Vigneshvijaykk

Four Years Ago …

The wind was scary. It had been a whole day and the speed at which the wind blew didn’t come down. Trekker looked at Lily apologetically.

“I’m sorry. I should have chosen a different day to bring you with me.”

“Don’t be. I’m enjoying this weather.” She said, hugging herself and mildly shivering inside the cave.

Trekker tried to make fire, but couldn’t. The wind kept blowing it out, since it blew toward the cave’s entrance. Blocking the entrance would suffocate them so they had to find a corner where the wind didn’t hit directly and sat down next to each other.

“Aren’t you hungry?” he asked her.

“A little.” she nodded.

He stroked his finger against her lips and smiled. “You can have a finger or two if you want. I don’t mind.”

She bit him playfully. “No. You don’t taste that good.” She chuckled.

“You should probably peel the skin off before eating.”

“Hmm.. maybe if we get stuck here for a whole moon, I might consider that.”

She shifted and sat on his lap, and put her arms around his neck.

“You know what? I don’t know if it’s the weather talking, but you might have been the best lover I have had.”

Trekker smiled and wrapped her in his arms. “I’m sure it’s the weather.”

She traced his face with her finger and said “won’t you ask me why I think that?”

“Okay. Why?”

“You should have asked it on your own. Now I won’t tell you.”

“Fine. Don’t.”

“Actually, I’ll take it back. You are not romantic at all.”

“Romantic? What’s that?”

“Exactly. See, you don’t even know what it means.”

“So, I don’t know the word. Doesn’t mean I don’t know what it stands for. Do you know what cuddling means?”

She smiled fondly. “Yes. I’m doing it right now.”

“Alright. Do you know what shivering means?”

She shook her head.

“You remember how you were struggling to handle the cold, and your body was … doing this?” he shook her a bit to create the shivering effect in her.

She laughed hard. “Okay, okay. I get it. Stop”

“Okay. So let me tell you what romantic means. Rabbit was reading this book. It was some story about a man who went to find a fruit from a deep forest because his woman asked him to. She saw her friend have that fruit and apparently she thought of the world of it, and loved her man for bringing it to her. Rabbit said it is considered romantic when a person goes through a lot of effort just to make you feel special.”

“Well knowing me, you should know that I’m the definition of that word.”

“Is that so? Okay, prove it to me.”

“How?”

She thought for a bit and ran her fingers through his hair. And then she lit up right away. “Go stand at that entrance, and face the wind until I ask you to come back in.”

She moved from his lap and patted his leg. “Go! Go! I wanna see just how romantic you are.”

He shook his head in amusement but got up on his feet, to get to the entrance. He stood there folding his arms across his chest and the wind hardened his skin.

Moments passed and he waited for her to call him in.

She didn’t. His arms started freezing, and feet started going cold. His face hurt. He finally decided to give in and moved back into the cave. She was curled up on the floor, shivering a bit.

He went closer and sat down next to her. “So, how romantic do you think that was?” he asked.

She opened her eyes and saw him. “Trekker, where were you? I was cold and alone. I couldn’t even get up on my own.”

Trekker blinked. “Very funny. I was just standing at the entrance because you asked me to.”

“When did I ask you to do that?” she looked genuinely confused.

“Lily. Okay fine. I will laugh. But stop” He said and fake laughed.

“Trekker, you are insane.” She said and moved her head to his lap. “Come closer, I’m cold.”

Trekker shook his head in disbelief and cradled her head on his lap. This wasn’t the first time she did this. She often denies things that she said or did and would look completely serious about what she was doing. And for the first time, it was starting to irk him. He didn’t respond to her when she said something, and just got lost in his head.

**

Present day …

Trekker was throwing pebbles at the river. He tried to do what Rabbit did the other day. She threw a pebble and it bounced off the water a few times before sinking. He couldn’t get the right throw though.

His mind kept circling back to Lily. He began to question what happened the day when Lily swam to the swirl. Did she really try to play a prank? Was she really stuck when she seemed stuck? Was that one of her moments when she briefly forgot what happened?

He remembered how Lily tried to talk to him again after that day but he kept ignoring her until she gave up. Something in him wondered if he had made a mistake. Tears welled up in his eyes and he cursed the river and stood up to leave.

He needed to talk to someone.

**

On his way back to the village, he spotted Rabbit and Coconut.

“Trekker, glad I found you.” She yelled as they walked toward Trekker.

“Were you looking for me?”

“Actually, I was looking for Luna. Coconut and I just thought of something. And we wanted to see if we were right. We are going to the caveside. Can you bring her there? We can’t seem to find her.”

He nodded. “Okay but what is that you thought of?”

