Umbrage

Ian sighed and tried once again to wipe the sweat from his forehead, though at this point he knew that he should just accept the heat and bare with it. He was a large young man, tall for his age and his face was harsh and uninviting. His eyes were pinched shut, his dark hair dripping down his face. The sun beat onto him trying to punish him for something, it was abusive and unrelenting.

The sky was cloudless and a void of the same empty shade of blue. Rain was a dream and had been for weeks. Upon opening his eyes the glaring orb of fire was shocking to Ian’s eyes

“So hot. Why is it so hot?” Ian asked himself feeling a familiar frustration return to him. Once again he was on the verge of becoming hysterical, and yet he didn’t have the energy or willpower left in him to do anything but sit where he was on the sidewalk, concrete so hot underneath his jeans Ian half wondered if they would soon ignite. “Oh! Today is so hot!” he shouted again, resenting the sun as his tormentor. But then he started laughing, so appalled it was verging on funny.

“I’m sure Tom will be here soon.” Ian’s sister said, standing behind where he sat. Her name was Ren, and like always she stood almost completely motionless, composed even though like her brother her dark hair was a mess, flat and soaked with sweat.

She wore a long sleeved sweater with a strange striped design, it’s fabric clung to the skin on her arms and back. “Do you want some of my water?” She offered him.

“How is it you not aren’t hot?” Ian was scowling angrily at Ren and then back at the sun before uttering another short breathless sound.

“Oh, yes, I am. Actually, It’s very hot out right now. That’s summer for you, I guess.” Ren giggled, her voice extremely calm with a soft and wisp-like quality. Her serenity deeply disturbed her brother.

“Stop talking like an old woman, your still just a kid. And you’re a crybaby.” Ian grumbled though he was only fourteen himself, two years older than his sister, and he was known to cry much more often than she ever did, “I meant that sweater, I told you it was stupid to wear that thing. It must be like a hundred out here. Over a hundred, I bet! And it doesn’t even fit you right.”

Ren looked down at the garb, the red and orange stripes that reminded her of the sunset, a nostalgic smell still lingered in the fabric, “but I like this sweater. Besides, it was mom’s.” She said, but her brother wasn’t listening, he continued to moan to himself.

“How are you not dying of heat stroke? I’m going to die of heat stroke! How long is Tom going to make us wait out here? Where the hell is he anyway!?”

Ren continued to look fondly at her wonderful sweater, but when she noticed a small rip on her right shoulder she felt her lips tighten, her face became noticeably less cheerful.

Ian could see his sisters distress in the corners of his eye and felt a clenching grow in his jaw and fists. “Your sweater got ripped?” Ian asked, though he was more worried about the scrapes on her knees. The asphalt really did a number on her skin.

“I can sew it back, I bet. It’s not so bad.” Ren said trying to reassure her brother with a very gentle smile.

Ian said nothing, his throat felt choked with anger. His fists ached and his fresh wound cracking as the broken skin around his knuckles stretched.

“I’m ok. Really.” Ren told Ian, reading his face.

“Good.” Ian could just barely contain himself, he felt his vengeance was still vastly unsatisfied.

“Unforgivable little monsters.” Ian spat, “to gang up like that on a little girl. It’s sick.”

“Oh, I’m sure they had they’re reasons. They didn’t believe I had seen a talking bird, and for some reason I made a lot of the other girls angry. It’s like a misunderstanding. How silly.” Ren giggled again.

“So they beat the crap out of you because they don’t get your joke? Give me a break, I’ve got something to give each and every one of those vicious little cowards.” Ian felt his fist clench again, a stream of fluid now ran down his fingers. “I’m so hot!”

“It’s not a joke you know. I really did see a talking bird the other day.” Ren said quite seriously.

“And?”

“And what?”

“And, whats the rest of the joke?”

“Oh, thats all. I saw a talking bird. Pretty interesting don’t you think?”

Ian thought for a moment, “Ren, that joke sucks. There’s no punchline.”

“I told you, it’s not a joke.”

“Oh my god, I can’t take it anymore! Ren, I’m loosing my mind out here. Where is tom?!”

“Do you want to go back inside?” Ren asked turning around towards the wooden double doors of the towns only police station.

“No.”

“Are you sure?” Ren asked, but just then she noticed a car turning onto their road and coming closer.

“Is that him? Oh god, please sweet salvation!” Ian said squinting in the sun. When the car came closer it did not slow down and was not the color of their algae green SUV. When it passed them by Ren did not recognize the driver.

“I’m sure he’s almost here.” Ren said again in the same positive sounding tone.

“Yeah, I bet that jerk hasn’t even left yet.” Ian grumbled.

“Don’t say that. I’m sure theres a reason for him being late.”

Ian sat back down on the sidewalk, but jumped up immediately after like the concrete had burnt him. “You know what? Screw this!” he looked at Ren and his dark eyes were gleaming with mischievousness. “Let’s get out of here Ren, we’ll walk home ourselves.”

“What? Ian I don’t think…” But he had already begun walking, a fierce determination burning in his eyes. Ren followed but she had to practically run after him to keep up with her brothers fast pace on her much shorter legs.

“It’s not that far away. I’m not afraid of a little walking.” Ian wiped his forehead.

“Are you sure you don’t just want to wait? What if Tom comes and we aren’t there anymore?” Ren asked breathless and a little worried.

“It would serve him right!” He clenched his hand into a fist and relaxed it over and over, like he was trying to grab something out of thin air.

Their house wasn’t actually too far away from where they were, the town they lived in was small to begin with. They could walk across the whole of it in an hour or two, though in this heat walking one tenth of a mile may as well be a journey through the barren desert.

Quickly Ian’s vigor faded about after a mile or so, and he began wishing that he was still sitting on the sidewalk in front of the police station.

