(Content warning: This chapter contains depictions of self-harm that some may find upsetting. Reader discretion is advised.)

A tense silence filled the forest as the trio stared down the barrel of the stranger’s rifle. The miner’s eyes shifted between the two men, but kept landing on Roquewei’s drawn sword. 

“What were you’ns doing up here?” The man spoke gruffly in a heavy Southern American drawl, his deep voice as threatening as the gun he held. “Did that crazy leader of yours send you? A lot good it woulda done your cause if you’ns been blown to smithereens.”

“W-we weren’t sent here, sir,” Sofia said cautiously, attempting to de-escalate the situation. “We’re just lost.”

The miner’s eyes widened. “The hell you are! I ain’t never heard a Mexican with a British accent before.” 

“Erm,” Sofia hesitated, “I’m actually Guatemalan…”

“And I ain’t seen a red man in these parts in years.” The miner had turned his attention to Roquewei, still eyeing the sword. 

Noticing the glance, Erae motioned to Roquewei to lower the weapon. Seeing the gesture, the miner turned the gun in his direction. “You the leader, Fabio?”

Erae, still standing protectively in front of Sofia, furrowed his brows. “My name is Er…”

“Eric!” Sofia interrupted. The gun moved back to her. She lifted her open hands to her chest and spoke quickly but as calmly as possible. “He’s Eric, I’m Sofia, and that’s…” she turned to look back at the elf, who had begrudgingly placed his sword on the ground. Her hispanic accent came through as she nervously said, “R-Rocky.”

Roquewei shot her a puzzled glance, then scoffed. Erae raised an eyebrow.

Sofia facepalmed internally. Gold star, Sofia. So creative.

“We were hiking a-and somehow ended up in this area,” she continued, desperately hoping the miner would believe the story. 

He looked them over curiously. “So you’ns just casually passed through the barriers and signs to not enter the area? In those strange get ups? I don’t buy it.”

“Please,” said Sofia. “We’re sincerely just lost.”

The man eyed her suspiciously. Speaking again to Erae, “You swear you ain’t part of those tree hugging crazies?”

“No, Friend,” Erae chose his words carefully. “We are part of no group.”

The man lowered his gun.  “Hmmm, I still don’t know if I can trust ya’ll but… I was sent to get you off mountain.”

“You mean what is left of it,” growled Roquewei. 

Sofia elbowed him in the ribs. Now is NOT the time.

“Follow me.” The man turned to walk back down the mountain. Spinning around again to look at Roquewei, who was resheathing his sword, the miner pointed at him with his gun and said, “And no funny business.”

The trio followed him silently until they reached the foot of the mountain, where a pickup truck was waiting for them. 

“Get in,” the man ordered. All three crammed in the back, with Sofia in the middle. They sat in silence for the short journey to what looked like a trailer park, with workers scurrying about like ants. 

The miner hopped out of the truck and smacked the hood. “Out ya get!”

Erae exchanged glances with Sofia, and opened his door first. When Roquewei went to open his door, he suddenly cried out. 

“Roque… Rocky! What’s going on?” Sofia exclaimed. 

The elf folded over in extreme pain. With tears flowing from his eyes, Roquewei looked at Sofia. “The mountain… It hurts…”

Oh no…

Erae, who had run around the truck, swung open Roquewei’s door. “The shock of the blast must have worn off…,” he said in a hushed, hurried tone. “Sofia, take his sword.”

Sofia watched wide-eyed as Erae helped Roquewei out of the vehicle. Roquewei immediately crumpled to the ground. As Erae tried to get him back on his feet, the miner raced to their side, “What’s going on?”

“My friend needs a healer. Is there one nearby?”

“Healer? You mean a doctor?” replied the miner. “W-well, not really. We’ll have to call someone. Come on, get him inside.”

Taking Roquewei’s other arm, the two men supported him as they walked to the nearest trailer. Struggling with the weight of the sword, Sofia followed behind as quickly as she could, keenly aware of all the workers’ eyes watching them. She didn’t notice the streak of red flying above.

“Graham, call us an ambulance!” Sofia heard the miner shout as she walked through the door. A dark-haired middle-aged man with greying temples and large glasses rushed to his phone on the desk at the back of the trailer.

A young woman with long blonde hair swept over her shoulder in a low ponytail was helping Erae and the miner lay Roquewei down on top of another desk. She whipped off his pauldron and, to Sofia’s despair, the hat and placed her coat under his head for support. Sofia watched helplessly from the doorway, gripping the sword. 

The woman turned to Erae. “Was he hurt in the blast?”

“I’m not sure…” Erae responded.

“What were ya’ll doing up there anyway? Did ya not see the signs?” the woman demanded. 

“That’s what I asked ‘em…” piped in the miner. 

