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They continued to follow the path of suspended bridges for another hour as the forest grew darker by the minute. Daniel was glad to no longer be able to make out the ground below, or the occasional breaching worm, but seeing the planks ahead was becoming a chore.
Ian paused at another large tree and pulled a small handheld lantern from his pack, then, from a pocket on the side, he retrieved a small, red crystal identical to the fire crystals back on the Myst. He slipped that into the lantern and turned a knob, producing a flame bright enough to light their way.
"It's not far now, just a few more trees." He started forward again, a little more slowly this time so Daniel could benefit from the light. "You'll like Sara and her husband, Tom. They're probably the only other people that I know of besides Murphy who believe in Otherworld."
"And you still don't?" Daniel was treated to a glance, then Ian mumbled something he couldn't make out. They rounded another massive tree, and suddenly the forest was alive with lights.
Ahead, on the path they were taking, were lanterns hanging from ropes just above the walkway leading the traveler to a wider landing on the next tree, where more suspension bridges branched off in all directions, leading to other trees. There were lights on each branch of the walkway, and the orange glow of occupation flickering through windows cut into the thick trunks of at least twenty trees.
Ian pointed to their right. "Tom's place is this way."
Daniel nodded, but couldn't take his eyes from the sight. The sun had long since set behind the forest, so the image from below was that of infinite darkness, even though he knew the forest floor was several hundred feet down. All he could see were lights strewn among the trees, warming the darkness and illumination branches as thick as trains. He heard voices now, laughter and conversations echoing through the woods. Someone crossed a path several trees over, carrying a lantern. A young girl, maybe ten or twelve. She looked up, then waved at the strangers before entering the huge tree.
Absently, Daniel waved back.
"Hey, this way," Ian repeated. "Unless you want to just camp out here on the path all night?"
"It's beautiful." Like a painting, he thought. It was as if someone had taken one of his boy scout camping trips, and elevated it seven hundred feet in the air, exchanging their tents and fire pits for carved out trees and suspended walkways.
"Yeah, it's nice. Come on."
Daniel's eyes were still adjusting to the light when he realized they were walking up to a door, carved out of the tree itself. Ian knocked on the heavy wood with a fist.
"Inside the trees," Daniel said, staring up at the massive growth in awe. From inside, he hard footsteps, obviously descending from about ten feet above.
The door swung open with no resistance, and a woman Daniel judged to be in her late forties, early fifties smiled at them.
"Ian, welcome!" She stepped aside, smiling at Ian then Daniel while waving them through the door. "It's been months. And who's this with you?"
"Sara, this is Daniel," Ian replied as he pulled the red crystal from his small lantern and slipped off his pack. "Daniel, this is Sara."
He offered a hand which she took embraced with both of hers in a warm welcome. "Nice to meet you."
"Do come in, it's getting chilly outside tonight." Sara closed the door and motioned for the two of them to follow her back up the stairs. "Tom will be happy to see you, Ian, though he's not feeling very well right now."
Daniel reached out to touch the walls as he followed the pair up a winding staircase carved out of the tree they were inside. It was a reddish wood, polished so smooth it reflected the lights from all the lanterns hanging from hooks and sitting on shelves.
"Is he ill?"
"Hunting accident," Sara replied. "He can't move his shoulder, but our healer is out making trades all week."
"I'm a doctor," Daniel offered.
Sara stopped in her tracks. "You're a--"
"He's a healer, Sara," Ian quickly explained.
"Yes, that," Daniel nodded. "I'd be happy to have a look at your husband."
Sara's eyelids lowered. "You didn't say healer, you said doctor." She looked sharply at Ian. "He's from Otherworld?"
"Yes, I am," Daniel replied. "You told me she knew about Otherworld?"
Ian huffed. "He says he is, yeah." He held an arm out toward the doorway to their left.
Sara took Daniel's arm and led him through a large room filled with furniture and the various accoutrements of living, then before he could even take it in, they ducked through a hanging curtain into a large bedroom.
It was at least twenty square feet, with a large bed occupying the center space and several comfortable looking chairs strewn around the perimeter. The bed was heavily blanketed, and nestled on top of a very tall mattress lay a man propped up against several thick pillows, holding his right arm close to his side.
"Sara, who's this?"
