A low grunt broke the silence. "My rear end is profoundly sore…" Olivia spared a glance back at Gabriel, then let out a sigh and a small nod of agreement.
"It feels like we've been riding forever," she muttered. Jesse shrugged lightly in response, though any other response was quickly cut off when Soren and Ivor's mumbled argument suddenly rose in volume.
"I'm telling you, we cannot go to the Far Lands," Soren snapped. "They're not just the edge of our world, but the limits of our comprehension!"
"Oh, please," Ivor scoffed. "The Far Lands are just a happy accident. Nature's way of keeping life interesting."
Soren shook his head sharply. "No, no, no. They are perilous and unpredictable!" Olivia glanced back to share a confused look with Lukas. "Perlin noise, floating points…" Soren paused, as if he almost said something he hadn't meant to say. "These are not matters to be toyed with!"
"You're scaring everyone, Soren," Ivor hissed at the ginger. Soren glared back at him.
"And for good reason!"
"Um…" Their attention was turned to Jesse, who had lifted a hand warily. "W-what are the Far Lands?"
Soren's gaze turned incredulous. "Are you… being serious?" Jesse nodded warily, causing Ivor and Soren to share a glance, before Soren returned his gaze to the path. "The Far Lands lie at the very edge of all things. Where logic… gives way to chaos." Jesse spared a confused glance behind her, then returned it to Soren. "They're a dangerous place to visit…" He then glared back at Ivor. "And a ridiculous place to build a laboratory!"
Ivor snorted. "Just wait until you see it."
Olivia huffed. "Do those two never stop arguing?"
"I don't know, I'm too hungry to care," was Gabriel's only response.
"Yeah," Lukas muttered. "I'm starving."
Olivia sighed, resting her forehead on Jesse's back for a moment. "We all are…" She sat up again. "Maybe we should turn back…?"
The horses were pulled to a stop, a couple of them snorting in response. They turned so they made a sort of circle. "Now isn't the time," Ivor responded quietly. "Swamps are too dangerous. You never know what might be lurking around."
An odd noise echoed through the area, one that Olivia couldn't put a name to. Jesse tensed.
"What was that?!" Gabriel had gone wide-eyed, looking around fearfully. It was kind of weird to see him act so nervous.
Soren blinked sheepishly. "My stomach." There was a moment where they all simply glanced between each other.
"Well," Olivia carefully leaned back. "I don't know about you guys, but I could use a break."
"Yeah, I-I think we should stop for a little bit." Jesse nodded slightly. Soren nodded once, then climbed down from his horse, Ivor right behind him. Jesse slid down quickly, then turned and offered a hand to Olivia, who took it on the way down. She landed, stumbled slightly, then straightened, giving Jesse a small smile. She followed the others to a spot near the water, sitting down against a small ledge between Soren and Lukas. Ivor pulled Jesse aside for a moment, talking to her quietly about something or other.
Olivia hung her head forwards, moving her knees up so she could rest her head against them, and let her eyes slide closed. She was getting worse, there was no denying it. She was exhausted, feeling both sleepy and as if she'd just run a mile almost constantly; half of the time, she ended up dozing off against Jesse, no matter how hard she tried not to. Though she was pretty sure she'd rather end up asleep and not deal with the pain that was basically echoing through her whole body. She couldn't feel anything in her hands or wrists anymore; all recognition of pain or temperature had gone completely by now.
Jesse had expressed her concern a few times now; Olivia was pretty sure she couldn't say she was fine anymore. Well, not without disbelieving glances. Jesse had actually, more or less, snapped at her the last time she tried to, firmly pointing out that she really wasn't okay. And as much as she wanted to, Olivia couldn't argue otherwise. She had tried to find a way to, but couldn't find the words once she noticed the other was tearing up a bit.
She wasn't fine. She was far from it. She couldn't deny it anymore.
But she needed to keep going. It didn't really matter how she was feeling anymore, she couldn't stop. There was too much for her to lose.
Despite that, the group had been surprisingly calm and relaxed for the time crunch they were in. Olivia had managed to hold a few conversations about something other than the storm with Jesse and Lukas; there was one they'd had where they spoke for ages about the Building Competitions over the years, discussing the competition the Ocelots hadn't participated in.
The topic of building had caught Soren's attention, and they ended up explaining the Building Competitions to him. He had seemed rather excited at the idea, though when Lukas mentioned that he could go to one sometime, he had immediately brushed off the idea. None of them should have been surprised, seeing as they had found him secluded in a wool world.
They had wound up describing as many builds as they could remember to him, and he had managed to explain what some of the more vague builds were supposed to be. Surprisingly, most of the odd ones had a purpose, though Olivia couldn't recall what they were at the moment. Some of them hadn't really been described, and Soren had been rather confused by their descriptions. One of the overly vague ones that had confused Soren got a comment from Ivor about something or other, which had elicited a few snickers from the rest of them.
They had also tried to jog Gabriel's memory several times. They had even tried to get him to remember EnderCon, despite the fact that they hadn't seen much of his presentation. It had almost worked; he had remembered very fuzzy details for a moment, then forgot again. This had happened a few times with different events, some Olivia had known about and some she didn't know.
She hadn't realized how distracted she was by her thoughts until something bumped her leg and she jumped slightly in surprise. Her head snapped up again, trying to find what had hit her.
