Two native women talked ahead of us beneath the tall azuka grass. They each sat atop a vita’o lizard adjacent one another with bows in hand and arrows nocked. One of them was older—she was the same woman who sat with Ahmi and the princess mocking me the day of the alarm. The other was young, perhaps the same age as Dayumi, Jezi’s girlfriend. The two of them took turns pointing at us as they spoke.

To the left, women went about working at the green-purple grass. They chopped, gathered into bunches, and brought the thick stalks over to a bison-drawn cart. About half of them were Na’uhui. Two were Goloagi and had numbers seared into their arms, as did a handful of the others. A Tobori girl who couldn't have been fourteen carried one end of a bundle while the other was carried by the Saniwesa woman from the cafe, the one who'd looked incredulously between me and Miyani. She smiled at me and sang, “vʌ ɣʊwoʒiwa!”

I answered her, “vʌ koðosa.”

At that she giggled and went about her work. Faren stepped beside me, “did you ever figure out what that means, exactly?”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “It means don't get lost.”

“You joking?” he laughed. “That's how they say goodbye? Don't get lost?”

“Yeah,” I smiled wide. “Apparently she just told us not to get eaten.”

“Oh, well… I suppose that's better than the alternative.”

I turned to him with a sly grin. “Good thing it's not a race, right?”

Faren scrunched his jaw and nodded, then answered in deep seriousness, “uh-huh.”

I heard Jame’s voice as he walked alongside Davod. “What’s our mission, man?”

Davod answered, “we go to Tower One.”

“And then?”

I added, “we also have to find the magic scroll and rescue the princess.”

Jame blinked his eyes at me and squinted.

I elaborated, “first we go over the ruby bridge and answer the three questions. From there we enter the enchanted forest and slay the goyin…”

Davod turned to me and snapped, “can you be serious for once?” A bead of sweat meandered down his cheek and dripped over his neck. He took a deep breath and swallowed, then turned back to Jame, “we go to Tower One and we stay there until further notice. That’s all.”

Jame nodded, then looked at me and shook his head. I looked at Davod, “I was just getting to the good part!”

Davod shook his head and huffed. “I need you to be serious.”

“OK,” I nodded. I stepped close to him. “What's going on?”

He locked his jaw for a moment before repeating, “I told you; we go to Tower One.”

“That’s fine,” I said, “but you’re acting like a rat crawled up your arse and died.”

He stopped and faced me directly, clenching his jaw and shaking his head with his eyes closed. Then he took in a deep breath and settled his emerald green eyes on mine. “Look. I don’t have time for your shit. I’m responsible for these men. If something happens to them, any of them, it’s my fault.”

I made to speak, but he held up his hand and cut me off. “I just need you to be serious. Can you please be serious?”

I nodded. “OK, then.” So I took his hand, “let us pray…”

Davod raised a finger and grimaced hard, shaking his head, then walked off without saying another word.

“What?” I laughed.

As we came up to the two scouts, the older woman stepped off into the bush on the right and disappeared while the younger one urged her throat-ripping lizard forward. She was as they all were, short and incredibly fit. She wore her white hair in two heavy braids, one over each shoulder to end just above her bare nipples. She wore the same cotton loincloth as the others along with the same necklace of large, carved wooden beads and a leather strap over one shoulder that held a quiver well-stocked with arrows. Other than that she was naked down to her bare feet. Her vita’o was a bit larger than the others, dark with vertical green stripes along the length of its body. It was the same one who with Gray had greeted me the day I made an arse out of myself with Ahmi.

Davod stood beside her and turned to face us. “Gentlemen, this is Yumi. Yumi, this is us.”

She ran her yellow eyes over our troupe and then turned to him. “Where are more?”

“Shht,” Davod shook his head rapidly. “Just us.”

Yumi stared at him a moment, then looked us over again, gave a nod to Jezi, and turned back to Davod. She pointed down a narrow foot path of irregular sheets of black slate through a dark tunnel of sugarcane on both sides. “Go.”

Davod looked us over before we could file into a line. “Borel, you last, Jame, you with him.”

Borel protested, “why am I last?”

