Free Spirit

Chapter 10 Stay Together

"Keeeeith." Keith sighed and turned to look at Lance. "What." Lance jumped his way over to stand beside the smaller boy. "I dont know." He shrugged and knocked Keith to the side, Keith reached back and brushed some dirt off of his flank before shooting a glare towards Lance. "Then what was the point of getting my attention for no reason and then shoving me?" Lance shrugged again and ran ahead to catch up to Hunk, he tugged on his vest and made a wierd face, Hunk seemed just as confused as Keith felt, maybe more. He turned to Keith and motioned towards Lance who was spinning as fast as he could in circles ahead of them, Keith shrugged and held up his hands as if to say that Lance was out of his control and there was nothing he could do about it. Lance returned to the group with a strange looking apple, he had been eating these all day, maybe that's why he was acting like this, who knows. They trekked through the forest for a few more hours, Lance going berserk the whole time, eventually they saw a building through the trees and decided to ask the person if they knew what was going on with Lance. They walked towards the barn, passing fields of wheat and pumpkins, they eventually reached the door of the farmhouse and knocked. After a few minutes they gave up and walked around the farm, keeping to the paths, they held Lance between them so that he didn't run through everything. At some point they must have made a right turn because there was the farmer, she was kneeling in the dirt mumbling to herself, something about good-for-nothing chickens, Hunk coughed and the farmer jumped up clearly suprised that they were here. "Oh hello, what brings you to UnderBush? Need any help with anything?" Keith nodded and stepped forward. "Our friend has been eating these things all day and he's been acting a little strange." He pulled one of the apples out of his jacket and showed it to the farmer, she reached out to grab it at the same time as Lance, Keith grabbed his arm and put it behind his back earning an exasperated huff from Lance. The farmer turned the apple over in their hands a few times before taking a small knife and cutting it open, they examined the insides and almost dropped it out of surprise. Keith pulled Lance backwards as he was trying to grab the apple again. "But she's killing it!" He looked up at Keith, who only rolled their eyes and turned back to the farmer. "Is something wrong?" He asked, the farmer shook her head. "No nothings wrong, this apple just makes whoever eats it have a literal five year old mindset, your friend should be fine in a few hours, do you want the apple back? If not then I can take it." Keith glanced back to Lance who was playing with his hair. "I dont think we'll need the apple back." The farmer laughed and held out her hand. "The names Madison, need any help with anything else?" Keith shook her hand and pointed to Hunk. "This is Hunk, I'm Keith, and the psycho is Lance. Do you happen to know where the RedGlade is?" She pointed towards the setting sun over her shoulder. "RedGlade is that way, though I wouldn't recommend going at night, this place is teeming with Plains cats. They stay away from the farm but it's still dangerous, your more than welcome to stay here if you'd like." Keith nodded, with Lance like this, they'd never get anywhere withought being caught or worse, killed by a Plains cat. "That would be much appreciated, thank you." She pointed towards the barn. "Make yourselves at home, pick any stall, or sleep together. Doesn't matter, breakfast is on me! I should go fix up that pipe in the house, dont stay out to long the cats will get you, and put your friend in a separate stall, lock and shut both doors on yours the cats get in there sometimes." She headed off towards the house, a stray chicken following her. Keith reluctantly headed to the barn and picked out a stall at the very back, Hunk took the one next to Lance and shut both doors on both stalls before locking them as the Madison instructed, Keith did the same to his own stall. But he couldn't sleep, he felt pinned, trapped inside a tiny area, the walls started pressing in on him, he slammed open the window on the far wall and rested against the sill breathing in the night air. Soon enough the sun began to rise, he was enjoying the sight when on the other end of the building another window burst open and Lance stuck his out. "Good morning!" He called out to no one in particular, just then a crowing noise came from the roof and they jumped back, it was just the rooster. As Keith was trying to remember how to work the locks, Madison entered the building, she dropped the bucket she was holding and her hand flew to her mouth. Keith looked up at the noise and finished the lock quickly before jumping out of his stall to see what the matter was, Madison was bent over catching her breath with Lance standing beside her, one hand in her back, they were talking about something and Madison was trying not to laugh, she waved her hand in the air and picked up her bucket again, she waved to Lance and turned to head to the back of the barn, when she saw Keith standing there, she almost dropped her bucket again. "Didnt see you there, how you doin'? I brought you some sandwiches, here you go." She held out a small bag with six sandwiches inside. "Two for each of you, speaking of which where's the other guy?" She looked around as Keith went over to the stall and opened the door, Hunk was still asleep so he held a sandwich under his nose until he woke up. "We need to head off to RedGlade to find your friend, get up." They walked outside and found Madison and Lance talking about chickens. "C'mon Lance, we have to get going if we're going to get to RedGlade by the end of the day, thanks for everything Madison." Madison smiled. "Happy to help, now get going, dont want to be late now do you?" She shooed them off towards RedGlade and stayed where she was until they were out of sight, the trio ran across the grass again, heading towards their final destination. "We're coming!" Lance yelled into the wind, arms spread wide as he ran, Hunk ran past him and gave him a poke in the side as he did. Keith threw back his head and laughed, maybe staying with them wasn't such a bad idea after all.