The Forestwalker

by Sarah Wheeler

Table of Contents

Chapter 14

After two days of nothing to do but eat and sleep and be examined by the doctor, Gareth couldn't wait to be on his feet, or at least be allowed to feed and dress and take care of himself again. He was also desperate for a friendly face around his own age, and he couldn't help but worry about how Kastor and Shanna were getting along in this strange, new environment without him to be their native guide. He became practically giddy with excitement when Nurse Cedarrunner told him over his breakfast that his friends would be coming today to take him to the Maplerunners' to finish his recovery.

As soon as she left, Gareth lay back in his pillows and gazed out of the open window, up into the leafy canopy. As happy as he was to be back in the forest, and as excited as he was to see the village he had been brought to, reality intruded slowly and insistently. He wasn't home, he had to remind himself, and he was going to be seen as an outsider here because of his status as a slave. No one was really going to understand why he wouldn't allow himself to be freed, and he didn't really feel like trying to explain his decision to these people that he would probably never see again once he left here, but he was going to have to deal with their questions and their scrutiny as long as he was forced by his injuries to stay here and recover, and he wasn't sure how best to go about doing that. Worse by far, though, would be the anger and scorn visited on Kastor and Shanna because Gareth was their slave. Gareth wanted Kastor and Shanna to see his people at their best, and he wanted to show his people that outsiders like Kastor and Shanna, even if they were from a culture that allowed people to own slaves, were no different than any forest-dweller, but he was not sure that would be possible now. All his reasons for wanting to avoid his fellow forest-dwellers were going to be obstacles to overcome now rather than nebulous fears... but he supposed it was a small price to pay for surviving the raider attack, and meeting Tara made it all worthwhile too. As glad as he was to be going back to Kastor and Shanna, it didn't hold a candle to the excitement he felt at being able to see and talk to Tara again.

As a result, it took supreme effort not to sit bolt upright in his bed when he heard the door open several hours later. He was grateful for his self-control because that would have been an unwise move in his present condition, and also because his first visitor was not Tara, but Kastor and Shanna. He was happy to see them, though, and they were both relieved to see him looking so well. Shanna burst into the room, squealing with delight as she ran over to him, then stopped short and looked him over critically as he sat up. Gareth knew exactly what she wanted; he smiled and patted the bed next to him. “Don't worry, miss. It's okay as long as you're careful.” She climbed eagerly up onto his bed, hugged him cautiously, then snuggled up next to him under his good arm as Kastor entered the room holding up his hand, which was finally out of its cast and looking as good as new. Kastor pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat down.

“You're looking much better, Gareth. How do you feel?”

“Ready to be on my feet again, sir,” Gareth replied. “How are you two doing? Is everyone treating you alright?”

Kastor shrugged and looked at his bare feet, unwilling to say anything. Shanna tugged on Gareth's sleeve to get his attention. “Gavin told everyone about him, and now no one likes him,” she explained. “They don't say or do anything, but he gets whispers and dirty looks everywhere he goes, from everyone except for Tara and the nurse, who's her aunt. The doctor wouldn't even help him until Tara begged him to.”

Gareth sighed and rubbed his temples, though he wasn't surprised by this news. “I'm sorry, sir. I didn't want this; I swear I didn't. This is why I didn't want us to meet any of my people while we were traveling through the forest. I tried to explain things to Tara, tried to tell her that it was my choice to stay with you instead of running away or being freed, but I can't force her to understand, or accept my choices, or explain them to anyone else. I'll do my best to set things straight once I'm released from here, sir, and if I can't... well, we'll be gone soon, I promise.”

“You sound like you don't want to stay either,” Shanna said perceptively, “but you're home now, back among your own people. Why do you want to leave again?”

It wasn't that he wanted to; he didn't really have a choice. But saying so in front of Kastor seemed unnecessarily blunt at the moment, so Gareth settled on the next-best explanation. “Because I don't like their looks of pity any more than Kastor likes their looks of hatred,” he told Shanna. “They think I've been broken and brainwashed. I'm as much an outsider for my choice to stay with you as you are. I won't deny that I wish things were different, but I know my duty and my place, miss, and that is by your side, helping you return to the home we all belong to.”

“Gareth, I'm sorry,” Kastor said, and Gareth looked up to see his young master studying him with unconcealed guilt in his eyes. “I will find a way to make this all up to you... somehow.”

“I know you will, sir,” Gareth said with a small smile and a deferential bow of his head. If nothing else ever came of this trip, Gareth knew that he would be grateful for it still for the rest of his life because it had turned Kastor from a callous little monster into a decent person capable of seeing his slave as a human being. Leaving Kastor to his thoughts, Gareth turned his attention to Shanna, who was bursting with the desire to tell him about everything she had seen and done while he had been in the hospital. He allowed her joyful chatter to wash over him and push away the dark thoughts and painful memories that had been clouding his consciousness for the last few days. At least no one had been treating her badly or giving her dirty looks. If anyone had hurt Shanna or made her feel bad in any way, he would have insisted that they leave this village right away, doctor's orders be damned. Nothing was worth seeing her in pain, not even his own health and safety.

Suddenly, Kastor broke into a lull in Shanna's monologue. “Why doesn't Tara have a problem with me any more? She did when we first started traveling with them, but now she seems to almost like me, and she's stood up for me more than once since we got here, even though it got her own people angry at her.”

“Well, I think...” Gareth pondered the question for a moment, and then he remembered their first morning in the forest in Gavin and Tara's company. Kastor had convinced her, not with his words but with his actions, that everything Gareth had told her the night before was true. “I think it's because she watched you taking care of me as we were coming here, and she remembers all you said and did while I was hurt, and how you cared only about getting me help and making sure I was in good hands. Not to mention, you risked your life in a very real way to save mine, and she saw that firsthand. You convinced her with your actions that you see me as more than... how you used to, and that helped her see and relate to you as a real person.”

