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The light continued to die, and soon she was squinting to see the ground in the dark. What she would give for a little moonlight. And then, when she was just about to collapse from concentrating, the scree gave way to pine needles and dirt. She exhaled loudly. “Finally.”
“Sorry,” Tucker said, letting go of her arm. “I didn’t mean to take you on such a slip and slide. In the dark.”
“I guess we can be grateful there’s no snow or ice.”
“Yet.”
“When there’s snow and ice, I don’t plan to be up here anymore.”
“I still will be. Trying to help some guy get his elk.”
“You’re nuts,” she said, and he laughed again.
“Maybe.”
They walked another few hundred feet before he said, “Hold up.”
She looked up to see his red light shining on a tall rock face dead in front of them. “Shoot.”
“Sorry ...” He reached out and laid a hand on the rock as if to make sure it was real. “I guess I brought us back at too sharp an angle.”
“No worries. We have no idea where the toads are hanging out, so this is as good a path as any.”
“Appreciate the grace.” He turned left and headed that way, still running his hand along the wall.
About five hundred feet later, the rock face banked a sharp left. “Looks like we’ve walked into a corner,” he whispered. He shined his headlamp to the left and then down on the ground. “We might want to backtrack.” If they kept following the wall, they were going to be walking on a large swath of loose rocks, ranging in size from softballs to basketballs.
She understood his hesitation. Those could do an ankle some serious damage. “Would you double back if you were here alone?”
“Will you please stop making this a competition?”
“I am doing no such thing.” She stuck her foot out and tested the rocks with some of her weight.
“Easy!” He grabbed her elbow.
She put her hand on the wall and took a step. The rocks held. She stepped forward again. To her left, she heard rocks moving and hoped it was Sundance and not their coyote friend. A third and fourth step made her feel more and more confident. And then she saw the end of the wall. “Hey, we’re almost there.” She took off—his lamp gave her just enough light to let her leap from big rock to big rock.
“Wait!”
She heard him coming from behind her, but she was determined to reach the end of the rock herself—and she did. She spun around the edge, saw the glowing green trees, shrieked, and whirled around to slam herself directly into Tucker’s chest. She felt him go off balance, but he wrapped one arm around her tightly as the other one moved through the air to regain his balance. And then he was solid, and he was holding her.
“It’s just foxfire.”
She took a breath. Of course it was. She turned and looked, pulling away from his safety and strength. “Oh my gosh, I’m an idiot.”
He chuckled and stepped closer to her, close enough so she could feel his warmth. He laid a hand on her shoulder. “You are definitely not an idiot. You just weren’t expecting to see glowing green globs in the darkness.”
She turned for another look, feeling beyond foolish, and gasped—this time at the beauty. A large fallen tree was speckled with an otherworldly glowing green. “That’s bright enough to read by.”
“It’s surreal.” His voice was heavy with reverence.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in real life.”
“I have, but I’ve never seen anything this bright. It’s almost supernatural.”
“Yeah.”
In the distance, the coyote howled again.
