Dani’s first glimpse of Theo’s wilderness filled her with wonder and about a million questions. She expected the weather to be chilly but instead she stepped from the cave into warm, muted and sultry daylight. As if in mockery of her thwarted expectations, ice crystals were piled in shady niches – such as the shadowed cleavage between twisted roots of the trees – patches of ice melt seeped into the ground producing slippery areas of mud. Ice particles clung to the trunks of trees and shimmered on fingerlike branches already burdened with plump buds while under her feet sprigs of green and purple and brown and blue shrugged up against the frosted carpet of previous years’ moldering leaves. The steady drip of water from above forced her to pull up the hood of her sweatshirt in spite of the warmth.

After a few moments of panic when she looked back and realized she had lost sight of the cave entrance, she noted a flicker of red through the trees and discovered how it marked the position of the cave, naturally concealed by the formation of the rock face and the growth of vegetation around and on it. Once the trees leafed out, that rock face would be invisible. Thereafter she attempted to stay near the general area surrounding the entrance to the cave, using the red strip of cloth to keep from wandering too far from shelter until she had a good look around for the necklace. Eventually, in a moment of distraction, she wandered out of sight of the red cloth and after the first sheer panic subsided, Dani convinced herself she would be fine to start walking. It was her aim to move forward, not go back. She resumed her rambling search of the wood until she stumbled upon a trail of sorts, a well worn path riddled with protruding roots and rough sheets of basalt. On either side the forest crowded in as if at any moment it would leap forward and reclaim the trail.

She saw no sign of the gem, but she had not exactly expected to find it. She gave up the search as impractical and pointless. She needed Theo’s help to find it -- he knew her arrival site -- but she expected no help from him in that quarter. His knowledge of the environment and wildlife would be handy too but he had departed first thing without explanation leaving her with a stern warning to wait for his return so she gave him a good twenty or thirty minute head start before setting out. If he cared to he could find her, but she doubted he would. When he returned and found her gone he would likely throw his hands up and count her as a lost cause and leave her to her fate. That was fine with her.

She would make her own way in this strange place.

Moving forward without the necklace was problematic but eventually, with or without it she would head west to the city indicated on Mama’s map that Theo warned her to avoid. At the moment, the light was directionless; fused and bright it filtered down through the crowded branches high above. Without the delineation of sunlight from shadow she could have been walking in any direction. She tried her compass, but it spun back and forth in confusion.

She followed the trail for some time before it occurred to her what a meandering nonsensical path it was, wending between trees and bushes and around rock outcrops and the massive trunks of the Canopy that appeared at wide intervals rearing up high and majestic above the forest proper. She stopped to assess her options. The trail made a long curvy loop the distance of a baseball diamond before it made a hairpin turn around a granite boulder and came back to within ten feet of her current location where it made a wide turn around the trunk of a large tree and headed northwest (at least Dani thought it was northwest) toward a near Fughari.

It was her first close glimpse of one of the massive trees that made up the Canopy and it was within easy reach, but for the ridiculous insanity of the path. What had Theo said about the native trails? They seldom go anywhere but from one Fughari to the next. What had he said about the Canopy? He had said when summer came she would see and she did see. The Canopy grew high above the forest blotting out the sky: it was responsible for the diffuse sunlight. The near Fughari was big enough that hollowed out it could have been converted into a comfortable sort of dwelling, with plenty of room for a large family.

She wanted in the worst way to get up close and personal with it. All that stood between her and the nearest back turn in the native trail was a swatch of groundcover, lime green leaves unfurling on a tangle of dark purple vines and tiny stems. At the base of each new leaf developed clusters of tiny pink tinged flower buds. What Dani saw was a shortcut. The area of groundcover was narrow here but spread further in a westerly direction where it widened out and came to an abrupt end against the base of another curved outcrop of granite. West meant left. Whether it was true west or not did not matter, it helped her brain to cope to give a direction that made sense and at home she often thought of west being over to the left, which it was if you stood facing north in Southern Vermont with the Taconic Mountains situated over your left shoulder.

