World Leapers Book I: The Forest

The Trail

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The first day was the most difficult.

Upon feeling his way up and down River's leg, Terran had indeed found a spot where the lower leg bone could be felt pressing up against the skin, along with plenty of obvious swelling. When Terran pressed down on the spot, River would howl with pain. The bone hadn't come through the skin, and there was no blood, but both boys knew that this was not an easy injury to deal with. Precious nerves and blood vessels surrounding a fracture can become compressed and even severed.

Even though he couldn't see, Terran knew from River's description that the leg was purplish-red around the broken bone. He had already slipped River's shoe off and felt all his brother's toes. They weren't numb, and they're weren't icy cold either. Both would have been signs that River's break had severed a major vessel.

Hampered by Terran's complete inability to see and River's broken leg, the boys cooperated to fashion a splint. River described their surroundings to Terran, "We're at the bottom of some kind of cliff. I've never seen it before on our land, Terran. It's just rocks, straight up, higher than our house. Probably twice as high."

Terran nodded, quickly painting a picture in his mind as River continued.

"All the other sides of us are just trees and bushes. I don't see any trails or anything. I recognize some of the stuff though. There's a ton of really thick gooseberry bushes. There's a big clump of some big leaves that look like cabbage. I'm pretty sure most of the trees are some kind of cedar. That and mostly fir..."

Terran interrupted, "Anything for splinting or something we could use for crutches?"

River's voice sped up. This always happened when he was excited. "Yeah, yeah, definitely, there's one tree maybe 15 feet to the right of you that has some good low hanging branches, if you can get them off. It's a bigger tree. I think oak. You could maybe get some kind of a walking stick too from that one."

Terran nodded. "Where's that cabbage stuff? I could maybe use that as a wrap over your leg where it's bruised." Between a week-long wilderness camp, a hunter's education class, and the inordinate amount of time he had spent with his nose stuffed in science and nature books, Terran was suddenly feeling a surge of confidence, despite not being able to see. He was already feeling as though his mind was thinking more quickly without the sensation of sight.

River continued, "It's right behind you on both sides of a big tree, and it looks like maybe some kind of pineapple weed too. A bunch of little ones sprouting up."

Terran made a mental note. He knew that sweet and mint-scented weeds like that would be good at keeping biting insects away. He moved on, wondering if darkness would be setting in soon, "What time do you think it is, River?"

"Umm..."

"Where's the sun?"

"Can't see it. The only sky that I can see through the trees has dark gray clouds everywhere. "

Terran nodded, and at the same time felt a stinging sensation of disappointment in his chest. He wanted to see the sky, see the clouds, see anything.