Chapter 96
He sat on 4 map The myte kiwing a clearly.
the sunken boney
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Hy Mara Nanglben, a highs, nervous sound Honey, er the map. Literally. We’re in the blank spares?
3 punt gonfam & the way we came “Tume. Jooking at our foolprints in the soft nosa. They led back to the log and pond, Esen a large wa of max and tree trunks. Which direction head we come from? Every angle looked identical.
bymach bache “Okay, Dan’t panic. Let’s think:*
from that way.” I said, pointing to my right.
Are you sure?
Yes. No, I’m not.
We started walking, the moss swallowing our footsteps, leaving no m. After about ten minutes, there was no sign of the Slingshot Pine, no familiar mark, nothing.
“Aria,” Maya’s call lowly. Mmmmmmz
“I decided to go too,” I said. “It was the right thing to do. We just we have to think.” I stopped, forcing myself to breathe slowly. “We need high ground. To see above the trel lol es, get our bearings.”
“What high ground? It’s all trees!”
I scanned the area. Through a gap in the trunks, I saw a rocky- like sloppy step. “There. Let’s get to those rocks.”
We pushed toward it, brushing off the branches. My ankle twisted on a hidden root and I stumbled, biting back a curse.
“You okay?” Maya held my arm.
“Fine.” I smiled. I wasn’t. Sincerely I’m scared as I don’t know if we’re getting anywhere closer to our building.
We reached the base of the rocky slope. It wasn’t a hill, just a steep, jumbled pile of boulders covered in lichen. “I’ll climb up,” I muttered. “You wait here.”
“Be careful.”
I hauled myself onto the first large rock. Balancing my balance, I climbed to the next, and the next, my fingers scrabbling against the hardness. After a few minutes, I was maybe fifteen feet up, high enough to see over the lower grounds.
I turned gently in a slow circle, my heart sinking.
Forest. Endless, rows of trees in every direction. To the north, I thought I saw a glint of water–maybe the lake? But it was impossibly far. The lodges were nowhere in sight.
And far away, I could see a single, vibrant purple flag, tied to the branch of a dry tree with green withered branches. It was maybe two hundred yards to the east of my position.
“What do you see?” Maya called up.
“I see… the purple flag.”
“Great! A fourth one! Where are we?”
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19:54 Tue, Jan 20
Chapter 56
vont bazow I admitted, climbing down. My bands we inaylie we
its location to figure out something
* 14%%
*eing “But I saw the purple flag. It’s that way. If we can get to
“Or,” Maya cad sofily, “we ran jud follow the flags. They have to lead somewhere, right? They should they might create a
“Okay,” I said “To the purple flag
We reached it quickly, the purple flag fluttering in the rising breeze. It felt like a marker, but for what? I took it, feeling the soft fabric in my hand
“Now what?” Maya asked, hugging herself.
I looked at the map again. “I don’t know.”
“The flags are in rainbow order, right?” Maya said, thinking aloud, “Red, blue, yellow… purple is fourth. Green should be next. Maybe if we find green…”
“That’s not correct. ROYGBIV stands for red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. So this purple is a mistake.” I said
“That’s true,” she muttered, “so what should we do?”
“We will take it but just have to look for the rest correctly.” I tried to sound decisive. “It has to be visible from here. They wouldn’t hide them where you can’t see from one to the next.”
We fanned out, our eyes searching for a flash of green. The forest was playing tricks, making every patch of lichen or leaves look like fabric.
“There!” Maya pointed.
I squinted my eyes, It was far, further than the others had been. A speck of brilliant green on the trunk of a massive, weeping willow tree surrounded by river birch trees. The sight of it sent a jolt of relief through me.
We half–ran, half–slid down, our fatigue forgotten. The willow’s branches formed a curtain. I pushed through them and there, nailed to the trunk, was the green flag. Five flags. We were more than halfway.
“This is good,” I panted. “This is a pattern. They’re leading us…. somewhere.”
“Leading us where, though? Deeper in.” Maya wasn’t convinced.
“We will be fine, that’s for sure. If we really did get missing, they have no choice but to find us.” I looked back the way we had come from.
“Orange next. Look for orange.”
We found it ten minutes later, a shock of citrus color on a bush of wild roses. Six flags now tied around my waist.
“One more,” I spat, my voice hoarse. “Indigo. Then violet. Then we’re done.”
“And then we find the way back,” Maya added.
We walked faster, following a path. Fortunately, we did not walk for long.
The indigo flag was tucked in the crevice of a split boulder at the edge of a small rock. I could also see the lake from here..
“It’s the lake!” Maya shouted happily, her voice tinged with relief. “It will be much easier to locate our camp from here!”
“Yeah, I can still remember this way,” I smiled back. “Let’s move that way.” I pointed.
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Chapter 90
You’re sure?
We followed it, almost running now.
And there, dangling from a small stick halfway buried in the sand, was the final flag. Violet.
“Seven colors of the rainbow,” I breathed. We had done it. We had found them all
