Chapter 11

CRASH.

Fumu jumped up with a startled yell, eyes wide and heart pounding. The deafening noise that had awoken her, sounding almost like a gigantic whip being cracked, was punctuated by deep, rolling echoes loud enough to cause the ground underneath her to vibrate. She groaned, rubbing her temples as her brief moment of blind, instinctual fear gave way to logic. Thunder.

The others had all woken up simultaneously from the noise as well. Bun and Kirby clutched each other tightly, before Bun realized that the noise was just thunder and tried to save face by folding his arms. Kirby, caring a bit less about his ego, hopped over the group with an almost unnatural speed to reach Fumu. She felt him bury his warm face in her side and smiled, patting his head.

"It's okay Kirby, just thunder. It scared me too."

The armor-clad warriors, all startled out of their sleep as well, sat tensely in the tent. Fumu looked outside; it was still dark, either very late at night or very early in the morning. A second crack of thunder then tore through the air, the strike landing so close that everyone was blinded as the blast of sound hit a split second later.

Meta Knight looked outside, wrapped in his cape, staring out at the blinding flashes of light without so much as a flinch.

"Be ready to collect rainwater" he said, his deep voice sounding oddly soft in contrast to the deafening thunder that still echoed around them.

The Star Warrior was right. Less than a minute after the first thunder strike which woke them all up, rain began to pour down in the jungle. Their shelter, strong enough to hold up against light drizzles and breezes, was no match for a torrent of real rainfall. The leaves above them buckled under the water and gave way, dousing them with splashes of surprise water as if they were being bombed from above by water balloons. Sword looked up nervously right as a section of roof above him collapsed, sending a torrent of water right into the frontal opening of his helmet. Blade laughed at his friend, who was letting loose all manner of curses not appropriate for the children present, before the roof gave way and hit him as well.

"HAH!" Sword said triumphantly as Blade looked up, sheepish, the red decorative plume on top of his helmet draped limp and wet over his helmet like soaked hair.

Meta Knight turned to glare at them, narrowly dodging a trickle of water springing from the ceiling above him.

"This shelter is spent. Spread out and collect as much rainwater as you can." Meta Knight ordered, throwing the lower half of his cape over his head to shield himself from the rain as much as possible as he proceeded out into the soaking wet jungle.

"He's right" Fumu added, frowning as she addressed the group. "And if you're thirsty, you'd better get a drink now. This is going to be the freshest water we can get for a while."

Kirby was already way ahead of them. He stood outside, reveling in the feeling of raindrops hitting his hot face and body after having been active in the jungle for hours. He tilted his head back and held his large mouth open wide, using it as a basin to collect and drink as much rainwater as possible.

Bun looked at Fumu, hands on his elbows and clearly uncomfortable with the notion. "What about the lightning? It sounded awfully close..."

Fumu leaned over to pat her brother on the shoulder. "The worst of that has passed, at least. Also, lightning prefers to hit tall things and we're surrounded by trees. We'd be more in danger from a tree getting struck by lightning and falling on us than lightning itself."

Bun's eye roll was hidden behind his bangs. "Thanks, Sis, that's so much more comforting!"

Fumu grinned sheepishly as she realized how her words of encouragement backfired. "Oops. Sorry."

Outside, everyone used the rain for both drinking and showering. Meta Knight walked a good distance away from the others, making sure no one could see him, before he quickly removed his mask and allowed the rain to wash the side of the disc that covered his face. He then did the same to the rest of his armor systematically, allowing the torrential downpour to act as a pressure washer on his spaulders and sabatons. He would have rather had a warmer, less sudden wash but at least he had the opportunity to cleanse his body and armor with the purest water possible in their environment.

All seven used the firmer, broader leaves, the same types used for their shelter's roofing, to collect as much rainwater as possible. Though nowhere near as efficient as a bowl, they did allow a small degree of collection. The group then, their shelter destroyed and their bodies now soaked to the bone with rainwater, took as much shelter as they could by hiding under whatever they could find. A large, nearby tree with fairly low branches was the closest thing to a roof they could find, and all 7 crowded tightly under the space. The sky began to turn a deep grayish-blue through the rain; dawn was coming.

Bun shivered. "You know what it's like when you go to take a shower, and you turn it on, and the faucet spits out really cold water, and you wait for it to heat up, but it never does because the heat's broken or something? That's what this feels like, doesn't it?"

Meta Knight looked at the young boy from the corner of his eye. "An apt metaphor."

Bun looked at Meta Knight and tilted his head slightly. He then turned to look at Fumu, head tilting in another direction.

Fumu grinned. "He said yeah, totally like that."

"Oh!" Bun said, quizzical expression turning into a smile.

