His thoughts and curiosities were fully directed to what lay just beyond the door. Lee had an instinctive feeling in his gut that they would all be crossing through that doorway soon enough. It was better to expect the worst, if only because it was a much more honest and likely expectation.
If an invading army was moving through the woodlands, Lee did not see how it could fail to find Gunther’s dwelling. He knew that Gunther certainly did not intend to greet the invaders or parley with them.
“So what is going on here? Are we just going to sit around and wait to be killed?” Erin complained, fear thickly present in her edgy voice. “This is just a trap, and all of you know it. Isn’t it, Lee?”
Her gaze was now riveted upon Lee, as he stood before the mysterious doorway. Ryan and Lynn looked up as they awaited Lee’s reply.
Deep in a serious train of thought of his own, Lee reflexively flinched at the rather curt inquiry.
“What do you mean?” he asked, as he turned to look at her.
“You heard what he said. There’s an army outside in those woods, one large enough to cause him to pull in all of his precious beasts. I suppose he can make his buildings invisible too,” Erin said derisively. “And he wants us to go through that door, maybe by ourselves, and seek help from some kind of creatures that we don’t know the first thing about. I think it is incredibly stupid. What happens if these… Stone Hides… Unguhur… whatever they are… do not believe we are friends of Gunther? Then what, Lee? Think they are going to be enthused about a bunch of strangers, especially if they suspect something amiss?”
“Can you be so sure of anything, anywhere around here?” Lee posed to her, exasperated by her continually obstinate manner. The lines of his face tightened with the tension that coiled tightly within him. “We’ve seen no reason not to trust Gunther. He knows a lot more about this world than we do, and you know damn well that he and his Jaghuns saved our own hides… which definitely aren’t made of stone, Erin. We don’t have many options, and no good ones that I can see. I think we should listen to him, and risk a little trust in this case.”
His sharp response clearly caught Erin off guard. Her mouth started to open, and then tightened in a mien filled with petulance. Lee had no illusions that she was barely withholding a strident retort that was perched upon her lips.
“No, there are no guarantees” she said at last, with some manifest reservation. Her voice then became firmer, as her eyes narrowed with a hint of defiance. “But the odds are a lot better when an army is not breathing down your back.”
Lee nodded in full agreement. “I don’t argue that, Erin. I’m sure none of us do. But still, we have to adjust as things happen. We must react. I’ve said what I think, so let me ask you, what options do we have? Running around on the surface through the woods? Do you really think we would last very long?”
She glared at Lee, and remained fixed in silence.
“We wouldn’t do so well, and I think we all know that,” Lee pressed.
Erin turned her face away from Lee, but not before he saw a sullen expression weighing down heavily upon it. She then shot Lee a thorny glance. “No, so I guess that we are just screwed… and I’m just being realistic, you know. I think we all know that.”
Her last words dripped with mockery and scorn. She turned away on the wooden stool, her back now squarely facing him and the others. Lee watched her for a few seconds, both mystified and disgusted with her churlish attitude, before finally letting his eyes drift back to the others.
“Am I wrong?” Lee asked them a little plaintively.
Lynn shook her head, before answering him in a voice laden with the onerous weight of full resignation. “No. Just a lot of things going on right now. The shock of being here is wearing off, too, and I’m finding myself thinking a lot more about my friends and my family, and the life we were all taken from. It has been troubling enough for me without all of those concerns starting in on me. And now, those worries certainly are making their presence known.”
“No kidding,” Ryan added. “I was just wondering what Antoine might be thinking, about where I am, where I’ve gone. And I really wonder if I am ever going to see him again. Can’t let myself have much hope now. What would be the sense in that, given all this surrounding us? Don’t even really know anything anymore. So what’s the use?”
The teenager looked away, and Lee did not have to go any closer to know that the young male’s eyes were now moist and reddening.
A lump rose in Lee’s own throat, as he thought of his elderly mother, the beloved woman who he had always been near to attend to. He thought of the brothers and sisters he was now separated from, perhaps irrevocably. The small restaurant that represented his life work, refuge, and savings could not be forgotten either.
It was almost as if all of his former life had just been a dream, all ephemeral images of the mind, with nothing of it accessible anymore. Were it not for the three people currently in the room with him, he might well have begun to sincerely doubt the reality of his memories.
Nonetheless, he kept his stronger emotions tucked deeper inside of him. He could see that Ryan and Erin were not all that far from a breaking point. Both were grasping for answers, and even if it was little more than a facade Lee had to act as if he had some bearings.
Lee could not see past the stoic demeanor that Lynn had been presenting, to see how close or how far she was from sharing their disposition. Lee was not about to assume anything in regards to her. Yet no matter whether or not the strain of everything had her at a breaking point, Lynn was absolutely right about what was beginning to happen to all of them.
The anxiety and pace of the initial hours following their stunning appearance within the new world was finally dissipating. They were all starting to get acclimated to the new world, at least enough that their minds were starting to drift back more and more to the world that they had been so shockingly taken away from.
Looming before them was a strenuous test of character, one that exceeded anything that they could ever have known. Every member of their families had been removed from their world, and every friend, and every familiar surrounding. Everything that they had come to know since the day they had been born was entirely gone.
All that they had left of their own world was each other. This overbearing climate of great loss was coupled with the daunting task of picking up the pieces of their lives and somehow finding new things to hold on to. It was imperative that they find new goals to drive them ahead, a step at a time.
In a way, Lee recognized that the cruelest aspect of their shared predicament was their very memories, but he also knew that he would not have it any other way. They might not ever find their way back to their own world. Yet just as the memories of loved ones that had passed away stayed with him, so did those of all of the people from his former world.
With both groups, those living and those who had passed away, Lee refused to deny that he would someday, and somehow, find a way to reunite with all of them. It was a very considerable element of what gave meaning to anything good that he had ever experienced in life.
Lynn was the nearest one of the other three in proximity to Lee. He took a couple of steps over to her, and placed his hands gently upon her shoulders as he smiled down at her.
She looked up to him, and though she did not smile, he could see the beginnings of a filial affection reflected in her face. Even though it was nascent, the sight encourged him greatly.
He said softly, and reassuringly, to her, “There is one thing, Lynn… Ryan… Erin… We still have us.”
Quietly, he turned away from Lynn after lightly stroking her upper back. Walking over to Ryan, he put his right arm around the young man’s shoulders and gave the youth a firm hug. After holding the embrace for a second, he patted the young man firmly on the right shoulder, no words needing to be said.