Flyte

Nicko and Septimus pulled their boat up onto a shingle beach in a small inlet on the edge of the Forest. Nicko knew it well; this was where he always moored his boat when he came to visit his brothers. They had sailed about five miles down river from the Castle on the outgoing tide. Jannit had insisted on Nicko taking a small luggera good riverboat which had a cabin in case they had to spend the night in it, but Nicko had hopes of getting straight into the Forest and finding the boys' camp before the sun set. He had no intention of walking through the Forest at night, for it was a dangerous place after dark. Wild packs of wolverines roamed through the trees and many unquiet spirits and malevolent beings hovered in the air. Some trees were carnivorous and would turn into traps at night: they would swoop their branches down and enfold their victims, taking the life blood from them, so that by morning there would be nothing left but a dried-out skeleton hanging among the leaves.



It was late afternoon when they arrived at the beach, and Nicko knew they had five hours of daylight left which was, he reckoned, easily long enough to reach the boys' camp safely.



Septimus had not been in the Forest since he was a Young Army Expendable. He had spent many terrifying nights there as part of the Do-or-Die night exercises that the boy soldiers had to endure. They would be woken in the middle of the night and taken off to somewhere dangerousvery often it was the Forest.



There were two nights in the Forest that Septimus would never forget. One was the time that his very best friend, Boy 409, had rescued him. A pack of wolverines had trapped nim and were about to pounce. Boy 409 had rushed to his side, yelling so loudly that the lead wolverine had, for a brief moment, become confused, and in that moment Boy 409 had hauled Septimus to safety. The other terrible night had been when Septimus wouldn't have cared very much if a pack of wolverines had pounced on him. That was when Boy 409 had fallen overboard on their way down the river to the Forest. The river was rough and flowing fast and a freak wave had hit the Young Army boat. The boat was overloaded and Boy 409 had lost his footing and fallen overboard. He was never seen again. Septimus had begged the Leader Cadet to go back for Boy 409 but he had refused. Boy 409 was just another Expendable, and the whole point of a Do-or-Die exercise had been to weed out "the weak, the scared and the stupid," as the Leader Cadet had put it. But usually the Do-or-Dies, as they were known, simply weeded out the unlucky.



When Nicko was satisfied that the boat was properly tied up to allow for the rise and fall of the tides, and everything onboard was neatly stowed away, he pulled a tattered piece of paper from his pocket. "Here's the map," he said, showing it to Septimus. "Sam drew it."



Septimus looked at the wiggling lines that wandered across the scrap of paper like slug trails over a pane of glass. "Oh," he said. He didn't think much of the map, but Nicko seemed conifident.



"Yes all right," said Nicko reassuringly. "I know the way. Follow me."



Septimus had no trouble following Nicko as they started their journey into the Forest. The outskirts of the Forest were fairly easy to walk through; the trees were widely spaced, and dappled sunlight shone through the branches high above their heads. Nicko confidently took a narrow track and walked briskly along, weaving in and out of the trees along the winding, snakelike track.



As Nicko led them steadily deeper into the Forest, the trees became larger and grew closer together, the sunlight faded into dark green shadows and a heavy silence began to enclose them. Septimus kept close behind Nicko as the track grew narrower and more overgrown. Neither of them spoke; Nicko was trying to remember the way, and Septimus was occupied with his own thoughts. He was wondering what he was doing, walking deep into the Forest when he had set off to go to the Farmlands. Jenna must be miles away by now, on the other side of the riverand here he was going in the opposite direction, just because Nicko had persuaded him to. After a while Septimus broke the silence and said, "Are you sure they'll want to help?"



"Of course they will," replied Nicko. "They're our brothers, aren't they? Brothers stick together. Except for Simon, of course."



Septimus was anxious about meeting his brothers. He had been reunited with most of his family for a year and a half, but in all that time Sam, Edd, Erik and Jo-Jo had been living wild in the Forest. Silas had promised to take Septimus to visit them but somehow it had never happened. Marcia was either too busy to let him go or Silas got the date confused and turned up on the wrong day.



"What are they like?" Septimus asked Nicko.



"Well, Sam is an amazing fisherman. Can catch anything he wants. I did wonder if we might see him on the beach, as it's one of his fishing places. Edd and Erik are just a laugh. Always playing jokes on everyone and switching places. They still look so alike that I can't always tell the difference. And Jo-Jo is quiet but really clever. He likes herbs an' stuffa bit like Mum, I suppose."



"Oh," said Septimus, trying to picture them but without much success. He still could not get used to being part of such a large family, after spending the first ten years of his life with no family at all.



"But," said Nicko, "like I said, the one we've really come to see is the tracker, Wolf Boy."



"The one they found in the Forest?"



