Ecotone

“I’ll do everything.”

The words echoed in Cassandra’s mind like the wind threading through vine-choked conifers.
Curled in on herself, she stood with the emptiness at her back. The lights of Wedmal, smothered by the fog.

She stood in the snow along the ridge before the forest clearing, arms crossed tight against herself as snowflakes curled and warped in the rising wind. At the forest’s edge she watched Jason further up, the large trees, mycelium spears, and vines stood like a white and green palisade before them.

Her wings were tucked safely inside her carapace. From head to toe she was wrapped in expedition gear, much like the rest of the party. Much of it loaned from her work, now serving, what she could only hope was a higher purpose. Her face hidden behind her gasmask and goggles, protecting her sensitive insectoid eyes from the freezing cold. Upon her insistence the others wore masks as well. She just proved that there was microscopic iron and gold dust in the scat. Jason as a veterinarian should know better about the risks of inhaling it. He wasn’t thinking right. This much was obvious to her.

Behind her was the truck, ignition on, headlights raised. She let the warmth of the roaring motor and the headlamps breathe on her back before the trudge.

Cody insisted it was for a quick exit. All three of them knew there was a greater risk of the car not starting up again than there was thieves getting to it. She could hear him behind her, grunting as he got the last of his gear out of the car.

Jason was far ahead, near the black moss covered conifers and mushroom vines coating burnt out treestumps. With his bright red coat and black mask, reflective visor, some passerby might think he was a missing creature. Poking in and out of the forest. “The Fridgeman of Moosecreek Ridge.” The children and wanderers might say.

He moved as though an ancient explorer kneeling by the massive tracks, scooping samples, snapping photographs, jotting notes into his journal. She watched every moment and thinking about how each moment could be an old picture and painting. Cold, inspiring, distance. It was romantic in the way of a poem of archaic words, not in an embrace.

He rushed back toward them, “They’re this way,” he said. “I’m sure of it.” the visor reflected her own masked and clothed appearance back to her. In his visor she could see Cody looked toward the forest with visible unease. His breath moved in and out of two vents on the side of what resembled a large muzzle. His voice was muffled.

“So we’re going through the gold zone.”

Cassandra nodded. “We are about four miles into the “Iron Ring.” If that scat has gold and lead flakes it has to be further into the bowl.”

Cody raised his voice, half in bravado. “We walk the path of ancient heroes before us.” He nodded solemnly. The figures stood motionless.

Cody had hoped to give one last hurrah to the group. Judging by their expressions, he surmised the attempt failed. Nothing inspired Cassandra, and nothing further was required to inspire Jason.

“Lead the way,” Cody said.

Jason surged forward. Eyes only on the forest ahead.

Cody fell back to Cassandra’s side, shuffling through the snow beside her.

“I want to apologize,” he said quietly. “About yesterday. About everything.”

Cassandra shook her head. “No. No. Don’t. I just wanted to be mad at someone.You were in the way. ” She glanced at him for a moment. Her hands that she wrapped around herself tightened.

Cody finished placing shells into his shotgun, trying to get the snow out of the feed.

“But it’s true. We both know what he’s like, and I should be more careful about the past.”
Cassandra looked down. The antennae beneath her hood drooped. Her headlamp made the snow dance along the floor. Before the beam stood still.

“I’m not the empathic veterinarian Jason is,” Cody added gently…
She swallowed. Her voice through the respirator breaking. “This is all my damn fault.”

“We already established it wasn’t,” Cody said. “I showed him that paper,”

“I get you are trying to help, Cody, but I'm not dumb. If it wasn’t you it would have been something else. You know it, I know it.”

“Maybe so, but..”

“But nothing, if he read about Alligators he’d be sailing the quicksilver seas now. You shared your research, now he’s heading to Lasqa.”

“You know about?”

“Saw the maps on his cabinet.” Cassandra’s expression was unreadable. Cody paused and moved a little between her and Jason who was off in the distance. Cassandra’s curved in silhouette mirror. Cassandra moved with her left leg first, allowing the right to drag. The cold had a tendency to bring out old aches. The light of her headlamp now dancing around Cody’s chest. She continued.

“I tried to put a good face on all of this, I want to help, I want to be there. So I’m going to make this the best damn expedition I can.I brought all I could from my job. And we are going to find that damn moose. Here. together. Or-”

Whatever she was going to say was lost in her breath, which evaporated out of the mask as the whispers of the winds grew harsher.

“Cassie we can’t do this alone. What about his vault, surely someone back there could…”

“The Vault!” Cassie made the t snap. “The vault can’t help him now,” She said bitterly.”He’s cut off.”

“It’s been years, and He said it was just a political disagreement.”

Cassie let out a short, humorless laugh, as she looked up, accidentally blinding Cody, who looked away. “Yeah, I’m Politics”

The pieces came together in Cody’s mind as Cassandra continued. “Do you remember, I think it was your last year. The Great Appalachia Trail?”

“Your championship victory? But what does that-”

“It was our big day Our Moment! That was mine damn it and they.” Cassie’s voice started to break…
The sarcasm in her voice grew more raw as she spoke, she stopped to slide a hand under her mask to dry off her wet cheeks.

“I didn't think anything of it at the time. I ran to Jason. I was so excited I jumped into his arms. Our college ran that as their cover: "Me holding my banner, Jason holding me. Turns out someone in his vault reads The Daily Cav.”

“Shit.”

“Shit’s right. Didn’t help when he doubled down and told his Director he wasn’t coming back.” She said softly. 

They hear Jason call and wave to them. Cassie took a step forward, dragging her right foot in the snow. Cody followed and the two trudged forward, Cody walking on top, Cassandra sinking. 

Cody exhaled… “He’s never allowed back in.”

“Worse. They count his scholarship as ‘stolen funds.’ I don’t need to tell you what sort of sentence that carries, historian.”

Cody said nothing. Only looked out to see Jason at work, marking trees, taking pictures, taking notes. The same actions as before, but now seeming more desperate than he thought initially.

“He’ll never say it, but what if he resents me?”

Cody snapped back to her. Her movement was quicker, and she began to rub her hands against her arms. Cody slipped an arm around her shoulders, and tried to get her to make eye contact, she refused.

“Stop that right now! You know this is who he is.” he said. “No half measures.”

She sniffed. “It was surgery, then my recovery, and now…moose. He keeps running, and I don’t know how to get him to stop. Or even just slow down a bit. You saw it back in Potlach. The Mothfolk all like him. Why does he keep chasing the past. There is a future, right here! a practice, a book, a new life somewhere, a family…"
Cassandra stopped with the realization of what she just admitted. She turned her headlamp off before looking at Jason again.

“Jason’s out here looking for some large animal he saw in trace documents. And I’m looking for a Jason, I’ve been chasing a Jason who will settle down with me.” After a moment she turned to Cody and spoke quietly, almost pleading to laugh. “I guess I’m hunting a cryptid too, huh.”

Cody shook his head. “With all due respect, there is at least some evidence for a moose.”

Cassandra’s laugh was dry and short, quickly eaten by the wind. The wall of trees had been exposed. With several large passageways inviting them into the darkness.

They arrived to the red coated explorer, the Portal to the forest marked. He pointed to a specific path between trees that he marked with his knife. Both Cassandra and Cody nodded.

“The only way out,” Cody muttered, “is through.”

Cassandra drew a deep breath through her respirator and adjusted her pack. She turned her headlamp back on, and removed her camera’s lenscap.

“Let’s go heroes.” She announced matching Cody’s fake bravado.

And they trudged into the snow.