Where the Woods Grow Wild

by Nate Philbrick

  “And you took my blue shawl. That must have been what the dryads were arguing about.”

  “Bramble is sorry.”

  “You handed me over to be turned into a tree just to make up for your mistake?”

  “Bramble is sorry.”

  “You don’t have to keep saying that.”

  “Bramble is—oh dear.”

  Elodie chewed on her lip. “I still don’t understand. Why did you take my shawl? And, now that I think if it, was it you who tried to drop that branch on us at the bridge?”

  “Bramble doesn’t know...”

  Fella leaned forward. “No lies, Bramble.”

  The poor creature squealed and yanked on his ears some more. “Bramble had to get the sun-drop girl alone, so Bramble tried to hit Martin with the branch. But Bramble missed, and everybody fell in the river, and Bramble had to do things quickly because the sticky-soldiers were coming. Bramble never wanted to hurt Martin, but Bramble was afraid Martin would smacky-slap Bramble if Martin saw the dryads take his sun-drop girl!”

  “You’re right,” muttered Elodie to Illo. “I don’t want to hug him anymore.”

  “Told you.” Illo turned back to Bramble. “You were with Martin when I found him in the pit. He told us you were helping him look for Elodie. Why did you lie to him? Why go with him at all?”

  “Bramble did not lie that time! Bramble felt so guilty for giving the sun-drop girl to the dryads that Bramble told Martin the truth...most of the time. Bramble really wanted to find the sun-drop girl for Martin to get rid of the guilty-shame.”

  “Why didn’t you follow through?” asked Elodie.

  “Because Bramble became afraid. Nobody liked Bramble anymore, and if bad things happened, Bramble knew fingers would be pointed.” Fresh tears puddled in his eyes. “When Bramble is ashamed, Bramble’s ideas get all swappy-swirled, and Bramble makes more mistakes. Bramble thought that if Martin found the sun-drop girl, Martin would know what Bramble did, and Martin would tell the servants of Nayadu, and Nayadu would come find Bramble, and Bramble would be punished forever!” He ended his breathless sentence with a wail.

  Other than his sniffling, the room was quiet. Elodie tried to process everything Bramble was bawling out. She could tell there was more to his story.

  “I know this must be hard for you,” she said softly, “but we need to know everything.”

  “S-sun-drop girl is not angry at Bramble?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Your biggest mistake so far was to assume your blunders turn the world against you,” said Fella. “Nayadu isn’t mad like your king. I don’t think she ever meant to punish you, but to urge you to set things right in an honest way. What did you do after you ran away from Illo and Martin?”

  “Bramble went back to the dryad palace. Bramble was not wanted there, and the sticky-soldiers tossed Bramble into the lake. But Bramble didn’t give up. Bramble sneaky-slipped into the palace to watch. Bramble thought if the sticky-king liked the sun-drop girl, then Martin would never find the sun-drop girl, and Bramble would not have to be afraid anymore.”

  “But I escaped,” said Elodie.

  Bramble nodded. “The sticky-king rage-ranted and frightened Bramble to death. Bramble followed the sun-drop girl for a little while, trying to think what to do, what to do. Bramble had to do something or all Bramble’s mistakes would be found out.”

  “What did you decide to do?” said Fella.

  Bramble let out another moan. He pulled on his ears so hard he lost his balance and knocked his head on the table. “Bramble decided to be honest once and for all. Bramble knew where the sun-drop girl had crossed the Minnychucky, and Bramble decided to take Martin to her at night so that no one else would see Bramble. Bramble is sorry!” He wailed and sobbed some more.

  Elodie’s heart accelerated. “Bramble, do you know where Martin’s been all this time?”

  Bramble beat his little fists on the table. “Mustn’t make a peep! Bramble promised, but now Bramble is making all the peeps! Mustn’t tell a lie, mustn’t tell a lie!”

  “You know. I know you do. What happened to him?”

  The flailing stopped. “Bramble figured out that trunders bit Martin’s hand, but Bramble was too late to do anything. Bramble could only watch, and then Bramble ran away!” He wrapped his ears around his face and curled into a quaking ball.

