The Norwegian forest was a maze, one full of trees, bushes, and fallen trunks. And yes, if Emil really strained his eyes, he could sometimes detect some weirdness in the undergrowth, a line of weakness that could perhaps be called a path. But the paths invariably led to small clearings, which all looked alike and so got him nowhere.
And while, from some of the clearings, he was able to see a few of the nearby mountains, but that just changed the scale of the problem, making him feel trapped inside a maze of mountains.. In desperation, he resorted to trying to identify the closest peaks on the map. (The map that Lalli had given him just before disappearing, with a firm statement that this was a special favour that would never be granted again. And a smirk. Really, Lalli seemed to be enjoying the torture that was Emil’s scout training a bit more than was decent or reasonable.) Hadn’t Mikkel said that some of the weird map lines showed the heights of mountains, somehow? It wasn’t the blue ones, because even Emil knew they were rivers, but–
Oh, right! Rivers! He should try finding one! The camp was on a river’s shore, after all, and weren’t all rivers connected? There were a lot of blue lines on the right side of the map, which was helpfully marked as ‘east’. Only, where was this ‘east’ in Emil’s reality? He could just about see the sun, which of course was to the south most of the day (his mother’s sunroom had faced south, he was pretty sure) so, probably, all he had to do was face the sun and then walk to his, er, left.
He tried it. It wasn’t too bad, at least not until he realized that he could just turn left and walk normally. Then, he had to take a moment to bury his face in his hand and think about what an idiot he was.
Well, at least nobody had seen him.
“Why are you walking like that?”
The voice was unmistakably Sigrun’s. After a brief panic–wait, Sigrun’s in my head now, how, she’s not a mage!--Emil managed to locate its source. Which was, of course, Sigrun. She was off to his right, leaning on one of the identical trees.
“Sigrun! Why are you–” Emil felt an unexpected surge of hope. “Am I close to camp?”
She grinned. “Yeah, only an hour away!”
An hour? Then why– A humiliating suspicion formed in Emil’s mind. Just how much time had passed since Lalli’s departure? It felt like days. Had his friend repented and sent out search parties? “You’re not… looking for me, are you?”
“Nah, just hunting, you know.” Sigrun came closer. “What about you?”
“Me? I am, er, orienteering.” Emil waved his map in the air. “Part of scout training, you know.”
“You’re using a map?” Sigrun grimaced as she leaned over to peer at the object, as if it were a particularly puny dead troll. “Ugh, better you than me. All those lines. Mikkel says they describe the terrain, whatever that is, but all I know is the blue ones are rivers and the yellow ones are roads.”
“Right, right.” Emil could not resist sharing his own knowledge. “The other ones show the heights of mountains.”
“Really? How? Like, what’s this one?” Sigrun’s gloved finger poked at the map.
“It… I don’t know. I am bad at reading maps.” It felt terrible to admit yet another of his deficiencies, but, as usual, it was a relief, as well. “And I have no idea where I am, anyway.”
“Hmm.” Sigrun looked at him doubtfully. “But you’re right here, with me. Why– No, wait, you mean you don’t know where the camp is. That’s why you asked, right?”
Emil could only nod.
“It’s over there.” She waved her hand in the direction that Emil was pretty sure was north. North-east? Or even North-east-north, wasn’t that a thing? Regardless, knowing was a relief… and also terrible, because wasn’t this cheating?
But, well, since he was already cheating… “How do you know?” he asked.
“It’s the mountains,” Sigrun explained. “See that one there? Camp’s right on it.”
“I see it. It looks like… a mountain.”
“Does it? Or… does it look like a woman with three tits?”
“What?” Emil squinted. Oh Gods. Now that he had seen it, he could not unsee it, no matter how much he blinked. “Err…”
“Hilarious, isn’t it? We’re camped right by the left one. But we can’t get there in a straight line; first, we have to walk towards that mountain there. You know, the one that looks like a dog that’s ashamed because you just caught it peeing on your rug.”
