Free Shadow Tree by Jake Halpern

which way he ought to face – but Leif felt that he had to do
something
and so, on an impulse, he spun around. As he did this, there was suddenly a great deal of movement in the forest – as if he were surrounded on all sides – and Leif waited in terror, expecting to be attacked at any moment. But the attack never came. Only silence. Without shifting his head in the slightest, Leif surveyed his surroundings, searching for a glimpse of whatever is was that was watching him. He could see nothing.
    â€œIs this what I am meant to do?” he asked suddenly, his voice filled with fright. “Am I facing the right way?”
    There was no reply.
    Leif looked down at the ground and saw, to his relief, that the smaller set of tracks – Alfonso’s, he hoped – continued deeper into the forest. Leif glanced upward at the sky. The light was fading quickly. He had an hour, perhaps a little more, until sundown. If he was still in the woods at that point, he would be in real trouble. Leif continued at a slow run. As he ran, he again called out the name of his son. “Alfonso, where are you?” he hollered. He was beginning to feel panicked. Around this time, Leif got the sense that he was being followed. Whatever it was, it moved very quickly and quietly, darting back and fourth among the trees, just outside his realm of vision. Leif also realized that Korgu, who had been bounding through the forest with joyous abandon, had returned to his side. She wasn’t growling at all, even though by all rights this was the moment to do so. Instead, the wolf stood close to Leif, and leaned against his leg. A whimper came from deep within her throat. Just then, Leif heard the sound
of a branch snapping. He looked up and saw, just a stone’s throw away – right in front of him – the unmistakable figure of a teenage boy darting into the woods.
Had he been in these woods, wandering around, for the last two days? If so, how had he survived? Had he holed up somewhere? Was he lost?
Leif’s mind raced with questions.
    â€œWait!” screamed Leif as loudly as he could.
    The boy didn’t stop. For a brief moment, Leif clung to the hope that he had found Alfonso, but there was something about the way he moved – and the figure that the boy cut against the dying light – that looked unfamiliar. Without looking back, the boy shouted back at him through the woods.
    â€œQuit following me you fool,” he screamed angrily, “I’m not your son!”
    The boy darted deftly into the underbrush. Leif ran after him, but the boy was astoundingly quick and agile, and Leif could not keep up with him. Leif felt both exhausted and perplexed. He wondered to himself:
Why is the boy running away from me?
And then a thought occurred to him: perhaps the boy was not running away from Leif – but from something else – something just behind Leif. Leif panted heavily for another minute or so and then it happened. Suddenly, the creatures – the things that had been following him for much of the day – all charged at once. Leif knew instinctively he had to run and run faster than he ever had in his life.
    Leif crashed through the forest wildly. Branches stung his face and whipped his body. His arms were soon wet with blood and sweat. He gasped for breath and pumped his legs as hard as he could. Behind him, he heard a chorus of voices. One voice was that of an old man, which kept asking:
Which way is it? I think we’re lost. We never should have come into these woods.
Another was the voice of a younger man who kept shouting:
My wife! My children! Please don’t!
Leif sprinted onward, all the while looking for the boy or Korgu, but they
were gone.
    He continued running through the woods until, in his fatigue, he tripped on a root and fell heavily to the ground with a thud. Leif stayed there motionless, waiting for the inevitable attack. The creatures surrounded him. Something like