The Journey To New Jersey (Discontinued)

Yellowstone Nationa Park

This chapter is just going to be a kinda slow one. There isn't much talking.

Claire woke up very energized and ready for what're the night brought. It was very dark in the cave. She rolled over to find her phone to use her flashlight. Her hand brushed across the cavern floor until she found it. She reached it up and checked the time. 7:30 pm. Then she switched on the flashlight. Jim wasn't in the cave. He was probably out with the other trolls. She got up and rolled her sleeping bag up, then placed it inside of her bag pack her dad packed for her. She made her way to the entrance of the cave. She used her flashlight to carefully navigate her way through. The cave sat only about six or seven feet up from the ground. So the climb down wasn't that bad. The trolls where crowded together. She looked around for Jim. He wasn't that hard to spot with his glowing armor and all. He was standing by two trolls. One was a dark shade or orange and the other yellowish. They where glaring at each other. Jim with no doubt had to break up another flight between them. Jim looked like he hadn't slept in months. His hair was messed up like crazy, but it didn't look bad. And he didn't look happy. Claire guessed it was a really bad day to make Jim angry. He walked off from the trolls towards Claire. The two trolls rolled their eyes and trudged away from each other.
"What happened now?" Claire asked as Jim reached her.
"Another fight. Stay on your own side! But your on my side!" Jim sarcastically imitated. "We haven't even started the journey for today. Any ways, how was the rest of your sleep?" She smiled and answered;
"Great. I feel great." Jim nodded. "How was yours?"
"Only a total of four hours. I'm really tired, but someone's got to keep crowd control."
"I'm sorry Jim." He smiled.
"Don't be." But she could still see the exhaustion in his eyes even through his smile. "We should maybe get going."
Claire nodded in agreement.

