The Surprise guest
Chapter 21
Night settled over the camp.
The woods had grown quieter, although Nifty was learning that a camp full of gremlins was never completely silent.
Small fires glowed beneath the trees.
Voices drifted between shelters.
Someone near the creek was laughing far too loudly.
Nifty sat on the porch with Thicket, watching the camp settle in.
The NFT had gone live hours earlier.
People liked it.
A lot.
Thicket still didn't completely understand why humans wanted to collect pictures of people they had never met.
Nifty wasn't sure he completely understood it either.
A shout came from the edge of camp.
Nifty sat forward.
Another voice followed.
Then another.
Thicket's ears rose.
"What now?" Nifty muttered.
They got up.
Several gremlins were already moving toward the trees.
Nifty and Thicket followed.
A small crowd had gathered near the edge of camp.
Nifty pushed between two larger gremlins.
"What's going on?"
Nobody answered.
Then Nifty saw her.
A small figure stood just beyond the firelight.
Bramblekin.
Her clothes were dirty.
Leaves and bits of forest clung to her.
She looked exhausted and frightened.
But Nifty barely noticed any of that.
He noticed the flowers.
Purple.
Yellow.
Tiny white blossoms across her shoulders.
And beside her left ear...
One larger flower.
Nifty stopped.
He knew that face.
He had spent the entire day looking at it.
But he had never seen her before in his life.
Nifty slowly turned toward Thicket.
Thicket wasn't moving.
His mouth had fallen open.
The Bramblekin woman looked through the crowd.
Her eyes found him.
Everything in her face changed.
"Thicket?"
Thicket ran.
He crashed through the gremlins between them so fast that one nearly fell over.
She ran too.
They met in the middle of the clearing.
Thicket wrapped both arms around her.
She buried her face against him.
Neither spoke.
They didn't need to.
Nifty stood at the edge of the crowd.
Hours earlier, Thicket had been sitting beside him describing the woman he was terrified he might forget.
Now she was standing in their camp.
Real.
Every flower.
Every little detail.
Even the way one ear drooped slightly as she cried against her husband.
Nifty felt cold.
He looked toward the cabin.
Toward the window.
Somewhere inside, the tablet still held the image they had finished that afternoon.
Nifty looked back at the two Bramblekin holding each other.
That was twice now.
First the faces he'd drawn before the gathering.
Now her.
Nifty didn't understand what it meant.
He wasn't sure he wanted to.
Eventually, Thicket pulled away just far enough to look at his wife.
"How did you get here?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
"You don't remember?"
"I went to sleep."
Her voice trembled.
"I woke up in the woods."
Nifty's stomach sank.
The same answer.
Again.
Thicket hugged her tighter.
After a while, he remembered everyone else existed.
He wiped his face and looked toward Nifty.
"Come here."
Nifty hesitated, then stepped forward.
Thicket kept one arm around his wife.
"Nifty, this is Tansy"
"Tansy, this is Nifty."
Her eyes moved to him.
For a moment, she simply stared.
Then her expression changed.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
"You're....Nifty....?"
Nifty stopped.
Something about the way she said it made the hair along his arms rise.
"Yes, its nice to meet you Tansy"
She looked genuinely surprised.
Nifty glanced at Thicket.
Thicket had gone quiet too.
Nifty looked back at her.
"You know my name?"
The Bramblekin woman frowned.
"Of course I know your name."
Nifty didn't move.
Around them, the camp continued talking.
The fires continued burning.
The creek continued moving through the darkness.
But Nifty heard none of it.
"How?"
tansy's expression slowly changed.
She opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
"I..."
Tansy frowned harder.
"I... don't remember.”