Zech squinted. "No, it has to be you," he said after a couple seconds. "Lunis taught me to recognize things like that. You talk like him, you make the same faces he does. I don't know how you changed your look that quickly, but I have to say, it isn't really diplomatic anymore, is it?" He knew the last sentence was likely to scare away Maahes if this was him, but it'd be harder to identify if this was Maahes without a probing question or two.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"I don't want to be diplomatic right now-" he started to say, only for his eyes to widen and for him to slap his hand over his mouth. He had made a mistake, and he knew it. He hadn't expected Zech to catch on that it was him; the Alterans tended to not realize it. Even Odris took some time to recognize him. But Zech had figured it out, thanks to whoever that Lunis person was and the lessons they had taught Zech.
His shoulders slumped. It wasn't fair. He had honestly been trying his hardest with this, even though he had forgotten to come up with a good alias and had ended up using the name of the character he had read about last week instead.
His hand returned to his side.
"You're right," he said. He frowned. "I'm Maahes."
"Good," Zech said. He internally breathed as sigh of relief - he'd figured he had a 50/50 chance of being right. Still, he looked back at the route he'd come from, biting his lip. He couldn't quite see his path. Suddenly the forest felt like it was surrounding him, trying to swallow him up. "Can we go back now? The others are probably waiting for us."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"Sure," Zech said, glancing from side to side with each sentence. "I want to forget about all this too. But what do you think you're going to do out here? We don't know where we are, we don't know what's lurking around here, and the only people that do are somewhere else in this forest. And I'm not going back there without you."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Tamika stumbled through the thick trees for awhile, the rising dread in her stomach only reminding her of the obvious: she was only getting herself more and more lost. However tired and grumpy she was, however her scar stung, it was wiser at every angle she could think of to go back and join the group.
She had just been making the decision to turn around when her foot landed in some sort of hole. She tripped and fell to the ground with a thud.
Fighting back tears, she gingerly pulled her leg out of the hole and glanced down. Her ankle was already swelling, the pale skin revealing the start of a nasty bruise. Great. Just great. She couldn't fly, and now she couldn't even walk properly.
Sucking in a breath through her teeth, she made her way into an upright position and then set off very painfully in the direction she assumed she'd come from.
There was a loud crashing noise from somewhere nearby. Horrified by the noise he heard, Maahes let out a terrified cry and instinctively clung to the thing closest to him - that thing being Zech. "Did-did you hear that?" he stammered. His grip on Zech tightened. "Do-do you think these woods are h-haunted? Odris says that ghosts don't exist, but some of the other scholars do think they exist. And I-I think I'm one of them!"
Zech raised his shaking staff and pointed into the trees. "A what?" he stammered. "What's a ghost? And you're one? Can you talk to those things?" He didn't have a clue what, if anything, was in the woods, but that didn't stop his mind from trying to fill in the blanks.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Tamika hobbled a ways, and then started to hear voices. Sighing in relief, she located the direction and stumbled through to a clearing, pushing branches away to better see the boy and feline standing there.
"Thank goodness," she gasped, feeling more appreciative of the people stranded here with her, "I thought I was lost. I mean- more lost than we already are."
She peered at their faces, and the way the blonde-haired boy was clutching the other one.
Zech breathed a long sigh of relief. The fur around his cheeks bristled. Of course there wasn't actually anything in the forest. Just more people who were as lost as they were. That he could deal with.
Actually, judging by the girl's ankle, he could do more than deal with it.
"Need any help?" Zech said, voice still slightly high-pitched. He pointed towards the ankle. "I can fix that."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
When Maahes saw that the source of the sound had been the lady with wings, he hesitantly pulled himself off of Zech. He crossed his arms again as he took a step back from Zech, though this time it was out of fright and not stubbornness. He could still feel his arms shivering, though no goosebumps formed - it was something he would have had to put thought into, and he was still too much on edge to think of something like that.
"A voice..." Rose mused. Ryder squinted at the ground. "Might be one of the Aetherborn," Rose said simply. Ryder nodded. "Yeah...it might be." He looked up to the sky. "We should...probably get going. Exter's already out." Up in the sky, there was a large moon, while this world's equivalent of a sun was past the midway point. Ryder adjusted his backpack. "Let's go. We can talk about the artifact on the way. This forest isn't safe at night."
I'm cool as a cucumber Even if I'm in a pickle
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
Zech nodded. "I'd usually have my bandages and splints around, but, uh, I didn't have them on hand when I ended up here. I'm guessing the magic won't fix all of it, but it should get rid of the swelling and bruising."
He stepped forward. Fear crept back into his voice when he saw Maahes shivering. "But if you're not fine with that, I don't want to be rude." Ugh, he hated how fake he sounded. But anything was better than thinking about the woods.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
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