The next mile his exhaustion degraded into despair, the hot glare from the sun was inescapable and cruel.

“Oh, there’s our neighbors street.” Ren pointed out as they walked through the expanse of suburb that grew around the far south side of town. They were close now, an hour and a half after they had first started off on their walk.

Ren led the way, looking back every now and then at the hunched form of her brother. Ian stumbled along panting and moaning occasionally, his skin sticky looking and a burnt beet red.

Ian looked up at the green street sign with some semblance of recognition, “uhhhh, hot. God, so hot. I can’t take it.”

“It’s just a little farther Ian. You can do it!” Ren cheered, skipping to the end of the street. “Look! I can see the minivan! We’re here!”

“The minivan?” Ian said suddenly full of his usual vigor, “so he really didn’t leave after all! What the hell!” His expression was infuriated, even redder now he started to turn purple.

“He could have just gotten back from looking for us.” Ren said.

“I doubt it.” Ian said stomping towards their house.

Out of all the houses on their street, theirs stood out like an enraged howler monkey. It had been painted years ago in the most vibrant colors their mother could pick out, bold pumpkin orange for the walls, a violent shade of pastel blue for the shutters, a large golden sunflower was painted on the door. The paint had faded a few shades now, and the overgrown lawn had dried out and turned into a deep brown under the heat of the summer.

Ian walked up to door and threw it open with a grand impetuousness, his chest puffed out and intimidating. Ren closed the door after him as he kicked off his shoes.

“Ohhh, god. It fe-els-s s-so-o go-od.” Ian basked in the glory that was air conditioning, his previous anger dissolved away like a sandcastle in the rising tide. Ren took her own shoes off and nearly tripped over Ian’s. It was dark in the house, after closing the door both Ren and Ian blinked wildly, sunspot still burning their vision in the dark.

“Whoa, it’s so dark in here.” Ian said groping at the walls for the light switch.

“Dad?” Ren called into the dark house, wondering where her father was. The house felt cold and unlived in. She could see a light coming from around the corner, from underneath the door to the kitchen.

Ian found the light and flung himself onto the fluffy white couch, and used a remote to turn the television on in front of him, the room was immediately filled with a laugh from some sitcom and then chops of random stations as Ian flicked through the channels.

Ren continued on to where she had seen the light, determined to find her father. There were faint noises coming from behind the door, banging and clanking and a sizzling sound, and also the song of someone humming loudly and very out of tune. Ren opened the door in a careful unceremonious way, her eyes taking in the scene of the entire kitchen all at once.

Tom stood with his back to his daughter, his attention on the stove in front of him, the kitchen counters all around him were a mess off dirty bowls and plates and utensils. Her father wore a white bathrobe that was tied around the waist. His hair was dark like Ren’s but was much lighter now, and streaked with speckled grey. He did not hear Ren when she came in, nor when she called his name because he was wearing a pair of over-ear headphones, blasting some music to which he sang along in his own shamelessly out of tune variation. He was stirring at pan of what looked to be scrambled eggs. When Ren got close enough for Tom could see the girl in his peripheral vision he turned his head to look at her, jumping with surprise when he finally processed that Ren was standing right next to him, spilling much of the egg that he was cooking onto the floor.

“Holy, god! Ren? Oh, you almost gave a heart attack.” Tom said staring at his daughter.

“Hi Dad, we just got home.” Ren said rushing to Tom and throwing her arms around him.

“Hi sweetheart.” Tom said returning the embrace, “oh, you’re so sweaty!”

“Of course we are.” Ian said, standing in the doorway. “We had to walk all the way from the other side of town. Weren’t you going to pick us up? We waited for hours!”

“Oh hi Ian, that’s right, someone called a while ago. What time is it? Oh god! wow, where does the time fly? One minute I was cleaning the basement again and… well, I lost track of time I guess.” He said.

“You lost track of time? That’s a crappy excuse.” Ian was still fuming.

“Haha, your mother used to tell me that all the time. Did you two really walk all the way here?” Tom asked turning back towards Ren.

“Uh huh.” Ren nodded.

“Well I guess it’s a good day as any for a walk. Kids should play outside after all.”

“It’s like a hundred degrees! We nearly died of heat stroke! Don’t you care about our health?”

“Oh, honey, what happened to your knees?” Tom asked noticing the fresh wounds scabbing over on Ren’s legs.

“That’s nothing much. But…” her eyes fell as she showed him the rip in her sweater sleeve.

“It’s ok, honey, we can fix that easily. Go change and just leave it on the counter.”

“I keep telling her she shouldn’t wear that, it’s too hot out too wear a sweater. Especially if we have to walk for miles under the sun!”

Ren looked at her fathers head phones, “Papa, can I listen too?”

“Oh, you want to? This one’s my favorite. Your mom really knew how to play, that’s for sure. I can’t seem to stop myself from listening to her all day!” Tom said, tugging on the cord, detaching it from the Mp3 player. A smooth music poured from it, rolling cords played from an Acoustic guitar filled the room like a thick gas, Ian could smell the perfume of the artist playing. A woman’s voice joined, one as sweet and thick as a jar of honey. She sang no words, just hummed with her voice as a simple and beautiful instrument, church bells over the chords of a guitar.

Tom and Ren danced and sang along joyfully with the song. Ren spinning slowly in place, waving her arms above her head in a ridiculous fashion, Tom clapping along to the guitars rhythm.

In an instant Ian felt sick to his stomach, his heart began to ache unbearably, and he could not bear to watch them any longer, the songs sweetness suddenly turned flat and horribly sad in his ears. He turned to flee from the room, but his fathers voice stopped him.

“Hey, I’m making some eggs? Do you want some?” Tom asked very casually.

