The Forest

-26-

It was a wonder that they slept, but somehow they did, and morning came in the last way anyone expected it. Warmth.

Lyn woke first. Golden sunlight was bleeding down the slope, the sky blue and blanched with cloud. There was a smell of wet earth in the air. She took a moment to herself before rousing Alder, who was dozing beside her with his hair sticking to one side of his face. Today would be another long day. They been forced to take refuge in the burrow when shadows made the path unreadable and they began stumbling, but even then neither had wanted to stop. They would have walked sunset to sunrise had the weather not taken a turn. It had been howling all night, but thankfully the storm seemed to have blown through. Now, another day of travelling, There was no telling how much further they had to go— Maybe two days, maybe three. It didn't matter how long the journey was, so long as they reached them in time.

She lifted herself from the ground. The only perk of not having a bed was that you didn't have to pry yourself from comfort in the morning. You were already half awake anyway. She rose without much difficultly and set her attention on preparing to leave.
She plaited her hair into two strands, pulled on her boots and knotted the laces, wiped down her bow on the edge of her cloak. The changing temperature bought a dewy damp. All the little chores gave her a warm sense of deja-vu from back when she had busied herself like this every morning, fussing around her tiny hideaway, waiting for Lucius to bring her food or other knick-knacks she asked him for.
I miss you.

"Alder." She shook his shoulders.
Alder turned the other way and mumbled.
"Alder, we need to get going. It's good weather, it might not last."
Alder groaned and stretched. His voice was lilted with sleep, "Tired..."
She was wise enough to give him some space while he woke himself up.

Lyn took her bow and made her way up the slope. The dirt was loose and crumbling where last night it had been solid with frost, and it took a while to make her way back up. The curtains of vine and wandering roots around the entrance was a giveaway that the home was abandoned. Neither of them would be alive to see sunrise had they wandered into a fox or badger's lair, and she had to give Alder the credit of recognising the burrow as a safe place to spend the night. She wondered what she would have done had he not given her the idea. She had prepared for many things, but a blizzard had never even crossed her mind. Hopefully Aspen was alright, if he was out here somewhere.

The day was clean and bright when she reached the top. Snow rested on branches while icicles dripped. Finally the lingering snowcloud had worn itself out and the sky had settled. The reward for weathering the night was this: a morning fit for a picture. And the shadow that rose from the mist.

Lyn froze when she reached the top.
"Hurry up," Alder yawned behind her, "What are you stopping for?" He managed to scramble up beside her, then froze.
Lyn didn't know whether to smile or cry. She did a bit of both, staring ahead with a huge smile, tears in her eyes. "We made it."

The Facility rose up from the morning mist. It was a fleck amid the trees, a gleam of white, standing tall with the lake on its left and faraway mountains on its right. There was no denying that hours of trekking remained. But that didn't matter. Because they could see it. They had made better progress than either of them had dared to imagine— it was there, touchable, no longer just an invisible goal. And with it, Ronnie and Fleur. No snow could keep them from it now.

Alder clutched his satchel and started down the hill. "Come on."
"Wait." Lyn took his wrist before he could go any further.
He jabbed his hand, "It's right there, the blazes are we waiting for?"
"How are we doing this?"
Alder stilled. He hadn't considered that, had he? Ronnie and Fleur were within reach, but with them, their captors.
"We need a plan." Lyn passed her bow from hand to hand, "I didn't come all this way to get caught by some human..."
"You think I did?"
She didn't answer.
Alder looked at the smudge against the horizon. So close. He bowed his head, face stoney with thought, and looked to his satchel, as if that would contain answers. All he had in there was some food and small-scale tools. "We can do what you and Micah did before, right? Go up that tunnel thing...?"
Lyn thought. It had worked before, there was no reason why it couldn't work again.