The Light in Aquala

They arrived at a clearing that was small and circular, surrounded by towering trees whose branches formed a natural canopy overhead.

The trees were old and broad, and their trunks rose straight up before opening into a wide tangle of limbs that left only small gaps for the sky. Moonlight filtered through the gaps, a soft, silver light that shifted whenever the leaves moved, casting a faint glow on the ground. T

he grasses here were short and springy underfoot, the kind that grows where water is close and the light is gentle, and they held the color of whoever stepped on them. Blue-green under Mara, warm orange under Lena and rich purples, golds and silvers under Rivia.

A river ran quickly along one side of the clearing, passing over smooth river stones. The water reflected the faint Neon glow that still lingered in the air. Thin ribbons of blue and silver moved along the current, broke apart when going around stones and then coming back together further downstream. The noise made by the water going by was soft and continuous, a low, almost musical sound that echoed into the jungle.

The other sounds of the jungle were somewhat muted here, muffled by the thick vegetation on the other two sides of their campsite. The sound of Aquala was a soothing constant in the distance and the air felt cooler and fresher here in the open compared to the trail behind them.

On the far side of the clearing, opposite the stream, a small cave opened into the base of a rock face. The entrance was narrow and low, just wide enough for a person to walk through if they ducked, and inside it was dark and dry and quiet, with a ceiling that arched just high enough to stand upright once you were past the entrance.

Nothing could approach from that side without coming through the clearing first, and nothing could come through the clearing without being seen.

Looking around, it was clear that this place could be held, watched, and rested in, and for the first time since they had started their climb down from the Aquala, they all started to relax considerably.

Rivia sat down heavily on the grass, and Jaxx curled up beside her with a contented sigh. He turned twice in a slow circle before he settled, and when he finally lay down, he stretched his long legs out in front of him and rested his chin on his paws with a sound that was almost like a groan of relief. Rivia let one hand rest on his back, and her fingers moved slowly through his coat in small steady strokes that seemed to comfort them both.

Lena and Mara settled across from them, their backpacks resting nearby. Mara set hers down carefully, as she always did, and Lena let hers drop with a soft thump and then stretched her arms above her head, trying to get the tiredness to leave her body.

The grass brightened where they sat and where their colors met, the blades shimmered with a new color for a moment before disappearing, just like the sisters had seen while on the trail earlier that day.

For a long moment, no one spoke while they passed around the canteens of water and shared the last of their food. The water was cool and tasted faintly of the metal of the canteen, and it washed the dryness out of their mouths.

They built a small fire and started boiling water for some tea. The flatbread was a little stale at the edges but soft in the middle, and there were dried fruits and nuts and a large number of wild berries that Lena had been picking and saving to eat with their supper.

Rivia ate slowly, as though she had forgotten what it was like to eat without hurrying, and every time she broke off a piece of bread, she handed a portion of it to Jaxx, who had woken up as soon as he smelt the food being passed around. He took each piece gently from her fingers and swallowed it almost without chewing, and after the third piece his tail began to wag against the grass in slow heavy sweeps that left a faint silver trail wherever it passed.

There was only the sound of them chewing, the river water passing them and the soft chirping of evening insects in the distance.

Fireflies that glowed in all different colors were now drifting into the clearing, circling around each of them before drifting off into the jungle.

The slight breeze was cool on their faces and carried the smell of wet stones and clean water, and somewhere far above them, a leaf let go of its branch and fell, turning slowly, and landed without a sound on the grasses nearby.