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Title of Chapter: Avoiding Epic Fail Jumps Over Rivers
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Lucipher and Hadoken!
Warning: Very mild language, very, very mild language.
Next Day
"What now?" Li Mei asked, dipping her hand into the water of the river. This river – it ran through the forest. It was swift and deeper more so at some points than at other points. Her hand acted as an obstacle in the way of the flow, so she pulled out her hand and wiped it on her pants. "Couldn't we get Sub-Zero to freeze it or something?" I looked up inquiringly at the man in question, but he just shook his head.
"It wouldn't work. This river is too deep, even with my and Luci's powers combined," Sub-Zero responded vaguely. "There should be another way across." I peered over the bank and into the clear waters. As it went farther down, however, it got deeper. Even just peering over gave me the chills; they rattled up my spine. Kano and Jarek were searching the area around us, as Kung Lao and Jade walked up and down the bank in search of an alternate route. Kira came up next to me.
She seemed to be judging the distance, but I wasn't too sure. The red head backed up, counting her steps. She stuck one of her blades in the ground about ten feet away, which was the distance between the bank and the tree. "Look," she commented, coming back over to us. "The distance between the tree and the bank is about ten feet. When looking more closely…I think the river is about ten feet wide. Kobra and I can jump that." The red head smirked and ran back to her blade, picking it up.
Kobra looked on as his counterpart sprinted towards the bank. She used a carefully placed rock as a springboard and flipped across the river, landing gracefully on one knee. Kobra nodded and did the same, landing hard on his feet. Sub-Zero watched Kano and Jarek walk back over to us, followed by Jade and Kung Lao. "Let's get on with this, then," Kano said, backing up. He made it across easily, and Kung Lao and Jade were next. Kenshi followed, Li Mei and Hadoken crossed at the same time, and that left Subs, Jarek, and me.
"Let's go, Jarek!" Kobra called, amusement in his voice. Jarek just rolled his eyes, and for a second I saw him eye the water. As I turned to my left I saw that Sub-Zero was already across. Jarek and I glanced at each other; apparently neither of us could jump that far. Kobra and Kira started laughing, mostly at Jarek, though. Li Mei gave me a what-the-hell look as I shook my head. If you recall, I'm…afraid of water. Jarek followed my lead, unsure of what to do with himself.
"I'll fall in," I replied, looking around. There had to be a shallow, slower part of the river, right? "C'mon, Jarek!" I said abruptly, taking him by the wrist and dragging him along with me. Now, I didn't like Jarek in the least, but I had some form of sympathy for him now that we shared this fear/weakness. He ripped his wrist away but followed me regardless. "I'll find another way across!" I called back to the others. "Keep going!" They nodded after a moment, and took off through the forest.
"This is just great!" Jarek exclaimed, folding his arms across his chest. "I'm stuck with you! Why couldn't I have gotten stuck with one of the pretty ones?" I ignored this, but it was extremely hard. "So what's your plan?" I glanced at him for just a moment, before stopping and looking around. He stopped next to me and waited impatiently for an answer.
"Well, if I'm right, there should be a shallow, slower part of the river. So that's what we're going to find. I can't make a jump like that, and I'm afraid of water," I explained. He nodded for me to continue. "That's the plan. If that fails, then we're up the crick without a paddle." With that being said, I started to walk again. It took a moment for me to hear his footfalls just behind me again, and I thought of something. "Either you walk in front of me or next to me," I told him, stopping.
Jarek came up next to me, kick axe in hand. "Too bad," he said, smirking at my expression. I rolled my eyes and continued walking, so he walked next to me. Neither of us trusted the other, but right now, it didn't really matter. After a while, we fell into a somewhat comfortable silence. I examined the river every so often, but I couldn't find anything that gave clues as to how deep the water was. Another issue was that it began to rain again, and this time hard, coming through the canopy of trees. The forest darkened considerably, taking on a gray-blue hue.
"This will only make the river rise," I said in frustration and fear. I walked to the bank, keeping my footfalls careful so that I wouldn't slip in the mud. Jarek came up next to me, but he slid and I grabbed his elbow to help him. It wouldn't look good for me to go back to the others with no Jarek. He looked at me incredulously and I just shrugged and responded by saying, "I only saved you to save myself." He grunted and looked into the water. I summoned an ice dagger and dropped it into the water.
It sank down, but it caught in the mud just a few feet below the water. "We're getting closer," I concluded, not daring to reach back down to get my dagger. "Let's go." I carefully came back onto the wet grass, and through the pouring rain I watched Jarek do the same. Together, we continued through the forest, seemingly coming closer to a shallow end. There was a large row of trees blocking our path, so Jarek used his axe to cut us a path. I don't think it mattered that we hated each other; we both wanted the same thing.
We came out on the other side, and as we walked a little farther, the grass disappeared and slick stone replaced it. There were puddles everywhere, so we had to slosh through a few of them. We reached another section of the river, where I dropped another ice dagger inside it. It was much slower, as well, and the dagger only sank about a foot and a half down. "Now is as good a time as ever," Jarek muttered under his breath. I left the dagger behind again, and we crossed through the river.
