Chance Encounters Option A: Follow the Man
Reader’s curiosity is just too strong! They all voted to follow the man into the woods. Let’s see where he goes and what happens next. Be sure to vote at the end for how you’d like to proceed=)
Chance Encounters Option A: Follow the Man
The curiosity is just too strong. You throw caution to the wind and head up the trail and into the trees to follow the man with the glowing object.
The aspens close around you as you hurry forward to catch up. After about five minutes, you still haven’t seen the man. Perhaps he took off into the trees but you have no way to track him.
You’re about to give up when you hear something up ahead, like someone throwing rocks at a wall.
You move forward with more caution and finally spot the man from the field standing next to a cairn. The piles of rocks marking the trial looks like every other Karin you’ve ever seen but the man stands staring at it.
His shoulders are slumped farther, if it’s possible, than they were when he left the meadow. He tosses a rock at the cairn, then another one. If you had to guess, you’d say he wants to destroy the marker but isn’t putting much effort into it because he knows it’ll cause bad things if he does. At least, that’s what your imagination comes up with to explain his strange actions.
Finally he gives a gusty sigh and places the glowing object on top of the cairn. The base of the pile of rocks shudders and a hole opens up in the ground. It continues to widen until it’s a large, dark entrance leading downward.
The man removes the glowing object and proceeds down into the ground. You hesitate only briefly before darting after him. You’ve come this far, so you figure you may as well see what happens.
The hole that looked dark from a distance proves to be a small tunnel with stairs. You take them two at a time until you reach the bottom but then you stop because there are three hallways leading off the stairs.
“You don’t look like an MPS.”
You spin to your right. It’s the man with the narrow face.
“An MPS?” you ask. You quickly try to figure out what MPS could mean—Military Personnel Sergeant, Multiple Personality Syndrome, Married Playing Single—but none of the possibilities fit so you give the man a clueless look.
“Definitely not an MPS,” the man decides. “So what are you?”
“Innocent but curious bystander.” You give a slight smile, hoping he finds the truth amusing.
He grunts. “Knew meeting at the lake was a bad idea.”
“Didn’t look like you had much choice,” you comment.
He grunts again. “Saw that? Well, you’re right, I didn’t have a choice.”
You decide to be bold. “Why not?”
His hand spasms around the glowing object but it takes him a moment to finally say anything.
“They took my son. I’ll never see him again if I don’t do what they ask.”
He refuses to look at you and you’re not sure if he’s creating a story for you or telling the truth. He definitely looks like he’s struggling and in pain.
“Why would they take your son? What do they want?” You want to see what he says. If he’s creating a story, maybe he’ll slip. Or, if he’s telling the truth, he shouldn’t have a problem explaining.
“The Queen cut all ties with the wolves awhile back,” his voice was soft. “It hurt the wolves a lot and now they want revenge. They took my son because I can get close to the alter where the Queen prays.”
You stand there shocked. Queen? Wolves? It all sounds rather fantastic and crazy.
Do you…
Aa. Believe him?
Or
Ab. Not Believe him?
Blessings,
Jennifer
(Please post a comment with your choice. One vote per comment per day please but comment as much as you like=) Voting will end at 6pm Pacific Time Monday. Tuesday I’ll post whichever option gets the most votes and we’ll see how the adventure continues!)