"Tom, my husband, this is Daniel. Ian brought him. He's a doctor, from Otherworld," Sara explained quickly. "He's here to look at your shoulder."
"A doctor?" Tom struggled to sit up a little further.
Daniel slipped his back pack off and hurried to the man's bed. "Okay, just take it easy and tell me what happened. Where does it hurt?"
"The shoulder jerked pretty bad when a worm took my hook. Guess I didn't let go in time."
Daniel performed a quick exam of the badly bruised shoulder. "Well, you'd dislocated it partially, but it seems to have snapped back into place on it's own. It's what we would call a subluxation, where the joint only comes out of place slightly," he explained. "The good news is, it's back in place. The bad news is, it's gonna be sore for a few weeks." He turned to Sara who'd been watching from the other side of the large bed. "Do you have bandaging or wraps? I need to isolate the arm and hold it in place, to prevent the joint from slipping out until this swelling goes down." He turned back to Tom. "Putting it in a specific position with support will help ease the pain, but you're going to have to take it easy for a while."
"Yes, I'll get them," she replied with a sigh of relief.
"Also if we could get some ice on this shoulder, that would help with the swelling." He looked at Ian, eyebrow raised. "Anything like that around?"
"As a matter of fact." Ian disappeared for a moment, then returned with an odd bundle and two blue crystals. He showed where to insert the crystals into two open sections of the padded wrapping and handed it to Daniel. "I had the same thing happen to me once, with the shoulder. Not from a hunt, though."
Daniel took the bundle and immediately felt the cold radiating outward from the ice crystals inside. It was thick and soft, and easily molded into shapes. When Sara returned with wads of cloth wrapping, he enlisted her help in securing Tom's arm and shoulder, then shaped the ice pack around the swollen flesh.
"Keep this on for ten minutes, then off for half an hour, then repeat that as often as you can."
"Do I have to stay in bed?" Tom asked. "It's feeling much better already."
"That's up to you," Daniel replied. "I'm sorry I don't have anything to give you for the pain. My being here in Ether is a little unplanned."
"You'll stay the night then, and let me fix dinner while you tell us all about your world." Sara helped her husband to his feet and ushered Daniel and Ian back out to the main room.
"We were hoping you'd offer," Ian replied, unabashed.
"Is there only one healer for this whole forest?"
"Sometimes not even that," Tom replied as he took a seat near the fireplace. "Our healer travels a lot, since there are so many tribes here in the woods."
Daniel intended to ask more questions, but the room he'd only briefly passed through an hour ago suddenly caught his full attention.
There was a fireplace along one wall, filled with fire crystals in place of real flame. That was flanked by several chairs, a couch, a long, intricately carved coffee table and a large bookcase. On the other side stood a very large dining table and ten chairs, with a chandelier dramatically standing guard from above. To the side of that was a kitchen, with a long bar and chairs, a sink, stove and cook surfaces much like those onboard the Myst, but everything he saw -- every single item in this magnificently hollowed out tree -- had been carved in place.
It was as if a sculpture was handed a massive mountain of granite, and carved out not just a hollow living space, but each chair, each table, every single item that wasn't a cushion book or blanket. Even the chandelier was a solid, continuous piece of the tree he was standing in. All polished to a high, deep, ruddy gloss.
"My God," he breathed, taking it all in.
"Yeah, this is his first time in Ether," Ian explained. "In fact, he claims he had no idea this world existed."
From the kitchen, Sara laughed lightly. "You're joking, Ian. How did he get here if he didn't know?"
"I, uh, found a key," Daniel offered with a cough of embarrassment. "My uncle died recently and left his estate to me, and I found this key he had, and tried it in the cellar door, and, well, ended up here."
"He stepped right into traffic and I nearly ran him over," Ian continued. "Then Murphy got involved, and it all went to hell."
"Don't mind Ian," Sara called from the kitchen. "He's all bluff."
Tom chuckled, nodding. "He wishes he was half as cynical as he pretends to be."
"I didn't come here to be insulted," Ian huffed.
"Then get in here and help me with dinner." Sara waved a utensil in his direction. "Let the men sit and chat."
With as much bluster as he could manage, Ian shuffled out to the kitchen while Daniel took a seat next to the fire.
