“She’s a lovely girl, ya know. Always out and about with the first light, greeting us with such excitement.”, the old women smiled wistfully, a small, woven basket in her dirt-caked hands. “It brought a smile to me, every time, yes, it did. Ya know, sometimes it gets difficult, my boy. The days are long, and my back isn’t as spry as it once was. And with the fields being like this…”, she shook her head. “I remember the time, when we could see them blooming, this time of year. Such beautiful colors. My boy, please do find her, yes? A strapping adventurer such as yaself, it warms me old heart.” She smiled brightly at Timothy, her crooked teeth doing nothing to diminish the hopeful light in her eyes. “And when ya do, come by old Lola. I’ll bake ya some delicious cookies and set some hot milk aside. It’s me secret recipe, just might keep ya around our old town for a few days longer”, Lola winked at him.

Somewhat overwhelmed by the talkative old lady, Timothy watched as Lola bend over and swept her hands through the small leaves off the brushes covering the field. He was currently standing in one of the fields that weren’t covered in chin-high grain stalks. Turns out, finding someone that wasn’t busy to the point off ignoring him, wasn’t as easy as he had hoped. Which is why he turned to the smaller fields bordering on the forest even though there were mostly children and older folk playing in and tending to the fields.

“Allow me to express my appreciation, Miss Lola”, Timothy started, realizing he had been standing in awkward silence for a few seconds. “I will do my utmost to find this lovely child Chloe, as well as learn more about the reason for these troubling disappearances.”

“Yes, yes, my dear. Now do run along, weren’t ya in a hurry earlier? There is only so much sunlight remaining. Youngster these days, always so eager but all talk. Back in my younger days, we…”, old Lola started muttering to herself.

Timothy could only scratch his head at the sudden change. Deciding to listen to her suggestion and not agitate the old woman further, he stepped back and turned towards the forest. Might as well start finding some first clues or look for traces of the girl before dark. According to the townsfolk, she should have played at the edge where the fields meet town. Which meant just a short walk through the berry fields… scratch that: a somewhat longer walk along the edge off the forest to circle around the berry fields. Admittedly, talking to everyone had wasted more time than expected. Everyone just had to share their thoughts on life before answering his questions. It would, of course, be incredibly rude to interrupt such elderly folk, so Timothy had no choice but to listen to their woes of backpain and troubled feet.

Luckily it shouldn’t have cost him more than an hour, two at most, so he’d still have some time left to search through the forest. The forest itself was mostly evergreen, and not the densest he had ever seen. It did get darker further in – he had seen as much on the road through – but should all in all be manageable. Now where to start? Timothy wasn’t the most apt tracker by any means. He had had some success tracking wildlife; though, most could be attributed to sheer luck of running across his query.

Looking at the trampled, muddy patch of grass next to the houses it was clear that the child, Chloe, had often come here to play. No toys lying around though. It made him wonder if she has any, or if her parents have cleaned up after her. Probably did, considering the townsfolk must have sent a search party out already. Or did they? Definitely should have asked… Well, too late now and the track into the forest is quite obvious from this angle.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Following the trail into the forest, Timothy kept his eyes closely on the ground. It was damn easy to lose a trail due to missing it forking or turning after all. Though looking at these deep footprints, staying on track shouldn’t be too difficult.

***

Meanwhile further down the trail

“I think I found something”, the ranger called out, kneeling down towards the forest floor. “These are new. Made by boots. Several. She must have met a group of people here.” Feeling the other two standing behind her, Ameldia pointed: “I see four distinct pairs. There, there, and two following behind over there.” Grimacing at the implications, she stood up and turned towards the group meeting Markus’ worried brown eyes.

“I don’t like this, Ameldia. A young girl disappeared and now we find tracks of people this deep into the woods? There should be nothing around here.”, Markus said, throwing a worried glance past her at the site.

“He’s not wrong”, Cork shook his head, “but not right either. Sure, there’s nothing around here, but if we keep moving that direction”, he nodded deeper into the woods, the same way the tracks were headed, “we’ll reach The Plunge. Small mining community, close to a the Averdin River with a small port. And a flourishing smuggling ring…”, his voice trailed off ominously.

“So?”, Markus shook his head, “I doubt any of those people are coming this far towards a small village like Thorns Creek. And what would they even want with a little girl?”

“No, they won’t. But bandits just might.” Corks face darkened with every word. “And they aren’t only smuggling gems, Markus. It has a special operation, as well. The kind dealing in humans.”

Slowly widening eyes looked back at the armored man, before a scowl overtook not only Markus, but Ameldia face as well. More than that, Ameldia looked almost visibly sick and disgusted by the thought.

“I’m going to kill them.”, she clenched out between her teeth. “Now.”

Not given her two companions a chance to answer, Ameldia rushed off, her steps carrying her across the forest floor in lithe grace, passing fallen leaves without trace. Her silhouette flickered through the waning rays of the twilight sun. Not more than a figment of imagination for a passing observer. A feat achievable by few other than the elves of the Unending Forests of the East, and utterly impossible for neither Markus nor Cork to replicate.

“By her holy light, wait up”, Markus followed her mad dash with barely a second of delay, shouting after her with vain hope the ranger might just listen to the voice of reason. Even though he felt the same rage, his mind spinning wild tales of a young girl helpless in the clutches of slavers, sold to the highest bidder like an object of desire, he was also full of certainty that heedlessly rushing forward would not help the child. A clear mind and pure heart leads true. Always. Such was Etahi’s divine wisdom. Her teachings were always clear in message. One was to act thoughtfully and with an open mind, lest one fall prey to the trappings of man. Be it anger, fear or grief, think them to be no more than shackles of mind and body alike. Discard them and you shall be made greater than men.

“Better keep up the pace old man.”, Cork grunted between deep breaths, his long footfalls providing a regular drumbeat to their all-out sprint after Ameldia. Barely a handful of heartbeats had passed and already they had lost sight of the elven maiden. “Think she’ll charge in right away?”

“Let’s hope not”, Markus shook his head. “Keep going. I pray we be on time.”

End of chapter.