Kastor nodded thoughtfully, his expression one of supreme frustration. “But everyone else just sees me as an evil monster because I'm an outsider who holds one of their people prisoner as a slave. Actions speak louder than words, but they didn't see what she saw, so nothing she or I say will change how they see me. It figures,” he sighed, burying his face in his hands as he reached the end of his tongue-twisting rant, “I finally do something decent and no one believes me capable of it. The one tangible piece of evidence that I... that I'm not the spoiled brat I used to be, and it's useless here, where it matters the most.”

“Oh, Kas, don't worry about what they think,” Shanna broke in, scrambling down from Gareth's bed and climbing up onto her brother's lap instead. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a comforting hug. “Gareth knows you're a good person, and so do I. No one else matters, not really. Not when there are more important things to worry about, like getting home to Mama.”

Her words did the trick; Gareth was sure they were the only things that could have. Kastor returned his sister's embrace, then ruffled her short curls affectionately as he smiled down at her. “You're right as usual, Shan. You're both right. Getting home is what matters, not what some provincial, tree-dwelling villagers (no offense, Gareth,) think of us.” He turned his relieved smile on Gareth and handed him a bundle he'd brought in with him. “Here you go, Gareth. Let's get you on your feet again. We can't get far without you, after all.”

Gareth took the bundle, doing his best to hide his reluctance to dress in brown burlap again after weeks of wearing clean, comfortable, normal clothes. Even his hospital dress was preferable, but he knew he had no choice. He opened the package, then stared in surprise first at what he held in his hands, then up at his young master in speechless gratitude. Because it wasn't a slave's uniform lying in that piece of old brown sacking, but his old clothes, the ones Kastor had given him in Devrost, clean and mended and good as new. Gareth stared at them in disbelief until Kastor cleared his throat and asked hesitantly, “Aren't you going to put them on?”

“Yes, sir,” Gareth said hoarsely, then swallowed and tried again. “Thank you, sir. I didn't expect... Thank you.”

“We all stand out here enough as it is,” Kastor muttered uncomfortably. Then, he lifted Shanna off his lap and sent her to go get the nurse before standing up and coming over to Gareth's bed. “Here. I'll help you get changed. The doctor said you're going to have to take it easy until your stitches can be taken out, and I won't have you giving him any extra work to do. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Gareth said, not bothering to hide the relieved smile on his face. He sat up slowly and helped Kastor remove his hospital shirt and shorts, then carefully pulled on his old shirt and pants with Kastor's assistance. He had just finished buttoning his shirt and was pulling his jacket on gingerly over his injured shoulder when Shanna returned, followed by the nurse. Nurse Cedarrunner was carrying a sling for his arm that she helped him put on and a crutch to help him walk while keeping his weight off his injured leg, which she showed him how to use before helping him to his feet. As he got out of bed, she fussed over him one last time – combing his hair, straightening out his clothes, telling him how handsome he was, and making him walk around the room twice with the crutch to make sure that he could do it – then she hugged him affectionately – making him blush furiously – and left, saying she would send Tara in momentarily.

Gareth sat down on the bed once she was gone, feeling tired again already. Shanna and Kastor both hurried over to him, looking concerned. “Are you alright?” Shanna asked, climbing up next to him and putting a hand to his forehead.

“Yes, miss,” Gareth reassured her, though he didn't try to stop her from fussing over him. “I'm just tired... not as recovered as I thought I was, I guess.”

“Are you sure you're ready to leave here and go to Tara's house?” Kastor asked, frowning.

“Yes, sir. Don't worry, I won't push myself too hard.” He didn't want to stay here in the hospital, no matter how he felt. He needed to be among friends again; that would be a far better medicine than anything the doctor could give him right now.

“Alright,” Kastor said as he sat down again. Then, he reached out for the piece of brown sacking that he had wrapped Gareth's clothes in; it had fallen off the bed when Gareth had sat down again. “Gareth, you forgot your scarf,” he said when he realized the package wasn't empty.

Gareth reached out and took the green knit scarf from Kastor, looked at it for a second, then folded it up and slipped it into the inside pocket of his jacket. “I don't need it,” he said decisively. “If Gavin did tell everyone about us, then I'm not going to bother hiding what I am. If it makes me an outsider, if it makes them pity me, so be it... but maybe if they see us together, acting just like normal people in defiance of their preconceptions, they'll stop treating you so badly.”

Kastor didn't seem to like this idea much, but he didn't argue. He didn't get much chance to, actually, because just then, the door opened again and Tara peeked into the room. “Morning, Gareth,” she said with a heart-stopping smile. “How are you feeling?”

Gareth nearly leaped to his feet, remembering at the last second to stand up slowly and saving himself the embarrassment of falling over. “Much better, thank you,” he said, shyly returning her smile. Shanna giggled at this, and Kastor gave him a very odd look, but he ignored them both.

So did Tara. “You ready to come home and eat real food and sleep in a real bed?” she asked as she came all the way into the room. “My mum's dying to meet you.”

Gareth nodded eagerly as he picked up his crutch and secured it under his good arm. The bed here had been more comfortable than what he'd been used to recently, but nothing beat a hammock, and the hospital food had left a bit to be desired, mainly in its blandness. He limped slowly but eagerly after Tara down the small hospital's main hallway, stopping to thank the doctor and the nurse both on his way out. Kastor and Shanna followed him wordlessly with subdued expressions on their faces, but he gestured for them both to walk beside him as they left the building, which they both did – Shanna willingly, Kastor reluctantly.