Ian looked at his father for a few seconds, “I’m not hungry. I just want to watch some TV.”

“Well go take a shower first, I don’t want you getting sweat all over the couch.”

“Mmmmh.” Ian grumbled, walking further into the house where his room was located.

“How about you sweet heart?”

Ren danced slowly to the fridge, still captured by the music. When the song finally faded out she turned to the fridge, “Can I have some orange juice?”

“Heck yeah you can, I’ll have some too.” Tom said getting two glasses. He poured two uneven glasses and generously gave Ren the fuller one, filling the rest of his glass with some fancy bottled water that he kept in the cupboard above the fridge. Tom always said a little of that water made everything taste better, but he never shared with his children.

Ren sipped on her glass and sat at the kitchen table, Tom drank his in two gulps and resumed the task of cracking eggs into the metal pan. Later Ren found Ian sitting once again on the couch, flipping through channels even though he had his eyes closed.

“Do you want to go to the forest tomorrow? We could look for that little bird.” Ren asked her brother almost desperately.

“No, it’s too hot. I don’t want to go outside at all.” Ian kept his eye closed.

“It’s much cooler in the forests, you know. Theres always such a nice breeze, and theirs the creek. We could go swimming too!” Ren said already getting excited.

“Mmmm.” The more Ian thought about it the more it sounded like a good way to spend a hot day, and he didn’t feel like staying indoors. He could hear his father’s crappy singing again muffled through the door to the kitchen. “Yeah, Ok fine, you win, lets go.”

Ren’s face was ecstatic, Ian couldn’t help but smile back when he saw his sister’s bursting excitement.

“Really?!” Ren beamed, “We should go pretty early. Yes, the earlier the better. Squeeze the whole day out of it.”

“Well not too early ok. I need my beauty sleep.” Ian said and yawned.

“Ok, I’ll get you up in the morning then…” Ren said and hesitated. Behind where her brother was sitting was a small quarter sized spider, crawling quickly across the living room wall.

“What?” Ian said, following Ren’s gaze and spinning around. “Ah! The son of a bitch!” Ian yelled, jumping up and running to the door to retrieve his shoe.

Ren had anticipated this response, Ian absolutely hated anything that he felt was creepy or crawly. Up until about a year ago he would scream and run from any room that a moth had been sighted in. Now that he was older he took a more proactive approach.

“Take this, you little bastard.” Ian said, returning with his sneaker and slapping it against the wall, Ren flinched at the loud clap that it produced. The spider died instantly, its body mashed against the wall. Ren had hoped to avoid such a fate for the creature. Ian sat back down on the couch and sighed.

Ren jumped up and rushed towards her room, stopping suddenly and turning back towards Ian, “I’m going to get my things ready, I’ll see you in the morning.”

The sun was rising when Ren forced Ian from his bed.

As Ian and his sister began walking down the street that their house was on, Ian was still yawning and eyeing Ren’s sweater “are you sure you won’t be hot in that?” Ian asked with a somewhat sour face, “I’m telling you, it’s going to get hotter. You’ll be sorry when it does.”

“It is much cooler in the woods, and look, Dad fixed my sleeve even!” Ren turned showing off her right shoulder and the crooked pink stitches where her father had mended the fabric back together.

“Hm! Oh, That’s real nice, good work. So where is it we are going?”

“At the lake.” Ren said running ahead, of the last house on the street she and her family lived, where the pavement ended with a crude abrupt cul-du-sac.

“All the way up there?” Ian yawned in a somehow incredulous manner.

“Oh, we are almost there. Look, I can see the fence. Can you see it?”

The fence was the entrance into the forest, the abrupt end to civilization and the beginning of the path into the den of verdant life and thick scents of maple and pine. The fence served as a frail guardIan against this explosion of wild and free, and it was easy enough to climb, barely taller than Ian’s head, and Ren’s feet fit perfectly into the chain links. When Ian was finally over Ren had already begun running in to the trees laughing and waving her arms like a lunatic.

“Ah! Oh! It’s so nice!”

“Calm down, you’ll wear yourself out already.” Ian warned, smiling as he watched, the nature was undeniably intoxicating. Together they had found their usual route to the hidden lake, and begun their hike up the landscape of rises and falls at an excited and urgent pace.

“Oh, look, that nice stream.” Ren pointed out. “And that tree, ohh so big!”

“Come on! We see those every time. Now hurry up, I want to get to the lake.” Ian said pressing onward up the trail.

“Oh, wait for me.”

“Too slow!”

Ian’s legs were longer than Ren’s, as was his endurance. He easily outpaced his sister. By the time Ren had finally caught up with her brother she was approaching the very the end of the trail, where he seemed to be sleeping on a large white rock, completely exposed by the early sun. Behind him stretched a portrait-like scene, a small expanse of the small glacier lake, it’s water placid and blue, untouched by the calm breezy drifting through the dense green tree line, and the lake reflected the sky.

“Jeez, you came all this way without me.” Ren climbed onto the rock to enjoy the incredible view point. “Ian. Are you sleeping?… Ian?”

Ren laughed when Ian did not wake up, he was always a heavy sleeper, and he never had trouble falling asleep no matter where he laid down. Ren figured that she would get an early start with her search for the bird and let Ian continue sleeping.

It was a good hour before Ian woke up at last with the sun shining brightly in his eyes, his face was burnt and stinging. The sun was directly above him and his rock bed had become hot enough to make Ian’s back sweat drenched and uncomfortable. When he had first lain down the sun had been just above the tree line, Ian sat up looking around, the slant of the sunlight glared in his sleep heavy eyes. It was a nice dreamless nap, Ian felt rested and his internal clock warned him that up to an hour had already gone by.

