King of Creatures

Chapter 14

Aoshanay insisted that they walk a few more miles, despite everyone not feeling it, before setting up camp. Everyone was so riddle with headaches and body aches, that they just decided to lay on the ground, no tent, not sleeping bags. Although, when everyone woke up the next afternoon, they were all sleeping on sleeping bags anyways.

The crew woke up and sat in awkward silence before Max mumbled that he was going to go hunting. He went to Amari, who just looked away, petting Buster, and staring at the ground. "We should start building a fire." Aoshanay said, mostly to herself, as she got up and began searching the ground for logs and sticks.

"Who were those people?" Amari asked, handing Aoshanay a stick. Aoshanay tensed up before taking a deep breath and relaxing.

"Demons." She said trying to sound casual, but her voice was still a bit shaky. "Lust demons to be exact. Cupids as some people call them." She took another breath and sat down next to Amari. "They set up parties like that and mess with your hormones. Mainly the guys though."

Amari nodded, staring absently at the ground, working the nerve to ask Aoshanay the question that had been gnawing at him since the night before. "Are you –"

"One of them?" Aoshanay interjected, a smile dancing on her lips. "Only by half. My mom ended up with a cupid, got pregnant..."

"Oh." Amari said, unsure how he should feel about this. "So, like, is that why you wear the sunglasses? So, nobody can see your eyes?"

"Kind of. Also, because it's so easy to manipulate people when they look in my eyes." Amari nodded.

"So, the pink hairs natural?" He asked.

"Yeah." Aoshanay said sadly. "Please don't look at me differently. I honestly –"

"Why would I look at you differently?" Amari asked, shooting Aoshanay a smile. "If it weren't for you, who knows what would've happen? Especially to Penny."

Aoshanay snort – laughed. "Yeah."

"So, like, are you immune to the whole falling in love eye thing?" Amari asked, standing up.

"Not really. I'm asexual so that's why it has no effect on me." Aoshanay said simply, also getting up herself. "Female cupids usually manipulate men to get what they want."

"Yeah, they usually drive the men to kill themselves!" Penelope said eagerly. "Pretty badass in my opinion." She put a hand on Aoshanays shoulder and shoot her a smile before pulling Aoshanay into a hug.

Amari smiled at the two girls before wandering off to go look for more sticks. Realizing that he hadn't actually put together a campfire before, so he didn't know what he was looking for. He stared at the ground for a moment, making sure that path was still there. He froze, looking back at where he just was. He didn't want to stray too far. The fear of the path disappearing again tying him to the spot.

"Hey," Max said, scaring Amari and causing him to jump. Max was holding a squirrel, Amari looked at it sadly. "About l-last night."

"Don't worry about it." Amari interrupted, holding up a hand. "We don't need to talk about it."

"But –"

"No. I-it came completely out of left field. No build up, no foreshadowing. Besides, Aoshanay sorta explained already. We weren't in the right mind so...Drop it. It's fine." Amari huffed before turning around, following the path back to the others. Max following silently behind him.

"We need to clean up so we can get moving. I'd like to complete this prophecy thing so I can go back to my friend's couch, and everything can go back to normal." Amari said as he began packing his own bag, popping a water pellet into his mouth. He felt the area grow still and looked up to see everyone staring at him sadly.