. There was a sense of peace, a deep understanding, flowing through our connection. Strength. A certain knowledge that whatever was happening right now was just a moment of time in an infinite amount of time. Years, centuries, eons would come and go a and this tree would still be here, standing sentinel. Wars would be fought and won or lost, and this tree would still be here. Silently. Waiting and watching.

Through this connection, I was able to realize for the first time that everything in this forest was linked. The trees were connected to each other, to the land, to the things that walked the forest floor and flew through the forest air. The memories were all still here. I couldn't see them like pictures; I only got the sense that anything that happened here, stayed here as shadows. And there were lots of shadows in this forest.

Something was niggling the back of my mind. Something was there, wanting me to pay attention. But then Tony began speaking and I lost it.