Chronicles of Eden - Act III

by Alexander Gordon

  “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.”

  Chapter 4

  Hidden Feelings

  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 yo
u’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.

  “Um, Specca? aren’t you going to cook yours?” she asked as she saw the nixie eating her fish raw. Specca shook her head and looked to it with an eager smile.

  “No, that’s alright, I actually prefer them raw,” she answered before biting down onto it with a crunch. Alyssa showed a disgusted expression while Triska was merely glancing to Specca with a cringe as she saw the nixie eating the raw meat. Squeak however was looking at her fish with a curious eye as she had yet to bite into it. Specca looked to her then to her fish which was cooked to eat.

  “What’s wrong, you haven’t even tried it yet,” she said with some meat and scales in her mouth.

  Squeak glanced to her then to her food with a raised eyebrow before carefully smelling it. She showed a troubled expression and looked around at the other girls who were all watching her now.

  “It’s alright, it’s just a fish,” Alyssa reasoned.

  “Has… she ever had fish before?” Triska asked curiously.

  Specca looked up thoughtfully then shrugged as she took another bite of her meal.

  “Nod shure, it wold depem om-”

  “Specca, swallow your food first,” Triska commented flatly. Specca jumped a bit then quickly swallowed with a large gulp, the girl then blushing and smiling nervously at everyone.

  “Sorry. As I was trying to say, I’m not sure, it would depend on if their nest had any underground rivers or lakes to fish from. If not, she may never have had such a thing down in her home.”

  The girls turned to Squeak as the ant girl was just examining her meal questionably.

  “Try it, it’s really good,” Specca insisted.

  Squeak hesitated for a moment then slowly took a small bite out of her fish, chewing off the meat and munching on it while the others watched her curiously. After a few seconds Squeak quickly spat the food out and shook her head while wiping her tongue with her hand. She handed the fish over towards Specca and squeaked with a disgusted expression on her face.

  “I don’t think she likes it,” Triska said amusingly.

  “Really? But it’s so good,” Specca said as she took the fish from Squeak.

  The ant girl shook her head and looked to the ones that were cooking over the fire with annoyance. Alyssa bit off more of her meal then glanced to seeing Daniel walking over to them.

  “Okay, Lucky is finishing his dinner. How’s it coming over here?”

  “Not too bad. Have a seat, join us,” Alyssa offered while taking hold of her staff and tapping it on the ground, causing a large tree root and green vines to come up from the ground and curl downward to form another spot for the boy to sit on. Daniel looked at the makeshift pew with wonder then nodded as he joined the girls.

  “That is just amazing how you do that,” he complimented, with Alyssa smiling bashfully and setting her staff down next to her. Daniel then picked up one of the sticks with a cooked fish on it and smiled curiously at it.

  “Wow, these do look good. And you caught them all by yourself, Specca?”

  “Yes,” Specca said with a soft smile. “It was no trouble at all. I hope you like them.”

  Daniel nodded then looked to seeing Squeak watching the last cooking fish with a troubled expression.

  “Squeak? What’s wrong?”

  Squeak looked to him then pointed to the fish while squeaking and shaking her head. Daniel nodded slowly then glanced to Specca, the nixie shrugging with a weak smile.

  “She didn’t quite care for it. I don’t believe she likes fish.”

  Squeak nodded and looked down while holding a hand over her stomach as it grumbled a bit. Triska glanced to her for a moment then quickly ate the rest of her meal before tossing the stick into the fire. She then stood up and walked over towards the caravan.

  “Where are you going?” Specca asked.

  “Going to get something for Squeak to eat, she needs something for dinner too,” Triska reasoned before she hopped up onto the ride and went inside. Squeak watched her leave with a curious eye while Daniel smiled a bit from hearing Triska saying that.

  “Oh boy, I can only imagine what she’s going to make for her,” Alyssa said dryly before biting into her fish again.

  “You really don’t like Triska, do you?” Specca asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Alyssa remained quiet while Daniel looked around at seeing everyone falling silent, the crackling of the fire being the only sound heard.

  After a while Triska came back out from the caravan, carrying her duffel bag in one hand as she hopped down onto the grass and walked over towards the group. Setting her bag down on the ground behind her seat at the campfire she started sifting through it while everyone watched her curiously except for Alyssa, the witch merely giving the human a dull stare.

  “Let’s see here… well, like I mentioned I only have basic ingredients with me, is that okay?” Triska asked looking to Squeak. The ant girl nodded while her antennae twitched slightly. Triska rummaged through her bag then brought out a small pouch, which contained some bread that she pulled out and started cutting with her dagger. She paused then glanced to Daniel with a weak smile.

  “Um… its okay if I still use this, right?”

  Daniel jus
t nodded while watching the girl curiously. Triska then cut some pieces of bread apart before placing the rest back in the pouch. She put it away and pulled out a small tin container which had lettuce in it, then another which had some cheese, then another which had some jelly that she spread onto the bread with her dagger, then she took out another pouch which had some apples in it which she grabbed one from, and then she pulled out a small white cloth to use as a napkin, the girl putting together a sandwich for Squeak while the group just stared at what she pulled out of the bag.

  “Seriously, how did you fit all of that in there?” Specca asked carefully.

  “What are you talking about?” Triska answered as she placed the freshly made sandwich and apple on the napkin before handing it towards Squeak. Everyone just stared at her in silence as she held the food out to the ant girl.

  “Here,” Triska offered. “Nothing fancy, but it should taste good nonetheless.”

  Squeak slowly took the food and looked at it curiously while Triska put away the rest of her supplies before pulling out a cylindrical container and five cups, with the group watching as she poured water into each cup before putting the container back.

  “Not going to lie and say the fish was bad, but it does make you thirsty, so here,” Triska said while holding a drink out towards Specca. The nixie just stared at her for a moment, glanced to the duffel bag, then looked at Triska with puzzlement.

  “How…”

  “It’s just water,” Triska assured while shaking the cup a little.

  Specca slowly took hold of the drink as she looked from Triska to the duffel bag then back to the human again while showing a confused expression. Triska handed Squeak a cup of water, then another to Daniel, and then handed one towards Alyssa who just raised an eyebrow at her.

  “It’s just water,” Triska repeated.

  “You’re only doing all this to make Daniel think you can be good again,” Alyssa said flatly. Triska gave her a small glare and lightly shook the cup at her.