Alligator Eyes

Chapter 8

Mark does feel bad when they all wake up with headaches the next morning. Luckily, they don't trace it back to him and think they must have not had enough water yesterday. Which is true, and Mark did tell them to drink water. He brews some for himself this morning, just a little bit, but doesn't share, even though BamBam asks him for sip because he doesn't want them to have another day like yesterday.

Sometime in the night, something—hopefully Jackson or Yugyeom—dragged the body away so Mark doesn't have to look at it again. It isn't like he's never seen a death body, he's preformed funeral rights before, and he was born near the end of a war, he has seen plenty of death, but something about Jinyoung shrugging and saying it was just an accident has him shaken. He can so casually take a mans life and function the next morning, as if it never happened.

Mark is starting to understand why Uteh never seemed excited about hunting trips. To Mark they were a novelty but to him they must have just been work. Having put this tarp up and taken it down twice now, building a new shelter both times, he is starting to become annoyed with it.

But no one else complains, so Mark doesn't. Doing the work and trying not to feel like a spoiled prince. They are on the move again before the sun is even half way through the sky. Jinyoung leading them through the trees, using his long knife to cut through branches when they can't just be pushed aside. Mark feels badly about that too. This land seems ancient to him, everything in it seems precious and should be taken care of, not carelessly chopped down.

BamBam walks along side him, humming something while they go. Mark is curious, but has been refraining from asking, how he just picked up like this was normal. Like they've been friends for forever, even though BamBam avoided him for two days.

"BamBam," Mark starts, just testing out how he will respond to being talked to. BamBam smiles at him, arching his eyebrows in question. "You avoided me for two days after finding out I was gay, what happened?"

"Oh," BamBam seems genuinely taken aback by Mark's question, either not used to people being so straight forward or finding it to be an awkward subject. "I wasn't really avoiding you, I just wasn't sure how to act"

"Like normal? I'm just a person"

"I know, I know, I've just never had someone tell me before" BamBam rubs his neck awkwardly, again it reminds Mark of his little brother, the way he gets when hes trying to act like he didn't break moms pottery, after being asked about it. It makes Mark's heart ache for home.

"You remind be of my little brother," Mark smiles when BamBam laughs, feeling at ease again.

"I've never had a brother" BamBam muses,

"I have three, would you like one?" No matter how artlessly his joke was said, BamBam laughs again, shaking his head.

"Taking care of one person is hard enough" BamBam pulls out a flask and drinks some water, offering some to Mark. "So, do you have like, a boyfriend? Or whatever?"

"Oh no, no time for that, maybe someday" He isn't sure why he looks at Jinyoung when he says this, but hes surprised to find that Jinyoung is looking back at him, no longer watching where he's walking. "Jinyoung! Look out!"

Jaebum grabs onto Jinyoung's shirt before he can walk off the cliff, but its still close, spacing loose rocks over the edge as Jinyoung scrambles back. Shocking how sudden a drop it is, Mark never would have noticed if he wasn't thinking about how suddenly clear the sky was, how Jinyoung's hair looked fluttering in the open breeze against that sky.

This is where the river is flowing from, a lake like an ocean, spreading out to the edge of their sight line, and at the end of it is the temple, golden in the afternoon sun.

"It's beautiful" Yugyeom says as Jackson whistles low at it. "You think that's real gold?"

"It certainly looks that way, but we'd have to see when we get there" Jinyoung answers, taking out a long spy glass like a pirate's to look around the temple and the shoreline.

"That's a pretty spy glass" Mark says, staring the designs. It's carved in green to look like a moss covered branch.

"Our dad gave it to us," Jinyoung answers, but Jaebum signs something—Mark only catches 'me'— before he snatches it back stuffing it into his bag. "Or gave it to Jaebum, sorry"

From the tone of Jinyoung's voice this is not the first time they have argued over the spy glasses ownership, or at least not the first time Jinyoung has taken it without asking.

It will take the rest of the day to walk there so they rest for a minute, pulling out the remainder of the rabbit and drinking down some water. They boil more to bring with them and stretch their muscles. Mark has never walked so far in his life, if it weren't for years of farm work, this would be hell.

Mark thought he would continue the conversation with BamBam, maybe even hoped to clear things up and keep them on good terms. BamBam even walks beside him, but all Mark can focus on is the temple, so close yet it feels so far away. He doesn't know what he was expecting, but this wasn't it. Its still magnificent but angular in a way that reminds him of war, without the soft arches of the temples Mark has seen elsewhere.

Although its dark by the time they reach the gates, they don't stop, walking straight into their open doors. Jinyoung, Jaebum and Jackson all light torches, spreading out just enough to provide a good light source. Mark walks over to Jinyoung to stand beside him, looking at the ceilings around him. They are completely bare, and old looking, not like the stone outside, but wooden. The floor is the same.
The outside is impressive, and it did look like gold, but up close it seems it's only stone and the inside is pathetic. Nothing Mark would have expected from his ancestors, it looks more like the work of invaders.

"Is this it?" Jackson calls from one side of the room. His voice echoes horribly seeming to shake the woodworks. "This can't be it"

"I don't see any doors or anything, theres nothing here" Jinyoung agrees, he sounds frustrated. Mark shares his frustration. This cannot be it, but how are you supposed to get out of this room?

After checking the whole expanse of this first room and finding nothing, they regroup, coming together in the center of the room again. Which is a mistake. The second Mark puts his full weight in the place beside Jinyoung the floor collapses, and they're falling into the darkness.