Apparently it was a hand, as Jesse was in front of her, one hand near her leg and the other holding out a half of a potato. She glanced at the potato, then at Jesse.
"S-sorry." Jesse smiled sheepishly. "Didn't mean to scare you. Just figured you'd want t-to eat."
Olivia blinked again. "Oh, yeah. Thanks." She moved her hands slightly and Jesse dropped the potato half into them. With a small nod of thanks towards the brunette, she carefully moved it to her mouth to nibble at it. Jesse stood straight, tossing a different half of a potato to Lukas, who almost dropped it. She then turned and wandered off again, disappearing in the swampy area.
As she ate, Olivia found herself zoning out again. This entire trip to the Far Lands had been both rather interesting, and horridly boring. They had seen plenty of biomes that they never expected to see; one had clay and dust coating everything, all of the cliffs striped with different colors. Another was covered in snow and freezing cold, with tall towers of ice scattered around the biome.
She had really enjoyed seeing a lot of different places, but even then, it had been awfully quiet and boring. No one really conversed at all besides Soren and Ivor arguing, so there was very little to do besides watch the terrain and think. The former was alright, she supposed, but the latter was something she didn't really want to do.
There had been one or two conversations about the biomes they had gone through; Soren had apparently been to most- if not all- of the kinds of biomes they had traveled through, so he had known quite a bit about a few of them. She figured he had stories tied to some of them; a few of the descriptions had an air of reminisce, and another few had a tone of melancholy. Those descriptions had also caused Ivor to act a little oddly; defensive expression faltering some to the same things.
She wasn't sure how long she had zoned out this time, but it seemed to be long enough that Jesse had left and come back after finding something. The brunette was scrambling up from a small ditch nearby, eyes frantic. Olivia sat up a little straighter, placing her hands against the ground in case she needed to stand up.
"We need to leave." Jesse's voice was trembling. "Now."
"What?" Lukas dropped his arms from where they were folded in front of him. "Why?"
"There's a witch." Ivor appeared beside Jesse, making the brunette flinch slightly. Olivia tensed nervously. "They do not appreciate trespassers. We need to get out of-"
He was cut off by a splash potion flying just past his head and smashing against the ground at everyone's feet. Red swirls surrounded them, Olivia trying to scoot away from it instantly. Reuben let out a terrified squeal, scrambling away. Hands wrapped around her arm, and she was more-or-less yanked to her feet by Lukas.
"She's here!" Soren took a step back, glancing back past Jesse. The witch was standing behind her, letting out a laugh. Honestly, she was pretty sure she could've lived without ever seeing a witch. They were incredibly creepy; Olivia stepped back, despite the fact that it was a good few yards away from her.
Despite her fear, a brief burst of defensive adrenaline pushed a shout from her throat as the witch moved to grab another potion. "Oh no you don't!" The witch's attention moved to her, and any courage she had vanished. Jesse retrieved her sword quickly, sparing a glance back at them.
"Watch out for her potions!" The brunette inched forwards, ducking as the witch threw another potion at her. The potion sailed past her, crashing to the ground where the last one had. Olivia took a step back to avoid the effects, as did the others. Jesse inched forwards again, getting close enough to the witch to whack it with her sword. The witch stumbled back a few steps, then retrieved another potion. Jesse whacked it again before it could throw the glass in its hand, knocking it over this time, which allowed her to finish it off.
Jesse backed up, glancing back over her shoulder. "W-we should get out of here, while there's-"
She was cut off by an arrow shooting past her face, and Jesse whipped around again, hand flying up to her face. Olivia looked over to the hill behind them, spotting a skeleton standing on it, arrow notched on the bowstring again. It was backed by four other skeletons, all in the process of notching arrows of their own.
"Oh no…" Olivia tried to subdue the trembling in her arms. "Skeletons…!" Hands met her shoulders, and she was turned towards a small space behind a tree to hide behind. She and the others edged over to it, ducking down swiftly and covering their heads with their arms. The horses, however, took off running off to some other place in a blind panic.
A sinister laugh rang out from nearby, and she could hear Soren inhale sharply. "Witches and skeletons? That's a deadly combination…" Olivia peered past her arm at the ginger. "Her potions combined with their arrows…? Oh, we'll all be killed! We can't win this!" Olivia's arms lowered slightly so she could glance at Jesse. The brunette was watching the skeletons warily, shoulders tense. "We need to get out of here. Now!"
"But they've seen us!" Olivia returned her gaze to Soren as she spoke. "They'll just follow us!" There was a brief silence that followed her statement.
"The rest of you, go!" Her gaze snapped to Ivor, who had his back pressed against a tree. "I'll hold them off!"
"What?" Soren stood abruptly. "Ivor, no-!"
Ivor made a face. "There's no time to argue. Just head for the corner of the glitch wall!"
"The what wall-?" Lukas started. Ivor cut him off by jumping out into the open.
"Hey you, witch! You're not the only one that can throw a potion!" He produced a potion that looked exactly the same as the ones the witch had thrown, chucking it right at the closest skeleton. It shattered against its skull, knocking it over and sending it into a puff of smoke. He quickly produced another, tossing it at another skeleton, before turning and darting away.
His attempt to distract the mobs worked, as they followed him. A hand wrapped around Olivia's wrist and started pulling her into a run in the other direction. "Come on!" Jesse called back, spurring the others into a run after them.