Twelve

He found Soma sleeping in her nest, smiling very peacefully. This child hadn't been an eight-year old for very long, having been only recently, and easily trapped and dispatched to the forest. Her parents, it seemed, hardly noticed her lack of growth after completing the fourth grade. They moved her on to fifth, and then to sixth, by which time it was becoming quite apparent that the girl was simply not developing. Her school friends took not before anyone else, and their cruel teasing and harassment led to teachers and other authorities becoming involved. Soma was brought in for questioning by the same Captain Snig who'd interrogated Edeline. It was a more difficult case for him, as he had little experience with children, and Soma especially charmed his petrified heart just a bit. He held her in his facilities for several months to observe her lack of growth first-hand, in the meantime playing checkers and go-fish with her daily. He became quite fond of the child, who had a sweet disposition and was always friendly to everyone. Old Snig considered keeping her hidden somehow, but in the end he could not bring himself to thwart the system. At the last there was nothing else he could do but send her off to Canopus.
Soma didn't seem to mind. She took to the woods right away, and found herself a playmate in Squee after only a few hours. He quickly filled her in on the rules, all of which seemed very sensible to her. You got to eat when you wanted, sleep where you wanted, play all day long and do whatever you felt like. This was not a bad deal, as far as she was concerned. It didn't take long for her to fall into the Watcher routine, and she set about charming Bumbarta the same as she'd done with the captain. By now whenever he wanted to be sure about anything a Watcher had told him, Bumbarta called upon Soma to verify.
She opened her bright eyes and clapped her hands when Squee reporter their mission.
"More words?" she exclaimed with excitement. "We'll get every one," she promised him, and Squee could already envision another gold star - maybe two - on his arm. Together they set off through the trees, catching up to the reluctant confederacy of the called.
They were all bickering again and hadn't gone far. After strolling through the trees for a couple of hours, Barque had declared the mission absurd and was threatening again to go his own way. He demanded a decent suggestion, from anyone.
"There's no point in wandering nowhere at all," he insisted, and the others could only glumly agree. It was true they still had no plan but had simply walked on toward the near-setting sun.
"Why even west I don't know," he muttered. "Might as well be going east."
"Would it matter?" Ember replied, then she stopped, and the others did too.
"But you're right. There's no point."
They shuffled in place for several moments, each one looking anywhere except each other's faces. No one wanted to be the first to give up, but no one had any ideas, until Baudry suggested,
"Why don't we try the Map Makers?"
"Time Wasters, more like it," Barque snorted, as Princess open her mouth wide to stifle a yawn.
"They don't know this place any better than I do," Ember added, but Baudry went on.
"But they're making up names all the time," he said. "I don't even know what they would call this place we're in now."
"This place has a name?" Edeline asked. To her it was simply all trees, and she hadn't seen enough of Canopus yet to know about its variety.
"Of course," Baudry said. "Every place has a name."
"I was just calling it the forest," Edeline said.
"Well, the whole thing is called Canopus," Ember informed her. "I thought I already told you that."
"If you did, I don't remember," Edeline shrugged.
"But I meant this area we're going through now," Baudry said. "You see, the Map Makers have been at it for years, trying to figure it all out."
"Who are they?" Edeline asked.
"Two sisters," Baudry replied. "Raina and Pulee. You know how there's never an end to the forest, right?"
Edeline nodded. She didn't really know that but she didn't want to seem stupid.
"You keep going west, or east," he added, glancing at Barque, who was pretending not to be listening, "and you think you would come to an end, but you don't. Space-time is warped in this place. There's no edge, no perimeter. You find yourself moved, or everything else is but you, it's hard to explain. So the sisters, they thought they would give names to everything and build up a map of the place. To see if there's patterns, you know."
"There's no pattern," Ember put in. "It's not like you go the same way twice and end up in the same destination. Uh-uh. It's different each time and you never know when it will turn. It might even split us all up any time."
"What do you mean?" Edeline asked, even more confused now than before.
"You and I could be walking together, hand in hand even, and then all at once we'd be miles apart, as if we'd been separate the whole time. We all have to watch out for that."
"Would it really make any difference?" Barque scoffed. "It's not like we're getting anywhere together like this."
"I still think we should ask them," said Baudry, "if they've heard of this so-called Remarkable place. Maybe it's a name they gave to somewhere."
"I suppose it is possible," Ember had to acknowledge. "Even though I think they're pathetic. No one even uses the names they make up."
"I do," countered Baudry. "And I know lots of others who do too. It's going to catch on even more," he continued. "They're becoming official."
"Just because somebody makes something up," Ember grumbled, "is no reason for others listen."
But Soma and Squee were listening intently from high up above. Squee had picked up the idea of patterns and names and map makers, but if he had to report to Bumbarta, his account would not make any sense. Luckily for their leader, then, that he had sent Soma along. She could relate the discussion verbatim, and did, when she returned to the lake. She even informed him where they were headed - to The Bend In The River, where the Map Makers lived.