The Snow Ferrets and the Shinju Necklace (completed)

Chapter 6

We walk and walk and walk some more. The snow under our feet disappears and we are trudging through grass. We lose our coats. Walking and walking and walking. Day after day, night after night, until Vieni enthusiastically announces we probably only have three more days left of walking until we reach Kasai City.

Our mouths fall open as we stare at Vieni, who rocks on her feet, humming, her eyes distant. Wow, she is one weird kid.

"We've been walking for eleven days?!?" Kin finally squeaks, sounding astounded, her normally big grey eyes even bigger than usual, seeming to pop out of her head.

Vieni nods in a dream-like way, grinning.

Anemos shakes his head, "No way! You've been keeping track? It only feels like it's been six days at most!"

Vieni snaps out of her dream-like trance and speaks, still beaming, "Nope!" She exclaims, popping the 'p', "It's been 10! I've been counting!"

Anemos and Kin shake their heads in shock.

I grin. Yes! After Kasai all we have left is Kinzoku and boom! We're there!

Take that Baja!

For the next twenty minutes we walk in silence, grins on our faces as we imagine beating Mr. Baja to the Shinju Necklace. I wonder what it looks like anyway. Would it be like my necklace or something special?

"Hey Neve?" Nero suddenly speaks, turning to the ice girl.

Neve turns to him, her head cocked, prompting him to ask his question.

"Is there any way I could....I don't know, learn how to freeze water?" Nero asks hopefully, looking at her with wide eyes.

Neve blinks a couple times in shock.

I cock my head, intrigued. What brought that on?

Then Neve gets a thoughtful look in her eyes and she slowly nods, "Yeah, yeah I think it's been done before."

Nero beams, "Great! So you can teach me?" He exclaims, buzzing with excitement.

Neve grins at him enthusiasm, "Sure." She says with a shrug.

Nero squeals, wrapping Neve in a giant bear hug, lifting her off the ground. Her eyes widen but she laughs, unable to hug him back as her arms are pinned to her sides.

"OOO!!!! Me too!!" Vieni squeals, leaping into the hug too. Unfortunately for Neve, Nero, and Vieni, but fortunately for me, Terro, Anemos, Kin, and Ignis, Nero can't hold both of them, sending them all tumbling down.

We crack up at the shocked look on Neve and Nero's faces.

"Whoo hoo! Let's do it again!" Veini exclaims, her eyes sparkling.

"No!" Neve yelps, leaping out of the heap of bodies and behind me. She grips my arms in her hands and uses me as a human shield to block her from Vieni's sight.

I roll my eyes at her, a grin still stuck on my face. I have the strangest team, but I guess that's why I love them. After all, who wants a boring team?

"Well, come on guys. Maybe we can stop a little earlier before we pitch camp from now on for Neve to teach Nero." Kin says, her words coming out as a question as she turns to Vieni.

I turn to look at the water girl too to see her brushing dirt off her pants. She looks up, her glasses askew and her hair everywhere, "Yeah, that's fine. We have been making good progress anyway." Suddenly she brightens, "Yeah! We're doing good you guys!" She exclaims, pumping her fist in the air triumphantly.

Nero does the same just for the sake of it and I push him a little, laughing, "You're so weird."

He smirks playfully at me, "You know you love it!" He says, winking.

I laugh, making sure I shove him again as I pass.

"Come on guys, it's almost morning! Bet you I can run until the sun reaches the horizon!" Kin suddenly challenges us, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

I grin at her, feeling my heart lift at the challenge and my brain decide I'm going to win.

"You're on."

. . .

Twenty minutes later and I won. Vieni came in second and then Terro and Kin. The others gave up at the same time.

Terro wasn't to happy about losing to both me and Vieni.

"That wasn't fair. You and Vieni got a head start!" He complains sulkily as we crawl into our tent.

I laugh at him, pinching his cheek just to annoy him, "Is big bad Terro sad he lost?" I coo, laughing as I dodge his swinging arm.

"No." He grumbles, his face scrunched up.

I laugh again, earning a glare from Mr. Grumpy Pants himself.

"Fine, fine, you won. Are you happy now?" I giggle, rolling my eyes and crawling into bed.

He nods firmly, his face un-scrunching, "Very."

I roll my eyes again, snuggling up under my blanket.

I sigh, feeling the heavy, warm feeling of sleep start to come over me. Just as the world and reality is about to fade away, Terro yawns.

"Night, Chipmunk."

. . .

The next morning- well, night, I guess- I wake up before Terro so I make sure to get out of there before him, grabbing a yawning Zap on my way out. Right after he said goodnight I fell asleep, not sure how to respond to the nickname. I was hoping he'd forget.

I do not think he's hot and mysterious!

I mean, the way his hair falls over his eyes sometimes is kind of cute doesn't mean I think he's hot! And the fact that I know barely anything about him doesn't just automatically make him mysterious!

Right?

I shake my head, making myself stop thinking about the boy sleeping in my tent and instead walk briskly over to Vieni, Kin, Neve and Ignis, who are sitting in the middle of the circle of tents talking and eating.

"Hey!" I chirp, sitting down with them so we're in a circle, cross-legged, pulling an apple and some ferret food for Zap out of my knapsack.

"Hey." They chorus back, each of them shooting me a sly look.

I frown slightly, wondering what they're on about, "What's up?" I ask, watching them suspiciously, handing the ferret granola bar thingy to Zap.

"Ohhhh, nothing." Vieni says, clearly trying to act unsuspicious.

Kin elbows her in the ribs and Ignis rolls her eyes, grumbling to herself.

I narrow my eyes, my apple completely forgotten, "What'd you do?" I ask sternly, sure they did something now.

"It's not what did we do, it's what are we going to do." Vieni cackles, having recovered from Kin's attack, sounding like a witch.

"And we were hoping you'd help us." Kin adds.

I raise one eyebrow, kind of liking where this is going in some sick, twisted way, "And what exactly are you hoping I'd help you with?" I ask, intrigued.

Ignis smirks evilly, "Last night we put some stuff in the boy's food so they'd sleep extra long, enough time for us to do what we're about to do. Prank them."

I cock my head, "Why didn't you tell me last night?"

Ignis shrugs, "We never got the chance."

And evil grin finds its way onto my face as I imagine how much fun this would be.

"I'm in."
**********
:P OOOOO!!!!

Can you guess what the prank is? ;)

#youguysareluckybananasagain🍌
#thisshouldbecomeathing
#didyouactuallyreadallofthelasthashtag
#hashtagoverusinghashtags

Sorry for the short-ish chapter

XOXO, (moo🐮)
Rascal