Together Once More (hopefully forever)

THE CONTINUATION

Summary

A journey has many ups, downs, lefts, and rights.

There's nothing to do about the Hermits' hunger. No one knows how to hunt or had the heart for it anyway. Joe just apologizes and hands out another day of rations.

Today's walk is slower, more lethargic. More Hermits take their medication in hopes it will wake them up more. It's hard to tell whether it's the placebo effect or not. Joe can't blame them, he feels the same anyway. Tried, stiff, and sore. Sleeping in trees doesn't do anything good for the body.

There's less running off into the forest than yesterday, but less complaints from the Hermits about their feet hurting. Apparently Bdubs spent a good potion of last night adding pine and moss into everyone's shoes. He sits on the shoulders of Etho and asks Joe if he wants the same to be done to his shoes. The boy made of moss looks extremely tired so Joe declines with a polite smile.

Some time after their lunch stop, everyone slowly stops walking and whispers. Xisuma waves Joe forward and he weaves through the crowd. They found a fork in the river. One way looks like a waterfall soon, the other looks like what they've been walking already.

Grian lands on Joe's shoulder, "Do you want me to scout ahead?"

"Yeah...one second..." Joe takes his bag off and searches through it. Searching around the more-empty smaller compartment, he soon pulls out a slip of paper. Scott's instructions were all nicely written on it. "'Big willow on an island'...'river nearby'...'it's in a basin, so there's a dip somewhere'...Okay. We are meant to go this way."

"I'll see a way we can go without going down the waterfall." Grian nods and flies away, pivoting upwards to get a lay of the land.

Joe catches some glimpses of him as he searches for a way through. As the bird's searching gets more frantic and he's out for longer, Joe gets more and more worried. A long path wouldn't be fun, but better than trying to find another way down a waterfall.

Grian comes back and shakes his head, "No way. It looks like a hard drop for a really long time. The river looks deep down there so a drop wouldn't kill any of us. But it wouldn't be pleasant."

"And I'm not sure how many of us can do water..." Xisuma adds. He looks around at half of the Hermits. "Or who can swim in general."

"I can dry people off at the bottom," Tango says. "But I definitely can't go into the water."

Elex raises its hand, "I can teleport people down. But not too many. Only those who are certain they won't be able to be in water." The Hermits look around at each other and make themselves into smaller groups. Jevin, Tango, Keralis, and Pearl go to Elex and awkwardly stand by its side while others hype each other up for the long jump.

Joe takes his backpack off and puts it on Elex. "Thanks for doing this." Elex smiles and gathers up the people around it. It makes sure to spot the landing location before having everyone grab into it. With a deep breath, it disappears in a flurry of purple particles.

Joe peeks over the edge of the cliff and sees the group stumble a little as they become accustomed to their new environment. They all move further away from the river bank and give thumbs-up to Joe at the top. He relays this information and people nervously mutter amongst themselves.

Xisuma calls them to attention, "I think...strong swimmers should go first. Help those who arrive next to get out of the water safely."

"And make sure to call out when the coast is clear," Joe adds.