The Faithfuls

Chapter 18: Zeth

Chapter 18: Zeth

Yep, she loves me. Obviously she knows I’m going to try and go after her, probably why she left that water bridge there. I try to walk across it, but I think it only works on Anthrofauna, as I fall into the cold creek. Jinx is still in sight, and turns around hearing the splosh noise. The next minute she’s laughing her ass off. Like how Muse and I laughed at Brandon when he smashed his beautiful face into the concrete of the Rithen dimension. I cough and spit out some water once I’m out of the stream.

“Catch me if you can, lover boy!” She laughs. Challenge accepted. I use shadow to push my strides, but I think she knew I was going to do that. Just before I reach her, she makes a giant curve of earth and stands in it sideways. She flicks a little lever she made and she’s flying through the forest, her feet touching the ground at uneven intervals to keep velocity. Now she’s just speeding through, and no amount of shadow is going to help me catch up to her. But if you add a normal running capability, you can tackle her easily. I’m up beside her now. Just have to find out a way to stop her. But she does it herself, rapidly out of nowhere. And now I know why. I’m going too fast to stop myself crashing into the side of her tree. My head goes through the bark. God that hurt... I see Brandon lying on the couch passed out with a few empty bottles on the table. Jinx comes through the door and takes one glance at him, then comes over to help me out of the tree.

“I have no idea why he doesn’t listen to me.” She sighs. Apparently, Jinx hasn’t heard of trying to get someone’s head out of a tree softly before. She puts her hand on my head, and pushes me back through. I blow some of my now ruffled hair out of my face. She fixes the hole my dumb head made, but before it closes, she says: “Sorry.” I come through the normal door this time, looking around for Muse. I need to chat to a boy for once. Brandon isn’t an option; he’s probably going to have a hangover all day.

“We’re back!” Jinx calls cheerfully.

“Up here!” Another voice comes back. Muse. Hooray, I have someone I can talk to about random things that probably have no purpose whatsoever. Or do they? We walk up the stairs to find Ursa and Muse sitting on a branch outside. You can’t see but I think they’re holding hands. Ursa is lucky...

“We tried to hide all Brandon’s beer,” Ursa sighs. “But we suck at hiding things.”

“I will have no sympathy for him if he wakes up moaning. Lifting his head?” Jinx chuckles. “Not an option.”

“I see you got Zeth out of what seemed like depression.” Muse looks over at me, looking smug.

“Shut up, Muse.” I roll my eyes.

“Hey! I wasn’t trying to be mean.” He throws one hand up. Aren’t you meant to use both hands for that motion? Right... They’re holding hands. Ursa must have sensed that I needed to talk to Muse, so she makes up some random excuse.

“Hey Jinx?” she stretches her head up so that the two girls can see each other better. “I just need you to check something. See if everything’s healed.”

“Yeah sure.” Jinx slides down the railing of the staircase, Ursa following doing the same.