Emil squinted again. And again, Sigrun was not wrong.
“Come on, then,” she said. “I was heading back anyway.”
Emil followed her towards the shamed-dog-mountain. They’d crossed a couple of identical clearings before he made up his mind to ask. “So, these mountain descriptions, are they a local Norwegian tradition, or–”
“I don’t know. Maybe? But I doubt it. My descriptions are usually better than whatever the locals come up with. Like, there is a mountain near Dalsnes that is boringly called ‘round peak’ but actually looks exactly like Captain Håvard’s buttocks.”
“I see.” Emil hoped never to meet Captain Håvard. It’d be so awkward, now.
“I do it with trees, too,” said Sigrun. “Like, this one here, I noticed it when I was heading out. I call it the Mikkel tree.”
“Why?” Against his better judgment, Emil found himself scanning the tree for any sign of buttocks. Or worse. But Sigrun pointed towards a high-up spot.
“See that scar there? Looks like an ‘M’. “M” for Mikkel!”
Oh, phew. “Oh yeah. It looks a bit like his handwriting, even.”
“Right? It was quite a lucky find, really: a lot of these trees look way too alike.”
“I know, I was just— Oh!” Understanding hit Emil all at once. “You were looking for a special tree to help you find your way back! A landmark!”
“Yeah. It’s the best way. Keeps me from getting bored while walking, too. Now, come on, this is where we turn.”
Over the next few minutes, Emil tried to practice finding some landmarks of his own. “That rock there,” he said. “It looks a bit like Trond’s head!”
“Ha! True. But, you know…” Sigrun laughed. “So many of them do.”
“Well, how about that branchless tree? It looks just like a spent match.”
“Hmm, okay, I see something different. But yeah, good choice.”
“Thanks.” Emil kept an eye on the tree as they passed it. “So is this how Lalli navigates, too? Since he doesn’t use maps?”
“I doubt it. He can always show exactly where he’s been, on a map. I couldn’t do that.”
“Maybe he uses magic, then.”
“Nah, it’s something all scouts can do. Part of their training, I think.”
“Oh.” Emil almost stumbled, and the fact that he didn’t only saddened him further. He was starting to feel like life–or scout training,at least–was a series of insurmountable obstacles. He’d managed to struggle past a couple of them, but it felt miraculous, unreal. Sooner or later, he was sure to fail.
Probably sooner. As in, now.
He supposed he could ask Lalli for more help. More explanation of how this was all supposed to work. However… While Lalli had many strengths, explaining his own thought processes (or emotions, or even, in some cases, preferences) was not one of them. And it’s not like Emil knew any other scouts.
But maybe Sigrun did? “Sigrun,” he said, as they jumped over a small creek, “do you know any scouts? Ones who could explain their training to me?”
“Well, there’s Håvard, of course, he’s very– But he’s not here, and if this is just about using maps, you should ask Mikkel. He knows all that non-martial stuff.”
Emil’s first response was, “no way”, but the next time he caught a glimpse of his new boots–a frequent occurrence; they rather caught the eye–his resolve softened. Slightly.
“Yeah, Mikkel definitely knows some things,” he said. “But… well… you know what he’s like. Won’t he send me straight into a dangerous bog or something?”
“Oh, of course, he’ll joke around a bit, the big oaf, but his jokes are unlikely to kill you. I have made it very clear what will happen if they do.”
That was probably less comforting than it was intended to sound. Still, it was worth a try. “Okay, I will talk to him,” Emil decided.
Now all he needed to do was convince Lalli to let him keep carrying around a map. He had a feeling it would require all his skills of persuasion…
Author's note: I had to wing this a bit as I have a good visual imagination and can easily read topographic maps, and even, to a degree, memorize them. I know many people struggle with this, though, and I think Emil might be one of them. Anyway, navigating by landmarks is useful in any case.
