She turned towards the sound and saw a small arrow with tiny green feathers sticking out from the end. Movement caught her eye as she looked up into the foliage to see a figure lifting an impressively large crossbow. They readied it to fire a second time. A female voice called from the thick shadows. Skyla was certain it was a language, but it made no sense, simply a stream of buzzing Rs and Vs. The woman produced a warbling birdlike sound and the forest exploded with movement. As her eyes adjusted, Skyla realized that there were more of them, people, covered from head to toe in dense leaf-green streamers, their eyes white dots hidden behind thick paint and mud, blending them perfectly into the surroundings. The woman spoke again. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand you,” Skyla said. A pregnant pause stretched out as the two of them stared at one another, a second camouflaged figure moving to talk to the woman. “I. Don’t. Understand,” Skyla said in slow deliberate words. The woman said something over her shoulder to the figure beside her.
