Shea removed her hand and bent to examineanother flyer, and when she was done with that another one. Clarkfidgeted anxiously next to her while she read one afteranother.
“I thought the book of beasts was a greatidea, but then it occurred to me that other scouts could benefitfrom the information or even have information of their own tocontribute.”
Shea’s face was unemotional and her thoughtsshuttered as she glanced over at him.
Not seeing the reaction he expected, Clarkcontinued with his explanation. “I asked a couple other scouts Iknew if they had anything they wanted to add to any of the entries.Next thing I knew, they wanted books like mine. So we startedthis.” He nodded at the board. “Any scout can come and update anentry or add a new one. If they see information they need, they cancopy it into their own book.”
Shea looked back at the board. There wereover fifty flyers up there, each with its own list of observations.Some were nearly black with the amount of information while othersonly had one or two lines of description.
“Say something,” Clark burst out.
Shea stared at the board for a long moment.His shoulders drooped.
Shea, for her part, didn’t know how torespond. This was- It was unbelievable. Amazing and overwhelming.She never would have thought to do something like this, and yet itwas exactly what she had always wanted. Better even, becauseanybody who had something to share about their experience could.They didn’t need a special rank or training. Instead, they reliedon actual encounters as their proof of necessity. This had thepotential to save lives.
Her voice slightly hoarse, she said, “I don’tsee the creature I encountered last time. Should I start a newentry, or is there some way to check older ones?”
He looked up, his face hopeful as she smiledslightly at him. If she hadn’t been pretending to be a boy, sheprobably would be tearing up at this. Or perhaps not given how hardshe worked to make people see her as a pathfinder rather than awoman.
“I’ll ask the board’s keeper and also get youa piece of paper,” he said eagerly.
Shea waited as he rushed over to a thin manwith shoulder length, light brown hair tied back. He was Shea’sage, maybe a little older, and his face was all angles and planes.The man shot a glance at Shea and then picked up a thick leatherbound book before placing a crisp white piece of paper on top ofit.
He ambled over to Shea with a slight limp andobserved her, a keen intelligence behind his eyes.
“Shane, this is Charles. He’s the one whomanages all the entries. Otherwise, it would just be chaos.”
“So you’re the one who came up with this.”His voice was raspy and low as if he’d damaged it at some point inhis life.
“This?” Shea looked at the paper board andshook her head. “No. I never would have thought to do this. That’sall Clark.”
Clark flushed at the praise. “But I neverwould have thought of this, if it hadn’t been for that originaljournal. This all started with you.”
Her eyes drifted back over the board. It mayhave started with her, but it hadn’t ended there.
“Let’s see if we can find your creature,”Charles said. “What did it look like?”
Shea described the frostling while he flippedthrough entries, shaking his head the entire time.
“Are you sure it was a shadow?” he asked.“Because that just doesn’t sound right.”
“I’m sure.”
“Maybe your mind just made this shadowcreature up to explain what happened.”
“I know what I saw,” Shea said firmly. Shewasn’t surprised he was having a hard time believing her. Even shecouldn’t believe it. Needless to say, she left out the part whereit had spoken to her. Well, she thought it had spoken to her. Shestill wasn’t sure about that. Sentience hadn’t been in any of thestories.
“If Shane says he saw it, then he saw it,”Clark said, folding his arms and glaring down at Charles.
Charles sighed and gave him a slightly putupon look. Shea snorted, covering her mouth quickly to keep therest of the laughter in. She had seen that look before when she wasyounger, but usually it had been aimed at her.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” Charlestold her stiffly when she finally stopped laughing. “It’s just thatI want to be sure before we put it up there. We don’t wantunfounded superstition being put into the scouts’ heads. They haveenough of that.”
“I understand and agree, and if I had time,I’d find some of the men who were there to corroborate mystory.”
He held up a hand. “No need. If you say ithappened, I believe you. I’m sure you know the difference betweenmyth and fact.”
She took the piece of paper and a quillalready dipped in ink. She set the paper on one of the small tablesand bent to sketch what she’d seen. Several minutes later, shelifted her hand and rubbed her aching wrist. She cocked her headand read over what she had written. There wasn’t a lot there, andshe wished there had been more to put in the description but theencounter had been brief. There would have been too muchsupposition in if she had added any more. Perhaps someone elsewould be able to fill in the details.
