About an hour after they had passed the nasty bog – keeping as far a distance from it as humanly possible as they went aound it – Miro and the rest of the group are trekking through the woods yet again. Things finally seem to have gotten normal again... as normal as a trip through a dark, evil cluster of trees could be, at least.
Miro spends a lot of this time thinking silently. Suddenly, he seems to be struck with an idea and laughs to himself for a bit.
"What is it?" Kate asks him.
"Heh... It's just that I finally get it." Miro replies.
"Get what?" Kate says, obviously confused.
"Lineage!" Miro says, laughing again. "Anna's Dad said that the secret to finding the Place is in the family lineage!"
"...Uh huh...?"
"Stretch marks!" Miro says. "Lineage! Stretch marks! Do you get it?"
"Yes, we got it." Ricca says. "I got the joke at least five days ago. It's funny, but only if you get it within a week of it being told."
"Jeez... Making you laugh is like trying to pump air into a sock; Someone can try as hard as they can, but you'll just stay totally flat." Miro comments, rolling his eyes.
"Ah-" Anna begins, getting ready to speak but suddenly crossing her arms in front of her for warmth, due to a cold chill that passed by the group. Everyone else followed suit, feeling the breeze nearly penetrate them. "Whoa... Brr... What was that?"
"Well, it is Fall..." Miro begins, sounding unsure himself. "I guess that it could have been a cool breeze coming in from the North..."
"That didn't come from the North." Kate observes. "It came from... behind us."
The entire group whips around at once, looking into the shadowy area behind them. Everything was totally silent. No one dared to move for a while.
"...It could've just been a cold front, looping around, you know..." Matthew says hesitantly.
"It was a pretty tiny one." Anna says.
"I don't hear anything in there." Miro says. "I don't think that there is anything..."
"Let's get going, I don't want to be here any longer than I have to." Kate says. "And Ricca, are we nearly out of this place?"
Ricca nods slightly, without speaking.
"All right!" Anna says happily. "So we're nearly there? We've nearly found it? That's great!"
"Yeah, yeah, it's all great." Miro says. "Now let's get moving."
The group nods in agreement and turns, walking at a faster pace now.
"I hope that whatever that was doesn't decide to say hi." Matthew says.
"Well, we're nearly out of the woods." Miro points out. "The trip's almost over. Before we even know it, we'll be-"
"Home." A voice from behind them says. This causes the group to freeze on the spot, and eventually they reluctantly turn to see who it was.
Nothing.
Confused and nervous now, they begin to turn in their desired path again. However, as soon as they look forward for the third time they come nose-to-nose with the exact person that they did not want to meet.
William.
Shouting in panic, the group scrambles to turn around and run for it back into the deep woods. However, William somehow manages to get in front of them again without anyone even seeing a movement from him.
"You will not escape." William says, plain-as-day. His arms are crossed, but he seemed calm, not impatient.
"Just watch us!" Miro retorts, him and the rest of the group turning to run again, and after William places himself in front of them again, they turn in the other direction, to which William puts himself in front of them once more. After about twenty of these attempts, the group finally quits. William was in front of them, and the route to the Place was behind them.
"If you are quite finished, come with me." William says, lowering his arms but otherwise not moving.
"Uhh... Could... Could you give us a minute?" Miro requests. William nods very slightly and the group goes into a football huddle.
"Okay, I can think of two words for this situation: We Are Toast." Miro says to them.
"Miro, that's... never mind." Kate says, sighing. "Anyway, we're going to have to fight this guy if we want to keep going."
"Are you nuts?" Matthew asks. "William's too strong, we'll never win!"
"Do you have any other plans?!" Kate asks angrily.
"Why not give him a present and walk away while he's opening it?" Anna suggests.
"...Besides that." Kate says dryly.
Ricca, quiet up until now, breaks out of the huddle without a word.
"Ricca, what are you doing?" Matthew asks worriedly.
"I'll do it." Ricca says, without looking at him. She walks around the rest of the huddled group and towards William, staring him straight in the eye.
"Ricca, don't do it!" Anna says, her and the rest of the group also breaking the huddle. "You can't win!"
