All righty, I'll see where this chapter takes me!
When the sun was up, we took the time to look around in our surroundings. It was quite a big area to cover, so we all split up again to look around. I had voted to go with Cassie, in hopes that I could mend our friendship. I don't know why, I just hate leaving things unsaid. Or undone. And I hated feeling as awkward as I did.
So, we trekked out south, carrying our camping bags on our backs. It was a little tough, but we were both little and tough. I just hoped Jake was all right going off alone with Marco. What a mess…
"Jade?"
"Hmm?"
"It's… I'm really sorry about Marco and that. I… I didn't even know I felt anything for him until our last mission. He followed me home to see if I was all right, and…"
"It's all right, you don't have to explain anything. I understand" I huffed as we both started making our way through a cropping of rocks, which amazingly, held a small river.
"Jade, it was just so hard not to kiss him then… he really was worried…"
"Please, I understand. I don't need the details. Just as long as you're happy" I jumped down from a rock, continuing on my way. I knew what she was going to say… didn't want to hear it. Didn't want to have that image in my brain… the two kissing away was bad enough…
She fell silent, and we went along. We soon found what looked like fruits, high in the trees.
"Think they're edible?" I wondered, looking up at them.
"Only one way to find out" She said, dropping her bag and stripping to her morphing suit. She morphed a squirrel, knocking about three of the things down, before returning.
I picked them up, handing two to her, suddenly feeling very hungry. I peeled the grey-orange skin of it, taking a bite into it. And moaned.
"God, these are tasty! Almost as good as Chanaiben fruits!"
"Yum" Cassie smiled at me. I looked at her, and we both burst out laughing.
"Let's get this done, then get some more of these back to camp for the others"
"Agreed" Cassie said, nodding at me. We picked some more fruits, then made our way to the border of our prison, before turning back.
It was probably about mid-day by the time we got back (because the sun was directly over us) and found the others had beat us back. And from the looks of it, Jake and Marco were buddies again. Which was good. I still felt awkward around Marco, but I knew I'd get over that eventually.
We handed out the fruits, before sitting down in a circle to enjoy our lunch.
"What I don't get is, why send us back in the past, then shove us in this dome, which has food, water and room to run a hundred miles end to end?" Marco asked. Rtaia shrugged.
"This is still unknown to me"
"Maybe it's like lab rats. You put them in a little box for a certain time, let them get used to it, then open the box into the little maze or whatever" Amanda supplied.
(An unusual evaluation, but a plausible one) Ax said. He was fine. He'd been running and eating with Rtaia. Ithiell sat back on his tail, his face thoughtful.
"They want us here for a reason. But for what? So we can die here when the meteor hits? Or do they just want to know what would happen if humans and dinosaurs lived together? I wish I knew"
"I think we all do" I laughed at him. When we were full and had all had time to get a drink, we sat and thought. Until another thing came to us; our backpacks. The most we had done was carry them around. Now we actually thought to open them.
"Hey, look at this!" I cried as I pulled out my walkman, with headphones and about three different tapes, along with a small packet of fresh batteries.
"The first girl with tapes. Ah, and the first boy with a comic" Marco said as he pulled out a comic. The others pulled out simular things; things that were personal to them. As well as some of their clothes.
"You know, we saw a lake around too" Rachel said, as if she was imagining getting into that water right then and there.
"Gah! This makes no sense!" Robert yelled, grabbing the sides of his head and pulling at his hair.
"Robert? Our lives stopped making sense the day we met him" I jabbed a thumb at Ithiell, who looked up at me with confusion.
"Hey, don't blame me. I wasn't the one who trekked into the woods one day for an adventure" He chided. I laughed at him.
"Got me there"
"All right, let's just focus. Now, what do we have?" Jake asked, although I saw him let out a hint of a smile to me. Not something anyone else would have taken notice of.
I felt myself become light-headed for a moment, before I tuned into the program.
"Well, we have food, we have water in three or four directions, maybe more. We have clothes, shoes, blankets and things that are valuable to us. I say Amanda's right; we're just in the 'temporary' cage, until we get let out there" Marco said, counting them off with his fingers, then looked at each of us in turn. Jake nodded.
"The question is, how long are we here for? A day? A month? A year?"
"I'll take a guess and say a couple of days, to a couple of weeks" Ithiell put in.
"Great" Robert muttered, covering his face with his hands, then flopping backwards on the grass "So we're stuck here in little utopia until the big scientists decide we're good enough for the big pen"
(Looks like it) Tobias muttered (I'm hungry)
"Maybe there's something for you. Go have a fly around" Amanda suggested.
"I'll go with you" Rachel, already stripping to her morphing suit, ready to become the eagle. When they were gone, I looked back down at the group.
"Well, what now?"
"Now, we wait" Ithiell said, sighing "Not like there's anything to do, anyway"
Amazingly, when Tobias came back, he had good news. He'd managed to catch a small rodent in the 'dome'.
