Part 4 — The Copper Cloth

As we walked, the forest came alive again. Turns out, it really had emptied out. Once the Gert traps had gone up, everything near them had vacated—partially to avoid capture but mostly just to alert any rebels in the area. 

By the way, when I say everything, I mean every kind of thing. Animals, people, sentient plants—all of them took a hike towards the nearest rebel camp. Lucky for us, I guess. By the time we’d gotten caught, the rebels had already been on their way to deal with any Gert soldiers they found. 

On the other hand, we weren’t exactly free. And once Brigdale’s denizens found out the coast was clear, they returned in full force. Suddenly, the night felt a lot less peaceful, and I was way too tired for that. But it also felt less strange. And I definitely needed less strange. 

We were walking in a large group down the path, Fi, Greg, Luther, and me, with the rebels surrounding us on all sides. Their leader stuck to the front, chatting with a couple of buddies who stayed close to him up there. 

The rebels—I’ll just stop here and backtrack. The people wearing blingy masks who’d decided to “escort” us to Crestmeer? They turned out to be rebels. I should’ve started with that. I’d suspected it when they showed up in rebel territory, but eventually, I’d had to ask Fi if we’d been taken by some kind of merry thieves brigade or something. She laughed at that. Like a lot. And then she told me, but she also seemed a little weird about the question, so I kind of let it go.

So, the rebels—they were friendly enough. They mostly ignored us and carried on with their own conversations, but so far, they’d been kind. A woman in a blue sequined mask even leapt over and caught me when I tripped on a branch near the start. Afterwards, she asked me how my hands were feeling and if my ropes were too tight. I’m not sure what she’d have done if I’d said they were. Like, isn’t that the point? But I appreciated the question. 

And speaking of questions, I had several. Like, why were we tied up next to Greg and Luther when I was pretty sure Fi had said she was part of the rebellion? Also, how long was this walk going to take? We’d been going strong for several hours. But mostly, I needed to know when we might get something to eat because I was so, so hungry.

I cleared my throat next to Fi, and she looked over. “You got any food on you?” I whispered. 

Before she could speak, an apple dropped from the sky and onto the ground a few feet in front of us. “Thanks!” Fi called up, and I heard the fluttering of wings above us as she scrambled towards the apple. But then Luther spotted it as well, and they both managed to get almost on top of the thing before they realized they couldn’t pick it up with their hands stuck behind their backs. 

A rebel with a pink bejeweled mask chuckled as he passed them, but another actually stopped and picked it up. “This yours?” he asked, and Fi and Luther both nodded. The rebel snorted. “You sharing it?”

“You get your own owl apple!” Fi snapped as she hip checked Luther. He stumbled, and the rebel thought that was hilarious, so I think it gave them both some bonus points. He reached into his bag. 

“Hold on, now, hold on. I have some, too.” He came out with another apple and held both out. Fi and Luther stared at him, and then he laughed again. “Ooooh. Yeah.” He grabbed a knife and turned to the front. “Okay if I untie them?” he called. 

The entire party came to a halt, and a bit of a clearing opened up between the rebel and his leader. The leader turned. “Why?” 

The rebel gestured to Fi, Luther, and the apples. “You want me to feed them?” 

The leader sighed, then eyed the four of us. And by the four of us, I mean everyone wearing ropes at the time. “You gonna try to run?” We shook our heads. “Or fight?” We continued to shake. He nodded to the rebel with the apples. “Go ahead. Whatever they need.” 

So, that was the first thing I ate in Turningtree. A big, red apple. Honestly, if I’d thought about it for like a second, I might’ve thought, “Wow, is that bad symbolism? Maybe I should hold out for something else,” but I was running on some pretty low blood sugar, and my mind didn’t even get close to going there. And it turned out, it didn’t matter, so I guess hooray for me.

I was munching on the apple, feeling pretty relieved, when Greg started edging closer to me. He had his own apple, and someone had handed him some sort of roll, so he was chewing as he spoke. “So . . . Ian, is it?” 

I nodded.

“We got off to a bad start, Ian. I want to make amends.” He took a bite of his roll. “Man, that’s good.” 

I smiled, and he smiled back, sweeping a bit of hair from his eyes with his apple hand. I was pretty sure I didn’t like him, but maybe he could change my mind.

At that point, Fi spotted our fraternizing, and she definitely didn’t like it. She’d been walking ahead staring up at the sky, maybe trying to will an owl down for a message? But when she saw Greg, she backtracked towards us.

Greg smiled again, this time more cautious. “I was just telling your friend here—”

“Don’t care. You offered me up to get shot,” Fi snipped, and Greg raised his hands. 

“So I did,” he admitted. “A moment of weakness. But I also thought you were with ‘em, so—”

“So, what? We’re friends now?” Fi hissed, lowering her voice. “Not being with them doesn’t make us with you.” She pulled on my arm, moving us away. “Come on.”  

But Greg stuck with us. He jerked his head towards a group of rebels walking nearby and leaned in closer. “Look. I’ve been watching these guys for awhile now. They’re relaxed. Distracted.” He nodded his head towards another crew walking ahead of us. “They don’t even know where Luther is right now.”

