Into the Deep Wood

They rode hard until the stone became too narrow around them and it was too dangerous to have the mare not watch her steps.

Marat kept expecting the canyon walls to close in and trap them - but around every corner was another path, never narrowing enough to block their way.

The echoes of every step rolled thunderously through the pass, and the air smelled of dry desert plants around them.

There was no sign of Johannes, but they would not be too far behind. The maze of rocks and caverns would delay their pursuers but not stop them altogether.

By the All-Father, he hoped that the canyon did not come to a dead end.

Val felt the sweat roll down her brow, drops tickling her skin as they rushed from her face and down her chest and back.

It was so hot, so dry. Although the stone walls had shielded them from the sun, they also blocked any breeze that might have brought relief. She feared that the water she was losing was not something her body could afford to part with.

Something made her pause.

“I hear water!” She tried to hush as the canyon was listening, but it still carried her words.

“Where?” His question was quiet and intense.

“Do you not hear it?” She shifted her head from left to right slowly, trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from.

“I don’t…”

Between all of them, it was Aditi who found it first. She turned without prompt, with her hooves slipping slightly on the smooth rock. Neither of them made a move to stop her, and within moments, her head was bent to a tiny stream running between stones.

Having not had water in so long, Marat and Val hurried and bent to the water upstream from the horse. Holding their hands out they drank by the handfuls until their stomachs began to ache. Marat doubled over first.

“Too much.” He croaked, being rewarded with a stifled laugh from Val. She felt the ache, too, the water sitting poorly. But somehow, seeing him this way, so different than the intense man she always had beside her, sent giggles pouring out. They’d been in grave danger, a chase through the desert, faced off with men determined to kill them, and yet, here was - the tall, dark, and brooding hunter - doubled over, complaining of a stomach ache.

He laughed, too, but only lightly. She was nearly rolling on her sides, the sudden burst of laughter feeling so ridiculous and out of place here that it just built on itself until she had tears in her eyes.

He looked at her, relieved that she could have a break from the grimness of the world, but also with slight concern that her brain had finally snapped.

“Okay…” He tried to help her up, but it just resulted in another fit of laughter, followed by slight hiccups - assuring him that she did indeed lose it. “Come on…”

She calmed slowly, wiping her eyes of tears and still getting a tinge of giggle as she stopped. He found himself smiling at the sight of her so disheveled and dirty and smoothing her wild hair down. She looked like a chicken that had rolled around in the sand.

“Where’s Aditi?” She asked finally, standing.

Marat looked back and then spun around urgently.

The horse was gone. She could not have run off. They would have heard the echoes. A rare miss for Marat, enthralled with the moment of Val’s madness, he did not even notice the mare.

Val ran a few steps to where Aditi had been drinking water. She looked around and at the stones that had been smoothed by it over time. Carefully stepping, she followed the stream.

“I think I hear her…” She said uncertainly, listening and hearing a far-off horseshoe against a rock. Marat bent down and examined the creek bed. It was so thin that the stream itself was but a trickle.

His eyebrows drew together.

“This water, it’s highly acidic.” He said, scratching at a piece of limestone that crumpled away where his nail scraped it. “There must be caverns underneath; it eats through the limestone.”

“You think she fell??” Val’s face paled, and she frantically began to look around, listening for signs of the mare’s distress.

“I think we better find the horse.” He said grimly, all too aware that the entirety of their supplies were strapped to its back.

They did not have to search for long. By following the small creek, they both nearly slid into a cave opening underneath a wall of stone. It was not nearly large enough for a horse to get through, but they could squeeze. Granted, Marat would have to suck it in fairly hard to do so.

An echo of a soft whinny radiated from below them.

“Gods!” Val exclaimed, grabbing at rocks, meaning to lower herself in. “Aditi!”

Mara grabbed her before she could disappear downward.

“Are you crazy?” He said through his teeth. “You’re going to break your neck; you can’t see down there!”

“I can’t leave her down there!” Val looked down into the darkness below, her head suddenly spinning with the realization that she was about to plunge into the unknown. Stupid, stupid girl.

Marat considered the opening, standing between it and Val as a precaution.

Seeming to come to a conclusion, he opened the pocket of his shirt and produced the firestarter feather. Looking around and not finding anything else, he ripped into the sleeve of his shirt and tied it in a knot around it.

He said something quietly under his breath, something that Val did not quite catch, and the feather engulfed the knot of fabric around it almost immediately like a torch. Marat held the feather quill, the ball of fire just above it, and disappeared between the rocks. Val followed, the light guiding where she could step, holding his hand where it had been too steep.

They climbed down for a minute, only hearing another whinny once while they did so. It was not too long before the cavern opened significantly, allowing them to stand on solid, pressed ground. The inside of the cavern was dark and damp. It was cool, bringing relief after the hot sun - but only for a moment before chills crept across their bodies.

“Aditi?” Val whispered, afraid that any noise was too loud here.

Marat put up his hand, listening.

“It gets wider up there; that must be where she is.” He said, nodding to the right.

