Vulfu: The Primal Series

Chapter 1

“... N

o, don’t! Stop!” Kate’s voice faded away while I watched in horror as Jen disappeared around the bend of the river, with Lisa close behind. I really had no intention of following, but before I knew it, my blue kayak was caught up in the current and being swept downstream. I’m sure it looked like I was stupidly pursuing the two hard-headed girls in our group like some sort of daredevil, but in reality, it was way beyond my control. I had zero strength against the current, the powerful waves moving me like that little ball in a pinball machine at the arcade.

My heart hammered in my ribcage. Freezing water splashed my face as I found myself viciously ripped around the bend in the river. Furiously, I wiped away the droplets from my overlarge lenses and gaped in absolute horror at the sight before me…

The river looked like the inside of my mother’s washing machine, as when I was younger, I’d open the top to peer inside while the clothes swirled around. Only here, the white water splashed every which way through a maze of large rocks and drops, promising pain and danger. However, by some miracle, my kayak sleuthed through the openings like a snake, the water carrying me away through the chaos. I felt like I was cheating death. I hoped my luck would hold out just a little longer…

But the moment I spun around three hundred and sixty degrees, that wish quickly vanished when I looked ahead and caught sight of what was waiting for me. I’d been searching amongst the splashing water and rocks hoping to see some sign of Lisa’s green kayak, or Jen’s bright yellow one. Instead, all I saw at the end of this wild mess was the river just… disappearing. Ending so suddenly that I knew it could only mean one thing.

A drop-off.

I couldn’t even scream as I sped towards it like a bullet, my voice caught in my throat, the possibility of passing out from overwhelming terror vehement and unrelenting.

Holy shit… I’m about to die…

It felt like it was happening in slow motion. I came upon the edge, and for one heart-stopping moment, I could see enough to realize that this was nothing like the first fall I’d gone over yesterday. That one was a baby in comparison to this monster. It plummeted somewhere between seventy to eighty feet and at the bottom, the water churned and swirled angrily, the roar of the falls deafening.

Helplessly, I watched the tip of my kayak drop over the edge, carrying me with it. I couldn’t even scream. The sensation of my stomach flying up in my throat, the overwhelming awareness that these last few seconds were my last, had me completely immobile like I’d already become a corpse.

My kayak hit the water hard, actually submerging briefly, before it popped back up like a cork breaking free from a bottle, carrying me with it. I didn’t even have time to register that I was, in fact, still alive, before I found myself careening down another section of rapids that seemed even more precarious than the last one. I clung to my paddle with a vice-like grip, using it to guide myself away from as many stone death traps as possible. I gasped for air each time the icy water splashed on my face, my vision seriously impaired thanks to the scratches on my glasses from yesterday and the spray from the chaos. Ahead, I was approaching a fork in the river, and my mind whirled as I desperately fought to keep left.

Left… stay, left!

I battled against the water, but it was hardly an even fight. As I found myself swept right, from somewhere behind me, I heard Kate cry out, “Stephanie!”

“Kate!” I screamed, fighting like hell to look behind me in search of my friend, but I was too terrified to take my eyes off the treacherous path I’d been forced to take. “Kaaaate!”

But she never called back.

I thought I saw a flash of shining green some ways down the left fork before being carried in the wrong direction, which gave me hope that Lisa, at least, was safe. But it had been so brief, so quick, that I couldn’t be certain.

My kayak now began to rock violently, careening out of control as it bounced off one boulder after another. I tried again to wipe the water from my lenses, managing to make out the long, blue line of rough water I was spiraling down. Along the shoreline, on either side, were even more sharp stones, fallen trees, and eventually, what looked like an absolutely massive beaver dam, with piles of fallen logs arranged in a tangled mess, spreading nearly halfway across the river.

Grab a hold of a branch, Stephanie. Get something and pull yourself out of this chaos!

Gasping for air, soaking wet, and shivering from both the cold and brushing so close to death, I extended out my paddle, hoping to hook it on the entanglement of branches and trees, anything to save myself. The dam was coming up and as I closed in on the bend, I felt quite another feeling descend upon me at the sight that was fast coming into view.

