Alternate Battle for Dream Island

ABFDIA 11b: Intruder

It took a little while for Snowball to get everyone else back into that dark, miserable place.

For a little while, they just stared at the passageway that had been revealed, the new path that was laid in front of them. From what little they could see from Firey's light, it just seemed to be more of the same; a straight path that continued on, into the darkness, seemingly for forever. It just goes deeper. Deeper into the abyss. Deeper into the unknown. Naturally, it unnerved all of them to some degree; though there was absolutely nothing that indicated that there was *anything* there, the fact that they'd basically be completely blind once they went in... That's certainly a feeling that they'd prefer to avoid.

They were *so* willing to avoid it that they'd repeatedly go into circular chains of thought, stating and restating the same things over and over again, just to push the pivotal decision further and further away.

"...Right." Snowball could sense the awkward silence in the air, and since he had just spent the past while all by himself, he'd rather not have any more of that. "Who's going in first?" "Oi think Foirey should go first." Bubble replied. "He can loight the way, and can make sure there's nothing there." "Well..." The flame frowned. "I'd love to, of course. But *maybe*, instead of that, I could be in the back?" "Whoi's that?" The soap bubble asked. "Yeah, why *is* that?" Flower folded her arms. "Are you afraid? Are you a *wimp*?" "No, of course not." The living fire scoffed, taking a step or two back. "It's just... you know..." He'd think back to what Tennis Ball told him a long time ago; it was a struggle to recall it now, largely because he mostly didn't listen. "We don't know where that tunnel could lead us; it could just be a dead end, for all we know." He'd take a deep breath to maintain his composure. "If that's the case, then we need to go back. But since it'll be *completely* dark out there..." He'd shrug. "You know... Maybe I can lead us on the return journey, save us from getting lost."

There were plenty of ways that line of logic could be attacked, but not a single person in that group could spare a thought to figure that out. The one with the petals scoffed. "Sounds to me like you're just *scared*." "Am not!" Firey shouted. "If you wanna talk about being scared, why don't *you* go first, huh?" "No way!" The 'beautiful' one immediately replied. "If *you're* not in front, we won't be able to see anything up ahead!" "Alroight, how about a compromoise?" Bubble raised her hand once again. "Flower, you go first; Foirey, you'll be roight behind her. That way, she can still see." "He'll burn me to death!" Flower shouted. "I'll have to be with *her*!" The flame also shouted. "Uh, weren't *you* the one that brought her here?" Snowball interjected, just so he could feel like he still belonged.

He still didn't, though.

After a little bit more arguing and bickering, he'd once again step in to try and settle things once and for all. "Alright, how about we decide this in a not..." He'd struggle to find a word for it. "Not dumb way?" He'd then proceed to start digging through his body; he'd bury his hand into the snow, get a handful of the stuff, awkwardly place it on top of him, then repeat the whole process over and over again. After an uncomfortable minute of this, during which everyone else just silently and awkwardly watched, he'd eventually pull out several little cubes. "That *bozo-brain* gave me these while I was stuck in that box." He'd explain. "I complained that I was getting bored 2,763 times, and she just gave me *these*. These... These... Die!" "Let me see." Firey quickly took those away from him, which SB reluctantly allowed since fire and snow don't exactly mix very well. "Ooh, I know these." As he inspected the dice, the few acres of snow continued on his long-winded explanation. "GB told me that I could pass the time by calc... calculating, the pro... prob... probab..."

"Probability." The flame would interrupt again, giving the ball an easy out of that. "TB taught me a thing or two about that." The pile of snow sighed. "Of *course* he did." "Right." The living fire took a deep breath. "We've got four of these; everyone, take one for yourself." They'd all promptly do so, since... What else were they gonna do, really? Stand there? Leave? Do *literally* anything else besides entertain this outrageous notion for another second? As if. "You see that there's a number of dots on each face, right? So, the way you use these things is that you throw them on the ground, and-" "I know how they work. *Duh*." Flower interrupted. "You don't need to get the *balls* to teach you that." "Why don't you explain the rest, then?" Firey asked, and Flower seethed. "Right; just throw them on the ground!"