XXVII - The Island

The rest of the trip was made in silence - thankfully.

Orm had made his stance on matters very clear, and she hoped she had made hers clear as well. The whole world was at stake - they could wait.

That was, if there even was a 'they' at all.

After all, she had come on this quest to help Arthur stop Manta and save the world as they knew it. Orm being there was a chance for closure, that was it, that was all.

Yes, saving the world came first - her complicated feelings for Orm could wait, that is, if they even came up at all.

Yeah right.

At last - at long last - they arrived on the island of Devil's Deep.

"Ha! I win!" Arthur laughed, flopping onto the beach, not necessarily first but ahead of the other two. They were too busy trying to catch their breaths after the long and intense swim to respond or care.

"Topo, go back to Atlantis and give them our coordinates," Arthur ordered their cephalopod companion, who blupped his way back out into the water, leaving the three behind.

"Are you okay?" Orm asked her.

"Yeah, just out of breath." She figured there was no harm in checking on him too. "You?"

He nodded.

Post-long swim, now began the long trek across the island.

"Where exactly on this island are we supposed to go?" Tatiana asked.

"Fish guy said something about a volcano."

"The farthest point on the island from us?" Orm sighed. "Excellent."

"Hey, now you're getting the sarcasm thing!" Arthur told him. He was ignored.

"Wow, it's so beautiful here," she gushed.

"Yeah, Fish said something about this island being barren before."

"That will be the work of the orichalcum," Orm stated.

Tatiana was worried about things being awkward between her and Orm, not to say they weren't already, but thankfully Arthur talked enough for the three of them combined, which left little time to worry.

"You know what would be amazing right now? A giant, greasy cheeseburger and a pint of Guinness!" He made a gulping sound and laughed. Orm scoffed at the whole spectacle. "Hold up, are you saying you've never had a cheeseburger? Or a slice of za, pepperoni? Or a big, juicy medium rare steak with fries and a shake to dip them in-"

"What are you eating? Even the words Surface Dwellers use for their food sound disgusting." All of this sounded nothing like the delicious words Tatiana had taught him: souvlaki, saganaki, moussaka... "Well what about spanakopita? Or dolmathes and horiatiki?" He was looking at Tatiana when he said this, and she appeared surprised.

Arthur hummed. "Sure. That's not really my taste, but go for it! My point is, don't knock it till you try it. You're letting your prejudice stop you from enjoying half the world. You should think about that. Your loss, Dude." Then he laughed and hurried over to a nearby branch, grabbing something off it: a rather large cockroach. "Bet you never had one of these!"

Orm recoiled. "What is it?"

"It's a cockroach."

"You eat it?"

"Oh yeah, shrimp of the land."

Behind Orm's back Tatiana was waving and mouthing 'NO!' but Arthur ignored her. She sighed - this was definitely going to come back to bite him in the ass later.

Orm accepted the 'food' and peered down at it for a moment before holding it up to his lips and-

CRUNCH!

The sound it made as he bit into it almost made her sick, but it mustn't have tasted all that bad because he chewed thoughtfully, nodding as he went. He turned and offered the second half to her but she shook her head and politely declined and so he stuffed the rest in his mouth.

"See, that's good. Here, drink this-" Now Arthur grabbed a coconut from a nearby tree. This she would try.

"Ugh-" But when he broke it open, thick, dark goo spilled out.

"Okay, you first," Orm told him. Snack time was over and so the trek continued.

Tatiana wandered ahead, staring at their surroundings with wonder.

Arthur matched his pace to Orm's and was grinning at him. "So..."

He furrowed his brow. "So what?"

"How are things going with Tatiana?"

"It is none of your business."

"I feel it kinda is."

"Why do you even care? You took me away from her."

"Hey, I thought you willing went back to prison. Don't throw that on me. I'm just trying to help you out. And you could argue that now I've brought you both back together."

Orm sighed, giving in. "Not well, admittedly. She wants to focus on the quest, which I cannot argue with. But I also want to figure things out between us." He nodded up ahead to where she was. "Look at her, she's glowing. I love that glow."

Arthur grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. "Tell you what, as soon as this mission is over, I'll be your wingman."

"My what?"

A gasp from up ahead alerted them to the woman in question. "You guys, you have to come see this!"