Roquewei cried out again and clutched his side. Graham ran over to the group. “The closest ambulance will take over an hour to arrive. With the coming storm, could be longer.”

“He can’t wait that long,” said the woman. “Graham, grab an ice pack from the medical trailer and get someone over here fast! Russ,” addressing the miner, “grab a bottle of whiskey from the boss’s trailer.

Russ looked shocked. “Taegan, you sure it’s alright givin’ alcohol to a…”

“We need to numb the pain – go!”

Sofia’s gaze followed the men as they rushed past her through the door. Taegan began to open Roquewei’s robe. When Erae reached out to stop her, she insisted. “We need to see if there’s a wound.”

Taegan quickly untied and opened the garment, then stepped back with a gasp. Roquewei’s torso was covered in scars. Self-inflicted scars.

Erae looked at Roquewei in shock. “Ro…” 

Roquewei, though delirious from the pain, curled in an attempt to hide himself. 

“What’s wrong?” asked Sofia, leaning the sword against the wall and rushing forward. Erae quickly closed Roquewei’s cloak before she reached them.

“I think his injury,” he said, without looking at the women, “is internal…” 

Just then, Graham and Russ returned.

“Here’s the ice!” said Graham. “The med staff are on their way.”

Erae took the ice pack and placed it on Roquewei’s side. 

“Sofia, hold this here,” he instructed. She did so, freeing Erae to help Roquewei sit up so Taegan could give him the whisky. Roquewei coughed and spat up most of the first swig. 

“I know it’s strong but it’ll help ya,” said Taegan, still processing what she had seen. The engineer made Roquewei drink another swig, which he swallowed with difficulty. 

Turning again to her co-worker, Taegan said, “Graham, grab the extra strength pain medication from my bag, would ya?”

Nervously, Sofia spoke up. “A-are you sure that is a good idea?”

“I normally wouldn’t do this,” Taegan responded, counting out some pills, “but combining the two will make him drowsy enough to relieve some of the pain.” 

She placed the pills in Roquewei’s mouth and had him take another swig of whiskey. Roquewei coughed violently again, but within a few minutes fell into a fitful sleep.

The group gave a collective sigh of relief.

“Now,” said Taegan as she picked up Sofia’s hat, “What the hell were you’ns doing on that mountain?” Although Taegan seemed to be about Sofia’s age, she carried herself with the air of a seasoned leader, commanding the respect of everyone in the room. 

“W-we got lost hiking…” Sofia stammered. 

“Impossible,” replied Taegan, crossing her arms. “We scanned the area for months, and posted signs and barriers in every possible entrance. The only way you could have ended up on that mountain is if you teleported or something.”

Sofia and Erae glanced at each other nervously. 

“And what’s with the get up?” the engineer gestured up and down with the hat. “Are ya’ll part of a compound or something?”

“A compound?” asked Erae.

“A cult,” said Taegan, annoyed. “Or one of those fringe society groups that want to live off the grid or in a nudist colony, do illegal drugs all day, or just have sex with a bunch of people. There’s loads of ‘em in these mountains. Coulda sworn these woods were clear though…”

“N-no!” blurted out Sofia, blushing bright red. “We’re not!”

“My first thought when I found them was that they looked like those folk who dress up as cartoon characters,” Russ chimed in. “Haven’t the faintest idea why you’d be in the middle of the forest dressed like that, though.”

“They look like elves,” said Graham from his desk. Sofia and Erae jumped. “Especially him,” he said, pointing to Erae. “You almost look like a character from a video game I used to play.”

“W-well, ha-ha… th-the thing is…” Sofia began.

“All that’s missing are the ears.”

Huh?

“What do you mean?” Sofia asked carefully. 

Graham motioned to his own ear. “Your ears aren’t pointed. If they were, I would have totally believed you were real elves.”

Sofia was dumbstruck. She turned quickly to Erae, whose pointed ears had become easily visible during the commotion. What is going on?

Cautiously, she touched one of Roquewei’s braids. “And what color is his hair?”

The miners looked confused. “I mean…” replied Taegan, “black? Don’t most American Indians have black hair?”

“It’s not blue…?” Sofia asked quietly, taken aback.

Blue? The miners thought. Drugs. They must have been doing magic mushrooms or something on that mountain…

Erae approached her from behind and whispered into her ear. “Go with it.” 

“Alright, look,” said Taegan. “If ya don’t want to tell us why ya’ll were up there, we are going to have to let the boss deal with you.” Thrusting the hat into Sofia’s chest, she continued, “He’s not known for his generosity.”

Sofia gulped nervously, but held the engineer’s gaze. Not liking Taegan’s tone, Erae was about to speak when a commotion was heard outside. 

Several raised voices some distance from the trailer seemed to be arguing about something.

