Over Cross

Chapter 5

Five

 

The sun was bright out when Toby and Sam walked into the forest.

The forest was alive. A gentle breeze blew every now and then, birds chirped. A deer would trot. A squirrel or two would appear from the trees. The trees were a bit thick, so it provided a cool shade.

"Are we there yet?" Toby asked. Sam shook his head.

After a while, Toby asked again. "How about now?". "Nope." They trudged on for few minutes.

"Now?"

"No."

Toby moaned. "How long will this take?"

"We're almost there."

"But its soooo looong." Tony groaned.

"What? This is just a short hike!"

"Well, we never 'walk' this long. We transport from one place to another through teleporting."

Sam stopped walking and faced Toby. "Well, I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but here, we do things differently. So suck it up!" he snapped.

 Toby kept quiet after that.

**********

They came to a clearing. It was wide. The grass swayed as the wind breezed through. In the middle of it, the lake sparked while ducks played on its shorelines.

"Welcome!"

Toby dropped his jaw. "This place is amazing!"

"I know, right?" They walked towards the lake and began setting up their picnic."I found out about this place after discovering a small creek from the river in the village. I followed it and it led me here. See?" He pointed to a small stream of water flowing into the forest.

"I-I mean, this place! It's so real! I can't believe that the lakes are so, so clean!"

"What do you mean?" Sam took off his clothes, except his trunk.

 Toby copied him."Well, in the future, there aren't places like this. Most of them are polluted. So we only get to experience it in video games and simulators."

"That's sad. In that case then..." Sam pushed Toby into the lake. "Happy swimming! HAHAHAHA" Toby fell face-first into the lake. The water was freezing, like bathing in ice water. Sam yelled: "Paddle with your hands to float!" before jumping in.

**********

The two spent the rest of the afternoon at the lake. Toby taught Sam how to swing from the tree into the lake. "Like this," Toby jumped off the branched and swung into the lake before letting go of the rope and falling into the lake. Sam taught Toby how to hunt manually. "It's all in the timing." he whispered, and threw the spear at a grazing deer. They cooked it at the campfire. "I haven't had deer, since, forever! It tastes like chicken!" Toby remarked, to which Sam laughed. "I wished this would last forever," Toby laid down on the grass and closed his eyes. "Me, too Toby, me too." Sam ate his piece of deer meat.

**********

"Ma, we're back! We got extra deer meat!" Sam boasted as they entered the hut. "Oh, good! I was making soup for everyone. This is good. Thank you, Sammy!" his mom kissed him on the head. Toby looked at them and felt a slight pang in his heart. Oh, mom...