Zack, Scott, and Alexander rounded the spring and started off along the left bank of the brook. The space between the water and the trees was so narrow that Scott hopped to the opposite bank almost right away. Colin walked with Alexander, a few steps behind Zack, on the same bank. The sun was directly overhead and pressed, warm and heavy, on their shoulders. The forest kept silent except for the hiss-sigh of leaves shivering in the occasional puff of wind.
“Yah!” Scott yelled, leaping back. The bank on his side was abruptly blocked by a huge, towering mass of dark skin, shadowed by the overhang of trees. On the other bank, Zack tensed immediately, and Alexander’s spiky hair took on an even spikier look. The dark-skinned giant, startled, took a step back as well. After a moment, it rumbled in a mellow bass, “Am I dreaming?”
Colin, having fearlessly crossed the stream to approach the giant, stuck out his hand. As a large coffee-colored hand engulfed it, he said, “It seems not. I’m Colin. Who are you?”
“Ethan. Nice to meet you.” He nodded to the others by way of greeting.
Once these introductions had been made the other three felt compelled to add their own. Ethan acknowledged each of them. There was a mildly uncomfortable silence until Zack prompted with a jerk of his head, “Shall we?”
“Shall we what?” Ethan inquired.
“We’re heading downstream to see what we find,” Zack explained, waving them into motion with him. “Congratulations, by the way.”
“Thanks, I guess, but what for?”
“You’re the first one we find that isn’t severely injured.”
“Ah.” Then, “Do bruises count?”
Zack shook his head with an amused smile. “It’s not a contest I’d want you to win. But try the water. It works wonders, literally.”
Ethan did try the water, expressing approval as the bruises on his shoulders faded moments after the first few handfuls of stream water. After that all of them dropped into silent contemplation for a while. The bank widened and they walked for a long time while the sun slid toward the horizon. Nobody spoke until Ethan suddenly asked no one in particular, “How did you get here?”
There was a short silence while the other four travelers wondered what to say. Zack was the first to say anything: “I really don’t know. I just woke up back there, in the forest. I don’t know how I got here, only that I did.”
Scott nodded in agreement. “That’s exactly what happened to me,” he said. Then he laughed ruefully. “Except I woke up to fight. Ask Zack; he saw it.”
“It’s true,” Zack answered. “He and I had to fight off this monster thing.” He shuddered theatrically.
“An’ then y’all found the spring,” Alexander chimed in. “That’s where we met,” he added for Ethan’s benefit, “an’ a good thing we did, too. See,” he also spoke to Zack and Scott now, “right before we — Colin an’ Ah — found the spring an’ you guys, Ah got a snake bite. Ah found the spring only b’cause Colin started out near it an’ found me later. He saw it from the air while he was fallin’ out of a tree.”
“Through a tree,” Colin corrected.
Alexander grinned.“That’s how he got all scraped up. He almost landed on toppa me.”
“And then we met you,” Zack said to Ethan, to finish the story.
“I see,” Ethan murmured thoughtfully, and they went on walking in silence while their shadows led.