The Lonely King | Ongoing [New Edition]

24 | Campfire

"Hey Jude, don't be afraid,

You were made to go out and get her,

The minute you let her under your skin,

Then you begin to make it better.

And anytime you feel the pain,

Hey Jude, refrain,

Don't carry the world upon your shoulder.

For well, you know that's a fool

Who plays it cool

By making his world a little colder."

❁❁❁

"I HATE THIS," I heard Asher mutter under his breath as we searched for twigs and other ignitable materials. Under the instruction of Greyson and Marla, we were set off into the woods to collect firewood. Unfortunately for us, every twig and branch we came across was soggy due to the rain.

"Here," Emily said softly, reaching into her backpack to retrieve her water bottle. She pushed the bottle towards Asher, who eyed her with an unreadable expression on her face. "Drink this."

He stretched out his arm stiffly and grabbed the bottle from Emily. Without a word of thanks, he opened the bottle and took a sip.

"Why do we have to do this again?" I muttered unhappily, kicking a pile of wet leaves on the ground. I cringed when the leaves made a squelching sound.

"We are supposed to make our own fire, remember? If we don't find any firewood, we'll freeze to death tonight," Emily reminded glumly. Grumbling, I began my half-hearted search for firewood again. We probably spent half an hour with our backs bent at a 90-degree angle trying to find some kind of dry twig, but to no avail.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of fabric tearing and a loud curse. Turning around, I held back a laugh when I saw that Asher's shirt had been caught on a protruding branch.

"I hate this," Asher repeated for the hundredth time, ripping off his sleeve that was torn by the branch and revealing his pale alabaster skin underneath. Upon closer inspection, I noticed jagged, brown lines peeking out. They looked like scars that had healed over. What a strange place to have scars like that, I thought. My thoughts were quickly interrupted when Asher noticed my stare, which caused him to glower at me with a vicious glare.

"Don't slack off," he snapped.

When the sun started to set, we realised that it was time to return to our base camp, whether or not we had collected enough firewood. Defeated, the three of us trudged back to our tents. When we were nearing the base camp, we saw smoke rising up into the purple sky. Could it be that other groups were successful in finding firewood?

Curious, we quickened our pace. When we finally reached the base, we realised that there was only one campfire burning. Yuko, Robin and Logan sat around the fire they started, drinking and talking quietly to one another.

We were one of the first groups that arrived back at the base, and soon, more groups started to appear. Each group looked equally as exhausted and defeated as Emily, Asher and I. And every one of them looked completely flabbergasted at the sight of the single campfire in front of the three Royals.

"H-How is that even possible?" I murmured under my breath. "How did they even find anything that's dry in the woods?"

Asher stalked up to his friends with the same question in mind.