"Yeah. He lives with them now. They think he'd been living with the wolverines for a while, but the wolverines probably chucked him out when he got too big and stopped smelling like a cub. He was wild when the boys first came across him. He bit Sam on the leg and scratched Erik quite badly. His fingernails were horribleall yellow and long and they were curved like claws. But he got tamer in the last Big Freeze when Edd and Erik gave him food and now he's not too bad. Still a bit smelly though, but then they all are. You get used to it after a bit. But Wolf Boy is the best tracker ever. He'll lead us straight to Jenna, that's for sure."



"Does he have big teeth and fur?" asked Septimus warily.



"Yeah, huge yellow fangs and hairy hands."



"Really?"



Nicko turned around and gave Septimus a big grin. "Gotcha!"



After a while they reached a small clearing in the Forest, and Nicko suggested they stop for a few minutes to look at the map. Septimus took off his backpack and immediately felt so light that he thought he might float up through the trees. "Want a mint?" he asked, offering the purple tube of Mint Blasts to Nicko.



Nicko looked at the tube suspiciously. "What do they do?" he asked warily. Nicko knew all about Septimus's weird taste in sweets and had never quite gotten over eating a self-renewing banana chew that had kept Reappearing in his mouth no matter how many times he had spat it out.



"Nothing," said Septimus. "They're just mints."



"All right then."



"Hold out your hand." Septimus put a few tiny green balls into Nicko's hand. Nicko tipped his head back and shoved the Mint Blasts into his mouth as if he were taking a gulp of medicine.



"Not" warned Septimus.



"Mm-rrrr-aab!"



"all at once."



"Aargh. They went up my nose." Nicko spluttered. Three small Mint Blasts shot out of his nose.



"Oh, they sometimes do that. The trick is to just hold them in your mouth and let them explode. They really wake you up, don't they?"



"I think my eyes are going to pop out."



"Well I like them." Septimus took a few for himself and put the tube in his backpack. "Want some Wiz Bix then?" he asked.



"You must be joking," said Nicko, his eyes streaming.



Nicko wiped his eyes, unfolded Sam's map and peered at it. Then he looked around the clearing. "Can you see a standing stone anywhere?" he asked Septimus. "There should be one over there." Nicko pointed vaguely to a cluster of trees. "It looks a bit like a bird."



"No," said Septimus, who had had his doubts about Sam's map since he'd seen it. "Nicko, are we lost?"



"No, 'course not," said Nicko.



"Well, where are we then?"



"Not quite sure," mumbled Nicko. "Better go on until we find somewhere I recognize."



As Septimus followed Nicko deeper into the Forest he felt more and more uneasy. The trees were getting even closer together; some of them had huge trunks and felt very ancient. Septimus sensed the atmosphere around them changethe trees became strange. Each one seemed different to him; some were benevolent presences and others were not. Once or twice Septimus thought he felt a tree shift slightly as they passed by, and he imagined it turning and staring at them as they walked on. The sunlight had completely disappeared and had been replaced by a dim green light, which filtered through the tightly knit branches above their heads. It was easier to walk now that the undergrowth had grown less tangled and wild in the dimmer light, and for much of the time they were walking over a thick bed of fallen leaves. Every now and then Septimus heard a scuffling or rustling sound as a small creature ran away. Septimus didn't mind those sounds; he knew they were just tree rats or Forest weasels, but once or twice he heard the snapping of branches as something quite large crashed away from themor was it toward them?



Septimus began to feel very uneasy. They had been in the Forest for what seemed like hours, and he was sure that the daylightsuch as it waswas fading into twilight. As he followed Nicko he could see no sign of a track, and he began to wonder if they were lost. But still Nicko doggedly pushed on through the ferns and bracken and Septimus dutifully followed him, until they reached a small clearing.



Septimus stoppednow he knew they were lost. "Nicko," he said, "we've been here before. An hour ago. Look, I recognize that hollow tree with the puffballs all around it."



Nicko stopped and looked at Sam's map. "We can't be lost," he said. "Look, here we are." Septimus looked where Nicko's stubby finger was pointing.



"On that squashed ant, you mean?"



"What squashed ant?" Nicko squinted at the map, which was hard to see now in the fading light. After a few seconds of staring at the scruffy piece of paper, Nicko said, "Oh, that squashed ant."



"We're lost, aren't we?" said Septimus.



"Oh, no, I don't think so. Look, I agree that may be an ant but we're still on that track here. And if we follow it along ... there ... see, we come to the camp. Honestly, Sep, we're almost there."



They set off again with Septimus reluctantly following. After a while he said, "We've been here before too, Nik. We're just going around in circles."



Nicko stopped and wearily leaned against a tree. "I know, Sep. I'm sorry. We're lost."