About to obey the impulse to get close to the near Fughari, about to take her first step into the pleasing lime green ground cover whose tiny pink buds already filled the air with a sumptuous heady scent Dani heard a loud snap behind her.

When she turned she only had time to glimpse the tan blur of Theo just before he body slammed her to the ground. She bit her tongue. The sharp copper flavor of blood flooded her mouth. Her breath was gone. He had her over his shoulder and was running before she knew it, her head bouncing while the jittery muted light made her dizzy and her stomach unhappy.

He carried her back to the cave and deposited her on the bench near the now dead fire. The only light in the chamber was muted daylight sheeting from the chimney all sparkly with particles of dust and ash. The faceted obsidian wall caught the light and winked at Dani. Theo examined the cold wet fire pit, paused to give her an approving nod and then collected his packs and took up his spear. It was the first time she could recall seeing it in his hand. Dani noticed that two rabbit sized rodents dangled at Theo’s hip. He grabbed her arm and pulled into the interior of the cave toward the passage, the one he always took when he returned with sacks of rocks.

She thought they would return to the wood.

She resisted. “What about my necklace? I need you to help me find it, since you know where I arrived. Take me there and we’ll search for it.”

He tugged on her arm, giving a shake of his head, half aggravation and half resignation.

“I cannot leave without it. I mean it. If you want to go, then go, but first show me where to look for it.”

“Stop fretting. I went to the place of your arrival and searched the area; I found nothing. “

“I’m suppposed to believe you?”

“Believe me or not. Now it is time to be on our way.”

He pulled her along the passage without the benefit of lighting. It was all Dani could do to keep up. She stumbled along at the quick pace Theo set and kept up a continuous flow of complaints and questions.

“What’s the hurry? Where are we going? I can take care of myself you know. I don’t need you. Slow down. I can’t see. Let go of me,” Until she was gasping for breath and had to shut up or else faint away.

They made their way through darkness. Guided by his large hand he pulled her in behind him when the passage narrowed or doubled over when he pressed his hand on her head and warned her to duck or ordered her out of her pack in order to squeeze her sideways through when the passage narrowed to a tight fissure. Twice they stepped through into larger chambers. The sudden increase in each space was betrayed by damp cool air and the echo of their footsteps bouncing off the walls. When necessary he stopped and guided her carefully over areas so rocky she feared she would turn her ankle or fall and dash her knees open. For the most part the floor was littered with crumbling bits of stone.

She could not escape. She had no idea where they were and felt all turned around, even more disoriented than when she stood beside the patch of vine convinced west was west because it was over her left shoulder. Besides, she was still somewhat dazed from Theo’s attack so she said nothing. It took too much energy to keep going at the pace he set on a path that sloped always downward.

Her labored breath sounded hollow and weak. Finally, unable to take another step, her lungs burning and her head swimming and her ears ringing she dug in her heels and leaned back, countering the pull of Theo’s hand. He pulled her along for several feet, the soles of her boots plowing through bits of rock and dirt.

“Stop!” she gasped desperately. “Stop! Stop! I can’t breathe.”

Theo released her arm and she fell back on her seat with a jarring thump.

She adjusted her weight leaning on her knees and massaged her chest, fighting desperately to get her breathing under control. The air down here was no thicker than the too thin atmosphere up above. Theo was silent. She heard him shifting a bit in the dark. Why did he say nothing? Even a mild rebuke for disobeying his demand that she wait in the cave for his return was preferable to the utter silence in the utter darkness of this underground passage.

“Where are we going?” She gasped.

“Rest,” was Theo’s answer, his voice coming from the dark area to her left and above her, indicating he was still standing. She looked fruitlessly in that direction.

Her head pounded. She reached around to her back and her hand landed automatically on the shaft of her flashlight inside the net pocket on the outside of her pack usually reserved for water bottles. She pulled it out and switched it on.

“Keepers!” Theo cursed.

He snatched the flashlight from her hand before she could wriggle out of her pack and use it to retrieve her first aid kit.

“Hey.”

