A/N: Various A Grimm Warning references here. Have fun :D
Before reading, it's highly recommended to either 1) listen to invisible string by Taylor Swift or 2) read up the lyrics online. There is a reason why I named this fic after the song :D and it's all coming together in this chapter :DD
Also to multishippers who read False Obsession Turned Real: I am sorry. But also decidedly not.
"Time, curious time
Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs
Were there clues I didn't see?"
May 22. 9:02am.
DollyLlama is online.
DollyLlama: morning
UndeadFox is online.
UndeadFox: Morning
DollyLlama: didnt even do anything but was sleepy last night hahaha
UndeadFox: Well. Building tents IS exhausting
DollyLlama: how did u sleep?
UndeadFox is typing...
UndeadFox: Well enough, I guess
UndeadFox: Woke up early for a walk
DollyLlama: Ohh? where
UndeadFox: The New Swan Stone Trail
DollyLlama: oooooooh
DollyLlama: theres an old one right
UndeadFox is typing...
UndeadFox: yeah lmao, it's in the name
UndeadFox: scavenger hunt todaayyyy
DollyLlama: Ayyyyy
UndeadFox: wonder how are the groups gonna be divided
DollyLlama: my friend say it's gonna be random
UndeadFox: Ah
UndeadFox: Imagine we get randomly put in the same team :)
DollyLlama: imagine :D
"Oooh Campbell, looks like we're on the same team." Fred waved his hand, showing off the gray ribbon tied on his wrist. "We're Team Gray!"
Bree chuckled. "Hey, Hayford." She then took the scavenger hunt list from Fred and peered at it. "Find the items listed here. You need to take a photo as "proof". The team who finds the most wins a prize," she read out loud.
Fred, as the unofficial leader, pulled out a map. "Let's go, gang!" he declared.
"Which team are you on, Conner?"
"Team Yellow!"
"Cool! I'm Team White!" Alex responded. Conner watched as Alex and her teammates disappeared from view, then turned back to his team. Thankfully, he did know a handful of them. (So he couldn't say Alex and Fred ditched him again.)
"Ugh, it's hot outside," Jackson loudly complained. "I hope we find what we need quickly."
Conner patted his friend Jackson's shoulder. "Ohh c'mon, it's not that bad. And besides, it's the journey that matters, right?"
"An animal frozen in time," Bree read out loud from the list. She wrinkled her nose. "Huh."
A hand shot up. "Wait, I think I know! It's the Lion Rock! I heard the guide talk about it."
"Thanks for that, Abigail. I don't really listen to authorities."
Bree peered over Fred's shoulder and the two studied the map together. "It should be... north?" Bree offered.
"Probably? I'm no geography student. But," Fred turned to smile at Bree, "I trust you."
"Ohhh man, someone got to this place first," Jackson furiously muttered under his breath. He wiped sweat off his face, the yellow ribbon on his wrist fluttering in the breeze. Team Yellow stared at a few figures scrambling away from the Lion Rock. "Which team is that?"
Hannah, who was standing next to Jackson, tapped her chin. "Uhhh, I think I recognize Abigail? Dunno which team she's in though. It's too far away to tell the colors."
Jackson sighed, and turned around. "CONNER, HURRY UP!" he boomed. "We're all at the rock already!"
Conner was struggling to catch up to his teammates mainly because he kept on being tripped by the roots. He panted and finally managed to reach their destination— the Lion Rock.
Apparently there was some myth about how this lion was once living, but was ordered by a sorceress to guard over an important treasure, and thus stood there for a long time and became a rock. Team Yellow stared at the rock in front of them.
Hannah said what everyone was thinking. "It doesn't look like a lion," she said bluntly.
"It's probably just some fairytale the locals came up to amuse themselves." Jackson took out his phone and snapped a photo. "Alright, the stone lion's done. What's next?"
"Hii Bree!"
Bree's face lit up. "Dani!"
Danielle was on Team Red, and her team had just crossed paths with Team Gray. Eugene, evidently the leader of Team Red, exchanged looks with Fred.
"So." Eugene tilted his head to look up at Fred (he was about as tall as Fred's chest, which was not very tall). "Wanna exchange info?"
Fred jerked an eyebrow. "A trade? We've been exploring the north side of the area. What do you have?"
"We've been to the east," Danielle told Fred. "Aaaaand I mean, we're friends, right?" she grinned. "Don't friends help each other out?"
Fred laughed and nudged Danielle. "You seem to hate me a lot though," he said mischievously.
Danielle glared at Fred, mock offended. "Oh come on—"
"Guys, stop it," Eugene deadpanned. "We're not in middle school." He swiftly turned towards Bree and the other Gray teammates. "What info do you guys have?"
"Have you been to Lion Rock?" Bree asked, ignoring Fred and Danielle (noisily) bantering in the background.
Eugene looked up, an expression of mild surprise on his face. "Wait— that's what the frozen animal is?" Behind him, his teammates started furiously hunting for the rock on their map.
"Well, thanks. And I- umm..." Bree watched as Eugene shot awkward looks at Danielle and Fred, before clearing his throat and turning back to Bree. "Follow this path and you'll find a tree. You have to climb up the tree using a rope they have there. So you better find someone agile on your team."
Bree turned the gears over in her head. She wouldn't call herself agile, but she did sneak out of her bedroom window multiple times, so she was probably pretty good at climbing. "Alright, thanks Eugene. Team, let's get going."
("Stop being a clown," Eugene groaned as he dragged Danielle away from Fred. "Never," was her vicious (but light-hearted) reply.)
"Hey, Freddie!"
To Conner's delight, he found Fred (and his team) around a tall tree. A thick rope dangled from the tree, challenging them to climb up.
