The forest began to take on a lightness and Boyce knew that it had to
be morning. He had stayed on his watch longer, letting Lloyd sleep
because he knew that Lloyd needed more rest, being thirty-nine years
old. Boyce didn't mind sacrificing his sleep to let him rest longer.
God knew how much Lloyd had sacrificed in his own life to fulfil his
promise to Brook and Dearborne.
When Lloyd woke up he asked Boyce why he didn't wake him for his second
watch period. Boyce answered that he had just lost track of time.
Lloyd knew that Boyce didn't tell him the truth, but the topic wasn't
pursued any further because he was grateful for the few extra hours of
rest.
They finally spoke for a while as they ate their first meal in the
forest.
"I don't like this place!" admitted Boyce.
"We'll have to tolerate it. We still have a day's walk ahead of us."
Lloyd said to him and took a bite of meat, then continued. " -- If
we're lucky!"
The woods were noisy, continuing from the night, but the men now felt
safer because they could, at least, see much of what was around them.
Growls were heard all about them, and birds screamed and fluttered
around. One huge bird flew past their line of sight, soaring silently,
then with a loud screech, quickly rose into the clouded tree tops.
"What a damned place this is!" Boyce stressed. "It is so ungodly."
"It may be but it's the legacy given to the world by the ancient men!"
Their attention was diverted when they heard a gagging roar and grunt.
With it there was a loud shriek, like a scream, and they looked at each
other with puzzled and surprised eyes.
"That did not sound like a scream that a bird would make!" Boyce
suggested as he got on his knees, drawing his weapon and trying to
follow the unusual sound.
It came again and was getting nearer and more frequent.
The, there it was. To their utter dismay, there was a woman running
out of the thicket of brush some twenty meters away.
She constantly turned to look behind her. The bushes waved and buckled
as if a herd of elephants were breaking through in the same direction
that the woman was running.
Lloyd hollered out to her, calling her to run towards the cliff where
they sat, and then they saw what was running after her. It was a wild
pig the size of a horse.
It advanced more quickly on the woman, now that she was in the open.
"Drop to the ground!" Boyce yelled at her several times until she
finally did it.
Before the pig came upon her in its rampant and hostile charge, Boyce
fired a laser at it split the pig's skull in two.
Lloyd quickly climbed down from the ledge and ran to her, picked her up
and ran towards the cliff just as the pig fell from its momentum.
He guided her into the notches in the cliff face and push her up along
the way. At the ledge Boyce took hold of her arms and pulled her up.
She looked at his face for a moment then lost consciousness.
Lloyd and Boyce were ready to leave before this strange woman happened
along. Now they felt a duty to stay with her until she came to.
They wrapped her in Lloyd's blanket after touching her skin and finding
that it was ice-cold.
Lloyd looked at the woman and made a comment to Boyce about her beauty
and strangely frail-looking quality.
She wasn't very tall yet her build was slim and firm. Her hair was
very long and dark, shaded with copper highlights and her shut eyes
were oblong and appeared to be larger and slightly slanting.
Her whole face had a serious beauty about it, the patches of dirt, here
and there, made little difference to its overall appeal.
Lloyd was taken with her. He didn't know whether it was because of her
beauty or because she was in the middle of this most naturally hostile
place on the northern continent. Nevertheless, he found it very hard
not to look at her.
Boyce had found her extremely attractive, also, but the idea of this
woman's presence in the forest made him wonder about her.
"She is beautiful!" Lloyd began. "I wonder who she is; how she came
to be here?"
"I question her being here, at all. She's a day's journey from both
the river and the end of this forest. How has she survived here?"
Boyce was becoming nervous about her and he disliked her due to his
mistrust.
"How she had come into the forest, is another point." Lloyd added to
Boyce's train of thought. "We shall find out, but until then let's
enjoy her beautiful company."
He leaned against the ledge wall and kept his eyes on her until he
poured some of the water from his sack, into his warm hand and ran it
across her face.
She stirred and opened her big green eyes. She looked at Lloyd leaning
over her and Boyce staring at her with frozen eyes.
She looked about at the recess in which they all were in, and she took
an excited deep breath and then shivered.
She seemed frightened. Lloyd took her tiny trembling hand into his own
and spoke to her.
