Feathered Heroes + Pinky Pacts

Feathered Heroes + Pinky Pacts is the Finale of How I Met My Echo On Big Wolf Cliff

Liz cries mournfully, swaying with the other trapped souls in the weeds. Her long curly hair and fingertips have feathered and they drift around her, slipping against her fellow weeds, entwining with their soft appendages. She’ll become like them soon. She can feel her body changing. Her eyes close because there’s nothing worth seeing. Her life is complete misery. She’s always been alone, and now she’s with others like her. She’s exactly where she should be. She’ll soon join their beautiful, melancholic melody permanently.

Pain clips her ear.

She stumbles over her tongue but finds it again, rejoining the chorus of singers.

Again, pain rips her from her song.

What is that?

Her mind stirs with the interruption. Who is she? She’s a weed. Weeds don’t feel pain.

Her brain fogs over, and she returns to swaying. She opens her mouth to sing again, but before she releases one note, she’s jolted by a loud chirp. She shakes her head.

She has a head. Weeds don’t have heads.

Her eyes bat open and one miserably unhappy blue bird shoves its little sharp beak into her cheek.

“Ouch! Stop that!”

The weeds moan louder, and their feathered appendages wrap around Liz. Her new family needs her like no one has needed her before.

Her eyes become heavy as she drifts back into the song.

Another sharp pinch yanks her from her dark slumber. She swivels around. The tiny yellow bird is on her shoulder, shaking its head.

She has a shoulder. Weeds don’t have shoulders.

“Ow!” Liz cries as the blue bird yanks on one tight curl, and the tiny one chirps angrily.

Why is the bird so mad?

She shakes free of the birds like a wet dog, and her sunken feet rise out of the sand, freed from the roots that bound them.

The yellow bird swoops in and out of her face, chirping loudly. She bats it away with a hand no longer feathered weeds. The blue bird hits her from behind. She feels the spot, and it’s wet with blood.

“Oh, you miserable bird,” Liz cries, chasing it to the shore.

She stumbles as her feet hit the dry sand, and all her sadness melts into the water. She’s free from the spell of the weeds. She isn’t useless and alone. She has a family who loves her and two nasty birds caring for her. She rises from the sand and brushes her hands clean on her wet shorts. Her fingers and toes still look a little green. She twirls one long curl, and the texture is different, lighter, and softer.

The birds chirp sharply from a thin white pine branch with shaky orange needles. On tippy-toes, she reaches up to look them square in the eye.

“Thank you for saving me from those evil sirens.”

They chirp joyfully.

Liz looks over the water. From the shore, the weeds don’t look menacing. They’re only weeds, bending and bobbing with the small waves. Would she have been stuck forever if the birds hadn’t saved her? She’d felt such bitter sadness, but also importance because she was part of a community. She’s never fit into any community before.

She looks back at the birds, cuddled up on the branch. Perhaps one day her community will come. She would never want to be a part of a sad community like the family of weeds.

Now what does she do?

She searches the woods towering above the beach. Her heart is heavy, but a new purpose has risen. Her mom thought Jenny was evil, but maybe she has it wrong. Jenny has never had a community. How can she learn to be kind and loving while living alone for eons? She has no mother or family—no friends. Liz's family taught her these things. Jenny can’t live without a family anymore, and if her family is not good for her, Liz will become her family. The birds can help her find Jenny. When Liz finds Jenny, she will tell her she is not alone. She’ll always be a part of her community.

“Birds, please take me far away from this sad lake,” Liz begs. “Can you lead me to Jenny? I must find her.”

The birds lift off, swirling and diving in the gentle wind, guiding Liz up a small rocky trail along the side of the cliff.

She’s led through the thick forest over rocks and slippery moss paths, once nearly losing a shoe in a hole with a tiny underground stream trickling into the dark lake. She steps out of the trees onto a strip of rock and stops in a ray of warm sunshine. A dirt road snakes around the back of the stone. She pauses to warm up, damp still from her time in the water. She hasn’t been able to dry along the long, shady trek through the thick brambles and the caressing tree branches. A shiver hops up her spine as her skin warms.

Her feathered guides sit on the arm of a thin paper birch and wait, pruning each other as if they understand what Liz needs. She stretches up as high as she can and waves her arms like a tree in the wind. Her back cracks. It feels good to have bones and joints again.

A string of notes bounces down the road. Liz drops her arms and freezes. It’s no bird she knows. She perks her ears but hears nothing but the breeze in the quivering aspen leaves.

The birds’ necks crane in the same direction.

