Crafted Origins

Chapter 18: Not a Fish

(Quentin's POV)

“And you think we should just head back?” Ty asked, standing right in front of me.

“Yes,” I responded, as evenly as I could. “This is as far as the squids will come, anyways. If they did come all the way out here, we can be sure that they know about the town.”

He glared at me and quickly adjusted his shirt collar; I would never understand why he always did that. He took a deep breath. “Fine,” he said, calming down. “Jerome, Jason, Seto, we're heading back to the town,” he called over his shoulder, to the rest of the camp.

“There's a town?” Jerome asked, jumping down from the tree he was perched on.

“No, he just said that because we're going to the moon,” Seto responded, rolling his eyes.

“I wouldn't mind going to the moon,” Jason said, scratching Dillon behind his ears. “Especially now that I have this awesome suit.” He hadn't taken it off to sleep in, and as a result, was still wearing it.

“Can we just go?” Adam demanded, sounding a lot unlike his usual self. Everybody turned around to look at him, raising eyebrows.

He gritted his teeth. “Look, you just... you guys need to go to a certain spot at a certain time...” His hands clenched into fists, like he was having a hard time saying it.

“Adam...” Jason began warily, unlatching his laser gun, “You're not a squid.”

Adam stopped gritting his teeth and stood up straight. His amulet bounced off his chest and hung there, not touching any part of him. “I...”

I was amazed at Jason's skill at figuring out what was happening. “Adam,” he said, his hands on the gun, his eyes staring right at his sunglasses, “I think your amulet is messing with you. You think that you have to obey those orders. You don't. You want to stop those orders from being carried out as soon as possible.”

Adam put his head in his hands. “Right,” he mumbled. His amulet swung back and tapped him on the chest. His face twitched, but then he took a deep breath and took his head out of his hands. “Right,” he repeated. His hands shook as he lowered them.

Ty was watching Adam closely. “Adam, did you just get a new message?”

His face contorted as he thought about it. “Well... sorta...”

“What was it?” he asked.

“I don't really know. It was... more of a feeling than actual words,” Adam said slowly.

“What was the feeling?” he asked. He sounded nervous for some reason.

“I don't... I can't remember.”

Ty bit his lip. “Well, we'll just keep going,” he decided. Jason and Seto hoisted the bags full of stuff over their shoulders; they had been elected the night before to take the first shift carrying them. I shot a sideways glance at Adam, feeling worried. If that amulet was messing with his brain... I shuddered away from the thought of what could happen.

We walked for a few hours, Jerome and Jason trying entirely too hard to keep the conversation light and cheery. The bags rotated from Jason and Seto to Adam and Ty and finally Jerome and I. Jerome groaned good-naturedly about how heavy his was, but I just put my head down and kept walking. I wanted to get back to the town as soon as possible; not that I had doubts about Dan's leadership, but I was worried. What if we got there to find that the entire town had been captured? I tried to shake that thought off, too, but it kept coming back.

“No, not that way!” Adam said suddenly, interrupting the silence; Jerome and Jason had given up long ago. Ty stopped in his tracks and cast a glance at Adam over his shoulder, confused.