Max stared in horror at the collapsed roof of the hideaway, then at Mineau. She avoided his gaze, wincing slightly as a second rumbling tremor accompanied the collapse of the tunnel that led from the mosaic room to the chamber with the submerged stairs. She winced again as the nearest wall surrounding the pool began to crumble, its collapse punctuated by a series of splashes.
Screams echoed out of the trees as nearby monsters rushed toward the sound of the palm tree’s death cry. While Max and Mineau had watched the collapse of their subterranean refuge, both monsters had drawn close.
Mineau sighed as she glanced in the direction of one of the approaching monsters. “We should go.”
“We were going to hide,” Max said, trying to keep both the pain and the frustration from his voice. He could already feel a bruise developing across the right side of his face and it twinged when he spoke.
Mineau gave him an appraising look. “We were. Now we can’t, so we need to go. Can you run?”
Max turned from her and took a step in the direction that would take them between the approaching monsters. His right knee throbbed when he put weight on it, but it didn’t give out. “I’ll be ok.”
“I didn’t ask if you would be ok, you huge man,” Mineau said, looking him over. “I asked if you could run. Because we probably shouldn’t try to kill anything else until we’ve rested. So,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and looking him in the eye, “can you run, or do you need me to help you?”
Max listened to the screams rapidly approaching through the trees, then he looked down at Mineau, frowning. “How would you even–”
Mineau slid under his right arm and wrapped her own arm tightly around his waist. Then she took his hand by the wrist and placed it firmly on her right shoulder. “Lean on me,” she said. “Ready?”
Max hopped once to get his balance, then leaned experimentally on Mineau’s shoulder. He expected her to sag under his bulk, but she straightened slightly and looked up at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Lean on me,” she said again.
“Yeah,” he said, letting his weight settle onto her smaller frame. “Ok.”
Mineau took a step, and Max had to lean on her as he brought his left foot forward.
“Again,” she said, when he paused.
Max took another step, settling his weight more fully on Mineau’s shoulder as he swung his left leg forward.
“Good. Now you set the pace,” she said. “I’ll keep us moving. Go.”
They made it into the covering shroud of the nearest bushes before the monsters broke into the clearing. As Mineau steered them toward a massive, gnarled tree that would hide both of them from the eyes of the vengeful monsters at their backs, Max saw Aurum and Orla picking their way through the undergrowth, green dust streaming into both creatures as they moved.
Well, he thought, at least we got that part right.
After they hurried around to the far side of the great tree, Mineau helped Max settle onto a root, then raised a hand between them and gestured for quiet. Behind them the second monster cried out for the last time. The creature, a bird, Max thought, would have just arrived at the ruins of the hideaway. Based on what he had seen of their behavior previously, he knew it wouldn't range this far out into the trees to find them. If the other creature had been a lemur, however…
As Mineau stood and stared unseeing into the distance, her head cocked to listen for the sounds of pursuit, Max tried to breathe as quietly as possible while he craned his neck to look up into the branches above them. Long minutes passed before Max decided that an ambush was unlikely. He looked at Mineau. Seeing that she still stood listening intently, he let his back settle against the trunk of the tree and looked down at Aurum. The last of the monster dust had already disappeared into the creature’s little golden body, but a spot of golden light now hung between his ears, swirling in tight circles and leaving a tiny trail of shimmering motes to fade in its wake. Max frowned when he saw that Orla, sitting by Mineau’s feet, had the same mote hovering above her.
That was new. But maybe good, maybe helpful. Most likely it, he decided, settling his back against the cracked bark of the tree, it had something to do with the choices they made before Max had pulled a murderous tree out of the ground. When Mineau had satisfied herself that the monsters wouldn’t come looking for them, they would investigate this new development together.
Still listening to the ominous silence all around them, Max let his gaze drift up toward the canopy. The light was fading rapidly, but he could see a splotch of something bright and yellow swinging against the dim patchwork of the canopy and the darkening sky. It was a massive tangle of flowers, he realized, squinting at them. Many of the vines in the jungle had flowers blooming along their entire lengths. He’d seen them draped over branches and bushes and climbing up trunks, but here the ends of half a dozen hanging vines had been knotted together by the wind so that they formed an irregular ball of vibrant yellow petals. He couldn’t quite tell where each of the starburst blossoms began, but their beauty, in aggregate, was arresting. They hung at the center of a web of vines that connected the surrounding trees, and as Max traced the length of each, he found himself then tracing the limbs of the trees that supported them, admiring the graceful structure of their crowns, the jagged holes where storms had wrenched branches loose, and the expansive sense of space he felt when looking up into the leafless void hidden inside each crown. Beautiful, silent, serene–and hanging over a jungle floor filled with monsters that would eviscerate him as soon as they were given the chance.
Max jumped slightly when Mineau’s voice interrupted his reverie.
