The Forest
As with every other citizen of Uxor, I had lived in the city my entire life and from the moment I had moved out to my own life, I realized I had always felt like a bird trapped in a cage. I had craved something more from life than sitting in a dull apartment knitting a dress or existing in mundane state. So I chose to study and read, and learned of becoming a map maker. If I was a map maker, perhaps I would get the chance to explore and leave the city walls that confined me. At least that is what I thought. But I was wrong. Instead I worked beneath the castle and was tasked with redrawing map after map that had already been written. That was until the day that the King and his guard entered my little workplace in the bowels of the castle. He was summoning a map maker to traverse through the dangerous forest and build a path for an easier trade route. The grand map maker appointed me because she had seen my talent from the beginning. And to say the least, I was beyond thrilled.
A week later we set out on the journey, there were nine of us altogether. The other eight of them were all from the royal guard. The two leaders, Faris, Captain of their guard unit, and Taika, the mage, attempted to keep me from the rest of the guard unit as much as possible. I would walk between them and the rest of the guard unit went behind us. Each evening Taika sat beside me while the men set up the campsite as I mapped what I could of the area and she accompanied me if I needed to move outside of the campsite. I was under strict orders from Faris himself to not speak with anyone else in the unit.
I should have thought it strange but I assumed it was just to prevent me from getting distracted at the very tedious task at hand. We traveled from one cliff side to the other, back and forth across the forest marking where the forest trees and thickets were dense, if we found bear or wolf markings, any food that might have been along the way. After several days we finally came across something odd in the forest. We were under the southern cliffside when we found a strange wall of trees. The trees were massive, tall, and somehow managed to grow practicslly one on top of another. Shortly after, we discovered the wall of trees ran the entire length of the valley, right up to the northern cliffside.
Faris announced we would make camp at the center of the tree wall and try to come up with a solution. Our goal was to map the entire forest all the way to the other side of the valley. Our current trade route with the rest of the world was through a dangerous mountain pass that took weeks to navigate. The city of Uxor itself was considered its own nation with a few small mining communities tucked away in the mountain sides, but most of the land was inhabitable and desolate. We needed this new trade route to greatly improve the life of our entire nation. I was fairly certain Faris would not turn back until we had made it to the other side.
I sat making notes in my journal just outside the campsite that particular night. Taika was leaning against a tree, her arms crossed as she stared out into the trees. She wore the traditional mage robes for Uxor, a green dress with a brown cloak and a belt wrapped around her waist, filled with pouches containing magical substances for her to use. I looked up occasionally from my notes to steal glances at the mage. Her hair was dark black and her face rigid, her frame was fairly slender but it was obvious she could hold her ground in a fight. Finally she caught me stealing glances, my face turned red in shame. I heard her voice, it was quiet as she spoke monotonously, "Have you noticed something about this forest?" I leaned back and thought a moment, clueless as to what she was referring to. "There is no river, no stream, no water really. How is everything alive but there isn't a source of water."
"What about our water?" I asked. It had not dawned on me that there was no water running through the forest but it was very much alive.
"We'll run out soon if we cannot find any. There are also no animals. We've been searching for bears and wolves but haven't run across a single track. Just listen," she said pointing upward. I tried to listen for any sound but all I could hear was the rustling of the trees and the nearby men at the camp. "There aren't even any birds here."
It was true. Every night it was silent and as we went about the day we only came across plant life. I had never been outside of the city walls so I was not aware of what a normal forest was like but I knew from my maps that water had to run somewhere. Taika shook her head and turned completely away from me, ready to continue her pointless staring. I stood up, "I'd like to take a walk along this tree wall." The mage turned to me and shrugged, following behind me as I ran my hands on the trunks of the odd trees. They felt real enough but the gaps between them were mere inches, truthfully not even enough to look through. I tried at one of the larger gaps to see what the other side held but there was no angle that gave a good view. It appeared as if behind the line of trees was another line that was just as dense.
"What are you thinking map maker?" Taika asked as she placed a hand on one of the trees.
"They're growing in so thickly here, if this forest has some sort of water perhaps they are growing around it. If we could find a gap small enough, maybe even for just you or I, we could get water and work on bringing one of these trees down to get everyone through." I glanced at her momentarily before I continued to walk along.
The mage said nothing but stayed nearby as I peered between every tree. I searched as long as there was daylight but eventually the darkness creeped in around us, and Taika led me back to the camp. The men had a fire roaring with what smelled like a dinner cooking. I sat close to the fire and bowed my head in silence, the guards chatting awa, and I was always forbidden to speak. I may have been free from the walls but it was clear my freedom was conditional and I was not welcome. After I had eaten I left to one of the two tents that had been pitched. One was for myself and my equipment while the other was for Taika. The guards all slept beneath the stars, another sign that my freedom was not a true freedom.
I sat down on the blankets that had been placed for me and stared at the created walls of the tent. I'm not sure if I became suddenly jealous of the guards under the night sky, or perhaps I was determined to find a way through the trees, but I waited until I heard the chatter and fire die. I slipped out of the tent silently to see one of the guards performing his shift of the nightly guard. He was spending his focus on a small knife as he whittled a chunk of wood into some shape only he could see. I was grateful for the lifeless forest allowing them all to have let their guard down. They most likely did not even need a night watch with the lack of life, and yet there he sat.
