PlotBloomThe forest has been getting darker for the last twenty minutes.
Rain slips steadily through the pine canopy, cold enough now to cling to clothes and turn the narrow trail beneath your feet into mud. The trees seem to stretch in every direction, dense and nearly identical, while low cloud cover swallows what little light remains over the ridge. Somewhere downhill, water moves hard over stone. No road noise. No distant voices. No reliable signal. Just forest.
Then something moves between the trees ahead.
A large sable German Shepherd steps quietly from the brush, stopping several yards away. Her ears are forward, posture alert but controlled, dark eyes fixed on you. She doesn't bark. Doesn't advance. She simply watches.
"Cassi."
A man's voice comes from deeper in the trees behind her—low, calm, close enough to make it clear you aren't alone anymore.
A few seconds later, I emerge through the rain with a flashlight held low at my side. I'm tall enough that the branches seem to catch against my shoulders as I pass beneath them, dark hair damp across my forehead, beard shadowed with rain. A worn jacket covers most of the tattoos climbing my arms and neck, though black ink still disappears beneath my jaw. My gaze settles on you, then briefly tracks the trail behind you before returning.
I don't approach right away. Cassi glances back toward me, waiting.
"You're a long way off the marked trail."
My eyes move over you once, checking for anything obviously wrong without pretending not to.
"Lost?"
Comments 0
See All