"Yeah, listen to her!" Miro says in agreement. "You won't get out of this one! Ricca? Ricca!"
"Quiet." Ricca says, hushing the rest of the group. "This is my fight. Better me than the rest of you. Go."
"But Ricca-" Kate begins.
"Go!" Ricca repeats, looking over to them for just a second. The rest of the group nods reluctantly and takes off down the route.
"Nothing is keeping me from going around you and following them." William says.
"Oh, really? You know where they are going, but if you leave me here, I promise that you'll never be able to find me." Ricca says in a challenging tone.
"...Possibly." William says. "Rethinking this, it would logically be more efficient to dispatch you first."
"Just try!" Ricca says, aiming a kick at him. William grabs her foot, however, and pushes it upward. This causes Ricca to backflip, but amazingly she lands on her feet.
"Heh... You call that a move?" Ricca mocks.
"Rest assured, you have not yet witnessed anything near my true ability." William replies.
-
Running down the path as fast as they could, the remainder of the group tries to put as much distance between themselves and William as possible. Miro looks around once and notices something.
"Hey! Why am I running in the front?" He asks.
"You always do!" Kate replies.
"Yeah, and I'm always the first to get hurt because of it!" Miro says.
"Well, let someone else run in front!" Matthew says.
"Okay." Miro says, grabbing Kate and placing her in front of him as they ran. "There, now I'm safe!"
"So you're putting me in danger for your own sake?" Kate asks.
"Yep." Miro replies, nodding.
"My, how generous of you." Kate says sarcastically.
"I do what I can." Miro says.
However, two steps later, Miro's plan is undone. Kate, being the one in front, catches her foot on a trip wire which sets off a trap. This trap turns out to be a net which quickly snags the majority of the group and hangs them up on a tree branch. The only one not caught by this trap was, ironically, Kate.
"Oww!"
"Hey, watch the shoulder!"
"Ouch! You've got your elbow in my..."
"Ugh, my foot's stuck under you!"
"My whole body's at a bad angle right now!"
"This huuuuuurts..."
"Quiet, Miro!"
"That wasn't me, that was Anna!"
"That wasn't me, that was Matthew!"
"OWW! Hands! Hands!"
"Oh, sorry..."
The three quiet down after a while and look around. They notice that Kate wasn't trapped with them.
"Oh, I'm not in the front ONCE and it turns out that I wouldn't get hurt if I was?!" Miro yells in frustration.
"I guess that's what you get." Kate says. "Just hang there for a second, I'm gonna try to get you out."
"'Hang there', that's classic, Kate." Miro replies sarcastically.
"Hey, did anyone notice something about this net?" Matthew asks.
Anna sniffs the air. "Hey, yeah, it smells like chocolate!"
"Wait a minute..." Miro says. "This is our net! We left it at the train tracks after I got hit!"
"But how did it get all the way over here...?" Matthew asks nervously.
Suddenly, they cease speaking after hearing a suspicious noise in front of them. Kate turns in that direction, preparing for whatever it was. The sound of footsteps heading toward them were heard, and whoever it was didn't bother to conceal the sound. A figure was soon visible, which Miro immediately recognized.
"Oh, bloody friggin' crap!" He says in a panicky tone, struggling at the net to the discomfort of its other occupants.
"Wh-What?! What is it?!" Matthew asks, a bit angrily due to Miro's flailing.
"It's... It's... MOM." Miro answers, not ceasing the struggle.
"You mean the very gene that made you dark and irritable?" Matthew asks.
"Yes..."
"Oh, this isn't good..."
Now, all three of them join in the effort of worthlessly convulsing in the net. However, they are stopped by a word.
"Stop."
Not a creative word, but a word. This word came from none other than the now-revealed silhouette of Nami, eyes their regular, slightly-glazed-over selves, hair exactly the same as always, and the only difference from her regular self being that she had a malevolent smirk on her face.
"Looks like I didn't get you all at once." She says. "Well, no problem. It's just a matter of persuasion."
"You ain't persuading any of us!" Kate says, glaring at Nami.