Ian looked from side to side, scanning the trees for traces of Ren, to which he found none. The rest of the sleep left him, and a feeling of anxiety replace every thought in his head. Sure Ren was a slow poke, but she should have made it to the lake by this point.

“Ren?” Ian called, hearing his voice echo back at him from across the lake. The effect over the water was amplifying, so he yelled even louder, “Ren!”

“Ian!” He heard his sister call back from somewhere around the lake.

“Oh, where are you?” Ian breathed a great relief.

“Hold on, I’ll go back over there.” Minutes later Ren was climbing back onto the rock. “Hey. Your finally up.”

“You could have waken me.” Ian said with a hint of guilt in his voice.

Ren giggled, “You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”

“What were you doing?”

“Looking for the talking bird.” Ren explained as if that would have been obvious.

“Oh. That again?” Ian said laying back again with a yawn.

“I could have sworn I saw him over there, you see that big tree?” Ren pointed across the lake, at a large dead tree distinctive by the how stark white it’s wood contrasted with the surrounding life.

“Mhmm.” Ian hummed without opening his eyes.

“I’m going to keep checking. You want to help me?”

“We’d probably scare it off if we’re too obviously looking for it. I’ll Stay here on this rock, and keep a look out if it comes over here.”

“Oh, good idea. Ok if I see it, ill just whistle ok? and you can rush over, right?”

“Uh, huh. You got it. What’s it look like anyway?”

Ren thought for a moment, forming the image of the bird in her mind. “Well, it’s small, and it had very pretty green and orange feathers.”

“Got it. I let you know if I see it.” Ian yawned again.

“Ok, keep your eyes peeled!” Ren climbed down back onto the path around the lake, “Don’t fall asleep!”

“Mmm.”

Once Ren was in the pathless wild of the forest, she could not remember where that it was she had seen that giant white tree or how she had found it the first time. She could point it out so easily on the other side of the lake, but the under growth became thick and challenging to move through, and nothing in that part of the forest had anything seemed particularly familiar. She crossed a large stream using the trunk of a fallen log and had to take quite a complex detour to avoid a large field of poison ivy that grew up to her chest.

Finally she looked up and there it was, the tree she was looking in all its great ivory whiteness frame by a window through the undergrowth and saplings.

As Ren found her way over to the ancient dead gIant she had to crawl over a rocky outcropping and wade through invigoratingly cold lake water, the tree was submerged by a few feet of the lake, as if it had sunk into the water over time. It’s trunk was smooth and bark-less, when Ren stared for long enough it’s sprawling branches seemed to squirm and wriggle around like the tentacles of a squid.

Ren could see Ian like a ant on the large rock across the lake, but when she called to him he didn’t seem to stir. She could remember where she had seen the bird the first time with a somewhat lucid clarity. It had been sitting on a branch of the great white tree, staring down right at her. She was standing right where she was now, but the little bird was no where at all to be found.

If only it had stayed around a little longer that first time. She could have asked where it lived, asked if it would have been alright to bring Ian over for a visit. Ren wondered what a birds house would exactly be like. A colorful little hut with a round wooden door, maybe tiny shingles made from bits of acorn shells. Something fay and full of a little girl’s whimsy. It would probably be much too small for her in any case.

The branches of the tree were a moving optical illusion in her peripheral vision. Ren continued to stare at where the bird had been, but there was not as much as a feather for a clue. She heard a faint buzzing, the sound of a bee hive somewhere. Ren had seen one before in the area around the lake, many times they would hollow out and occupy fallen logs. Ren went back to the shore and leaned against a broken tree, and stared disheartened into the endless chaos that was the forest. She had no clue where to begin searching, a small bird could be anywhere, up in a tree so tall Ren wouldn’t even be able to see the top. She had really hoped it would be conveniently where she had seen it last time. Without any other clue Ren was looking for a needle in a haystack, only instead of a needle it was just another piece of hay, indistinguishable but for the fact that it occasionally talked.

As the futility of her search set in, Ren became distracted by how the sun was casting her shadow on the ground, her slightly elongated form mimicking her every gestures and movement. The great tree behind her was also casting and umbrage over the ground, it’s shadowy branches slithering through the thin shore of water, on to and over the rocks, a great bunch of black transparent snakes tied together on one end. Her eyes were carried by the lines to a particular shady rock where a little creature was standing and staring right at her, a pair of beady eyes set into a small body covered with vibrant green and yellow feathers.

Ren squinted at the bird for a moment, then she blinked and rubbed her eyes, and when she looked again the bird was indeed still sitting right there on the rocks next to her. She could even see the streaks of orange on it’s wing tips and on the very edge of it’s tail feathers. On top of that Ren was sure the bird was staring directly at her with more concentration than ordinary birds would ever care to give. Still she jumped with surprise when it uttered, “What the heck are you looking at?” in a high pitched almost chirping voice.

“Oh it’s you!” Ren burst out so excitedly she nearly screamed out the words. She couldn’t believe her luck!

“So what? Why are you being so noisy?” The bird chirped.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just so surprised. I’ve been looking for you all day.” Ren tried to calm her demeanor.

“You were looking for me?” the bird tilted it’s head with suspicion.

“Yes, don’t you remember me? You were right there the other day.” Ren pointed to the branch where she had seen it.

“Yeah I remember. So what do you want, human?”

“Well, no one believed I had seen a talking bird.” Ren said as if that was a perfectly fine reason to go seek him out again.

“Well of course not, you little dummy. Why would they believe something like that?” the bird chirped a short squeak of a laugh.

“But you are a talking bird, your right here!”

“So what? It’s just you again. You think people will believe you now that you’ve seen a talking bird twice? What’s the difference? Unless you’re planning on capturing me.”

“No! I wouldn’t do something like that… I was just, well, curious I guess.”