Gavin was waiting for them outside the door to the hospital, looking completely at his ease as he leaned over the walkway railing to say hello to friends and neighbors passing by above and below him. He turned and grinned at his sister, but his smile faded as his eyes fell on Gareth and the others. Gareth tried not to shift uncomfortably as Gavin stared at him – specifically, at the collar around his neck. He had forgotten that Gavin had never actually seen it, that he had found out Gareth was a slave from his sister and not from firsthand experience. Here was his first test, Gareth realized. With supreme effort, he shrugged off Gavin's stare. “Hey, Gavin,” he said with a disarming smile, forcing Gavin to look away from his collar and into his eyes instead.

“Hey, Gareth,” Gavin said after a moment, returning his smile. “Good ta see you on your feet. Ready to come home with us? My mum's dying to meet you.”

“More than ready,” Gareth said. “I can't wait to meet her either. How far's your house?” He hoped he wouldn't have to climb too many ladders to get there; he wasn't sure he could climb yet, not if he needed a crutch to walk and had one arm in a sling.

“Not far,” Gavin said, pointing to a house on the side of a tree one level up and a third of the way around the clearing from where they were standing. “There's a continuous walkway leading there, so you won't have to climb any trees or ladders – it's why you get to come home with us and don't have to stay her at the clinic – but it'll take a little longer to get there by that route.” He set out, calling over his shoulder, “Let me know if you get tired so we can stop and rest. There's no rush.”

“Thanks,” Gareth said as he followed the older boy at a slow but steady pace. Kastor walked beside him, and Tara took Shanna's hand and walked at the rear so she could keep an eye on all of them. Gareth did not mind setting a slow pace, because it gave him a chance to take in his new surroundings. This village was not very different from the one he'd grown up in, though it was a little bigger and older than his former home. The sapling growing far below in the center of the clearing was almost the size of a normal tree in the southern forests, but it still had plenty of room to grow. The village had a sizable garden growing down there as well, and a large pen for its herd of sheep and goats, all of which were out foraging in the woods under the watchful eyes of a number of shepherds right now. Above-ground, the village had four levels – the hospital clinic was located on the second level, equidistant from almost everything – though they appeared to be starting on a fifth. The walkways were not crowded, but they did pass a fair number of people on their way to the Maplerunners' house. Everyone had a greeting or a kind word for Tara and Gavin, and silent, curious stares full of pity or disgust for Gareth, Kastor, and Shanna.

Gareth ignored them. It wasn't easy, but he concentrated instead on talking to Kastor. Kastor had learned a lot about the forest and the village during the last few days, but all of it had been by observation; he had been too shy and too isolated by everyone else's scorn to actually ask them to explain anything. But he knew he could ask Gareth anything, and Gareth was more than willing to answer all his young master's questions.

“Where do you get all the resources you need to survive and build villages like these?” was Kastor's first question. “I mean, this all seems pretty modern – you've got good houses, and running water, and plenty of food, and everyone seems to have a job doing something – but you don't have any factories, you don't refine much metal, and you don't even cut down trees for lumber. How can you manage all this without any of that?”

“Well, it takes a lot of effort,” Gareth admitted readily. “No one here is wealthy, like your family is, and we all have to work hard just to maintain the status quo. I guess you could say we're... scavengers, mostly. We get our wood and lumber from dead and dying trees and branches, we use stone instead of metal for a lot of things, and we only refine metal from stone that we can gather from caves or stuff that's lying around on the ground. We try to cultivate most of what we eat,” he gestured to the clearing, and noticed that Kastor barely glanced in that direction, looking a little green as he did so, “and when we do hunt or forage from the forest, we do it carefully, never taking too much from one spot, and only hunting when absolutely necessary. Everything we do here takes careful planning and caution in order to maintain balance with the forest.”

“But why? You could do so much more. You could be as modern and prosperous as we are, easily, and then you'd never have anything to fear from the nomads or Eshara.”

“Maybe so, but the forest would suffer for it. That's why we don't even bring in manufactured goods from the outside world. We have to constantly fight the temptation to take more than the forest is willing to provide – to use the lumber and other resources that we have in abundance, or to grow our villages beyond the natural borders provided by these clearings. If we start down that road – the road your people call 'civilization' – there can be no going back. Life here isn't easy, but if we ever tried to break the balance we have with the forest, either we would die, or the forest would die, and either outcome is an unacceptable loss for the world. We even have people that study the impact we have on the forest, so that we can learn how to best maintain the balance and modify it so we don't stagnate, and they've come to the conclusion that we are an important element of the forest's survival – more so than any of its other inhabitants because we are conscious of our impact and can control or change our behaviors at will, to its benefit... or detriment. So, though we aren't as 'advanced' as your people, it is by choice, and the survival and prosperity of the rest of the world owes something to that choice, even though they will never realize or acknowledge it.”

“I remember learning in biology that the water we get from underground aquifers down south is filtered and purified by the roots of these trees before it reaches us, and that the air is pure and rich in oxygen because this forest constantly cleans and replenishes it, but I always thought that forests could take care of themselves?” Kastor was riveted by Gareth's explanation and seemed eager to know more.

“That's probably true for smaller forests in the rest of the world, but consider this: There is good evidence that it was within this forest that human life originated. Humans and our progenitors have been living in these trees for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe longer, and we've practiced symbiotic survival with the forest for at least that long. Our presence here has shaped way the forest grows, affects the plants and animals that thrive here, and if we were removed from the equation or tried to upset the balance, everything and everyone would suffer.”

