Jasper

"Twigs break under foot, braking the still of the forest, still too early for birds"

I frown at the line I've just wrote, dissatisfied. I used "still" twice. It sounds muddled I cross it out and I tried again:

"Twigs snap under foot, braking the quiet of the forest, still too early for birds"

No that's still not right, there's something else...

"How can you write and walk at the same time?" Colt walks up beside me, why is he always sneaking up on me?

"Wha--? I don't know," I reply, recovering from his sudden appearance, "practice I guess."

"What are you writing anyway?" he asks peering over my shoulder, I quickly press the book to my chest so he can't read it.

"Poetry, you wouldn't like it," I explain hurriedly, a little uncomfortable by his close proximity.

"That's not true, I'll like anything you make," he smiles and I feel my face heat up. He must not realize the romance of his words. "Lemme see," he insists and pulls the notebook from my hands while I'm distracted.

"Hey! no," I panic, some of my haikus are about him. He flips to a random page and my heart races. I can't read the expression on his dark face in the low light but he gives me back the notebook without saying another word.

"What did he read?" my mind wonders, the question making my head spin. I hadn't written anything that bad. Then the lines run through my mind in a whirlwind: "liquid gold eyes," "sweet skin made of chocolate," "voice like a crashing waterfall."

"Colt," I choke, worry thick in my voice, "which poem did you read?"

"Eros, Selfish Love," he replied his voice cold, but there was an edge to it and he still couldn't look at me.

I flipped to the page to read it again, I instantly knew which he was talking about--one of the few poems I've written that wasn't a haiku--but I had to read it again:

Eros, Selfish Love

I love you even if it's wrong

even if it's not returned

my love for you could fill a song

even if you are perturbed

I have loved you still, all along

despite this fact I am concerned

this love will last very long

passion so hot I might be burned

yet it will never be truly  gone

I feel my face pale and I almost stop walking. Did I really write all that? What was I thinking? But I knew exactly what I was thinking, and I had a feeling Colt knew too, now. I'd dated the entry--January 17, 2017--he must remember the day too.

"Jasper--" he starts but then stops, piecing his thoughts together. He glances at me a second but must find it too hard to look at me and he faces forward again. "Jasper, um, do you still--" his question is cut short as he is suddenly pulled into the air.

I stumble backwards and he lets out a cry of surprise. He is hung upside down by his feet in what looks like some sort of trap.

"Mollie!" Karl shouts a moment later and I spin around to see Mollie's tiny body swinging from a tree, same as Colt's.

"Fucking shithead, cock-sucking, bitch-ass, fuckers!" Colt spits as he writhes, trying to untie his feet.

"Excuse you?" Emerald says a little surprised by the swearing, she's not the only one.

Colt ignores her and continues cussing as he fails to untie his feet. "Would one of you fucking help me?" he snaps and Emerald crosses her arms.

"Maybe if you asked more nicely, but I think I'll help Mollie first," she walks over to the small girl swinging silently in the nearby tree.

Colt is flailing his wings trying to fly the front half of his body up to untie himself. It isn't working. He looks almost exactly like what a bird would in this situation, writhing madly to no avail. I try not to laugh as he lets loose another string of incoherent profanities, this time a bit too quiet for Emerald to hear.

After another minute or two he has both feet on the ground but he doesn't seem any less perturbed.

"What's wrong?" I ask him.

"A fucking Pixie Comune," he grumbles, spitting the word like it's a curse.

"Pixies?" I ask surprised.

"How can you tell?" Emerald asks, Colt's caught everyone's attention by now.

"The traps," he explains, irritation still thickening his tone, "let's just say this isn't my first time getting caught in one..."

"Are Pixies dangerous?" Sarah asks, sounding more excited than scared.

"Dangerous?" Colt scoffs, "they wish! But they might badgure you to death, we should avoid them."

"No, I wanna meet a pixie!" Sarah whines, pouting at Emerald, "can we pleeease?"

"I think we should listen to Colt, if he thinks it's best we avoid them..." she glances at Colt's almost angry expression, "he's probably right..."

So we traveled south-west to hopefully avoid the Pixie Comune, Colt explained they put traps around the outsides of their camps. The outermost traps--like the ones we encountered--were harmless, but the closer you got the more deadly the traps got. Pixies themselves weren't all that dangerous, but what they could build was.

"I think we could take 'em," Karl was saying to Mollie. The two were walking ahead of me, Emerald and Colt were ahead of them. I couldn't be sure but I think he's avoiding me. The two of them are deep in conversation with Sarah hovering around them. I try not to dislike Sarah but she makes it hard with the way she fawns over Colt and Emerald. She's very pretty, I must admit--even I can tell that much--but she's honestly not good enough for either of them.

I pull out my notebook again, maybe if I can fix this line I'll relax. The sky is starting to light up to welcome the morning sun, but the moon is still visible on the now dark blue horizon. I bow my head to force myself to look at the notebook, but I still can't quite see it. The same way I can't feel my feet hit the ground with each step, or hear the conversations ahead of me. My mind is elsewhere.

"Hey--hey guys!" a bird shouts through my fog of thoughts. It's a chickadee, the first one I've heard this morning.

"Oh no!" a crow barks "bad smell," he warns and the trees go quiet again. I stop walking, holding my breath as I listen to the birds. The quiet irks me and I glance around at the forest behind me. The distance between me and the group grows and I'm about to turn around when the panicked cry of a thrush send adrenaline pumping through my veins. I start running.

I catch up with the group, already winded. "Guy, we have to get out of here."

"What is it?" Emerald demands, my panic is contagious.

"V--vampires," I repeat the thrushes warning, "their hot on our trail, we need to loose them."

"We'll go towards the pixie camp," she decides quickly, addressing the group.

"But--" Colt tries to protest but she continues.

"If they're smart they'll catch on and want to avoid the traps as much as we will. This could work in our favor."

"I really don't--" Colt starts again but is interrupted.

"We don't have time to argue, we move now!" she leads the sprint through the forest, Colt behind her, Sarah beside him, Mollie and me in the middle with Karl in the back. I don't know how we got into these groups, but I don't like Colt being so close to the lead, they'll come across traps first and he could... get hurt.

We are fortunate for the first few hundred feet. Emerald triggers a trap like the ones earlier but manages to jump out of the way. We keep running. At some point Sarah screams and Colt pulls her out of the path of a swinging log.

I'm starting to tire, my chest burns and my breath comes heavy. I'm not sure how much longer I can run, I'm not used to this much exercise.

The screeching scream of a vampire cuts through the air behind us, and it sends adrenaline pulsing through my veins, thicker than before. I guess one of them stumbled into a trap.

I'm still starting to lag behind the group, Karl and Mollie overtake me and I'm desperately pushing past low hanging branches. The scene around me starts to blur as tears press at my eyes from the stress. I see a flash of brown and familiar smell.

"C--Colt?" I stammer, my legs are lead and I feel his arms catch me. I blink my eyes clear, we've stopped running and he's leading me to a deep cave the others are crushed in now. Colt and I join them and we watch the forest in silence for a while.

The birds do not return for the entire time we're holding our breath, waiting. The sun is starting to light the forest and I suspect the vampires will back off and find themselves shelter from the harsh rays.

Then, quite suddenly, the ground beneath us gives way and we're falling.