“You light blinded me.” Under his breath he uttered the peculiar curse again then his voice trailed off into an unintelligible mutter. Not for the first time Dani wondered who the Keepers were. Probably a continuing study of Mama’s note would identify them.

“I need that.” She wrestled one arm out of her pack.

“Keep that on.” He said

“I have a headache.” Dani said. “I have pain killers in my first aid kit. Let me get one.”

He turned the light into her eyes, blinding her.

“Theo, give me my light back. I can get the pills out and then I’ll turn the light off again, though why you insist on walking in the dark when you have light to show the way is beyond me. Why don’t you just use your headlamp or the torch?”

Well, of course, dimwit, Dani muttered under her breath. He had left the torch behind.

He pointed the light at her pack and waited for her to make her search.

She found the pouch and withdrew a packet holding two extra strength Tylenol, tore open the pouch and popped the pills washing them down with water from one of her water bottles.

“No geo-student worth his salt would be caught dead wasting light in the underground.”

“What does that mean?” Dani wished just once that he would not be so cryptic.

“It means walking the in between passages in the dark to save your light for the important work.”

“And what is the important work?”

But he refused to enlighten her further.

“You know,” Dani employed the calmest tone she could muster under the circumtances. “If you explained yourself I might not have “light blinded you and you would have saved yourself all this trouble. Where are we going in such a hurry?”

She had barely returned the water and first aid kit to the pack when Theo doused the light, plunging them into an even deeper darkness, if that were possible. She worked the backpack strap up over her shoulder.

“The first skill students of geo-science must learn is how to navigate passages without light. My headlamp absorbs energy from any number of natural light or heat sources: an open flame, starlight, daylight, indirect light from lightening, the cook fire, even the colored lights in the Fugharim, but I only use it for close work. For traveling the passages or large chambers the torch is useful, but it has a limited fuel source, so I use it sparingly and only in areas where I am certain there are no pockets of natural gas it might ignite.” His voice, reasonable enough, came still from her left but near her shoulder. He must be squatting.

“I don’t smell any gas here.” Dani said with a tremor in her voice that demoralized her.

“No. You clearly do not understand our ways or our technology, so I am counting on you to trust me. I know what I am doing.” He sounded like a completely different person; calm, detached and confident, with no hint of impatience or angst.

He tapped her shoulder with the flashlight. “Put this away.”

She did as she was told but used the pause in their conversation to again reiterate to him that she could not go on without the necklace. “How can I make you understand it is vital that I have it?”

He sighed. “You may have to accept that it is gone.”

Dani wanted to rebuff him. That was unacceptable. She could not conceive of being stranded in the cosmos. The idea was preposterous. The whole object in coming to Haven was to find Momma, turn around and go home. The idea that she would only achieve half her goal, that her family would have to carry the unsolved question of where Momma had gone and why into their graves made her sick to her stomach.

She considered the only acceptable alternative: the stone was in Theo’s possession and he had lied.

“If you have the necklace, please give it back and I’ll forgive you for stealing it.”

Theo gripped her arm and he pulled her to her feet.

“I’m not ready yet.” She complained.

“Your breathing is stable enough.” The reasonable Theo was gone and the grumpy Theo had returned. “Move.”

They walked for what felt like hours of stumbling over loose stones and squeezing through narrow crevices and hurrying down stone steps. Steps that must have been carved, she asked but was rewarded with Theo’s stoney silence. They finally exited the mountain through a small cave. Night had fallen. The air was still somewhat warm with random eddies of cooling air raising the hair on the back of her neck and chilling the perspiration on her forehead. Far off Dani heard a low rumble of thunder preceded and followed by bright flares of lightening. Here the night was clear and sharp. They stood on a wide stone ledge with the underground passage at their backs facing a thick sloping forest. Looking up was useless, there was no visible sky though the light of the moon still managed somehow to make itself seen. Its blue-white light filtered down through the verdant Canopy and glanced across the trunks of the near trees in shredded patterns interrupted only by the occasional flicker of lightening.

“Where are we?”

“Out.” His one word answer sounded angry.

She sighed.

“I don’t know why you’re angry,” she said.

