"What about my gift!" cried the second voice, still concealed.
"I don’t have another gift," Amber started to say.
Another arrow whistled past Amber’s other ear. It was a harder nick this time, and she yelped with pain, jumping and clutching her hand to her ear.
"He would like a gift too." The first hunter shrugged.
Amber’s ear throbbed; she could feel the blood dripping onto her neck and shoulder and hoped it wasn’t a deep wound. What could she do? Then it came to her.
"I do have a gift! It was my joke."
The second voice spoke again, "You were joking?"
"I was. Here."
Amber reached into her dress and took out the seeker. A second man was suddenly at her shoulder, reaching around. He looked much like the first man but had a tattoo of a bird on his cheek. Amber let him touch the seeker but kept it in her hands.
"What is it? What does it do?"
"It’s called a seeker. It helps you find your way," she said. Who knew how she would find her way home now?
"How?"
"Well, first you need to activate it."
Amber spoke and the runes on the seeker were instantly suffused with a silver glow.
The two Dunfolk leaped back in surprise.
"It won’t hurt you," Amber said, keeping her voice even. "See? You line the colours up with the arrows and you can make sure you’re always walking in the same direction. You activate it by saying skut-tsee and you deactivate it by saying sku-lara." The seeker lost its glow when she spoke and the Dunfolk looked on curiously.
"It will do," the second man grumbled, taking the seeker.
Amber took a deep breath. "I’m here because I need your help. A friend of mine is sick and we need a healer."
"A healer? An apolaranasan you mean?"
"Umm… I think so."
"Hmm," the first man said. He glanced at his fellow. "I think we should take you to Loralayalana."
His friend didn’t even respond, he was too busy trying to say the words to activate the seeker, every inflection but the correct one coming out of his lips.
~
THE small group walked swiftly through the trees, the Dunfolk somehow picking an easier path than Amber ever would have herself. They seemed perfectly comfortable in the woods, one of the creatures that inhabited this wild place.
Occasionally one stopped to make an idle joke to his fellow, to which they inevitably responded with uproarious laughter.
"Will you not try your necklace on that wood hen yonder? If she falls in love with you we will dine on her eggs whenever it takes our fancy!"
"What happens if the seeker gets lost? Will it use itself to find its way? What if it can’t talk, will it still be able to activate?"
Amber looked up; she still couldn’t see the sky, but something about the way the light refracted through the immense canopy above her head made her think it was some time around noon.
"Hello the trees!" the first man suddenly called out.
"Hello the birds!" a voice in the distance replied.
Amber saw more shapes moving in the trees, their forms difficult to distinguish, perfectly blending with their surroundings.
A small party of Dunfolk came into view, a deer held on a pole between two of them, its eyes rolled back into its head.
They stared curiously at Amber while she regarded them back. They appeared to be quite alike. The easiest way to distinguish one from the other was by the style of feathering on their arrows and the tattoo pattern on their cheeks.
Amber saw more of the Dunfolk ahead, and suddenly they emerged from the trees into an immense clearing. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Amber could see the sky. The sun beamed down warmly from above; she instantly felt a brightening of her spirits.
Dunfolk were everywhere. Many were busying about preparing food, fletching arrows, grinding roots, scraping skins, or repairing their tiny huts. Yet many were also sleeping in hammocks slung between two saplings, snoring with expressions of contentment.
They continued through what Amber now realised was a village, then after a short path in the denser forest they entered another clearing. Taking stock, Amber saw clearing after clearing, all filled with the Dunfolk, laughing as they worked. There were so many of them!
"Welcome to Loralayalana!" the hunter with the bird on his cheek called out, jumping and capering in the air, while the first man laughed.
Amber had always pictured them mysteriously nestled in the undergrowth. She couldn’t believe this vibrant, pulsing culture was hidden away on the very doorstep of Sarostar, nestled in the north Dunwood.
"It’s… It’s amazing…" she breathed.
The two hunters with her grinned, seemingly pleased with her reaction.
"We will take you to the Tartana now," the first said.
"No, no. I just want to go to a healer. My friend is sick."
He frowned. "We are taking you to the Tartana."