Chapter 4 - Wildlife

‘Oh, what’s the difference!’, he uttered morosely and headed for the panels on the wall, weighing his chances of ending up somewhere nice for a change. He could use a change of decor from the soothing atmosphere of the lounge, which at the time made him feel like he was recovering in a convalescent home.

The space behind the panel was completely dark, but the rest of his senses made it very clear he’d found his way to an evergreen forest. 

There was a strong scent of pine in the night air, and he could feel, even though he couldn’t see, the movements of the branches above his head, synchronized with the sound of the wind and the swaying of the surrounding vegetation, ferns, he guessed, by the lacy texture that touched his fingers.

Now and then the hooting of an owl creased the silence, followed by an entire symphony of little noises - creatures scurrying through the brush of the forest floor, chattering squirrels hiding in the branches, pine cones and needles falling to the ground, aimless gusts of wind.

He felt around himself and learned that he was sitting on a flat stone, covered in soft pine needles and overgrown by ferns and other forest plants he couldn’t recognize.

There was so much peace in this state, in this spirit-filled darkness, that he checked himself to make sure he wasn’t dead, because what person feels safe in the forest at night, with no knowledge of what lays beyond the reach of his arms and no protection from the elements? 

It seemed, though, that the elements themselves had granted him asylum, him, the unfit human with no knowledge of their workings, the human who nevertheless decided to venture, sight unseen, into their world, and who for some bewildering reason was not afraid of it.

A gentle breeze pushed aside the treetops, like drawing a curtain, to reveal the night sky filled with stars. It was only a moment, no more, but long enough to catch the dark contours of a giant creature not ten feet away from him. He panicked and all the air got knocked out of his lungs like from a popped balloon. He desperately tried to quiet his heart, which refused to cooperate, while he strained his eyes to glimpse that creature in the darkness, trying to anticipate its movements. Hours passed in this state of terrified awareness, during which his body followed its own rules, independent of his reason and will, impervious to hunger or cold, a live wire ready to react to the slightest sign of attack. 

The darkness of the woods turned even deeper, even though that didn’t seem possible, right before dawn, and then started fading slowly into lighter and lighter shades of gray and violet. 

In the muddled softening of the dark, he watched the figure turn around with the slow motions of a bear and vanish into the shadows of the under-story before he could make out what it was.

The light grew thick after that, revealing the beautiful scenery he had felt but not seen a few hours before, the soft black of the slate he was sitting on, the fronds of the ferns. The birds had awoken and were frolicking in the branches above, noisy and unseen.

He felt exhausted by the emotional turmoil of the night before, wanting for nothing than to lay back down on the flat slate and actually get some sleep, but he worried that the edge of the forest was far away from there and he won’t be able to make his way out into the clear before nightfall. 

He willed himself to get up and looked around for any signs that would help him orient himself: moss, anything that looked like a trail, changes in vegetation, but he had to admit that his life had never been about communing with nature, which he’d always found threatening and alien, the place civilization saves you from. 

Discouraged, he picked a direction at random and started walking through a scenery that seemed to move with him but whose general outlines stayed the same, like the revolving decor of an improvised theater. 

Hours into this, just when he started seriously worrying that he was running in circles and he would never find his way out, he felt the familiar wet touch of a dog’s snout probe his hand. 

The dog’s owner approached, walking a forest trail that suddenly came into focus in the undifferentiated brush, a stocky old man with bright white hair and a slight limp who in that moment looked to the wary hiker like the most beautiful being in the universe. 

The old man quickened his stride to meet the stranger who looked lost, and addressed him when he got within close enough range, still huffing and puffing from the effort:

“Enjoying nature, sir?”

A small and slightly ironic smile lifted a corner of his mouth while he stopped to listen to the answer.

‘I kind of was,’ the traveler had to admit to himself, ‘right up to the point where I had to sleep within ten feet of a bear.’ He didn’t say it, though. He smiled politely, and with all the energy he could muster after the stress of the night and the journey through the woods, responded.

“I’m afraid I am very lost. I’ve been walking for hours and I started wondering whether I should ever be able to get out of these woods.”

“Ah, no one is lost in these woods, dear sir. The forest is very protective of its charges. It wouldn’t let you come to harm.”

