The Consoling Divide: Camp

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Emily stumbled for the third time, swearing. “Okay! It is totally twilight now, let’s camp before I break something.”

“How fast would you heal if you did break something?” Tanis clicked on her flashlight, looking for a good spot off the path to set up camp.

Emily followed her, dropping comfortably onto a clear patch of ground. “Awesome, your flashlight works!”

“Of course it does, it’s powered by a dynamo, you just squeeze it a bunch to build a charge. I figured a world that uses water-powered mills wouldn’t object to this.”

Ian set down the hare’s basket and perched on a flat rock. “It depends on who you are.”

“What?” Emily lit a cigarette, stretching out her legs.

“How fast your bones knit. It depends on who, or what, you are. Sprites heal fast because they’re small but powerful. Elves don’t, because they’re weird and Gothic about wounds.”

“Where’d you learn that?” Emily turned to the hare. “Did you teach him that?”

“I’m no xenobiologist. Though I do know that hares heal relatively quickly, if you can splint the limb right.”

Tanis pulled a sleeping pad and blanket out of the backpack, setting them up with the last of the light. Already, Emily could only see her as shadows when the flashlight was off.

“Those from the Institute? Dang, that pack does really hold stupid amounts of stuff.”

“Yeah,” Tanis started on another sandwich, talking around bites. “All the film and junk are still in there too. I guess whatever fits through the top can go in.”

Ian cleared his throat. “I’m, um, going to roam a bit, make sure of the perimeter, or whatever.”

“As an ogre? Well, it’ll be more pleasant for us.”

“What?” Leaves crunched as Ian turned back.

Emily sighed. “Like, you’re ugly? So, the ogre face is more appealing?” She paused to light another cigarette. “Only, you’re not ugly, Ian. You’re great.”

“Thanks?”

“Hey Ian?” Tanis’ voice already sounded sleepy. “Can I see what you look like as an ogre tomorrow?”

“Sure thing.” His footsteps faded off.

Emily got up and moved over by Tanis, nearly tripping over the hare. “Hey baby, I’m going to keep watch, okay?” She poked the hare with her foot. “And so is hare.”

“Wait, why?” Emily felt his paw on her ankle.

“Because of what happened last time we were in a forest somewhere and someone fell asleep.”

“Don’t worry, Emily.” Tanis found Emily’s hand and put the flashlight in it. “I’m not a bear, besides—” she yawned, “I trust you.” She made a kiss sound and laid down, blanket pulled to her chin.

Emily sat close enough to hear Tanis breathe, but not so close she felt like a creep. Angry pointing got the hare to face in the other direction. The quiet of dark settled in, sharpening the small sounds of the night. Emily pulled on a sweatshirt emblazoned with her high school’s logo, out of habit, more than cold, making sure it didn’t block access to her knife.

Once in a while she’d hold her breath, to better hear Tanis’ sleeping, but mostly Emily just watched and waited. She’d become familiar with at waiting over the years. This wasn’t much different than sitting half in the arbour, legs cramping while one of the kids had some life experience in the Sidhe that they’d later resent her for. Emily shook her head, knowing that wasn’t a fair thing for her to think.

“Shouldn’t you not be smoking?” The hare’s stagey whisper was nearly as loud as talking.

Emily waited to reply until she was sure he hadn’t woken Tanis. “Shouldn’t you not lead people into forests where they can’t smoke at night” Emily lit another from the butt of the cigarette she’d just finished. “Besides, I could burn an intruder with it.” She made jabbing motions, the glowing red cherry darting like an angry bee.

The hare harrumphed and they settled back into silence. Emily was halfway through a mental list of what clothes in her closet she was sick of wearing and should probably get rid of once they got home, whenever that was, when muffled footsteps on leaf litter pulled her to attention. Her hand was on her knife, the holding strap undone, before she realised it. Pulling it out partway, a soft glow spilled around her feet, promising her swordsword.

“Who is it?” Emily aimed her voice towards the noise. She fumbled with her free hand for the flashlight in the sweatshirt pocket.

“It’s Ian, put your pigsticker away.”

Emily let out a breath, sliding the knife back into its sheath. “Hare, couldn’t you smell him coming or anything?” Anger made her whisper hoarse.

“Yes.” The hare’s voice was clear, “but it was just Ian, so I didn’t bother mentioning it. Besides, I’ve been watching this light.”

Emily looked over her shoulder. Dancing in the distance was a spot of very distinct firelight.

“You are the lousiest at standing guard!” She growled at the hare.

