The Man In the Forest Part 5

She regained consciousness slowly. She felt warm and there was a sweet smell in the air, and light shining very brightly on her still-closed eyes. I have overslept, she thought. It is dawn, and I should get up to feed the chickens. But there was something odd about the brightness of the light. It did not feel like dawn light…

She sat up too quickly and hissed in pain as her head protested by pounding violently. She clutched it and moaned involuntarily. There was also a crick in her neck, she noted unhappily, and decided that fainting was not at all as romantic as Heather would have her believe. If she lived through this, she would be sure to tell her.

“I’m sorry, I did try to catch you,” came a familiar, and rather distraught sounding, voice. She turned to see that Laknir was sitting a little ways away, looking anxiously at her. “It has been so long since I spoke to anyone I’m afraid I quite forgot the sort of effect I can have. I would have moved you to a more comfortable locale, but I did not wish to frighten you further. Are you all right?” He said all this without taking a breath then fell silent while he looked her over with a critical eye, presumably to ascertain that she was, indeed, all right.

Ryan moved her head experimentally and found that the pounding was already subsiding, and the crick in her neck seemed to be working itself out as she stretched it gingerly.

“Yes,” she said at last, though her voice was a little hoarse. She cleared her throat and said, “Yes, I am all right.”

The easy smile returned to Laknir’s face. “Good,” he said, looking away from her, and out over the meadow. He seemed to be giving her a chance to regain her bearings, and she took it gratefully.

First, she looked for Ichibod, and found him rolling happily in a patch of dirt. Apparently, whatever had just happened to her hadn’t affected him. Next she looked round for her things. Her pack with the art supplies was a few feet to her right, and the paintbrush she’d grabbed to defend herself was beside her where she’d dropped it. She glanced at Laknir to see that he was still staring in the other direction then chanced a look back at where she had entered the valley; where her gun was laying. It was too far away to do her any good, and anyway, he didn’t seem interested in killing her just then. Finally, she looked at Laknir himself.

His hair was brown and messy and hung down around his face, just brushing his shoulders. His features were sharply cut, but seemed almost delicate, and he was clean shaven. He would look young if it weren’t for his eyes. His eyes were the blue of the river, but their depths were bottomless. Not human, she thought. But then what, exactly, was he? He was tall, but too lanky and too handsome to be an ogre or a troll. He didn’t have the air of a magician (besides which, no magician would choose to live so far from adoring crowds of people). She supposed he might be a shapeshifter of some kind, but they tended to be wilder and less articulate, and considered humans beneath them. That still left a wide range of beings about whom she knew very little. And it was a general rule that non-mortal beings were not all that friendly toward humans. Panic threatened again, feeling like cold, hard rocks in her stomach.

“I am the heart of this forest,” he said, still not looking at her. Her surprise held the panic at bay.

“You’re…what?” she asked, feeling incredibly stupid. He looked at her then, and when their eyes met she felt the panic start to make a bid for freedom again, but she grabbed it and shoved it back, trying desperately to regain control of herself.

“You are wondering what I am,” he said calmly. Some of the panic must have broken through to her expression at that because he added, “I cannot read you as well as you fear, but I have seen that look often enough in my life to know it well.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” she said slowly, hoping to keep the fear out of her voice.

“Places that are around long enough tend to attract a certain type of being. Forests, mountains, even ancient cities. A forest like this has power; lines of magic that have existed since before the emergence of time itself. You feel it, whether you put a name to it or not. Even the townspeople feel it, though most of them are too wrapped up in their own human selfishness to notice.”

She bristled with indignation on behalf of her own species, despite the fact that she, herself, had thought worse things about humanity. It was the way he’d said “human” with such disdain that stung her pride.

“I have insulted you,” he said, and she turned to see him watching her again. She didn’t like the way his eyes seemed to see straight through her. It made her feel empty and vulnerable, and yet…there was something strangely thrilling about it. “I didn’t mean to.”

It wasn’t an apology, nor did he seem all that contrite, so she didn’t answer.

“I’ve messed this up, haven’t I?” he said after a moment’s silence, looking up at the sky.

“Just what, exactly, is it that you want from me?” she asked, shocked at her own daring. She was tired of playing this game, and almost wished that if he was going to kill her he would just do it already. He turned to her, clearly surprised by her question.

“I want your company,” he explained as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. This was so out of the realm of what she expected him to say that she was struck dumb.

He began to explain. “I am alone here. I like solitude, but there comes a time when ‘alone’ becomes ‘lonely’. The forest speaks to me in a way, as do the animals, but it isn’t the same. Animals are mostly concerned with the day-to-day problems of finding food and avoiding predators. They aren’t exactly inclined to sit and have a conversation with you. Ranth is perhaps the one exception, but even Ranth cannot be relied upon to stay when I wish to discuss something; he is a cat after all. And, anyway, he mostly speaks in verse and riddles which can give one a headache after a while. You see,” and here he leaned toward her, eyes pleading, hands out as if in supplication, “I only made that snide remark about humans because I am so very jealous of you all. Human beings live together, form bonds of blood and friendship, take comfort in each other. And they create things. They build homes and make music and…and art.” He smiled shyly at her.

“So why not go into town?” she asked. “Why me?”

“Because you are like me. You enjoy your solitude, and you love this forest. You feel the power here better than most because you know how to listen. And because you are hurt, in a way that I do not understand, and your pain is honest and powerful as this forest is powerful, and I want to know why.”

She stood up abruptly and turned away from him. This was too much.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, and she jumped because she hadn’t heard him approach her. He seemed even taller when he was close, almost as though he would block out the sky and she would drown in darkness. But there was kindness in his eyes, and a thirst for something she couldn’t name…connection. Maybe that was it. He needed to connect to her and he didn’t know how. And, she realized with a shock, she needed that connection too. Maybe she had been alone too long. She saw something familiar in Laknir, something she recognized because it was the same something that looked back at her from the mirror. The realization washed away her fear, leaving pity behind. As ridiculous as she knew it must be, she felt sorry for him.

“I forgive you,” she replied, and it felt like permission. Before she understood what was happening, his hand slid up to hold the side of her face and he bent to kiss her. When their lips met she felt a soft pop as little lights burst behind her eyes. She was glad of his arm around her as her head reeled, and she feared she would faint again which would have really vexed her. She’d never thought of herself as the fainting type, and to do it twice in one day…but she didn’t. He drew back and she felt the ground under her feet again. The kiss was exciting and frightening and different from…but she didn’t let herself finish the thought.

She returned home just as the sun was setting with the promise that he would see her tomorrow.

“How will I find you?” she asked. “I’m not certain I could find my way back here.”

“I will find you,” he said, brushing her hair back in an already familiar gesture. “Search out a place to paint as you always do, and I will come.”

His kisses stayed with her, and she felt lost in a daze as she rubbed Ichibod down and saw that he had clean straw in his stall and enough feed and water. Flora had been lonely in the pasture all by herself, and bumped Ryan several times with her nose almost as though to reprimand her.

Hardly noticing where she was going, Ryan fell into bed without dinner and slept deeply. Her dreams were full of sorrow and betrayal, but when she woke she couldn’t recall them.