Testing the edge

Migrant or Myth: The Mysteries of Solitude’s Rarest Inhabitants

by Pamadel Baker

Chapter 7: A sighting of the so-called flower-people thought to live in Evendark

What follows is a transcript of an interview this author had with a long-serving member of the Ranger’s Guild. The man in question – who goes by the name Rider Frost – had recently returned from a solo expedition that skirted the edge of the dangerous jungle region known as Evendark. Upon returning from this expedition he told stories of the strange plant-like creature he encountered beneath the dark boughs of that forbidden jungle. It took some doing, but I managed to track down Mister Frost at a tavern in Shadow Falls, where we – along with my faithful scribe Minuet – sat down over an ale to discuss his experience.

Transcript begins.

At this hour, the tavern is darkly lit and sparsely attended. Only a few other rough-looking rangers and a burly bartender – on the brink of nodding off – are present. When the brooding rangers bother to look up from their strong and foamy libations, they regard me – a slight and bright-eyed academic – with dismissive, almost pitying glances. As Rider returns from the counter with a pair of ales, I hope that the sputtering candle at the center of our table doesn’t burn out before our conference is complete, lest Minuet and I ruin our journals with blind scribbles.

“Here you go.”

Rider’s voice is as lonely and rough as the lost country roads upon which he frequently treds.

“Thank you sir,” say I, accepting the outstretched mug graciously.

“Least I can do. You’re payin me for a story I’ve been tellin’ free for well past a year now.”

He looks to Minuet.

“Sure I can’t get you somethin, pretty miss?”

Minuet smiles abashedly.

“Only your story, good ranger.”

Rider nods and leans forward over the table, his grey eyes gleaming under the brim of his hood. I can’t help but lean towards him.

“You’ve must’ve heard the gist of it, if you came to find me. What part did you want to know more about?”

Minuet and I exchange a glance and set our quills to paper. I begin my line of questioning.

“To begin with, where did your encounter take place?”

“I was hoofin’ it a ways over the edge of the Sabbran border, maybe twenty-five days out of RIverwatch. There’s no markers or trails once you get into Evendark, so I won’t be able to say exactly where I was ‘til the cartographers draw out the map I kept.”

“And why were you there?”

Rider shrugs. 

“Evendark’s a dangerous place – you go too far in and you won’t ever come out. But nobody knows where that edge’a death is exactly. Ain’t uncommon for some of us in the guild to test it every now and then, see how close we can get to the interior before things start gettin’ weird.”

“And how close did you get?”

Rider shrugs again.

“On this trip? Closer’n anyone still alive I’d bet.”

“On the day in question, what specifically were you doing? How did you come across this strange being?”

“I was headin south, down into a wide valley with a bunch’a huge trees – types I’d never seen before. It was rough goin – muddy, buggy, and I couldn’t see more’n twenty feet ahead in most places, the ferns and vines were that thick. When I got to the valley floor there was a clear spot with one’a those big trees right at the center. And when I say clear, I mean it. There was nothin’ on the ground but big gnarly roots and moss halfway up my shins. It was like the tree wouldn’t let anything bigger’n that grow on its patch’a ground. I was walkin under it and gawkin at the branches – the thing started branchin out maybe fifteen feet over my head and the limbs looked like the spokes on a wagon wheel, only there was more of’em. Felt like walkin under the ceiling of a sanctuary. Anyway, I was lookin up into the branches when I stepped on somethin funny and heard a sound like someone gaspin for air. Next thing I know somethin grabs my leg – and I got my dirk out a flash. I woulda took the arm off if it hadn’t let go of me just as quick.”

“What did it look like?”

Rider sits back in his chair, his head tilting towards the ceiling. His eyes are looking elsewhere, elsewhen.

“Only saw the arm at first. Thought it was a human wearin forest-dress for a blink or two. Nope. It was like a branch, wrapped tight with vines and leaves. The fingers were smooth twigs and bark nibs where they bent. The arm started fallin back into the moss and I followed it up and saw eyes lookin at me. Not human eyes. They were – well can’t say I’ve ever seen anythin’ quiet like ‘em, but they reminded me of water-lilies floatin on a still pond. There was white, and pink, and orange and red too I think. Loveliest things I’ve ever seen.”

He pauses. He jaw clenches and his eyes narrow. Minuet thinks I don’t see her frown.

“The rest of’er face was beautiful too.”

“Her?”

“I’m thinkin so. She looked human, but her face was made of plants and wood just like the rest of her. Her cheeks were like the skin of a plum, but pale and more delicate-like. Her hair was like vines as thin as thread, with tiny red flowers growin out of’em. Her lips were thin, like the petals on a daisy. She was layin there, half buried in the moss, starin up at me like a sick pup looks at its ma. Every now and then she’d gasp like – like she couldn’t breath, or she was in pain, somethin like that.”

“What did you do next?”

“Took me a minute, but I knelt down next to’er and pulled’er up – careful as I could – ‘til she was restin on my shoulder. Her body was just like the rest of’er, all leaves and bark and vines and flowers, made in the shape of a human. She felt real light. I figured may she was hurt, so I let’er rest on me for a while, even gave her some food and water. She wouldn’t eat, but she let me run some water over her lips.”

“Did you get the sense she was intelligent, did she speak to you?”

“I was gettin to that. I sat there with her maybe six or seven minutes, but then she starts actin fidgety. Her eyes looked like they were gettin darker and she started tremblin. I tried to calm her down, told her I’d bring’er to a cleric. After that she reached up and brushed my cheek with her fingers. They were cool. Smooth. Then she look me dead in the eye, serious as a storm cloud, and whispers one word.”

“What was it?”

Rider’s face darkens.

“Run.”

The table falls silent for a long moment while I compose myself.

“Did you?”

“Not at first. But she started pushin me away, gettin more and more panicked. Wasn’t till then I noticed the jungle had gone real quiet, and that’s never good. So I let her back down all gentle, covered her back up best I could, and headed back the way I came. I was halfway up the hill when somethin came at me.”

“Was it another being like this flower-woman?”

“Doubt it. It jumped down on me from above, swingin some kinda weapon I never got a good look at. It was wrapped up in a hood and cloak, green and brown to match the jungle. It was man-sized, and I saw a gloved hand, but it never said a word. Barely got my sword up in time to parry the first stab. We knocked steel for a few seconds and I could tell the thing was stronger than me, and it wanted me dead. Made the hairs on the back’a my neck stand up like they never did before. I got lucky. It caught its arm on a vine and I slashed its face and put a foot in it gut. Sent it rollin down the hill. Then I turned tail and ran fast as I could. I didn’t stop till I got to the top of the rise. I took a bit to catch my breath and look back down into the valley. I could hear trees shakin from all the way up there. Somethin big was down there, maybe a bunch’a somethin’s. Whatever it was I wasn’t stayin to meet it. I took off north as fast and quiet as I could. The hairs on the back’a my neck didn’t lay down until I’d put a half-dozen miles or more between me and that valley.”

“A harrowing escape. I assume your expedition came to an end after that?”

“Yeah, picked up my horse from the little village I left it in halfway back to Riverwatch, then took off east over the desert. Didn’t want to go north through the forests that way just in case somethin was still on my tail. Didn’t sleep much ‘til I got to Madra. Caught a ship to Chasm’s Gate a little after that and made my way back to Guild Headquarters from there.”

“Do you think you’ll go back one day, to see if you can find the flower-woman again?”

Rider closes his eyes and shakes his head. I can tell he’s sad, but resolute.

“Nope. Her. She saved my life. I won’t waste that. So I ain’t ever goin back to that place.”

…