Chapter 2
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Chase didn't see a way they could escape, he fell deep into thought, not even moving until the faint red of sunset made him finally give up. He ran his hands through Elise's hair. She had fallen asleep on his lap, she was far too young for this, barely four years old. With every brush of his hands, he vowed to make sure that at the very least, she grew up and escaped, that she lived in safety and comfort.
He made a makeshift shelter out of some branches and shrubbery, it was by no means comfortable, but it would shield them from the rain, and to a certain extent the wind. He tried to pad the bottom out with some leaves as best he could, before crawling in with Elise. Chase closed up the last gap with some more branches until they were shielded from direct view from all sides, at the very least they could stop whatever was out there from seeing them.
Chase curled around Elise, making sure that she could at least sleep without feeling the ground underneath her. They cuddled up for the night in silence, neither of them wanting to make more noise than they needed to. A restless sleep befell Elise.
Chase was still feeling wide awake, just watching his daughter. Scared that something would harm her when he was asleep. Her faint breathing slowly eased his tension and the forest seemed dead silent, like it too, was asleep.
Eventually he fell into some form of unconsciousness, his senses drifting until they found a memory to latch onto. He opened his eyes, in front of him was Elian, she had just gotten out of bed and had opened a window to let some fresh sunlight into their bedroom. His hand immediately went to cover his eyes.
"Elie, come on." He groaned.
"What do you mean come on? Can't you see the sun in the sky?"
"Why don't we just stay in bed for a little longer? The day is still plenty."
She gave an amused smile before closing the window and returning to bed. She tucked her long white hair behind her ear before weaving her fingers in-between his.
"I thought all woodsmen woke up at the crack of dawn?"
"Well, this one doesn't, perhaps that's why you married him. Like attracts like."
"You make a compelling case."
They sat in the quiet warmth of each other's company. Chase groggily opened his eyes only to see his wife staring at him with a faint smile on her freckled face.
"Fine Elie, I'll go catch breakfast before it gets too late." he grumbled trying to roll out of bed.
But to his surprise Elian pulled him back into bed and just lay next to him, staring.
"You can't call me that anymore."
"Huh? Why? Did I do something wrong?"
"Aren't you the one that told me that name now belonged to little Elie?"
Chase was confused, "Little Elie?"
"Our daughter. Make sure you take good care of her."
"I'm sure you'll be a good mother to her." Chase said.
Elian started to let out silent tears as she smiled, squeezing his hand tighter.
"I'm not here anymore honey, please take care of our little Elie."
Chase started awake, in the place where his wife's hand had gripped him so lovingly was a hand made of roots, tightly clasped onto his. He immediately tried to pull his hand away, but the roots just wouldn't let go. He felt the bark cutting into his skin as he pulled, but he didn't stop.
Elie woke up from his scuffling with the roots and immediately started screaming. She grabbed at anything that could be used to free her father and eventually stumbled across a pointed rock. With both hands she started chipping at the monster.
After her second strike, one of the fingers broke off, giving Chase enough space to wriggle his hand out from its clutches. He immediately grabbed Elie and ran out of their little shelter. The sudden stream of sunlight blinded him, forcing him to stop for a moment, he looked back, imagining the hand grabbing at his ankles. But to his relief, the hands didn't seem to be moving.
His panic renewed into a cold-blooded fear as his eyes followed where the hand started inside their shelter, up along the arm until it was outside it. There, lying beside where they had slept, was a collection of roots that would normally look unremarkable. Only, he could see the vague silhouette of a woman laying on her side, as if in bed.
Elie was still screaming and crying, pointing at the strange hand "It tried to take daddy!"
They abandoned their first shelter.
Elie walked next to him, holding his hand. She cried endlessly.
"First they took mummy, now they take dad too."
Chases stopped in his tracks and knelt down next to her, brushing her tears away and pushing her hair aside. Her normally smiling eyes were red and swollen.
"Elie, no one is going to take me away from you. Ok?"
"But!"
"Listen to me, you are a strong girl, aren't you? And strong girls don't cry, do they?"
"Why can't we just go home?" she said, biting back her tears.
Chase clenched his jaw until his ears began to ring, he took a deep breath to try and calm himself. The memory of his home being burnt down was still fresh in his mind, and the sudden fear when he woke up left him confused. He felt a boiling feeling in his chest, he didn't know what it was, but everything seemed to add to it.
