♁.•°°•.•⭒•.•°˙°•.✧{8}✧.•°˙°•.•⭒•.•°°•.♁
Tias POV
Once everyone was done climbing down, we set off in what felt like the same direction as last night but at this point, I have no choice but to trust Scott.
As we walked the soft forest floor was silent beneath us occasionally there was a squawk from a bird or a click from a backpack. Amelia was still nowhere to be seen. Scott lead the way occasionally looking back and counting heads. It was starting to get dark. Cold fog settled over the ground and played with the sun's retreating rays.
All of a sudden a clicking sound invaded my senses. Click-click Click-click It was a slow steady rhythm. It wasn't loud but it was different from the normal sounds of the forest. Click-click Click-click Finally pulling my eyes off the ground I looked around. Click-click Click-click. Where was the clicking coming from? Click-click Click-click As if he heard my thoughts Scott stopped. But so did the clicking. The silence was uneasy. Something was wrong. Scott moved slowly, carefully placing his backpack on the ground. He readied himself with his spear.
Where did his spear come from?
Scott signaled the group to stay put and slowly crept forward. He brought one of his hands up to his mouth and made some kind of bird sound. But before he could do anything else a flash of green smashed into Scott sending him flying. Scott smashed into a nearby tree with a thump before thumping to the ground. Amelia's voice sounded from somewhere above.
"come on your not dead get up" she then appeared from the same direction as the green thing that just seems to be a punching bag came from. Amelia walked over to Scott and rolled him over earning a groan of protest.
"Why'd you hit me I did the signal"
"Yeah but you didn't do it early enough, now get up your fine"
Scott grumbled as he peeled himself off the forest floor brushing grass and pieces of bark off his clothing.
Scott grumbled something under his breath about being in a bad mood as he grabbed his backpack and signaled us to follow him again.
On the side of the small clearing, that Amelia had somehow disappeared into, there was a rope ladder hanging down Scott walked straight up to the latter and grabbed the first step he could reach. Right as Scott's hand made contact with the latter something whizzed past my head narrowly missing Scott and trapping his hand against the tree.
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Scotts POV
"WHY?" I screamed as I stared at the sais. It was buried so far into the tree it trapped my hand.
"Because you idiot that's a trap the ladder is on the other side"
Amelia's voice came from somewhere behind me but I didn't bother looking. She is probably up in a tree and not visible. Reaching over I pulled at the sais it didn't move much because of the odd angle but it did move enough for me to pull my hand out and remove it from the tree with my dominant hand.
"Where are you because I'm not carrying this up"
I looked up into the leaves scanning for any movement but it was hard because all I had for light was the moon which wasn't exactly doing much to help. After a second of scanning, a small glowing flour appeared.
"Am I aiming to the left or right"
"Left"
I wasn't used to sais as that was more Amelia's thing but I readied myself and flung it at my target. There was a quiet thunk as the sais found its mark.
"Before you celebrate you missed by about five inches and landed in the other post"
"Hey at least I hit something this time"
I didn't get a response so I rounded the tree and positioned myself to climb the tree which had hand and footholds carved into the wood. As I started climbing I heard a few grumbles behind me.
"Get used to it out here we use the trees to hide and traveling miles a day is normal"
At my statement, I only received more grumbling so I continued climbing.
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Tias POV
We reached the top of the ladder a lot sooner than I expected and the treehouse was much more open than the last, in fact, we weren't even inside of the treehouse there was a large deck-like structure probably stretching over twenty feet in any given direction.
Nothing was a uniform shape; the platform and even the railings around the platform looked as though they were sticks taken and stuck together to form a protective barrier. To my left about six or seven feet there was a hut around a fourth of the size of the first treehouse probably only big enough for one or two people there was another immediately to my right.
In front of me, there was a fireplace built into the deck so you stepped down into the floor. I could also see two other huts one looked like it was wrapping around the tree that held up that side of the structure the other sat off to the left barely two feet away from the other hut. The hut to my left did a poor job of hiding the tree that came up through the floorboards.
If you followed the tree up there was a small hut that could only serve as a one-person hut that was seemingly molded into the side of the tree. Branches were growing around the structure leaving above the structure open for about thirty feet and also perfectly illuminating the area with the lovely bioluminescent flowers that seemed to come from nowhere.
Amelia was standing by the fireplace sharpening her knives like some stereotypical villain.
"Dinners ready, pick your cabin there are two hammocks per cabin and that one is mine" Amelia directed her knife at the hut that was seemingly fused into the side of one of the support trees.
Amelia turned and walked away heading towards the far end of the structure before entering the hut at the base of a support tree.
Under Scott's directions, we all headed towards the fireplace. I was glad because I could smell something heavenly. The ground stepped down into a concave structure that surrounded a fire that was seemingly built into a central table.
There were stairs down into the fireplace and cushioned chairs were built into the sides. Around the table that surrounded a steadily burning fire were plates filled with different berries, fruit slices, and what looked like meat that had been carefully pulled off the bone as to allow someone to eat it easily but not dry out the meat in front of the fire. There were also small bowls of soup which was an odd blue color.
"Don't mind the blue color it's just the dyes in some of the spices, same stuff we used to dye my hair actually"
Scott grabbed his plate and fork, sat down in one of the chairs and dug in.
Soon everyone followed and was eating peacefully around the fire.
Chatting was happening but it was quiet and far between. Rather focusing on the food than talking. The meat was amazing and tasted like bacon but with a more salty flavor it seemed to just melt in your mouth and it basically fell apart instead of cutting showing it was cooked properly and wasn't a jerky wannabe.
The berries were a step up from the dried berries and nuts that were given to us the night before.
"Scott"
I nearly jumped out of my chair at the sudden voice behind me and I actually dropped my fork but luckily Scott caught it before it hit the ground.
"Man I really got to put a bell on you, what's up"
There was no response so Scott and I both looked over our shoulder. Amelia was holding up a few bones only about the size of a finger. There was a beat of silence before Scott answered.
"Oh yeah sure"
Scott reached over to the table and grabbed his bowl of soup and placed it behind him on the main level. There was a cracking sound and I glanced over my shoulder to see amelia using some type of scooper to gently scoop something out of the center of the bone and into the bowl. It was almost a honey texture but it was too fluid for that. After a few seconds, Amelia snapped another bone in half and repeated the process.
"Ok done"
"Thank you"
Scott took his bowl back and placed it on his lap stirring the soup with his spoon before scooping some soup up and trying a spoonful.
"Good?"
"Perfect thank you"
I glanced back over my shoulder and saw Amelia heading back towards the hut she had disappeared to the first time.
"What the heck was that"
Turning back around everyone was glancing around with puzzled looks on their faces at the absurdity of the situation.
"Bone marrow it gives a buttery hint"
Scott continued eating calmly. Leaving the rest of us to just stare at him and try to process the absurdity of the situation.