Chapter 26: Adventure of a Strifetime
(I'm back you guys, sorry for the long wait, again. University psychology classes are as difficult as they sound. The good news is screw week has come and gone. Now I can devote more time to finishing the story.)
On the brighter side of the spectrum, the gang was following Doom's lead to confront my captor.
"So, let me see if I've got this right. We're gonna follow Doom on foot to find whoever kidnapped Zaí with no idea who or what were going up against?" Iris asked.
"That's the gyst of it, yes" Ruby answered.
"So why aren't we taking a train or something? Wouldn't that be quicker and to a lesser extent safer?" Len asked.
"Len, do you even remember what happened last time we got on a train?" Frank reminded him of their infamous trip on the rails.
(Flashback: "Last Train to Gloomsville" the gang are seen on a runaway train with the engineer thrown clear and ending with the train falling through the tracks)
"Oh yeah, right." Len said remembering "That trip was totally bogus anyway, the Wocca-Wocca bird is so elusive it might as well only exist on other planets!"
"Len, can we focus on the issue at hand now?" his brother asked him.
"Sorry" he answered sheepishly.
Doom continued to lead the gang in my direction for a good clean half hour, considering I was unconscious they were seeing the way a lot better than I had. Eventually the route lead straight out of Gloomsville altogether into the much more wild part of the world where the only comforts of home were storm clouds and a sentient moon with big girly eyes watching over you.
Eventually the fellowship came across a clearing.
Doom stopped dead in her tracks.
"Uh oh, looks like Doom's lost the trail." Ruby said.
"Now how will we find Zaí?" Poe questioned.
"Skull Boy, now might be a good time for one of your inspirational leadership messages." Ruby whispered to her crush.
"Uhh..Right, inspire." He started pacing the ground running the idea around in his head trying to find a solution. Until.
"That's it!" he hollered.
"What's it?" Len asked slightly jostled by the sudden expression.
In his confident explorer voice he said "If we've lost the trail of our culprit then it's clear that they would've known someone would be coming after them. Therefore, the assailant would've gone through extra precautions to cover their tracks and took Zaí in the most difficult direction to be followed from."
"That's a great idea Skull Boy" Ruby said. "Okay, everybody look around and try to see if there are any obstacles that the kidnapper would've gone through to ensure nobody followed them."
The gang all split up and looked in several directions spanning the clearings edge, from an outside glance nothing seemed out of the ordinary, that is until.
"Hey you guys" Skull Boy informed the others, "I think I found it."
Everyone else rushed over and found a very large, dense thicket made of dark grey brambles with no visible vegetation and seemed to span the length of the Titanic, Britannic and Olympic besides one another.
"That does not look very inviting, perhaps we should quit while we're ahead?" Scaredy said sort of half aware no one would agree with him.
"I know it's not the ideal way to go, but it's the only way they could've taken Zaí." Ruby told him.
"And it looks like going around isn't an option." Frank added.
Poe cleared his throat "If I may make an observation?"
"Sure"/"Go ahead"/"By all means" said the others.
"Although this labyrinth is unavoidable, I do believe that Scaredy and myself are capable of flying over it" Poe observed.
"That could be beneficial" said Skull Boy clearly impressed with Poe's idea. "With an aerial view we can avoid certain dangers and Poe can see the fastest way out.
"Flying? Oh dear, I am afraid my nerves are far too wracked to be in the sky, I suffer from a terrifying case of vertigo." Scaredy said.
"It's okay Scaredy, I had a feeling this would be hard for you, but remember when we needed you to fly to make that movie?" Ruby reminded Scaredy.
"I still haven't forgotten" Scaredy admitted.
"Well if you could do it back then you can do it again now." Iris added.
"Remember, it's entirety up to you Scaredy." Skull Boy added.
Then Frank pitched in saying "It boils down to two options. A) Fly over this thorny forest. Or B) Go through it."
Scaredy looked into the metaphorical adversary he was facing and as much as he didn't like flying going through it didn't seem like a viable option either. Or at least no better.
(Sorry to end on a cliffhanger you guys, but it but it looks to me like Scaredy's going to need some time to figure this one out all by himself. But don't worry I'll have a new chapter up and running in no time. BTW, adversary was Merriam-Websters word of the day, so I just couldn't resist including it in here.)