At the base of the logs, branches, and rocks, the remains of a yellow kayak had bunched together, the pieces bumping against the bottom of the structure from the movement of the water. But amongst the rise of fallen trees, a body lay in a broken, bloody heap… Jen. Her arms were twisted in an unnatural backward position up over her head, her neck cricked to the side so sharply, I could see the jut of bone sticking out through her skin. There was also a particularly large chunk of wood protruding through part of her torso like she’d either fallen on it or had sailed through it as she was sent downstream on her boat.

The blood drained from my face, my body turning to stone, and a different sort of cold enveloped me as the river carried me past her and around the bend, leaving her behind. I didn’t have long to process before I was once again thrown into another section of rapids, this one, the boulders reaching at least twice the size of my body, like they’d fallen from the mountaintops, rolled down through the trees, all the way to their resting place here.

This time, my luck didn’t hold out, and soon I was thrown from my kayak, the only thing protecting me from the sharp, massive blocks of stone. I sank in the water for only a few seconds before buoyancy worked in my favor, and I shot up to break through the surface once more. My lifejacket helped keep my head up, but it didn’t stop me from flying repeatedly into anything and everything that the river hid from view beneath the surface.

It wasn’t long until my head struck something solid and unforgiving in the swirling waters, and I fell into darkness.

My short, pathetic little life was over… a life I never really got a chance to redeem. One I never got to actually live.

My sense of awareness was slowly bringing me back. I could hear the water, the roar replaced by the calm trickling of a slow-moving current. I shivered, despite the warmth from the sun on my back. I was soaking wet, my body aching in pain. The last time I remembered feeling like this was, well… not something I ever wanted to think about again. Especially now. As I sucked in lungful after lungful of air, I started laughing hysterically as the realization that I was actually still alive sunk in. I’d survived. I was here! I giggled louder, the sound carrying above as a faint echo.

As I started to relive the memory of what had just happened, I laughed harder and harder, each moment hitting me more strongly than the last… the rapids, the waterfall, my desperation to go the right way and failing, another set of rapids, Jen, being thrown from my kayak… all of it. It had all actually happened. And yet somehow, I had survived.

My mirth quickly shifted then, from one of jovial hilarity to a sort of broken cry, until I found that I was wailing. I sobbed and sobbed, the horror I’d just lived through settled like a weight, heavier with each passing second, on my shoulders. When I finally opened my eyes, I found myself lying on my back, halfway out of the water, staring up at the sky as the sun began to descend behind the hills on the opposite shore. But something was off. The sight was muddled, foggy, so blurred I thought I must have damaged my eyes in the river.

That’s when I realized…

I didn’t have my glasses. Instinctively, momentarily forgetting my tears, my hands desperately started to feel around, searching amongst the smooth river rocks for some sign of the champagne metal aviator frames. But I could find nothing.

Gingerly, I sat up, groaning in pain as I tried to peer around me, squinting hard to see. I’d been near-sighted almost all my life and heavily relied on my glasses to see far away. Without them, it was an insane blur, shapes blending together, only their colours vivid, and I could only make out what was about a foot or two in front of my face. Though my limbs were screaming in pain, I rolled onto my hands and knees, carefully crawling up out of the water while feeling around, searching desperately. If I was going to find my way out of this, then I needed to see! But the longer I went without any sign of them, the more helpless I felt. How the hell was I going to get anywhere if I couldn’t see properly?

“Please…” I whispered aloud, my voice quavering as I shivered, “Please, please, please!”

But there was nothing. Even when I crawled along the water’s edge, feeling around for the distinctive smooth frames, the large lenses, and the colour that would stand out against the grey stone, there was nothing but mud, pebbles, and algae. I even felt around the tangled mess of hair on my head, hoping they were caught in my wet locks, as I sometimes would push them up on my head when I was reading, but there was nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Wildly, I sat back on my knees, staring around, hoping to see a flash of blue, a sign that my kayak was near, but I could only make out the grey and white of the water, the fuzzy-looking grey bumps of rocks and boulders, and the green and brown of the forest on either side of the river. No backpack. No tent. No boat.

No friends! Except…

“Kate!” I screamed, remembering her call after I found myself being ripped down the wrong path. She’d been near. I felt hopeful as I cupped my hands around my mouth and hollered again, “KATE!”

