REMEMBER ME; peter parker

fifteen

The next day, Thena and Gilgamesh grabbed whatever they wanted to bring with them on this journey and the group left Australia on the jet. This time, Talen wasn't alone. 

Their flight ended in Brazil. The Amazon. It was hot and muggy and gorgeous. The group was walking to find Druig in a villiage deep in the rainforest. There were buildings made of logs, chicken coops, and tons of people for this deep in the forest. Gilgamesh and Thena had resumed their protectiveness over Talen (even though they know she didn't need it) and remained on either side of her. Maybe it wasn't protectiveness in the sense that she was going to get hurt, but that they didn't want to miss out on a second with her. 

Sprite approached one of the villagers. 

"Hey. Estamos buscando a Druig. Donde está?"

"Sí. ¿Comó conoces a Druig?"

"Somos amigos...de la universidad." The man had turned his back on Sprite, but after she finished her sentence, he turned back.

Only this time, his eyes were glowing gold. Just how Druig's used to. 

"Hello Sprite." The man sounded like Druig. Now, the entire villiage was standing at attention, their eyes also glowing. 

The doors to one of the nearby buildings opened wide and Druig stepped out. 

"I missed all of you." His eyes seemed to linger on Talen in disbelief that she was there. "Please, make yourselves at home."

The group entered the building Druig was just in. It was arranged like a chapel with benches on both sides of the room, a wide aisle down the middle, and a table at the front. Talen followed Thena and Gilgamesh to the front, much to her dismay. The girl would much rather sit in the back corner and disappear. 

"You've given me a lot of bad news in one go, my lady." Druig stared at Sersi in slight shock after she explained the series of events leading up to their presence in the village. 

"Will you help us?"

"I am glad that-"

Druig was cut off by Sersi's phone ringing with Juice by Lizzo. Kingo whispered something about service to her and Thena had to shove Gilgamesh lightly to stop his snoring. Talen chuckled.

"Do you all remember this forest? Beautiful. It was the last place we all lived together." Talen scoffed and Druig ignored it. "I've protected these people for 20 generations now from the outside world and from themselves. Your kind, my friend, you will be responsible for your own extinction one day." Druig held an intimidating stance over Karun. "Don't you think?

"I think we must learn from our mistakes and do better, sir." Poor Karun was clearly in over his head when he tagged along with Kingo. "You must not give up hope." Druig had clearly had enough with the man because he used his mind-control-hypnosis stuff to make Karun throw the camera against the wall. 

"Oh, no you didn't. Okay, new rule, no more possessing people's valets." Kingo got in Druig's face.

"Where is your sense of humor, Kingo?" 

"I'm sorry, sir." 
"Don't apologize, it's not your fault." Kingo turned back to Druig. "You are not a god. You know that, right?" 

"How ironic. Kingo, the movie star."

"I've directed some things too."
"Oh, yeah? Like what?"
"Some internet content." 
"How many views?"
"I don't do it for the views." 

Ikaris was clearly bored and done with Druig and Kingo's immature bickering when he marched over from his spot on the wall to the benches.