“Curious?” the bird chirped and opened its green feathered wings and flapped over one rock closer and stared at her with its tiny black eyes. “Curious of what?”

“Well, like, where do you live?”

“You want to know where I live?” The bird laughed. “I bet you wouldn’t think so if you saw it.”

“Or like, how did you learn how to talk?”

“The same way you did.”

“Or what do you do for fun?” Ren pressed getting excited again, a little breathless.

“Well I’m a bird, so I fly quite a bit, which is pretty nice.”

“Oh I bet!” Ren said clapping her hands very impressed.

“Would you like to see where I live?” The bird asked, seeming to have warmed up to the idea.

“Can I?!”

“Sure I guess, if your so curious about it.”

“Oh yes, what’s it like? Oh I’d love to see.” Ren nodded again and again, quite beside herself with how wondrous the day had turned out.

“Ok, follow me then. You better keep up or you’ll get lost!” the bird said with a beating of its wings, taking flight through the thicket of evergreens ahead.

Ren started to follow but stopped in her tracks.

“Ian!” she ran back to the shore of the lake, sure enough Ian was still laying where he had been all day. Ren put her fingers in her mouth and whistled as loud as she could, the pitch screeching over the water. She then yelled at the top of her lungs, “Ian, I found it! Ian hurry we’re going to loose it! Ian! Oh, I’m going ahead, I’m going to see where it lives, hurry and catch up!” and then she rushed into the trees where the bird had gone. Immediately Ren spotted the bird perched on another branch not too far in.

“You sure are slow.” It chirped down at her.

“Sorry, I had to tell my brother. I hope you don’t mind if he comes too.” Ren said panting.

“He’ll have to catch up.” The bird said taking wing again.

“Oh!” Ren chased after it in a relentless sprint, stumbling frequently over branches and roots, encumbered greatly by having to climb over the great amount of fallen logs that the bird flew right over.

“Slowpoke!” the bird taunted, waiting for her again after some time.

“If I could fly, I would be much faster.” Ren said stopping for a moment to catch her breath.

“Too bad you can’t. You should have been born a bird.”

The bird led Ren to the entrance of a large cave, sloping down into the earth.

“You live in here?” Ren asked incredulous, staring deep into the cave, feeling a deep sort of dread when she looked into it.

“Yeah. Don’t be rude, it’s nicer than it looks on the outside. Just on the other side of this cave, It’s only dark for a little while.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you or anything, I’ve never seen a bird who live’s in a cave before.” Ren climbed onto her hands and knees to get a better look inside.

“I bet you’ve never seen a lot of things. Better stop getting so surprised every time.” The bird swooped over Ren’s head and disappeared into the cave. Ren worried she had insulted her new friend and didn’t want to seem reluctant to go inside, but right away the darkness made everything complicated.

She fell down twice in her efforts to climb into the cave, both times banging her knees and opening up her scabs, and she had lost one of her sneakers when her foot got stuck between two large unmoving rocks, and having only one shoe made her feel off balance so she took of her other one. She figured she would come back for it after she had seen how to get to the birds house, she didn’t mind going bare foot for the time being. The important thing was to not loose the bird, Ren could tell it was becoming annoyed by having to wait for her so many times.

“Come on! What are you waiting for?” the bird echoed from deep in the cave.

“I can’t see a thing.” Ren called after the bird. “I don’t want to get lost.”

“This cave only goes to one place. Stop being a sissy and walk. I told you it gets lighter once your inside.”

So Ren kept moving down into the cave, her eyes tearing up from blindness. She shivered, though she did not fear the dark, something pulsed through the walls of the cave, swirling in the darkness just beyond sight.

The floor of the cave was rocky, but not nearly as treacherous as Ren had imagined it would be. She lost her footing a few times but never actually fell with any force, and after a while her eyes were starting to adjust to the lack of light. She could tell that she was in the middle of a large very wide cavern. She could look up and see the large stalactites hanging down right above her head, and felt the cold drops of water running off of the tips.

“It’s only a little farther.” The bird echoes all around her, Ren felt herself loose her sense of direction but she continued onwards, courageous now that she was only half blind, and eventually started to notice a strange light coming from the cave ahead of her.

“Oh, you were right. How interesting!It does get lighter deeper in.” her voice echoed all all around.

The bird didn’t answer. The light grew as Ren walked closer to it, and Ren could tell that it was not regular sunlight as she had first thought. It was a strange shade of blue, and then light pink and after that sunflower yellow and forest green, then a mysterious indigo and a deep bloody red.

“Where could that light coming from? It’s beautiful.” Ren asked in awe, still the bird did not answer, “Hello? Mr. Bird? Am I going the right way?”

Ren continued closer to the light, drawn in by it’s shifting colors. As it grew brighter and brighter Ren had an uncontrollable curiosity at what it’s source could be. Light cast over the stalactites made the whole cave seem flat and cartoonish, something missing from what was otherwise wonderful. The stony formations seemed to wave around and dance in the light. She noticed her own shadow, standing on the ground behind her perfectly still, unfazed by the shifts in the light like the stones and spikes were, it was a perfect mirror of her hunched posture and swinging arms.

“Hello?” Ren asked, turning a corner where the light seemed to flood out from. She looked unnerved by the birds silence. Had she really been left behind for being too slow? Or maybe the little bird felt no need to answer because she was already so close to it’s home. Perhaps she would walk around the next corner and find him sitting at the entrance of a large green forest grotto, the little bird’s house sitting nicely in some large green magical tree, fairies flying around like fire flies. If talking birds lived in the world who knows what else there could be.

