Finding the Sites

Hur kicked a rock in frustration. He winced as his toe sent waves of pain through his leg to his brain. Long worry lines had grown on his forehead. His face now sported a long, straggling beard, his shoulders slumping under the weight of his worries, and the burden he bore for the world. His quest was not going well. He had just missed her.

The sun was cool, refreshing, it was shielded from him, between him and the mighty behemoth of a star that guarded the universe was a ceiling of green. He was in a forest, looking for sites. This site, in the Amazon, she had been here, he could feel it. Why had the man just not let him find her then. The time was not right. He could feel the voice in his head. Thin, raspy. Yeah, but then he wouldn’t have to go around looking for her. Why could he not have grabbed her as well as him. She needed to be there, she needed to lose what she thought could not be lost, to be ready. He hated it, hated having the answers. He was not ready. Hur was not ready.

The forest smelled of pine, and yet there was something else, faint. Menacing. Deeper. He knew what it was, that stench. He had felt it when the jet had dropped him off at the first site, the one in New Zealand. The girl was no longer there.

The forest had felt different. The forest had felt less alive. It was as if it was a shadow of itself now, had held a secret that had been sucked from it, tortured from it. The forest was no longer a protector. No longer held the sanctity of being one of the ancient sites. 

The leaves rustled underneath his bare feet as he kept walking. He needed to make sure. To be so close and not to make sure, even though he knew. He felt it in the air.

This one was gone too, it felt older than the other one, and it felt like it had been dead for longer. He stumbled into a clearing. Not the one he was looking for, this was odd. He frowned. There were signs of humans here, tents, stoves, makeshift toilets, the smell. He needed to get back and talk to the man in the cavern. None of this made sense. Why would there be humans here, wouldn’t that ruin the sanctity of these sites?

The forest was silent. Not even animals were chattering here. It was as if an evil wind had come and swept them all away.

He kept walking, the ground rough, and yet brittle under his toes. It was the same as the other place, only this felt like it had happened first. The air tasted of ash and dust.

The smell became stronger. As if he was approaching where it had taken root. Where it had chosen to strike first. Because take out the stump, and the tree will fall. He could feel it, shivers and goosebumps running up his spine.

He trudged on.

Hur found the clearing. This was the one. This had been the one. Here, there was the same pattern. Here, there was the same emptiness. It had been destroyed. A single tear escaped his eye, as he made to trek out the forest.