The Mercury Wars: The Clearing

Chapter 3 - Connor

"Good morning Sleeping Beauty."

Two new faces are sitting by the campfire when Connor and Link leave the hut the next day. As well as Clara, Marcus & Benny, there are two ginger-haired campmates. The resemblance between them makes it obvious that they are the twins that were mentioned yesterday.

The boy, Carter, who looked to be just a few years younger than Connor, held a chiselled jawline, a slender figure and had piercing blue eyes. His hair was unkempt in the majority, but with some parts pushed back as if he had run his hands through it. His smile shone brightly as he spoke to the pair of them once they were in view of everyone else.

Swatting him on his broad shoulders was his sister, Genesis. She was slightly taller than Carter but had the same figure, hair and what Connor could tell were the family eyes. Although reprimanding her brother, she held a playful smile that showed affection in the way she used to his quick remarks and mocking humour.

"Ignore him," Genesis laughed. "Good to finally meet you, Connor."

"Thanks," the blonde replied as he slowly made his way to the rest of the group. By now he was starting to pick his feet up more, beginning to resemble a normal walk. Link, however, still remained glued to his side in case he lost balance or even so much as stumbled.

Taking a seat next to Carter, Connor immediately saw the food they were all eating. A wooden bowl of what resembled a bright green soup was steaming to his right. The smell hitting his senses sent his stomach into a full orchestral groan at the thought of finally being able to eat.

"Ah," Carter mocked at the sound. "Still on your non-voluntary hunger strike?"

Although humour in his words, Connor was so hungry he couldn't find the strength to even smile at them. Instead, he just nodded sadly as Link took a seat on the other side of him.

"Now Link," Carter pretended to scold the younger boy. "How can you let my new best friend be awake for this long and not even eat?"

Connor blinked at Carter's description as Link just blushed and looked down towards his shoes.

"Shut up!" Genesis demanded of her brother as she placed a cup of water in Connor's hands. "Clara says he needs to stick to water until tonight. Don't wind them up in the small amount of time we've got before we leave again."

"You're leaving?" Connor asked after taking a gulp of water, trying to numb the hunger.

"Duties buddy," Carter explained. "Gen and I are back off out exploring this morning. Another few days of hiking the wilderness and making sure that I am, indeed, the provider of the camp necessities."

"You found a saucepan," Clara deadpanned from across the fire, sitting with her own bowl of soup in her hands. "A cracked saucepan at that. That's all you've brought back in 2 weeks!"

"Still one more saucepan than any of you have brought back," Carter quipped back, no malice in his words as if he were simply showing off to everyone else. "Only person with an excuse is coma-boy here. Although, I will say, Connor, nice excuse to get out of manual labour. Pretending to be asleep for so long. If you weren't my new best friend I would be very disappointed in you."

"Erm thanks?" Connor questions after finishing his water. "But I didn't really have control over it. Plus, you just met me, no need for best friend status yet."

Swinging a rough arm around Connor's neck, Carter pulls them shoulder-to-shoulder as he sighs.

"Way to hurt a bro," he gasps. "Now is this cos I called you sleeping beauty? Because I swear, if grandad lets me have a shot at it, I would out-sleep you any day. The only difference is that the rest of camp won't be joking about Link wanting to wake me up with a kiss as they did with you."