22

She accepts your help, and you look for a way down. You opt not to try climbing straight down, and instead walk back upwards along the path until you find a spot where the ground on and around the track are at the same sort of level. Here you leave the path, and push through the undergrowth in the direction you think the wreckage is. After much trampling of small bushes, ripping of clothes and scratching of skin you arrive upon the destroyed carriage. You had been leading the way in order to ease passage as much as possible for the girl, but now she pushes past you. Her clothes are in tatters – just like yours, mind you – and in spite of yourself, you wonder what she might look like completely free of them. You’ve never seen such a full and wild mane, and the bump above her legs appears fuller and rounder than anything you remember back home.

She ventures into the debris field and forces her way around the box to the other side. Just behind her you arrive to find her completely still, staring into the rectangular hole where the door would have been. Looking in for yourself, you see the problem: there is no body.

“I know this is the one,” she says, “I recognize the wood. It’s the wood from the giant redwood that used to grow in the middle of the valley.”

“Maybe your family didn’t fall with the carriage...” you offer. But she shakes her head.

“If they’re not here, then we won’t find them.” she states. Resigned, she pulls away. “Accidents happen. If Father wasn’t destined to be buried, who am I to judge? Perhaps he angered the Gods in some way...”

You can see she’s telling herself a story to cope. She’s on the verge of tears again.

“We better leave,” she says, “I shouldn’t be away from my beasts so long...” and her voice cracks on the last word.

Before you have time to agree, a sound startles you both. From somewhere further up the slope to the plateau, a raucous shriek tears through the trees echoing between the trunks. You and the girl both freeze on the spot. There isn’t a sound again for many long seconds, but you notice something else. Around you the air thickens; it gets hot. Even though the sun is high in the sky it gets darker, like there’s a veil falling somewhere all around the crash site. And on top of that, in your gut, you feel a malignant presence nearing.

Test reaction time. Roll one die. If you roll anything higher than 4, turn to 393. If you roll less, turn to 185. When you’re done, subtract one point from your PROWESS score.