Chronicles of Eden - Act III (12 page)

“First off, you’re all friends with each other. Don’t lie and say you’re not, it’s obvious you all care for one another after all you’ve been through together. Remember that we’re out here for a reason, to speak to monsters about coexisting peacefully, and that means you all should be prime examples of getting along with each other.” The girls all slowly nodded while remaining silent before Daniel glanced around at them then looked to Specca.

“Now, Specca is our guide out here. She knows more about monsters in Eden than even I or Alyssa do, and as such we need to listen to her. If she says it’s safe, then it’s safe. If she says it’s dangerous, it’s dangerous. Let me make this clear about our monster encounters, her say is final. I won’t doubt what she says about any we come across, I trust her with my life, with all of ours even, and you all should do the same.” Specca smiled bashfully and looked down with a small blush while the other girls glanced to her.

“However,” Daniel continued, with Specca then looking back to him curiously as he shook his head. “She doesn’t know
everything
about the world, nobody does after all. And there will be times when we have to react faster than she can evaluate the situation. We have to trust our instincts then, it just may keep us alive,” he reasoned, then looked to Triska as the girl was watching him with concern still.

“In those situations, if we don’t know what we’re up against, then we may have to fight. Triska made the mistake of not listening to Specca earlier, we all know that, but if Specca hadn’t found out what that fluugher was, then her decision to attack it would have been correct based on survival instinct.” Triska looked at him curiously as he glanced around at all the girls.

“Let’s get something clear here, I trust you
all
. You’ve all been by my side out here, you’ve all been helping me with my journey, all of you are important to me. And there are some things that each of you excel at, which is why the rest of us should be supportive of that. Specca is an organized thinker, she knows a lot about the world and the monsters we’re going to be seeing, she would be the first we should turn to when planning our next move or how to approach these monsters.” Specca blushed from the comment as Daniel pulled his dagger out from his shirt pocket and tilted it around in his hands, similar to how Triska always handled hers.

“Triska is quick to react on her feet, and would know what to do when we don’t have time to think or plan a course of action. She’s trained to fight and can take more hits than I can and still remain standing, that’s for certain. If we’re caught off-guard she would be the one I would trust to get us out of danger quickly, however we needed to.” Triska smiled softly at him as he then put his dagger away and turned to Squeak.

“Squeak is able to help us when we need it with her own skills, be it with her incredible strength in a fight, or with healing injuries using her saliva. We’re sort of her guide out here in the world above her nest, but she’s able to help us with whatever we may come across all the same. She’s there as our shield in a way, able to help us up when we stumble across trouble.” Squeak nodded with a squeak and a smile before Daniel slowly shook his head.

“Even though there is a pretty big language barrier between us,” he mentioned, with Squeak blinking then looking down with a weak smile in response. Daniel then turned to Alyssa, with the other girls looking to her curiously now as well.

“And you, Alyssa, have been what’s kept us together out here.”

“What? I have?”

“Yes, you have. We wouldn’t even be out here right now if it wasn’t for you. This ride and the horse pulling it are from you. Your magic has helped us survive out here, as well as your experience traveling in The Outerlands. You’ve aided Specca with the planning and research on what monsters to find and speak to, you’ve helped Triska and Squeak fight off danger with your magic, you’re able to help with cooking from time to time alongside the rest of us. With everything that we do out here you’ve been right there to help us every time.” Alyssa looked at him while being rendered speechless as the boy pointed to her focuser.

“You have the power to help me with my quest, Alyssa, and you have the power to strengthen what we all have as a group.”

“What we have as a group?”

Daniel nodded and looked around at the girls.

“Specca’s intellect, Triska’s fighting spirit, Squeak’s protective nature, and your…” he said as he turned to face Alyssa, the witch watching him with hopeful eyes as he smirked slightly. “And your magical power.”

Alyssa watched him curiously then tilted her head slightly.

“And?” she asked softly. Daniel thought for a moment then shrugged.