I listened, straining to hear something over the soft, running water and the rustle of leaves from the trees at my back. But there was no call, no sign that she was anywhere nearby. I rose to my feet and stumbled along, heading up the river, stopping every so often to call again. I was certain I saw Lisa go in the other direction. That unique green of her kayak had been bright, standing out amongst the shrubbery and water like a lime. If she’d gone the right way, then Kate was the only other person I had to look for.

Jen…

I didn’t want to think about her. The sight of her twisted, broken body made me dry-heave over the rocks. Jen and I hadn’t been super close. In fact, she always reminded me of the girls from my high school who bullied me. But she was friends with Lisa and Kate, both of whom I liked immensely, so I just stayed quiet and let Jen run the show. It was easier that way. People like her thrived on being at the center of attention, and I was always more than happy to disappear into the background. But despite this, and her stupid decision to bring us the wrong way on purpose down the Three Hangman River, she wasn’t bad. Not like my bullies. She’s just a big personality.

Was. I cringe at the word. Was a big personality.

She was gone now.

I sniffled and wiped my nose with the wet sleeve of my shirt. While the other girls had dressed down in cute shorts and t-shirts, I opted for my usual baggy sweater and jeans, despite the heat. I wasn’t comfortable showing off my body. Not since my years at high school enduring the taunts and rumours. Not since the flagpole incident. And especially not with the scars…

But now, I suppose it didn’t matter anyway. I was alone here.

Pulling the soaking wool up over my head I squeezed the water out of it, ignoring the never-ending tears that slid down my cheeks and fell from my chin. My jeans were wet, too, and I had no idea how the heck I was going to make it through the night with only the wet clothes on my back. I set my sweater on a rock in the sun and stared around myself again, but my vision, or lack of it, could only pick up so much. All I could make out was that I was surrounded by the wilderness, trees, hills and all, and I had no idea how far I’d come. I had a sinking suspicion, given how calm the water was here, that I’d travelled farther north than I should have, and seeing as I went the wrong way, I had no idea if it would bring me to that lake at the end of our trip, or if I just was carried farther into the untouched part of the wild, and the thought of being here, blind and alone, sent a wave of panic through my veins.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and bellowed so loud I thought my vocal cords would tear, “KAAAAATE!”

But there was no return call.

Despairingly, I crouched on the ground, sitting on my haunches, my hands tangled in my thick, dark hair, eyes closed as I tried to focus on my breathing, but that feeling of helplessness was spurring something else inside of me. A spark of anger that I rarely ever felt suddenly erupted to life. Before I knew it, I’d lurched to my feet and grabbed at the first thing within reach, which just happened to be a massive rock the size of my head. I snatched it up, my scrawny arms shaking hard from the weight, and threw it, unleashing a long, wailing scream as it bounded only about a foot away and rolled with a crack off the others.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!” I cried to the heavens, before turning to find something else I could destroy. I stumbled over the uneven shoreline, grabbing weeds, sticks, and more large stones, and threw them any which way, into the water, the forest, I didn’t care. I just screamed and threw and screamed some more. By the time my fit was over, I was breathless, standing there in nothing but a pair of wet bell bottoms, my simple black cotton bra, with my dark brown hair damp around my shoulders and down my back, my large blue eyes staring off at… well, nothing.

Miss Stephanie Fields, the quiet, timid little mouse… Miss Unpopular Sad Girl 1973, had lost her mind. If only people could see me now.

Trembling hard, I raked my nails through my thick hair, shoving it back off my face, not realizing I’d been crying this whole time until I tried to find my sweater again, my tears blurring my vision further. I spotted the blurred pink, wool knit laying upon a boulder, not dry, but not sopping wet anymore, at least. I pulled it on, choosing to forget the fact that I just had a little breakdown back there. I’d had my tantrum, now I needed to pull myself together. I brought forth my inner-nerd and broke everything down.

I was lost.

I was soaking wet.

I couldn’t see.

I had no one with me.

No supplies.

No shelter.

And the sun was setting.

Yep… I was definitely going to die here.

Get a grip, Stephanie, I scolded myself, straightening up to look around. With the sun setting fast, I needed to find a way to survive the night so I could continue searching for Kate tomorrow. She couldn’t be that far away, could she? I mean, I know my kayak carried me a lot farther and faster than I expected, but how far did it take me, really? If she was in her kayak, too, and hadn’t been thrown, she could very well be only a couple hundred feet behind me. What if she was unconscious and that was why she didn’t respond when I called her? Oh my God… what if she seriously hurt? My thoughts raced as I pictured Jen, and the idea of that sort of death befalling sweet, kind Kate sent another tremor of despair through me. I needed to help her, to save her. Us!

