“We found this one sleeping beside the path,” Captain Decker explained.

“Oh, but he needs help,” Alexis hurried forward to meet the man. The man took one look at her and shrieked. He tried to back up, to get away from her, but the Captain and Roland each had an arm, and they were not going to let go. “Lay him down and hold him,” Alexis ordered, and the men complied.

She stepped up then and the man struggled, but he could not escape. Alexis laid her hands a few inches from the man’s chest. A warm glow of golden light covered her hands and then covered the man. The cuts began to close and heal, and the bruises lightened in color and became less pronounced. With that, the man relaxed, and as Alexis worked, the man’s hand bent up at the elbow. Roland noticed and almost slapped the man’s hand down again, but the man did not reach for Alexis. He reached for the amulet, cupped it gently in his hand, and for the only time, smiled, his eyes only on the stone, and he said one word, “Pretty”—the only word he ever spoke.

Mingus stepped up as Alexis finished. He had a bit of fairy weave and made a loincloth grow around the man’s private parts. Lockhart had another thought.

“We don’t have a strait jacket. Handcuffs would not help.”

“Lockhart?” Several sets of eyes turned to him and wondered why he thought such things. Obviously, the man had been mistreated and driven mad.

“My thoughts, exactly.” Captain Decker had no trouble understanding what Lockhart had in mind. He produced some rope from his own backpack, and since the man lay on his stomach so Alexis could heal his back, he took advantage of that and grabbed the man’s hands. He tied them securely and lifted the man to his feet. The man made noises at him. He growled and whimpered at having his hands tied, but no one set him free.

“Move out,” Lockhart said, and they found they had to drag the man with them at first to get him to move at all.

After a couple of hours on the path through the jungle, they found a clearing large enough to stop for a late lunch. Man, as they called him, got good after a while. He stumbled along with the pack and only turned his head at sounds. He paused now and then to sniff at the air. He drooled now and then, but never showed any sign of comprehension in his eyes. Estimates got revised. Man was entirely mad. Obviously, he could not have been born mad or he would have never survived his childhood. Something must have happened, and all anyone could think was it must have been horrendous.

By lunchtime, Man was taking some simple orders. Lockhart told him to sit, and Man sat. Lockhart felt inclined to treat Man more like a dog than a human. Alexis, Boston, and Lincoln all imagined him more like a three-year-old, albeit one that was not yet verbal. Captain Decker just seemed glad Man was willing to take orders.

After lunch, Alexis excused herself. Outside of the general comments about not wandering far, Lockhart imagined no immediate danger. Lincoln added, “Watch out for snakes,” but that had become his mantra, and no one paid much attention except to be a bit more careful.

Back in the trees, Alexis paused and fingered the amulet. She held it and studied it as deeply as she could with all of her senses. It looked and felt ordinary enough. No human would give it a second thought apart from the size and beauty of the precious stone. The stone looked like a blood red ruby. She felt sure it was, and a ruby the size of her fist. When she looked with her magical senses on full alert, she felt the power. It felt way beyond anything she could comprehend, much less duplicate. She did not feel surprised the gods themselves could be stymied by the thing.

“Alexis!” Lincoln called from the camp.

“I’m fine. I’ll be right back,” she shouted. She smiled to think he worried about her. He spent two years looking for her after she vanished. He really did love her. She decided that if he was having trouble adjusting to the two of them being young again, she could wait, however long it took.

Alexis took the amulet off and laid it out carefully beside her. She did not want to get it dirty. When she squatted, she got a surprise. Man came racing through the bushes. Somehow, he freed his hands. Alexis glimpsed the rope burns and would not have been surprised if he scraped off strips of skin to get free. He snatched up the amulet before Alexis could catch her breath and he disappeared into the jungle.

Alexis hurriedly pulled herself together as the others came running. “He went that way,” she shouted and pointed. “And he stole the amulet.”

“What?” Mingus turned on her. “Why didn’t you stop him?”

Alexis frowned. “I was not exactly in a position to stop anyone.”

Lockhart had no recriminations. He simply pointed to Roland and Captain Decker. The captain jumped through the brush in one direction, and Roland picked a slightly altered course. Then they had nothing to do but wait. Boston, Mingus, and Lockhart spread out in case Man doubled back. Alexis set a magical barrier at some distance down the path on either side so she would be alerted if anyone came their way. They waited, and about two hours later Captain Decker and Roland returned together with a negative report.

“There is a river some distance from here. He could have easily run the whole way and jumped in. After that, there would be no way to follow him.” Captain Decker shook his head.

“There is a way,” Roland disagreed, respectfully. “But I found no evidence of that.”

“Get your stuff,” Lockhart said. “Let’s find out where this trail takes us, hopefully before dark.”

~~~*~~~

It did not take long to get to the edge of the jungle. A broad field of sweet green grass spread out in front of them and continued for a good stretch before it came to some distant rock covered hills. The trail split there. It ran along the tree line in both directions—an odd sight. It looked like the jungle simply stopped and the trees stood like soldiers at attention. The line looked straight and made a sharp demarcation between tree land and the grassland.

“Way?” Lockhart asked, knowing they had followed the trail and not strictly the amulet. They might have been turned around.

“This way,” Boston pointed to their right. Roland stared to their left.

“Smoke, I think,” he said. “Probably cooking fires. Maybe a village.”

Mingus squinted but saw nothing, so he took a great whiff of air instead. He shook his head. “Wind is not from that direction.”

“We follow the green arrow,” Lockhart decided. No one argued. They walked quietly, and about an hour before sunset, they found the sheep. They smelled them first before they saw them. As they came up close, a woman stood from the shadow of the trees.

“Hello.” The woman stepped into the light. She looked young, about Boston’s current age of around twenty-three. She had a three or four-year-old that clung shyly to the back of her dress and she looked pregnant besides. “Are you hungry and thirsty? Please, you must come stay the night with us.” The petite young woman glanced at the sun. “It is not safe right now to be out in the dark. Please.”

“Yes, thank you very much,” Alexis spoke out loud, because Lockhart merely took his own glance at the sun before he nodded.

“Oh, wonderful.” The woman looked pleased. “Come Gana.” She pulled the boy from behind. “Say hello.” The boy merely stared at the strangers. “My husband will be very happy to have visitors. He only has me to listen to most of the time, and he says that is all he needs, but I know he will be happy to have a change in conversation. He knows so much, but he has no one to talk to. Sometimes it keeps him awake at night and sometimes it gives him a headache. Do you know what I mean, headache?”

“That can’t be good.” Katie Harper stepped up to take the point with Boston.

“Oh,” The woman said with the biggest smile seen in a long time. “I know how to cure a headache.” She patted her stomach. Alexis and Katie smiled.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Boston said, but she found her eyes wander over to look at Roland. The elf looked at the sheep.

“Children!” The woman called and several sheep bleated and began to follow as she walked. “My name is Dayni,” she said. Several people stopped, so the rest stopped. Lincoln said it.

“So, of course. Your husband is Vanu.”

Roland had another thought. “You’re the one those two fools on the trail were afraid of?”

Dayni did not seem to hear. She shouted at her stray. “You, too, Lumpy. You better come if you don’t want to be supper.” The sheep let out a loud Baa of protest, but it came from the edge of the trees and rejoined the herd on the path.