The Forest

-3-

Avery followed through the moss-speckled trails in a trancelike state. Fractured shadows swept over his shoulders as sunlight filtered through the branches overhead. Here, every shadow was broken. No high-rise towers to blot out the sun. To seek absolute dark you would have to burrow underground. Even saying that felt silly— The ground was barely visible. Here, him and Lucius were deep in the thicket, immersed amid the poplars and pines, with the concrete world far behind them. Dewdrops would occasionally slip off the few lonely leaves that still clung to their branches and whirl to the floor, or more regularly splatter on the tip of Avery's nose, causing him to leap backwards and yelp. It had happened three times already and was yet to fail at making Lucius laugh.

It was cool in the woodlands, more so than it had been in the city. Because of the shadows, maybe. There was damp at the base of each tree where the earth was darker, thicker, and lichen webbed artfully over the rocky patches in the ground. Usually it would be baked by the sun or nibbled away by little bank voles like Amaryllis, but the winter was giving it some respite, adding an yellowish tint to the smaller plant clusters. Avery had a strange sort of guilt every time he put his foot down to take a step and heard a crunching sound in response. It felt like he was trampling something no matter where he stepped. Everything here breathed, everything glittered, swelled and rested, even in stillness the light caught the dew and divided into prismatic rays.

Avery could hear a few birds. Only a few though. Some warbling songs of merry praise, others no more than a spectral echo carried in the wind, coming from far away. Like owls. Sometimes they sprayed the condensation from the branches when they leapt off into the sky, startled by the two human intruders in their forest. He didn't have to hold his breath to hear that flittery thwacking sound as their wings worked, not here, where there wasn't a single engine humming. Quiet. Not silence, because somewhere in the distance there was swirling air that whistled. The canopy stirred at the sight of him and Lucius below, sighed when they passed on. But it was so serenely quiet. He had never known such calm was possible.

How long had they been walking? He couldn't have guessed if his life depended on it. It felt like a long time, like each moment since they first stepped from concrete to dirt had been some strange dream, a haze speckled in grizzled greens and the smell of wet earth.

"Through here." Lucius' voice broke him from his trance. Avery could almost feel the rupture between him and the forest as he tore his eyes away from the natural life, as if staring at it in such quiet had somehow connected them, momentarily. He looked at Lucius' back now. He walked these woodlands like he was following a path only he could see. Where Avery faltered he marched on, never stumbling, he weaved through trunks and stepped over fallen trees without making a sound. Like he knew exactly where to tread at all times. The boy's shadow was long and warped, merging with the criss-cross pattern the trees cast. Avery followed that grey jumper through the copses, the swaying black hair as it ducked under weepy-looking vines, that figure illuminated in the cool winter light.

"You really know where we're going?" Avery dreamily asked. At that moment, Lucius could have led the two of them off a cliff and he might have followed.
Lucius didn't even turn around as he ducked under a branch, "Yeah." Spoken as if that wasn't totally amazing. To be able to navigate through here without aid.
"Well..." he brushed over a few pine needles as he copied Lucius' ducking movement. They prickled his fingers, "How?" Everything looked the same, even the sparseness of it all didn't much help.
"Uh..." Lucius slowed as he considered the question. It seemed like a long time ago now that he had been so amazed by Aspen's ability to wander through Ernwood without a map.
"I dunno. I just got a feel for it now, I guess." By spending time with a person you begin to learn their quirks, the shape their face makes when they smile or pout. In the same way, Lucius had spent enough time in the blanket of the canopy to learn the shape of the forest. He pointed to a few of the leafless trees, "Like... the trees kinda look different one way, and... the sun makes shadows and stuff, you know?"
Avery blinked. "No, not really..."
Lucius gave a slight laugh and waved his hand, "I dunno. I just do. Come on."