Home By the Sun

Found

There was something sharp digging into the back of his neck. A rock? His awareness was brought to a tickle against his palm. He flexed his fingers and felt...grass? Upon the realization that he wasn\'t in his bed, Archie\'s eyes shot open. He saw only blue sky with the faintest hint of a cloud.

\"That\'s weird... I thought it was raining...\" His internal thoughts halted abruptly and were replaced with the empty void of panic as he recalled his most recent memories.

He sat up as quickly as his abdominal muscles would let him. His instincts took over and he frantically looked around. The first thing he noticed was a body lying next to him. The familiar red hoodie, jeans, and long dyed red french braids brought a momentary sense of relief. It was Frankie. The panic returned however when he realized she wasn\'t conscious. She was turned on her side facing away from him, head resting on her arm as if she had passed out from a night of drinking.

\"Frankie?\" His voice was hoarse and the word didn\'t come out as loudly as he intended, so he tried again. \"Frankie?!\" He called louder this time, reaching over and shaking her arm. They weren\'t drinking right?

Archie recalled leaving the house that morning in a rush and not having time to pack a flask.

\"Frankie!\" Archie called again, the panic evident in his voice. He shook her more violently this time. He managed to role her onto her back, relief flooding through his veins when her brow furrowed and she sharply inhaled.

\"Huh..?\" Her eyes were still closed and her voice was small.

We got in an accident. Archie\'s thoughts were catching up with reality. He looked around again and noted that he couldn\'t see the car. They must have been ejected from it, but he felt fine? Wouldn\'t he be in agony? They flipped right over that guard rail and effectively bounced down the side of the canyon. They must have. Maybe it\'s shock. Maybe they got extremely lucky and shock was preventing him from feeling anything. He glanced down at his hands, and noted there wasn\'t a single scratch or bruise all the way up his arm. All of his appendages seemed to be in place and there wasn\'t a trace of blood on either of them.

Frankie sat up with a similar urgency to Archie with a look of panic on her face. She glanced around, and met Archie\'s eyes. He wanted to pull her into a hug, grateful she was alive, but he couldn\'t will his body to move.

\"Are you hurt?\" She asked in a heavy, sober voice.

Archie shook his head. \"What about you?\"

\"I don\'t think so...\" She trailed off looking down at her body and flexing her fingers. She glanced up as if she was trying to process what had happened. \"Where\'s the car?\" She asked, her voice still not exhibiting any emotion.

\"I...I don\'t know. I\'m so confused,\" Archie admitted.

\"Wasn\'t it raining?\" The tall grass around them was bone dry. Even if the sky had cleared, there would still be evidence of the storm. They couldn\'t have possibly been thrown that far.

Archie glanced around again, this time taking in his surroundings. They were in the center of a grassy field that was lined with what looked like dense forest. The flora resembled their home, but the only mountains he could note looked like they were miles away. They clearly weren\'t at the bottom of the canyon.

\"I\'m not crazy, we got in a car accident right? There was a deer...\" Frankie trailed off.

Archie was at a loss for words. He slowly brought himself to his feet, offering a hand to Frankie and pulling her up as well.

Frankie sighed, and any hint of uncertainty vanished from her face. Archie recognized this as the woman shifting into her own personal brand of survival mode. He\'d always found it a little intimidating. The usually bubbly and upbeat demeanor becomes sharp and calculated while still maintaining a veil of composure. She always thinks quickly, narrowing her focus and calculating her next steps while somehow also commanding the space. Not a lot of people outside her family had the opportunity to witness her like this, but as much as he was ashamed to admit it, he often depended on this side of her when his life was a mess.

Archie noticed she was glancing down at her phone when she grabbed him by the arm, and began pulling him in the direction of the distant hills. \"Lets look for the car,\" she commanded, her voice stern and confident. Counter intuitively, this is how Archie recognized she was terrified. \"My phone is broken. I\'m not sure we\'d have service anyway.\"

Archie felt for his phone in his pocket, pulled it out, and noted that he, in fact, did not have service. He held it up in the air, attempted to catch a signal, but nearly toppled forward when Frankie pulled him alongside her.

\"Why are we going this way?\" He asked.

\"I don\'t know,\" she mumbled. \"Just a feeling.\"

--

Archie kept racking his brain for possible explanations as they made their way to the edge of the field.

They were knocked unconscious and someone pulled them from the flaming car and left them in the middle of the field?

No, that doesn\'t make sense. Why wouldn\'t they call an ambulance? Or the police?

