one or two chirruping whistles , perhaps , echoed through the trees after him , but they were sparse , and he left them behind him , his steps light on the surface of the croach , terror lending him more speed than he would have credited to himself before that night he flicked one glance over his shoulder as he ran and saw something through the glowing trees , at the base of the monolith , the opening he 'd fled through he saw something tall , glistening-alien it stood just within the central tree , just behind the doorway tavi could not quite see it , but he could feel it in a way both horribly intimate and beyond simple description the lower-pitched whistle that went out through the trees felt , to tavi , like some sort of hideous , mocking laughter tavi fled and did not look back again he ran over the croach until his legs were burning and his limbs felt as though they would be ripped apart by the demands he placed on them he almost did n't see the strip of blanket that he had torn off and tied to a low tree branch before he left to mark his way back he headed for it , and from that flag spotted the next , and the next , laying out his escape route back to the ropes at the base of the cliff `` aleran ' '' came a voice from before him kitai dropped from a tree branch ahead of him `` do you have it ' '' `` got two ' '' tavi yelped `` could n't get any more ' '' kitai extended her hand , and tavi shoved one of the mushrooms into it `` run !