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Pitr stirred and opened his eyes.
‘What’s she doing here,’ was the first thing he said. I happened to be looking at Alyssa when he spoke, and her expression went from grinning to unhappy to mad in as many seconds.
‘Whatever I want,’ she snapped. ‘And what I was going to do was come and apologise. Don’t see the point, now.’
‘Easy,’ I said. ‘Be nice. You just woke him up.’ It was only now sinking in that we were alone with a girl, and I found myself edging away from her slightly.
‘But I woke you too and you’re not nasty.’
I laughed nervously and started getting stuff out for breakfast, and at the same time managed to work myself farther away. Boys our age didn’t mix with girls, even with a chaperone, unless they were family. Well, that wasn’t quite true, but it was close enough. Enough for me to be feeling really uncomfortable, anyway. I picked a couple of flavours to add to my brick and water, and Alyssa eyed them curiously.
‘Have you eaten,’ I asked, remembering my manners. She shook her head, but pointed to the flavourings.
‘What are those?’
I explained. ‘Want to try some?’
‘What does it say it is supposed to taste like?’
I checked the writing on the tube. ‘’Beef Stew’, whatever that is.’
She laughed. ‘Stew for breakfast? That’s silly.’
It was too late. I had already added it to the brick. I shrugged. ‘Guess it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what it tastes like.’
‘You had stew yesterday,’ she said, and described the dish to me. I remembered it, and it has been delicious. I took a bite out of my brick with enthusiasm, looking forward to more. My disappointment must have been pretty obvious, because Alyssa nearly fell over laughing so hard.
‘Here, let me try some,’ she asked. I broke off a piece from the other end and handed it to her. She took it, pulled a face, then chewed and swallowed quickly.
‘That is awful. I don’t know what they were thinking of when they called that stew.’
‘Still better than plain brick.’ I carried on eating.
‘That is a matter of opinion,’ said Pitr, taking another bite of unadorned brick. He seemed to have forgotten his manners, and I had to catch his eye and glance at Alyssa before he took the hint and offered her some of his food. She accepted eagerly, then shared water with me. I was surprised Pitr wasn’t acting more nervous than he appeared. He seemed unaffected by Alyssa being so close. He almost seemed to be dismissing her.
‘Why are you really here?’ I asked when we had all finished. ‘You didn’t really come all this way to apologise, did you?’
Alyssa would not look me in the eye, and I saw her face flush before she looked away. ‘Yes. Sort of. Look, I wouldn’t have let them hurt you or anything, but I had to think of something to say when I got home all mussed up from fighting with you.’
I could see the logic there, but something still didn’t seem right. I tried one of Pitr’s tricks and said nothing, making the silence uncomfortable and hers to end. She squirmed for a while, and eventually cracked.
‘Is what you said true? Are you really from a different land, and walking to the other end of the world.’
‘That’s not quite...’ Pitr began, but I interrupted before he could get too technical.
‘More or less. Not as dramatic.’
Alyssa was beaming again, and I felt trouble heading towards us.
‘I want to come with you.’
Trouble arrived.
‘No chance,’ said Pitr before I could draw breath, earning him a look as sharp as knives from Alyssa and a surprised glance from me. I didn’t expect Pitr to make a snap decision like that.
‘Why would you want to?’ I asked.
‘It’s so boring here,’ Alyssa complained. ‘We do the same thing every day with the same people in the same place and I’m watched all the time because I’m the Chief Elder’s only grand-daughter. I have to get away from here; see somewhere new.’
I felt a kind of tingle as she spoke. She was telling my story. I could hardly believe it when I looked around and saw so much variety and adventure here, but I suppose home was what you were stuck with. It felt somehow cool to know there was somebody else who felt the same way I did.
‘So I’m guessing nobody knows you came after us?’
‘Of course not. They wouldn’t let me if they did.’
‘So are we going to get half the male population of your home running after us? I really don’t want to get on their bad side. Again, I mean.’
‘Not if we hurry.’
‘What?’
‘They won’t come out of the Greater Forest.’ She caught her lower lip between her teeth. ‘At least, I don’t think they will. Besides, you need me.’
‘Come again?’
‘You don’t know what you are walking into. I know stuff about where you are going next. Take me with you and I can help. Or you can stumble in there on your own and get caught again. The Go-yen are not as nice as we are.’
‘Go-yen?’
‘That’s what the people on the other side of Boreetum call themselves. See, already useful.’
I groaned and looked at Pitr. He shrugged back, but I could see in his face that he didn’t think much of the idea. On the other hand, I could see it might help to get information out of the girl and then, maybe, make her go back while it was still safe. Or something like that.
‘Walk with us for today,’ I said, getting to my feet. ‘Then we see. And if your people come running along after us you do not try to get us into trouble to cover yourself. Agreed?’
Alyssa leapt to her feet all smiles and enthusiasm and put out her hand. ‘Agreed.’
