wandering, the sounds of the forest creatures surrounded Richard and Nicole. Richard sang popular songs from his adolescent years in England. Nicole joined him some of the time, when she knew the song, but mostly she spent her energy trying to contain her growing anxiety. She told herself not to think about what an easy target they would be for any large alien animal that might be lurking in the forest.
Richard suddenly stopped. He pulled two deep breaths of air through his nose into his lungs. “Do you smell that?” he asked Nicole.
She sniffed the air. “Yes,” she said, “I do. It’s a little like gardenias.”
“Only much much better,” Richard said. “It’s positively divine.”
Ahead of them, the path turned abruptly to the right. At the turn there was a large bush beside the path that was covered with huge yellow flowers, the first flowers they had seen since they entered the forest. Each individual flower was the size of a basketball. As Richard and Nicole drew nearer to the bush, the enticing smell intensified.
Richard could not restrain himself. Before Nicole could say anything, he stepped the few meters off the path, stuck his face in one of the huge flowers, and inhaled deeply. The smell was magnificent. Meanwhile, one of the two fireflies flew back in their direction and began zigging and zagging in the sky over their heads.
“I don’t think our guides approved of your sortie,” Nicole said.
“Probably not,” Richard replied, returning to the path. “But it was worth it.”
As they continued to walk, more flowers, of all shapes, sizes, and colors, surrounded them on both sides. Neither of them had ever seen such a profusion of color. At the same time, the sounds they had been hearing abated. A little later, when Richard and Nicole were in the middle of me flower region, the noises disappeared altogether.
The path narrowed to a couple of meters, barely wide enough for them to walk side by side and not brush the plants on which the flowers were growing. Richard left the trail several times to inspect and smell one of me amazing flowers. Each excursion caused the fireflies to swoop back in their direction. Despite Richard’s enthusiasm for his trips into the forest, Nicole heeded the guides and remained on the path.
Richard was about eight meters off to the left, trying to obtain a closer look at a gigantic flower that looked like an Oriental carpet, when he disappeared suddenly from view. “Ouch,” Nicole heard him yell as he fell to the ground.
“Are you all right?” she said immediately.
“Yes,” he said. “I just tripped over some vines and fell into a bunch of thorns. The bush surrounding me has red leaves as well as tiny, bizarre flowers that look like bullets. They smell like cinnamon, incidentally.”
“Do you need any help?” Nicole asked.
“Nope. I’ll just climb out of here in a jiffy.”
Nicole glanced up and noticed that one of the two fireflies was racing off in the distance. Now, what’s that all about? she was wondering when she heard Richard again.
“I may need some help after all,” he said. “I seem to be stuck.”
Nicole took a cautious step off the path. The remaining firefly went crazy, zooming down almost into her face. Nicole was temporarily blinded.
“Don’t come over here, Nicole,” Richard said abruptly a few seconds later. “Unless I am losing my mind, I believe this plant is preparing to eat me.”
“What?” Nicole said, now frightened. “Are you serious?” She waited impatiently for her eyes to recover from the overdose of fight.
“Yes, I am,” Richard said. “Get back on the path. This bizarre bush has wrapped yellow tendrils around my arms and legs… some crawling bugs are already drinking the blood caused by the thorns… and there is an opening in the bush, toward which I am slowly being pulled, that looks like a distant cousin of some of the more unpleasant mouths I have seen in zoos. I can even see some teeth.”
Nicole could hear the panic in Richard’s voice. She took another step in his direction, but again the firefly blinded her.
“I can’t see anything,” she yelled. “Richard, are you still there?”
“Yes,” he answered. “But I don’t know for how much longer.”
They heard the sound of animals moving quickly through the forest, along with a high-pitched whine. Suddenly three octospiders appeared, brandishing peculiar long, skinny weapons. The octos fired a liquid spray at the carnivorous bush and within seconds the bush released Richard. The aggressive plant immediately hid its mouth again behind its many branches.
Richard stumbled over and hugged Nicole. They both yelled ‘Thank you” as the trio of octospiders vanished into the forest as swiftly as they had appeared. Neither Richard nor Nicole noticed that the two fireflies were again hovering over their heads.
Nicole examined Richard carefully but found nothing except cuts and scratches. “I think I’ll stay on the path awhile,” he said, smiling wanly.
“That’s probably not a bad idea,” Nicole replied.
They talked about what had happened as they continued to walk through the forest. Richard was still shaken. “The branches close to my left shoulder pulled apart,” he said, “and there was this hole, initially about the size of a baseball. But as the wave action of the tendrils carried me in that direction, the hole grew larger.” He shuddered. ‘That’s when I saw the little teeth, ringing the circumference. I had just started thinking about how it would feel to be eaten when our friends the octospiders arrived.”
“So what’s going on here?” Nicole said a little later. They had left the flower region and were again surrounded by trees and jungle growth and intermittent animal noises.
“Damned if I know,” Richard replied.
The forest ended abruptly just as Richard and Nicole were becoming unbearably hungry. They stepped out upon an empty plain. In front of them, perhaps two kilometers away, a great green dome filled their view.
“Now what is—”
“It’s the Emerald City, darling,” Richard said. “Certainly you recognize it from the old movie. And inside is the Wizard of Oz, ready to grant all our wishes.”
Nicole smiled and kissed her husband. “The wizard was a fake, you know,” she said. “He didn’t really have any power.”
“That’s open to some question,” Richard said with a grin.
While they were talking, the two lights that had been guiding them sped away toward the green dome, leaving Richard and Nicole in near darkness. They pulled their flashlights out of their packs. “Something tells me we’re near the end of our hike,” Richard said, striding across the ground in the direction of the Emerald City.
They could see the gates through their binoculars from a distance of more than a kilometer. Both Richard and Nicole were becoming quite excited. “Do you think that’s the home city of the octospiders?” Nicole asked.
“Yes, indeed,” Richard said. “It must be quite a place. The top of that green dome is at least three hundred meters above the ground. I would guess that the area underneath exceeds ten square kilometers.”
“Richard,” Nicole asked when they were only about six hundred meters away, “what is our plan? Are we just going to walk up and knock on the gate?”
“Why not?” Richard answered, his pace quickening.
When they were two hundred meters from the gate, it opened and three figures emerged. Richard and Nicole heard a yell as one of the figures began moving rapidly toward them. Richard stopped and used his binoculars again. “It’s Ellie,” he shouted. “And Eponine… They’re with an octospider.”
Nicole had already dropped her pack and was jogging across the plain. She grabbed her beloved daughter in her arms and lifted her off the ground with the strength of her embrace, “Oh, Ellie, Ellie,” she said, the tears cascading down her cheeks.
5
This is our friend Archie. He has been a big help to us while we have been staying here. Archie, meet my mother and father.”