Tanis made grumpy sounds in her sleep and turned over messily with a thump. Emily’s heart tightened with familiarity. Whenever she was late coming to bed, or if she got back in after getting up, Tanis protested in vehement slumber, though she never actually woke in the slightest.

Ian’s walk had something unfamiliar about it. Emily clicked the flashlight on, covering it with her too-long sleeve to dim the light and pointing the beam at the ground. Heavy, gnarled feet with the wrong number of toes stepped into view, covered in dirt. Emily followed the legs up, smiling with pride. She’d only seen Ian as an ogre once, right after he’d learned to shift into it and directly before he learned how painful it was to try and walk into the mundane world in Folk form. A serviceable sort-of-kilt was carefully pleated and wrapped around him, his clothes and shoes crumpled in a little string bag on his shoulder.

“Is that the fabric I bought to make curtains?” Emily frowned.

“Turn off the light and wake up Tanis.” Ian’s voice grumbled, changed but familiar. “We might have a problem.”

***

Tanis’ knee touched Emily’s as they listened to Ian’s changed but familiar voice in the dark.

“I went and sulked in the shadows to see who it was.”

“Skulked.” Tanis wound wraps deftly around her wrists and hands by touch, flexing her fingers. “You skulked.”

“And it was trolls.”

“So, okay, we just hang out here until morning, and then we go on our merry way in the opposite direction.” Emily hugged her knees.

“They have a person in a bag they’ve strung up in a tree.”

“What?” Tanis’ voice rose above a whisper and Emily felt her lean forward. “We should help them.”

Ian shifted, bringing his voice closer. “That’s what I was thinking.”

“That is stupid, don’t be stupid.” Emily hissed. “The three of us are no match for what trolls might have.”

“What about the hare?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t fight.”

Emily could hear Tanis exhale slowly out of her nose, thinking.

“Okay, I think we should help the person they’ve got captive. Who knows what we might encounter later, this could be great practise.”

Ian agreed and Emily, outvoted, listened to Tanis’ plan, hoping it wouldn’t all end badly.

They left the hare with the flashlight, guarding their packs, and they made their way to trolls’ camp without too much noise. Four trolls sat around a hearty fire, finishing a meal. Emily hadn’t met a troll before. They were somewhere in size between an ogre and the average human and looked like they’d been carelessly hewn from rock and meat.

“Hey folks!” Tanis strode into the circle of their firelight. The trolls turned slowly, looking a little confused. Tanis smiled up at them. “So, we’re camped nearby and we noticed that you seem to have someone strung up in a bag over here. We were wondering what is up with that?”

“They deserved it.” One of the trolls grunted, wiping a fork clean and dropping it into a pouch on their belt.

Another added, with a dentist’s nightmare of a smile, “we’re going to kill him slowly and thoroughly and he’ll deserve that too.”

Emily climbed the tree the bag was strung from, hoping Tanis could keep the trolls’ attention. Shimmying down the branch, she put her hand on her knife, but paused, still uncertain.

“That’s a pretty harsh thing to deserve.” Tanis’ voice remained conversational, but Emily recognised the subtle shifts in her posture that indicated her anger.

“Aye, and I think you deserve something of the same for pestering us.” The first troll levered itself up and started towards Tanis.

Emily drew her knife and cut the rope holding the bag with a few quick cuts, grateful it chose to be a knife and not a sword on this occasion. She followed the bag straight down, landing with curses and a roll, somehow not impaling herself on the knife she’d not sheathed. She looked for Tanis and found her with Ian, who’d joined her from the shadows. They were standing their ground as the trolls moved around them with the playful danger of a cat teasing food.

Quickly, Emily cut the bag open. She figured she’d get this person free, help the others and fade back into the forest as soon as they could.

She’d barely sliced it open before being knocked back by a gust of wind and an indefinable blur of a shape. Staggering back to her feet, she followed the freed prisoner into the middle of the trolls.

Knowing it was stupid, Emily took a swing with her knife and was carelessly cuffed back for her trouble. From where she fell, she looked for Ian and Tanis, who stood stock still, eyes wide. She followed their gaze.

An undefined rush flew around the trolls with sharp, darting movements. There was a slight delay between the shape’s attention to the trolls and their limp collapse. When the last troll fell the blur finally slowed, revealing a fine-boned, golden-brown face with long hair and longer limbs.

Tanis cautiously leaned over a troll, her brow furrowing. “They’re dead.”

“Of course they are.” The thin man replied while tying back his dark, silken hair with a ribbon. “Aw shit, guys.” Emily recognised Ian’s disgust, even through the distorted features of his ogre form. “We freed a fucking sylph.”