The Broken Observatory - Party Crashers AU

A food break.

Nick's POV.
We were walking through that path for the next 30 minutes. Eevee wasn't around us, so I thought that he didn't want to go through there, which I understood and tried to forget about.

Throughout the path, while walking, I was talking with Vernias about random things, since there were not many things to do. We actually found out a lot of interesting stuff about each other.

It was fun to finally have someone to talk to except for Brent. I never really had any friends, probably because of my "tough to deal with" personality. It was a nice time though.

After some longer time, we decided to take a break, mostly because of the pain in Vernias' wings. We sat on a huge rock there. I was looking at the phone, while Vern was looking around.

"I'm getting kinda hungry." - Vernias said.

"Yeah, me too." - I answered. - "Maybe there are some berries in the forest to eat?"

"I can go look for some." - Vern assured as he got up.

"If you want to, sure, go for it." - I said, and looked at the map on the phone, studying the path again.

Vernias got up from the rock and was about to go into the forest, but something stopped him. He looked into one spot, confused and frowning.

"What?" - I asked him what was going on as I noticed him standing in one place.

"I'm... Wondering as well..." - he said, visibly feeling discomfort, before shouting; - "Who's there..?!"

"Did you see someone?" - I asked, as I got up and came towards Vernias to look in the same direction.

"N-No, but... I heard something moving around the bushes and walking in general..." - he said, seemingly a bit afraid.

"Huh..." - I let out a sigh and decided to look around. - "Are you sure it's not an animal or something like this?"

"No, I don't think s-"

"How obvious that you're the first one to compare me to an animal." - Suddenly a voice from the bush said, and soon enough, a person came out of there.

It was Sophist.

Me and Vern moved back a bit, both of us surprised.
"What in the fucking hell are you doing here, we thought you aren't coming!" - I shouted.

"I'm not a bitch, and definitely won't leave my friends behind." - Sophist proudly said and crossed his arms.

Me and Vern smiled to him.
"Thanks, man." - I said.

"Never thought I'll hear you say "Thank you". I had no clue you knew a word like that exist." - Sophist said, teasing.

I opened my mouth to start complaining, but before I could, Eevee interrupted.
"Don't even start. Fine, I'm sorry."

I shook my head slightly, annoyed, but in the same time happy and grateful that Eevee decided to come with us.

"Wait a second..." - Vernias said. - "Did you stalk us..?"

"...No."

A bit of awkward silence later, we laughed at it and decided to sit back on the rock. Vernias and Sophist were talking for a while and told me they are going to get some berries. I nodded as I saw them going to the forest.

I was trying to strategize our way and the potential fight with Bowser we might have while they were gone.

I was quiet all the time. I had the ideas coming up to my head, but quickly ignored them because of counterargument. I leaned against a tree behind me to be in a more comfortable sitting position as I thought of more solutions.

I rested my head against the tree too and closed my eyes for a bit. I wasn't used to such serious moments and adventures in my life, and thinking so much about one that important thing, getting multiple unusable ideas and trying to get any solution was giving me a headache.

I rubbed my face, getting a bit tired because of hunger, constant thoughts and somewhat stress. I couldn't really focus anymore, it felt overwhelming.

I wasn't used to knowing many people, and more definitely, I wasn't used to be a "leader" of the group. Sure, I could be one if needed and think of some ideas to help people, but usually it wasn't about anything too serious.

I saw the others coming back, so I quickly sat back up and pretended like I'm okay to not bother nor worry them.

"Hey! We're back, we found some black currants and blueberries." - Vernias exclaimed, enthusiastically. - "You want some?"

"Oh, sure." - I answered with no specific emotions.

Eevee frowned and looked at me, while Vernias passed me some berries.

"Thanks." - I said quickly, trying not to show much emotion.

I noticed that I could really easily tell the what berries I'm eating and if they are fresh or a bit laid off. I thought it's because of my plant control power, mainly because I never learned nor tried to learn anything about any plants.

After eating most of the berries, I had one more left, so I put it in my mouth for a second before quickly spitting it out, as I felt a weird pain from it.

Vern and Eevee looked at me, confused and seemingly a bit worried, as I rubbed my mouth with my glove.

"Are you okay? What was that?" - Vernias asked quickly.

"Uhh... Yeah, sorry, just felt some weird sting in my mouth. Probably didn't notice a stalk or something and ate that berry with it." - I said, trying to sound embarrassed, but I lied, not to make them worried.

Vernias laughed and Eevee chuckled a bit.
"Alright, no problem" - Vern said, still giggling a bit, and soon he said jokingly; - "Don't scare us like that!"

"Yeah yeah, sorry." - I played along. - "Imma walk around for a bit to explore the path a bit more, aight?"

"Sure, go for it." - Eevee said.

I nodded and got up from the rock, walking a few steps to lose Vernias' and Sophist's in my sight.

I put a finger in my mouth and rubbed the place I felt a pain in. Once I took it out and looked at my glove, I noticed a red-ish black liquid. It looked like a blood mixed with ink.

It thrown me off, but I decided to keep it to myself, because I didn't want anyone to worry about it. I tried to tell myself that it's probably not that serious, but I knew it was. The blood color was so unnatural that it immediately gave me a weird feeling.

"It's fine though, I can take it" I assured myself. There are more important things to work on right now. I quickly cleaned my glove and came back to the boys, as we decided to rest on that rock for a while longer.