They descended further until running water sounded ahead.

It was fairly sudden, the torch's glow only reaching the walls that hugged them from each side - with a step forward, it expanded, and the light could no longer find the end of darkness.

They reached a huge chamber, so vast that with the little light they had, they couldn’t even see the very top. A breeze ran through them. With it, it had brought the smell of grasses and fungi.

Somewhere ahead, they heard a snort.

“There she is!” Val exclaimed excitedly, hurrying ahead to where the unsuspecting horse was pulling at cave plants with its teeth. So casual and unbothered was Aditi, that Val’s appearance had only seemed to annoy her.

Marat and Val both seemed to realize at once that the concealed cave might have been their salvation.

“Hurry, get something from the bags. We need another source of light.” Marat urged her, shoving the firestarter feather into her hands and disappearing at once. She ran to the saddlebags and pulled out a torch. There was only one, but Marat had quickly appeared with what looked to be an old,, dampened piece of a log.

“There is no way…” Val started, but before the torch was lit - Marat had already used the feather to set the old rotten wood ablaze. Its moldy stench hit them immediately, making Val gag.

“No blessing without a curse, Val.” Marat reminded her, earning himself an eye roll.

Marat had disappeared into the dark for what felt like hours. Val remained behind, taking all the equipment off of Aditi and allowing the horse to rest. She already had time to set up the camp - it was late, and their previous night had been so troubled and short-lived.

When Marat reappeared again, he looked entirely puzzled.

“There… there is just no opening big enough for a horse.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I have no idea how she got here. But, it also means they cannot follow even if they do find the creek or the cave.”

“Maybe you missed something?” She suggested hesitantly, but he shook his head.

“The only possible way out of the cavern is where the stream flows. It is wide but fairly steep, descending down. If she had come from that way, the earth would have been disturbed.”

They both looked at the mare, who was still feuding with a deeply seeded stem of an unknown plant that refused to be pulled from the ground.

“What do we do?” She asked as he sat down next to her.

“We rest, first and foremost. The desert seeps your strength in more ways than one. We are safe here. We have water and fire. We will find a way out in the morning.”

Val nodded.

“Marat?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you,” she said sheepishly, “for trusting me. I’m sorry I disappointed you.”

“Don’t be absurd.” He pulled a blanket from his pack and offered her a humble corner. She smiled slightly, pulling in closer to him and wrapping herself in it. Still, it had felt strange after all this time.

“But who will stay up and keep watch?” She asked, feeling her eyelids heavy already.

“Let me teach you something.” He took her hand, making her heart flutter. But then he placed it palm down on the ground. “Do the same with your other hand, tuck your legs underneath you, sit on them if you have to.”

What she mistook for a warm moment, perhaps leading to things of a more sensual nature, was grossly misinterpreted, as it turned out.

“What?” Any sleep that lightly touched the outskirts of her consciousness had now gone. She did as he said, but hesitantly so. He took the same position as her, beside her.

“This is beginner stuff; it doesn’t always have to be like this.” He explained vaguely. “Close your eyes.”

She did as he asked.

“Now, focus on nothing within yourself.”

“How?”

“Just do it.”

“Marat.”

He sighed.

“Pretend your body isn’t yours. It’s a house. You’re leaving your house, but you are doing it suddenly, and when you exit - you’re everywhere. All at once. Outside your house, you expand into everything, like air.” His words grew quieter as he instructed on. “Now, once you’ve left the house and you occupy all, imagine that you’ve stepped on a stone, and it hurt you.”

“...a stone?”

“Shh.”

It felt like he was laughing at her. Surely, he would stop at any minute and tell her how gullible she was.

“You’ve passed over the stone now, and you’re expanding still. Search for the sharp pain of the stone beyond in the vastness. Feel for its threat as if you are afraid to step on it again.”

She did as he asked, but nothing happened.

At the end of her patience and awfully tired, Val was about to give up and stand up but she felt his hand tap hers.

“Don’t look for the stone. Look for the pain.”

She tried again.

Her body - house.

Leaving it behind.

She is everything.

The stone, the surging pain, the need to yank back and away from it.

Look for the pain.

“If there were Nothing-touched nearby, you’d feel it. Where they originate, of which they are born, is like pain. They are born of the Wounds that the Nothing left in the Great Encounter. Our subconscious minds see far more than we do, and if you focus, you will feel it.” He had explained this patiently. “But, even this is limited. It cannot pick up on something it did not experience. It is why I scout. If I had not gone into a room, and there was a creature in that room, I could not feel it. But, had I walked through, had I passed by, even though I did not see it - I would feel it nearby. Do you understand?”

“I think so…” This had been immensely interesting for Val, but it still felt like a cruel joke being played on her.

She looked at his face carefully, cautiously, searching for any sign of mockery in his expression. But there was none.

“It is not absurd to trust your instincts and know how to utilize them properly.” He told her, shaking his head. “I do not feel them either, we will tie Aditi behind us and use yarrow - then we can both sleep, even if for just a while.”