It was on the tip of her tongue to again accuse him of having the necklace, but she controlled the urge. Now was not the time for that argument. For one she was completely exhausted. Her inner clock was telling her “tick tock, its nine o’clock in the a.m.” while the environment said it was much later – or much earlier. She was dog tired and her mind was confused as to how much time had they really spent in the mountain. Secondly if he had the sapphire and her accusation prompted him to confess and give it back – unlikely – and as much as she needed it she preferred not to be in possession of the jewel yet. The warm fuzzy feeling she experienced when she put in on had lasted a few seconds and the searing pain that followed was still sharply remembered, sharp enough to dissuade her from wanting possession of the thing too soon. Better to save that conversation before she parted company with Theo. Let him carry the pain of it as long as possible, if he carried the stone at all.

It was better to think Theo had the stone because otherwise with every step she moved further and further from the key that promised to be her way home.

Keeping his grip on her arm, Theo pulled her along after him, following some path in the forest she could not see. At least they were out of that dark place, but still she was exhausted. Already the Tylenol was wearing off and her head pounded. She wanted to eat.

The forest was lively with the chirrup, stutter and quibble of unseen creatures; the creak of branches rubbed together by the breeze; the susurration of vegetation moved by unseen currents. She tried to make out the phosphorescence or whatever it was Theo had told her to look for but saw nothing like it. Maybe the moonlight interfered.

Dani struggled to keep up with the pace set by Theo’s long strides, until breathing again became a fight. She tried to pull up short, but Theo was having none of that. His grip tightened and he dragged her along.

“I need to stop.” She gasped. Her voice was so thin she doubted he heard her.

“Theo!” She meant to shout but it came out in a whispery huff. She stumbled. Neanderthal was going to be the death of her.

When she had ventured out earlier she had set a pace attuned to her own sense of how much oxygen she could suck in with each breath, an unhurried wandering gait that allowed her to keep a clear head and make progress at the same time while taking in the strange exotic flurry of sudden growth, wanting to understand the wonder of winter raging one moment and a few hours later life springing forth with abandon and determination, as if the quicker it grew in the more certain it was to keep winter at bay. Dani hoped for a long break from those howling winter winds.

Theo’s haste was wearing her out. Her oxygen was depleted. Added to that, she felt hot and sick and just a little bit confused. She stumbled again.

“What the hell, Theo. You’d think the devil was hot on your trail. I can’t keep up.”

Theo stopped and turned to her, looking down, she saw by the tilt of his head, his face remained featureless. Without saying a word he adjusted his haversack, removed her pack and slung it over his free shoulder, leaned down and picked her up.

Not again. She groaned.

She could not stand to be carried around like a sack of potatoes and put up a feeble and pitiful struggle but then he pulled her arm around his neck and lifted her against his chest. Without a word he started moving, picking up his pace a little, as sure-footed as ever.

Later she wakened to find Theo hunched over a small fire and the two small rodents dressed and roasting on spits over it. The fire pit was a small dish in a larger rock basin conclave in the forest floor. Very little light escaped the shallow fire pit, and not any radiated out far enough to light up the rock basin or any of the forest surrounding them. She was wrapped in animal skin like a worm in a fury cocoon, warm and sleepy and content.

“Is winter back?” She asked feeling the crisp chill on her cheeks and seeing the glimmer of frost on the branches behind Theo. Her nose was cold.

“It is deep night.” Theo explained after a lengthy silence. But his answer explained nothing. The moonlight was gone, replaced by the shimmering lights Theo had shown her through the crevice back at the cave. Only the light was high above them, an aurora borealis in miniature, an explosion of color showering down like Fourth of July fireworks, lights flowing and pouring down and broken up and scattered among the branches that wove an arc between the canopy and the forest floor.

Dani stared at the light her heart stammering her head filled with wonder and a wish to reach up and touch it until Theo, pushed a chunk of hot meat into her hand and told her to eat chasing the wonder away. Suddenly ravenous, Dani devoured the meal and forgot everything else. She fell asleep almost immediately and stayed well under until Theo prodded her awake with the toe of his boot.

Next Chapter: Chapter Nine