Maybe the car landed in the middle of a marijuana plantation and a good Samaritan cartel member nursed them to health while they were unconscious then left them in the middle of a field where they could be rescued?

Except there would be some kind of evidence of bodily harm... unless they were absurdly lucky.

\"Look! There!\" Archie was jolted back to reality by his friend\'s excited voice. She was pointing towards the trees, and it took Archie a second to see what she was seeing. \"It looks like some kind of hiking trail. We can\'t be too far from civilization.\"

The knee high yellow grass did indeed thin out as it met the dense cluster of pine trees. A break in the trees revealed a well worn walking path. It was narrow but looked intentional. Archie felt a glimmer of hope for the first time since he regained consciousness.

The path twisted around clusters of trees and bushes, making it difficult to assess where it was leading or how long it wound through the dense forest. They walked for what felt like hours, but was likely less than one. Eventually the pine and oak surrounded by coyote bush became a tall cold forest. This trend continued until they were surrounded by dense fern and tall ancient trees.

\"Frankie...\" Archie wasn\'t sure what to say. He realized he just wanted some kind of reassurance that everything would be okay, but that was a bit much to ask of anyone in their current circumstances. He decided to ask a question instead. \"Does this area seem familiar to you? It seems familiar to me but I can\'t really put my finger on it.\"

\"No.\" Her voice had a slight edge to it. She paused, then continued speaking. \"Sorry, I\'m just scared and confused. I\'m really worried about my moms car.\" She explained.

\"I understand,\" Archie responded, feeling a bit sorry for asking. \"Do you have any theories? As to what happened?\"

\"I wish I did. It might make this whole thing a lot less daunting,\" Frankie responded.

Archie nodded, deciding to keep his Cartel theories to himself. They continued on in silence as neither one of them knew what else to say.

In an attempt to keep a level head, Archie turned his attention to the tall trees that lined the path they were on. These coastal giants felt like home. The air surrounding them was damp but crisp and refreshing. The breeze that wafted around him carried faint smells of life and decay. The fallen logs were covered with bright green moss that sat in stark saturated contrast to the umber hues of fallen pine needles and damp wood.

He was so focused inward that he didn\'t notice Frankie stop dead in her tracks and call out to him in fear. Before he could form another thought, he was on his back, the wind knocked out of him by some heavy force.

He couldn\'t move.

Something was pinning him to the ground.

Oh...

It was a person.

Fear shot up his spine. Before he could scream, a hand clasped over his mouth. He couldn\'t see Frankie. Did they get her too? He wished he could tell her to run.

His panicked eyes focused on the being currently pinning him to the ground. It was a man. The first thing he noticed was his large dark brown eyes that were painted black, and his thick down turned eyelashes. His gaze was hard and determined. His brow was furrowed, and his hair fell just over his right eyebrow.

It was then that Archie noticed something cold and smooth resting at the base of his neck. A knife probably.

He wondered if they had in fact wandered onto someone\'s marijuana plantation. He honestly thought those stories he heard growing up were just small town paranoia.

The man began speaking, but it was in a language Archie didn\'t recognize. His voice was deep and commanding.

He removed his hand from Archie\'s mouth, but not the knife from his neck. It seemed like the man had asked Archie a question.

\"Please don\'t hurt us! We\'re just lost...\" It was Frankie who spoke first. Archie hadn\'t been able to summon his voice.

The man removed his knife from Archie\'s neck, pointed it at Frankie, and spoke what sounded like some kind of command. His gesture and body language suggested he was telling her to be silent, and not move.

He turned his attention back to Archie, and asked him the question again.

Archie was terrified that the man would kill him if he didn\'t answer, but he didn\'t have the faintest idea what the man was saying.

\"Please, I don\'t know what you\'re saying!\" Archie sputtered. He could feel the tears welling up around his eyes. All the emotions he should have been feeling since he woke threatened to leak out of his tear ducts.

The man\'s expression changed. His brow\'s knit closer together before glancing back at Frankie then at Archie again. He sighed and mumbled something under his breath before abruptly standing up and pulling Archie up by his collar.

Archie glanced to Frankie, trying desperately to ask her telepathically if they should run, but she was frozen in place, wide eyes staring at the man before them.

Archie glanced back in front of him and realized that judging by the mans physique, if they did run, it wouldn\'t take much for him to hunt them down.

