Just Episodes in L - I - F - E

_Chapter 5_

_Chapter Five- Welcome to Iris_

Looking around, the best word to describe this place was colorful. Everywhere I turned it seemed standard that there should be at least five colors involved in the action. For example, a flower the stem, ofcourse, is green; the bud is white; and the petals would start out as red, then, orange and lastly ending with the color pink.

Iris looked wonderful.

I heard a grunt behind me, "These place looked so much better before." I frowned at him, I didn't understand what Nate meant for me this place seemed so magical, which it really is.

"Nate's right you know, Iris was such a better place before, look past all the beautiful blending of colors, hear the voice of the land, feel what it feels." Achilles murmered close to my ear, almost startling me.

How could I possibly feel what a inanimate object was feeling? But I nevertheless tried to. And immediately I felt the air, it seemed like it was being restricted; the plants felt like there were being poisened and lastly the land it self felt so much hatred on somebody, I was guessing it was directed to the witch. I felt the dampness of the air and the sadness of the place, like it was just showing something that is totally low for them. That this wasn't what they really looked like, like they had much more life before.

"What happened here Achilles?" I looked up at him. "Queen Witchy is what happened."

I was nearing the level where I was really thinking that I would give Queen what's-her-name a queen sized slap to the face. Black witch or not.

Dan sighed, like he suddenly remembered all of the responsibilities they had, "Come on, we should probably get to safer ground, watchers might see us." And with that I hurried after the four boys.

"What are watchers?" I whispered to Don, who was beside me. "They're three vultures surrounding the whole land of Iris. They're like the cameras of Hilda to her rule- breakers."

"You mean like in Snow White?" This was starting to sound cliche.

"What's Snow White?" I looked incredulously over to Don. "She's this girl that the queen hates because she was the fairest of all." I acknowledged Disney, don't judge. "The queen wanted to kill her, she did so by using a poisoned apple. Then, she sent vultures to see how it goes or something, I'm not sure." I smiled sheepishly at Don. "I was five."

"What happened to her?" To say I was surprised when Don asked that would be an understatement, I never met a guy who was slightly interested in Disney Princesses.

"Well, Snow White, since she was just so kind, ate the apple.After that she just dropped on the floor. Upon their arrival from work they, the seven dwarfs who are also her friends, thought she was dead. They did a burial and everything. That's when Prince whoever-he-is decided to go there. He kissed her goodbye. Then comes the cliche Disney ending. She opens her eyes, declares their undying love for each other, And they lived happily ever after. The End."

"Well, that's weird." Don said, scrunching up his nose.

"I know right?" I shrugged "Disney tends to make people too delusional."

"Guys, are you done with your story telling over there?" Nate said calling our attention. "According to these two we should start covering more ground so by nightfall we'll be almost half- way from their camp." When Nate said that he slowed down his pace, allowing himself to walk beside us. "That is if we won't have any stop overs."

I frowned, my lips pursed, " What stop- overs?"

"Monster attacks." I sure hoped not.

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By nightfall, it was safe to say I was exhausted. I felt like my legs were about to fall off, but that must be the effect of me being physically weak in the 'too tiring things' department.

"Ahhhhhhhh......... My feet are killing me." I complained sprawled on the soft grass. The trio decided that we were to rest for the night, to refill us for the long walk tomorrow, considering we wont have any interruptions.

Dan fell on the grass beside me, "I'm so tired and this feels really good." he mumbled. I faced him, "I thought you do this all the time."

"It doesn't mean that we always do this makes me immune to tiredness." Then he bolted up so fast, it shocked me. "Hey anybody want some food?" he held up a pack of bacon.

Where did he get that from?

As if he heard me, "When we bought some stuff in the market I grabbed this, I heard that it really tastes good and from that hungry look in your eyes, I guess it really is."

Everyone turned to look at me, I was already in a sitting position, staring at the still raw bacon. I didn't notice that my mouth was opened slightly, I was drooling. All around me laughs errupted.

"That is not so lady like right now, Autumn." Nate reminded me teasingly.

Achilles turned to look look at Dan with playful eyes, "I'm never going to let you cook that."

Don did the same, "Not after you almost causing a forest fire when you last did, which also ended up being the reason for us to hind in those murky waters hiding from a hydra."

"What's a hydra?"

Dan answered me in a playful grumble, "Just another monster to add in the adventures of the Fletcher brothers."

When everybody sobered up, Nate pulled out sleeping bags form his bag, which I just now noticed was so large.

How did he manage to carry all of that since awhile ago without fainting?

After everything else was done, we decided to just cook tomorrow. Giving us more time to rest tonight. Nate suggested we sleep in shifts, but Dan intervened saying that we were still under the radar right now and would be still safe from the focus of different monsters.

Retreating to our sleeping bags, I had a very disturbing sleep, considering we were in a new place and due to the different sleeping conditions.

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I didn't know why but that morning when I woke, I felt really unsettled. Something was watching us and I knew it. Slowly I opened my eyes scanning the area, careful not to move.

My eyes widened when I saw the shadow of the cause of my discomfort.

Dan you are so wrong...