They broke through the thick foliage to reveal the most lush, bright jungle. And ahead, there was their destination, the volcano.

Tatiana was indeed glowing, beaming at the sight of it all. "O Theé mou!"

Before them, a butterfly with the most beautiful colouring floated. But that wasn't even the most shocking part: the butterfly was huge!

"Are you seeing this?" breathed Arthur as the butterfly landed on an equally huge flower directly before them.

"That's not normal?" Orm asked.

The moment was shattered however, when the flower seemed to come alive and ate the butterfly! They all gasped and jumped back.

"Definitely not normal. Ugh..." The flower chomped away at the poor creature. "Let's get out of here."

"You see how dangerous the orichalcum can be?" Orm cried as they cut back into the jungle.

"That's why everything is so much bigger than usual?" Tatiana said.

"Yes. It must have mutated the flora and fauna of the whole island in a short amount of time, turning it mon-strous..."

"O Theé mou..."

"Whoa..."

Monstrous was right. Before them, much less brilliant than the giant butterfly, was a giant rat.

A very dead giant rat.

If she had thought she was going to be sick earlier with the cockroach, she was certainly going to be now with this.

And then it got worse - it turned out the rat was being feasted upon by giant bugs, who now fixed their multiple eyes on the three travelers.

"RUN!"

The three took off, followed closely by the bugs. When Arthur, in the lead, turned to check back on the others, he found Tatiana, even with her small stature, ahead of Orm who was - well, doing something.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I don't know - I'm not used to running!" The blond brother was bent over at an awkward angle, arms stiffly out at his sides.

"Makes sense!" Tatiana chimed in. "You're used to swimming."

"Exactly!"

"Do what I do, move your arms and legs!" Arthur instructed.

"Like this?" Orm straightened up and moved his arms and legs together, exaggeratedly for anyone else but normally for him. "Yeah!"

"Holy shit!" Arthur cried as Orm overtook them.

"Yeah!"

Arthur now threw a glance over his shoulder at her. "Keep up, Shorty!"

"I'm trying!" The amulet may have helped with her swimming, but not running.

"Don't talk about her that way!" Orm roared from ahead.

"Again, a joke!"

"Here-" Orm drew to a halt so quickly she almost smashed into him. "May I try something?"

"Um, sure - oh!" Before she knew it, she was being scooped into his arms, bridal-style. Before she could protest, he took off running again.

Not for long though. Pretty soon they had reached a dead end: a cliff's edge.

"Oh no!" She jumped out of Orm's arms as they all skidded to a halt, trapped.

"We can jump, we'll survive the fall," Orm decided.

"Are you kidding? That'll hurt." She had to agree with Arthur on this one.

"So what are we going to do? Stay here and fight the hopping demons?"

Neither option sounded ideal.

Arthur growled. "What is that? What does it say?" He gestured to the base of the giant statue towering over them.

"It looks like Ancient Atlantean," she cried.

"It is," Orm confirmed. "'A true King builds bridges'."

"'A true King builds bridges', huh?" Arthur backed up away from the statue.

"What are you doing?"

"AH!" He gave a whoop and jumped, slamming into the statue - and promptly fell to the ground in a groaning heap.

Tatiana gasped. "Arthur! Are you okay?"

Orm, much less concerned, just stared down at him unimpressed. "Got any more krill-brain ideas?"

But their attention was caught by a deep rumble: the statue broke free from its stand and fell perfectly across the gap in the cliff, a literal bridge.

"Ha, see that, a true king builds bridges." Arthur gave another whoop and charged across the bridge.

"Works for me!" She was quick to follow.

"It's a metaphor!" Orm roared.

"Hey! I forgot to tell you: mom says she loves you and thinks about you all the time!" Arthur called as they ran.

"Aw!" she cried.

"Why the hell are you telling me this now?"

"I don't know! I'm just tired of waiting for the right moment."

As soon as they were on the other side of the cliff they all pitched in to shove the statue off the edge to prevent the bugs from using their bridge as well.

"We would not have survived that fall," she stated, watching the bugs take the plunge.

Arthur was still grinning. "Ha, looks like my metaphor just saved our asses."

The whole jungle part is just too much fun! ;)

Still borrowing from my other Orm's stories!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)