Everything turned out normal in the afternoon, Asher's learning while Esther's teaching, Parker's sorting books while Heather's helping her reach the top shelves, Mercer's resting from the fight that he had while reading a fantasy book, and suddenly a stranger entered the library to check some books.
He was asking Parker and Heather for a book, they pointed southeast, he walked to the direction they pointed without disturbing Asher and Esther. As he goes to a certain shelf and picks a book, Mercer noticed him and yelled,
"What the heck!"
The stranger looked at him too, and recognized Mercer, "For crying out loud, why are you here!?"
"Why am I here? Why are YOU here!?"
"I was getting a limited edition sci-fi book that is more superior than all fantasy books!"
"No wonder it smelled so bad in here, there's the sci-fi section in front of me."
"Why you--"
"What's going on here?" Esther interrupted.
"Uhh... Esther?" Asher told her, "That's the guy who was on fire..."
"You mean, that's Oliver?"
"How did you know my name? I bet it was you who told them!" Oliver accused Mercer.
Mercer testified, "I didn't say anything, and if I did, I doubt they'd be interested in a space geek like you!"
"You watch your words, you ancient savage are no match for my intelligence."
"Intelligence my butt! You were a sore loser earlier! What's so intelligent about that!?"
"Stop it both of you!" Heather stops them.
Parker warned, "Guys, this is a library. Please be quiet or we'll force you to get out."
"Hmph!" Oliver walks away.
"Tch!" Mercer continues to read his book.
Esther said, "We are not going to escalate this situation any further. Come on Asher, let's finish our lesson."
They all resume their work but Heather stayed with Mercer to ask some questions,
"Hey Merc, is it really a big deal on what genre is the best?"
"Yes!"
"Huh...."
"To know if what genre is better than the other!"
"You're fifteen! You're not a kid! You should know that other people have opinions too for goodness sake! Not everyone likes the same thing, you have to respect that!"
Later, Heather forced them to make up,
"Now shake hands."
They shook their hands.
"Hug."
They hugged each other.
"Now kiss."
"You can't be serious." Mercer looks at Oliver in disgust.
"Yeah, I might get AIDS from kissing this guy." Oliver does the same.
"Kiss. Or both of you will kiss my fists." Heather threatened.
The two immediately kissed each other by the cheek to prevent a trip to the hospital.
Oliver tries to leave, "If that's all you want us to do, then I'll be--"
"We're not done!" She pulled him and Mercer, walked out of the library, and went to the open field.
Parker sighs, "I'm glad she didn't to that to us when we were fighting, and I don't want to know what's going to happen to them later."
Heather entered the forest while carrying a rope and dragged Mercer and Oliver until they were at least further away from town. Then she tied them up to a nearby tree and said,
"Now, I want you to return to town all by yourselves before nightfall."
"What!? You can't be serious!" Mercer starts to struggle.
"Are you insane! What if we get lost!?" Oliver begins to panic.
Heather was annoyed with their behavior, "For the love of all women, please stop! Now this is will be fun and when you get out of here alive, you two will be real men and become the best of friends!"
"When we... Get out of here... Alive?" They both said in unison, feared that they might never get out of the forest alive.
"Well... See ya!" Heather immediately ran away leaving the two tied up.
Mercer said to himself, "Great, I'm stuck here with one of the worst guys in the world."
"Excuse me!?" Oliver was offended.
"I think you heard what I said, sore loser."
"You cheated on that dice!"
"Oh really? Did you thought of making that excuse while we were being dragged by my sister into the European version of the Amazon forest!?"
"You're exaggerating!"
"You're a non-accepting loser!"
"When I get out of here, I'm gonna slap you till you're purple!"
"Sure... Right... With your alien flippers..."
"At least it's not toddler magic."
"That's it! I was gonna be nice and let you go free, but you crossed the line! I'm abandoning you here!"
"Are you having a fever dream or something? Cause it is impossible for you!"
"That's better than being on fire!"
"You wanking wretch!"