“I never really thought about it like that,” Kastor admitted. “I mean, I guess that progress in the rest of the world is a lot of taking from nature without giving much back, and we don't give a whole lot of thought to how our actions affect the land we live on or the plants and animals we share it with. How have we gotten away with that for so long, if your people can't even think about doing the same without risking the entire world?”

“I think it's because no one nation is big enough to have an impact on the whole world yet, at least not in the way we could,” Gareth said after thinking about it for a minute. “Industry and manufacturing done the way Eshara does it will cause damage eventually, but they don't have much of it... yet. Farming – though you may not consciously realize it – must be done in harmony with the land to be successful. You must plant crops that will survive in the environment where you live, and you must rotate them regularly to replenish the nutrients in the soil. Most of the people living in your world are still farmers of one sort or another, so they follow the rules of nature even if they don't realize it. And the grassland nomads and the western islanders thrive off the bounty of their lands the same way that we do here, though the nomads are fast becoming a vehicle for the spread of Esharan industry, which will change everything before we know it. The world's been lucky this far, I guess, that no one country or group has been able to upset the balance, but it can't last forever.”

“You know, your people should...” Kastor began to say, but just then Tara broke in.

“We're here!”

Kastor clammed up immediately, but Gareth still wanted to know what he had been going to say, so he filed their conversation away and resolved to bring it up again later. But for now, there were other things to think about. Gavin and Tara's mother was standing in the front door of her home with a welcoming smile on her face. When she saw Gareth, she came over and embraced him. “Welcome to our home, Gareth. My name is Emily Maplerunner, and I'm glad to see you looking so well. My children have told me all about you, and I have been looking forward to finally meeting you.”

“It's a pleasure to finally meet you as well, ma'am,” Gareth said when she finally let him go and he had regained his balance. He was pleasantly surprised to see that, though she glanced curiously for a second at the iron collar around his neck, her expression did not change from its welcoming smile. “And thank you for your generous hospitality, for letting us stay in your home like this.”

“Oh, it's no trouble at all,” she said as she stepped through the doorway. “Please, come in. I can't imagine that walk was easy for you.” Gareth and the others followed her eagerly. “We're fortunate to have plenty of room, and you're welcome to stay as long as you like.”

Gareth stepped into the main room of the modest, two-story house and was hit by a wave of familiarity and homesickness that nearly knocked him to his knees. He passed it off as a dizzy spell and let Tara and her mother lead him over to one of the large cushions lined up along the wall of the main living area. This house could have been a duplicate of the one he had lived in with his parents not so far away from here and not so long ago. The main floor was a large, open sitting room and cooking area, bright with sunlight that streamed in through the windows spaced evenly all around it. A doorway in the far corner of the room led to a short hallway that curved around the tree's trunk to a small bedroom where Missus Maplerunner slept – though she told Gareth straight away that that would be his room for the duration of their stay, and his protests would not dissuade her – and a rope ladder that hung down from a hole in the middle of the ceiling led to two larger bedrooms upstairs, one for the boys and one for the girls. When Gareth saw the ladder, he stopped protesting because he realized he would not be able to climb up and down it every day, and he also didn't protest much when the others suggested – strongly – that he should go lie down in his room and rest for a bit before lunch.

“I'll show him where it is,” Gavin volunteered as he helped Gareth to his feet. Tara looked about to protest, and Gareth wished she would because he would have loved to have a moment alone to talk to her again, but she seemed to see something in Gavin's expression when he glanced over at her that made her cheeks turn red and she didn't say a word.

“Don't worry about imposing,” Gavin told Gareth as he helped him limp down the hallway to the small back bedroom. “We've got plenty of space and spare hammocks, and the house has felt real empty since... since our da and older sister went missing. I think having you guys stay here has been good for our mum – Tara and I have been leaving her alone too much.”

Gareth nodded sympathetically, wishing he knew what to say. Fortunately, Gavin didn't seem to expect anything from Gareth, and was mainly concerned with Gareth's comfort and well-being. He helped Gareth into the comfortable hammock in the small bedroom with the same amount of respect and care that he had used when taking care of Gareth on their trip to the village. “You sure you're alright?” Gavin asked as Gareth lay back in the hammock and let his friend cover him with a blanket. “You're looking kinda beat.”

“I'll be alright; I just need to rest,” Gareth reassured Gavin. “Tell the others not to worry either. Oh, and can I ask you a favor, Gavin?” he asked as the other boy was about to leave the room.

“Sure, anything,” Gavin said, turning back expectantly.

“Could you stop giving Kastor a hard time, please?”

That was obviously not what Gavin had wanted to be asked. His shoulders tensed and his eyes narrowed as he asked, “Why? He's not gonna take it out on you, is he?”

“No,” Gareth said defensively. “He really is a good kid, Gavin. It's not his fault that he was raised in a society that keeps slaves.”

“Maybe so,” Gavin replied, “but if he's such a good guy, why doesn't he let you go now that you're back here where you belong?”

“Because it's my choice to stay with him and Shanna until they're safely home. I made him a promise and I intend to keep it, even if it means giving up the chance to be free so that I'm not tempted to break that promise.” He saw the confused disbelief in Gavin's face, but he couldn't explain himself any better than that right now. “Look, I don't expect you to understand. But Kastor's a good kid, he's my friend, and he's been through a lot, so just... give him a break, okay? For me?”

And with that, Gavin's scowl vanished and he nodded, looking guilty. “Sorry, Gareth. I didn't think... You're right, of course. I shouldn't have judged him so harshly, especially not after he saved your life and all. I am sorry.”

“It's him you should be apologizing to, not me,” Gareth said as gently as he could, “but I understand why you would judge him like you did. Thanks for understanding.”