The light throbbed around her, the walls and ceiling pulsed with all the colors, blending them and becoming a solid white glow as Ren walked deeper, she did not even think about stopping now. She felt a humming in her ears and her stomach felt tight and nervous. She was beginning to feel claustrophobic and dizzy, the light was becoming far more blinding than the dark had been. Ren continued despite herself, her legs moving forward with a mind of their own.

She did not really realize when her foot stepped forward into open air, and only looked down in time to watch her other foot slide from the edge of the massive hole that was now in front of her.

Released from the ground she felt her stomach shoot into her throat, and she flailed her arms out of reflex with enough force to spin her around. Her hands hit the edge of the crevice with enough force to send a numb spike through her arms, but somehow her fingers managed to find enough traction on the ground. She felt her entire weight in her arms as the rest of her hung uselessly into the mouth of the massive hole.

“Ah, oh no! Mr. Bird! Mr. Bird! Oh, Ian! Help!” She only heard her own voice answer her, bouncing back off the walls all around. “Mr. Bird, Where are you? I fell into this hole…” Ren looked down and immediately regretted it, the chasm was an endless drop, and the harshest white light throbbed from it. She tried to pull herself up from the hole, but it was no use, her arms were simply too weak and she felt her fingers losing their already tenuous grip under the exertion.

“Mr. Bird! Ian!” her arms became numb, if only she could hold on until help arrived. Surely the bird must be wondering where his curious friend had gotten lost to, and Ian was sure to be right behind them.

Ren could imagine him appearing any second now to make fun of her for being so clumsy and to help her up with his usual ease. Then they would find the bird again, and see it’s wonderful house, then they would go home. These thoughts calmed Ren, and for a moment she felt optimistic. After all she had the hands of a veteran tree climber, she could hang on for as long as it took.

“Ian! Mr. Bird! Hello!” she kept calling, “Ian, please, Mr. Bird… OW!” a stab of pain ran through her fingers, and she gasped when she felt it again. It was unlike a cramp, more sharp and impactful. “Ow, oh, what is that?” when she looked up she saw the green and yellow feathers of the little bird, vibrant and odd and flat looking in the intense light. It was staring at her silently, it’s beady eyes unearthly and throbbing.

“Oh, finally you’re here!” Ren breathed relieved at last, “Please, Mr. Bird, go find my brother, he should be only a little bit behind us. He can help me up I’m sure, No problem at…”

“You don’t seem to get it yet. You stupid little girl.” The bird little beak fluttered open with each syllable.

“What, uh, do you mean? Please, go find my brother and we can follow you back to your house…”

“This is my house. Idiot. You are getting what you asked for. Aren’t you happy, stupid Human.” The bird said, ramming it’s little beak into one of Ren’s knuckles. She felt the shooting pain again, and saw a little red bead growing where the bird had pecked her. “Hurry up and fall down. I don’t have all day.” It struck again.

“Mr. Bird? I’ll get hurt.”

“Yes, you probably will, I don’t care about that.” The bird chortled, “break your neck for all I care.”

“…”

“Whats with that face? You going to cry?”

“Why are you doing this?” Ren’s fingers felt cold, bloodless, and her arms were numb and trembling. She could not hold on.

“Why?” the bird repeated, “same reason you came to find me, silly little human, I’m curious as to what will happen.” It sounded like it was laughing, and when it pecked again Ren didn’t even feel it. It was overkill anyway. Her hands were already letting go of the cliff, the pulsing light and vertigo swallowed her senses.

The light Ren fell toward was so bright she could not stand to keep her eyes open, her were eyelids clinched so hard they hurt under the strain. It was as if she were staring straight at the sun any way she tried to look, falling like a missile, feet first, tears flowing across her forehead and through her hair. After a horrible gut flipping moment, Ren felt her feet land on something not quite solid, and then felt as if she were diving into a huge mold of gelatin. When her head passed through, she felt to be under thick water, and then as quickly as she dived in she felt her feet explode from the other side, and once again she was falling but it was not as bright as it had been before.

Below was nothing but void. Ren had become used to the vertigo, and now she felt more as if she were flying through the air, her sweater billowing out and making her look fat and ridiculous. Below the darkness opened into more of the nothingness that it already was. She could think of nothing to alleviate her current situation as she could only fly in one direction.

She figured eventually she would hit some sort of ground, and that would stop her one way or another. She crossed her arms and resolved that she would just have to wait for that to happen and move on from there.

And then, out of the nothing, a world popped into existence around her.

She felt the ground materialize instantaneously and solid beneath her feet. At the same time the rushing wind of her descent fell dead silent, and she was standing completely alone in a freezing cold air and surrounded by absolute darkness.

Her lungs urged her to remember the act of breathing, and she startled herself by the sudden movement of the still air and the noise that her breath made. Her heart beat in her chest like a large drum, every muscle in her body gelatinized, her bones felt brittle and weak. In general she felt kind of crappy all over.

Upon testing, Ren found her legs still somewhat usable, though she hesitated, instead stood still like a rooted shrub.

If she decided to start wondering around, she might just get more lost, and it might make it harder for Ian and her father to find her. It didn’t seem like there was much to see wherever it was she had fallen into anyway, she was more likely to bash her knees on a rock than find a way out. So she sat down, seemed as good a place as any. The ground was soft and spongelike, a thick carpet beneath her bare feet.

Her eyes began to adjust, and she was beginning to discern shapes around her, tall and crooked asymmetrical figures, somewhat like a thin forest of trees. One very large star burned directly above her, and there was a thin hint of light in the distance, like the sun was almost about to rise up above the horizon.

This place is some hidden part of the forest, Ren thought, though not like any part she had seen before. Many of the trees where nothing more than it’s trunk, like a tall crooked pillar. Others were as thin as a pole and were branching endlessly. She would bet that her father would be immensely interested in a place like this.

