Lost and Found

Chapter 5 - Quick Sticks

Nya tossed and turned in her bed, still wide awake. Rain patted on the roof like a child banging pots and pans. Well, at least there would be no Umbra tonight. The village could rest easy. 

But Nya couldn't. Everything was going through her mind. The memory of her mum, the fact that she had been here before, the story that Al had told. 

Especially the story. Something about it nagged her. The stranger. They had been a person from the outside, just like her. And her mum had gone missing, maybe to this place... But that was impossible. That story was from years ago, maybe even centuries. Al had said it had been passed down by generations.

The stranger couldn't be her mum. But that doesn't mean her mum wasn't here.... Nya sighed into her pillow. Now her Dad was at home, in an entirely different world by himself, having three missing family members and probably worried sick.

Nya hadn't thought about her older brother since she got to Lar. He had just got back from school camp, and had immediately shut himself back up in his room. All anyone in Nya's family could think about was the ragged mum shaped hole in her family. 

Thoughts were tumbling through her brain, coming from nowhere and everywhere. All the pieces of the puzzle jumbled up in her mind. It was so messy, Nya felt she might never get it together. It felt like there were at least a thousand pieces.

Was her mum here?  Did she get here through the attic? How come she had found it before Nya? Who, what, when, where, how, why? There were too many questions. 

Nya tried to push them all out of her mind and get some sleep. She could try to work something out tomorrow. She fell into a fitful slumber, going in and out of consciousness, words and questions swimming in and out of focus.

Just before Nya fell into a deep sleep, a final thought barged it's way to the forefront of her mind, as if pushed there against her will. 

Hide in the light, child. The shadows are coming.

~

Nya sat at the kitchen table rubbing sleep out of her eyes. She didn't have the best night.

"Morning, Nya!" Al said cheerfully, fumbling around the kitchen. 

"Good morning," Nya mumbled, a yawn forcing her mouth open. Al laughed good-naturedly.

"You might be feeling a bit jetlagged, eh?"

Nya stared at him. Jetlagged? "What'd you mean?"

Al looked surprised. "I didn't tell you? Time here is different than to your world." Seeing Nya's look of alarm he quickly added, "but it's nothing to worry about. What usually happens is that when you get back it will be like the second you left! Your time is much slower. Six months in your world could be hundred of years in ours! The jetlag is just my little joke," Al chuckled to himself.

Nya's mind was racing. If her mum had gone missing six months ago, and had come here.... No. No, no, no, no, no. It could have been hundreds of years here. Her mum wouldn't have survived that long. Unless...

"Al?" Nya said slowly. Al grunted to let her know he was listening. "Someone from my world, the outside. Would we age like we would in our own world or like people would in this world?" Al furrowed his brow. 

"Now that's good question. I'm not really sure. No one from your world has really stayed long enough. But I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Your kind always find their way out eventually. Now, pancakes anyone?"

~

The after smell of rain lingered in the air. Nya stared down at the wet, woody remains of the log cabin. It could've been worse.

She stepped cautiously through the wreckage, picking underneath beams, for anything that connected to home. 

Bits of wallpaper floating around, pieces of china, but nothing that was familiar. Nya sighed. How was she supposed to get home? Her only string to the outside burned to the ground.

On their way here Nya had whispered her ideas about her mum to Pat. He thought that if the could find even a little bit of evidence in the remains of the cabin, they might have enough reason to think that her mum was the stranger from the story. And could be still alive.

There were too many legends and stories to name about the the shadows. There was no way to way which were true, but that was what the evidence was for. For all they know, Nya's mum had been trapped in a time warp for 200-300 Lar years.

She fingered her lucky stick, running over the bumps and scratches in the bark. Why would her mum keep an old stick in her coat pocket? Maybe it was a souvenir or something, from somewhere she's been.... Somewhere she's been! 

What if...what if the stick was from the forest? What if this was the evidence she had been looking for! She had to compare it to the tress. In her excitement Nya's footing slipped on a round, uneven piece of wood among the wreckage.

After picking herself up she found what she had slipped on. The carved bear head doorknob. Strange, that something made entirely of wood had escaped the Umbra's fire. Even though the handle was entirely unpainted, it felt like the bear's eyes were staring straight into her own.

Nya shoved it into her pocket. Once out of the wreckage Nya told Pat about the stick.

"Why didn't you say this before! Come on, let's test the wood against the trees." He looked almost as excited as she was. But just as they made their way to the edge of the clearing, a roar thundered the forest.

Nya and Pat froze in their tracks.The thump of animal steps rang across the clearing, too close for comfort.  Another roar sounded, right behind them. Slowly, they turned on the spot to face the danger.

And found themselves staring into the deep, black eyes of a giant bear.

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Yo people of the world!

I know this chapter took ages to update and I'm sorry, but I didn't really know what I was writing and had to do some thinking. 

Anyway I hope you like the book, keep reading, don't give up on me, I'll try to update, pinkie promise!

Please comment and vote and all that stuff.

Ciao!

- FranVader