Mina glanced over at the thicket and was barely able to see the retreating form of the mother black bear and two rambunctious cubs bumbling after her.
Jared rested for a few moments with his eyes closed before he took a closer look at his wounds. Slowly, he got up and began to look around the base of tree trunks. Mina asked what he was doing, and he explained that he was looking for Eros Moss, a plain looking tree moss that the Fae loved for numbing pain. It was easy to find since the moss grew everywhere. He got Mina to apply it and bandage his wound. Satisfied, he motioned for them to continue their journey.
Mina kept close to Jared, worried that he might collapse or fall down from fatigue. But the Eros Moss seemed to be doing its job, because Jared never slowed his pace, but picked it up. It actually looked like he was the one becoming impatient with her slowness.
“Do you like to climb trees?” He asked.
Mina looked at the huge pine tree they stopped next to apprehensively. “Not really, but I can try.” She began to scale the tree, but about fifteen feet up, her natural clumsiness got the best of her and she slipped and sliced her arm on a broken branch. Pain laced up her arm, and she cried out.
“Stay there, I’m coming up,” Jared yelled up at her.
“No, I got this!” She knew he wasn’t in any condition to climb a tree. Gritting her teeth, she slowly ascended to the top. She spent a few minutes looking around at the surrounding landscape. What she saw was discouraging. A few agonizing minutes later she was back on the ground next to a perplexed Jared.
“So what did you see?” he asked carefully.
“A whole lot of trees,” she grumbled under her breath.
“Ah,” he intoned casually. “Well, let’s go this way.” He pointed left.
“How do you know where to go?” She looked around and back up at the sky confused.
“Because I know we need to go east,” Jared answered.
“But it is overcast and cloudy and we can’t even see the sun? How do you know which way is east?” Mina waved her arms and pointed at the grey sky. The sky took that moment to start to rain down on them. “See!”
“Because the moss grows on the north side of trees, so as long as you head this way, you’ll get out.”
Mina stopped and stared at Jared in disbelief. “If you knew that already, why in the world did you have me climb the tree?”
Jared looked at her his eyes widening in innocence. “I didn’t ask you to climb the tree. I knew which way we were heading. I just asked you if you liked to climb trees in an attempt to start a conversation. You were the one who wanted to try and climb the stupid tree.”
“I did not,” Mina tried to argue but realized that she was the one at fault.
They trudged through the slight drizzle, and soon all of her clothes were once again soaked. Another hour in and she started to shiver and sneeze. If they didn’t get out of this soon they were going to catch pneumonia.
“How much longer?” she asked.
“Hey, how am I supposed to know?” He was becoming cross.
“Well, can’t you do any magic to make it go faster?” Mina whined. The pain in her arm was starting to sting and make her more irritated than she already was.
“What, do you think I’m some kind of genie in a bottle that can grant you three wishes?” Jared fumed angrily.
“Are you really that selfish that you can’t help us out? If you can get us out of here then you should,” Mina yelled back. “It’s your fault that we are lost in the woods to begin with, so don’t you think you should try and get us out?”
“I’m not your beck-and-call boy. You don’t tell me what to do!” Whatever she said really set Jared off because he turned his back on her, and the happy-go-lucky Jared from last night and this morning was gone, to be replaced by the surly one she used to know.
His footsteps became longer and faster, and Mina had to start running to catch up with him. “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I didn’t know it was going to make you so angry. So you will have to forgive me if I’m not my most congenial self at the moment. I’m tired, sore, and I know that my mother is probably worried sick and desperate to hear from me. I just want to get home to my family, and I will do almost anything to get there. Do you have any idea, what that’s like?”
He stopped when they came to a small cliff overlooking the forest below. He stood there still as a statue and waited for Mina to catch up to him.
“Yes, I do know what it is like to want to desperately go home.” He turned to look at her, and his face was detached, his grey eyes that were moments ago crinkled in laughter, were void.
“Then why don’t you just disappear and go back home to the Fae plane?”
“Because, I am unable to crossover. I’m stuck here.” He turned his back to her.
“But, why? What happened?” Mina asked quietly.
“It’s none of your business,” he answered heatedly. He turned and stared back out across the forest as if he was searching for something. He raised his head and sniffed the air; his shoulders stiffened in anger. “I have a confession to make,” he growled out.
Mina felt her mouth grow dry with dread, and she swallowed nervously.
Jared cleared his throat. “I did this on purpose.”
“What do you mean you did this on purpose? She couldn’t even fathom what he was referring to; the bus ride, tricking her,--there were endless possibilities.
“I purposely brought you out to the middle of the forest, to make sure you got lost.”
She went cold at his words. There was no way he was serious after saving her from a fall and protecting her from an angry black bear. He had to be joking. He wasn’t.
“I have to leave you here.” He looked at her, his eyes dark and angry. She went still.
“Please, tell me you aren’t seriously going to abandon me.” She stood still next to him, pleading with her voice, letting all her fear and insecurities pour out.
“I have to. Something bad is coming and I need rest; otherwise, I won’t be able to help you,” Jared whispered. There was a catch in his voice. “Just promise me you’ll be careful and stay on the path.”
“Path? What path?” Tears of pain and frustration burned at the corner of her eyes. She blinked them away, and when she opened her eyes, Jared was gone.
She spun in a circle to look for him, but he had vanished. There was no evidence of footsteps, sounds or bushes being disturbed. He just disappeared. Mina called his name, but no one answered except for the echo of her voice off of the valley. Dejected and alone, she sat down in the dirt and rain and stared out over the forest.
How could she have ever trusted him? He was, she decided, the absolutely worst kind of Fae. She didn’t think that they were capable of disappearing like that, but obviously they did it and did it a lot. He probably was in league with the Story against her. He was being the evil Step-parent figure leading her out into the forest and abandoning her.
She turned to look angrily across the forest and saw what Jared had seen. A path. It seemed to be a few miles off. But if she got moving, she could get there by nightfall.
She took Jared’s moss advice hoping it was accurate, and started walking in an easterly route. It took her two hours to reach the dirt access road.