Ugh! If only I could see!

As I stumbled along the shore, my progress was painfully slow. I walked with my hands extended in front of me, in case my foot should catch something and send me sprawling. With the sunlight fading fast over the western hills, I knew I was going to be a hot mess trying to find my way in the dark. But what else could I do?

I wasn’t as big an outdoorsman as the other girls. I’d just joined the hiking club because I wanted to try to push myself to meet people. I didn’t want a repeat of high school when I got to university. I wanted a fresh start. But I found myself struggling in the group, often falling behind, and not really connecting with anyone. I was actually close to giving up and quitting the club when Kate had befriended me. She’d been so sweet and kind that I stayed. But I lacked that survival instinct she naturally had. I would more often than not pick the wrong step, the wrong path, and select the wrong spot to pitch my tent. Most of the time, I was tripping, falling, or ending up with a broken shelter because I’d erect it in the middle of the gustiest channel in the trees.

Now that I was truly on my own, without any gear, friends, or even sight to help me, I felt such an overwhelming sense of my mortality at this moment that I ended up slumped on the forest floor, curled up in a ball, sobbing as the sun disappeared, leaving me in dusky twilight. I was doomed.

I don’t know how much time had passed before my tears dried up and I righted myself. I sat on the dirt and leaves, staring idly at the bushes along the edge of the forest, watching as the faint, blurred light of fireflies drifted in and out amongst the leaves. At least my resting place was one of peace and tranquility and one that beheld that natural beauty I’d grown to love about the outdoors. Even though I never became a true adventurous explorer, I did appreciate the awe and wild allure of Mother Nature. Even when I now heard the distant call of… what was that? An elk? A deer of some kind? I wasn’t sure, but it made me feel less alone.

However…

That strange call was coming closer, and now as I listened a little harder, focusing on it, I realized it was not one I recognized from the numerous trips I’d taken this past year. Deer didn’t sound like that, right? That understanding sent quite a different sort of shiver running down my spine.

WHOOP!

Okay, seriously now, what the heck was that?

I stared helplessly at the treeline, frozen where I sat, wishing I could make out more in the gathering shadows. It wasn’t a bear, I reassured myself again and again. Bears didn’t sound like that. So I was safe in that aspect. And mountain lions screamed and growled… this was more like something I’d hear off the nature program my dad used to watch every Friday night back home. National Geographic. It was sort of a tradition that my family would sit down and watch it together. I remember a few years ago when they covered Dian Fossey, a primatologist and conservationist who studied mountain gorillas…

Oh… my… God…

I was being hunted… by a freaking mountain gorilla!

Stephanie… you really can be so dumb, sometimes, I scolded myself. Gorillas don't live in North America. Not in the wild, anyway. So unless one escaped from a zoo and hightailed it into the Rocky Mountains and was searching me out because of my screaming fit, I had no clue what else this could be.

I scrambled back on my hands and feet until one dipped into the cold river. With a yelp, I withdrew it, shaking the droplets away as my hand went practically numb, the water an unbearable temperature now that the sun was gone.

WHOOP!

Okay, that was much too close for comfort. Heart racing, I scrambled over to the closest boulder within a couple of feet from me, and cowered behind it, trembling hard as the snapping of branches and heavy footsteps signalled that I was no longer alone. I was even afraid to breathe too loudly, but at the same time, I was so scared I was noisily gasping for air.

Whoop! Bip… bip!

My hands flew up to silence the shriek in my throat. Smothering myself, I waited, wondering what the hell this thing was! What sounded like that? And why was it prowling along the shoreline? I could hear it shuffling along, sniffing, branches and twigs snapping as it searched the shrubs for… well, probably me. I bet it thought I was some injured animal that had been screeching in pain and was here to take advantage of that.

It went quiet.

I waited, too afraid to even consider moving, but as each agonizingly long minute passed, I was desperate to know if I was alone or not. Had it given up and left? Sitting here on the freezing, wet rocks in the darkening night was unbearable, and the longer I stayed here, the more I shivered, my teeth clattering louder and louder. I thought perhaps it had gone and was in the middle of trying to think whether or not I was a complete idiot for even considering peering out from behind my hiding place, or if I was going to let myself freeze to death here at the river?