“Because that's where I put you. Northstar, you with them. Rock, you stay up front with me and Caleb. Geraln, you and Malchuk you take the middle, and the rest of you with him. Let's go.”

Over the path we walked. I felt hard sweat beneath my padded armor, and we scarcely went anywhere. Beyond the azuka grass we came to a grove of mixed trees—some bore those hand-sized fruits with the yellow stringy flesh, others were tall and bore those big fruits with the red flesh. Some coconut trees, a tree with pendulous head-sized green avocados, other fruits I'd never seen before passed by us as we walked. In a small grove in the distance, a group of women were busy harvesting globular spiky fruits the size of a man’s head—a native woman straddled a high branch and reached those higher up with a pole while several young girls ran about trying to catch them as they fell. Beside them, three Herali men covered in chain armor stood with arrows nocked as they looked about. One of them waved at us, then returned his attention to the trees about him.

Davod couldn't stop looking around at the forest. Every chirp, every whistle, he would seek it out with his eyes. We heard that bird overhead making the human sound signalling seven despite there being thirteen of us.

Then we heard vita'o ahead and to the left. Davod immediately turned to look towards it.

I nudged him. “Miyani said don't make it look like you can read the forest. She says that's how they pick out who to kill first.”

“Huh?” He looked at me with death in his eyes.

A moment later, Yumi stepped out from the direction of where we'd heard it. I faced Davod with a smile. “How did you know about the bird, anyway?”

Davod fixed his face as though he wanted to smile but couldn’t. “Ahmi said it was your idea.”

“What was my idea?”

Davod blinked rapidly and breathed heavily. “She said there were some things we should all know about and gave all us captains a class about it. She said it was your idea.”

“Shhh!” Yumi glanced between us, holding a finger to her lips. Then she pointed at Ales and spoke, “you. Front.”

Ales furrowed his brow. “What? Why me?”

Davod snapped at him, “do as she says, man!”

Ales huffed out a heavy breath, then trodded up to where Davod and I stood, taking the lead as we continued our journey.

Yumi directed us down a narrow passage of foliage that had overgrown the shale foot path despite having been chopped as recently as yesterday before she disappeared. Overhead, giant leaves of a tall tree cast everything in shadow, and the road began to drop down a steep incline. A deafening rush of water crashing over rocks beneath a stone bridge emptied into an expanse of swamp. The road followed a causeway that dropped down into standing reedy water on both sides, with grass tall enough to hide an army in and thick trees easily within a bowshot to our left while the expansive swamp stretched out on the right.

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“Gods!” Ales nearly shook, and unsheathed his cutlass, pointing it at the water line. There, the black head of an alligator lay in wait. Its head alone had to be a good three feet long and hungry, yet perfectly still and nearly invisible in the swamp grass. Its slitted eyes perused us as we walked by. “Got another!”

Faren spoke up to remind everyone, “remember to make eye contact.”

Ales spoke again a moment later, “two more on the right!”

We came out of the swamp and climbed up an embankment where the ground was on two different levels as though a shelf had lifted half of it up and left the remnant where it was. At the top, a tree had fallen over leaving a massive ball of roots five yards high, covered in vines yet still reaching a new trunk up into the forest. Its old trunk lay across the road, having been tunneled through with an axe yet still sprouted a dozen new trees forth. Beyond the tunnel, I envisioned a band of enemy soldiers waiting in ambush—we’d have had no hope of seeing them.

An expanse of low bushes with huge, flat leaves covered the ground hip high for hundreds of yards all around, with plenty of space beneath those massive leaves to conceal three companies of men. Above, the trees shielded the forest in a dense canopy filled with a myriad of chirps and whistles. One heavy tree branch was moving… slithering slowly up along the tree and flitting its tongue out in search of a meal. The road led us past a narrow gap in the trees above and gave us a clear view of a nearby ledge that looked like the perfect spot to host a few archers as there’d be no way to defend ourselves. Then the trees grew extra thick on both sides such that if something were to lurk just on the other side we’d have no hope to see them.

Davod jerked his head to the left. The veins in his neck popped in rapid succession as sweat poured down his neck and his shirt was soaked through.

