King of Creatures

Chapter 13

The crew only spent five hours walking before discovering civilization again. It was another small town, although bigger than the first one they had come across. Amari thought of that man that had guided them out of the town and the various residents staring at them. They are not your friends. Amari shook his head as he continued to follow the path.

This must've been a normal, human town because Buster was trotting happily in front of them and Aoshanay didn't seem jittery. Amari wondered where everyone was, but then figured that they must be sleeping. It was past midnight after all.

"I should've worn different shoes." Aoshanay whined as she sat down on the curb.

"Yeah, we've been walking for a while, maybe we should take a break." Amari suggested stretching and sitting next to Aoshanay. Max sat his bag down and dug out a pack of band – aids, handing it to Aoshanay.

"We don't have time for this." Penelope said, crossing her arms. Amari rolled his eyes and popped an Instant water pellet into his mouth.

ITS LIKE DRINKING THREE BOTTLES OF WATER! + ELECTROLITES! The box read.

"You should change your socks." Aoshanay advised as she took her own socks off, placing bandages onto various hotspots on her feet.

"See, that's why I wore these." Penelope said, gesturing to her own pair of worn-out shoes. "They're broken in well enough to where I don't have to worry about blisters."

"I've had these boots for three years." Aoshanay said, Amari felt like she had rolled her eyes.

Amari sat his book bag in front of him and began digging around for a clean pair of socks. "We should've don't laundry while we were at the hotel." Amari grumbled to himself.

"Honestly." Aoshanay agreed.

"Hey, what was with that parade?" Amari asked, suddenly remembering the scene the group had first stepped out of the hotel. It seemed to have disappeared at some point. Amari had been to worried about the path not really notice it at the time.

"What do you mean?" Aoshanay asked, her mouth turned into a slight frown.

"The huge crowd of people when we-"

"Hey, if we're just gonna waist our time just sitting here, imma go take a look around." Penelope said as she finished tying her shoes and standing up. "See if I can find a corner store or something. I'm craving a chocolate bar." Then she stomped off.

"Should I tell her not to wander too far?" Amari asked as he watched Penelope march off, Buster swatting at her. Aoshanay snorted and went back to checking her feet for anymore potential blisters.

Amari looked down at his own feet. They looked fine, they felt kind of numb. Amari wasn't sure whether or not he should be worried about that. Max handed them each a protein bar before sitting beside Buster who rubbed up against him.

"I'm thinking about renaming Buster." Amari said to Aoshanay as he watched the two. "Got any ideas?"

Aoshanay flicked a speck of desk off of her sunglasses. "Hmm, I don't know. Maybe, Sunrise?"

"Sunrise?" Amari laughed.

"Yeah, cause she's orange, like the sky when the sun rises?"

Amari looked at the cat and shrugged. "Maybe." He broke off a piece of his protein bar and threw it into his mouth. Or at least he tried, he missed completely, and it ended up on the ground.

"Do you think I'm doing a good job?" Amari asked as he drew a circle in the dirt. "Being a guide, or whatever?"

Aoshanay looked at him, he mouth curved into a comforting smile. "None of us are dead yet, are we?" She said.