“Is that Jenny?”

The yellow bird tweets.

“Jenny? Are you there?” Liz calls up the road.

“Jenny? Are you there?” returns an echo.

That must be her. No one can echo up a path; you need a cliff and calm water.

She runs up the bumpy road as the birds chirp madly. The road twists to the left, and the tree canopy changes. It is dark and cool again. She jumps over a rock in her path and lands squarely in a mud puddle. She sinks to her ankles. She tries to lift her right foot, but it’s stuck. She can move the other slightly. She shakes it to loosen the mud's grip.

“Do not move, Lizzy,” barks a sharp whisper.

Her eyes dart to a shadow beside the road. It’s Jenny. She’s sitting with her knees up to her chin. She leaps up and hops along the rocks beside the road.

“I’m so happy I found you,” Liz cries out.

Jenny steps out of the shadow and puts her index finger to her mouth. Liz freezes again. Is there something behind her, a hungry predator? Her heart skips a beat, then drums forth madly like a moth on a light bulb.

Jenny points to the mud puddle and whispers, “Mud sharks.”

Liz snorts out a giggle. Her dad spent her childhood pointing at puddles like this on Big Wolf and warning her to stay out for fear of the infamous mud sharks. Jenny does not laugh. Her eyes flick with panic. She shakes her head, and Liz stills. She scans the puddle for some silly little dorsal fin circling her shoes. But, if it’s true, it won't be silly—she likes her toes.

A bubble belches up next to her ankle.

Jenny tiptoes across the rock beside her, with eyes glued to the puddle.

“Do not move, Lizzy. You have woken one, but their only sense is movement. They are blind and deaf.”

Liz breathes as shallowly as she can, only filling and releasing the very top of her lungs.

Another bubble, much larger than the last, bubbles up, and a stirring churns the mud beside her left foot.

Her head begins to tingle. She must be holding her breath. She can’t faint here. If she does, it’ll be the end of her. Her breath begins to pulse sharply as pure panic rises with more mud bubbles.

“Relax, Lizzy. Breathe slowly,” Jenny whispers along her cheek as she wraps her arms around her convulsing body. Saying “relax” never helps anyone who’s hyperventilating. Jenny tightens her embrace, and her heartbeat is strong against Liz’s back, much stronger than a heart should be. Liz’s erratic breathing stops as her focus flicks to this strange phenomenon.

The churning continues, and a body slides under her foot. This time she remains still, hypnotized by Jenny’s beating heart.

“You need to step out of the pond quickly,” Jenny whispers in her ear.

Without moving, Liz whispers, “My right foot is stuck.”

“I can help with that. Stay still for one more moment. I will count to three, and then you need to hop out onto this rock as fast as you can—no pausing.”

Liz nods with her gaze locked on the bubbling puddle.

Jenny squats and parts the water with her fingertips. She closes her eyes, and a blue light plumes out. Liz can feel the mud thinning around her foot, but the ground below continues to move from the shark’s body, weaving back and forth just below the mud. She’s done for. Bubbles burst around her left foot, and the entire bed she stands on quakes.

“1.”

Liz holds her breath, preparing to launch.

“2.”

Jenny’s eyes rise. “3!”

Liz leaps back as a huge, dark creature dives out of the water like a pike on a line. Its skin is dark brown and lumpy with mustard-yellow, needle-like teeth. It snaps at the air but finds nothing, one milky blue eye flashing by before it drops back under the surface. The puddle heaves with the shark’s immense weight, and mud covers Liz’s shins. Tiny bubbles pop all over the surface, and then it calms.

Liz steps off the rock onto the scrub behind.

“How can that huge creature live in that small puddle?” she whispers through a shaky breath.

“There are caves under the ground. These puddles are little doorways to their world.”

“But, how? I was standing on the ground?”

“There is a thin membrane that separates their world from ours. They can feed on anything that happens to stick in the puddle, but this atmosphere weakens them. They cannot remain here for long.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just do.”

Liz quivers. “I felt like a bug caught in a spider web.”

Jenny nods and takes her hand, pulling her away from the road and up a sloping shield of rock.

“Why have a road if it has mud sharks?”

“It is not a road but a valley.”

Liz looks back. It could be any dirt road around her lake.

The rock opens to the sun, and Liz drops to the warm surface, suddenly feeling drained. Jenny sits beside her and wraps her arm around Liz.

“Why did you lead me to the puddles?” asks Liz.

“Lead you?”

“I heard your bird call.”

“I did not know you were on this side, Lizzy. I told you never to come here alone.”

