It started off like any other day, with the usual customers. Those two sisters who can never remember whether they ordered scones or croissants were on fine form. Some old guy up from Oxford had apparently got lost in the woods. At least sharing that kept them happy while Michael tried to figure out what to serve them. The park ranger dropped by too. He gave me that look again. I can't tell if he wants to be friends or if it's something about that unnerving aura I project. Anyway, so far so normal. And then it got weird.
There were two of them. Student age, brother and sister, I think, and in a bad way. Adam brought them in, helping the guy to walk, and took him into the basket room to try some first aid. I put my head in to see if he needed help, and saw him scraping mud off the guy's leg - and then suddenly stop because there wasn't any skin underneath. I fetched the clingfilm.
Michael had spotted something else. The two of them had come down a path out of the forest, but not one of the usual paths. One that, in fact, did not exist and disappeared after they left it.
We called the ranger back. He took a look at the guy's leg, then ran out the back to throw up. Sometimes I forget I have slightly different standards of grossness than some people. Anyway, once he'd got himself together he started talking about search parties, so we volunteered. There was clearly what Adam insists on referring to as Weird Bollocks going on. Also they were going to need packed lunches. Just cheese in the sandwiches though. No roast beef.
Michael had got hold of some other thread though. Something about the missing man's interest in Tolkien. He wanted to go to the library to follow something up, and honestly, if one of us was going to miss out on a trip into potential horrible danger, it made sense for it to be him.
So Adam and me went out with one of the search groups, and it wasn't long before we started spotting paths that weren't on the map. Inviting looking paths trying to lure us away from the main track and into...well, an obvious trap. So I sent a message to Michael telling him where we were and where we were going, and the two of us walked into the obvious trap.
I say walked. That guy's mud covered leg made me a bit cautious of the ground, so as soon as we were out of sight of the normals I popped the wings and took to the trees. Flying up above the treeline there wasn't any path to be seen. I dropped back down into the canopy so Adam and me could keep eyes on each other. No surprise we didn't have GPS signal here. And then we found it. An old ruined building, with a ringing bell in the doorway. And the ground around it rapidly getting softer.
Adam jumped onto a large rock, just in time as we could see his relatively new hiking boots looking severely aged where the mud had touched them. It wasn't looking good for our missing man. We just had to hope Michael had found something useful at the library.
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