Author's note: An update! During covid! What an accomplishment! Not the best or longest, but, uh, we're gonna celebrate!
=Log continuation=
We had advanced quite far into the Great Wood. Only the tiniest specks of light made it through the canopy and lower branches. We were basked in a blue and silver light, a false moonlight in the middle of the day. Tree trunks looked black in the dimness and were about as big around as five elves holding hands. I lingered next to each tree, trailing my hand over its bark before sprinting to the next tree. Ashra followed behind with no qualms about the ground. He looked about him, turning in circles often, ears held aloft.
I wondered, did the Great Wood sound as alien to him as his ship sounded to me?
Did it?
He shrugs.
I guess we'll never know.
Pausing at the next tree, I called Ashra to me and took his hand, placing it on the bark. I remember this clearly. "Can you feel it?" I asked. "Can you feel the forest?"
You just gave me a blank look. Do you remember that? Anyway.
I wondered if he couldn't feel the vibrations at all, or if he just didn't understand them. Perhaps, being on that ship for so long, he'd gone a bit deaf? How else could he walk through that hangar without being incapacitated?
I placed my ear against the tree and listened. I felt a creek nearby. A rush of excitement and determination filled me. I sprinted through the underbrush to the creek, gesturing at Ashra to follow. When we stood next to the small, winding creek, I said, "There, you see?" and placed my hand on the nearest tree and pointed to it with my other hand. "You hear it, don't you?"
Ashra, eyebrows crossing slowly, looked from the creek to me. The ear nearest the creek twitched. I knew he could hear the creek right next to him, but that's not what I wanted him to hear.
I patted the tree and pointed at his hands, then my hand, then my ears. He wrinkled his nose at me and knelt next to the creek and placed his hand in the water.
"No!" I shouted impatiently. "Right HERE!"
Looking slightly offended, he reluctantly came next to me and placed his hand on the tree next to mine, still radiating confusion.
I gestured with my eyes toward the stream, then back at him. "Now listen."
A moment passed. I stepped closer to the tree and put my ear against it. Maybe it would be easier that way. Ashra did the same, at first looking at me, but then glancing away thoughtfully. As his brow furrowed again, he closed his eyes.
I stared at him.
His eyes snapped open. He looked at the creek, then at the tree.
It put a smile on my face. I'd wanted him to feel less lost, the way trying to hear his ship made me feel less lost . . . but he pushed away from the tree in agitation. He stared at the ground, then the creek, hands clenched at his sides.
Could he hear better through the ground?
We continued our trek. I didn't know whether to feel badly. He had such an adverse reaction.
~*~
Walking with Ashra is like trying to get a butterfly to follow you. He was everywhere in the dim light, behind a tree, under a bush, staring up at the canopy, chasing after tiny animals. One time, he got far enough away from me that I thought he wouldn't hear if I knocked on a tree, but thought perhaps he could feel through his feet.