I looked at the hand. Fighting with her had been one thing. I hadn’t known who she was then, or rather what she was. Now she was asking me to touch her. You don’t touch girls. It’s not allowed. But now she was looking uncertain and hurt again. Was I being rude? Different places, different rules? Slowly, I put out my hand and took hers. She shook hands once, vigorously, and then let go. I let my hand drop back to my side, but couldn’t help rubbing my fingers against each other. Her hand had been small and delicate in mine, and soft in a way that couldn’t be explained by just being smaller. I shook my head, grabbed my pack, and gently kicked Pitr to get him to his feet. We started to walk.
As Cheln had said, over the next thousand paces the forest started to thin out and more light filtered down to the ground. The path wasn’t wide enough for us to walk three abreast, and somehow Pitr got pushed to the back. Not ideal, and I knew he would get back at me for it later, but that’s how it worked out.
‘How do you know where you are going?’ Alyssa asked. I showed her the drone, and used the opportunity to check our path was still on track. The beam was a little off to the left, but still good enough. Alyssa wasn’t convinced.
‘But that only tells you the direction. How do you know where you are going?’
‘We just follow the beam,’ I said. ‘What else do we need to know? Besides, what we know about this place is hundreds and hundreds of years old. All I know is that this used to be some kind of place for people to come and rest, or something. And somehow it used to be tidier.’
Alyssa nodded. ‘That’s what our Bards sing too, that before we escaped and came to this place ... ’
‘Escaped?’ I said.
‘Uh-huh. Before we escaped it used to be a beautiful park, tended by the machines, but the machines started to break, and Boreetum got wilder and wilder, and the Forest started to grow at this end. When we escaped from the Go-yen - ’
‘The people we are headed towards?’
‘Yep. We escaped and hid in the Forest. Over the years the Greater Forest grew behind the lesser forest as more and more of the machines failed, and it protected us and provided for us.’
‘So the whole place is wild now?’
‘Pretty much. The Go-yen use some of it around each portal, but not much. The Lesser Forest goes about two thirds across, maybe more. So which portal do you have to go through?’
‘No idea,’ I replied. ‘The drone will show us when we get closer.’
The conversation died off and didn’t pick up again until we stopped for our midday meal.
‘What did your grandfather mean when he said that Cheln sometimes took your stories too seriously?’ I asked. I had been playing over the conversation in my head, looking for anything more to explain why Alyssa was travelling with us. I had been feeling that she hadn’t told us the whole truth all morning, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
Alyssa made a funny laugh, part humorous, and part bitter. ‘Did he say that? He’s right. Cheln and half-dozen other men in the tribe. Cheln always does what I say, and always takes me seriously – or pretends to at least. He doesn’t want to ‘offend me’.’ She said the last two words in a sarcastic grown-up voice.
‘Why not,’ I asked.
‘Because he wants to marry me,’ said Alyssa.
Pitr, who had been taking a drink, choked and spat most of it out. When he got his breath back he pushed me away from thumping him on the back. ‘But you’re not old enough,’ he protested. I was shocked too. At home, girls weren’t allowed to start thinking about courting until they were at least eighteen. Before then they would never be left alone with a boy, and girls always married boys about their own age. Cheln was an old man, at least 30 years old.
‘Not yet,’ Alyssa said, obviously amused by our outrage. ‘But in two years, or maybe three, Grandfather will marry me to someone important, probably not even in my tribe. Cheln wants it to be him. He’ll stand a better chance of becoming our next chief. That’s another reason why I wanted to come with you.’
‘To get away from him,’ said Pitr, still sounding outraged.
‘No,’ said Alyssa, with a small giggle. ‘To have some fun before I have to settle down and get all serious,’ Alyssa replied.
I could relate to that, but it still seemed wrong somebody should be used as a favour token like that. Unfortunately, this seemed to push Pitr’s button as well. ‘Fun? You think this fun? A little trip in the forest to stop you from getting bored? This is serious, Alyssa. This is important for everybody who lives here. This is so important I can’t go home if we don’t succeed. Does that sound like fun?
His voice had been getting louder with each word, and when I turned to look at him I saw his eyes were moist, as though he was almost crying. His hands were trembling. Alyssa looked afraid and took a step back.
I put my hand on Pitr’s shoulder. ‘Easy, friend,’ I said calmly, but he shook me off and stomped off a couple of paces, his back turned to us.
‘Is he always like this?’ Alyssa asked. ‘So ... intense?’
‘We really can’t go home,’ I said. ‘And Pitr didn’t know that before he volunteered to help me. Can you imagine that?’
It was the first time I had put that into words, although it had always been hanging around in the back of my head. Now it made me feel humble. Like Alyssa, I was pretty much doing this for the adventure. Pitr wasn’t, and never had been.
Alyssa looked affected by the thought too. ‘So why did he come?’
I explained about Duty, and how important it was to Pitr. When I had finished, Alyssa nodded. ‘I understand this. This is not unlike my Duty to allow my Grandfather to marry me to someone who will make our tribe stronger.’