Decide fast, Stephanie. Either way, you’re dead. So what do you want? A long, drawn-out death by hypothermia? Or hopefully, a quick one by an animal once it finds you and rips your…

Yeah, no. No way. I’ll take getting hypothermia.

But just as I made this decision, my teeth were chattering so loud I knew that if the creature was still nearby, it could most definitely hear the click-click sound I was involuntarily making. I shifted a little in my seat, hoping to curl up even tighter, but the movement shifted several rocks I was sitting on, causing them to clatter against each other. I froze, cringing as the sound was much louder in this open space, even above the sound of the water trickling past.

It was then, from behind, that fast-approaching footsteps clattered over the river rocks of the shore, headed straight for me. Screaming, I flailed wildly, jumping up from my hiding place, and ran blindly into the dark, arms waving high over my head. I was so freaked out that I forgot that I couldn’t see shit, and ended up tripping over a fallen log, sprawling with a heavy thud onto the hard, rocky ground. With a deep moan, I curled up again as I sucked in breath after breath. I was so distracted by my pain that for a moment, I forgot that I had been running from something. That is until I heard a small shift of the rock behind me. Sucking in a sharp breath, freezing for a moment in dread, I slowly turned my head to look back.

Standing at the riverside, in exactly the same spot where I’d been hiding, was a person!

I blinked hard. Was it truly human? Oh my God… I was pretty sure it was! I sat up a little, wincing from the pain in my lungs, holding myself as I squinted in the darkness, hating that they were still standing well out of my range of sight.

“Hello?” I called, tentatively.

There was a pause like I had startled them, but then, “Bip, bip!”

It was the same call I’d heard before, the one that accompanied the strange whooping, but it was much gentler now, and higher-pitch. Was it a woman?

“Hi, hello? Please, I’m lost… I was in a-an accident…” I shivered, trying to speak through the clattering of my teeth, but I was so cold at this point I couldn’t even feel my lips. My damp clothes felt like they were frozen to my tiny five-foot frame. I sucked in a deep breath, wincing again as all my aches from today came rushing back, my most recent fall only adding to the tally of physical trials I’d endured on this trip.

The person hummed, then whistled at me, rather like a bird. But the higher tone confirmed that it was a girl. This revelation had me sighing heavily in relief. The last thing I needed was to be alone with a strange man in the forest.

Marcus… Pete… Harris… I shook those thoughts away. I didn’t need to add those dark memories onto a currently already traumatic experience.

I thought she’d say something, anything at this point, but instead, she just slowly moved up the path I’d run on, her walk oddly slouched over and strange. Was she hurt, too? Oh God, how was I going to help another person in this place when I was such a disaster?

The closer she got, the more the physical features and details about her became clear, the light of the moon helping aid me as I studied her.

This woman was a big gal. Like, I’m talking she could give some heavyweight boxers a run for their money. I didn’t know how tall she was, but it was definitely over six feet, higher even, but it was hard to tell by her strange, sloping walk. The bulking size of her shifted until I could finally see that what looked like lumpy muscles were actually furs… furs! Why on earth was she dressed in fur?

Because fur is warm, you bonehead.

I craned my head back to keep her face in my sights, squinting as I tried to make out something about her that confirmed that she was, indeed, human. While I struggled to get a better look at her, she seemed to have no problems studying me. I could tell by the way her head turned one way over my body and up the other. I was still lying on the ground, curled up in a ball, shivering like mad, peering up as I strained to try to make out something about her. As though sensing I was having trouble seeing, she waved a hand in front of my face.

Yes! A hand! Good! Another comforting confirmation that she was human!

Again, she waved her hand closer and closer until it became absolutely clear, and I reached up to take it. Her skin was a lovely golden colour like she sat in the sun often, but it had a looseness to it that reminded me of my mother. Despite the dirt and rough calluses, it was warm and gentle, and the moment I grabbed it, she closed her fingers around mine, enveloping my entire hand completely. Thank God, I might actually have a chance of surviving this!

Relieved, I dropped my head to the ground, hissing when I stupidly let it fall against the stones. I swear, I couldn’t go anywhere without hurting myself in some way.