And at that, I realized I also didn’t know where Luther was. I looked around, trying to spot him, and I finally noticed him crouched behind a bush a few yards ahead of us, glancing furtively at Greg.  

Fi sighed. “That’s because they know we can’t escape. And they see him. Everyone sees him.” 

“I see him,” a raccoon agreed as he passed by us, walking upright on his hind legs. 

I stifled a laugh. Ahead of us, a rebel nudged her friend, and they both glanced towards the bush. Greg glowered and gestured for Luther to join us. 

Luther stood up, looking sulky, but before he could even take a step in our direction, the moss below him began to slide him toward us. He nearly jumped out of his skin.

“See,” Fi whispered, “The rebellion isn’t just this group. It’s the entire forest.” And at that, Greg began to look kind of pale. 

He was already pasty, with dark, curly hair that made him look paler. I suspected he hadn’t spent much time outdoors, so this Brigdale post must’ve been new. 

“Well, what do we do, then?” Greg asked, his confidence fading. Luther slid up, still looking totally shocked.

“We wait and see,” Fi said, and then she stomped ahead, her gaze resting towards the front of the pack. I tried to follow her, but I got snagged on Luther, who was still getting himself together. 

And then we spilled over each other, Luther falling and grabbing at me, me starting to trip, and Greg half trying to help, half trying to keep us from taking him down with us. As he stumbled, Greg bumped one of the rebels walking near us, and that rebel dropped her pack, which spilled open before us.

Inside, on top of all of her other stuff, there was a small, copper-colored handkerchief. It gleamed even in the dark, and I could see some embroidery that I couldn’t quite read before she scooped up her bag and closed it. 

“Sorry about that,” I offered, and the rebel smiled as she continued onward.

I picked myself up as well, offering Luther a hand, and I was starting to try to catch up with Fi again when I noticed the look on Greg’s face. He was stock still, staring ahead at the rebel and her bag. Then, he began to walk again next to Luther and me, but I could tell something had changed. He was excited. Like, really excited.

“You see that?” he whispered, and I didn’t know what to say, and Greg didn’t really care because it wasn’t really a question.

“You think it’s—” Luther started, but Greg cut in.

“No mistakin’ it. The cloth is the cloth.”

And Luther just stood there, mouth kind of hanging open.

Greg grinned. “I think we’ve found our way out, boys,” he said as he picked up speed, tailing the rebel with the bag. 

“Wait, what? How?” I asked, and Luther turned to me, eyebrows raised.

“That was the Copper Cloth,” Luther whispered, as if I should know it. He watched as I attempted to react. “The Copper Cloth,” he repeated, staring harder at me. “The . . . It’s magical? You use it to go from place to place real fast?” 

And I must’ve looked ridiculous because then he laughed. “You don’t get out much, huh, forest boy?” 

I nodded. And then I realized he’d called me “boy,“ and I filed that away in the Luther file in my head.

“Crestmeer up ahead!” a rebel called, glancing our way.

And as he said it, I noticed there was a bit more structure to the path. Where there had been just dirt, there were now bits of stonework, and the trees all around us were beginning to thin. If I squinted, I even thought I could see smoke and an orangish light coming from somewhere in front of us. The sky was looking more navy than black. We really had been walking all night.

The rebel turned and walked ahead, and Luther wrapped an arm around me. “Well, Ian, let ol’ Luther be your guide to the real world,” and I almost groaned, but then I saw Fi heading back our way. She was still agitated, but now she was also looking pretty spent.

As she neared, Luther grinned.

“We found our ticket outta here, sister,” he announced, as if he’d done something useful. Fi raised an eyebrow. She looked like she might kick him at any moment. 

“Guess what it is?” he crowed. 

“No.” 

He looked a bit hurt at that, but then Greg returned, and suddenly, the four of us were together, and it almost felt comfortable. Like when you’ve been assigned to a random group project in school, and you know it’s a weird mix, but you’re gonna have to make it work anyway.

“Alright, friends. We’ve been offered a sacred opportunity. A chance to free ourselves and bring glory to the kingdom. Both. At. The. Same. Time,” Greg whispered.

“What in the world are you talking about,” Fi sighed.

“We’re gonna get promoted, Luther,” Greg declared. “This time for sure.”

“Okay, really—” Fi started, but Luther held up a hand dramatically.

“‘We’re gonna take back the Copper Cloth.”

Fi’s face dropped.

“Told ya it was good,” he snickered, and then Fi actually did kick him.

“Ah!” he rasped, and she high-tailed it back to the front of the pack. 

“That’s good, friend. Less suspicious,” Greg yell-whispered as I ran after Fi and Luther limped behind us. 

And that’s when it occurred to me that I might actually be in a heist story. Like a really quirky one. And I wasn’t really loving my odds, but I had to admit, it did sound kind of fun. 

I genuinely thought that all the way up to the moment when we tried it. And then I realized just how wrong I was.