Who would have guess that this place had been under them all along. Ren wondered if anyone had ever discovered this new environment, perhaps she was the first, she imagined herself as a pioneer in an untouched land. Ren thought it would be nice to draw up a map of the place, but she was never good at drawing.

Ren then felt very lonely, it was too quiet around her. Memories of her brother made it somehow darker looking around her, and as she started to mope she wondered what Ian was doing, how he would possibly be able to find her. She would have never found the cave if that bird hadn’t shown her the way. Ren looked at her scraped up hands, her fingers streaked with dry blood, painful bruises on a few of her knuckles.

Something then stirred in the murk, at least Ren felt like something had. The darkness seemed to swirl as a physical thing, making strange shapes and designs Ren knew were just tricks of her eye.

But then, Ren felt a light flick across the back of her neck, like a the wings of a large moth. Ren felt with her hand but there was nothing to be discovered, but instead she felt another flick across the back of her hand, as sure as sunshine. There must be a curious bug flying around her. She turned to see if she could see it despite the darkness, and she could only make out a little of its appearance.

It was certainly not a moth.

What she had felt on the back of her neck was actually a thin and fuzzy sort of tongue or proboscis, long and thin, stretching out from a much larger creature looming just over her shoulders.

Ren froze, still trying to discern the features of the strange animal. It was like a giant possum, but the head was all wrong. It’s tongue stretched out from its mouth, which was located on the top of its head, and it had long frail doe-like legs, spreading limply behind where it was laying down.

Ren did not yet feel afraid of the monster, though it’s shape somewhat unsettled her. Nothing about the creature seemed particularly violent. When it’s tongue probed Ren’s face it was curiously benign.

“Hello there.” Ren said in casual greeting to the creature, the volume of her voice in the silence startled her, and she also startled the creature. It’s body went ridged. The tongue probed her face again. Then it’s head twitched violently, making a loud snapping noise that echoed out into the dark.

Ren wondered if the creature had understood what she had said.

The creatures head snapped again, and then again.

It licked Ren in a meaningful way. Ren assumed the creature was trying to communicate.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand you.” Ren tried to tell it. Again the emaciated body twitched, and it’s distorted bulbous head snapped.

Ren saw the tongue stretched out again, only this time it flicked her over and over again, over her face and legs and arms and neck. It was a very ticklish experience.

It’s head clicked twice.

Ren felt it again on the back of her neck, only this time it did not just flick her, its tongue-like appendage pressed lightly against her neck, before Ren felt a strong pinch, and a coldness spread slowly down her spine and up into her head. She felt dizzy and then very tired. Right before Ren her eyes were forced closed by fatigue, she felt wakeful energy take her over stronger than ever. She felt as if she had just received the best sleep she had ever had.

She looked towards the monster again, “What was that?”

The creatures head clicked, but this time she heard a voice somewhere deep in her head, croaking and flat.

“You may understand me now, yes?” Ren heard, just behind her ears, “Your manner of communication is indeed brutish, what loud noises you produce. We may communicate in a more civilized manner.” The creature told her.

“…so you can talk?” Ren asked out loud.

“I am sorry.” The creature said, “I cannot understand you. Your language is only a disturbing vibration to me. You must try to communicate with me as I am with you.”

“With my thoughts?” Ren asked. And the creature only looked at her. So she tried thinking her words, “like this?”

“Very good.” The creature said.

“Oh, Thank you.”

The creature’s head snapped. “What are you doing here?”

“I fell.” Ren explained simply.

“Fell? from where?”

“From the forest, I suppose. I think I came out of that huge light, way up there. Do you see it?” Ren said pointing up towards the single star above. The creature did not look.

“I do not possess the sense of light.”

Ren seemed a little flustered by this, “Oh, well, I’m waiting for my brother. He will be here soon I’m sure to get me out.”

“Brother?”

“Uh-huh, he always comes to save me in times like this.”

“I understand.” The creature’s voice said and then was silent for a while, Ren felt an awkward silence grow between herself and the creature. It seemed the creature was listening to her intently, though she was not saying anything at all to it.

Ren let her mind wonder around, remembering how only less than a hour ago she had been with her brother, at that placid and beautiful lake. This morning she had been home, Tom was still sleeping on the couch, snoring as if trying to scare a small animal.

She felt as though she was far away from that now, and the more she thought about it the more she wanted to go home. The greater the loneliness grew.

Ren’s attention was diverted for a split second by a clicking twitch to the creatures head, and then was disturbed again.

“What are these sensations that you are projecting?” The creature asked, Ren felt it had a edge to its voice.

“Sensations?” Ren asked perfectly innocent.

“Your mind is broadcasting openly. What are these sensations you are producing?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know. I was just remembering this morning. I hadn’t said goodby to Papa before Ian and I left.”

The creature clicked, “this is from your memories, then… you are a very expressive being. I feel such complexity. Great joy, and something horrible and cold. How very powerfully, you are able to project these things.”

Ren did not know how to answer. The creature paused and twitched unpleasantly.

“What, kind of being are you?” the creature asked Ren.

“Kind of being? Well, I’m a human I guess.” Ren answered.

“Human, did you say?” .

“That’s right. So is my brother.”

“Human.” The creature clicked it’s head, a more violent sound this time, making the odd sound once then twice in rapid succession. “This is Human, then. Terrifying, yes. The energy. Such strength… dangerous.”

The creatures head clicked rapidly, it’s thin tongue began shooting in and out like a snake tasting the air before suddenly it produced a screech that was piercingly high pitched and barely audible to Ren’s human ears.

It did this for a full minute, and afterwards it crawled backwards on it’s broken looking legs just out of Ren’s range of sight. Ren heard the screech again fainter this time, sounding very far away. The creature stood as still as a statue, watching.

Ren sent her words to it, “What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?”