***

The next stop wash Washington in a camp called Yellowstone. Jim has heard of it before. Apparently it's known for its boiling hot mud pots, guizers, wildlife and many other things. It is a very big risk of them traveling through the forest. They could be caught by human eyes. But hopefully they will be traveling deep in the forest to avoid any collisions from the two opposite worlds.
Claire brought a surprisingly big tent. It could fit six people. They would have set it up last night in the cave, but it was pretty late and Claire and Jim where exhausted. Claire had her sleeping bag in her bag pack, and Jim carried the tent. It was super light with his new founded strength.
"Where in Yellowstone now." Claire said checking her phone.
Jim told the trolls that they would need to watch where they step, for one miss judgment and they could fall right into boiling water, and or mud. Jim's ears perked up at every sound he heard. He was always being wary of everything that came there way just in case... Jim was grateful that his eyesight worked really well in the night. He could see almost every detail of a pine tree twenty feet away. Claire on the other hand had to carry a flashlight around.
Jim's ears perked up once again as he heard a bubbling sound. Boiling mud. He, and no doubt the other trolls, could smell it from a very long distance away.
"What's that smell?" Claire asked.
"Boiling mud maybe." Jim answered. They walked in the front of the group to watch out for anything. Like in this case, mud.
"How do you know for sure?" She asked.
"I can hear it." Jim answered looking around to find it, but it wasn't in sight.
"You can hear it? I can't." Claire answered. They trudged on for another minute or so.
"Hey now I can hear it." She said. And she was right a couple feet away was a hole about three feet wide, give or take. Steam was spilling out of it, and it was making deep popping sounds like boiling water, but slower. (If that makes any sense.) Jim and Claire redirected their way more left, so they avoided the mud pot. The group followed.
This went of four another hour. They ran into a few more holes with mud, some dried and just steaming, others bubbling madly. They also ran into beautiful water holes. (AN: Idk what there called) They seemed to go down into the earth for miles. The water produced brilliant colors, like red, orange, blue, purple, green, and many more brilliant shades. Claire told Jim it was because of the chemicals in the water that turned it that certain color.
Once Jim and Claire deciphered that there wasn't another mud pot or burning hot water near by, they called it a night, and settled in for camp. Jim took the tent off his shoulder and began to unpack it. Claire helped him.
"Why did your dad give you such a big tent?"
"I am not exactly sure." She said answering Jim's question.
"I have never been good with tents." Jim said as he fumbled around with the tents bars. Maybe if his dad didn't leave him, he could have learned how to set one up. Sadness overwhelmed his chest, but it quickly disappeared as Claire walked over to help him. Just seeing her can bring out the happiest parts of him.
"You never learned?" She asked. Jim shook his head.
"Never had anyone to teach me." Claire grabbed the bars from the ground and began linking them together making one long bar.
"I'll teach you. You start by folding the tent out, which we already did. Then stake these into the ground to hold the tent down. Oh we forgot to do that!" She held up a small bag of metal pieces. They branched of an inch or two at the end of it. She found a metal ring that was on the corner of the tent and held it. Jim assumed what to do next. Jim grabbed one of the pieces and dug it in the ground. It locked the metal loop in place. Jim's guessed he did it correctly because Claire didn't say anything. They did this three more times on each corner. Now the tent was secure to the ground.
"I haven't really been camping either. My mom and I went a couple years ago. But I can hardly remember it. Let alone the place." She smiled and began to work on connecting the bars together once again. Jim mimicked what she was doing. The Crickets where distracting to Jim. He wanted his instincts to take over and just run wild and explore everything this place had to offer. Claire began to talk a few seconds after Jim spoke about never really camping before.
"You know that reminds me. Me and my dad, and a few other friends of mine went camping. It was the middle of the night and we where all a bit sleep deprived. We where all tired but still we remained sitting at the campfire telling scary stories. I remember I smelt like fire so badly in the morning. But that's a story for another time. Anyways, we where telling our stories and we where only about ten or eleven at that time, so we believed every story that was told to us. After the fire was dying down, it grew colder and colder, so me and my friends headed back to our tent to sleep."
Jim smiled at Claire's story. They now had the bars strung through the tent. All they needed was the tarp, then they where all set for the night. Claire continued her story with a bright grin.
"We where almost there when something caught my friends eye. She screamed startling me and my second friend out of our bones. I whip my head around to see a small white thing drifting closer and closer to us, before it stoped like it was snagged on something. But we didn't hesitate to run away. We ran to the tent as fast as we could muster. We where convinced that we saw a ghost and we swore to ourselves that night that no matter what happens, we would never tell or hear a ghost story again. When morning rolled around, we hesitantly got out of out tents and a few yards away was a plastic bag. We later identified it as the think that snuck up on us that night. But a plastic bag? Who knew something like that could scare us half to death."
Jim laughed and smiled at Claire who was giggling too.
"You where all probably paranoid from the stories told at the fire." He said recovering himself from laughter.
"Something like that." Claire answered. By now they where in the tent. Claire was nestled up in her sleeping bag, and Jim laid accost from her. He never got cold in the night strangely. Maybe it was a perk in his new form he can thank for that. He also found it a bit comfy sleeping on the ground. Which was also very strange. They talked for a few more minutes about their plans for tomorrow, sometimes joking around. They concluded that they would wake up around eight or nine in the morning. The trees provided enough shade, they didn't need to fret about dying a horrible painful death by the sun. It also gave them a few hours in the day to look around. (especially for Claire because she can't see as well as the trolls can in the dark)
Blinky found a box left in the cavern of troll market. It had hundreds of different stones. He recognized them as the ones that granted him power back when Vendal was still alive. One stone summoned a whole catastrophic army of himself at Claire's house. It was horrible then, but a joke now. Jim wondered if the stone that granted ability to walk in sunlight was still in there. He'll half to ask.
The couple also thought about asking Merlin to try and create a glamor mask so Jim and Claire can look around in some of the stores to gather supplies and maybe sneak into a shower building. They knew Yellowstone National Park was littered with stores, bathrooms, and showers so finding one wouldn't be a challenge. They also secretly wanted to look at some of the attractions they had like the guizers. The plan was settled then. Claire set her watch to wake up at five in the after noon tomorrow. After that, they said goodnight to each other, and they dosed off before they knew it.
What a day. Jim thought.

Sorry for the lag in this chapter. Hopefully Jim can get that mask though. I promise the next chapter won't be so boring.

Comment what you thought about this chapter!

1,865 words