"Foster likes to imagine Otherworld doesn't exist, as do most folk here, but Sara and I believe otherwise," Tom said happily. "We've met our fair share of travelers, and traded for some lovely things." He pointed to the large coffee table in front of the couch where Daniel noticed for the first time a large picture book, Sharks of the Pacific. "That's my favorite. The man who brought that told us you have oceans, huge wide expanses of deep water teeming with life."
Daniel stared at the book as if it might poof out of existence should he look away. "Yes, several oceans," he replied absently. "Lakes, too, nearly everywhere you go." With effort, he looked at Tom again. "Have you shown this book to the skeptics, like Ian?"
"Oh sure, everyone who stops by," he replied with a dismissive flip of his free hand. "They're no more convinced than if I'd drawn the images myself."
"It's no use wasting your breath on unbelievers," Sara added from the kitchen. She elbowed Ian. "Even this one. Either you believe, or you don't. No manner of convincing will change their minds."
"So tell me, Daniel." Tom shifted in his chair. "What brings you to Ether, if you didn't realize we were here?"
"Well, like I said, I found this key." Daniel cleared his throat and tried hard not to think about how he'd feel if someone was sitting in his living room telling this story. "My uncle had it on his key set with the house, and I'd never really noticed it before."
"But obviously he was a traveler?"
He nodded. "Apparently so. When I was a kid, visiting his farm for the summers, he'd talk about these amazing trips to exotic lands, but I assumed they were stories. Never once did he take me along with him, or say anything about some magical key." He shrugged. "I suppose it's possible he never intended me to have it."
"Did he die suddenly?"
"No. Well yes, in a way. He apparently knew he was ill, but by the time I found out it was too late to see him again."
Sara paused between setting the table and returning to the kitchen. "How long ago was this?"
"Not long at all, actually. That is, by the time I managed to get back, I was too late. Afterwards, I was in a hotel in town trying to figure out what to do, then there was a meeting with the lawyer, that's when I found out Uncle Frank had left everything to me." He sighed and gave a half-shrug. "I couldn't have been in the house more than a few hours when I saw that key, and just out of curiosity tried it out on the kitchen cellar door."
Sara wiped her hands on a towel and started back to the kitchen. "So, in all likelihood, there's a lengthy note somewhere in that house your uncle expected you to find, and read, explaining everything you'd need to know about Ether."
He blinked. "I--"
"You didn't think of that, did you?" She asked, lifting a large steaming platter from the cook surface. "Was he a man of words, or letters, your uncle?"
Daniel's face flushed.
"See, my father, he was a man of letters," Sara explained as she continued to fill the table. "He could go weeks without really speaking to anyone about anything other than the weather or what he wanted for supper, but every now and again he'd pass around what you'd imagine was a book. Page after page after page of long speeches, lovely words of his thoughts and feelings." She laughed lightly. "It could take you days to read the whole thing, then you were expected to pass it along until everyone in the family had caught up on dear old dad's thoughts."
"While my own father was just the opposite," Tom added. "Man could talk you to death, but never wanted to write his tales down. He preferred word of mouth to pass along traditions."
"So I'd wager, if your uncle was anything like my sainted father, there's a letter somewhere in that house he fully expected you'd find before sticking that key into some door somewhere and winding up getting hit by a car in the middle of the city."
"I didn't hit him," Ian protested. "Just grazed him a little."
"I suppose . . . Well let's just say I hope you're right," Daniel replied. "Uncle Frank was a man of letters, that's for sure." He flashed back through his tracks in the house that night, searching his memory for an envelope or letter waiting in some obvious spot for him to open up. "But I didn't--" There was one room, probably the most obvious choice. "His room."
"What's that?" Tom asked.
Daniel inhaled, nodding. "Sure, his room. I didn't go into Uncle Frank's room. I put my things in the room down the hall that I'd used as a kid. Just couldn’t quite manage to take over his room, not that soon."
"There, feel better?" Ian asked as he carried glasses to the now-filled table.
Sara laughed. "So you're believing us now, are you, Ian?"
"I believe dinner is ready," he replied. "And I believe I'm starving. And I believe you're an amazing cook. What more do you want?"
Daniel helped Tom to the dining room table, then took the seat Sara offered him. It was clear right away the carved furniture held one drawback -- you couldn't move any of it. Though the chairs were situated a very comfortable space from the table, and the chandelier hanging down from above was the perfect height.
