The Spring

“Why are we going off the path again?”

It was Estonia. Again. Just as uptighter-than-a-snare-drum-head as ever. But winfry preferred Estonia’s whining over Latvia’s passive aggressive eye rolls. If Latvia so much as said anything so help him God winfry would have snapped. isa, however, said she never saw Latvia show any such expressions but winfry knew better. He still hadn’t figure out away to repay her for throwing the librem but he was brooding his time. He’d to think of something, eventually.

Anyways, they were going off the path because the chimera – the finch, rabbit, Labrador tribrid – told winfry that they needed to find the hollow, that it was very important, dire in fact. Only he never told winfry what the hollow was or where or why it was so important? And that didn’t sit well with the rest of the group. And that was starting to eat winfry’s newfound confidence for midmorning snack.

When the finch told him to follow her right before the surprise attack at the B&B, winfry knew they had to follow the bird. She was there only hope. And she was. By following the ally they weaved their way almost directly to the woods without any problems. The company of course was very grateful for the forest’s cover but of course they didn’t mention it so soon forgot.

After two days of aimless trekking through the now-infernal woods, tempers and water were fast running out. (For some reason the mist woman’s divining-spammer was still jamming winfry and isa so the were unable to just conjure up water like they had done the last time they wandered the woods and none of the sisters had enough control without Timoteo to do anything useful.) winfry was sitting just outside the camp to get a break from it all. With their month as victims to the tricks of the woods, winfry and isa knew they had been walking circles but Lithuania refused to hear it and there’s a mathematical limit to how many times you can tell someone she is wrong before both parties snap. isa was resting her eyes and doing breathing exercises to keep calm so she didn’t see the bird watching them from a nearby bush. But winfry did.

After opening to a wide grin winfry said, “I bet you think this a great show, all of our little group’s tension and temper tantrums ‘cause I suspect you birds don’t have TV now do you?”

But the bird just twitched its head.

“I also suspect that you’ve come here to tell me how to find water and save the day. Even though you don’t have a TV I bet you know that’s how the stories always go.”

But the bird still just twitched its head.

“Oh. I see. You’re a greedy little one or maybe you have babies to feed.” And winfry dug in his back till he pulled out a nutrition bar and tossed some of the crumbs towards the bird.

The bird stopped twitching and stared at winfry.

“And yes I’m getting you some string just give me a few seconds.”

The rest of the company, if they did noticed winfry at all, just assumed he was talking to isa, who they didn’t know had fallen asleep.

After the bird finished the crumbs and was wagging its tail, she looked up at winfry. “You have to come quick. It won’t last long. Get everyone.”

“What? Now?! We just set up camp can’t we”

“Now!” And then it flashed off.

winfry woke isa and told her they had to go quick if they wanted to get water.

“Did you see that bird again?”

“Yeah, and it said we all have to go. I’ll let the rest know.” He dreaded doing this. With the day they had, no one would want to leave the camp they’d just made. winfry was too nice for this type of thing.

“Um… Hey… Can I have your, ah, attention.” Latvia looked up and Felix gave him a glance but that was it. “Look. I know where we can get water but we have to leave now. It’s not going to last very long.” It wasn’t a brilliant speech but it got their attention.

“What are you talking about?”

“How do you know all this?

“No way in Brisdin am I going to leave this camp.”

“Shut up Estonia.” winfry was more surprised to hear that than Estonia but he kept going. “It’s for you own good and I got us out of Lokton if you don’t remember. Just do it.”

Felix was the first to get his things, well second after isa of course, and that set the wheels in motion even if Estonia was a bit squeaky. All following winfry who hoped to follow the bird.

“Why are we going up hill? I’d imagine more water would be downhill,” reasoned Lithuania.

“Well, at least–,” winfry was about to go off but isa interrupted with a whisper.

“winfry, please not now. Relax it’s ok,” She knew winfry hadn’t yet seen the bird and was bleeding confidence.

