Tigress of the Shrubland (9)

Tigress of the Shrubland (1)

Tigress of the Shrubland (8)

We were very far indeed from the stony land of my arrival, and the bird knew of no entrance to the underground. But it knew the way to Janice.

Public Domain: https://www.wikiart.org/en/ivan-shishkin/dark-forest-1890

The wood rose and fell uncannily, the trees seeming to adjust themselves on whims, and not the sight of the creators of ominous sounds but their lack put me on edge. The bird flew above the treetops with only occasional returns to restore my course. Once, tracks in the dirt, like the tracks of beetles on tree beneath bark, began to skate over the ground before me, drawn by invisibles, never explained nor evolving but resolving themselves into nothing before I had gone another mile. I asked the bird about food but it said there was no food.

I slept in a nest of tall grasses picked from the soft ground near a creek where both the myna bird and I refreshed ourselves. I wove the grasses according to its…