Felix spent most of the day fishing in the river, using handlines and nets.
Lydia and Kyle had an assortment of fly and minnow lures, along with a supply of live bait. The hooks were made from the thorns of some local tree, twine wrapped around the base to secure them to the lure.
The nets were spun from flax or reed, then waxed to keep the fibers together.
But it was the material being used for the fishing line, and the string holding the lures together, that fascinated Felix most.
The twine was almost transparent. Feather-light. And extremely strong.
Minutes after casting his first handline with a fly lure, Felix got a bite.
It was small, but it was going to end up on the cooking stone anyway, so Felix started pulling it in, hand over hand.
The line immediately bit into his palms.
If the fish had been any larger, he would have needed to let it go.
He looked around and found some of the line wrapped around a large stick. From then on, he used a strip of leather to handle the string and the stick to keep tension on the line.
Several casts produced several fish.
He ate the smaller catches whenever he got hungry. The rest were cleaned and hung over the smoker to cure.
Late afternoon turned to dusk.
Felix paused at the edge of the river and watched the sun beginning to disappear behind the mountain where he’d started only a day ago.
That world seemed so different now.
“Ohhh!”
Lydia’s voice pulled him back.
She was walking toward him from upriver, fishing poles in hand.
“You had a good catch! That’ll help a lot!”
Kyle trailed behind her, a large branch balanced across his shoulder with strings of fish hanging from either side.
“Normally, Kyle and I can’t both leave the village at the same time,” Lydia continued. “Something could come in while we’re gone and make a mess or get into the food stores. We can catch a fair bit right here, but usually only one of us can go fishing at a time.”
She gestured toward the river.
“Having you here gave us an opportunity to head upstream together. We put ourselves ahead by several days.”
Kyle looked at Felix as he approached.
When Felix caught his gaze, Kyle gave a subtle nod toward Lydia, accompanied by a questioning expression.
Felix nodded back.
He waited until Lydia had put down her fishing poles.
“Lydia, I really appreciate how much you’ve helped me. And it seems like having me here might have made your situation more complicated.”
Lydia watched him carefully.
“It’d be fair for you to have some questions about me. I’ve got a lot of questions about this place, too, and I think you might be able to answer some of them.”
He glanced between her and Kyle.
“Do you think we could find some time for the three of us to sit down, clear the air, and figure out what the hell we’re going to do?”
Lydia kept walking toward the kitchen, helping Kyle unload the catch onto the counters.
She didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she began cleaning the fish.
One after another, she gutted them and dropped them into a woven basket beside the washing basin. Kyle worked silently beside her.
After several fish had been cleaned, Lydia finally spoke.
“Tell me the truth, or I’d like you to walk away right now.”
Felix stopped.
Lydia continued working, knife in hand.
“How did you get here?”
Felix looked down at the river.
“I don’t really know.”
Lydia glanced at him.
“That’s not an answer.”
“I know.”
She went back to cleaning the fish.
“Where are you from?”
“Somewhere else.”
Kyle snorted quietly.
Felix looked at him.
“I’m serious. I don’t know where I am, and I don’t know how I got here. Yesterday I woke up in an ant colony.”
Lydia’s knife stopped.
“An ant colony?”
“Yeah.”
“Those big ones?”
“Yeah.”
Kyle looked up.
“How the hell did you survive that?”
Felix shrugged.
“I don’t really know. They had me in some kind of cocoon. I woke up, got out, and eventually found my way outside.”
He left out the rest.
The milk. The other cocoons. The bodies. The man he’d killed.
Lydia studied him for several seconds.
“You were inside one of their nests?”
“Apparently.”
She looked toward Kyle.
He was staring at Felix now.
“That would explain the clothes,” Lydia said.
Felix looked down at himself.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
She returned to the fish.
“You said you don’t know where you came from.”
“Not this place.”
“Then where?”
Felix hesitated.
“I don’t know how to explain it.”
Lydia nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
Felix looked at her.
“Okay?”
“I’ve been to places where people said things they couldn’t explain.”
She rinsed her knife.
“Kyle and I have traveled quite a bit. There are places out there that don’t make much sense.”
Felix’s attention sharpened.
“What kind of places?”
“Trees.”
Felix went still.
“What kind of trees?”
Lydia looked at him.
“Big ones.”
Kyle gave her a sideways glance.
“The ones with the worms,” she added.
Felix stared at her.
“What worms?”
Lydia pointed toward the nearly transparent fishing line.
“Those.”
Felix picked up the line between two fingers.
“This comes from worms?”
“That’s what the people around the trees say. They’re everywhere. You can pull the stuff right out of them.”
She shrugged.
“It’s incredibly useful. We use it for clothes, nets, rope, fishing line. Some places weave it into canopies. I’ve seen people use it for the veins on windmills.”
Felix looked at the string again.
“Windmills?”
“Yeah.”
She seemed almost confused by his surprise.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just… didn’t realize this stuff came from worms.”
Lydia smiled faintly.
“Most people don’t care where things come from.”
She returned to her work.
“Those trees are called source trees.”
Felix’s eyes narrowed.
“Source trees?”
“That’s what they’re called.”
“How many?”
Lydia shrugged.
“I’ve seen several.”
Felix looked at Kyle.
“And you’ve been to them?”
“Some of them,” Kyle said.
“How many?”
Kyle thought for a moment.
“Three, maybe four.”
Felix stared at them.
“You didn’t know what they were?”
“No.”
Lydia shook her head.
“Just strange places. People settle around them because there’s usually something useful nearby. Water. Food. Materials.”
Felix looked toward the forest.
“So they’re everywhere?”
“Not everywhere.”
Lydia wiped her hands on a cloth.
“But enough.”
Felix was quiet.
The source tree he’d seen wasn’t an isolated anomaly.
There were others.
Maybe many others.
Lydia studied him.
“That’s why I’m willing to help you.”
Felix looked back at her.
“Because of the trees?”
“Partly.”
She leaned against the counter.
“I don’t particularly like the clerics. I don’t trust everything they say, and I certainly don’t believe every story they tell us about demons and forbidden people.”
She gestured toward Felix.
“And I’ve traveled enough to know that the world is stranger than the clerics want people to think.”
Kyle nodded.
“They’re very good at making sure nobody asks questions.”
Lydia looked back at Felix.
“So maybe you’re exactly what they say you are.”
She shrugged.
“Or maybe you’re just some lost man who woke up inside an ant nest.”
She picked up another fish.
“Either way, you’re here.”
Felix considered that.
“That’s… surprisingly reasonable.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
Felix laughed.
“Fair enough.”
“I’ll be right back”. Lydia slid her knife back into a leather sheath at her waist, and walked to a nearby cottage. A momment later she returned with several leafs of paper. Some were covered in rather detailed maps. Mountains, rivers, roads, and villages marked. She handed him another leaf, and Felix almost gasped as he saw the almost perfect rendering of the umbrella-like seed, panels and monitor clearly depicted. “Like this?”
Artavus Quill 