The man in front of him was digging through his pocket and it was then that Archie noticed how strangely this man was dressed. Again, it seemed familiar, but he couldn\'t place where he had seen anything like it before. He wasn\'t wearing a shirt, which wouldn\'t have been too weird considering people hike shirtless all the time, but around his neck was a thick necklace made up of several strands of white cylindrical beads that hung down just past his collarbone.

There were three white lines painted around each of his biceps in addition to the dark paint around his eyes, which looked less like a fashion statement and more like a practical application - like war paint, or kohl used by people living in the desert to protect their eyes from the sun\'s glare.

His trousers looked like they were woven out of some kind of thick tan material, with a pattern of dark brown lines and triangles woven into the bottom near his feet, which were covered in a simple leather shoe. The pattern woven into the pant legs looks extremely familiar, but Archie still couldn\'t place it.

Around his waist were two bags, one was simple and made of leather, and the other was made out of some kind of netting with corners twisted into a sharp point.

The stranger\'s voice startled Archie back into the present moment. He was holding something out in front of him, urging Archie to take it.

This whole interaction just kept getting stranger.

Archie looked at Frankie again, who was now frantically trying to communicate something to him with her eyes.

Archie looked at the object being held out in front of him. It was made of what looked like... abalone shell? It was carved into a spiral roughly half the size of his palm. In the middle was some kind of glowing glass mechanism.

Before Archie could act, the stranger sighed impatiently, and grabbed Archie by the top of the head which caused him to yelp and instinctively try and push him off. The stranger strengthened his grip on Archie\'s head and turned it to the side, affixing the device to Archie\'s ear as if it was some kind of Bluetooth headphone.

He then let go of Archie and took a step back. Archie glanced up at him, face red with both adrenaline and embarrassment because of the inglorious sound that came out of him.

\"Why have you come here?\"

Archie glanced around in surprise, looking for the voice asking the question. His eyes landed on the stranger again, who\'s expression was growing more impatient as time ticked on.

\"How...\" Archie began, but was immediately interrupted.

\"Answer the question,\" the stranger had a look in his eye that suggested Archie wasn\'t going to get another opportunity to answer.

\"We\'re lost.\" Archie forced the words out of his mouth. \"We came here by mistake looking for the road...\"

He glanced at Frankie w hose expression had somehow grown even more panicked. Or maybe it was... shock?

\"I suggest you tell me the truth,\" the stranger pointed his dagger at Archie\'s neck again. \"K\'ilh-gish are forbidden here. Only an idiot would wonder onto enemy land by mistake.\"

The word \"K\'ilh-gish\" was spoken with a strong accent that Archie didn\'t recognize. The word itself was foreign to him.

Panic took over. Archie was close to throwing himself on the ground and begging for his life. He didn\'t know what was going on, but he desperately wanted no part of it.

\"I--I\'m sorry! I\'m telling the truth, please just let us leave.\" Archie\'s hands were in the air, showing he was unarmed.

The stranger\'s eyes narrowed. \"Where are you from? Your clothes are strange, and you don\'t speak like a K\'ilh-gish.\"

\"Oakdale... just north of--\"

\"Never heard of it. Is that Yana territory?\"

Archie blinked, not understanding the question. He glanced over at Frankie again who was looking at him incredulously. Whatever was happening had Archie feeling like he was in a dream, and would likely wake up in a hospital bed at any moment.

\"I... I don\'t...\"

\"You really are an idiot aren\'t you?\" The stranger said, before signing impatiently. \"What territory do you come from? Think carefully about what you say next.\"

Territory? The only time Archie could recall hearing that word was in his history class when they were learning about the westward expansion of white settlers and... oh.

Territory... like \"Indian\" territory?

The realization hit Archie like a ton of bricks. The pattern woven into his clothes... He knew where he had seen it before. It was a pattern he\'d seen woven into baskets during school field trips at the local museum. He realized the shell necklace looked exactly like one of the artifacts housed at the museum as well. He remembers how painful it was trying to learn about his heritage when he was younger, and how he still reckons with the guilt of avoiding it as an adult. The basket patterns and clam shell necklace of the California tribes was unmistakable now.

A vivid image of his mothers face flashed in his mind before he uttered the word, \"W-Wailaki.\"

The stranger\'s gaze shifted into something that looked like surprise. Then he stood up straight, and slid his dagger back into its sheath. He glanced at Frankie whose eyes were welling up with tears, then back at Archie. \"Why do you know that word?\"

\"I... uh-\"

\"No it doesn\'t matter.\" The stranger interrupted. \"Follow me. You don\'t have a choice.\" He pointed at Frankie again. \"Her too.\"