Liz drops her chin to her knees.

“Why were you by the mud puddle?”

“I sit there sometimes. I like to throw stones into the puddles and watch them quiver with life.”

“You’re not afraid of falling in?”

“A little, but I am a little afraid of everything here.”

“Why don’t you come back with me? You’d be safe on my side.”

Jenny rests her head on Liz’s shoulder. “I cannot leave this world for more than a few moments. I am like the mud sharks. I would die in your atmosphere.”

“How long can you stay on my side?”

“I do not know exactly. I begin to feel weak and know it is time to return.”

“Maybe it would pass if you stayed? Your body could need time to recalibrate in our atmosphere.”

Jenny shakes her head. “No, I would die.”

“But you don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. My dad drove my mom through a doorway once. She was so frightened of him. When she did not return, I slipped out to search for her. She was not far from the doorway. She chose to die rather than return to him. That is when I ran away, traveling very far from my family. I have never seen anyone from my world since.”

“How did you travel so far with all the terrible things in this world? I was almost killed twice today.”

“Twice?”

“I fell off Big Wolf.”

“Big Wolf?”

“The cliff.”

Jenny’s eyes widen. “You fell into the water?”

“Yes.”

“No way?!” she says, shaking her head. “I think you would do fine here, then. You must have some faery luck. There are many terrible things in that lake.”

“Yes. I almost turned into a weed.”

Jenny gasps.

“The birds woke me before I completely changed.”

Liz points to her two feathered heroes dancing in the leaves of a mountain ash, picking at the bright red berries.

Jenny smiles. “This flock has cared for me throughout my life. They are never far.”

Her smile fades, and her eyes drop to her lap. She takes Liz’s hand and releases a long sigh.

“I need to apologize, Lizzy.”

“For what?”

“I have had very few friends, so I tend to hold onto them far too hard, sometimes nearly choking them with my embrace.”

Mom’s story comes to mind when Jenny trapped her in the cave.

“I can have decades where no one finds me, so I am unsure how to be a friend when one finally does. I want to hold onto them and never let them go. I know you are thinking about Lilah—I mean, your mom. I was terrible to her and will never forgive myself for my selfishness. She could have died. I was surprised when her daughter entered my world, knowing what I had done.”

“I didn’t know at first.”

“U-huh. That makes sense.” Her eyes drop.

“I would have come anyway.”

“You would have?” Jenny asks. Her sad eyes fix on Liz’s face.

“Sure. I’m here now, and I know what happened to her.”

“Why did you come back?”

“I guess the combo of curiousity, and the disbelief that you are a bad person.”

“Really?”

“I think you need a friend who’ll always come back.”

“You will come back after all that happened today.”

“Yes, but only if you promise you’ll never try to trap me here.”

“I swear!” Jenny jumps to answer.

“A swear isn’t strong enough. You need to pinky-swear.”

“Pinky-swear? What is that?” she asks, fanning her fingers out.

“It’s unbreakable,” Liz explains. “If you do not keep the promise, you will surely die.”

Jenny’s eyes widen.

Liz raises her pinky finger. “Do you swear?”

Jenny nods.

“You need to say the words while we shake pinky fingers.”

Jenny wraps her pinky finger around Liz’s. “What do I say?”

“Repeat my words exactly.”

Jenny nods with her gaze locked on their two small joined fingers.

“I, Jenny, pinky-swear that I’ll never trap Liz or lead her anywhere that could cause her harm. I will protect Liz with my life and always let her return to her world when she must leave.”

Jenny echoes her words, and they shake pinkies. When they release, Liz pulls Jenny into a bear hug. “Okay, the pact is made.”

“But what about your pact?”

“My pact?”

“You promised you would always return, but never pinky-swore on it.”

“True. Sorry,” Liz says, taking Jenny’s pinky in hers. “I pinky-swear that I, Liz, will never abandon you, Jenny, and will return whenever I can. We will be friends forever and ever, amen.”

Jenny smiles. They sit, holding hands until Liz feels hot and dry.

“You probably need to go, hey?”

“Yeah. It’s been a big day here.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe tomorrow we can throw rocks at the sharks.”

“What? Are you crazy? You almost died here.”

“Sure, but I didn’t. I’d love to taunt them a little bit.”

“You have an evil root inside you, Lizzy,” Jenny says with a wicked smile.

Liz returns Jenny’s smile and laughs. “I guess I do.”

She pulls Jenny up and they take off through the trees to trek back to Jenny’s cabin at the top of Big Wolf Cliff.

THE END