I shook the distraction from my mind, I needed to move out of the camp before he saw me. As I got farther and farther away from the camp I began to realize my mistake. The starlight was nowhere near bright enough for me to go searching for a gap in a tree and I had brought with me no other source of light. I tried to search with my hands, feeling along for anywhere that my entire body might fit. It was very difficult and before long I felt I was getting nowhere fast. It was then I heard a rustling come from behind me. I quickly turned around in a panic, was it possible we had missed the tracks of an animal living in the forest?
A sudden light blinded me for a moment and I soon realized I was standing face to face with Taika. She crossed her arms, shaking her head in disappointment, "I thought I heard you leaving. What was your plan here anyway?" She motioned her hand to the wall of trees. I wondered how long she had actually been watching me stumble along in the darkness.
I shrugged, lowering my head, ashamed I had not thought of an actual plan. I had just left and assumed I would be the hero by finding a way through and finding water. "I wasn't thinking," I finally mustered out, sheepishly.
She shook her head again and walked closer to me. "We should probably go back to camp, we won't-" Her voice suddenly fell off as she pointed at the wall of trees. It was clear, a slightly large gap had made itself known. I approached the gap and peered through. It looked simply like more trees and underbrush was ahead, but I could easily slip through. I looked at the mage for a moment before beginning to push my body between the trees. She grabbed my arm, "We will need to do this when there is daylight."
I nodded, coming back to our side of the forest. Taika began to leave, she turned back for a moment, watching as I knelt down, scratching in the dirt. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"We searched yesterday and might have missed this, I don't want to come back and not be able to find it," I said shrugging. Taika nodded in understanding before leading me back towards the campsite. To my surprise, Faris stood staring at us as we returned. There were no words spoken as we entered the camp, weaving in between the sleeping men to our own respective tents. I internally questioned if Taika had alerted the Captain before she left or if he had also heard me leaving. I closed my eyes, attempting to come to a conclusion as exhaustion took hold and I drifted away, into a restless sleep.
When I awoke, emerging from my tent, I could see that the guard unit was already prepared for our day of exploration. I assumed the mage, or perhaps the Captain, must have filled them all in when earlier that morning. Once again I felt trapped by the silence as Faris did not speak a word but instead merely motioned me in the direction we had been in the night before. Everyone remained perfectly quiet as we walked along, Taika and myself quite a few paces ahead of everyone else. We found the mark I had made in the dirt and I was thankful I had made that decision. For when we looked at the wall of trees, it was nearly impossible to see the gap due to another tree so close behind it, that it appeared there was no gap at all. But upon placing a hand inside of the gap, it was clear that the small space between the trunks of the trees did exist. I turned and grinned at Faris who's stoic face remained unchanged.
He took a deep breath before turning to his guard, "Are any of you able to pass through these trees?" And so one by one the men tried. First with their armor still one and then each without their armor but it appeared that the space was too small for them. They struggled, pulling and pushing one another in an attempt to get through. I however remembered the night before and how it had felt entering the gap, and I knew I could fit perfectly.
"I can fit," I finally said after a moment of watching all of the men continue their struggle.
The Caption glared at me, clearly appalled I had dared to even mutter a word in the presence of his unit. I knew I had strict orders to not interact with them but what was the harm in offering up what was most likely crucial information to our mission and survival. Taika pulled the man aside for a moment quietly whispering in his ear. He nodded a few times before rubbing his chin. Finally he gave a defeated sigh, "Taika and the map maker will go through and scout while we try and clear one of these trees to be able to pass through."
He gave one final glare at me before the mage grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the wall of trees. I went through first. It was an uncomfortably tight fit, but I managed to get through with some forceful pulling. I fell out on the other side of the tree and slammed up against another tree. I blinked a few times as the air had a sudden change to it. I had not previously noticed but the air to the Valley's Forest was stale and unmoving. My lungs filled with the fresh air as I took a deep breath. I did not even know that I missed fresh air yet here I was, inhaling as much of it as I could. Another thing registered in my mind, there was finally sound. I could hear the fluttering of wings, the songs of birds and creatures alike, all singing in a harmony they had been practicing all their lives.
I took a moment to enjoy the scene before me. The forest we had been walking through for days was green and lively but something about this side was enchanting. Everything felt more alive and almost pulsated with it's own heart beat. I ran my hand along the deep brown bark of the tree I had crashed into and could feel the energy radiating from within. This forest was so much more than alive than I had thought possible. I took another breath, a breath of true freedom.
Taika then managed to force herself through the gap, far more gracefully than I had. Her eyes locked intensely with mine, her deep brown eyes unmoving as I watched her brain process what was happening. "Water," was all she said as she pushed past me, deeper into the trees of the forest.
"Wait," I shouted, running after her. The mage stopped for a moment and listened. I tried to listen as well but was clueless as to what exactly she was searching for.
I watched as her head swiveled around, her black hair flipping this way and that. "You're a map maker, where would we find water if there's no river running through here?" She turned to me. Her face filled with such a passion I had yet to see from her. For the first time I felt like I wasn't a prisoner, unable to speak or be free with her. We were, what I would consider, a team from that moment onward as we traversed the forest together.