  “The poison in his arm,” said Illo. “It was trunder toxin. Remember what I read in the journal? Oh, why didn’t I think of that sooner?”

  Elodie steadied her hands. “What...what does the poison do, Bramble?”

  Bramble kept his eyes covered. “Sun-drop girl will not like what Bramble has to say.”

  12. One Dark Step

  Illo and Fella agreed it was best to keep Bramble under supervision until they figured out what to do about Martin and the trunders. Bramble didn’t mind spending the day hiding in his box of choice, which, as Podgin pointed out, was for gardening materials. Bramble fit in nicely among the ceramic pots, gloves, and sacks of dry dirt.

  “Why do you have all that junk?” said Illo. “You don’t garden.”

  “But I will,” said Podgin. “As soon as someone discovers how to plant and grow exquisite truffles.”

  Illo and Aguilax spent the better part of an hour listing things they wished they had been able to bring from the cottage, including Forest Flora and Fauna, from Floodweed to Fanged Fledglings.

  “I never finished reading the page on trunders,” said Illo. “There may have been useful information. We’ve got to get that book.”

  They decided to make a quick run to the cottage the next day, assuming no more trunders showed up. After that, tiredness weighed heavy on everyone. Podgin dozed off in his comfortable chair, which he had reclaimed from Fella once she was up to walking around. Illo and Fella made makeshift cots out of old quilts and passed out shortly after Podgin. Aguilax perched atop a stack of chests by the door. Before long, he too was asleep. Elodie lay awake on a blanket that smelled like damp earth. She stared at the ceiling, listening to Podgin’s snores.

  She double checked that no one was awake. Then she tiptoed around her slumbering companions and crossed the room. She couldn’t afford to wake anyone, or they would stop her for sure. Elodie knelt by Bramble’s garden box and pushed back the lid. Inside, Bramble sat in the flower pots. He had poked open one of the dirt sacks and piled handfuls of dry soil on his head.

  He peered at her suspiciously. “Has the sun-drop girl chosen a punishment for Bramble?”

  Elodie motioned for him to lower his voice. “I’m not here to punish you. I have two things to say, and I don’t have time to repeat them, so I need you to listen closely. Can you do that?”

  Bramble worked dirt out of his ears. “Bramble will listen.”

  “Good.” She took a deep breath. “The first thing I need to tell you is the hardest one. That’s why I’ve put it first. I’ve decided to forgive you, Bramble. I thought about it for a long time, trying to come up with a reason why I shouldn’t tie your ears in a knot and hang you from the tallest tree in the woods. I couldn’t think of one, but I realized I won’t gain anything by staying angry at you. So I forgive you for giving me to the dryads and for lying to all of us.”

  Bramble looked ready to burst into tears again, so she kept talking.

  “I’m also going to let you go. Illo and Fella put you here so you wouldn’t cause any more trouble, but I don’t see what more you could do.”

  “Sun-drop girl is setting Bramble free?”

  “I am.” She picked Bramble up under the arms and gently wiped away the remaining dirt from his head. “On one condition. You have to promise you won’t let mistakes get the better of you anymore. No more pulling on your ears and no more piling dirt on yourself.”

  Bramble stared at her with apples for eyes. Then he wrapped his fuzzy arms around her neck. “Bramble promises.”

  “I expected nothing less.” She carried him to the door and cracked it open.
“I know you can be brave and good if you choose to be.”

  Bramble grinned from ear to ear. It was the first time Elodie had seen him smile. He waggled his ears, and then he was gone.

  Elodie got right back to work, since she didn’t know how much time she had before the others woke up. She poked through Podgin’s kitchen area until she found a sharp knife with a blade twice the length of her thumb. She tucked the knife into her belt and took the dryad spear as well. She had no idea how to properly use either of them, but a weapon or two might come in handy. She stood on her toes to reach a flask from the shelf. It was empty, but she took it anyways. Then she pulled out the sack of dirt Bramble had emptied, and after shaking it out, she filled it with as much food as she could find. Elodie told herself she would repay what she took later even though she knew she might not get the chance.

