Faithless Memories

Encounter in the Woods

Chapter 3

After her conversation with Sarah, Kris tried to let go of her worries. Both the ones about bringing trouble to the village and the ones about her missing memories. She knew there wasn't much she could do about either until, or unless, something changed. Instead, she focused on becoming a productive member of their little community.

It was only a couple of days after the conversation that she was asked to help a group of women with younger children. She wasn't allowed to teach, but most days, the women with children that were younger than school age let them all gather and play, at least for the first half of the day, while they finished their work. Kris was happy to help and found that it didn't take long for most of the families to become familiar with her through their children, at least. After less than three months, the worry about where she was from had all but disappeared.

While that work kept her busy for the first half of the day, her afternoons were still mostly free. She started trying to find odd jobs to help the villagers, as well as to support the Fairs since she was still living with them. Even with that being the case, more often than not, she found herself assisting Zack with his chores. With both of them taking care of things, they managed to get them done faster, and much to Zack's delight, they had more time for exploration. Kris was impressed with the boy when she realized that it wasn't just so he could get away. Although that was part of it, he also used his time to see if he could find anything worthwhile to bring back and sell or use. There were several times, once summer rolled around, that they both came back with baskets full of berries and other wild fruit.

Kris had been with the Fairs for nearly six months when something unexpected happened during one of their forays into the woods. They had brought their baskets with them and headed straight for one of the patches of berries they had checked just the week before. They had been not quite ripe the first time they checked. They hadn't been picking very long when they heard a loud rustle in the underbrush nearby. Kris was the first to notice, and she stood to see if there was anything she could see. When she did, she realized that they had backed themselves up against a cliff that was nearly twice her height. If something was coming at them from the woods, they were going to have difficulties getting past it.

Her worries were brought to life when a giant lizard-like creature slithered into the little clearing. It was apparently after the berries as well, but as soon as it saw the two of them, it stood up on its hind legs and spread a membrane out around its head. Kris had no idea what it was, but she wasn't going to take the chance of it attacking. She didn't say anything before she grabbed Zack and shoved him behind her. He started to protest, but she ignored it. Her voice was low but hard when she whispered back to him. "I'm going to get its attention and try to run past it. As soon as it turns away from you, I want you to run back to the village and get help."

He started to protest, but she cut him off when the lizard took a step forward. "We don't have time to argue! You know you're faster than me anyway!"

He made a noise like he wanted to keep arguing, but when the lizard took another step forward, Kris ran towards it with a yell. Her sudden movement seemed to confuse the beast for a split second, and that was the only thing that saved her. As she was racing past, it let out a rancid blast of breath. It barely missed her, but she still caught a whiff of it, and it made her gag. Even though her heart was nearly racing out of her chest at the near miss, she was glad to note it had turned to follow her. She allowed herself a single glance back. When she saw Zack still standing there, she yelled. "Go!"

The look nearly cost her as the lizard prepared to blast her again, but she caught a low hanging limb as she raced past and managed to use her momentum to help her swing into the tree and hook her knees around a nearby branch, so she could pull herself up. She ignored the pain of the bark scraping her palms and legs as the breath barely missed her. She climbed up farther to distance herself while she tried to think of a way out.