‘To each his own,’ he thought, too tired from the journey and too relieved to have human company, to judge the subject of the conversation, no matter how loony.

“The Guardian keeps watch.”

“The Guardian?” he asked, exhausted.

“Of course. The Guardian of the Forest,” the old guy replied, smiling blissfully from ear to ear, like he was talking about a beloved family member. “Not everybody can see him, though. He’s shy.”

“So,” the traveler interjected, becoming impatient, “is there any way you could point me in the right direction? Maybe I could walk with you when you go back,” he suggested, thinking that wherever the old man was going was bound to be around other people.

“I could use some company. Nobody comes here anymore, just me and Jasper,” he continued, smiling and whistling to the dog to call him back.

“Is it far, the edge of the forest?” the traveler sought reassurance, but the old man ignored him and started talking his ears off, naming every plant they passed by and drawing his attention to little critters and rock formations and streams and bird calls. 

‘What in the world am I doing here? Why am I here?’ 

The traveler got caught in a circular wave of tiredness and absurdity, reinforced by the unlikely object lesson and the expansive enthusiasm of his companion, which manifested in heavy pats on his shoulder and, at one point, an affectionate bear hug. 

He breathed a giant sigh of relief when he noticed that the vegetation was thinning and he could discern the lines of a freshly plowed field behind it. 

He instinctively picked up the pace to reach the edge of the forest and noticed that the old man was falling behind. His puzzled expression prompted a response from the latter.

“Well, you be on your merry way now. There’s a tavern half a mile down the road, right at the edge of the town.”

“You aren’t coming?” he couldn’t help his curiosity, slightly embarrassed to question a complete stranger’s choices.

“Not my kind of place, I’m afraid,” he said, smiling and patting the dog on the head. “We belong here, don’t we, Jasper?”

The dog stared at him with tearful eyes and let out a dull woof in response. The old man turned around, still talking to his pet, like a man who had finished his work and deserved a brief respite.

‘What on earth am I doing here?’ the traveler continued running along his mental groove, at the same time probing the direction the old man had pointed towards for any proof of human habitation. There wasn’t any, but at least he was out of the woods, and he owed that to the odd stranger. He turned around to thank him again, but the man and his dog were already out of sight.

He reached the tavern at sunset, dead tired, hungry and emotionally spent, and parked himself on a stool at the bar, staring at the beer the barkeep was pouring like it was his last hope for salvation.

“You’re not from around here,” the barkeep mumbled under his breath.

“No. Say, where is here?”

“Black Hawk, North Dakota,” he looked at the traveler reproachfully. He’d seen his fair share of lost souls and drifters in his life, but very few who looked so much like city folk.

“Is there a bus that runs through here?” the lost traveler insisted, despite the quiet disapproval.

“There’ll be one in an hour. Take you to Rapid City. You can find your own way from there.”

A straggly stranger had made himself at home on the bar stool next to his. He was already two beers ahead and in a great mood for chatting.

“Leave the man alone, Tanner! Don’t you see he’s tired?” He turned to face him directly, uncomfortably close. “Been to the forest, have you?”

“Yes,” he strained his mind to find something agreeable to say. “Very scenic.”

“Have you met the Guardian?” the stranger leaned in, propping himself on his third pint, half consumed.

‘What is it with this Guardian, everybody here is simply obsessed with him?’ He decided to ask out loud. “The Guardian? Who is that?”

“It’s not a who, it’s a what,” the stranger’s eyes gleamed, a little glossy from the alcohol. “The spirit of the forest,” he whispered, “it keeps travelers safe when they get lost in the woods at night.”

‘Get out of here!’ the traveler suppressed a bout of laughter with great difficulty. ‘And here I worried about sleeping with a bear. This takes the cake.’

“Folks around here say it’s boding good luck to meet the Guardian, especially for a traveling feller such as yourself.”

He tried to think of an excuse that would get him away, at least for a short time, from the stranger’s animated geniality, so he got up to head for the restroom, which had become a necessity anyway after the second pint of beer.

“Jasper liked you, I can tell,” the stranger yelled in his wake. “He always likes the visited.”

The weary traveler shrugged, eager to escape this awkward conversation, and upon opening the bathroom door he was welcomed by the familiar muzak sounds.