"So you must put in a lot of thought to these floor plans before someone starts carving, I imagine." He pointed to the lights above. "The workmanship in your home is amazing."
"Thank you," Sara smiled back. "It's been in Tom's family for generations. Our children live in segments below, and Tom's parents are in the space above us."
"Yep, each tree holds a family," Tom added. "Every family tribe creates a path from one border to the next, and we all share resources with each path. In fact, there's another hunt planned for tomorrow." Tom looked at Ian, who started to grin widely. "If Ian wouldn't mind showing you the ropes, I'd be honored if you would take my place on the hunt."
"Hunt?" Daniel wasn't at all sure he liked the silly smile Ian couldn't seem to wipe from his face. "This isn't like that fog and keeping me from so much as sneezing for two hours, is it?"
"Fog?" Sara looked puzzled. "There's no fog in the forest, unless you mean the morning mist?"
"That fog is not a joke," Ian pointed a fork across the table. "No, Sara, not the mist. The black fog."
"Oh, that," she waved a hand dismissively. "Tom and I have never seen that."
"This is a simple worm hunt," Tom continued. "You and thirty other hunters, no danger involved, if that's what you're wondering. This was my hunt to take lead, and obviously I won't be able to manage it."
"He'd love to," Ian replied. He looked at Daniel. "I'll show you the ropes, and be right beside you. It's amazing, really. And an honor to be taking Tom's place." He nodded, apparently convinced Daniel was inwardly jumping at the chance to kill one of the giant beasts lurking beneath the dirt.
He could think of a million ways to back out of this so-called honor, but not a single one was terribly polite, or even very manly, considering his training.
"You said your father taught you how to hunt?" Ian asked. "This isn't so much hunting as trapping, really."
"Oh, to be sure," Tom agreed. "It's a simple matter of locating a worm, luring it to the surface, and shooting it in a manner that allows maximum meat harvesting." He raised a glass and smiled. "To Daniel, and the hunt."
He joined the toast with the best smile he could muster, then tasted the wine while the little voice in the back of his mind pondered just how much honor could be attached to something that was apparently a piece of cake.
Thankfully, the meal took his mind off the impending hunt. No chicken of the trees in this amazing tree house, just rich, red meats, fresh fruits, greens cooked with some of the best spices he'd ever tasted, and more of the fruity red wine. Daniel fielded questions about Otherworld for the rest of the evening, explaining his Air Force background while neatly avoiding much by way of the war itself.
Tom then begged the conversation turn to the plentiful oceans and sea life he'd read about in the large National Geographic display book while Ian dutifully assisted Sara with the dishes. Daniel admitted that the seas were greatly unexplored, but Sara had been engaging Ian in a deep debate over the merits of marinating the beef overnight, so he didn't seem to notice.
"It's just that, when we traveled over that fog, I couldn't believe no one here on Ether knew what was down there," Daniel explained in a hushed tone. "Then I think I might have intimated that Otherworld has no unexplored areas."
Tom smiled and gave a wink. "Your secret's safe with me, son. As for that black fog, I was curious when my father told me of it, but that's as far as it went. We don't leave the forest often, so no one in my family has even seen it. It's like the castle, I suppose. We know it's there, we know it holds wonders we've never experienced before, but it's likely we'll never set eyes on it ourselves." He shrugged. "So to let it keep you up at night is pointless, isn't it?"
Sara came back out to the living area, still wiping her hands on a towel. "Speaking of pointless, arguing with me about going to bed early is, too." She stared at her husband with the stern look of an experienced wife. "I'll shoo you all off to bed now, as a matter of fact, since the hunt starts early and you'll be needing a good breakfast beforehand." She looked at Daniel then, her expression softening. "You and Ian will spend the night tomorrow as well, if you don't mind a day's delay in your journey. I'll not have you working up a sweat on the hunt then walking to the far border the same day."
"Yes, ma'am," Daniel replied.
He'd missed the significance of what she'd said until after being shown to his room.
"Working up a sweat?" He asked Ian as they passed in the hallway between guest rooms.
Ian laughed, then gave Daniel a good-natured slap on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I said I'd show you the ropes, didn't I?"
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