Chronicles of Panchali - The 100th Selection

Chapter 23; The Great Mud Incident

Aiden woke to ice-cold water being dumped on him. Gasping for air, he sat up suddenly, rubbing his bleary eyes. His vision focused on seeing Brynne glaring at him with hands on her hips as he stood up.

"What in the world Brynne?" He muttered, wiping his face with a sleeve, wincing as he ran his hands through his now drenched hair and looked at his favorite t-shirt that was also wet.

"I tried to stop her." Alvin called out, walking to stand behind Brynne. A smirk was playing on his lips and his bright green eyes were hesitant as they crinkled in a smile.

"No you didn't," Keefe sang out, leaning against a tree trunk. "You just shook your head and that was it."

"Sorry," Alvin said apologetically. "But I'm not going against Brynne."

Aiden shrugged, not blaming him as he stumbled around blindly for a towel to wipe down his hair. They were camped out in a forest after ruling out one of the stops. Judging by the position of the sun, it was almost noon and Aiden felt a slight embarrassment for how long he had slept.

To be fair, he had stayed up, unable to sleep as raging thoughts stormed inside his head, filling his mind with horrible scenarios of what Aru might've been going through - and much to his shame, also what he was going to do with the whole 'Priya' situation.

If it were any other day, he would've confided in someone, but he didn't know who. Brynne was worried to death for Aru, and so were Mini, Nikita and Sheela. Rudy wouldn't be much help and Keefe was going through quite a bit as well obviously. Alvin... he was there but he would probably give some advice that made complete sense but also would make Aiden feel like an idiot and not improve his mood, so that was a last resort thing.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when Alvin crossed his arms. "You're one to talk. Didn't you give Brynne the ice?"

Keefe copied his stance, obvious from his expression that he didn't like Alvin much. Something had clearly gone down between them because the tension in the air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.. "I was being helpful."

Brynne rolled her eyes. "Whatever the case is, we were going to let you sleep but we're losing time."

Aiden flushed. "Sorry, I couldn't sleep last night and..." his voice trailed off as he noticed everyone in the camp, which was easily quite a large number of people, looking at him doubtfully. "I have snacks?"

"You should've led with that but we already finished them," Rudy admitted. There were samosa crumbles on the collar of his shirt and Aiden just buried his face in a towel to keep from screaming in frustration. He thought he had packed at least a month's worth. And what kind of psychopath eats cold samosas and enjoys them?

Brynne grinned sheepishly. "That was mainly me - but enough banter. We need to get a head start. The next location is miles away."

"How many?" Aiden asked, squeezing the last few drops of water from his hair.

"About 15," Nikita supplied. "So we have to get a head start." Even after hiking and camping for a day in the forest, she had still managed to get some fresh clothes and had braided her hair in a complicated twist.

"Wait, we also need more food," Mini supplied. "We're starting to run out." Aiden resisted the urge to cough pointedly at that.

"We could go to the village nearby," Sheela told everyone, tracing an invisible line on the map that was sprawled out in front of her.

Aiden started to nod, but then he saw a familiar figure lurking in the shadows. Glancing around and making sure no one was watching, he walked over.

"Priya?" He asked.