Elie looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. He couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to tell her the truth.
"We... are lost, so we need to find our way out. It's like an adventure."
"But I don't want an adventure!"
"Well neither do I! But there's nothing I can do right now!" He shouted, a sudden rage at everything overcoming him. All gone. His home, his way of life, his friends, his... family.
His anger was quickly quenched when he saw his daughters face. She was all he had now. His expression turned pained as he slowly gave her a hug. Holding onto her little frame like it was a priceless treasure.
"I'm sorry, I want to go home as well. But crying won't help us get home. This forest is a dangerous place, we don't want whatever is in here to hear us."
He heard her sniffle and rub her tears dry onto his shoulder, "Yeah."
Having walked for several minutes they eventually stopped to eat and to tend to his hand. Chase found a few plants that he recognised, he would sometimes find them at the edge of the trail, they sold well due to their soothing properties. He wrapped his hand in its leaves and a sensation akin to stinging nettles spread over his palm. After a moment of almost unbearable itching his hand felt more and more numb, he wrapped the leaves in place with some dead tall grass he found near the riverbank.
Chase had seen some fish in the river along his way. He sat down with a straight branch in his hand, knife in the other. After some deliberation he decided to use a sharp rock instead, his knife was too valuable, there would be no replacing it, not in this forest. Bit by bit he started scraping the bark until he made a pike.
They had been in the clearing on either side of the river for the better part of an hour, Chase had sent off Elie to collect some firewood, making sure he never took his eyes off her and could run to her aid at a moment's notice. She would cautiously creep up to the trees, grab a stick near their base before running back to where he was, piling them up next to him. After a while she lay down next to the pile, heaving from the exertion.
Chase made some tinder with dried grass and leaves, the loose shavings of his pike would work as kindling for the fire, the only problem was starting the fire. There was plenty of flint next to the riverbank, but finding a good rock to spark it with was difficult. He tried a few different pebbles he found, but none of them seemed to spark well. After a dozen failed attempts, he resorted to using the blunt side of his knife.
In a few minutes the fire started to pick up and spread to the sticks Elie had bought. They weren't the driest the forest had to offer, but they were good enough. She sat next to the fire staring at it as it grew and grew.
Chase took his shoes off and slowly approached the river, poking and prodding its bed with the butt of his pike. He was hesitant to step in, but the growling of his stomach won over his better judgement. He could see the faint glint of fish beneath the water and tried to impale them in a single fluid motion.
After several failed attempts, and a few near misses Chase grew frustrated. He wished he had spent more time learning how to fish with a pike. He went back to the riverbank to warm up a bit and to modify his pike somewhat.
Elie was using a stick to draw into the dirt. A house, two parents, even the goat. Chase felt a lump form in his throat, but he just ignored it and worked on altering his pike. He cut the tip off to make it easier, he tried to split the pike down its length. After much confused fumbling he managed to get it to split, creating a two-pronged spear, however, the moment he tried to use it, the pike seemed to snap along its length.
He left it to drift along the river. Chase found a rock to sit on and buried his face in his hands, trying to figure out a better way to do this. He immediately discarded the idea of a net, although it would be the best way to catch fish, he didn't have the time to make one so that they would be able to eat tonight. The fact that his stomach was seriously starting to protest didn't help.
With another stick in his hands, he began to work on a spear. He felt that his pike had been too short last time. This time he split the stick before sharpening it, after getting a four-pronged stick he tied the base of the prong with dead tall grass, layering it so that the split wouldn't go down the length of the shaft. Eventually he managed to get four sharp prongs at the end of his spear. It could hardly be called elegantly made, but he didn't care for its appearance at this point.
The midday sun was in full bloom and Elie just stared at her father hard at work. Although she felt like rolling around in hunger, she didn't speak a word of it to him, instead looking for ways to distract herself from her hunger. She sat by the riverside and started moulding the mud into a figure of their goat.
"Ah!" It didn't hold up well and the head of the goat fell off and into the river as she tried to give it horns.
Seeing what she was doing, Chase said "Get some clay from over there, it's much better." pointing at a slightly smoother and glossier patch of mud.