Gavin nodded, then said, “You should rest,” and left the room. As Gareth closed his eyes, intending to do exactly that, he marveled at Gavin's change of heart. He knew not everyone would be as easy to convince as his new friend, but getting Gavin to see Kastor as a decent person despite the fact that Kastor was keeping a forest-dweller as a slave had been easier than he had expected. Maybe they would get through the next few weeks with a minimum of hassle after all.

To assist in that outcome, Gareth convinced Kastor to come with him any time he went anywhere in the village. Gareth didn't leave the Maplerunners' house much, since he had been instructed to spend most of his time resting and not moving around or exerting himself, but he had promised the doctor that he would return to the hospital for a check-up every few days until his stitches came out, and though Kastor wasn't exactly interested in being stared at, it didn't take much to convince him to be seen with Gareth every time he went out. When they walked through the village, they talked and acted like equals, just as they had done in order to keep from drawing attention to themselves on the road out of Devrost. Only this time, the point was to draw attention to themselves. They couldn't hide the fact that they were outsiders here anyway, so Gareth just hoped that seeing Kastor and him together would convince people that Kastor was not as cruel and that he was not as brainwashed as Gavin had led them to believe, or, barring that, at least confuse them enough that they would forget to give Kastor a hard time.

True to Gareth's prediction, the looks of hatred and pity were fewer and farther between when he and Kastor were seen together, though they fielded a fair number of curious stares. Those were easier to ignore, though, and Gareth quickly trained Kastor not to notice them, mainly by carrying on conversations that required Kastor's concentration and participation. At the very first opportunity, Gareth brought up the unfinished comment that Kastor had been about to make on their way to the Maplerunners from the hospital.

“When we were coming home from the hospital and having that conversation about countries maintaining or upsetting the balance of nature, you were going to say something but got interrupted. I'm curious to know what it was.”

Kastor thought hard for a minute. “Oh, yes, I remember,” he finally said. “I was going to say that since your people have studied the effect that you have on nature and have been thriving and innovating in harmony with nature for so long, you should go and tell the other nations what you know and help them change their way of doing things before it's too late.”

“We've considered it,” Gareth said reluctantly. He was impressed with Kastor's insight and wanted to tell him that it was a brilliant idea, but unfortunately it wasn't exactly an original one. “We've even tried sending a few envoys, but there are two obstacles that we've found impossible to overcome. The first is the fact that we've been isolated here; the rest of the world either doesn't know we exist or they think that we're ignorant, animalistic savages. We're not a formally-recognized nation; we have no unified government or recognized diplomatic envoy that would easily be able to approach and talk to the officials of other governments. And that feeds directly into the second problem: the nomad slavers. I talked to Tara about them as we were coming here. It's been getting worse – a lot worse – since I was taken five years ago. The people here would never admit it, but we're prisoners in our own forest now. No one can leave the forest and cross the grassland without being captured and sold into slavery. For any of us to have a chance to make it to a city like Devrost and get in touch with any government officials, we'd have to take a small army. We'd have to fight our way through, and then what would that make us? Who would listen to a message of finding peace and harmony with nature prefaced by a wave of violence?”

“It's really that bad? The slavers, I mean?” Kastor asked, stunned.

“According to Tara. And Tam said as much too when we discussed the slave trade in Eshara. No one is safe from slavers any more, it seems. Even...” he hesitated a minute, not wanting to open old wounds, but then pressed on. “Even you and Shanna weren't safe. Slavery is becoming universal - we're the only country that doesn't use it – and I don't think it's exaggerating to say that slavery is likely to lead to the world's decline before industry does.”

Kastor was obviously distressed by this information, but Gareth had refused to sugar-coat the truth. He had tried to avoid the subject before, but now that they were safe here in the forest and closer than ever to being home, he felt Kastor needed and deserved to know how the world he was going back to really was, for better or worse. He didn't press the conversation further at that moment to let Kastor consider what he had said, but he hadn't quite realized where that information would lead Kastor's train of thought.

Kastor remained silent and withdrawn until they were heading back from the hospital, but as they were passing a branching walkway that led out of the clearing into a secluded part of the village, Kastor finally spoke. “Hey, Gareth, let's not go back to the house just yet. I haven't gotten a chance to see much outside of the clearing.” Figuring that Kastor could use a break from the constant stares, Gareth agreed, even though he was tired and had been looking forward to a nap before dinner. They found a nice secluded spot around the back of the tree, out of the village clearing, and sat down on the walkway, their arms over the railing and their legs dangling out into empty space. Kastor seemed to be getting over his vertigo; either that, or he was preoccupied with something else. He was quiet for a few long minutes, then finally asked in a small, heartbreaking voice, “Gareth... what you were saying earlier... about slavery... if all that's true, then... what about my father?”

Gareth winced internally. He should have seen this question coming. He had to say something; he supposed the truth was best. “I honestly don't know, Kastor. The bandits that attacked the caravan could have gone either way in choosing what to do with him. They were a larger, better-organized, and more prosperous group than the one that captured you and Shanna, so they may have held him for ransom... but there's no way to know until we get home to your mother.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kastor's shoulders slump at this, so he turned to his young master... no, his friend, and looked him square in the eye with solemn reassurance. “We will find him, Kastor, I promise, no matter what's happened to him. It is my sincerest hope that he is already free and that he and your mother are doing everything in their power to find you and Shanna right now, but, if not, we'll do everything we can to find him once we're safely home.”

“Thanks, Gareth,” Kastor said with a weak smile, then Gareth mercifully changed the subject to spare his friend any further heartache. In the days and weeks that followed, they spent quite a lot of time together talking about the forest, and what Gareth's people had to do to survive here, and how the skills and knowledge of the forest-dwellers could be adapted for use in the outside world, but Gareth never again brought up the slave trade. That was a problem all its own; one that his people had no insight into.

