The Mantis Synchronicity - Book Five - 9. Chapter 9 - The Forest

The path Djaruki was following ended before the sun began to set over the western mountains. The river continued farther, but it entered a dense forest, and the tangle of trees looked unforgiving. Djaruki did not want to enter the imposing wood. As night descended upon the land, Djaruki set up her camp at the edge of the forest, and she fell asleep to the sound of the river.

She awoke with the morning and caught herself a little breakfast from the powerful cold waters. Djaruki’s island upbringing prepared her for the journey she had made along the coast and the river, but continuing north would be more challenging, following the border of the forest rather than the abundant river.

The extending grasslands stretched beyond what she could see, and there was no significant rise in the land for her to climb and observe a greater distance across the expanse. She looked upriver into the trees. There was no way to follow it.

Djaruki knew what she needed to do, but she knew it would take all day, maybe longer. She set about her task. She caught another fish, gutted and butterflied it, coated the inside and outside in salt, and laid the pieces of it onto a dry flat rock. She repeated the process all day long until seventeen fishes had been dried and salted.

Djaruki was more tired from her day of constant fishing than she had been the day before from walking. She knew the fish she prepared would last her for more than three weeks, but she still did not know where she was going.

Night fell and sleep came easy. The sun rose, and so did Djaruki. She abandoned the river and followed the forest. There was no path, but the land rolled easily, and the grasses were still young with the progress of spring. Her trudging steps took her deep into the land north of Duzuga. She did not know if she was still in the Tilthon Empire, or if she was in another region. There were no people.

Thirteen uneventful days came and went as she walked. Not a single indication of other humans presented itself. No animals besides small mice and birds seemed to live in the grasslands, and the forest felt quiet and threatening to Djaruki. It loomed to her left as the days crept toward weeks.

However, as Djaruki rounded a small rise in the land that could barely be considered a hill, she was startled to see a pair of girls. She looked around but saw no indication of where they could have come from. It was almost as if they had simply appeared at the edge of the forest. They looked like they were about to enter the tangled trees.

“Don’t go in there, girls!” Djaruki called out to them. They turned around at the sound of her voice, and as Djaruki approached, she realized one of them was very unique. “Are you like me? Are you a Shift?”

The two girls turned to each other.

“We both are,” the human-looking one replied.

“You are too?!” Djaruki was very surprised.

The Biological Shift girl smiled. “And you too.” Her huge eyes shimmered, and the bony horns on either side of her jaw moved as she spoke.

“Yeah,” Djaruki replied, “what are your names? I’m Djaruki.”

“I’m Filiou,” the unique Biological Shift declared, “and this is Tygo.” She interlaced her spiny fingers with the other girl’s.

Djaruki asked, “Where did you two come from?”

Tygo and Filiou looked off into the grasslands in a different direction than the way Djaruki had come, and Tygo pointed. “Out there,” she said, “but the people out there are not nice to Shifts, especially ones like us,” she added, indicating Djaruki. “It’s like they think Shifts like us are hiding what we are, but Shifts like Filiou can’t hide what she is.”

Djaruki replied to Tygo’s words, but she was looking at Filiou. “You are definitely one of us, Filiou.”

Tygo wrapped her arms around Filiou. “Yes she is!”

Djaruki looked worried. “Is your skin sharp?”

Tygo answered for Filiou. “Her spines are so neat!” She pressed her soft cheek against Filiou’s spiky one, and they both giggled.

Djaruki looked around the great expanse of grass. “How did you get way out here?”

Filiou squeezed Tygo’s hand. “Her power makes the world stop!”

Djaruki did not know what she meant. “Sorry, how did you get here?”

“Tygo stopped the world,” Filiou stated, “and we walked here.”

Djaruki heard Z’Matri’s voice telling her not to ask other Shifts about their powers, but she asked anyway, “Will you show me what you can do?”

Tygo smiled, and a bubble of light stretched out from her center. It surrounded Filiou and Djaruki, and it continued to expand until it was no longer visible.

Djaruki did not notice how quiet it had become.

“Watch this!” Filiou declared, snatching up a frozen blade of grass and releasing it into the air, but the grass did not fall. It remained motionless where Filiou had let go of it. “Touch it,” she urged, nodding to Djaruki, and the iridescent feather-like appendages on her head swayed.

Djaruki nudged the blade of grass with her knuckle, and it moved but continued to hover. She pushed it a little farther through space, and the grass stayed still. “You’re doing this?” she asked Tygo.

Tygo nodded, brought her fingertip to the grass, and it fell away from her hand and dropped to the ground.

“Isn’t that neat?!” Filiou squeaked.

“Yeah,” Djaruki agreed, “it really is. And what can you do?”

“I can talk to animals,” Filiou replied with a smile. “I’ll show you later.”

Djaruki focused on Tygo. “You’ve frozen the whole world?”

Tygo looked at Filiou and then Djaruki. “I don’t know; I mean, we think that’s what I’m doing. I just unfroze the world a little while ago.”

Djaruki was confused. “But I wasn’t frozen.” She turned back and looked in the direction from which she had come.

“Everything was,” Filiou countered, and her jaw-horns flexed. “The sun doesn’t even move in the sky while Tygo’s powers are active.”

Djaruki squinted up at it. “Really?” She looked back at the girls. “I was really frozen?”

Tygo shrugged. “I think so, and now that the world’s frozen, we can go wherever we want. Filiou and I were going to try and make it through the woods.”

Djaruki looked at the motionless trees. The forest was not nearly as dark and tangled this far north, but it still did not seem inviting. She faced the girls again. “I don’t know about that. Farther south it’s much denser, and I’d hate for you to get lost in there.”

“Where are you going?” Filiou asked.

“I’m trying to find someplace that’s accepting of our kind. I’ve heard of a remote island, but there’s also apparently a city somewhere. I don’t know where it is or how to get there, but the city is where we might fit in. I think that’s where I’m going. Do you two girls want to come with me?”

Tygo and Filiou were excited to join another of their kind, and they enthusiastically accepted Djaruki’s offer. With the world appearing to be frozen around them, the trio walked. The forest stretched north, and they followed its border. Tygo and Filiou had come from the grasslands to the east, and Djaruki from the south, and none of them had any idea what lay to the north★