Downside of perfection

Chapter 5

"Good job, Esfa!" Skeon whispered. "Very clever. But how did you know he was going to be distracted?"

"Oh, it was actually a little obvious..." Esfa answered. There wasn't a plan at all. But I don't care. As long as I don't seem as clumsy as I really am.

Skeon and she had run into the forest. It was cold and dark, and in the faint light of the stars they only saw the trees when they were almost touching them and had to make some weird hops to avoid the tree trunks. Doing this, they suddenly appeared to have hopped to exactly the same location and their bodies met violently.

"Ouch!" Skeon shouted when he hit the ground.

"Sssht!" Esfa hissed. "What if he follows us?"

"It hurts, okay?!"

"I know! But it could have been worse: I fell into a thorn bush, so stop whining." Esfa got up and looked at Skeon, who was still lying on the ground. What a wimp! she thought. Probably spoiled by his supercool daddy. It wouldn't surprise me if his entire bedroom is made out of cotton.

"I don't want to get up anymore." Skeon said. "If he's going to follow us, we can't outrun him anyway. And I'm tired. I want to sleep."

"And that's going to be our next leader..." Esfa sighed. "Well, fine. We'll sleep here. I'll take the first watch."

"Watch?" Skeon asked.

"There are animals in this forest, oh dumbass! And what do you think a hungry creature will do if he sees two delicious sleeping Mikéz?"

"Right." Skeon yawned. "Wake me at midnight."

"It is midnight already."

"Then wake me at three-quarter night! And you call me a dumbass..."

""Three-quarter night"? Is that a word...?" Esfa murmured, but didn't get an answer.

Skeon turned around and started to snore after a while. For the second time this night, Esfa looked at the sky and shivered in the cold. But this time the stars weren't visible because of the trees. Esfa felt a strange fear, as if invisible eyes were looking at her from all sides, and invisible creatures were getting ready to attack and rip her into pieces, then leaving her there for her parents to find next morning. She had never been in the forest at night, and she had never felt so lonely before. How did I get mixed up in this? she wondered. Why did I ever follow Skeon? The legend seemed so unimportant compared to the trouble she was in now. Hunted by aliens, driven in to the forest that seemed so sweet in daylight, but turned out to be so dangerous at night, and she felt the snoring of Skeon was driving her crazy.

When she noticed it was becoming lighter and lighter, she realized the sun was rising, and Skeon had slept and snored all night long. Well, what does it matter. Esfa thought. I'm not tired anyway. She crawled towards Skeon and whispered in his ear: "Skeon, Skeon, wake up!"

"Breaaaaaaakfaaaaaaaaaaaast..." Skeon moaned.

Then Esfa suddenly realized they had nothing to eat. "There isn't any." she said. "But maybe we can get some. Come on, get up."

Skeon got up and slowly opened up his eyes. "This isn't my bedroom!" he said.

"No, it's mine!" Esfa snarled sarcastically.

"But how did we get here? I had a nightmare about aliens following us..."

"That was reality." Esfa said. "And the fact you snored all night and I couldn't possibly sleep because of that, is also reality."

"Oh, right." Skeon said, and yawned. "But it was so bizarre... I thought it was a nightmare."

"Your snoring?"

"No! The aliens!" Skeon laughed. "But I'm very hungry now."

"We could go back to the castle. Maybe it's safe again."

"And if it isn't?" Skeon asked. "That weirdo didn't look like someone who gives up easily."

"Then we'll have to think of another plan." Esfa said, and headed for the castle.

"Wait. You're suddenly taking the lead?" Skeon said.

"Yep!"

"But I'm the son of the leader!"

"And I'm the better boss. When you took the lead, an alien tried to kidnap us, remember? And I talked us out, remember?"

Skeon mumbled something, but then he followed Esfa.