"We're friends." he said then helped her sit up and look at the wild
pig, that didn't move any more. "See -- it's dead!"
Lloyd pointed to the animal then handed to her his water sack, and she
nearly drowned from her incredibly quick drinking.
She gagged and coughed and Lloyd pushed her forward and rubbed the
centre of her back.
The woman soon caught her breath and quietly looked at her two gallant
saviours.
"My name is Lloyd Bartlett and this is Boyce Loebh ..." something kept
him from finishing the whole name and Boyce was relieved. "... we are
making our way to the south."
"We are in a hurry to get to our destination, so we took this route.
It is shorter by several days."
By the manner of Boyce's speech, Lloyd knew that Boyce didn't want any
details of their journey to be revealed.
"You almost had yourself stomped into the ground by that animal. What
are you doing in these woods?"
The woman looked to the dead animal and at Boyce. When she spoke, she
turned to Lloyd.
"I was running." she said, and the two men eagerly listened. "My
father is an over-lord. He wanted to force me into a marriage with a
Teniqués. I refused and he had me whipped and branded." she pulled
the single support strap from her shoulder and exposed the breast of
the same side, that looked scarred, with the symbol of a trident burned
on it.
Lloyd lifted the shoulder support back onto her shoulder covering her
up.
They stared into each other's eyes and Lloyd felt warm from the glow
emanating from her.
She took the blanket from around her, dropping it to around her hips
where it no longer covered her.
She only wore the single piece of clothing, made of a dark, thin and
short fragment of material.
She was barely covered but for her torso, and she didn't wear anything
as undergarments.
She put her hand on the upper, inside part of her thigh and when she
brought it away there was blood on her fingers.
Boyce just sat back and watched the strange unfolding of her story and
actions, all of which were aimed right at Lloyd.
"Are you hurt?" Lloyd asked with much concern.
"I have a small gash in my leg! It must've happened when I was being
chased by that!" she pointed at the dead pig.
"Here, let me take a look!" Lloyd offered to assist, genuinely feeling
concerned for her.
He took some water on a strip of cloth that he had in his pack and
wiped the wound clean, then wrapped the wound with the same cloth.
Although Lloyd was an honourable man, gallantly aiding a distressed
female, he could not keep himself from glancing at her naked
extremities.
"Does it hurt very much ..." he stopped and with his eyes conveyed a
question of need to know her name.
"My name is Grenadine." she said and Lloyd echoed with a smile.
Boyce was annoyed by what he saw. Everything was kindness and
appreciation between them, but he felt that something was at fault.
"I'm alright." she said and she made a little smile that poked a hole
into Lloyd's heart.
"Can you walk, Grenadine? We wish to resume our journey soon and we
don't want to leave you behind." Lloyd asked her.
Grenadine nodded to him and they packed up the two packs and climbed
down.
Lloyd gave Grenadine his blanket and she wrapped it around her body
into a kind of dress that looked like it was made for her.
No seam showed and no string or thread was used to keep it together.
Boyce walked behind Lloyd and Grenadine, keeping all his attention
focused on the woods and making certain that they continued to walk in
a generally southern direction.
Above them the tree tops were still hidden and sounds like mute
whistling came from there.
Boyce began to believe in the gremlin lore and the evil that was
supposed to be associated with it.
If it wasn't for the woman travelling with them, Boyce believed that
they would have been out of the forest by this time.
Grenadine limped very little but she held on to Lloyd's right arm at
all times.
Boyce didn't like that. He saw that Lloyd would have a very slow
response in drawing his weapon if it became necessary.
They kept walking and never stopped for a rest.
Grenadine didn't ask for any rest and Boyce had thought that, for a
woman, that was peculiar.
With every hour that passed, and they made it further through the
forest, Boyce trusted that woman less and less. He couldn't tell this
to Lloyd, however. His preoccupation with Grenadine would have made
him unreasonable towards Boyce's views about her, so Boyce kept his
thoughts to himself and kept his wits about himself.
Lloyd and Grenadine talked to one another throughout the entire
distance travelled since they left the rocky ledge where they slept
last night.
Lloyd had forgotten an agreement that they made way back in Besten when
they chose this route. It was Lloyd's suggestion, too.
"We should keep as quiet as possible when going through the Dark
Forest. We won't draw as many wild animals to the sounds we make."