“And your horse and caravan?”

“And?” Alyssa asked again as she leaned closer towards him.

“Um… and the fact that you’re the famous Wildfire Witch?”

“And?” Alyssa asked again as she leaned even closer to him, batting her eyelashes a few times with a small smile on her face. Daniel hesitated as he watched the small girl crawling forward onto her hands and knees as she smiled innocently at him, then slowly shook his head.

“And… I don’t know what else you’re driving at here.”

“Oh, I think we can all take a wild guess,” Triska commented flatly, with Specca and Squeak watching Alyssa with dull stares along with her. Alyssa giggled and gently took hold of Daniel’s hand.

“Just think about it, Daniel. There are
other
things I can offer you,” she purred with a wink.

The other girls narrowed their eyes at her while Specca set her hands on her hips.

“Excuse me, but are you implying that you’re the only one who could have sex with Daniel?” Specca snapped, with Daniel jumping with a startled expression from that. Alyssa merely glanced to her with a shrug.

“Well,
real
sex anyway.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, what can you offer that I can’t?” Triska barked out.

“For one I’m a sweet little girl, while you’re just a loudmouthed, temperamental idiot,” Alyssa shot back with a glare. Triska growled with anger while Specca crossed her arms with a raised eyebrow at the witch.

“Be that as it may,” Specca shot back. “At least I have a developed figure to offer to my love, not one of an adolescent little girl.”

Squeak looked at her with discontent and squeaked something while gesturing to her own breasts and hips while Triska shook her head and turned to Specca with anger.

“What do you mean ‘be that as it may’?” Triska yelled out. “Are you agreeing with what she called me?”

“You yelling that to me isn’t doing much in your defense of her statement,” Specca replied while rubbing her ear from the teen’s shout, with Squeak glancing to the human with a raised eyebrow and nodding in agreement.

“There, they agree with what I said,” Alyssa boasted smugly.

“No they don’t!” Triska yelled out at her.

“See? Still yelling, I rest my case,” Alyssa concluded while pointing to Triska.

Daniel, at this point, had covered his eyes with one hand while looking down with a tired sigh, listening to the girls arguing back and forth between one another.

“Hey!” All the girls stopped and looked to him curiously as he slowly shook his head. “Can we at least agree that each of you is important to me, and that you all have your own strengths that will help us on this trip?”

The girls looked to each other for a moment then back to him with a simple nod.

“Okay,” they said together, with Squeak squeaking in agreement. Daniel nodded then turned around and made his way towards the front seat of the caravan.

“Good enough. I’m going to find a place for us to stop for the night, try not to draw more blood from one another in the meantime,” he said before sitting down on the seat and taking hold of the reins. The girls all turned back to each other with stern expressions before the boy snapped the reins, the sound signaling Lucky once again resuming his trek across the trail and the girls once again resuming their arguing and shouting, along with squeaking, at each other. As Lucky pulled the caravan along the trail Daniel was sitting back against the ride while listening to the horse’s trotting feet, the wheels rolling below, and four bickering girls yelling and squeaking at each other behind him. He sighed then looked up at the sky as it was turning to dusk, hearing two girls, presumably Triska and Alyssa, rolling around on the floor in a struggle together while shouting, and thought about his four companions that all wanted to be his mate.

“This is not helping me pick one. Not at all.”

*****

Under the darkening sky Falla was flying back towards where she left her sister and the young human, the butterfly girl carrying a pouch that was made of leaves wrapped with small vines and flowers that she had crafted out in the wilderness. She glanced to her carrying parcel with a raised eyebrow then looked around the landscape for where she left her sister earlier.

“Not sure what kind of beetles humans prefer to eat, but surely the kid would like some of these in here,” she reasoned to herself with a shrug. The girl burped then patted her chest with a smile on her face.

“Nothing like finding a nest of the delicious little buggers next to some sweet golden sap. Looks like my luck’s starting to pick up again.”

