With a hop and a skip, I lead our small troupe into the green beyond.

It's always easier to leave the forest than to enter into it, and with Rilah at the helm, I had little difficulty avoiding many more pitfalls that she had recognized by smell, or sound, or humidity in the air.

On one such occasion, Fimbs has trailed a bit too far from the light, and Rilah warned her of the dangers, only a few seconds before the jaws of some unseen plant snapped shut, inches from where she had stepped. It seemed that the wind of her passing tripped its automatic offensive senses.

"Look at how close it got!" Rilah bragged, as Fimbs looked with mollified disbelief at the proximity to death that she had just narrowly escaped. "You had better be glad that I was here, or you would all be walking corpses, seven times over!"

Janny scowled at her, on Fimbs' behalf. "Rilah, You shouldn't have to put others down to prop yourself up. We're all strong in our own ways. Don't you think you could show some appreciation for her coming out into the woods for you? We wouldn't have been able to find you, if she weren't here, you know?! Not everyone is as comfortable with the stalks as you are."

She simply waved him away, with a disregard befitting her stature. "I think you misunderstood. I'm just saying that everyone has to be careful, out here!"

I just sighed and shook my head. "I told you, before we even got back here, to be careful with Fimbs, Rilah." I said, distantly.

She just blustered, and flushed; glancing around at all the impassive faces, with her mouth gaping open and shut. "Well—I... Ugh!" she managed, then spectacularly tromped off, ahead of everyone else.

I trudged up behind her, feeling the skin across my back slowly knitting itself back together, and the exhaustion slowly leak from my limbs with every step. I had to shake my head, because it just couldn't be expressed just how different our perspectives were.

Janny started to go after her, but I stopped him with an outstretched hand. "She just has no idea... No idea what it's like for you two to be out here."

"Well, I should at least explain—"

"There's nothing to explain," I assured, cutting him off. "She's just trying to go on like it's business as usual. You can't give her that, yet, because things have changed. You have changed! Like I said, this place... it swallows up people like us, and she can never understand—I can barely keep up, myself."

Janny just scowled at the earth and kicked at a leaf that splattered the ground with oily pigment that sizzled when it touched the wet earth. Fimbs looked between the two of us, and murmured, "Y-you didn't have to... I mean, I would have been okay if nobody said anything."

Janny replied, in his leader voice, "I understand, what you mean, but I've had enough. We all went through horrible things to get her back alive. People thought that we wouldn't be able to survive out here, and we did it! The least she could do is to show us some respect. You deserve respect, no matter what path brought you here, because you are here, and nothing else. If she can't see that, then... why did we even bother?"

Fimbs gasped, and looked to me for my reaction, but there was none to read. He was right, I guess. It wouldn't hurt to hear a "thank you." How many times had I nearly died, on the way out here?

I simply wiped the tears clouding my eyes, sniffed, and pressed further ahead; jogging up to join her. When she was in earshot, I called, "Hey, slow down. I'd like to keep you close, this time."

She stopped short, and dangled her posture in a way that signaled she was rolling her eyes; so exaggeratedly that you could tell even from the rear. I was so bored with the whole front, that I barked to her, "You know, you can lose the act. It's just me."

"Are you?" she asked, as though the implication was clear.

It was not.

"Would anyone else risk their life to rescue a whiny baby like you?" I retorted.

She chuckled, looking over her shoulder with a smile. "You're the baby, crybaby."

"If you say so, princess."

She sauntered back, and gave me a shove to an arm that almost shot me straight through to the next circle. I landed roughly enough to rattle my bones, and then I laughed back. "Wha-hey! Will you cut that out?! I'm injured!"

"Only you would complain about those little scratches. I suppose there aren't any men left in the glade that could match my grandatha."

"Like that's a fair comparison," I scoffed. "I'm sure he died in about half of those stories! Sometimes I thought that the legendary man who colonized The Stalks was him, because of how impossible it would be to survive those tales without super powers."

She giggled brightly, and it warmed me from my chest to my earlobes to hear the sound again. "You know, he would be flattered to hear anyone compare him to the Woodsman. I sometimes think he looks so small, in our little town. I wish he could be himself, again."

I nodded, remembering that unfocused look of pained resignation that he often wore. He had such a habit of pretending that it didn't matter, that none of us would understand, that he even tried to show it to me when I told him about Rilah! I wouldn't have it. The thought, of him giving up on her, made me sick.

"Listen, Rilah," I began. "You should know—" but I stopped before I could get the rest of the words out. I couldn't bear to break her faith in him. She loved him so much! To tell her what he'd said...

"Yes, Zoel?" she replied, egging me on, to complete my thought.

"Janny means well. He wouldn't have said any of that if he'd thought it unnecessary."

She huffed out a breath that hung before us in the humid air. "Yeah, I know. I don't know why I said any of those things. Sometimes, I realize the right things to say, only after several minutes pass after I should have said them... Do you think I should apologize?"

"Uh, yeah!" I scoffed, nudging her back toward the others, playfully. The knot that had opened in my stomach would just have to wait for later. "Dumb points to the dummy! They risked their lives for you, little miss ungrateful brat! Tell them they bothered for a reason!"

"Haha, Alright already!" She laughed, pressing her palms together, and bowing in an over dramatic display of deference. "I get it. I hear you. I'll head back now, crybaby."

Not willing to lose ground while we rejoinder, I slowed my pace while she drifted backward toward our approaching friends. I scanned the path forward, and made a mental note of our location on the map. We'd taken quite the detour on our way back to here, so we could have gotten turned around if I weren't careful.

I was alarmed to find that we'd be crossing near the hunting grounds of that man-eater again. I'd rather not have to go through that again, so I extended our route by another half-hour to meet at the last spot I remember being completely unencumbered by the pollen's vile sway.

Maybe I might be able to recollect some of my things, as well. It wouldn't hurt to recover the hunting gear I'd had to cast aside in my rush. I was feeling fit as a fiddle, and I was sure I'd have no difficulty reclaiming the pitchfork I'd left hanging from a vine.

Slightly out of earshot, I heard Fimbs' silent squeal echo as Rilah wandered back into her field of view. I didn't want to pry, but I couldn't help but listen closer as the youngest of us apologized for what seemed like the first time in forever.

"Oh, whoops! I didn't mean to startle you. I was just trying to..." she sighed, wringing her hands. Locking eyes with Janny, she held them up in a gesture of surrender. "I was trying to say that I didn't mean what I said in a mean way. I really am thankful that you came. All of you." She looked into Fimbs' eyes next, and chuckled a little bit. "I don't want it to come across as disrespectful, but one of the thinks I like about you is that you're really fun to tease! It's embarrassing how hard I screwed up, and I was afraid you'd all be mad at me. I only wanted things to be normal. It came off as rude, and I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"

Fimbs just smiled, and wrapped her in the warmest of hugs shared.

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