"Ok." Elie hopped over to the spot and started to mould a new goat from the clay and dirt mixed into it. She started to forget her hunger and worked away at her little goat.
In the meantime, Chase dragged himself back into the river, looking for something to catch. After a few attempts he finally managed to get something. He pinned it down to the riverbed, waiting for it to stop struggling. When he pulled out his catch, he had to stop himself from throwing the spear back into the river and running out.
From the surface of the water, the fish appeared fairly normal. Shiny brown scales, two front fins, a tail, and eyes on either side of its head. What he pulled out could hardly be called a normal fish, it was like something out of the exaggerated tales of sailors out at sea. The "fish" had a mouth that faced flat against the riverbed, several bristled tentacle-like tongues that it used to scour the floor. Its front fins had tiny bony hands at their ends to latch onto whatever it was trying to bite into. But the most disturbing feature it had were two hind legs on either side of its tail with long webbed toes.
He wasn't sure if he should keep fishing at this stage, he suddenly felt that he might accidentally eat something poisonous. As he was contemplating what to do, something brushed past his foot, and there was the distinctive sensation of something licking his foot with the same bristled texture he saw on the tongue of the fish.
He wordlessly ran out of the river without taking a moment to look back. Once he got back, he looked to see if there was anything on his foot, and everything seemed fine, but he still felt uneasy.
He contemplated what to do with his catch, but his stomach was far more persuasive than his mind. He set it in the fire to grill for a bit and made his way back to the river. After catching three more he went back to turn over his first catch in the fire. Although it was a bit burnt on one side, he didn't seem to care, the smell of cooked fish was almost sweet to his nose at this point.
After setting the rest to cook, he sized up his meal. It sat between either side of a splint, its dead eyes gazing at him.
Elie tugged at her father's tunic, "Let me have some."
"No, not yet. It might make us sick if we aren't careful."
"But I'll get sick if I don't eat."
Chase just shook his head, "I'll take a bite first, if I'm fine in an hour, then we can eat the rest."
He took a cautious bite, it tasted... like fish. It was a bit bland without any kind of seasoning but by no means bad, although maybe it was just his appetite speaking. Thought of a second bite was quite enticing but he resolutely put it down. Instead looking at what Elie was doing. Her little goat was drying by the fire, it looked a bit cracked.
"You should give it a bit more water, otherwise it might break apart."
"But I don't want him to melt."
"Just put a tiny bit to fix the cracking." he said, demonstrating by getting his hands wet, and with the few drops that clung to his skin, smoothing out the cracks on the surface of the clay goat.
"Want to try making cups?"
Elie perked up at the idea, they were going to wait for the fish either way. He took two handfuls of clay and started kneading it, eventually it started to resemble a cup, but he couldn't seem to get it round enough. When he looked over at Elie, he was shocked at how perfect hers had turned out in comparison. Once they were done, they put it out to dry beside the goat.
Time seemed to pass so slowly, but after the allotted hour had passed, they jumped at their food.
"Dad, I don't want the legs." Elie said, eyeing them nervously.
"Just leave them behind for me to finish."
At first it was difficult to stomach the texture of the legs, especially the webbed sections. However, nothing could go to waste, they didn't have the luxury to be picky. He would have to slowly get her used to eating all kinds of things in order to help them get by.
Elie sat by the dimming fire, content with her full stomach. Chase felt satisfied just by looking at her. The surroundings were starting to grow dark as the day drew to an end.
Chase killed the fire and made a makeshift shelter once again. He had to find a better way to get shelter. Although he could sleep out in the wild for quite some time, Elie was a different question. What if one of them fell ill? What if he got injured and couldn't make a shelter?
The thought of them slowly dying of hunger and cold and sickness and... and...
There was the sharp snap of a twig that made Chase whip his head around to where he thought he heard the sound. He quickly picked up the four-pronged spear and grabbed Elie, pulling her away from the riverbank and further behind the treeline.
"Elie, follow me we are going."
"But we left the cups behind."
"We can just make more." He said, gritting his teeth.
Then he heard the snap again, and again, and again. He hid inside a bush, holding onto Elie's hand tightly, the sweat on his palm made it difficult to hold the spear with one hand. It was also awkward to hide it in the bush given its length. But any thought of shifting position stopped as he could hear multiple creatures moving through the forest towards the river.
Then he saw them.