And fortunately, Kastor was not given much time to dwell on what Gareth had told him about his father's possible fate because Gavin and Tara kept both him and Shanna very busy. At Gareth's request, while he was recovering from his injuries his two new friends taught the Cranes everything they could about forest survival and travel. They learned to climb trees, use a knife and bow, find edible plants and fruits and nuts, hunt and trap and kill small forest animals, travel safely through the trees' intertwining branches, find safe places to camp, build a safe fire, and all the other things that Gareth had needed to know before he had been allowed to travel into the forest when he was eight years old. As Gareth's injuries healed and he regained his strength, he even joined in some of their lessons to refresh his own skills – after clearing his activities with the doctor first. His goal, along with preparing Kastor and Shanna for the long trip west they still had ahead of them, was to make them all seem less like outsiders here, himself included.

His tactic was quite effective. After several weeks of being seen in Gavin and Tara's company as well as Gareth's, acting just like any other kid living in the village, Kastor received fewer curious stares and more smiles and nods of greeting and acceptance, which relaxed him considerably. He began to smile more, and laugh, and he started talking frankly not only to Gareth but to Gavin and Tara as well. He was no longer the lonely, sullen, spoiled brat that Gareth had known for the last five years. Gareth was willing to bet that his own parents wouldn't recognize Kastor when he finally came home. In Gareth's humble opinion, that was a very good thing.

Their time in the village hadn't changed Shanna any, but that was because she fit in easily and made friends with everyone no matter where she was. She was an object of absolute fascination to the other villagers, especially the girls and women. She couldn't go anywhere in the village without being mobbed. They were in awe of her light-colored hair, eyes, and skin, they found her odd accent adorable, and her ability to make friends with everyone she met endeared her to all of them immediately. Within days of their arrival, she had been able to run through the village without a care in the world, accepted and looked out for by everyone and loving every minute of it.

“And everyone's so nice!” she bubbled one night when she, Gareth, and Kastor were alone in Gareth's bedroom after finishing and cleaning up a hearty supper with the Maplerunners. She was showing off the deerskin leggings embroidered with blue flowers that Missus Maplerunner had just finished making for her. The dresses and skirts that women and girls wore in the outside world were unknown here because such a garment was indecent and impractical when living in and climbing trees; these leggings were the latest of almost half a dozen pairs that the village women had made for her. Kastor had been horrified initially by the thought of girls wearing pants, especially his impressionable little sister, but after climbing ladders and trees himself he had finally seen the logic in it. “But some stuff is still so odd. Like people's names! Why does everyone here have such weird names?”

“I don't know what you mean, Miss Shanna,” Gareth said with a grin, knowing exactly what she meant, having experienced the same thing in the opposite direction. “All our names are perfectly normal. Have you stopped to consider the possibility that you and Kastor are the ones with the weird names?”

She did consider this for a minute, but them shook her head and returned his cheeky grin. “Nope. Still weird. Who has names like Maplerunner, or Firestone, or Moondancer?”

“Well, we do, for one,” Gareth replied.

“Come to think of it,” Kastor broke in thoughtfully. “You've never told us your surname, Gareth.”

Gareth chewed his lip as he weighed the risks of answering that question, then glanced nervously over to the door to the bedroom to make sure it was tightly closed before answering in a soft voice, “Elmwalker. That's my surname. I'm Gareth Elmwalker.”

“That's a pretty name,” Shanna said.

“Don't tell anyone else, though, please?” Gareth asked in an urgent, pleading tone of voice.

“But why not?”

“I don't want my parents ever knowing I was here, or how and why I came back to the forest. Our communities are small and interconnected; anyone who heard my name would easily be able to get word back to them that I was here.”

“But surely there have to be more Elmwalkers out there than just your parents,” Kastor said.

Gareth shook his head. “Our surnames aren't directly inherited from father to sons to grandsons and taken on by the women they marry the way people's in the outside world are. When we grow up and marry, we change our names in recognition of the new family unit we are creating. You've noticed, I'm sure, that all our surnames are the blending of two distinct words, like 'elm' and 'walker' or 'maple' and 'runner.' When we marry, the man takes the first half of his family name and combines it with the second half of the woman's family name to create a whole new family name. Like Tara's mother and her aunt, the nurse? You can tell that they're sisters because their last names both end with the word 'runner,' but since Tara's mother got married to one man and her aunt married another, her mother's name is Maplerunner but her aunt's is Cedarrunner. It's kinda rare for them to both still be living in the same village, though I suppose both their husbands could have come from other villages and chose to settle here. We try to marry outside the villages where we were born to prevent inbreeding, so it's rare for more than one family to have the same name. It's likely that my parents are the only other Elmwalkers in this entire forest, and it would not be that hard for someone in this village to pass word along to them if they found out that was my name.”

A morose silence fell over the room for a few moments after he'd said all that, but then it was broken by the sound of Shanna giggling. “So, if you and Tara got married, you'd become Gareth Elmrunner, then?” she asked, then stuffed her fingers in her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Gareth felt his face turning fire-red at that observation and quickly changed the subject.

