Beyond the Skyline

THE ABANDONED KID IN THE FOREST

The steps echoed dry on the grass a late winter. That day was colder than usual, a cold that freezed the bones and snuffing the softest clothes, and made you regret leaving the warm of the home. The silence was heavy and a cloak of restlessness fell on the air.

"Can't you hear it? It comes from around here..."

A fog passed through the forest hindering the footsteps of the two women who stumbled between the rocks and the roots of the old trees that were uneasy about the morning breeze. It hadn't yet dawned, but a few rays of white light sneaked between the branches dimly illuminating the dirt truck.

The old woman snorted after stumbling for the fourth time with a long-fallen branch of a leafless pine tree.

"I've already told you I haven't heard anything, I don't know why I listened to you... " she grumbled, shrinking on herself.

Both women shuddered at the sudden wave of icy wind that came towards them. The youngest continued forward, and the other woman stood dry, grumpy. Silence fell again between them, and the forest had never seemed so disturbing to them, especially with the awareness that their warm village was only a few miles from them.

The sound was repeated again. Enlga looked around, the little wrinkles of her eyes marking herself as she sharpened her ear.

"See? There it is again!" she said with energetic optimism and a smile that lifted her plump red cheeks through the cold.

Brenda narrowed her eyes further by nailing them to the back of the other woman who continued her calm and curious step, and walked after her again, rigid.

"Whatever it is, if you woke me up before dawn just for a forest sound and we end up dead, I'll kill you Engla"

"I'm sure you will ma'am" she remarked distractedly without erasing her smile.

The thick skirts of their heavy winter dresses made it difficult for them to pass as they climbed a small hill from which it seemed to come even more light from a sun that promised to go out in a few hours.

This time, the sound was indisputable. Brenda stood dry in the middle of the hill, petrified. Her friend was right. Something was in the woods. She'd recognize that sound anywhere.

The crying of a baby.

It wasn't very strong, it would stop to hip between several seconds, but it was constant and it was clear now that the trees did not get in the way of the sound. Engla was the first to finish climbing hastily, picking up with both hands the hem of the dress to lighten the passage between the rocks and slippery soil.

A wide, circular clearing filled with closed flower buds and frosted and low herbs received them in more light thanks to the clean, huge sky above their heads, greyish 'cause of the early hour.

The air was softer and you could see more all the smells and colors of the morning. The clear mist helped to see the small wicker basket placed right in the center of the clearing.

Both women came to an almost religious silence, with Brenda snorting a little by the climb, the other younger woman arrived with few strides to the center of the clearing, her steps muffled by the fluffy grass covered in dew. At each pass, she managed to distinguish a slight neat white blanket without a mache, swirling around a small lump. The baby, almost as if he had perceived the presence of the two women, decreased her crying until she was completely silent.

A trill of a robin was heard in the distance echoing among the tall trees when Engla peeked his head into the basket. Her lace tufts of brown hair that managed to escape her tight crown of braids glued to her cheeks as she crouched down. She heard her superior's footsteps approaching her back.