I stood there, ambivalent. It obviously couldn’t live unassisted in the terrain beyond the rainforest. How long would it be able to sustain itself with its water jumpsuit? If it ran out of water, it would probably die.

“I really appreciate the help, but I don’t think you should come. It’s too dangerous. Besides, I might not come back this way.”

It didn’t move.

“Why don’t I just put you on this nice trunk, here?”

I pried one of its water-coated tentacles off my waist. At that point, I learned just how tenacious an octopus can be. Try as I might, I couldn’t get it off me. Every time I broke a tentacle’s grip, the slimy thing would whip out of my hands and wrap back around me. In the end, I gave up, afraid I was going to hurt the ’pus if I kept pulling at it.

“Okay, little guy. Thank you. I really hope I’m not going to get you killed.”

With its thick coating of water, the ’pus weighed a lot more than it had before, so I urged it to climb onto my upper back, like a living backpack.

Then, at last, I headed out of the rainforest, trying to feel hopeful about what lay ahead.

Two hours later, I stood on a ledge and surveyed the land beneath.

Walking down the dry side of the mountain, I’d noticed a rocky outcropping jutting out to my left. I’d backtracked up to its highest point of contact with the main slope, then walked out along the top of it, trying to get a view over the trees.

I’d had great hopes of seeing a city, a village, even a column of smoke — anything that would suggest human habitation. My hopes were disappointed.

All around me, the land fell away sharply, the pine forest thinning out as the mountain gave way to a lush, green river valley. On the far side of the valley, I could see more wooded hills. I stood there scanning the terrain for some time but couldn’t find any sign of people.

I thought about what to do. The rainforest was a known quantity. If I went back, I could use the moss to stay warm, and the tree-’puses would probably provide me with food, at least for a while.

But whatever the rainforest had going for it, I just couldn’t make myself turn back. Sitting there and doing nothing, day after day, waiting for a rescue that might never come — no. The thought made my skin crawl.

Waiting for whatever happened to me to happen — that’s what I’d been doing ever since I ran home from college. I couldn’t afford to be that person anymore. Whatever I might’ve lost, at this moment, I had the power to make a choice, and I was going to choose action, not passivity.