The creature still just watched her.

“Did I, scare you somehow?”

The creature’s strange silhouette gave a wicked twitch.

“I won’t hurt you, I’m just waiting to go home.” Ren said calmly, her face still and kind.

The creature stood still for a moment, it’s shadow still against the dark.

“Again, Human, you are pouring out.” It said very stiffly. “It is like a stone inside my innards. It is, painful…”

“I would never try to hurt anything, I swear!” Ren told the creature, her words indignant and expressive.

The creature shot back. It’s forms retreating back into the shadows out of sight. There was a pause, a silence broken only by a head click every now and then.

“I’m, sorry.” Ren said out loud, not really knowing what she had done to offend it so. She stood, uncomfortable now under the creatures hidden terrified gaze. She abandoned the idea that Ian would find her, and looked towards the faintly growing horizon.

Ren figured that the best direction to follow would be towards that faint light. She was positive that she would find the way out wherever it was coming from, and Ian would be waiting somewhere nearby to make fun of her.

The creature did not follow her, after a while something in Ren told her that she was completely alone. No life or thought around her at all, she could feel it, as if she was completely in tune with the environment around her. She felt as if she stood not only with her physical self but also with her mental presence, which seemed to expand around her like a large immaterial balloon.

The forest was very easy to move through, it did not feature obstacles past moving around the shadowy trees that were very well spaced apart. Still moving towards the lightened horizon Ren finally saw something to guide her path, a grouping of immense structures that seemed to rise up and snake off into the distance. When she got closer she saw that the structures were an immeasurable amount of completely identical stone pillars.

“Oh, how pretty!” Ren exclaimed looking up at two rows of massive pillars made from white stone. Each had strange images and designs sculpted onto the stone. Most were cracked and broken halfway up, and some pillars were impossibly tall, too tall for Ren to even imagine a top to them. She felt very tiny looking up at the massive structures.

A road began in front of her, running between the rows and was wide enough for a small vehicle to drive on, made from the same material that the pillars were constructed from.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to find a road down here.” Ren wondered aloud, pleasantly surprised as she stared down the path. At least this seemed like the correct way to go. Looking around it was the only path to be seen in the strange open forest. The horizon of light had grown since she had last noticed it, the road was an alleyway towards a frozen dawn.

When Ren walked away from the dark forest behind her the environment outside the pillar path became flat, and endless, and somehow impossible. It was as if the world did not exist outside if the boundaries of the road. The thought of venturing out into that empty world was a notion Ren did not entertain for even a moment.

Twice Ren had to climb her way over a pillar that had fallen across the path, her fingers somehow finding hold in the strange geometrical carvings that decorated the stone. It was a story of some kind, Ren was quite positive of this fact, but trying to actually read the strange designs was quite impossible.

“It must be the sun, what else…” Ren said, starting to talk to herself as she strolled along. She doubted that it was however. It was an odd light, a shine much different than the the sun she knew and loved. It was shiftless and cold and made everything that it shined upon look flat and without depth.

The sun was alive, this light was not at all. But still she stayed optimistic that at least it would lead to an exit to this increasingly curious cave.

Something else was growing the glowing horizon, a formation of spectral mountains looming ahead.

This discovery excited Ren, promising that she was indeed heading towards some place. But her glee was short lived as she was surprised to find another creature that was now standing in the middle of the path.

It was bipedal, more normal than anything Ren had seen thus far. Two arms, two legs, one head, two eyes, one mouth, and stood about five feet off the ground in a hunched shaking posture. It was bald all around, at least as far as Ren could tell. It wore a long purple fabric that was ripped and worn all over, draped from his neck to his feet.

But the creature was not at all human, and it’s resemblance only served to make it even more alien and disturbing to look at.

It’s limbs were horribly out of proportion with it’s body, legs gangly, much longer than one should expect. It’s arms were handless and wrapped in a filthy bandage. It’s skin was dark green and hung like a loose sheet on it’s frame, folds of flesh covered it’s face and neck and down it’s arms.

“Hello there.” Ren called to it. It’s fishlike eyes were dead looking and rolling slowly in their sockets.

The creature did not move, but from it’s mouth drooled out a sort of moan or dry croak.

Ren felt for the creature’s presence of mind the same way she had felt the first creature, and she felt something similar to thought emanating from it. Ren could “see” or “hear” it’s presence with some kind of secondary sense.

But the creature did not respond to her, nor did it seem to think in the same way that she did. It mumbled around and did not seemed to take in anything into it’s perspective.

Thinking that this creature might be some guide to help her back out from the cave, Ren walked over to it. It’s presence of mind became clearer the closer Ren got, and it also seemed more completely unnatural. Ren stepped in close enough to the creature’s sphere of influence and with a mind completely separated from that of the creature’s physical body, it’s presence turned towards and rushed at her, connecting with her own mind and sending it’s own thoughts into her head.

What Ren experienced then made her bend over double where she stood and retch in agony.

It was a scream, it was a laugh, it was everything good and bad about anything ever, the madness of the wild mixture. The feelings translated to the most painful thing Ren had ever experienced.

She could not control herself, shaking wildly, just barely able to keep her grip on the actual world. She fell back, crawled miserably away from the creature, but even out of it’s influence Ren could still feel the creatures mind like it were her own, the screaming and madness in her own voice. It was like a million people ice skating on a floor made from chalkboards and she felt it inside of her, as vivid as needles in her skin, the crazed torment. The pain of it was limitless.

Ren could take no more, her mind was on fire, her innards burning, her eyes about to explode from her head. The creature did not walk towards her, nor did it seem to notice any of what had just happened.

Ren’s vision faded and she fell forward, unconscious before she landed on the ground. Her mind enveloped completely into the healing silence of sleep.