“These woods aren’t exactly normal so it’s no using trying to reason with them. At least that’s what we’ve learned living in them.”

And then he saw it. Pecking on the ground underneath a tree.

“There it is. Come on!”

Only no one else saw it, even as it fluttered into the dark of the woods. Not even isa.

“There what is?” “What did you see?” “I don’t see anything.” And all sorts of other remarks waterfalled onto winfry. But he didn’t want to tell them about the bird. They’d think he was crazy and go back. So he hand-waved on.

“It’s just up ahead come on.”

He picked up the pace. Re-energized by the bird. He even thought he heard water. And then he ran face first into a briar bush. Well it was a patch actually and it created a huge barrier. It looked like it would be quite a walk to get around it and they couldn’t see over it.

“Oh no, I’m definitely not trying to get through that, even if there is water.”

isa quickly set to cleaning winfry’s scratches but they weren’t causing his grimace. A dead end! How could that be happening? He had given the bird everything. And worse he had dragged everyone else out of the camp. They were going to hate him! There had to be a way through.

The disapproving looks had started, worse than if he’d walked into the lady’s by mistake. The shame made it even harder to think of how to get through. But that’s when he heard the bird. It must have been far away because it was muffled and with it being so hollow in the first place it was terribly hard to make out.

“Listen. Do you hear that?”

“No. What?” “It’s just the wind.”

“No it’s saying something. Listen.”

But no one really listened, except isa.

“It says look in the tree. We need to find something in a tree.” winfry rushed from tree to tree but the others weren’t as enthusiastic. Estonia didn’t even get up. Finally Felix shouted out.

“Hey, come here. Look at this.”

Much to winfry’s annoyance, no one had any problems following Felix to the tree.

It was a hollowed out tree but inside was a ladder of sorts that lead down to the ground. winfry immediately scaled down. After ten seconds he shouted up for them to come down, that there was a tunnel. The tunnel led underneath the wall of briars and up to a clearing with steaming geysers spraying up water at random intervals. The group managed to collect the water with only a few burns for the small pools that formed after each geyser went off. Shortly after they fill up all their bottles the geysers stopped, the pools dried up and the questions began.

“How did you know we would find water here?” “Had you been here before?” “And how did you know about the tree?” “Yeah, what was it that you were hearing?” “And how did you know to take the alley?” “What’s going on?” “You owe us an explanation?” And on and on and not even a single thank you…

This caught winfry off guard and he was still reluctant to tell them about the bird. “Um, well, I just felt like it was the right thing to do. You know? Umm…”

“It was a bird. You saw a bird. Tell them winfry. It’s ok.”

“A bird?”

“Yeah well it’s not really a bird because it has rabbit ears and a Labrador’s tail…” no one said anything, “and it came to me before the mist lady came and told me we had to leave right away. It flew down the alley. Isa saw it too. And then just now it came again and told me to follow it up here and I heard it telling me to look in the tree. That’s how we made it. The bird saved us.”

The rest of the group obviously hadn’t spent enough time the woods because they were reluctant to just accept winfry’s story. And of course they had questions. Piles of them.

“Where did this bird come from?” “How does it talk?” “Did you see it too isa?” “Does it really have a dog tail?” “Why would it help us?” “Why couldn’t we hear it?” “Do you think it will come back?” Like it was winfry’s new best friend from school and they were his mom – well not winfry’s mom she wasn’t one for questions but you know. After fifteen minutes of interrogation, winfry was hoping that he were more socially adept and could just figure out a way to get them to stop.

“Hey, look at that. I can use the quilaire again!” And there was isa with a freshly flamed fire, which was much more interesting than winfry’s vague unanswers. Finally some relief. Once again, isa to the rescue. What a girl. And all that sap.

Unfortunately we still haven’t gotten to part about the hollow (and all the parts in between) but them other narrators can pick up the slack.