“No sleeping yet,” she said.
Mineau’s voice was hushed, but Max could see that some of the tension had gone from her shoulders as she lowered herself to sit on the root next to his. She’d apparently decided, as he had, that they were in no immediate danger. And now that she wasn’t quite as primed for confrontation, Max could see that Mineau was beginning to look just as tired as he felt.
He sat up gingerly, suppressing a yawn and trying not to jostle his leg. He pointed at the brightlings and the swirling motes between their ears. “That’s new,” he said.
Mineau looked at Orla, then Aurum. “It is,” she said. She pointed at Orla. “Tell me what that is, you little menace.”
“Please,” Max added.
Mineau smiled slightly. “Please.”
The now familiar pane of smokey nothingness appeared in front of Max’s face. In it hung two shimmering circles of monster dust, one beneath an image of Max and another beneath an image of Mineau. Between those circles hung a long, jagged, rose colored chunk of wood. Its edges were splintered and it was charred along one side. When Max leaned forward, he could see glowing embers beneath some of the char.
Max looked over at Mineau. “Have you seen this before?”
Mineau shook her head. “Orla, what is this?”
Max waited, but when he saw Mineau nod thoughtfully, still looking at the images in front of her, Max sighed and looked at Aurum. “Little one, please give me a name for everything you show me. Always.”
Aurum chirped and his eyes strobed with golden light.
Mineau looked over at Max, one eyebrow raised. “That’s…probably a good idea. Did it work?”
“So far,” Max said, frowning at the images in front of him. Next to the chunk of wood he could now see a label: Charred Heartwood. But much more interesting, he decided, was the label hovering over the lazily swirling green ring of monster dust: Lucre - Verdant.
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Mineau frowned at him, then mimicked his command. After Orla’s eyes flashed, Mineau cocked her head slightly to the side. “I think I liked ‘monster dust’ better.”
“Mm,” Max said. “‘Lucre’ dash–” he said slowly, making a little flicking motion with his finger, “--‘Verdant.’ I wonder if that means the dust is called ‘lucre’ and ‘Verdant’ is where it came from. Maybe it’s a place name. Maybe that means ‘Verdant’ is where we are?”
Max felt his exhaustion melt away in an instant as he considered what it would mean to have a name for the jungle. It wouldn’t help them find their way to the Emerald Gate or locate the jungle’s people–if they even still existed–and it wouldn’t help them better understand why they had been thrown across the sky by a violent stone statue or why their memories had been stolen from them. But it could be a clue. A name could be a signpost that could help them develop a broader, more rational, more coherent understanding of who, what, and where they were. It had to be a clue, Max decided, if it was coming from both of the brightlings. Aurum rarely volunteered information about himself or what he could help Max do, but his little golden companion had never lied, so far as he knew. And having both of the brightlings display this name felt significant. It felt like an obvious truth that had simply been waiting to be uncovered.
“Huh,” Mineau said. She paused. “I thought it might be describing type and subtype. So Lucre would be a kind of dust and ‘verdant’ is this green kind specifically. Like ‘rock - brown’ would be the same thing as a ‘brown rock.’”
“Oh,” Max said. He thought about that for a moment. “That probably makes more sense,” he said.
He leaned back against the tree trunk again, deflated. He waved a hand dismissively at the images in front of him. The golden border around the image of the charred heartwood grew dim, then the panel closed and the little glowing mote hovering between Aurum’s ears faded. The mote above Orla darkened for a moment, and Max thought he saw a charred splinter of wood spin between her ears, then drop quickly toward her forehead and disappeared.
“Not more sense,” Mineau said, “just different sense. And it could be both. ‘Lucre’ could be the name of the thing, the dust, and ‘Verdant’ could be the subtype that gets its name from this place,” she said, waving one arm to indicate the jungle all around them.
That could also be true, Max realized. His hunch might not be entirely wrong. That made him feel a little better.
“‘Verdant’ would be a little trite for the name of a jungle, though,” Mineau said, scratching her chin absently. “Don’t you think?”
Max looked over at Mineau. She was looking off into the trees in that way that made Max assume she wasn’t actually seeing most of what she was looking at. He smiled slightly.
“Obviously,” he said.
“Yeah, exactly,” Mineau said. She was probing at a scratch on the right side of her face. “A little too obvious.”
Max let his head rest against the bark of the tree and closed his eyes. He let out a slow breath. It felt good knowing Mineau was sitting there a few feet away, listening, watching, even as she wandered the invisible paths of her own thoughts.
He startled awake a few moments later and looked up at the shadowy shape touching his shoulder.
“You’re snoring,” Mineau said.
Max blinked and jerked upright when he realized how little light they had left. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“It’s okay. We both need sleep, but we shouldn’t sleep here,” Mineau said. She looked around at the dark shapes of the trees all around them. “I don’t know what we’ll be able to find, but we should look for shelter. I think I heard thunder and I don’t want to be out in the open during a storm.”