  At the door, she tied her hair behind her neck with a bit of string she found while rummaging for food. She drew in a decisive breath through her nose. She took one last look at her companions, wondering if she would see them again. Nonetheless, she set off from the earth bank.

  First, Elodie wound her way to Fella’s cottage. The broken roof, the trampled garden, and the shattered window shutters reminded her what she was going up against, but she squared her shoulders and hopped across the brook. Back in the trees, she turned north.

  An oak behind her rattled, followed by a thump and a string of angry words. Elodie swung around. Illo pushed herself off the ground and stood, brushing twigs and dirt from her clothes.

  Elodie sighed. She wasn’t all that surprised. “Trouble in the trees?”

  Illo hobbled up beside her. “I have a few things to say to you. One, I’m very good at faking sleep. Two, you’re incredibly predictable. And three, that really hurt.” She rubbed her backside.

  “You look like a crippled stork, limping around like that.”

  “That’s why I’m on the ground instead of in the branches. Did you really think you could run off chasing trunders without me?”

  Elodie broke into a smile. “No, I suppose not. But it was worth a shot. All the same, I’m glad you followed me.”

  “Remind me of that when we’re both dead before dinner. Oh, and while we’re at it…” she took Elodie’s shoulders in her hands and turned her a few degrees to the left. “The river is that way.”

  “I knew that.”

  The cottage disappeared behind them. Illo didn’t say a word, but she did glance back with a soft sigh. Elodie had to help her over rocks and stout logs, but she wouldn’t have traded her for anyone else even with her bruised leg. Knowing she had a true friend with her warmed her heart.

  “Do you have a plan?” Illo asked after a while.

  “Sort of. I brought food and weapons, and a flask for water.”

  “That’s not what I meant. Do you have a plan for Martin?”

  “I’ll beat him back into a human with a stick if I have to.”

  “So that’s a no.”

  “I don’t know. If nothing else, I’ll tell him about Nayadu, and we can find her together. If anyone knows how to change him back, she will.”

  Illo hesitated. “I was hoping for something more substantial than that.”

  “Maybe...maybe I can’t help him,” said Elodie. “Maybe no one can. I still want to see him. To talk to him. Just one chance to—” her voice cracked. She bit her lip and said no more.

  “What if the change isn’t just on the outside? Have you considered that? Not to sound harsh, but he could be an animal all the way through. What if he’s not thinking straight, and he decides to, you know, take a nibble?”

  Elodie shuddered. “Trust me, the possibility has been dancing circles in my head ever since Bramble told us what happened. I’m scared, Illo. I really am. For all we know, Martin could have been one of the trunders that attacked us. If there’s nothing left of the real Martin, I’ll have truly lost him. But I have to know.”

  * * *

  Martin propelled himself above the treetops, but even with open sky at his disposal, his flight from the grotto was short lived. He covered far less ground than he wanted to before Illo’s arrow drained his strength. Pain and fatigue drove him earthward like a stone. Before he could rectify his descent, he crashed through the network of branches, punching a hole in the forest roof. He spiraled out of control and surrendered to gravity.

  In the last possible moment, he spread his wings wide in a final burst of strength. Instead of dashing himself to pieces against the ground, he slid a good twenty feet across a bed of moss and leaves, churning the ground in his wake. Birds erupted from the trees around him, chiding him for his destructive fall as they zipped away.

  Martin struggled to his feet. His shoulder begged for a rest, but first he made sure he was alone. Then he sat on his haunches and devised a way to get rid of the arrow. Clawing or biting it out was out of the question. Perhaps, if he leveled it just right, he could bend it out against one of the tree trunks.

  He drove his back against an oak, angling his body so that the trunk pushed against the arrow shaft. The jagged pain drew a howl from deep inside him, but the arrow yielded, so he bared his fangs and pressed harder. The shaft broke in half. The fletched end rattled into the leaves, and the arrowhead settled back into his muscle. Only a couple inches of wood jutted from his hide. His chances of getting the arrow out vanished like a popped bubble.