"Forget it, Kate!" Miro says. "Mom's too good, you have to run!"
"I'm not leaving any of you!" Kate replies stubbornly. "Besides, I don't have the map. There's only one way out of this..."
"Is that a challenge, Miss?" Nami asks, sounding amused. "What do you think you can achieve? You're young and inexperienced."
"And you're old and rusty." Kate retorts.
"Rusty?! OLD?" Nami says angrily, balling her hands into fists. "Why don't you tell that to Muffy and Celia?!"
"Why? Did you beat them in your last Shuffleboard match?" Kate asks.
"SHUFFLEB- How dare you!" Nami says, stepping towards her. "That's no way to talk to your future mother-in-law!"
"Mommmmm..." Miro groans.
"Well, why don't you do something about it?" Kate challenges, both of them ignoring Miro completely.
"That's exactly what I was thinking." Nami replies. "I'll show you old and rusty!"
"I bet you will." Kate agrees.
"Grr... Enough." Nami says, returning to a more calmed state. "Let's end this. Listen, I don't want to damage my son's girlfriend too badly-"
"MOM!"
"-so I'll let you come with me quietly, and you won't have to go inside the net."
"Err... Well, that's nice of you," Kate begins, shocked, but not quite as shocked as Miro obviously was, about Nami's remark. "But there's only one way I'm going back, and I believe it's called 'not at all'."
"What about 'dragged unconscious along with the others'?" Nami questions.
"No, that's how you're leaving here." Kate corrects her.
Nami shuts her eyes, determining that Kate had left her with no other choice, and suddenly runs at her.
"Uh-oh. Anna, throw me something!" Kate demands, stepping back slightly. Anna tries to reach for her pack, but was at an odd angle and couldn't quite reach it.
"I- I can't!" She says. "Matthew, you have to reach it!"
"I don't care who reaches it, just hurry!" Kate says, ducking under Nami's first blow and attempting to strike back. However, Nami just grabs her hand and throws her a distance away. She lands hard but gets up quickly.
"I... think I can reach..." Matthew says, trying to snake his hand toward the backpack. "Just... have to go... behind your leg here and maybe through here and... Hey, is this it?"
"EEK! NO!"
"Oh, sorry!!" Matthew says, suddenly receiving a kick in the head from Anna. "Oww! Sorry! Sorry!" He repeats. Reaching farther, he finally finds a clip and unclips it. Anna's handy weapon supply was now open. He reaches into the backpack with a feat of flexibility and pulls something out, shoving it through the net and letting it fall to the ground.
This weapon was a knife. A Swiss Army Knife.
Kate sees it fall to the ground, but so does Nami. Thankfully, Kate gets a grip on Nami's vest and pulls her back before she can reach it. Kate then grabs it, spinning around and facing Nami with it. Suddenly she notices that nothing was pulled out, so she tugs at the first part that she sees. It comes out with a soup spoon.
Nami snickers. "Would you like to see what I have? I remembered to bring these this time..." She puts her hands into her pockets and pulls out her two big, trusty carving knives.
"Oh, jeez..." Kate says, fiddling for another thing from her weapon. This time she pulls out a socket wrench. "...Good enough."
Kate swings the weapon at Nami, to which she quickly steps backward to dodge. Persisting, Kate steps forward and swing it again, horizontally, to Nami's face. However, Nami blocks the attack by catching it in her teeth.
"Whoa!" Matthew says in amazement.
"I told you she was tough." Miro says. "Mom once pulled a live grizzly bear out of our doghouse, knocked it unconscious, and dragged it back out to the wild."
"Yeah, but that at least doesn't involve her teeth..." Matthew replies. "What does she floss with, steel wires?"
"...Actually, yes." Miro admits, looking almost proud. "And one time, she chewed through a block of concrete and asked for seconds!"
"Why in the world would she do that?" Anna asks.
"She didn't want to seem rude. It was Dad's cooking day."
"Oooooh..."
Nami, meanwhile, spits out the socket wrench part that Kate was holding onto, which caused Kate to stumble slightly. Not wasting any time, Nami pulls her hand back and strikes Kate in the back of the head with the handle of one of her knives. Kate falls unconscious on the ground, to the gasps and shock of the people in the net.
