Ricky Turner's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

The powder was gone now. Ricky squinted through the dead trees. Far off, the crooked tower leaned against a gray sky. It was his one landmark, and the sun was dropping fast. He fixed his eyes on the tower and walked. But the trees crowded thick between them. Every few steps the tower vanished behind a black trunk. Lose it once in the dark, Ricky knew, and he was finished. "Keep it in sight, boy," he told Guater. "Don't let me drift." The dog trotted ahead, then circled back, tail wagging like this was a game. Ricky's boot caught a root. He stumbled. When he looked up, the tower was gone. Only trees. He turned in a slow circle. Nothing. His chest went tight. Night was almost down, and he had lost his one mark. "No. No, no." He spun again. Guater barked. Ricky spun toward the sound and froze. A rabbit stood on a fallen log. He came to Ricky's waist, with tall ears and a red scarf at his throat. He wore a little green jacket and scuffed boots. He grinned like he'd been waiting all day. "You're going the wrong way," the rabbit said. "Badly." Ricky grabbed his plank. "You talk." "Fletch Wingsworth. And yes, I talk, and yes, you're lost." He hopped down. "The tower's that way. You turned around at the root. Everyone does." He pointed a paw off to the left, at more trees that looked the same as all the others. Ricky did not lower the plank. "Why should I trust you?" "Because in a few minutes you won't see your own hands," Fletch said. "And I know a path that stays in the open." He whistled. Guater bounded over and sniffed him. The rabbit scratched the dog's ears, and Guater leaned into it, tail thumping. Ricky watched. His dog trusted almost no one that fast. "There's a road," Fletch said. "Wide and straight. It runs right to the tower's foot. No wandering, no losing your mark. But we have to reach it before full dark." He tugged at Ricky's sleeve with a small paw. "Come on. Big fella like you, scared of a little forest." Ricky let out a breath and followed. The rabbit moved fast between the trunks, ears bobbing. Guater ran at his side. Ricky kept both in sight and did not stop for the tower now. He trusted the rabbit's feet instead. The trees broke open. A road lay before them, wide and packed hard. Huge mushrooms arched overhead, orange caps dripping in the last light, forming a long tunnel above the path. Far down, past all that shadow, Ricky saw a faint blue glow. The tower waited at the end of it. "There," Fletch said, ears high. "Straight road. Can't lose your way now." Ricky stared into the dark tunnel of caps. He was no longer lost. But something about that glowing throat of mushrooms made his skin crawl worse than the open woods ever had.