“I’ll go check whut’s ‘appenin’,” said Russ, picking up his rifle before heading out the door.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Erae asked, “How did you know we were on the mountain?”

“We have cameras near the blast site. When there was an isolated landslide following the blast, we had someone investigate,” replied Graham as he pushed his glasses up his nose. “Then we sent Russ to go fetch you. We had to make sure you weren’t part of some anti-mining group.”

Anti-mining group? thought Sofia and Erae. The heightening ruckus outside drew nearer.

“These people come harping about the dangers of coal mining, and how it’s bad for the environment, bad for locals’ health. We’ve had people protest to local authorities, show up with signs, try to block our workers from doing their jobs… There was one time a group of those crazies locked themselves to one of our trucks, halting everything for hours until the police carted them away.”

Graham nodded in affirmation. “That’s why we had to make sure you’ns weren’t some next level protesters trying to get yourselves blown up or turned into martyrs ‘for the cause.’”

Wow, thought Sofia. Things sound really serious…

“In the end, we have legal rights to be here and do what we do,” continued Taegan. “Coal is still one of the largest industries in this country — can you imagine the thousands of people who would be without jobs if we just… stopped mining?” 

The young engineer spoke with passion. “Mining runs in our veins the way the coal runs in the veins of these mountains. It’s a part of us, it’s a way of life.”

“But,” Erae interjected, “is changing the face of the earth for this resource truly the best way?”

“Look,” Taegan sighed, her hand over her face, “I know it may seem terrible. But mountaintop mining is easier and more efficient than traditional mining. It keeps costs low and actually reduces the amount of atmospheric pollution. Most importantly, it minimizes the risk to our miners.”

“Those of us who were born and raised in this area have families who have worked in the coal industry for generations,” joined Graham. “We all have stories of ancestors who died from a tunnel collapsing, poisonous gases, or poorly timed explosions. The way mining is done now majorly increases worker safety, giving employee family and friends greater peace of mind.”

A thought came to Sofia at the mention of “friends.”

“Graham, could I borrow your phone? I need to call someone.”

“Oh, sure.” Graham unlocked his cell phone and handed it to Sofia. She thanked him and walked to the other side of the trailer. 

“But could you explain the need for coal?” she heard Erae ask Taegan, sparking more lively conversation. 

Gripping the cell phone tightly, Sofia took a deep breath. Thank goodness I remember her number. 

Sofia dialed Autumn’s number and waited nervously as the phone rang. It’ll probably be in the middle of the night there… Sofia thought anxiously. 

Although the last time they had spoken the two had not ended on the best terms, Sofia knew that Autumn would be worried for not having heard her in a couple of weeks. At least, Sofia hoped she would be.

“Hello, this is Autumn Eyre.” Hearing her friend’s voice made Sofia immediately emotional.

“Autumn! This is Sofia! I didn’t expect you to be awake. It’s so good to hear your voice.”

“Uh-huh.”

Taken aback by the nonchalant tone, Sofia attempted to keep up the energy. “I know I’m calling you from a weird number but I sort of lost my phone…”

“Uh-huh.”

Sofia was getting frustrated now. “Listen, I know our last conversation ended weirdly and I wanted to say I’m sorry. Also, I’m currently in the United States but… I’ll be back home soon! Man, do I have some crazy things to tell you.”

“Wow, yeah. Ok, so… I’m going to need you to repeat all of that again after the beep. Toodles!” 

Sofia stared at the phone blankly for a moment before gritting her teeth in frustration.

Autuuuuuuuumn! 

*Beep*

“Autumn, this is Sofia. Firstly, I hate your voicemail message. Secondly… I know I’ve been gone a while, but I wanted to tell you that I’m ok. I lost my phone a while ago, hence the strange number.” 

“Listen,” she continued, “I’m, ha… I’m somewhere in the United States right now. Long story, I’ll have to share later. But I’ll be back soon, so keep Jasper away from my project!”

Sofia paused, biting her lip nervously. “I-I also just wanted to say sorry for snapping at you before. You’re my best friend and…”

A piercing scream just outside the trailer interrupted Sofia’s message. “What is that? It’s enormous!”

Another voice replied, “Wolf! There’s a wolf in the camp!”

Sofia could hear growling and angry barking.

A gruff male voice yelled, “Russ, give me that gun!”

A wolf? Suddenly Sofia’s heart sank.

Dropping the phone, Sofia ran out the door to see a group of people surrounding Harton, who was backed up by Russ’s pickup truck. His hackles were raised, his teeth bared in a fearsome snarl, and his eyes filled with fear. 

An older man with a large grey mustache and murderous glint in his eye was aiming his rifle directly at the creature. “You’ll make a right nice trophy.”

“NO! DON’T SHOOT!” Sofia ran and threw herself over the Dlam.

*BANG!*