"You're sure you don't know where we are?"
"I'm sure."
That wasn't the answer Alfred wanted to hear. At all. You'd think of all the people he could have gotten lost in the jungles of Vietnam with, he would have at least been with the one most likely to know the way to civilization.
That wasn't the case.
"Calm down," Lien said, brushing aside a branch and graciously holding it while Alfred passed. "We'll run across something eventually."
These tropical forests held bad memories for Alfred. Despite knowing that, as a nation, he was safe from most things that otherwise would have threatened mortals, he felt uneasy. It was as if these woods despised his very presence. As if his every move were being watched by the ghosts of his biggest mistake. The fact that the mist was starting to roll down from the mountains didn't do anything to detract from the creep factor either.
Lien seemed to notice his nerves too. "Stop being such baby."
"I am not being a baby!"
"You are!" she insisted, stopping so she could turn and face him with her arms crossed. Damn it all. He hated when she got like that. It was…slightly intimidating.
As if he weren't freaked out enough already. The only thing that could make things worse was—
Something slithered across his foot—
"GET IT OFF!" he shrieked, loud enough to alert the entire jungle to their presence as he scrambled to get out of the general vicinity of whatever had just touched him, taking cover behind a tree.
"Ohh, come here, sweetie," Lien cooed from somewhere over where Alfred had just run from.
"Wow, I'm glad to see you're finally concerned for me!" Alfred said, finally daring to peek out from behind the tree.
"I wasn't talking to you," Lien asserted, gently stoking the head of the eight foot python draped across her arms. Spying Alfred hiding like a little girl behind the tree though, she made a beeline for him, snake in hand. "He's not so bad."
"It's a snake!"
"I wasn't talking to you!" she said again, frowning. Now clearly speaking to the snake, she continued. "Alfred didn't mean to scream at you, I'm sure."
Determined to show that he was, in fact, not a baby, Alfred held his ground, fighting the urge to run when Lien approached him and carefully draped the snake around his shoulders. "See? Not so bad."
Alfred stood rigidly, daring not to move in case the snake decided to coil around his neck.
"Now, aren't you cute?" Lien chimed, smiling, no doubt, at Alfred's horrible predicament.
He could only force a nervous smile. "So, are you talking to me or the snake now?"
AN: I can't remember where I saw it, but besides ghosts, I'm pretty sure Hima said Alfred was also afraid of snakes! Good thing Lien isn't.