“From what we saw in Leo’s body, he might have been dead long before we found him. Maybe even around the same time as Hunter. So maybe they were killed by the same person or group. Maybe he fell into the river accidentally. We are going to check where the river starts and see where it is closest to the cave. We want to explore that area.” she said in a held breath. “Go get her and come to us. We will be at the cave taking a break. We can all go together then.”

Trekker was a bit worried about talking to Luna, and it showed. Rabbit shook her head in disbelief. “Are you insane? Do you really think she would hate you over one stupid fight? She might hate you thinking that, though.”

“She seemed pretty angry. Like she wanted to slap me or something.”

“So? What if she even actually had slapped you? That’s just a moment, Trekker. Doesn’t mean she will never get over it.”

Trekker was about to say something but Coconut cut him off. “Just tell her we want her at the cave. And walk by her. She would not be rude to you for that.” He dragged Rabbit by her arm before she could go on with her advice.

**

Trekker looked around his hut and Ivy’s hut and nearby places where Luna could be. He couldn’t find her. He finally spotted her by the pond near the village market. She was looking at the fish swimming in the pond. She saw him coming and went back to staring at the fish.

He walked up to her and cleared his throat. “Rabbit and Coconut said they wanted to explore near the cave for clues. They wanted you to join them as well.”

“Sure.” She said and got up to join him.

They walked quietly and by the time they reached his hut, he asked her “If you are hungry, we can pick up something to eat.”

“No, I ate a little while ago at Ivy’s. Thanks!”

He nodded and they continued walking. For quite a while they didn’t speak. When they reached the river, Trekker couldn’t keep quiet.

“I’m sorry about that day”

“Alright”

He shut up after that and didn’t say anything again. They silently reached the cave and Rabbit greeted them. The four of them sat in a circle around a map Coconut had drawn.

He had marked holes on the sheet to indicate the cave, the river’s origin and the spot where they found Leo, and scratched lines connecting the three points.

“The plan is that we are going to do two things. 1) We will find the closest point of the river from the cave and look for clues there. 2) We will walk up to the river’s origin from that area and see if we can find something.”

Trekker nodded. “Yes, we could split at the river, and one group can look around there, while the other goes up to the origin.”

“Also, Trekker, we need to take a head count in the village and see if any more of us are missing.” Coconut said.

“Already did that. There is one missing person.” said Rabbit.

Trekker and Coconut looked at her. They knew there is a reason why she paused.

“It’s Orchid.”

“Thought so” Trekker said impatiently. “Every time something goes wrong in this village, the flower family has something to do with it.”

Luna wondered what he meant and Rabbit clarified. “Orchid is Lily’s brother. They have a sister named Daisy, and their mother is Jasmine.”

“I wonder what you all were up to all the times you snuck out together” Trekker said looking at Rabbit. “You were a gang right? You, Lily, Orchid, Hunter and Leo. Until Lily stopped hanging out with you all.”

Rabbit’s face hardened but she didn’t say anything. Luna felt it would be better to keep quiet too. Coconut was the one who spoke up.

“I think we should start now. The longer we have the better our chances at finding something.”

They stood up and picked up supplies from the cave for safety, and started walking. Luna and Rabbit held hands and moved ahead while Coconut stayed behind with Trekker.

Coconut was fixated on Luna and when there was enough gap between the two pairs, he picked up a conversation with Trekker. “So, this girl is part of our village now?”

“I guess so.”

“What about her family? Is she not going to look for them?”

“Where? The best thing to do is wait with us until her family comes looking for her.”

“What if they don’t? Nobody has ever found Maple Grove before. This girl is the first. And that brings questions to me.”

“Like what?”

“Did she really just get lost away from her family? Is her story real?”

Trekker didn’t respond.

Coconut went on. “And why is Rabbit so comfortable with her? More importantly, why is she comfortable with Rabbit? Nobody likes Rabbit that much.”

Trekker laughed. “Maybe she thinks Rabbit is cute.”

“You trust her too much Trekker. You either doubt people outright or trust them blindly. You need to learn how to balance things out. I would suggest you ask more questions. At least to yourself.”

“There is no point, Coco. Everybody lies. They keep secrets. It is easier to believe their stories until they say otherwise. Saves time and energy.”

“Doesn’t save lives.”

They slowed down as they saw Luna and Rabbit pausing. As they reached them they heard it too. Sounds of people walking and coming closer. They sneaked to hiding places and waited to see what they were up against.

After a few sweaty minutes of hiding behind bushes, finally they saw a group walking along the trodden path.

There were five of them. A man and a woman who seemed older than the rest. And three youths — two men and a woman.

Trekker and Coconut looked at each other, wondering if the other was thinking the same. And when Luna stepped out and walked toward them, the brothers knew they were right.