“Let me know when you’re ready for that,” Astrid said. “I’m going to bring us down a bit more.”
They were five feet above the tops of the tall grass and had passed the tree beneath which they had taken refuge after the troll attacked them. It zipped past so fast Thaddeus didn’t have time to look and see if his father still lay in the tree’s shade. Instead, he focused on loosening the ropes that held his and Astrid’s legs up. Their feet dropped, skimming along through the grass, Thaddeus wincing as the edges of the tall stalks of grass smacked against his jeans. The ground came up, and he and Astrid ran as fast as they could once their toes touched down, but the glider proved to be too heavy for them to keep aloft, and it spun them around, the tip of the wing on Astrid’s side digging into the dirt and bringing them to a jarring halt.
Thaddeus hung suspended by the rope loop, his body sore and brain recovering from the hard landing. It took a few moments for him to catch his breath and get his equilibrium back. He brushed stalks of grass out of his face and untied the rope around his waist. Slipping out of the glider supports, he stumbled back a few steps before sitting down hard on the ground, crushing some of the grass beneath him. He made sure the canteen was still clipped on his belt, and then he shrugged off his backpack and struggled to his feet to circle the glider.
“Astrid?” He pushed through the tall grass, grimacing at the sting of the rough blades against his palms. “Astrid, are you okay?”
He came up on her side of the glider and had to crouch to see beneath the bent and broken wing. Her head hung down, hair obscuring her face.
Panic flared inside him, and he reached out to gently shake her. “Astrid!”
She lifted her head and smiled at him. “By Flora, that was fun. I want to do it again!”
Thaddeus let out a breath and shook his head. “Once is enough for me, thanks. Come on, let’s get you out of there.”
They fumbled with her restraints until she tumbled free, and then Thaddeus helped her out from beneath the glider. After a final look at the craft, they grabbed their belongings and hurried off through the waist-high grass toward the tree standing tall and alone on the plain. They were about fifty yards from it, and off to his left, Thaddeus could see Teofil and Dulindir walking in a diagonal line to intersect with them.
“You both okay?” Teofil asked when they met up a few yards from the tree.
“It was great! I wanted to do it again, but Thaddeus refused.”
Teofil grinned and shook his head. He caught Thaddeus’ gaze and said, “Gnomes.”
“I agree with that statement,” Thaddeus said, leaning in for a quick kiss. He took Teofil’s hand and tugged him toward the tree. “Come on. Let’s go find my dad.”
Chapter 15
A bad feeling settled into Thaddeus’s stomach as they approached the tree. To Thaddeus, it looked as if it stood guard, maybe as a sentry for the rest of the forest. Or it was an outcast, exiled from the rest of the forest and forced to stand on its own. Either way, it was their landmark.
But it looked like no one was there. He saw no smoke from a fire, and no sign of any kind of camp. A bad feeling spread through him, making his fingertips and scalp tingle.
“It’s quiet,” Astrid said.
“Too quiet,” Thaddeus agreed. He released Teofil’s hand and hurried ahead, parting the tall grass more and more frantically. “I didn’t see my dad or your mom from the air. And I don’t see them now. I think they’re gone. But where would they go? Dad couldn’t travel in his condition.”
“We’ll find them,” Teofil assured him.
“I don’t know,” Thaddeus said quietly. He chewed his lower lip and broke into a jog toward the tree.
They came out of the tall grass and onto the wide path that parted the plain for miles. The tree stood several yards away, growing on the south edge of the path, its leafy branches spread wide and offering all travelers a place to rest out of the sun before they plunged into the dark, dank forest not far away.
There was no sign of his father, Miriam, or, for that matter, the body of the large troll that had attacked them. Thaddeus stopped on the worn path, his feet seeming to refuse to move any closer to the tree.
“Dad!” Thaddeus called.
“Mum!” Teofil and Astrid shouted together.
The only response was the grasses whispering in the wind.
“Where are they?” Astrid asked.
“Maybe they went into the forest?” Dulindir suggested.
“But the troll’s body is gone too,” Thaddeus said, turning to look for the spot where they had finally brought the thing down. “I don’t see it over there. Where would that have gone?” He frowned as he turned to Teofil. “We killed it, right? It was dead, not just unconscious, right?”
“We killed it,” Teofil said. “I know that for a fact.”
“Perhaps another troll came along,” Dulindir said. “Your parents might have had to leave in a hurry, if that were the case.”
“Fan out,” Teofil directed, pointing all around. “Don’t go far. Stay in sight and shouting distance. But see if you can find any sign of them leaving.”
They called out to both Miriam and Thaddeus’ father as they split up. Thaddeus headed for the tree, occasionally calling out for his father. When he reached the solitary tree, he found a number of mooshberry stains on the roots and grasses, some plantain leaves, and a dried bit of brown gunk Miriam would have surely used to dress a wound. He circled the trunk, searching for any other sign of his father and Miriam, but there was nothing. No note weighted down with a rock. No instructions carved into the bark. Nothing.
“Dad,” Thaddeus whispered to himself, turning to look at the close-packed trees of the Lost Forest. “Where are you?”
“Here!” Dulindir shouted from off in the grass.
Thaddeus started running before he could even see Dulindir, not caring about the sharp edges of the stalks of grass. He overshot where Dulindir had called from by a dozen yards and had to circle back, following the elf’s hand waving above the tops of the grass. When he finally stepped into a clearing of matted-down grasses, Thaddeus found Teofil crouching near a dark stain that looked frighteningly like blood, while Astrid stood beside Dulindir with her arms crossed tight, watching her brother.
“What is this?” Thaddeus asked, then pointed at the stain. “What is that? Is that… is it blood?”
Teofil looked up, his expression solemn. “It is. It’s the spot where we brought down the troll. See?” He gestured to the grass matted and broken all around in a wide shape. “We were a bit away from the tree when it happened.”
Relief flooded through Thaddeus. The blood was from the troll, not from his father or Miriam. “Oh. Yeah. Okay, I see it.”
“But where is the troll?” Astrid asked. “Mum couldn’t have carried it off herself.”
“Something came by and dragged it away,” Dulindir said. “See how the grass is bent all the way to the forest’s edge? Trolls travel in pairs, and though they are primitive creatures, they do maintain certain burial rituals. My assumption is it was taken off by another of its kind.”