His conversation with Kastor and Shanna about his name made Gareth worry that someone else, namely Tara or Gavin or their mother, would realize that they didn't know his surname and ask him the same question. Could he refuse to answer? That would be inexcusably rude. He guessed he would just have to hope that it didn't come up. And, amazingly, it never did, despite the fact that as Gareth recovered, he found himself spending more and more time alone with Tara. He began to suspect that she was making opportunities to spend time alone with him. It seemed that every time they went out into the forest to work on their survival skills, Tara would send Kastor and Shanna off with Gavin, then 'fall behind' with Gareth and somehow manage to never catch up. Also, Kastor began having lessons with Gavin on the days when Gareth was supposed to go to the hospital, and Tara was always there to volunteer to accompany him. She also began helping him with the physical therapy the doctor assigned him to help get his arm and leg back in working order once the stitches came out. It was all a little too obvious after a while, but Gareth was not about to complain. Tara was the most amazing person he'd ever met, and there was a good chance he would never see her again once he left here, so he wanted to create as many happy memories with her as possible to take with him back to his old life as a slave.

He wished he could say that they had some great conversations, but in reality she did almost all the talking. She could go on for hours about her life in the village, her childhood, all the things she'd seen and done, and all her hopes and plans for the future as long as she had an audience, and Gareth was happy to be that audience. But every once in a while she would ask him something and he would get to carry on a real conversation with her. And, thankfully, she never once asked him about his family or his life before he had become a slave, and she confined her questions about his experiences as a slave to one very important conversation.

The day before he, Kastor and Shanna were going to leave the village to continue on their journey west, Gareth sought Tara out and asked if they could take a walk into the forest, just the two of them. Tara readily agreed, and they set out, talking happily about nothing important and trying to avoid any mention of his imminent departure as they left the village together. But once they had found a secluded spot among the trees to sit and talk, Gareth had to break the happy mood with a serious question.

“Tara, you told me to remind you to tell me about your father and sister before we left here. I want to find them for you once I see Kastor and Shanna safely home.”

Tara nodded, her face growing uncharacteristically sober at the mention of her missing family. “Thank you, Gareth. I'll tell you anything you need to know, and I hope you do get a chance to find them. My father's name is David Maplerunner. He's thirty-seven years old, and he's tall for a forest-dweller – almost six feet. He has dark hair, naturally, and grey-green eyes. He was the senior carpenter here before he disappeared – I don't know if that will help you or not. My sister Jessie was his apprentice. She's seventeen, and almost as tall as my da, but she has my mum's green eyes.”

“How long ago were they taken?” Gareth asked softly. He could tell this was hard on Tara; she was trying hard not to cry as she talked about her father and sister. Hesitantly, he reached out and placed a comforting hand over hers, and he barely flinched when she reached out and grabbed it tightly.

“About six months ago,” she answered, “not far from where you and your friends entered the forest, from what evidence we could find of their trail.”

Six months ago, and taken from a section of the forest less than two weeks away from Devrost. Chances were pretty good that they had already been sold, Gareth realized with a twinge of disappointment. They could be anywhere in the world by now. But that had been the most likely possibility anyway. If they hadn't been sold already they most certainly would have been by the time he was able to get word of them to Tam. He wasn't going to let that deter him. From what he remembered of the slave trade in Devrost, they kept good records, and Tam had said that forest-dwellers were still a fairly rare sight. He could have seen them and be brought to remember, or they could find some way of getting the market's records – probably with Kastor's help – and track them down from there. Lost in thoughts of rescuing Tara's family and returning them to her in triumph, he didn't realize that Tara was speaking to him again until she poked him in the ribs. “Sorry, what?” he asked, turning to her sheepishly.

“Can I ask you something? If you don't want to tell me, that's okay.”

“Uhh...” Gareth was suddenly nervous. Was she about to ask him his name, or something about his family? Well, she had said he didn't have to answer her if he didn't want to. “Sure, what is it?”

“What's it like, being a slave? I mean, it doesn't seem so bad, watching you and Kastor together, but I think you're not acting right somehow. The things you implied, about the way he used to treat you, and... I saw the scars on your back, and the one on your chest too. I just... I just want to know what they're going through right now, I guess.” She turned away from him, her face red, and brushed her free hand across her eyes. “I'm sorry, it was a stupid question. It's not like knowing will change anything. Forget I asked.”

“No, it's alright,” Gareth said, a bit relieved that she hadn't asked any of the questions he'd been dreading. “I don't mind telling you.” Tara would be the first person he'd spoken to since becoming a slave that he could talk to honestly and openly, without having to sugarcoat his true feelings about everything he'd been through. “I don't think it will tell you much about what your father and sister are going through, though. I was just a kid. They're older, so things will go a lot differently for them, I imagine.”

“Will it be worse for them than it was for you?” she asked.

“Parts of it will. I bet it will be harder to break them; to get them to accept that they are slaves and will never go home again. I... I had no choice but to accept it as quickly and easily as possible. Kids are expendable; if you don't show promise at being able to serve, they'll just send you to the mines or the brothels and that will be the end of you. Adults and teenagers, it's different. They have skills, and they're big and strong enough to do manual labor if nothing else, so they're in higher demand. They get treated just as harshly, if not more so because they are usually more difficult to break, but the chances of them ending up some place truly horrible are far smaller than they were for me. I was really lucky to end up with Master Teskar and his family.”

This seemed to reassure Tara slightly. “Those scars... is that how they broke you?”

Gareth shook his head. “No. Those only happened a few months ago.” He could see the burning curiosity in her eyes as she looked at him, but before he told her the whole story, he had to make sure of something. “You believe me when I tell you that Kastor's changed, right? Because I don't want you to think badly of the person you know now when I tell you how I got those scars. He's not that person any more, I'm sure of it, and he's worked hard to earn your trust and friendship, and I don't want to ruin all that.” She nodded understandingly, and promised to try and keep an open mind, and since Gareth was sure he could trust her to do so, he told her about Kastor the bully, and about how Kastor had treated not just his slave but his entire family, and how Kastor had bullied Shanna, and how he had finally been forced to stand up to his young master to keep Kastor from hurting Shanna, and the punishments he'd received as a result.