For the rest of the afternoon we just kind of explored a bit more, and Ithiell and Amanda helped make a map of just the small area around us, and by then it was nearing dark again. Amanda, Cassie and I flew out with Ithiell, and we picked more fruits, and I was amazed at what I saw. Some kind of long-necked dinosaur far off, biting leaves of a tree. It was… almost humbling… to see.
We flew back, had 'dinner' and did nothing much else for the rest of the evening except explore our backpacks and find out what else was in them. Ithiell and Jake gave out shifts again, and soon I fell asleep, still cold even though I'd rugged up a lot.
I hated these beings. I was more sure of that than anything.
Well, whatever it or they were.
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I awoke to feel someone behind me, their hands exploring. I grabbed my dagger tighter… and then I remembered where I was. Phew. I'd had a dream about being my own room, and there being a…. a strange shadow lurking there. Not a person, just a black shadow. It was a creepy dream.
And now, my body responded to where those hands were going, and I heard a breathless whisper in my ear.
"I need you"
"Jake? We're not alone…"
"I know. But I need you now. I think… I think I ate a bad fruit… feel so strange…"
"Let's go away from the camp, all right? Is everyone… asleep?" I looked around. I couldn't see anyone sitting, looking out.
"I made sure they went to sleep. Please, come with me. I need you"
"Okay, but we take the blanket"
"Sure"
Before I knew it he was picking me up, blanket included, and carried me out of the clearing. We didn't get as far as we hoped, before we lost ourselves again in the heat of the moment, and I felt his need in his touch.
He needed me. And I needed him.
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"Are you ok?"
"Of course I'm ok"
"I didn't hurt you last night, did I?"
"No. I don't think so"
"But… I wasn't exactly in my right mind"
"Jake, it's all right" I laughed, leaning up and kissing him. We were sitting by one of the streams, our feet in the water. We hadn't been back to the camp for the rest of the night, finding a certain… wrong smell, to both of us. It was early morning now, and although I'd felt freezing cold the night before, I somehow felt warmer today.
The water in the stream was so clear, I could see to the bottom of it.
"When should we go back?"
"Dunno. But I suggest we go one at a time"
"All right. I'll got first with the blanket"
"Ok" I got up, putting my shoes on and giving him a kiss on the forehead, before making my way back to the camp in the early morning light. When I got back, I found only Marco and Amanda were awake.
"Where have you been?" Marco asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Girl stuff, so butt out" I said, sticking my tongue out at him. Amanda laughed.
"Leave it at that buddy boy. Just leave it at that"
I sat down, taking off my blanket and folding it up beside me.
"I believe I will" Marco mucked around with the fire, doing whatever to it. I wasn't interested in that. I was more interested in the looks Amanda was giving me. It was comical. I gave her my best shut-up-or-I'll-hurt-you look.
She grinned, and I pursed my lips and shook my head. Then she laughed, and I knew she knew what had happened. Hey, she wasn't my best friend for nothing, you know.
Unfortunately, she woke up three people with her laugh. Ithiell, Cassie, and Robert. Marco looked up, looking at Amanda, then me. Amanda came over, whispering in my ear.
"You did, didn't you?"
"I'm not telling you that!" I hissed.
"You don't need to. So, was it good?"
"Amanda!" I scolded, still trying not to wake anyone else up. I think Marco caught our looks.
"What are you two whispering about?"
"None of your business!" I snapped, blushing bright red. Rachel stirred seconds later, and I growled at Amanda. She shrugged, then pulled me away from the campsite, further into the clearing so we couldn't be heard by anyone, not even Tobias.
"I'm sorry, but I think it's funny"
"Well it's not to me!"
At that moment I saw Jake returning to our little camp, and heard Robert ask,
"Where you been?"
"Needed a drink. Then I thought I'd see if there were any fish in the stream"
"And?"
"And nothing. We don't have fish, I'm afraid"
"Darn" Ithiell muttered. I turned to Amanda, who had that I-know-and-I-think-it's-funny look she always seemed to have at times like this.
"You say one word about this, and I will strangle you, got it?"
"Why Jade, you insult me. I'd never divulge your most intimate secrets"
"You're not even supposed to know my most intimate secrets, friend or not"
"I'm going to go make love to Ithiell now"
"Amanda!" I yelped, getting me looks from everyone.
"Shh" She said while holding in buckets of laughter "It's ok. No one will know. I promise"
I stared at her "And you'd better keep it that way"
"Oh, and by the way, what I said?"
"Amanda, I do not want to know"
"Good. Let's leave it at that" She left, and I followed reluctantly. We went back to the camp, where the rest of our little troop was just coming to.
I know, I know! I'm slowing it down, but just to repair the damage I've caused in this story. Also, I like having Amanda tease Jade about it.