The scars…

Those were on purpose. They’re different. They’re the reason I hide in my oversized clothing. I quickly push those dark thoughts aside. They were in the past. They don’t matter. None of it matters. I am here now. And I needed to figure out how to save myself.

The moment I let my head sink to the ground, the woman tensed, her grip on my hand tightening ever so slightly. I blinked hard, watching as she looked one way down the river, then up the other. She scanned the trees as if searching for someone, or something. I don’t know what she was looking for. As far as I could tell, there was nothing else around us but trees.

It was then, in the distance, that a hair-raising off-key WHOOP broke the quiet spell of the moment, and I instantly sat up, staring off in the direction it’d come from. The south. I knew that because it was upriver. It was answered by a very distant roar, the sound so far away I had no concern for this terrifying version of this woman’s call. I was pretty sure there was some fight going on, but again, the sounds echoed through the forest, breaking off from the distance between us. It was too hard to tell what exactly was happening. All I could think was that there were more people here.

How was that possible? Wasn’t this place off-limits to the public? How was this woman even here? This whole national park had strict rules about hiking and camping. And this area? It had been completely out of bounds.

The woman who still held my hand, however, was listening intently to the other calls, but something about them made her nervous. I could tell because she tensed up all over, her shadowed face pointed in the same spot through the trees like she could understand everything that was going on, and she didn’t like it.

Slowly, like she was being overly cautious, she bent down to my side, and I was able to get a better look at her face. It was warm, with dark hair that had gone almost completely grey. Her wide-set dark eyes were lined with crows feet. Her lips were smooth and full, her cheekbones high, and she had a friendly look about her that instantly put me at ease. She was lovely. I figured she must be in her mid to late forties, at least a good twenty years older than me. She studied my eyes, moving a finger back and forth before them, which I followed. Was she checking to see if I was concussed? Slowly, she pulled her hand back, finger still up, and I followed it as best I could, but eventually, lost sight of it in the dark.

“I-I can’t see very well,” I explained to her, and pointed to my eyes, shaking my head, “I lost my glasses in the river…”

She cocked her head to the side, listening, but there was no sign that anything I said registered on her face. Maybe she couldn’t speak English? I wish I’d paid better attention in Spanish class in school.

“Hablas espa?ol?” I asked, struggling to remember more.

Still nothing. I was thrown as to what other language around here was common enough to–

That terrible off-key call rang out through the woods again, cutting off my train of thought, followed by another roar. She turned away from me, staring south again, the tension in the air so high it was rubbing off on me and making me nervous as hell. Whatever was making that noise seemed to push her into making a decision. To my surprise, she effortlessly scooped me up, turning me so my face was pressed into the fur she wore around her body, and wrapped my legs around her waist and back. I was so thrown by this, her strength despite her age catching me off guard, that I just instinctively held on while she turned and headed northwest, right into the woods.

“Wait! I need to stay by the river!” I told her. I would have pointed back, but I was too scared to let go lest I fall, which would most likely be the end result. I didn’t need another injury to add to my list. She ignored me, but when I kept protesting, she pressed a hand to my mouth and shook her head, glancing around the darkness that surrounded us and I picked up the hint. Noise attracted animals and we certainly didn’t want that. So, I reluctantly shut up while wishing she’d just return me to my spot. I didn’t want to get even more lost than I already was.

She moved stealthily through the trees, making little noise as she hurried along, stopping often to peer over her shoulder as though checking for signs that we were being followed. Whenever she confirmed or felt confident enough that this was not the case, she moved on, still cradling me close. I felt peculiar about this, almost like a baby holding onto its mother, but she was so warm and gentle that I couldn’t help but cling on, my frozen fingers seeking the warmth from whatever dead animal hung from her shoulders. I tried not to think about that. My mother took me to a screening at the local theatre of the Disney movie Bambi when I was little, and I cried for a week after. I didn’t think this was a deer pelt, but I knew it would still have the same effect on me.

She ran for what felt like ages before the tall, towering shadows that were the trees began to span out farther apart from each other. The distance she’d run was impressive, but at the same time, I was crestfallen, because I knew trying to find my way back would be nearly impossible. We’d moved through the dark, hiding any natural landmarks I could have used to trace back my steps, and without glasses on top of it, I was most definitely lost.