  He kept going north, his head hanging low and his limp worsening. A warm ooze tickled his shoulder. He wanted to cry. No, he needed to cry, to vent his pain and loneliness and feel the tears on his face, but he physically couldn’t. His human nature battered against the animal walls encasing it to no avail.

  His wings hung uselessly at his sides, dragging through the leaves. Another of the forest’s myriad streams drew a line in his path. Martin lowered his shoulder into the water. It stung him like fire, but after a few moments, some of the pain dulled in the cold current. He pulled himself up the opposite bank. From there, he wandered aimlessly. North didn’t matter anymore. Nothing did.

  His legs carried him to the base of a steep hill where thick foliage blocked out the sun. The earth dampened under Martin’s paws. Dry leaves and grass gave way to blankets of thistles and clover. He turned his face away, but it was too late. Memories of Elodie pierced him like a blade, and something snapped in his mind.

  Martin howled at the hills. Anger lent him strength. He tore up the ground with his claws, flinging dirt and clover in all directions faster than any dog could dig. He scratched and clawed and gutted the earth.

  Leaving his destruction behind, Martin took to the hill, taking advantage of his renewed vigor. He flew up the jagged slope in brief spurts, and when his wings gave out again, he groped his way to the top. There, nestled under a great boulder, he found a cave. He stood at the gaping mouth, sniffing the air inside. Empty. Martin limped inside. It was small but dry and dark, and, most importantly, it sheltered him from the outside world. He hid in the farthest reaches of the cave, away from the sounds and sights of the woods. He folded his wings around himself, shut his eyes, and let his debilities blot out the world.

  * * *

  Illo led the way by unspoken consent, and she and Elodie made good progress towards the Minnowchuck. It wasn’t long before they left the flat and widespread forest around the cottage to delve into thicker woods to the north. Glades became banks and streambeds, while holly and ash joined ranks with the stout oaks. Elodie thought she might recognize the terrain, as she had passed through these parts during her flight from the trunders, yet the woods showed a new face around each bend.

  Illo’s leg gave her no shortage of trouble. She hid it well and tried not to slow down, but Elodie could tell she was in pain. A grimace here, a slight stumble there, yet Illo never complained. Elodie did everything she could to help her, and though Illo stubbornly refused at first, they stopped for quick breaks every so often.

  They had their first brush with the wild close to the south bank of the Minn
owchuck. During one of their breaks, Illo tenderly massaged her bruised leg on a log while Elodie ventured out a few steps. She saw movement behind a holly stand up ahead, and she kept still to see what it was. A brown bear lumbered into view, probing the air with its shiny black snout.

  “Nayadu?” Elodie ran forward.

  The bear stopped, rising on its hind legs.

  An arrow sang past Elodie and grazed the bear’s flank. Elodie yelled at Illo to stop, but it was too late. The bear dropped on all four legs and crashed into the woods.

  “Are you insane?” Elodie turned on Illo. “What if that was her?”

  Illo set her bow down. She hadn’t even stood up. “It was just a bear.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because it looked like a dumb animal and it ran like a dumb animal. I missed on purpose, for your sake. Now, do you mind fetching the arrow? I’m running low.”

  Elodie found the arrow stuck in the ground. The bear was gone. Elodie sighed. Just a wild animal.

  They came upon the banks of the Minnowchuck without any more wildlife encounters. Unlike the shallows where Elodie had crossed on her first venture over the river, the current ran swift and deep where they stood.

  “Normally I’d show you how to cross through the branches,” said Illo. “But with my leg the way it is, I’d fall in halfway across, and Martin would never let me hear the end of it if he found out.”

  They followed the river east until the current eased enough for them to ford without getting swept away. Elodie suggested they rest again on the north bank to let their legs dry and share a few bites of food.

  “Have we gone straight north?” Elodie asked.

  “Pretty much,” said Illo through bite of prunes.

  “Then we can’t be too far from the little valley where Nayadu found me.”

  “And trunder territory, by extension.”

  Elodie hurried to put her shoes back on. “Well, that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?”

  “Remember,” said Illo. “I’ve never been past the river. There are acres upon acres of woods out there, and we’re looking for one animal. This is when a plan would’ve been nice.”