Young Writers Society

Watching an idiot climb up a tree only improved Aegeas's mood a little bit. Having to wait for so long for that idiot to come back down didn't, hungry and tired and annoyed as Aegeas was.

"I'm fine with a river," Aegeas said, glaring at Boris, "But why do we have to go to a village? How are they going to respond to a bunch of strangers, especially a bunch of strangers who aren't from the same world?"

"Villages have resources," Maahes replied. Even though the question was directed at Boris, he was the one who had the most expertise in a situation like this. He walked over to where Aegeas and Boris were standing. Behind him, Codix uttered another yawn as he tiredly leaned up against Nadira's side. "If it's abandoned, we could use it as shelter and see if it has any food stores. If not, then we do the same thing - and maybe find out more about Kartiel, since he couldn't have randomly picked this planet."

He was silent for a moment.

"...With our group, it might be better to stay away from other people," he admitted. "But we also don't know what we can trust out here. Something that looks safe to eat might not be, and there could be a dangerous thing lurking in the forest that we'd never know to keep an eye out for."

He looked back at Boris. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, but something felt off about him. Maybe it was how cheerful he seemed? He had been miserable earlier, but now he seemed almost happy. Maahes tried to tell himself that it was just because Boris had a good night's sleep, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something else was at play.

He would just have to keep an eye on him and try to forget how little he knew everyone present.

Ugh - Maahes made a good point. Staring out into the jungle, Aegeas found himself reminded that he was in another world, he had no idea what was making those noises, and he could barely see more than fifty feet in front of him.

Aegeas sighed and crossed his arms, glaring at Boris. What he wouldn't give to punch the smile off of Boris's face. "Fine."

"I'm not crazy about any of our options, but if the locals do happen to be friendly, maybe they know about what lurks in the jungle," Bo added. He was mildly impressed with Boris's venture up and down the tree, and his ability to survey all of the land. Had Boris not volunteered first though... he might've liked to. If he wasn't so hungry.

"I like the idea of a river. We should head that way first."

"We have a few options, in that regard.”

Boris crouched to the ground, took a stick, and drew in the dirt, two dots spaced apart, and three lines connecting them in the middle, indicating each item as he described what it represented.

“This dot, here, is where we are, and this, up there, is the village. The space between is the jungle.

We have a great mound of earth stretching down the middle, which appears to host a series of tunnels leading to the village. It seems to be the most straightforward route. But of course, it may be problematic to navigate once inside.

On the left side is thick canopy, with the least daylight, but it has the most rivers, so it may be the best option survival wise.

The right side has more open space to see by, but only one stretch of river, which is not only a problem for the sake of hydration, but also gives us less to navigate with.”

He stood up, and looked first to Maahes, to acknowledge his leadership, and then to the others.

“What is the consensus?”

Standing next to Boris, Aegeas nudged the line in the middle. "If it's the quickest way to get there, let's do that," he said. "If there's something there, we can take care of it."

Bo tilted his head to the side as he observed the map from above them. "I think I'm with Aegeas. There's uh, that little bit of river over there on the right just before it looks like the tunnels start? Maybe we could stop there real fast for water and cleaning?"

"I say straight through," Raiden said, slowly descending from above, wrapped in vines.
"Also, could someone lend me a hand? I'm kind of...stuck."
Raiden swayed back and forth, smiling sheepishly at the group.

"Oh! Yes!" Bo spun around at Raiden's voice and quickly hurried over to help him, untangling the vines.

"Thank you, Bo," Raiden said, as he let Bo untangle him.

"I like the idea of-" Codix started. He had been planning on agreeing, but then he realized how nervous Maahes suddenly looked. The djinni wasn't saying anything in objection - he was just standing there, his skin pale as he stared at the map that Boris had drawn in the dirt. "Maahes, are you okay?"

"I'm okay," Maahes weakly replied. "Underground...Underground sounds good."

Nadira frowned beside Codix. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked. "You don't look good. I could try checking your vitals, but I'm not sure how helpful I could be since you're the first spirit I've met before."

"It's really nothing!" Maahes hurriedly said - a bit too fast, in Codix's opinion.

Codix looked over at Nadira and raised an eyebrow; she was doing the same exact thing when their eyes met. Which would have normally made both of them turn into a giggling mess, but they were more worried about Maahes right now.

Maahes seemed to notice the look. "It's really nothing," he repeated, this time a little calmer than before. "It makes sense to go underground. We don't know what it's in the forest, and even though we can get lost it should be easier to navigate, and no one here has a problem with tunnels, so it should be perfectly fine!"

Oh. Some people were not accustomed to the underground. It was not a simple fact of the world that eventually, for some reason or another, people just wound up there.

Now, Boris thought, if the leader was rattled, his uncertainty would spread among the group. But with the wonders that awaited them, this would doubtless come to pass, whatever route they took. For now, it was best to forget that he had ever met Kartiel, and look out for his comrades.

Boris looked to Maahes sympathetically.

"We won't be forced to enter the tunnels until the last stretch. We can follow along one side, and enter them at a later point, if need be.

We can decide once we get closer."

"It's really fine," Maahes reassured Boris. Codix and Nadira still weren’t convinced. There had to be something that he was hiding, but Codix didn't know what.

But then Nadira spoke.

"...Maahes?" she asked. "Are you claustrophobic?"

Maahes froze.

Bo pursed his lips and frowned. Maahes was afraid of going underground. He wondered if that route could be avoided, or if it was inevitable, and Maahes would have to face his fear eventually.

That said, he could totally empathize with irrational fears. He had an irrational fear of his bellybutton unraveling and his guts spilling out, even though that wasn't likely to happen unless someone stabbed him in the bellybutton. As long as the tunnels could be avoided, he supposed they could work with that.

Bo sighed, and finished helping Raiden down and out of the vines.

"It's okay, Maahes. Claustrophobia or not, if we don't gotta go in the tunnels we don't have to. It's not the only way. We can figure it out as we go."

He turned to Boris. "We can go to the right, then? I mean, we can decide maybe when we get closer and get a better look at what both sides look like. But I dunno. It looks like on the left we might have a lot of water to cross through, and that might just be easier to avoid since we don't know how deep it is or what might live in the water. I mean, we don't know what lives in the forests either but I feel like it's just a tiny bit easier for most of us to run away from stuff on land than swim away from stuff in the water. Aegeas might be an exception, but I don't know how well Nadira might do in the water, and I for one, am not the strongest swimmer."

Raiden stretched his arms, giving Bo a thankful nod.
"I say Maahes grow a pair and we go straight through."