Without looking up I whispered, “you hear something?”

“No,” he shook his head.

“What’s going on, man? Why are you so on edge?”

At that, Davod stopped and looked around. His eyes were wide, his breath heavy, and he clenched his jaw. He surveyed the jungle in every direction, while Ales furrowed his brow, “what’s going on?”

Davod held up his hand to silence him. Visibility was poor. All around us not ten yards away, heavy bushes camouflaged whatever might have been behind them while overhead, thick trees cast the whole jungle in twilight despite the midmorning clouds beyond. Noise was everywhere. If that bird was calling out anything, I couldn’t make it out for the cacophony of whistles, chirps, random caws, and the steady grinding of insects that surrounded us.

Borel crossed his arms, Jame stared at Davod, while Malchuk started to shift his eyes around in every direction. Geraln took Malchuk’s cue and nocked an arrow, himself looking around in every direction. Jezi did the same.

We were all drenched in sweat. At length, Davod took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, then pulled me in close by my arm. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”

He led me a few yards behind a thick hedge with long, flat leaves large enough to roll up as a blanket that stuck up from the ground and fanned out easily three yards high. There, he checked round to make sure none of the others were listening before leaning in to whisper. “Where’s Yumi?”

“Uh…” I shrugged.

His fingers shook and his voice quivered. “She’s supposed to check in. We should have seen her. I don’t know where she is. She’s supposed to check in. Why hasn’t she checked in? She’s supposed…”

I took hold of his shoulders and whispered. “OK. Take a deep breath.”

He did, then shook his head vigorously.

I raised my voice enough for the others to hear, “it’s just a rash, man—try not to stroke it so hard.”

Some of the others laughed a bit, while I heard Geraln translating into Goloagi.

Davod’s eyes popped. “I’m going to kill you. I swear to Falcon, I’m going to bloody kill you!”

“Alright,” I nodded. “Let’s get to Tower One first. How often is she supposed to check in?”

He opened his mouth and shook his head vigorously. “Uh… I don’t know. Maybe… I don’t know? She should have by now…”

I emphasized that word, “maybe. This could be normal. Alright? Could be nothing.”

Davod blew out and tried to steady his fingers.

“How’s this,” I offered. “Do you know how much farther it is?”

“Mmm,” he shrugged. “It’s about ten miles on the map. The road twists around, so…”

“OK, so we’ve got a good few more hours. Let’s go another thousand yards or so, and if we don’t see her, we’ll revisit this conversation.”

Davod nodded slightly, then shifted his head side to side. Then he countered, “five-hundred.”

I shrugged. “Fine. But let’s bring Jezi in on this; he might know a thing or two.”

While Davod nodded, I called the boy over. He glanced down at Davod’s pants, then looked between us. I leaned in close to whisper. “Yumi hasn’t checked in on us for a while. Do you know anything about how often they’re supposed to, or has Dayumi ever said anything to you about it?”

Jezi shook his head. “No. But she still has training so maybe she not has the experience.”

Davod nodded. “Alright.” With a deep breath he instructed the kid, “we need to keep moving. Tell everyone to nock arrows and be ready for anything.”

I added, “and if you hear something, try not to look like you can read the forest.”

Jezi sucked his teeth at me, “I have the better idea.”

Jezi’s better idea was to instruct everyone to act like they can read the jungle. Every chirp, every whistle, every random call, every snapped twig, every rustled leaf, look at it. Study it. He then filed the men into two columns to march side-by-side so that each man could focus their attention in one direction. The nerves on everyone’s faces were apparent. My own heart sent me a shot of adrenaline, and we continued forward.

Up ahead, the road turned to the right to rise up along a hill. Beside us was one of those trees with the red stems and marble-sized black berries. I stepped off to grab a cluster and popped one into my mouth. Davod scrunched his lips and looked at me with stern derision, holding his hands out at the side.

I looked around. “Everyone get some energy. We might need it.”

Faren and Malchuk glanced at one another, then shrugged and moved forward. Rock took down a huge cluster and stuffed several into his mouth at the same time. Gino followed my lead, Jame and Borel stood with their arms crossed while Renou stood beside them. Jame spoke up, “how do you know those aren’t poisonous?”

