Emma Option A: Head for Help
The adventure continues as you head back to the village to get help in searching for Emma. Let’s see what happens!
Emma Option A: Head for Help
You’ve already looked for about an hour with nothing to show for the effort. A more in depth search would be better conducted with the aid of the other villagers.
“Let’s head back,” you tell everyone.
They agree silently, perhaps feeling the same struggle you are. Leaving without Emma feels wrong. She’s the carefree one, the one that bounces down the street with enthusiasm, but she’s also the one who needs a hand finding the lake even though you visit it weekly during the warmer season. If she’s lost wandering the forest, she probably doesn’t know north from south, much less the way back to the village.
Picture courtesy of Arthur Rousseau with Hope for Haiti
It feels wrong leaving but you can’t think of a better option. Your feet trudge down the snowy, muddy trail back toward the village.
No one says a word, lost in his or her own thoughts or still looking around in hopes of spotting your lost companion as the light slowly fades.
Megan screeches at the back of the line and you spin just in time to see her booted feet disappear into the heavy pine branches above.
Travis jumps, trying to catch her ankles, but all he gets is needles in the face as whatever grabbed Megan cracks several large branches off the trees with its passage.
You stand in stunned silence.
“Any…anyone see what happened?” you ask, pulling it together.
Travis and Cooper shake their heads, still staring up into the treetops.
A small trickle of blood runs down Travis’ temple from where a branch smacked him.
“Then let’s run,” you say. Whatever grabbed Megan had to have been big and the three of you may not be able to fight it on your own. You desperately want the protection of the village.
You reach the village puffing for breath and immediately head for the tavern. It’s where half the village men stop before heading home for the night.
Bursting through the doors, all eyes swing your way but you’re breathing too hard to explain.
Travis blurts everything out instead. At first, everyone stares at him but then the room breaks out in a commotion as Emma’s father pushes toward the door.
You’re so focused on Emma’s father and the bright red tint to his face that you don’t see old Kevin until he taps you on the shoulder.
You look over and down to meet his light eyes. He stands no taller than your shoulder, so hunched that his already diminutive stature is gnarled like an old tree.
“Megan disappeared into the tree tops?” He whistles the question through his teeth.
You nod.
“Hmmm,” he scratches his stomach and nods. “Sounds like the Roc. It’d have chicks this time of year.”
“What?” Cooper leans over your shoulder to hear. Old Kevin’s considered kind of insane but after everything you just saw, you don’t want to discount anything off hand.
“The Roc,” Kevin whistles, “a gigantic bird that hides up in the mountains. Think it got lost and never found its way back to the east. Young Emma would be a perfect snack for its young.”
“You’ve seen this bird?” Travis asks, his brows low in a deep frown. Oddly enough, the three of you are the only ones listening to the old man. The others in the tavern are all talking, setting up a regular search party.
“Ah, yes, I’ve seen it. Even know where it lives.”
You all look at each other.
The rest of the villagers will never follow old Kevin. He has proven in the past to be rather cracked.
As before, Travis and Cooper look to you for direction. You stomach clenches.
Do you…
Aa. Follow Kevin?
Or
Ab. Join the Search Party?
Blessings and see you Tuesday for the next part in the adventure =)
Jennifer
