First People: La 'lor Ae

Search Party

The forests in the Pacific Northwest are some of the most beautiful, and massive in the country. They are filled with centuries of wisdom and knowledge, pain and suffering, love and rebirth.

The trees here hold many secrets and even more truth. Once occupied and respected by native tribes, now occupied with markers and paths for hikes and tourism. Protected but not necessarily respected. Fires ravage them, and lives perish in these enormous wooded mountains daily. Sometimes humans are taken here, by the old ones, or by the forest itself as a debt repaid to the earth. Some of the lost are discovered after a time, others are never found.

***

A group of several people with flashlights trudged through the trees, searching every scrap of darkness with tear filled eyes and calling Eli's name. Their breath coiling around them, proof of the icy temperature on the mountain tonight. The cold is also evident on their pink cheeks and red noses. They push steadily through the darkness, breaking up the ink-black night with their torch light, and move quickly through the forest as one. When the temperature drops even lower though, the truth of her fear becomes palpable, especially in the dark azure eyes of the woman at the front. The nocturnal animals watch her, feeling her pain through a link she no longer accesses. They remember her though, when she was open to the connection as a child. Her soul is the same. The trees soak in her emotions as best they can to calm her, invisible tendrils of their energy reaching out to her in comfort.

Samantha Hughes is a tall and willowy woman with wild blonde curls, and large blue eyes that match her youngest child. She is wrapped tightly in a bubblegum pink coat, white-knuckling a matching pink flashlight she found at Cabelas off of the I-5 two nights ago. In her other arm she clutches Liam to her side. Her face is wet with old and fresh tears, her mouth pulled taught with distress. Her eyes struggle to stay focused and forward, and her brow is low with a kind of maddening determination in that expression.

"Eli! It's mommy! Come this way!" She screams through the rawness of her vocal chords and projects her words with a palpable desperation.

"Eli! We're over here!" Liam's small voice rings out,  following her calls with a horse cry every time Sam yells.

A large man points his flashlight up at his own chubby face, as he steps directly into Sam's path. His cheeks are a bright pink against his olive toned skin from the cold, and his eyes are filled with guilt as he looks at her, forcing her to meet his gaze. Sam's eyes flick over his face once before she begins to look past him again, skittering over the terrain as far as she can make out in the darkness. The man puts his hand on hers and he silently begs her to look at him again.

"I'm sorry Sam, we have to call it for tonight. I know it isn't what you want to hear. We need to eat and rest, we won't do him any good if we freeze out here." His low voice is gentle and pleading for agreement.

"I wont stop! I can't just go back to camp and rest while he's out here alone! I will keep going, take Liam and head back to the RV." She practically hisses at the man, throwing her arms in the air to give life to her words. She begins to sob and starts pushing her youngest son toward him. A mother's desperation and fear gleaming in her eyes as she begs them to leave her to search longer. Another woman approaches and puts a hand on either side of her face, forcing her line of vision up to hers. The older woman's eyes match Sam's and her dark brows flex, deepening the lines of her forehead as she staves off her own tears. They stare into each others eyes for a long moment, a silent conversation between them, words spoken to one another in every twitch of muscle on their faces. Sam breaks and falls to her knees, crushing ferns into the forest floor beneath them. Her mother kneels down, speaking so softly that no one else can hear her.

"I can't allow you to stay out here and freeze to death, please just come have some coffee and we will sit up and talk." Sam's head shakes from side to side, she is gasping for air now. "He could be back at camp already." Lori tries. "Everyone is beyond exhaustion Sam, and it's getting to be dangerous now. We have to start again in the morning." Her voice breaks at the sight of her daughter as Sam's eyes land on the ground. She finally lets go of her face and reaches out to grasp her upper arm, gently tugging her to stand and turning her back the way they had come.

"I can't mama." Sam whimpers. "What if he is scared, waiting for me to find him?" Her chin quivers as she speaks and the older woman swallows hard. She grabs one of Liam's small hands and sniffles, shaking her head resolutely at his mother. Tears fall down Sam's cheeks and she stares back at the dark trees. For the first time she really looks around at the tired and freezing group of her friends and family that came here for her, for Eli. She knows deep down that they are right.

"Mommy, my toes are numb but I will keep looking too if you dont want to stop. I will find him, I shouldn't have left him. I should've just kept running with him." Liam's tear filled ocean eyes stare up at her and his wavering voice makes everyone cover their mouths or begin to cry. Sam swallows, the only one suddenly composed. A mother's composure, the mask worn when we are the last bit of strength between our child and the world.

"No baby, this isn't your fault." She says sternly, eyebrows furrowing together. "He is your big brother, and shouldn't have left you." She lifts him into her arms and nods silently to the large man, her stepfather Quinn, who now holds her mother's hand tightly in his. Her eyes meet her mothers and she nods again.
They all turn, and with heavy hearts, begin to walk back to their campsite. She glances back into the darkness and up at the moon, a silent prayer and plea leaving her pale blue lips.

"Please protect him, just for tonight, please." She whispers up to the moon before her eyes fall back to the forest. "Protect my child, as you once protected me." She chokes on the quiet words, forcing them out, gripping Liam's hand opposite of her mother tightly as she sets him back down and they walk.