What He Heard

Chapter 12

            Willow inhaled deeply, the brown scent of fallen leaves tickling her nose, and released her breath in a sigh of contentment. The day was cool enough that the sun baking into her skin was pleasant, while she could see the first plants of the forest preparing for winter. The sumac was turning red, some of the maple leaves were going gold and orange, and there was a crisp taste to the air. Fall had finally arrived.

            Not that she trusted the weather to stay nice. Fall was the worst for guessing whether any day was going to be cool, warm, freezing, or summer hot. Still, as long as the humidity didn’t come back, she thought she’d be fine.

            The faint shushing of footsteps through leaves interrupted Willow’s musing, making her put her book back down and sit up. While part of her really wished that she could stay inside for longer periods, at least to avoid being interrupted all the time because she was easy to find on her deck, the rest of her focused on the approaching figure.

            She sighed, recognizing the slender figure that slipped out of the forest and loped towards her. “Fitch,” she called to her cousin. “Please tell me you haven’t come across any other bad scents out there.”

            He shook his head, slowing as he reached the deck. “No. Just the usual fall ones. Though there are a lot of lilies this year, so parts of the forest smell more like them.”

            Willow smiled. “I doubt you came all the way to see me to talk about flowers. What’s up?”

            Fitch stopped in front of her and made a face. “No. I came because there are strangers in the forest.”

            Her eyebrows rose. “Fitch, there are always strangers in the forest. We get people camping, hiking, and exploring all the time. You know that.”

            Her cousin nodded, shifting his weight to his other foot as he rubbed one arm. “It’s not that they are strangers exactly, though I don’t like coming across people I don’t know in the trees, it’s that they don’t feel right. I need you to tell Aunt Celeste about them.”

            Sighing again, Willow met and held Fitch’s eyes. “This would be a lot easier on all of us if you went and told Aunt Celeste yourself. I know she makes you uncomfortable, but there’s no reason to keep going through me. What if it was a real emergency, where every second counted? Or they needed everything you could tell them right away, and instead only get half the details second hand from me?”

            “I’d go straight to her if I knew it was bad. I don’t. Just that the strangers aren’t right. They said they’re bird watchers when I ran into them, and they do have lots of binoculars and cameras, but I think they’re lying or something. They’re camping in the woods too, and they had a lot of stuff. A lot.”

            “Having binoculars, cameras and bringing a lot of stuff camping isn’t exactly a crime. What about them is bothering you?” she asked. If he’d been Eloise, Parker, or Everett, she’d have told him he was being paranoid, but Fitch didn’t like talking or really, coming in from the woods. And she couldn’t deny that he’d been right last time, even if he hadn’t been able to identify the “bad smell” as pot.

            “I don’t know. They asked me lots of questions about the animals and birds that live in the forest, and they were excited I was local. But weird-excited. It’s like…they make me think of hawks. I can’t explain…” he trailed off, his eyes dropping to the deck as he scuffed at it with one foot, face flushing.

            Willow sighed inwardly, his obvious frustration making her feel guilty. She placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair. “It’s fine. I’ll let Aunt Celeste know. If they’re camping, they’ll have registered with the Rangers, so she ought to know about them already. She might even already have her people watching them, if she felt the same as you when meeting them. I’ll see what she’s doing. You just be careful when you’re out there, okay? You know the woods better than me, so it shouldn’t be hard for you to know where they are and keep away.”

            Fitch nodded, hand reaching up to touch his necklace, the only piece of silver he was willing to wear. “I can mark their camp, so no one runs into it accidentally.”

            “That’d be helpful, but I don’t want you getting too close. Not when we don’t know anything about these people. We’re better safe than sorry.”

            “I’ll be careful.”

            “That’s all I can really ask. I’ll let Celeste know and I’ll also pass a warning around to be careful. Any kind of camera in the forest is a danger to us. Everyone’s going to have to wear their silver to hike, and maybe even keep it on when on the property. Were they near us at all?”

            “No. They were around the waterfall. I think they’re setting their camp up near the base of it.”

            “Well, that’s far enough away that we should be okay,” Willow replied, trying to ignore the goosebumps that popped up on her arm at the memory of the water’s distant roar as she stared into the barrel of the gun. “No one goes at that way much anyway, except you. Will you do me a favour though? Will you go let Uncle Glen know about these people? You’ll be able to get there faster than anyone else.”

            Fitch nodded again. “I can do that. I’ll go now. Thanks Willow.”

            She smiled, barely having a chance to raise her hand in a wave before he was running back towards the treeline. Willow shook her head as he disappeared, glancing at her book regretfully for only a moment, before standing up. The family’s safety came first. Knowing how stupid some of her cousins could be, she really couldn’t waste any time in warning everyone about the cameras out in the woods.