All That Is Red by Anna Caltabiano

looked around at her men, who had hidden their weapons as easily as they had aimed them at us earlier.
    “We are the warriors of the Red cause. You may travel safely as our guests and guests of the Red cause. We will offer you shelter in exchange for returning the girl.”
    Her words were stiff, but nonetheless welcoming. The promise of safety was alluring, and the boy and I decided to take them up on their offer.
    “Come,” one of the leader’s guards ordered.
    Never more than a few feet away from their leader, we followed behind the marching guards. Lilith was clamped onto my hand and continued that way the entire journey. Knowing that she was
dependent on me brought a strange sense of comfort.
    Surrounded by Trigons, we dragged on for some time. Finally, we came to an unexpected stop in a part of the forest that looked almost the same as any other part.
    “Here is our camp,” one of the soldiers near the front called out.
    “Disband!” another soldier barked.
    At that order, all the soldiers and guards broke out of their formation and began climbing the trees.
    Stopping just short of asking what we were waiting for, the Trigon leader flashed us an inquiring look. The boy put Lilith on his back and began climbing one of the Red trees. Each tree was as
wide as a house, and I was astounded at the boy’s ability to climb it.
    A waiting soldier shoved me forward to a nearby tree. He motioned for me to climb. I was perplexed until, upon closer observation, I realized that metal rods stuck out of the trees as a simple
staircase that winded up into the treetops. At the prompting prod of the soldier behind me, I began to climb.
    The way the metal rods were placed made one climb at an odd angle of around 40 degrees. An opposite hand and an opposite foot would move together in sync in a climb that resembled a bear’s
walk. I was neither vertical nor horizontal, and that made it feel as if I were crawling rather than climbing.
    Each circle around the tree brought me closer toward what I didn’t know. The ground grew farther and farther away from me, until the bases of the trees were almost nonexistent.
    I was pulled up at the top of the staircase by another soldier. My feet landed on a wooden walkway that wound around the tree and connected it with the others. The Trigons had built a
self-contained community above the ground, where they were safe from the White. There were a countless number of people swarming to and from different places. They were all busy and all appeared to
have something to do. There were sturdy huts and other larger buildings I didn’t recognize; all were hidden from the ground by the trees.
    “Lilith!” a voice cried out. “Grandmama! Grandpapa!”
    I turned to see Lilith rush into the arms of two older Trigons. When Lilith knocked into them in her excitement, I saw that they were frailer than they first appeared, nonetheless they were
elated to see their exuberant granddaughter.
    “Oh, thank goodness,” Lilith’s grandmother kept murmuring, stroking her granddaughter’s hair. She was weeping Red tears.
    The picture before me was the essence of love. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what it felt like to be Lilith in this moment. I wished so badly to feel what she surely must have felt. In
that second, I wanted to be her. My entire being throbbed with a need to feel. Was it love that she felt? Was it happiness? Maybe relief? Or maybe it was all three. I would never know, but I wanted
all of it.
    Someone next to me cleared their throat and I turned my back to the scene before me.
    “I’m sorry for interrupting, but may I lead you to your lodgings for the night?”
    It was a young Trigon boy no different in age from the boy or me. His hair was a lighter shade of Red than Lilith or the boy’s coloring, as if it had been bleached by the Red sun. He had
freckles across his noses and small dimples when he smiled.
    “I’m Nalin,” he said.
    “I’m-”
    “You’re our most