She flew across fields and trees, scanning the area carefully for any sign of her sister or the human child. After a while she stopped and looked around with a puzzled expression.

“Odd, I was sure they would be right around here.”

There was no sign of anyone around the surrounding area, not even any wild animals. Falla groaned and looked up with closed eyes.

“I gave her one simple task of staying put, and what does she do? She doesn’t stay put. You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now,” she muttered before flying down to a clearing near some trees and bushes. She touched down on the grass and looked around with annoyance before reaching into the pouch and pulling out a blue and black beetle.

“Hey! Luna, Emily, where are you two?” she called out before munching on the insect. The girl chewed it with a bored expression as she searched around the area for her sister, not hearing anything or anyone responding to her call.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, where could she have possibly gone now?” Falla groaned with annoyance.

After a few more steps she stopped and looked down, seeing that she stepped on something in the grass. Lifting her foot she saw Emily’s shoe on the grass, the few bloodstains it had on it a clear giveaway it was the child’s. Falla reached down and picked it up, examining it carefully before looking around quickly.

“Emily? Luna?” she called out, again not getting a response from either of the missing girls. Falla looked to the shoe then slowly glanced around the area as she started to get a very bad feeling about this.

“On second thought, looks like my luck is still shit.”

In the world of Eden it was always a good idea to travel with those you could trust and count on. It would be dangerous to traverse the world alone when humans and monsters could pose a threat at any time, and traveling with friends was a better alternative to trusting complete strangers. Facing the dangers of the world with those you knew and cared about would help make the journey easier, and if you’ve never traveled with them before, allow you to really get to know them better. You would have plenty of time to talk about anything you wanted, learn what was driving them forward in life, discover what was truly important to them and why, become even closer from mutual interests and goals.

And in certain cases, learn how you each truly felt about one another.

*****

In the night sky above stars were starting to be seen behind the clouds as the day was slowly coming to an end. Parked at the base of a large hill under a tall tree was the group’s caravan, with Lucky leisurely eating some grass and Daniel gently petting the horse as it ate for the night. Next to the caravan a small campfire was going, the fires burning in a little pit that was dug out while four girls were seated around it. Triska, Squeak, Specca, and Alyssa were eating dinner together, sitting on large vines and roots that were manifested by the young witch of the group to sit on. Alyssa had merely waved her staff around gracefully before the roots were uplifted and moved through the dirt by her magic, rising up from the ground then curving back down into the dirt to form makeshift seats for the girls to sit on while they ate something that Specca had prepared for the group on this night.

“This is much better than Triska’s boring sandwiches,” Alyssa commented before she bit down onto a fried fish on a stick, munching on the cooked meat while over the fire two more fish were sizzling on their sticks they were speared onto. Specca nodded in agreement while Triska glared at Alyssa.

“Again,” Triska snapped. “I could only pack things that won’t go bad so quickly. I would love to go hunting if we ever stopped for me to do so.” She took a strong bite out of her fish while Alyssa just gave her a dull stare and shook her head.

“So then go hunting, we’ve stopped haven’t we?”

“Right, nice try,” Triska scoffed. “I’m not giving up my turn with Daniel tonight just to go find something else for you to eat.”

“Specca caught these pretty quickly during a small break earlier today,” Alyssa replied with a smirk. “How long does it take for you to hunt for something?”

Triska growled and bit down onto her fish again, not saying a word while Specca glanced to her with a weak smile.

“Um, for the record, I didn’t catch these to show you up, Triska. I just happened to come across a school of them in the river and, well, they looked so tasty.”

Alyssa giggled and smiled inquisitively at her.

“I’m curious, you didn’t have a net with you at the time, how did you catch all of these anyway?”

“I can outswim a simple fish,” Specca explained. “It was as easy as picking flowers under the water for me. I just grabbed what I could carry and then threw them onto the shore.”

Alyssa nodded then pointed to Specca’s fish with a raised eyebrow.