Where the Roots Begin

Chapter XIII

Always be on the lookout

for the presence of wonder.

-E. B. White

It had been six days, and Alessandra had walked all the way through the island. She marked a spot on the beach, began walking, and ended up coming back to the same spot. She had rounded the island, and walked across it, from north to south, or at least what she thought was north to south. She had been taught in the Lab to use the stars as guides but you couldn't see the stars deep in the forest, and even if you managed to, they were different stars, different constellations. She was under a different sky. And doing this, she had heard no noise from any other human being, not even from the other Alessandra. She decided to head east, to walk across the island from east to west, or what she had established as east and west, but she sat down first to look around.

So far, she had only seen the white flowers when she sat down and looked. When she was walking, she saw trees and bushes and other flowers. She wasn't really looking around when she walked, but still. There wasn't any color that she hadn't seen so far. Red flowers, green flowers, orange and yellow flowers, gentle flowers, tall or short flowers, flowers with small or big petals, in groups or lonely flowers. She already knew which fruits to eat, and which to not even touch. She knew which fish she could catch, and which fish looked like fish but weren't fish. She once had caught a fish, but she found out, by another visit from mystery-boy, that the 'fish' was a baby, and one of the last of an ancient sea species, called 'Aspidoch-something'. Scary thing was, it was actually very big for being just a baby.

The thing was, she had received many visits from that boy, and even if Alessandra wasn't ready to admit it, he had saved her life more than once. And he never told her his name. But he always looked the same, always wore gloves. And he always said strange things, things that kept her thinking about him for a while.

Every time Alessandra tried to get some answers out of the boy, he disappeared. It was frustrating, mostly because she couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't follow him, since he didn't leave anything behind when he disappeared. No clue to where he went. And she was afraid to push him too far, and make him stop his visits. It wasn't that Alessandra specifically liked the boy, but he gave her company, and that was enough to look forward to. And even though the thought of it got less strange, the moment when he stopped being wherever he was was still a shocking thing to see.

The forest gave her mixed feelings. It was cozy, calming, warm, and nice. The problem was, it felt too cozy, too calming, too nice. She was curious about it, since it almost felt like it tried too hard to be those things, to hide something else. It wasn't exactly disturbing, but she didn't feel completely at ease either.

Alessandra stood up, ready to walk east with this new determination she had picked up when she went through the Portal, but heard the almost familiar rustle she had learned to recognize. He was here.

"Where are you going now?" He asked her.

"East".

"What for?"

"To head west".

"What for?" He tilted his head a bit.

"Maybe find someone. Anyone".

"What do you want to find someone for?"

"Well, there must be someone else here, right? I can't be alone".

"What, don't I count for something?" He actually sounded offended.

"You won't even tell me your name".