Claire stabbed her hiking pole into the black soil and stepped over the giant buttressed root. Her team, along with the porters, had been following Manny for over three hours on a thin path cutting through a never-ending blanket of undulating trillium. The resinous perfume of the forest lay all about them. Above waved a dense, tangled network of spidery branches and vines. Thick clusters of tree fern and piassava palms dotted the understory, their giant fronds reaching up to catch the spray of precious sunlight raining down.
Claire reached over her shoulder for her water bottle as she walked. The path ahead crisscrossed roots that dove into patches of false daisy and guajava. She squirted a quick drink, wiped her brow with the back of her hand, and pushed on in silence. No one had said a