"Hey! Our team's doing this right now, so your team has to wait." Fred looked up, hands over his eyes to shield them from the sun. "Ooh, Bree's doing pretty well so far—"
Conner wasn't listening. He was crouching, enthusiastically pointing at the mushrooms on the ground. "These are adorable!" he gushed. "Freddie, have you seen these mushrooms?"
Fred blinked, not expecting Conner to ignore him talking about Bree of all people. "Uh... no?" he replied half-heartedly.
... Fifteen feet above Conner, Bree leapt onto a sturdy platform and scanned the horizon. "Ohh, so that's Panpipe Point," she muttered to herself. She quickly snapped a photo, and made her way down.
"Nicely down, Bree!" Abigail high-fived Bree. "We were wondering how to get to Panpipe Point because it doesn't look very accessible."
Bree brushed dust off her clothes. "Guess sneaking out of my room has its benefits," she chuckled.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a golden ribbon tangled in some twigs. Bree reached for it—
"Bree, you're smart. Can you help us figure out this clue?"
Bree spun around, forgetting the golden ribbon. "Ohh, sure." The scavenger hunt list, now slightly wrinkled, was shoved into her face. "Which one do you want me to look at...?"
("You dropped your ribbon," Fred informed Conner after he extracted the ribbon from the pile of twigs. Conner, who was still staring at the mushrooms, looked up. "Oh, thanks!")
Bree and her team went to the left. Conner and his team went to the right.
They passed by each other, but didn't see each other.
"Your palms are red from climbing that rope," Fred told Bree as he and his team went towards their next stop.
Bree checked her hands, which were indeed an angry red. "Well, that rope was coarse. But it's fine, it doesn't hurt."
"Your ribbon fell off?" Jackson asked incredulously.
Conner vaguely waved his hands around. "I mean, I was distracted! It must had gotten loose somehow!"
"... Good thing Fred noticed it in time, huh."
"Yeah, good thing."
... Bree stared at the gray ribbon tightly wound on her wrist, then at the purple string below. She could feel the coolness of the metal fox charm pressing against her skin.
This was the birthday bracelet Llama had gotten for her birthday. She wondered if he'd noticed she was wearing it.
"Ahhh, it's 5pm. Time's up."
Team Gray squinted at the boxes they had ticked off. "I think we did pretty well!" Fred said optimistically. "We might have a chance at winning!"
"Yeah, that's cool but," Bree glanced at the quickly darkening sky, "can we make it back before sunset?"
Team Gray ended up stumbling into Team White, which was Alex's team. They walked back to the campsite together, using their phones as torches when it became too dark to see.
Alex subconsciously leaned towards Fred. "I didn't know it would get this cold in the evening," she admitted.
Fred shot Alex a sidelong glance, gray eyes softening. "... I didn't either," he murmured.
The words carelessly slipped out of his mouth. Her arm nonchalantly brushed past his. The leaves from the trees casted shadows over their faces. The moment was quiet, too quiet, even with the group of people travelling with them.
"... Remember that time when I said I was cold because I didn't have a scarf, and you gave me yours?"
His lips quirked up. "Of course I do."
"You told me it was an old scarf, but I knew from the bright green wool that it was new."
"... So you knew then."
"Yeah. I knew."
Ropes. Ribbons. Wool. Strings. Whatever you like to call it, people like to think there's something abstract connecting them to other people.
Who knows when you'll meet that person on the other side of your metaphorical string.
You have 2 new messages from Llama ;O.
"wait have we discussed how we're gonna recognize each other?"
"too bad it's not winter, you could bring the scarf i got for you and i could bring the beanie you got for me"
Sent: 4:56pm
Recieved: 5:34pm
May 22. 5:30pm.
UndeadFox is online.
UndeadFox: uhhhhh we can meet at the cafe?
DollyLlama: the cafe lumiere des thing?
UndeadFox: Yeah the Cafe Lumiere des Etoiles
UndeadFox: (it means starlight cafe)
UndeadFox is typing...
UndeadFox: since the fireworks are gonna happen on the field, nobody's gonna be at the cafe
UndeadFox: it's night, so we can sneak there?
DollyLlama: oooh sounds nice!
DollyLlama: see you there! :DD
UndeadFox: See ya! :DD
DollyLlama: IM SO NERVOUS EEEEEK
UndeadFox: Same ;P
Night fell, and midnight was swiftly approaching. Fireworks erupted, with students shrieking and running away from the firework rockets. They painted the sky with vibrant shades of red and blue. Most people were gathered in the fields, oohing and ahhing at the spectacle. Everyone except two.
Hearts thumping in time with the boom of the fireworks above, two figures hurried to the Café Lumière des Etoiles. They hunted for each other, searched for a shadow like them, but they ended up getting more and more lost in the darkness, and their hearts thumped quicker and quicker—
Glittery gold sparkles exploded and rained from the sky, illuminating two pale visages, now facing each other. They stared at each other, skin painted golden by the light. Then one's lips parted.
"Bree?"
"...One single thread of gold tied me to you."
A/N: aaaaaAAAAAA IT'S FINALLY HERE YOOOOO :DD why am I legitimately getting emotional writing this hahaha
(PS: Jackson, Abigail and Hannah are random side characters from False Obsession Turned Real. If you remember them, I applaud you. They're primarily featured in Chapter 9 :P)
Hope this lived up to the hype! The story's not over though :D
This whole writing project is rather experimental, so comments are dearly appreciated! :D
I would write more here, but I'm planning to make an afterword after the epilogue (yes, it exists :D).
Thanks for reading and being excited! I'm really happy that people are actively following this fic! Love y'all! :DD