"Now we just have to catch up with the others," I said, more to myself than to Jarek. We took off, running through the forest. Eventually, we slowed to a walk. "I wonder how far they got without us." Jarek snorted at my comment, amused is some strange way. We pushed through the last, thick line of trees, where we came to a dirt path.
"How far did they get?" Jarek asked, sounding a little surprised.
"They couldn't have gotten that far," I said matter-of-factly, shaking my head…but I wasn't so sure. It was getting darker again because of the gray storm clouds. I picked up the pace and kept to the dirt path, while Jarek trailed a little farther behind me. After a few minutes I realized he was farther back, and I stopped and waited. "Would you hurry up?" Jarek just flicked me on the side of the head, and started to walk again.
Later That Evening
I kept treading on Jarek's heels, because it was so dark. And plus it was fun to annoy him. It kept me occupied, as we kept going. The moon rose up high in the sky, but there were only patches of it shining down on the old dirt path. Clouds kept passing in front of it. As we progressed, we could see little specks of light in the distance. "A village!" I exclaimed joyously, clasping my hands together. Jarek gave me the no-duh look, but he looked relieved as well. The two of us quickened our paces in the dead of the night.
As we got closer, an aroma floated through the air. It smelled a lot like food, which was something neither of us had eaten in two days. We glanced at each other before bolting for the source of the smell, pushing and shoving each other out of the way. If there was one thing I always took seriously, it was my food. We came to a small hut, which was well built and sturdy. I pushed Jarek to the side as we looked in through the window. Inside was an old woman; she was preparing something.
Jarek drew out his axe but I slapped his wrist. He looked at me incredulously after I put my hands on my hips. "There's an easier way to get food," I whispered, going over to the hut's door. I knocked once or twice, as Jarek put away his axe and approached me. The door flew open and the gray haired lady looked at both of us. "Excuse us, but do you have any food? We haven't eaten in two days and we've been travelling through the forest nearby," I explained, looking to Jarek for some form of support.
"Right," he agreed, glancing back down at me.
"How I know you not evil?" she asked, eyeing us both. Her English was clearly very broken, but nonetheless, she spoke it. "You may be Black Dragon clan." I shook my head while Jarek shrugged. I nudged him and he shook his head, as well. "Alright, weary travelers, come in." She hobbled out of the way and let us through. "Eat up!" Jarek and I made a mad dash for the table, getting our paws on whatever we could find. "You hungry," the lady said, eyes wide. "I make more."
I pulled up a chair and sat down, reaching across the table for the loaf of bread. Jarek did as I did, except he reached for the bowl of rice. When eating, it was like we weren't enemies. We seemed more at ease with each other. I picked up some weird food I had never seen before and Jarek watched as I examined it. "What is it?" he asked, swallowing a rather large bite of rice.
"I do not know," I responded, looking over at the old lady. She was humming some weird tune, but it was calming nonetheless. "Lemme see." I ripped part of it off and ate it; it was amazingly good. It had a garlic sort of flavor, but with a spicy kick. It resembled a loaf of bread, but you could see the garlic and spices in the crust and dough. "Here, try it," I prompted, handing Jarek the other half. He took it as soon as I held it out and woofed it down.
"Is there anymore of it?" he asked when he had finished. I shrugged and looked across the table, searching for more of the bread and a few napkins. However, both things evaded me. Since I could find no napkins, I took off my right glove and used it. "What the hell?"
"No vulgar language!" the lady shouted over her shoulder. Jarek looked like he was about to kill her, but she said, "You want eat, right?" He sighed and sat back, repeating his sentence, replacing hell with heck.
"I don't have a napkin," I replied, holding up my glove. "It acts as a substitute."
"No, I meant your arms!" Jarek replied, picking up another bowl of rice.
"Huh?" I asked, looking down. "Oh! You mean the ice, right?" He nodded as he ate, looking over at me. It seemed that Jarek was much calmer when eating, so I'd have to keep that in mind. "It happened a little while ago." I just shrugged and returned to eating. The lady replaced the food we had eaten, including the bread. I almost had to fight Jarek for it, but I snagged it and split it in half, giving him one half and keeping the other for myself. This is how the evening continued, with us making up for two days worth of meals missed.
When I finished, I stood up and stretched, walking outside. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Jarek walk over to her couch and pretty much pass out from the exhaustion and the food coma. I wondered where the rest of the group was. How far had they gotten? What to do now… I was tired, very tired, but I wanted to find Sub-Zero and the others. I wondered if Kano was cursing Jarek out for getting lost. But I suppose it was partly my fault. Of course Jarek didn't have to follow me, so it's his fault, too…
I walked back into the hut and the old lady looked at me and said, "Big idiot took couch. No gentleman these days." I laughed at her comment and looked over at the sleeping form of Jarek. At least we had managed to not kill each other. "I set mat out for you." She pointed to a comfortable looking mat with a few blankets and pillows.
"Thank you," I said, bowing. She bowed back and then hobbled over to the table. I walked over to the mat and lay down, pulling the covers up to my shoulders. It wasn't hard to fall asleep that night, so gratefully I went to bed, wondering what the next morning would hold in store for Jarek and me.
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