Max remembered the two nights he’d spent sleeping by the ravine in Aurum’s golden cocoon, shivering, afraid he would be swept away by a flood.
“No,” he said, “I’d rather not spend any more nights out in the rain. Let’s go.”
“How’s your knee?”
Max heaved himself to his feet and leaned experimentally on his right leg. “Better,” he said, aware again that maybe it shouldn’t be better. Not yet, at least. A knee as twisted as his had been usually took longer to mend. Didn’t it?
He shrugged the thought away. “I can walk.”
Mineau watched him take a few steps, then nodded.
“Ok,” she said, turning to point back toward the collapse hideaway. “Your little den was that way,” she swung her arm ninety degrees, “and I came from that direction. I didn’t see anything promising between here and the hollow tree I slept in last night.”
Max pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “The orchard is that way. The palm tree could be gone by now, but there’s nothing there worth going back for. And I’ve been back and forth a few times now and I didn’t see anywhere in between that looked like a promising place to spend the night.”
Mineau nodded again and turned to look into the jungle to Max’s left. “This way, then. We’ll go slow so we don’t stumble into anything. Look for anything that might keep two people dry.”
“We could build a shelter,” Max suggested, falling into step behind her.
“How?” Mineau gestured at the undergrowth surrounding them. “Do you want to poke around in the bushes until we find enough deadwood to build something that would cover both of us? Hope we don’t dig up an aloe by accident as we do?”
Max looked around at the darkening jungle and imagined sorting through the rotten debris in the undergrowth. They couldn’t pull down living trees unless they wanted to start another fight, so they would need to find enough newly fallen wood to build something to cover both of them, while also trying to avoid lurking monsters. And then they would have to put it all together. In the dark. Before the storm broke.
“Maybe not tonight,” he said.
Mineau pointed to her left. “You keep an eye behind us and see if you can spot something on this side. I’ll watch the other side and try to keep us from falling into any holes.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“No promises, but one of us has to–” Mineau began, but she stopped when a deep, earthshaking rumble filled the jungle.
Max froze as the ground began to shift under his feet, then he followed Mineau down into a crouch as the trees began to sway and their leaves began to dance with a hushed whisper.
Max put a hand on the ground to steady himself. “What’s happening?”
Mineau glanced over her shoulder at him, then turned to scan the forest. “I don’t know.”
Max could see that her eyes were wide as she looked from tree to tree.
Before Max could say anything else, the twilight jungle erupted with screams. They began singly, coming from every direction, then they merged into a resonant cacophony, a shrieking chorus that sounded like the jungle itself had opened its throat to cry out.
It stopped as abruptly as it began. The earth grew still and then the monstrous voices fell silent and the rustling of the trees faded. They waited, listening, but the jungle remained still and no monsters descended on them from the shadows between the trees.
“I hate it here,” Max said, closing his eyes and taking slow, deep breaths.
Mineau said nothing, and when Max opened his eyes again he saw her still scanning the deepening shadows around them. Her head swiveled in sharp, jerky movements and her eyes were round and staring.
“Hey.” Max reached out tentatively, but paused before his fingers touched Mineau's forearm. “Hey. Mineau.”
Her eyes snapped to his, then flickered, scanning his face, searching.
“I think we're okay,” he said.
Mineau looked down at his hand where it hovered a few inches from hers. She grabbed it and squeezed as she let out a breath. “Have you heard anything like that before?”
“No,” Max said. “Have you?”
She took a steadying breath in, let his hand go, and stood. “No.”
Max stood up with her. “What do you think it means?”
“I think it means we should get away from here as quickly as possible. Before every monster that just screamed comes to find us.”
Max imagined a horde of monsters surging through the jungle in their direction and he almost turned back toward the collapsed hideaway.
We should get underground. Maybe there’s somewhere we can still hide.
Then he thought about what it would be like to be huddled in a compromised stone room when the earth shook again.
“At least we weren't underground when that started,” he said quietly.
“No,” Mineau said, tipping her head slightly to acknowledge the point. “And maybe we shouldn’t go underground again, at least for a little while.”
Thunder boomed somewhere above the canopy and Mineau dropped reflexively into another half crouch. She straightened slowly as a stiff breeze began to sweep through the upper canopy above them.
“But we still need to find somewhere to keep the rain off,” she said. “That storm isn’t far.”
Max nodded. “Let’s see what we can find.”
Mineau turned back in the direction they'd been heading before the jungle had erupted into screams. She took a few steps, then stopped. When she looked back at him, Max pointed to the left.
“Right behind you. I'll keep watch this way,” he said.
Mineau nodded a final time and turned to begin pushing carefully through the undergrowth as thunder rolled over the jungle.