Chapter 1: Fireflies and Bat
1279 Words
"I don’t care about your obsession with stars and galaxies, I just want a comfortable tent Jansen." Jasmine ignored them after calling for help. "Ugh, you could've rented a cabin at least, why choose such a scary and dangerous location."
"You obviously don’t know how lucky we are to get this spot." Jansen, who's preparing his equipment told her but he just received another complaint, this time about the bugs and insects.
"We're on top of a hill and at the end of the forest Jas, what do you expect, snow?" Ghael throws an ointment in her direction before looking at his other friend. "Are you that fired up to top your rival?" he asked, referring to another photographer Jansen has been dealing with for a while.
"Hm, that guy is confident and I wanna crash it so bad." his friend replied, adjusting the lens. "How 'bout you? Still being babies at home?"
Ghale groaned before answering. "Yeah, that sucks, they still see me as a child. Maybe because I'm only child but still,"
"Then it's a great time for us to relax since it's only me who'll work, you two can sleep."
He shook his head before grabbing another folded chair and put it not too close on the cliff.
"Nah, you know how much I miss my former career." he mumbled, looking down on the trees below them. The scenery makes him recall a few memories.
"Figured that out."
They spent hours building their tent because Jasmine failed to do it right, it's collapsing and it's getting dark. The wind blows in their direction and because they're on top of a hill, the temperature is cooler. Soon enough, they set up a small bonfire with sticks scattering around. There are tree tents firmly built.
"I'll make a coffee, you guys want one?" Jasmine asked but she's already digging on one of her pack up bags containing what according to her is a kit that contains things she won't survive without. That includes coffee.
"Sure, thank you." Jansen replied, happy with the offer.
"Don’t add too much sugar." Ghael reminded her.
"Yeah yeah."
Ghael faced the horizon where the sun hides and the moon is slowly showing. There weren't many stars in the sky tonight but few were bigger and brighter. The cold breeze on his skin makes him feel a little nostalgic of something he can't remember.
He embraced the moment since he's been in a good mood, last night he didn't dream. He slept soundly and good, enough for him to have this energy. And it's been a while, sometimed he just want to let himself loose.
"How much time do we still have before the shower?" he asked, noticing a few clouds above. Will it be visible at all though.
"About an hour, I don’t want to even lay down and accidentally fall asleep. I'll regret this for the rest of my life. "
"Me, I'm not that interested. Can I go to sleep earlier than you then?" Jasmine approaches them with two mugs of coffee on her hands and hands it to each of them.
"Thanks."
"Yeah, don’t want you to ruin anything just in case. Thanks." Jansen teased before thanking her for making a coffee for him.
"Whatever." she answered.
Scenario like this often happened in the past, Ghael clearly remembers every time they're up to another so-called adventure. He was a treasure hunter, and he may appear as someone obsessed with money and gold bars, no he's not. He wants the journey and adventure, he's chasing the experiences and providing some proof of the past. He even made it to the newspaper once, when they discovered a fossil. Now he misses it more than ever. He finds excitement and peace on it.
If his father wasn't hospitalized, he won't need to find a stable job according to his parents. He's just in his 20's but made it to University because his father has a great connection that he's not proud to use. Makes him feel like some sort of follower.
"Someone is missing something." Jansen mumbled before a slurp could be heard in the background.
"Someone is missing someone." Jasmine spoke and that's when Ghael cleared his throat and sipped on his freshly brewed coffee. Jasmine can feel a heavy stare on her right so he looked up to see Jansen eyeing him. "I'm sorry." she then added.
The atmosphere quickly changed into a heavy and gloomy one, like someone just brought the elephant in the room.
Jansen decided to break the silence by clearing his throat and pointing nowhere. "Anyways, if anyone needs to use a bathroom I'm sad to say use natural resources."
That irked Jasmine to put down her coffee and look at her friend unbelievably. "What? You didn't even bring a tissue roll? You're disgusting Jansen!" she immediately complained.
"Of course I'll bring some! I'm just saying we don’t have bathrooms here."
"God."
While the two are bickering, Ghael just looks around them. Spotting a nice location for hygiene later. Though his eyes stopped on a particular part of the forest that looked something new to him.
I didn't notice there was a pathway earlier? Where's this leading to? He asked in his mind before getting from his seat and made his eyes smaller to look at it clearly.
The other two noticed him so they followed his line of sight.
"What are you looking at?" Jasmine weirdly asked.
"I didn't see this pathway earlier, is it here before we arrive?" he asked, walking towards the dark part of the forest but clearly a narrow path for them.
"No, I didn't. If I did I would've pointed it out."
"Oh wow so it popped out of nowhere? Magic?" Jasmine sarcastically said but she's nervous because it looks scary to even look at.
"I checked the map earlier.." Ghael said, curiosity is now driving his body. There's a hinge of excitement now running on his veins and his brain wandering already.
"Don’t tell me we're — AHH!" she screamed, as did the other two when a bat flew in their direction but passed them. "Let's just go back to our tent!"
"No.. look.."
Ghael can't believe his eyes, there are tons of fireflies around that lit up the trees, making the road visible for them. "Oh wow."
"I'm following this way, you two can stay here." he suddenly announced, excited to whatever was waiting for him at the end of this pathway but he did not care.
Jasmine is the first one to make an objection. "What? Are you crazy? Ghael it's too creepy, look!" she pointed it out.
"No, I can manage. As if we haven't tried hell hole Jas, calm down." he answered.
Jansen on the other hand is contemplating, there's still more than half an hour before the meteor shower starts but they don’t know how long it would take for them to reach the end of this road, or if there's an end.
"I said you two can stay here and wait for the meteor shower." Ghael made up his mind, searching for his phone to have a source of light. "My battery is full, nice."
"Ghael," she made a complaining sound.
"I told you, you can stay—"
"We're coming." Jansen butt in them.
"What?"
He looked at his friend before Ghael. "I quite missed the adventure, Jas. I'm in." he answered. Ghael got his point and was happy he's thinking the same thing.
"Ugh fine! But squeeze me in the middle or I'll bite you two." she said before clinging on each arm of the two and heaved a deep sigh of encouragement.
"This is magical."
- Writer