As she slowed, stopping more and more frequently, lingering close to trees and bushes as she listened for signs of pursuit, I could make out the sounds of a small creek suddenly becoming clearer as we moved farther along. I turned my head to see in one direction, the massive trees now farther apart, but still overpowering the area, their limbs reaching up to the sky hiding the stars above.

Now, she made a run for it, heading in a straight line as though her destination was in sight. I twisted my neck to see behind me in the direction we were headed, and as we came closer, I began to piece together what we were moving toward, as I still couldn’t see that far. Around the base of an absolutely massive redwood, what looked like a giant rock was sitting in the middle of the forest, the tree having grown right through it. But as we got closer, I could make out several more enormous boulders, some the size of small cars, stacked here and there around the main rock, piled up around its sides with ferns sprouting between them. It looked natural, and yet, something about it screamed human intervention. Even with my blurred vision, it was impressive.

My carrier climbed up the side of the rock, her fingers searching in the dark for a crack to hold onto. I yelped and practically strangled her with my grip around her neck as the ground disappeared beneath us. The rockwall was literally a vertical drop, and she didn’t stop until she was at least twenty feet up. A small ledge smoothed in, close to the redwoods’ trunk, which revealed a black hole behind a fern, like an entrance to a cave.

I thought perhaps this was an animal shelter or something, but when she began to clamber down inside, feet first, I squeaked as my back scraped against the cool roughness of the stone.

“Bip! Bip!” She called down into the hole, descending smoothly at a sharp angle, and quickly, like she’d done this a hundred times before. For such an old woman, I couldn’t deny how impressed I was by her strength and agility.

“Bip! Bip!” To my surprise, another voice returned her call, a deeper one, a man’s. So she wasn’t alone out here! Oh my God, my chances of survival just went up another notch! I hoped these two were just some extreme hunters or something. Maybe they had food, or perhaps they found this place and have been using it as a sort of wild safe house when they came out here? Even though I was certain hunting was illegal here, I was so relieved to know I was no longer alone I felt like I could cry if I wasn’t so dried out from all the tears I’d shed earlier.

“Mowha! Gwod ug?” A third voice! Another man, but not as baritone as the first.

“Mmuh,” she replied, “Nawah gweebruh,” and with that last comment, she patted my head.

What in the heck were they saying? This was most definitely not English, and certainly not a language I was familiar with. I guess it didn’t matter that my Spanish was non-existent.

“Gweebruh?”

We’d come to the end of the tunnel and dropped deep inside the rock, but it was so dark I could barely make out anything except for a tiny bit of moonlight that beamed in through multiple cracks.

“Yahv. Chomm.” My savior ripped me away from her breast and held me up like an offering. She suspended me easily in the air, making sure the light of the moon was shining down on my body, her strength only more apparent now. I knew I was tiny, but I was still a nineteen-year-old woman. I squealed in shock, wondering what the hell was happening. What if these people were part of a Satanic cult? Was that what they were speaking? Was this why they were hiding out in this weird cave in the woods? Was I about to be sacrificed?

Before my face, a hand slowly emerged from the dark like something out of a horror movie, followed by a thick, muscular arm. Oh good God! I kicked and squirmed but the woman holding me was surprisingly strong, and easily kept me high up in the air. The large, manly hand seized my face, tilting it this way and that in the moonlight, his touch rough and calloused.

“Gweebruh!” The woman holding me said, excitedly. “Mowha jugra gweebruh!”

What in the heck did gweebruh mean? And why did I get the feeling that she was calling me that? The hand roughly turned my face around, then tilted it waaaaay back, and I got the sense this guy was looking at the rest of me, which was still hidden beneath my soggy, freezing, bulky clothing. When his other hand came out of the darkness to press against my chest, I yelped and kicked. Did he just cop a feel? Was he some sort of pervert or something? My heart was hammering away like a frightened rabbit’s.

Marcus… Pete… Harris… Cece…

“Please!” I cried, blushing hard and practically choking on air as this triggered many unbearable memories. “Please, don’t!”

He released me, his hand disappearing, but then slowly… very, very slowly, a face loomed from the shadows, the downlight from the moon exaggerating his features. His light eyes were upturned at a sharp angle, framed with black lashes. The odd, ghostly glimmer of them was both haunting and beautiful. He had a long, straight nose and high cheekbones, reminding me of someone with Nordic roots, but his hair was a wild tangle of wavy black, resting just above the shoulder line. In the pale light, I could make out the glint of silver in that shortly shorn beard of his.