-------
The sun was shining brightly in the beautiful Spring morning that Forget-Me-Not Valley was so famous for, and the people were walking around quite randomly, simply wanting to enjoy the weather rather than actually make progress in their quaint little lives. This was a nice, but slightly boring day for young Kate, and she found herself walking down the hill and sitting, quietly thinking of something to pass the time with.
After a moment, the figure of an adult trots to her, holding something much smaller. Turning her head, Kate notices that this person was Jack, the idiot farmer who lived on top of the hill. The thing he was holding was his young son, who seemed to be a bit reluctant to be out of the house, but went along with his Dad since he didn't know better yet.
"You see this, Miro?" Jack asks, motioning to Kate and holding his son in front of her. "This is called a prospect. Can you say that? PRRROOOSSSPECT."
"Pwospit." The boy repeats.
"...Close enough." Jack says. "Say, Kate, what do you think of my son?"
Kate had seen the child before, walking with his mother, but she never took much heed of his existence. Mind you, seeing him up-close now acted as a reminder that Hugh wasn't the only other child she could torment- err, play with.
"He's sooo cuuuute!" Kate says, standing up and looking Miro eye-to-eye.
"Really?" Jack says. He then looks at the child in his arms. "Do you hear that, Miro? She thinks you're cute! That almost definitely means that you'll marry her!"
"Ma...wwy?" Miro repeats, unsure of what the word meant. He was bright, for a young toddler, but his vocabulary still had some gaps to fill.
"Yep!" Jack says. He then looks at Kate. "So, when can I expect some grandkids?"
"What?" Kate asks. "Eww, I'm not gonna marry him!"
"Oh... I guess you're still too young to understand-"
"I'm gonna marry HIM!" Kate finishes, pulling out a picture of David Hasselhoff and showing it to Jack.
"...Oy. That'll be tough to compare with..." Jack admits. "Jeez, just look at the abs on that guy..."
"But, what's your kid's name, anyway?" Kate asks, putting the picture away and looking up at Jack.
"His name's Miro." Jack says.
"Oh..." Kate looks back down to the kid, and stared him right in the face.
"HI MIRO!" She yells happily, causing Miro to yell in surprise and grab onto his father, trembling. Kate laughs and waves as they walk away. That Miro kid was going to be a real fun time to mess around with.
-------
"Ugghhh..." Kate groans as she regains her consciousness from the concussion-triggered dream sequence. She opens her eyes and gets up from the ground, noticing first that she and her friends were still in the same place, and that no one had been taken. Kate spots Nami leaning against a tree, as though she was waiting for Kate to get back up. When she notices that Kate had, she looks over to her and walks from the tree.
"I re-thought how the fight was going, and I found it unfair." She says. "You weren't prepared right from the beginning, so I think you deserve a second chance."
"You do realize that when the bad guy gives the good guy a second chance, that the good guy usually ends up winning?" Kate asks, brushing herself off. "I mean, it's almost like a law."
"I realize that." Nami says. "But there is no real 'bad guy' in this situation. You have your reasons and I have mine. We're good guys for different causes, so in theory, it can go either way."
"If you say so..." Kate says, reaching for her knife again. Trying to decide which one to pull, Kate is reminded of her dream and finds a red, Miro-colored handle in amongst the others crammed into the little Swiss Army Knife. Pulling it out, with a bit of difficulty, Kate finally gets a good one. A really big, really shiny sword that totally defied the physics of the tiny little handle that it usually remained sheathed in. Kate wasn't one to ask questions, however, and she looked over to Nami smugly.
"Round two?" She asks.
"Begin." Nami replies.
(HEY! I haven't had an author's note in a while, so I'd like to take this time to thank my reviewers, and reply to a particular reviewer's mention of wanting to draw a character from my Fic. If this person wants to follow through with the idea, I can post up an in-deph physical description of William when I do my next chapter. Anyway, I'm leaving you in suspense with this, since it's getting a bit long. G'bye!)