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“If the pony can do it, so can I,” Chloe joked.
Jubal smiled down at her, and suddenly the way seemed a little less treacherous.
“Oberon mentioned that you had a lot of experience camping,” she said.
“Yeah,” he laughed. “But it was all in the backyard of my grandmother’s house.”
“Did she live out in the country?” Chloe asked.
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head ruefully. “In the first suburb, just outside the city line.”
“Oh,” Chloe said, reminding herself that they had a sort of siren to set for emergencies.
“How about you?” Jubal asked.
“I was a scout leader,” she told him proudly.
“Wow,” he said.
“But only for kitten-scouts,” she admitted. “This is a little beyond me.”
The trail ahead of them branched again, but this time the paths looked virtually the same.
She glanced up, but clouds had slipped in to cover the sky, leaving her guessing as to the direction of the sun.
She pulled out her compass and Jubal did the same.
They studied for a moment, then each pointed at a different path.
“No, we definitely want to head north,” she reminded him.
“This is north,” he said, pointing to the other path.
“Let me see your compass,” she said.
He moved closer and they held their compasses up side by side.
Each showed north in the opposite direction as the other.
“Damn,” Jubal said, his eyes moving between the paths.
“Wait,” Chloe said. “Wait, wait, the kitten-scouts learned something about this. Is there moss on any of the tree trunks?”
Jubal turned to look.
“No, wait,” Chloe said, realizing her error. “I’m an idiot. That only tells the direction with Terra-58’s sun scheme.
“It’s this way,” Jubal said, pointing to the right.
“How do you know?” she asked him.
“I just have a feeling,” he told her, shrugging.
“You have a feeling?” she echoed. “That’s not good enough. We’re in the middle of the woods, heading for the top of the mountain with a broken compass, trying to beat the sunset, and you’re using feelings to decide which path to take?”
“Do you have a better solution, kitten-scout?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“I’ll have you know those kids worked very hard to earn the compass badge,” she began, trailing off when she saw what was going on over his shoulder.