Jezi sucked his teeth and took a few himself, and there were more than enough berries on the tree for everyone. Then I remembered the dokono breads Miyani had given me. I hadn’t one for everyone, but breaking off a few pieces made it enough. Ales looked at it with his brow furrowed. “Where the hell did you get this, man?”

Faren smiled, “you don’t like it?”

Ales huffed. “It’s the most delicious thing in the universe! This is a whole nother category—where the hell did you get this?”

Borel stepped up and slapped his arm around him. “Fringe benefits of native pussy, man. You have no idea!”

Fed, we continued our journey. The road led us sideways up a steep incline covered in ferns so thick you couldn’t see the rock behind them. Ahead of us, the ledge offered whoever stood upon it the perfect place to conceal an ambush. I glanced at Davod and nodded him to follow, and drew our bows. At full draw, we crept above the ledge and slowly peered over with weapons trained on nothing. Trees were sparse up there, and there wasn’t anything beyond the ledge for cover, so we relaxed. Davod turned around and lowered his hand, nodding for the others who’d drawn as well that we were clear.

We continued. The slate of the road was barely visible beneath countless vines that stretched across the way. Several others lined the sides, piling layer upon layer of vines three feet high, all chopped within a few days. Ahead about two-hundred yards, the forest got dense once more, so Davod turned around. “Alright, listen up.”

The men all gathered around him. His words felt strong and sincere, the nervous panic was gone, and he stood with his chest high. “Yumi has not checked in. We don’t know how often she’s supposed to, but when Ahmi was training us, it was way more often than this. She’s not as experienced, and right now we haven’t seen her.”

Jame’s voice held a faint quiver. “What the hell does that mean.”

I stepped beside Davod. “We don’t know. It’s possible she’s trying to have a shit, but is just really, really backed up.”

Rock giggled to himself, Geraln shook his head and covered his eyes, but I could tell he was laughing. Davod looked at me in shock.

I shrugged. “It’s true. That is a possibility.”

Davod tried to fight it, but he chuckled heartily and smiled. Then he shook his head and looked over the men once more. “That is one possibility.”

Malchuk listened as Jame translated for him, Rock, and Northstar. Then he nodded and looked around us. “When I was in Kulun, sometimes this happened. You miss a checkpoint. Sometimes somebody’s walking too slow, sometimes the people you’re looking for got massacred. Sometimes the idiot giving orders can’t do basic math, and sometimes you never find out.”

I translated for Davod, and he nodded. “Alright. We keep going.”

As we started to move, I couldn’t help but point out, “it’s possible she’s killed an enemy and is in the process of harvesting an ear for her boyfriend.”

Davod chuckled at that, then held a finger to his lips with a smile.

Jezi ignored that, “Yumi is single.”

“Well there it is!” I said. “How is she going to convince a man she's serious without a severed human body part? She has a crush on someone! Why else would she be harvesting an ear right now?”

Ales sucked his teeth, “you gonna mock your woman’s culture like that, man?”

Davod stopped and turned to Ales, then looked at me directly. “We’ve got about six or seven miles to go, and we need to cut the conversation. Got it?”

We passed beside a thick bush decorated with clusters of tiny light-purple berries that could have easily hidden an ambush on the other side. Overhead, I heard that bird again, making the call for humans in bursts of six or sometimes seven. I tried to listen out if I could hear it elsewhere in the trees, but there was so much noise with random hoots and calls I couldn’t discern anything.

To my right, something rustled quickly through the branches. I drew and took aim, and I felt Rock directly beside me with his bow drawn as well. A moment later, I could make out a thing like a giant striped squirrel thing clinging to a tree and half scampered up, frozen in place, and staring at us with large white eyes. I relaxed my arm and we kept walking.

Then I heard Geraln behind me whispering to Rock, “don’t hold the draw, man. Your arm’s going to get tire

Rock took a deep breath and his eyes shuttered. Then he relaxed his arm, and we kept walking.

The road widened a bit, and we passed by a structure on the right overtaken almost completely by vines save one corner of large black stones mortared together.

Someone screamed.