CHAPTER 3-5
Heinrich

"So, tell me all about you."

Heinrich and Fynn were picking their way through the viridian depths of the woods. To travel along the beach would have been faster - while it was not the more direct route, there were far fewer obstacles and debris impeding one's pace - but the adults would have seen them coming from quite a great distance. And so theirs was a path that, clearly, nothing much larger than a rabbit had passed through in some time, and therefore the going was very slow.

Heinrich wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad one.

Following Fynn, he stepped off of the trail for a few feet to circumvent a fallen tree that was too large to climb over, then returned to their original path. "I'm not sure what there is to tell," he ventured in response to Fynn's prompt.

Prisoners' Point, where the scheming triplets had remained to establish defenses of their flag, was now far behind them. It was both thrilling and terrifying to be alone here in the woods, just the two of them.

"Oh, I very much doubt that," Fynn was saying now. "I suspect you have plenty of secrets." Heinrich, grateful for his position behind the older boy, found himself admiring Fynn's teal hair, which made him seem a bit like some rare tropical bird flitting through the trees. "Doesn't everyone, after all?" Not having received any answer, Fynn turned around, and Heinrich immediately redirected his gaze to the ground, which was just as well, because he had been about to trip over a sizable stone hunched on the path directly in front of him.

"I guess that's true."

Fynn cocked his head, a bit mystified by his teammate's reticence, then turned to face forward once more. "Will you tell me about where you're from, then?" he asked, apparently not yet willing to discontinue his attempts.

Heinrich experienced now the discomfort of not knowing how to answer such a potentially dangerous question that, unbeknownst to him, Phoenix had felt two nights prior with Áthas. It was clear, at least, that there wasn't going to be much use in lying about his background. His very Guylic-sounding name was an obvious giveaway, not to mention the Imperial Army Helcat in which he and Phoenix had arrived at the meeting point. "I'm from the Empire," he finally said, and unconsciously winced as he awaited whatever hostile response he was about to receive.

None came, because Fynn merely chuckled. "Well, I knew that already," he replied. "I was hoping for a bit more information than what anyone with functioning observational ability could have figured out."

"Oh." Heinrich thought for a moment about what to add, but didn't know where to even begin. Schönberg shimmered distantly in his mind's eye like an infuriating mirage, as only the most general shapes came to him while the details remained stubbornly elusive: farms and farmhouses and so many wonderful trees, and quiet dirt roads and the lake -

The lake!

"The lake?" Fynn asked, casting a confused glance at Heinrich over his shoulder.

Heinrich flushed as he realized he'd spoken the two words aloud, but for once he scarcely dwelled upon his embarrassment. A real memory had come to him - or, he thought it was real, anyway, and not some sad attempt by his mind to fill in the chasmal gaps of his past - and there it was in his mind's eye, the magnificent vastness of it glittering before him: the water, the wooden chairs, the dock, the kayaks, and the old green canoe that had seen better days but was still watertight. The forest floor seemed to sway slightly beneath his feet as he remembered the gentle rocking motion of being seated in the center of the canoe, bundled up in a lifejacket between Mama, paddling in front, and Papa, paddling in back. Phoenix, where was Phoenix? Heinrich stopped walking, his eyes shut tight as he labored to recall. Was he back on the dock, watching them? No, no...he was...there! Just there, in a sky blue kayak alongside them, laughing as he'd sent a tame splash of water towards Heinrich, but hitting Mama instead. She hadn't found it quite as funny.

"What is it? Are you okay?"

Heinrich opened his eyes, the memory vanishing like wisps of fog, and saw Fynn standing just a few feet in front of him. But Heinrich couldn't help himself; an enormous smile had blossomed across his face. "I remembered something," he said simply.

Fynn tilted his head again. "You remembered something? What do you mean? Remembered what?"

Heinrich studied the other boy's face for a moment, noting the cyan dots at the corners of his eyes crinkled slightly in a concerned frown, though the bright aqua eyes were alight with curiosity. There was a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead; Heinrich probably had one, too, as the day was quite hot already, despite the cool dampness the forest afforded them. "Do you really want to know?" he finally asked. "It's kind of a long story. And probably boring, too."

"Hold on. Do you mean to say, you might actually speak more than a handful of sentences at a time?!" Fynn exclaimed with a lopsided grin. "By all means, don't let me stop you! Please, go right ahead!"

Heinrich had to laugh. He gestured to the path in front of them. "Let's walk - and I'll talk," he suggested.

"Oh, no, we're not going anywhere just yet," Fynn replied, which sent the electricity sparking through Heinrich's insides again, where it settled into the pit of his stomach as a kind of faint nausea. "I want to hear everything. And besides, our waypoint is just over there." He pointed in the direction of the Drowned Channel, and Heinrich, squinting through the dense trees, saw that Fynn was right: a headland, dotted with a number of rocks about waist height, jutted out into the water. Heinrich hadn't realized that they had made such good progress already.

"Shouldn't we continue on with our plan?" he asked, hoping to redirect the conversation, for he was suddenly nervous. Fynn didn't seem like a mean-spirited sort at all, but still, it was frightening to contemplate admitting to anyone any of the heavy things that he carried. What kind of person forgot everything about where they'd grown up, anyway? "We don't know how far along in their plan the adults are, and we don't want them to get the flag first."

Fynn sighed. "Yeah, you're right. Alright, fine. But when this is all over, promise you'll tell me then?" His pleading eyes really were the same color as the water of the channel; even in the gloom of the woods, this was obvious.

"Okay," Heinrich agreed, bewildered.

"Excellent. It's a deal." There was mischief now in the aquamarine depths of those beautiful eyes. "So, what do you think? Are you ready?"

Heinrich swallowed hard, but nodded. "Ready."