"Po-y-y-y-y-o" Kirby stammered, shivering. Fumu, frowning, held the smaller creature in her arms in an attempt to warm him.

"It'll be over soon." Fumu said soothingly.

Shieldmaiden stood with her back to the tree, wings spread and mantled over her like a hawk. Sword and Blade crouched nearby, each one holding one of the broad leaves over their heads. Meta Knight looked downwards at his feet. He noticed the ground beneath him growing slick and muddy, thin channels of water forming between and around his legs like a miniature delta. He frowned.

"We should head to higher ground" Meta Knight noted, lifting a purple sabaton that was already trying to stick into the mud. "The water level is rising rather quickly..."

Blade nodded. "Flooding right now would be bad news."

"What about our water supply?" Fumu asked, brow furrowed in worry.

Meta Knight glanced down at their carefully arranged circle of leaves, a short distance away. Already the water was rising so high around the leaves that several had already drifted off with the rainwater.

Meta Knight's eyes dimmed. "It would take longer to die of thirst than to drown..."

"He's got a point" Shieldmaiden interjected in a lighter tone, trying to soften his words and preserve the group's morale. "It'll rain again in the jungle. We can collect water again. But if we get flooded out, that's a way tougher problem to solve and one that we can't exactly wait for a fix to."

Fumu grimaced. Though the idea of walking away from what little water they had bothered her, she knew they were both right. If they all got overwhelmed and swept into a nearby river, it was highly likely that all but the strongest swimmers would drown.

She nodded to the two. "Let's go."

The group moved at once through the jungle. Sword and Blade took the lead, still being forced to hack their way through the foliage even as the rain poured down on them. Half-blind from the poor early morning lighting and the torrential rain, they had no idea where they were going; they were simply heading to what felt like higher ground. The others held their ground behind them, lifting their feet constantly even if in place to avoid getting them stuck in the pale brown, muddy water that rushed underneath them. In time, the rain slowed; the others, cold and soaked, were finally able to see more than a few feet in front of them. As they walked, they noticed that the ground underneath them felt less soft and more solid. A steady beeping began to come from Shieldmaiden. She reached into her own armor to pull out her transmitter, which had been protected from the worst of the rain by staying in her breastplate. The machine appeared to detect something.

Sword and Blade continued to hack through the jungle, taking turns with their swords at the trees as they painstakingly carved a single-file path through the rainforest. Blade raised his arm to chop the next batch of foliage out of the way, only to notice that there wasn't enough to merit force. Curiously, he pushed the strands out of the way with his hand easily and walked forward. He looked behind at Sword, who proceeded to follow him.

"Hey, I think the jungle's lighteni-AAH!" Blade dropped, disappearing in front of Sword's eyes.

"BLADE!" Sword cried, leaning forward.

Less than a second later, the group heard a light thud.

Meta Knight rushed forward, cape unfurling into wings as he stepped past Sword. He stopped, teetering on the precipice of a sudden edge; the ground gave way to a strange, curiously-shaped square pit. Gripping the ledges with his hands, Meta Knight leaned in.

"Blade. Are you okay?" Meta Knight called into the pit.

"Unnnghh...yeah, fine..." a weary voice responded from the hole. "Whoa...hey guys, you should come down here and check this out."

Meta Knight looked to Sword, cocking a hidden eyebrow. Sword looked back at him before gripping the ledge, slowly lowering his body into the pit backwards with his feet feeling around for a foothold. He suddenly slipped, hands loosening as he fell into the hole.

The clang of metal on metal echoed upwards from the chamber as Sword collided into Blade. Sword rose, dizzy and already caked with a new lair of mud, before his hidden jaw dropped at what Blade had seen. Carved within the rock on the other end of the large pit, nearly hidden by the jungle's greenery, there stood what appeared to be the entrance to a ruin or tomb. A small square door, rounded and weathered with age, stood at the end of a crude and mossy doorway. Shafts of morning sunlight seeped through the door's entrance, revealing blackness within. The others followed, Shieldmaiden and Meta Knight using their wings to safely carry in Fumu and Bun respectively. Kirby gently floated in behind them, using his balloon-like flying ability to ensure a gentle landing.

Fumu's jaw dropped, eyes widening. She couldn't believe what she was seeing - actual ruins. Ruins that may have never been discovered by modern civilization, a site that was possibly unknown to Popstar's finest scientists! She started to quiver in place, tired face breaking into a huge smile.

"This...is...incredible!" Fumu managed to say.

Meta Knight's eyes rested on Shieldmaiden's detecting machine. It was beeping as rapidly as if it were an alarm clock. Shieldmaiden looked up from the device, her cyan eyes meeting his.

"I think we found the site of our first piece."