Elchanan was nowhere in sight. Which direction had he even gone in?

Elchanan was walking very fast, as if he wanted to leave Avi behind. Avi quickened his pace, trying not to stumble on the uneven earth, biting his tongue to restrain himself from asking Elchanan to slow down.

He didn’t need to embarrass himself even more. If Elchanan could handle the trail, he could, too.

Up ahead, Elchanan stopped for a moment, looking first in one direction, then another.

“What’s going on?” Avi asked, finally reaching his partner, his breath catching a little from the exertion.

Elchanan looked at him curiously. He didn’t seem out of breath in the slightest. “Just the path. It looks like there’s a fork... I’m trying to figure out which is the one we’re supposed to be taking.”

Avi studied the trail before them, but he could hardly identify the path. The ground looked the same to him everywhere — narrow, dusty, strewn with tree roots and fallen branches.

“Why don’t we just use the map?” he suggested.

Elchanan didn’t answer. He took a few experimental steps forward and peered into the distance. “No path ahead,” he informed Avi.

Avi looked around too. Trees towered above them in all directions. He tipped his head back, searching for patches of sky. Between the dense branches, he could see snatches of blue, interspersed with white-gray clouds.

It was so vast, this forest and the trees and the sky and the nature stretching in all directions. Avi suddenly felt very, very small and alone.