Fears 3 - Journeys

Chapter 28 - Liy

WARNING: GRIEVING AND SERIOUS TALKS OF MENTAL ILLNESS AND SUICIDE

"How the hell did we not realize that?" Tree palmed his face in disgust.

"Looks like Jinn was spoon-feeding us for the longest time, which probably wasn't the best idea for rational decision-making," Remote chuckled.

"You're right on that," I exhaled.

We opened the cans of food and poured the soup into each of our bowls. Although soup wasn't the best source of food when it came to both taste and practicality, there was no way I would eat anything else out here, considering the risks of doing so.

"Bon appetit..." I raised my bowl over to Remote with a smile.

"Cheers," Remote gave a soft smile as we both ate our food next to each other.

Remote took a bite of the soup and I could see her eyes light up with joy.

"This isn't half bad... almost as good as real food you'd get at a restaurant," Remote smiled.

"Eh, it's no fancy cuisine, but it gets the job done," I joked around.

"Lighten up, Liy, we're going camping for goodness sake!" Remote gave me a friendly nudge.

Everybody else enjoyed the meal quietly. Tree and Pen were doing their usual bickering, and Remote and I were silently having a side conversation as everybody else did their own thing. Bottle perched herself up against a tree alone without saying a word to anybody else, while Lightning was amused by Tree and Pen's usual rambling.

"Hey, guys, watch this!" Lightning stood up and grabbed some nearby sticks. He broke the sticks in a way to make it so that they were rather straight and easy to hold.

Lightning started using the environment around him and started drumming away. Lightning had previously mentioned that he used to play drums, and his performance using sticks was nothing shy of what he had said. We all started quietly eating as we listened to Lightning's soothing and catchy drumming.

Lightning stopped to take a break and eat some of his food when Remote spoke up. "Does anyone else know any instruments of any kind?"

"Nope. I'm really bad with anything concerning hand-eye coordination," I laughed.

"Tree, didn't you mention you used to play guitar back in high school?" Lightning asked with curiosity.

"It was a long long time ago. I'm sure I'm not even close to as good as I used to be..." Tree brushed the praise off. Pen let out a snicker from next to him.

Tree's head made a sharp turn, as he turned to stare directly at Pen. "And why are you laughing?"

"I heard the phrase, 'Tree plays guitar,' and immediately thought of you playing a guitar two times your size," Pen chuckled.

"You little shit..." Tree angrily boasted.

"Funny, I thought you were the little one, mister five foot six," Pen teased. Tree almost started another fight with Pen, but was interrupted by laughter coming from behind him. The laughter coming from Remote and Lightning.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Tree, but that's a funny image," Remote laughed.

Lightning covered his face with his jacket as he continued laughing, trying his best to conceal his laughter.

"Traitors!" Tree shook his head in disgust.

"Alright! I'm not going to stand for this bullying anymore!" Tree pointed a finger at Pen

"You're standing?" Pen silently whispered, loud enough for everybody to hear.

"That's it. Stop the Tree bullying please!" Tree put his face inside his hands. I could see his face turning red with both anger and embarrassment.