The Grin and the Frown

Her eyes were starting to blur, her limbs were aching. She was sweating like crazy. Her stomach growled. She was hungry. Her throat has been burning with the lack of water for the past hours. She didn't know how much time had passed.

The girl walked on and on walking over foliage, ferns, and snaking roots. The roots lay lazily obstructing the way, trying to stop her. The jungle looming around her had started to hiss and growl as the darkness of the night spread over its canopy while the crickets chirped, announcing night's arrival. The chirps could have sounded quite peaceful otherwise, if only her situation hadn't been so dire.

She had been walking since she had seen the blue sky between the gaps in the canopy. But now, she didn't know if the darkness that hung over her head was that of the canopy or of the night sky. There wasn't a single sign of civilization around. Not even a single footprint. With every step she took, it felt to her, as if hope itself was slipping out of her palm like sand. She could feel the loud thumping of her heartbeats counting the seconds passing by. It was quite late and dark. She did not know what creatures were sheltered by this forest, alert for any intruder.

Just beyond a ray of light appeared in the darkness, both metaphorically and visually. The beam landed on her face blinding her momentarily. Her face had become a dusty grey due to all the dust that had settled over her dark skin. She covered her eyes with her hands to shield herself from the oppressive light that made her eyes feel like they were being stabbed.

A light!... A light from a torch!

The girl didn't even think about who could be holding the torch and what their intentions would be. Here was the sign of civilization she'd been desperate for the past unrecorded hours. She had lost track of time, she didn't know if she ever had tracked it in the first place. She hollered out tactlessly, "Hello! Anybody there?!" Her voice was weaker and more distorted than she had expected it to be, for she had no energy left in her. She dropped to the ground, sitting down, having convinced herself that the source of the beam of light was indeed good news. She let herself grab a few precious seconds of rest.

There was a sound of shuffling of feet. Two people now stood before her and looked down at her. They muttered something. The girl couldn't make sense of it because she had been swept by the moment of the much desired human contact after hours of desperation. All she could make out was that there was a female and a male voice. She was handed some sort of a wrap in glinting foil to eat and a bottle that contained clean water.

The girl was in no state to care about how she looked when she replenished herself. Perhaps a brute, a wild beast, gobbling up its meal. She licked her fingers, which had dirt plastered on them and the wrap's mashed content on the foil too. She proceeded to drink the water, finishing off the last of the drops from the bottle. For someone in her condition, this meal would have been the most fulfilling one ever. The water felt like a holy liquid fallen from the heavens above.

She took a deep breath to calm herself down when she was finished with replenishment. She looked up slowly now, recovering bit by bits from the wild survival state to rationality until she could hear her own thoughts ring through her head again.

The faces that peered down on her were a female's extremely pale, frowning face and a male's dark, grinning face with glinting white teeth, the two faces contrasting each other to a great extent…They both harboured a thoughtless expression as if they were accustomed to seeing people like her: people fighting for their survival in this accursed forest.

The two had harboured a knowing expression on their faces yet the female asked.

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"What happened to you?" Her eyes scanned the lost girl from her head to her toe and then fixed on her ripped and scratched clothes which looked like the work of brambles.

"I've been here…since morning…alone…help me." The other girl's barely audible voice cracked into a wail. Her shaky hands reached her face to cover it from their gaze and the glare of the torch,"I don't know why." She was so weak that even pushing the words out of her mouth felt like a great task.

This time the dark male spoke in a rough, heavy voice.

"Stop asking questions, Skadi. Let's just take her to the Institution." Despite his hoarse voice, he didn't seem sinister or perhaps if noticed, even empathetic. His companion chose not to reply and instead enacted. The glare of the torch shifted away from her face to the earth below as they stepped to her.

The dusty girl felt hands on her shoulders pulling her up from both sides, being raised up on her feet. Disappointment crossed her face not wanting to put her aching feet to work again.

It was a relief as while the two held her, they supported most of her weight and her feet half dangled over the dark ground and half dragged. The strange girl was being ushered now through the enigmatic forest by equally enigmatic strangers, the girl named Skadi, on her right and the boy on her left. Now that she could see their faces much more clearly from up close in the dispersed light of the torch that the boy held, they looked about the same age as her.

The beam of light from the torch shone on the path before them and abruptly reflected off an object seemingly half buried in the earth. The sudden glare from the metallic object made the girl narrow her eyes. Trying to comprehend the object, she half opened her dark eyes.

A pipe?

A part of what seemed to be a metallic pipe was protruding out of the earth. It seemed that they were following it, walking alongside it.

It was the first, much needed sign of any kind of human civilization the girl had seen that day. The light from the torch trailed over the pipe as their feet were placed one after the other on the forest floor. Suddenly, the two stopped in unison and the girl almost fell over from the jerk. The boy slowly angled the torch upward and it bounded off a much larger object.

Now that Arca's eyes had adjusted to the blinding light of the torch, she could see that what stood against the ray of light was a glinting bronze-coloured door, overgrown with shrubbery.

The ushered girl felt a pair of hands letting go of her shoulder as the boy headed to the door shifting the light all over the object covered in leaves and vines.

"Urgh will we keep uprooting this up every time? Why don't they send them people here?”

The boy complained, ripping out a patch of ferns that had been nestling next to the door. Under the now gone ferns was what seemed to be a button. The boy turned back to look at Skadi as if seeking permission.

"Do the honours Skald." Skadi spoke, letting go of the other girl too. The girl had recovered enough energy to stand and walk on her own. Or perhaps it was the curiosity that was fueling her. She had evident confusion on her face. However neither Skadi nor Skald tried to clear her confusion.

"Sure." Skald, the boy spoke with a smirk, raised his palm and pressed down the button dramatically.

Nothing happened. They stood in before the metallic door with only the sound of the forest echoing.

A sudden ring echoed through the forest.

Ding!

The glinting door slid open slowly and jerkily sideways and it was then that the girl realised what it was, staring at the reflection behind the door.

Ah! A lift… here?