They realized that they were doing more talking than actually doing anything. Both of them forced their arms to break free from the rope but then the rope suddenly breaks apart.
"My strength." Mercer boasted.
"Shut up." Oliver said, "The rope broke on purpose, I doubt anything will break because of those toothpicks for arms."
Then they wrestled and shouted insults at each other again. Meanwhile, back at the library,
"What do you mean you loosened the knot a bit?" Parker asked.
"You knew that they would trash talk at each other before they could notice anything." Esther guessed.
Heather proudly laughed, "Yes! Those two will realize that untying themselves isn't the real problem! It's how you will get out of the forest."
"Auntie's gonna kill you for what you did." Asher was worried.
"Ah don't worry, I'll talk my way out of it!"
"And I can't believe she's convinced with everything you said."
Back in the forest, Mercer walks away from Oliver.
"Just you wait until I get back to civilization!" Mercer yelled at him.
"Yeah right, I doubt you have any sense of direction." Oliver begins to walk in the same direction as him.
"Then why are you following me?"
"You're assuming too much, is that what your sister teaches you?"
"Leave my sister out of this! I'm gonna sink in my claws if you keep talking!"
"Heh, I'll make sure that when we get back, it's off to the zoo for you. Koala."
"My claws are as sharp as knives!"
"Don't start me with your boring analogies."
"My eyes are as keen as an eagle's!"
"You can spot fishes and catch them?"
"And I'm definitely as fierce as a tiger!"
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."
"Oh yeah? Hear me roar!"
As Mercer roared, it was really a tiger's roar. Oliver was stunned and almost believed it, but suddenly Mercer was starting to shake when he saw a real live tiger behind Oliver.
"What's the matter, tiger? Are even afraid of your own roar? As expected." Oliver taunted, only for Mercer to back away slowly.
Oliver was starting to wonder why he's backing away, "Is it your sister?"
Mercer didn't respond.
"If you don't want to talk to your sister then that's fine. Hey--" Oliver turns around and saw a tiger, it was only a several meters from him.
He looks back at Mercer and looks back at the tiger as he slowly walks away, then they both ran to the tree where they were tied up in the first place.
Oliver asks in fear, "Why the hell didn't you tell me there was a tiger!!?"
"You should be grateful! Even if I yelled, I doubt that the brain of yours will realize that there was a tiger behind you!"
"Why don't you talk to it!? Aren't you a tiger!?"
"As FIERCE as a TIGER! I said! I think we'll put hearing to one of the things you suck at."
"I can't believe you can still insult me, even in this situation!"
"Wow! If you weren't such a sore loser and caught fire in the first place, we wouldn't be stuck here and got up close and personal to Richard Parker!" Mercer suddenly slipped from the tree and was almost about to be pierced in the face by a tree branch when Oliver saved him.
Oliver proudly said to him, "And if I didn't save your life right now, you could've been a raw human shish kebab!"
The tiger was roaming in circles around the tree.
Mercer sighs in despair, "Great... Like a shark on land."
"How did a tiger got here in the first place? This isn't Asia!" Oliver wondered.
"And how do we get out of here now? Even if we have Heather here, I doubt she can wrestle an adult tiger."
"Maybe those branches can help us."
"Depends if we can get there and if the branches are strong enough that it won't bring is down and become cat food."
Oliver tries to grab a branch, it was too far away. He does it again but failed once more, "It's no use. We need full adult arms to it, but we're teenagers."
Mercer climbed higher and attempts to jump from one tree branch to another.
Oliver was surprised by his bravery, "Have you lost it!?"
"I got no choice!" As Mercer jumps, the tiger tries to reach him but Mercer was able to hold the branch with his arms then his legs.
"I did it! I did it! I DID IT!" Mercer yelled.
Oliver does the same thing but he has slipped from the branches. Mercer quickly grabs his arm and pulled him to safety.
Mercer told Oliver, "Now we're even."
"I guess so. Although why did you save me?" Oliver heavily breathes.
"I'm guessing that I'll go to jail if I'm the only one who got away alive. And the only 'tiger' they'll discover is my sister."