I stared at him, struck dumb by the sharp contrast of his fierce beauty. He was gorgeous, but at the same time, there was a serious ferocious wildness about him that had me trembling in his presence.

He was looking over my head with a sharp scowl, like he was displeased with me for some reason, before he murmured, “Mmuh gweehbruh. Gwouy? Yahv. Gweed? Yahv. Mmuh gweehbruh, Mowha.” His voice was more of a growl than anything.

“Mmuh, aghaal Vulfu!” The woman holding me hauled me back to herself, cuddling me close against her stomach. “Yahv, yahv! Cht gwouy, yahv. Se!” She waved a hand in front of my eyes and shook her head. “Brahda.”

Another figure materialized from the dark, another woman, who bowed her head so that she could stare intently into my eyes. She was older than the others, with much more white in her hair. Her dark gaze studied my appearance closely, touching my clothes, my hair, and staring into my eyes like she thought she would find something there.

Meanwhile, over my head, the woman who found me and the man were shouting at each other, roaring and practically snarling as they argued. This sudden turn in events had me covering my ears with my hands, curling in on myself as I tried to look as tiny as possible which, around these beasts, wasn’t too hard.

“Rowha guh! Rowe guh! Mowha gwuhk gweebruh!” The one holding me changed her tune, her tone gentling with sadness but had a strange sort of wheedling tone to it like she was pleading.

Again, the man growled in response, his hand appearing briefly as he pointed at me and argued some more. Over all the noise, I could hear the movement of others shifting around in the dark. How many people were there? And why were they here? And what was the argument about? I was so confused and uncomfortable, hungry and cold, that I managed to summon more tears. Soon, I was bawling like my mind had sensory overload and decided it wanted to break down completely. I tried to pull away from the others, to climb out of this dark hole and separate myself from this mass of confusion, but I was held firmly in place.

At the sound of my cry, however, the others stopped, their argument momentarily forgotten.

“I-I’m sorry if I-I’ve caused some sort of f-fight here,” I sniffled between tears. “I just-just want to f-find my friends and leave. I-I promise I won’t be a-a bother… I just, I just…” I sucked in sharp breaths in quick succession, hating that I had such a problem articulating my thoughts to others. My cheeks heated in embarrassment to be seen by a group of strangers crying like a baby. But I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t stop.

As my stupid rambling petered off, from the dark, the same scowling man came forward again, the one who seemed to dislike me for whatever reason. Standing beneath the light, he reached out and held my face up once more, no doubt revealing my tear-strained, puffy face, my eyes glittering from tears. He leaned in close, his lighter gaze narrowing slightly as he peered at me, staring straight into my eyes for the first time. I met his stare, still sniffling, but at least I was no longer babbling like an idiot. As he studied my features more intently, I wondered what he was going to do. To my surprise, he leaned in ever closer, until his nose was almost brushing against the hollow of my throat, and inhaled like he was smelling me. My skin jumped at the brush of his contact but he pulled back then. His hostile expression changed, becoming more inquisitive, and the enraged volatility that had been there before softened the longer he observed me.

Suddenly, he glanced over my head at the woman. “Cht jugra Mowha hum,” to which she responded with a joyful cry. Before she could celebrate whatever the heck he’d just told her fully, he held up a hand, silencing her. “Cht mmuh gweebruh, cht jugra Vulfu.”

The long, deep rumble at my back said that whatever he’d just announced, she did not like. Not one bit. She stewed for a minute like she was considering whatever the heck he had just told her, before finally, she muttered, “Yahv.”

Yahv? I thought. What does that mean? “Wait, what’s that? What’s yahv?” I asked, surprising even myself by speaking up. But something about that word felt like it had officially sealed my fate. Like some massive decision or proposition had been made. And here I was sitting in the dark, figuratively and literally, with no idea what on earth was happening.

“Yahv.” He cast me one last lingering look, his eyes staring deep into mine for several seconds before he tore himself away and disappeared into the dark. Why did I get the feeling that he wanted to stay? And why did I get the feeling that whatever the heck they’d just talked about, it all had to do with me?