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“Eep.” Annie peered up. “I think they did. Otherwise, wouldn’t they be digging?”
“Good point.” Allison stopped pacing to look straight up. “How long is this little cave going to last?”
“Longer than we’ll have air.” Tammy sighed.
“Don’t worry about air. I got that covered,” chirped Allison.
“Cool. And sorry.” Tammy exhaled.
Annie tilted her head. “Why are you saying sorry?”
“For doing this without warning you guys.”
Allison reached over and patted her on the cheek. “It’s fine. You were about to pass out. We had zero chance to make it to the tree. Our choices were get killed or Plan B. Your Plan B worked out very well.”
“So far. And thanks.” Tammy groaned. “I don’t like this land. If we were in the normal faerie realm, I could pull energy out of the earth and make myself un-tired. If I open the same kind of connection here, the dark realm will literally eat me.”
“We’re good.” Annie smiled. “I don’t hear digging. Rest. I do kinda have to pee, though.”
“Gotta hold it.” Tammy bit her lip. “Wow, I sound like Mom.”
“How much more time do you need?” asked Allison. “Not that I’m pushing you or anything.”
“I should be okay soon. Bigger problem is… do we have friends waiting outside?”
Allison leaned back, closed her eyes, and concentrated. Two minutes later, she opened her eyes and smiled. “Nope. They left.”
“Wow. Really?” Annie gawked.
“Like Tammy said, they probably think we teleported and are searching the forest for us.” Allison, still tiny, resumed pacing.
Tammy reached over and gingerly touched one finger to Maple’s chest, feeling for a heartbeat. She couldn’t tell one way or the other about a heartbeat, but the faerie still seemed warm. Did faeries even have heartbeats? “What’s wrong with her?”
“Tired, but in like a magic way.” Annie fussed at the ‘blanket’ of tissues she’d made around the sleeping faerie. “It’s this stupid dark place. There’s no energy here for her to absorb. We have to get her home before she’ll wake up.”
Tammy knew this. She couldn’t explain why she’d even asked other than to blame fatigue and worry for getting her mouth to move faster than her brain. They still had to get Maple out of here before the corruption got into her. Tammy, as well, would feel much better after leaving the dark realm. As long as they didn’t have to constantly run, she felt optimistic about her ability to reach the portal tree.
“Okay.” Tammy rolled onto all fours. “Time to go. Everyone ready?”
“Sec.” Annie kept the little flame hovering over her left hand as she shifted onto her knees and gently repacked Maple inside the backpack.
Allison climbed in, too. “Okay, so… this smallness thing. It’s getting kind of old. How long will it last?”
“Until Maple turns it off, or you get far enough away from her for long enough,” said Tammy.
“Great.” Allison let herself fall into the backpack with a soft thump. “This is not what they mean by ‘hitting the books.’”
Tammy reached a hand toward the wall, commanding the earth to part in the shape of a tunnel big enough to crawl out. She led the way to the surface, stood, and dusted herself off. The dark forest hung in eerie silence. Not even bug or animal noises broke the pervasive nothingness of sound.
It’s like the whole forest is trying to listen for where we went.
Annie crawled out of the tunnel, got to her feet, and carefully put her backpack on before taking cover in some nearby bushes and mouthing ‘gotta pee real bad.’
Tammy made a ‘shh’ gesture at her.
The girl nodded once.
After stretching a bit, Tammy shapeshifted once again into a panther. A much-relieved Annie soon emerged from the weeds and climbed on her back. Cats, even big ones, happened to be fairly good at being quiet. Sneaking through the woods without making noise vastly beat panicked sprinting. Slow walking, she could do for hours without stopping.
