The morning found Norch stretched out in a hammock fashioned from old sheets and strung up between two trees. The Jemily had been firm about his staying out of the tent while it slept.

"None of that nonsense," it had said, handing him the sheets.

Norch had raised no objections. Now, with the sunlight streaming through the branches above and birdsong filling the air, Norch felt less despair than the night before. Several more attempts at questioning the Jemily had gotten him nowhere, but Norch reasoned that if this Benjamin fellow could get in and out, so could he.

He swung his legs out of the hammock, stood and stretched. Despite the hour, the day was warm, and sweat beaded on his brow. Nearby, the Jemily was up and busily sorting items into piles. In the morning light, its features were once again blended and hard to distinguish. He was unable to tell one from the other. As he approached, the Jemily pointed to a bowl of berries atop the stool.

"Eat," it said, "We walk far today."

He grabbed the bowl and sat, looking at the assortment of things laid out on swathes of colourful cloth.

A cook pot, flint, a tangled ball of string. Skins of water, several small purple fruit, a broken pocket watch, a bundle of sticks. He forced himself to stop taking inventory.

"Walk far?" he asked instead.

"We remembered something," it said, wrapping the piles into bundles with strips of bright green cloth, "We remembered the fairstash."

Norch popped a small berry into his mouth and rolled it around his tongue. It was tart, but pleasant.

"Fairstash?" he asked when he swallowed.

"Fairstash. They live in the grasslands past the wood," it paused, "or at least, they live there sometimes. When they're here and not there."

Norch stared at the bowl in his lap. He would have to ask. He knew he would have to ask. He just didn't want to.

"Do you mean they live outside?" he said, "Like Benjamin?"

The Jemily perked up, "Yes, like Benjamin."

It tilted one head, as though half considering, "But not like Benjamin. Sometimes like Benjamin, sometimes like us, and sometimes like something else."

Norch sighed and looked down at his hand. A smear of red stained the copper of his skin where he had squeezed a berry between his fingers. He shook it off and wiped his hand in the nearby grass.

"Can they help me get out of here?" he asked.

"Oh yes," the Jemily said happily, tying all the bundles into one bundle, "they live between inside and outside. They can find the between. If you can catch one."

"How do we catch one?" Norch asked, looking around for a spoon to finish eating with.

"We walk." it replied.

"We walk?" he repeated.

"Yes."

The Jemily took the bowl from his hands, and chivied him off the stool, "Quickly. We walk quickly. They only come at noon."

***

The air stunk. That was his first warning. The second was the wetness of his sock as his foot sunk ankle deep into the putrid stuff. Swamps, he thought to himself, were his least favourite type of water.

Norch tried tugging his foot out, but the boot held fast. He used a word his mother would have disapproved of, yanked harder and his foot popped free. His boot, however, remained. Norch growled a few more choice words before he bent to grab the offending article. As his fingers brushed leather, something hurtled into him, and knocked him backwards into the mud with a splat. Startled, he rolled to his knees, or rather, he sloshed to his knees, and froze as he saw the beast that stood over him. A foot taller than him, it stood with long arms dangling past its knees and short, muscular legs. Everything but its squashed face covered in long reddish brown hair. He looked like a Ban Marung, the legendary mountain gorilla man. Norch waited to see what he would do, but what he did was nothing. He only stood in front of him. Norch finished standing. Pointing to his boot, still half sunk near one enormous foot, he inched towards it, but halted when the creature slammed two large fists against his own thighs.

"Mine," he said. His voice was deep, half growling.

Norch licked his lips and glanced behind him for the Jemily. Where had it got off too? It had been right behind him a moment before he lost his boot. He looked back at the gorilla man and considered making a dash for his boot. He did not consider it for long. His chest still hurt where he had been hurtled into.

"Mine," Norch said pointing at the boot, then at his socked foot, "That came off my foot. I need it back."

The gorilla man pointed at Norchs other foot. The booted one.

"You have that one."

"I need both-" he began, but the gorilla man cut him off.

"You need none. Have one." He growled. For emphasis, he again smacked his fists into his thigh

"One is no good. I need both to keep an even-" Again, he got cut off.

"Take off one." Fists again. "Even then."

The creature began to swivel, long arms swinging about in giant half circles. One way, and then the other.

"Use less, lose less."

From behind him, the Jemily came crashing through the trees, panting "Be careful, there is a -"
It cut off when it caught sight of the swaying gorilla man.

"Him," it finished.

With a shake of its heads it came back to itself, grabbed his arm with two of their own and hauled him backward, "Right, let's go!"

Digging in one boot and one sodden sock, Norch stopped himself being dragged off into the woods.

"My boot!" He protested.

The Jemily stopped and considered his socked foot.

"Oh," then shaking its heads, it resumed pulling "Nevermind that."

"I do mind that!" he persisted, prying the Jemily's grip off his arm, "I will not traipse through the woods in my socks."

"Sock," the Jemily muttered, "it's only one."

Norch narrowed his eyes at it.

The Jemily waved it off with one of its hands, "Not the point. The boot is gone. Bahss has it. You can't get it back. Now we go."

The Jemily tried to take his hand, but he fended it off. His arm was still chilled where it had grabbed him.

"Bahss? No. Nevermind, I don't care. Do you expect me to walk to-"

Two sets of hands flew up to cover his mouth. The eerie coolness of their skin made him flinch, but when he tried to step back the Jemily followed him. Its head was within an inch of his own, close enough he could make out each of its four eyes.

"Do not," it said, urgent and under its breath, "say where we are going. It will try to help, and you do not want it to help."

Both of them felt of the hot breath on their cheeks. Norch rolled his eyes sideways and found the Bahss with his face inches from theirs.

"Help?" he said. "I can help."