Boyce remembered those words each and every time that Grenadine's
bird-like laugh reverberated through the trees.
There was huge crashing sound that came from their left side, and it
wasn't far from them.
They stopped in their tracks and silently waited.
Lloyd had briefly lost his interest in Grenadine and he looked at
Boyce's angered contours, yet he didn't understand them.
They stood still for several minutes, looking about.
Lloyd made Grenadine squat down and he readied his gun for defence.
He and Boyce looked around their immediate proximity but saw nothing.
They became edgy.
Lloyd looked at Grenadine's calmness and helped her up from the ground.
He was proud that she could keep her courage when their's was waning.
Boyce watched both of them with amazement as they sluggishly milled
their way in their intended direction.
He followed once again being the eyes for the entire party.
Time passed and the forest grew dark for the second time. Night was
again, at hand. Boyce was not at all pleased.
"Lloyd!" Boyce cried out. "We should seek a shelter!"
Lloyd nodded to him and they reconnoitred the entire area around them,
in search of some place.
The only shelter available, with any degree of safety offered to them
was a gigantic bird's nest.
"Should we try it?" Boyce asked with his answer already suggested in
his tone.
"We couldn't find better in this light!"
With Lloyd's answer, they took out their lasers and sliced several
dozen rungs into the tree leading up to the branch with the nest.
"Well?" Boyce thrust his hand up at the tree. "Tonight we'll be
sleeping with the gremlins."
Grenadine gave Boyce a strange glare of disapproval and Lloyd smiled
because he thought it looked amusing.
"We go up in a moment!" said Lloyd then went a few meters from the
tree to urinate.
Boyce came up beside him and did the same, taking his first opportunity
to speak to Lloyd about the girl, since they took her along.
"Your mind hasn't been on the journey." he told Lloyd. "This place is
dangerous and you've fully dropped your guard."
Lloyd didn't say a word while Boyce spoke.
They both finished urinating and Lloyd began to turn but Boyce stopped
him.
"Haven't you given any thought on how or why she came to be in this
forest?"
Lloyd was still quiet in such a way as to seem like he was ignoring
Boyce.
"You don't believe that story that she gave us, do you?" Boyce
demanded and answer.
Look, Boyce! She's a very nice and beautiful woman. We can't leave
her here to die!"
"Yes, Lloyd, but don't you see? -- She shows no apprehension about
being in this place!" He stopped his monotonous whisper and pointed to
her. "Look at her Lloyd, does she look frightened to you?"
Lloyd glanced over at the woman but he couldn't see what Boyce was
talking about.
All he could see was Grenadine leaning against a tree with her arms
crossed and her eyes staring straight ahead.
Lloyd walked away from Boyce and soon was helping her climb up the
rungs towards the branch where the nest was resting.
Boyce watched them climb. He was disturbed when Lloyd never came back
down to get his pack.
Boyce put both packs on, one around each shoulder and he slowly made
his way up the tree and then swung his legs astride the branch when he
reached it.
Lloyd and Grenadine were already reclined in the nest when Boyce took
the packs and set them inside the nest with them.
From his pack Boyce took out his cape and electric light. With a
little food and his water sack, he made his way to the butt of the
branch and sat against the trunk of the tree.
With the final particles of light scattering through the forest, Boyce
scanned the area to make certain that no animals were in the vicinity.
He looked up into the clouded tree tops and wondered about the lore of
the gremlin kingdom and whether or not it was true.
It was dark now; pitch and silent but for occasional sounds of
night-birds whistling through the trees and, at times the sounds of
rocks being overturned by large and hungry animals looking for grubs.
Many hours had passed since Boyce took the first watch.
He was finished slowly eating his food and keeping awake because he
didn't dare risk leaving them defenceless.
Hours later, Boyce crawled along the branch to the nest, having his
light on it so that he wouldn't fall from it.
At the nest, he was ready to call Lloyd to his turn at watch, and he
came upon them when they were at the height of love making. Grenadine
was obviously the aggressive one.
He turned off the light and crawled back to the tree trunk, and leaned
up against it, throwing his legs around the branch to keep himself
stable.
Something, he thought, was happening to his friend. Lloyd was
behaving oddly and not like himself, and what's worse, Boyce didn't
know how he could help Lloyd.