Light Along the Path: A Narrative

This is a short story I wrote. I hope you like it.


Daniel was in a hurry to get through the woods. It was pitch black - no moon rose to illuminate the sky tonight. Sweat dripped of his skin and soaked into his clothing. the air all around him was thick and close, like the air in old closet or an attic. Fog rolled all around him, making phantom shapes in the darkness.

Daniel liked the dark. It was warm and close and vague. He didn't pay attention to his immediate surrounding, but headed in the direction he knew was East. Every so often, he ran into a bush or tripped over a root, but this did not concern him greatly. He often caught himself in bushes, and bugs dove on him in swarms, biting at every bit of exposed flesh. This, Daniel felt, was all part of the experience.

Daniel walked briskly through the forest, hands out in front of him, feeling blindly for upcoming trees or thorn bushes. As he walked, the grass under his feet became more and more slippery. Soon Daniel could feel the soft ear squishing under his feet. He knew there was a large bog to the North, but he would have to be miles and miles of track to be close to the bog.

"It must have rain pretty hard here," Daniel said to himself.

the ground became increasingly moist as Daniel plowed on. Suddenly, as Daniel took a step forward, his foot sunk about a foot deep into a puddle. Daniel shivered as freezing water rushed into his boot. Undeterred, Daniel stepped over the puddle and attempted to move on. Unfortunately, Daniel's boat stuck in the mud at the bottom of the puddle, and he fell face down in the mud. Daniel got up, gave an enormous tug on his left leg.

With a loud sucking sound, his leg came free, and he hurried on. At this point, Daniel was not sure that he was on any particular path, but he reasoned that if he simply continued East he would eventually emerge of the other side of the forest. From there, he could get his bearings.

Daniel had just decided he must be almost through the forest when a patch of leaves under his foot gave way. Within seconds, he slid waist deep in a pool of quicksand. For the first time, Daniel stopped and looked around, unsure of what to do.

For a little while he tried to get himself free, but he soon stopped when he realized this made him sink even faster. The quicksand had now risen to his rib cage.

Daniel started to worry. I'm miles off the path. I must have been going North instead of East. I must be in the bog. I can't get out of this by myself. But who will help me? It's the middle of the night, and no one travels this far North, even in the day time. Well, it couldn't hurt to try...

Daniel was about to cry out for help, but then another voice in his head said, Hold on, think about this. If you cry out now, and someone comes, you're going to look like an idiot when they find you.

Daniel hesitated. He did look awfully foolish standing helpless in a pool of liquid earth. However, he continued to sink, and when the quicksand reached his armpits, he grew desperate.

"Help," Daniel cried, "Help! I've fallen in a pool of quicksand!" There was no answer.

"Help! Please, I can't out. I walked into a pool of quicksand. Please, help me, or I'm going to die."

If it had not been pitch black, he could not have seen it, but as it was, Daniel thought he saw a faint light through the trees. Suddenly, he felt hopeful. He continued to yell, and the light came closer. Soon, Daniel could hear branches snapping under foot. A minute later, and the bushes in the distance began to shake.

Suddenly, there was a resounding crack, and a thorn bush directly in front of Daniel bent over double. There was another crack, and Daniel saw that behind the bush, there was a man with a walking stick beating the bush out of his way. Daniel gasped with relief. He looked towards the other man, but the man was shining his light at him, and he Daniel was blinded.

Carefully feeling the ground with his walking stick, the man moved forward. On the edge of the quicksand, he held the stick out towards Daniel. Daniel held on tight, and the man began to pull him out.

The was small and skinny, but he demonstrated incredible strength. After only a few moments, the man had pulled Daniel out of the pool.

"Thank you," Daniel gasped.

"Don't thank me, I didn't hear you calling. I was walking through the woods with my teacher, and he heard your voice. He sent me to rescue you."

"Well, thank him then."

"Are you trying to get to the East?"

"Yes."

"So was I. I was caught in one of these pools just a few weeks ago, and my teacher sent someone to save me. Now I come out here with him every night to find people who are lost."

"How do you navigate this wilderness."

"I'll show you. First of, you're really being a moron because you're trying to get through the forest without a lamp." The strange man lit a lamp, and handed it to Daniel. "Secondly, you don't have a stick to check the ground or fight the thorn bushes." As he said this, Daniel looked at his body in the light. With shock, he realized his clothes, brand new and high quality have been shredded by the thorns. Threads trailed all around him, and in many places the thorns had cut into his skin and drawn blood. Daniel began to suspect that many pricks he had assumed were bug bites were actually thorns.

Looking at his exposed flesh, Daniel realized that there were dozen of ticks burrowing into his skin. "That's the other problem. You need some protective clothing. We'll have to wait until morning and go to my teacher's house. You can get some there. As far as a walking stick, just pick of a good sized branch. It will get hardened and worn down as to use it."

Daniel nodded.

"You can head off east again, it's that way, but if you don't know this area you're liable to get stuck again. I can't promise I'll be around to help next time. Or if you want, you can come with me. I'm going to save a girl to the west. She's fallen in a pit and broken her leg. If you want to follow along, I can teach you a little bit about getting around. After we pick her up, we can go to my teacher's house and rest."

Daniel thought for a moment. "Okay."

The man smiled. "Great. I could sure use the help carrying her in this thicket."

The man helped Daniel to his feet, and together they started off through the woods. Daniel shown his light long next to the strange man's and stuck close to his side. Several time, the man held him back from plunging into a pit or another pool of quicksand. Daniel began to feel increasingly happy to be traveling with someone else in the light, even though he was no longer making good time to the East.

But then again, Daniel thought, I never really was going East after all.