Footprints by Alex Archer Page B

guess."

Joey glanced around. "This is some pretty steep terrain. You think Jenny's around here somewhere?"

"A cave," Annja said. She could see the darkness. "I think she's in a cave somewhere above us."

"We're almost above the treeline as it is," Joey said. "But these mountains and hills are packed with isolated areas that are almost impossible to get through. She could be in any one of them. Can you narrow it down some before we start poking our noses into every cave we come across?"

"How would I do that?"

Joey shrugged. "Close your eyes again."

"Okay."

" One thing."

Annja opened her eyes. "What?"

"This time, try to consciously move a little slower, would you? You almost had me tired out back there."

Annja grinned. "All right."

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the darkness. If Jenny was in a cave, they would need to know where it was.

But instead of feeling like she could see the darkness, Annja found that she couldn't concentrate on the pitch-black interior any longer. For some reason, it didn't feel right.

She opened her eyes.

"Something wrong?"

" I don't know. I closed my eyes and tried to tune into Jenny again, but I don't see any darkness. I'm trying to see the cave, but it's not working for some reason."

"Weird," Joey said.

"Maybe I'm not doing it right?"

"Maybe, but a lot of this stuff is just done by gut instinct. If something feels wrong, that usually means it is."

"So you think I'm doing it wrong."

"I didn't say that. I just said if it feels wrong, then perhaps something has changed that we can't see just yet."

"Like what?"

Joey shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe Jenny's not in a cave anymore."

"You think they moved her?"

Joey frowned. "Did you say anything to her when you were spirit tracking?"

"I called her name a couple of times."

" Yeah, anything else?"

Annja frowned. "As a matter of fact, I think I told her to find a way out of the cave and that we'd find her."

" There ya go. She's probably making her way back down to us even as we stand here."

Annja looked around. "Really?"

"Why not?"

" Well, I didn't think she heard me."

"She probably didn't hear you in the way that you would if we were speaking normally. But subconsciously she might have suddenly gotten the idea to leave the cave and then done so."

Annja looked at him. "Is that how you contacted Dancing Deer when we were on our way to see him?"

"Something like that."

" Pretty incredible."

"Nah, not really. That's another problem with this stuff. When people find out, they always want to mumbo jumbo it up. Turn it into something mystical or magical when it's anything but that. The most incredible things are inherent in everyone. It's just that we forget about them or don't use them enough so that, over time, the edges get dull. And eventually we forget we have them at all. It's kind of sad, really, when you see the majority of people sort of sleepwalking through their lives. The reality of waking up to the truth is always so much more amazing than you'd think."

" Through the looking glass, right?"

Joey frowned. "Huh?"

"Never mind. So where would you suggest we look for Jenny, then? She could be anywhere."

Joey shook his head. "I say we stay right here and that she'll probably be along shortly."

"Of all the places in these woods, you think she's just going to wander down in front of us?"

" Why not?"

Annja smiled. "Methinks you've got a lot of faith."

"Just a confidence in the way the Creator works, that's all. If that's faith, then so be it. But I don't get all religious about it. Just appreciative."

"Thankful."

"Exactly."

Joey hunkered down on a nearby log and started studying the ground. Annja watched him as he ran his hands over the dirt. "Any tracks?"

Joey shrugged. "Not sure, actually. I see some depressions, but I can't tell what made them."

" Really?"

He looked up. "Well, like I said before, I'm still studying. I can't get out here every single day when school's in session. I still have