“But that was really the worst it ever got,” he reassured Tara, who was looking at him in stunned shock when he finished his story. “And like I said, Kastor isn't that person any more. Even if I stay his slave for the rest of my life, I am certain that he will never treat me that badly, or even as badly as he used to, ever again.”

“But what happened to change him so much?” Tara asked in amazement. “Because you're right, he is a completely different person than the one you just described. I can't believe such a change would even be possible in such a short time, even with the ordeal that you've all been through together.”

“Well, I think that getting out in the world and having to fend for himself has opened his eyes a bit to the realities of life,” Gareth said, “but the one thing that turned him around completely was experiencing life as a slave first-hand.” Before Tara could get over her shock and demand to hear that story, he obliged her, telling her all about how Kastor and Shanna had come to be captured by slavers, what he had seen the slavers do to them both, and how he had rescued them.

“It wasn't much compared to what I'd been through,” he admitted in the end, “but it was enough. It opened his eyes to exactly what it felt like to be in my place, to be beaten and degraded and humiliated and unable to fight back or even defend yourself or the people you care about without bringing worse down upon your own head. I doubt I'll ever know exactly how he felt or what he thought about the experience – I don't think I have the right to ask him, honestly – but it made a very real difference in all our lives, and I'm just grateful that it seems to have made him a better person, even though that's the last way I would have wanted something like that to happen.”

“Well, I'm glad for it,” Tara said, squeezing his hand again. “I don't think I would have met you, otherwise. And you're the first person who's not only given me hope of finding my father and sister again but that may actually have a way of bringing them home. I don't know how I'll ever thank you for that, Gareth.”

Gareth blushed furiously. “So...were you close to your da and your sister?” he asked stupidly, trying to change the subject away from hero worship.

Tara shrugged. “I guess. Not as close as I am to Gavin, obviously, but Jessie, being three years older than us, was the perfect older sister. Helped teach us everything, looked out for us, prepared us for everything we would find when we first went into the forest on our own... everything an older sibling should do, made even harder by the fact that she had two of us to contend with instead of one. But she was always closest to Da. He passed on his love of woodworking to her, and from the day she chose to be his apprentice they became inseparable. I can't bear to think of them going through all those things you went through, Gareth, but it's worse to think of them being separated. Do you think...? No, I already know the answer to that question.” She turned away from him again, tears standing in her luminous grey-green eyes. It made Gareth's heart ache, to cause her this pain.

“Do you have a brother or sister?” she asked a moment later, obviously trying to change the subject. Gareth's heart gave a lurch at the question, and suddenly Tara turned to him, her face scarlet with embarrassment. “Oh, Gareth, I'm so sorry. I swore I wouldn't ask you any questions like that. I just... I wasn't thinking, but... I want to know everything about you, Gareth, especially about who you were before your were captured. I want to go and find your parents and tell them that you're okay even though you can't come home. Don't you want them to know you're alright, even if you don't go see them? Don't they deserve to know? Take it from experience, Gareth... not knowing is hell.”

“I do want them to know that I'm alive and safe, Tara, I really do, but the thought of them knowing that I'm a slave... worse, them knowing that I was here in the forest but couldn't come home... I don't know if I could bear that. I don't know if they could. And I don't know what's going to happen once I leave here. I hope that some day I can come back here, return to my home and my family on my own terms, but it's just as likely that I will never see this forest again, and if that is the case, I want to spare them the heartache of losing me all over again.”

Suddenly, Tara's arms were around him. His spine stiffened in surprise, and she laughed. ”You're the strongest person I've ever met, Gareth,” she said, which set his face on fire again. “I wish you didn't have to go. I wish I could convince you to stay, or that you would let me remove those horrible shackles so you could remember what it's like to be free... at least until you get back to Kastor and Shanna's home. Won't you let me do something? You've done so much for me. No matter what happens, I'll never forget having met you. I feel I owe you something for having given me so much.”

“You don't owe me anything, Tara,” Gareth managed to say as he extracted himself from her embrace and boldly placed an arm around her shoulders, making her blush as she smiled at him. “You've given me all those things as well. You've helped me remember, more than anything else I encountered on my way here, what it was like to be free, and I will never forget having met you either. Leaving here tomorrow will be the hardest thing I've ever done, but I promise you that I will do everything possible to return here – hopefully to bring your father and sister home to you before returning home to my own family. My life is not currently my own, so neither is my word, but I give it to you for what it is worth.”

Tara giggled, “You talk so funny sometimes... like them,” then broke into outright laughter as he stammered protests that he did not talk like an outsider. “It's alright,” she soothed. “I think it's... cute.” She doubled over with giggles as his face turned scarlet for what seemed the hundredth time in the last hour. Then she hugged him again. “Come on, let's forget about all this depressing stuff and just go have fun like the kids we're supposed to be. Did you ever learn how to swim?”

Gareth told her that he had while he was halfway to his feet, then he reached out a hand to help her up. She ignored his hand and jumped to her feet, then went up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. Gareth was sure that his face would never return to its normal color, but as she ran off, laughing and calling for him to follow her, he touched his cheek reverently without a trace of self-consciousness, grinning like a maniac and feeling a thousand feet tall. Maybe he was just a kid with a silly crush, but this was the first time in five years that he'd felt like just a normal kid, and he was determined to make the most of it. His only regret as he raced her through the trees to the nearest lake was that he hadn't had this conversation with her weeks ago. All he could do now was try to ignore the thoughts of all the time they could have spent together if he'd broken the ice a little sooner and just enjoy this last glorious day. But he had to admit, once it was over, that it had been the best day of his life.