Varian and the Seven Kingdoms (Varian's Seven Trials)

Follow the Stars

"I don't understand how this happened; we were marking where we had been- where did our markings go?"
"Let's not worry about that right now..." Varian sighed.
"Did it occur to you that the cave thought it was a stupid idea and decided to ruin it?" Hugo joked.
"I'm confused...is the cave alive?" Yong asked.
"No- he's being stupid." Nuru replied.
"Am I? I thought you were the one who got us lost?" Hugo grinned.
"Well, I think you did this!"
"What?" Hugo laughed.
"You're so determined to make me look bad, I think you got rid of our markers!"
"You're delusional. Why would I get myself lost with you?" Hugo asked, bitterly.
"Alright, let's not go blaming each other-"
"What if I did it?" Yong asked, in a self-reflective way.
"None of us did anything. It was the trial. They're made to test us. We can't turn against each other, that's not gonna help us." Varian said, loudly.
Everyone stayed quiet and they continued through the darkness.

"Did you hear that?" Nuru asked the boys after a short time.
"No, what?" Varian responded.
"Like...whispering voices to our left."
"I...didn't hear anything."
"So, the Princess is crazy." Hugo added.
"I'm serious! There are voices."
"What're they saying?" Yong questioned.
"My name." Nuru whispered and her grip on Yong's hand loosened and she let go.
"Wait- Varian said we should stick together!" Yong reached for Nuru's hand again but she was gone.
"Where'd she go?" Varian asked.
"I don't know- she walked off." Yong frowned.
"Well, guess there's no point in this anymore." Hugo tried to let go of Varian's hand but he held onto it.
"What good's it gonna do us if we split up?"
"I won't have to hold your hand anymore." Hugo joked.
"Maybe she was right about the voices. She's a princess, maybe she has some magical connection to the trial. We should go left, like she said." Yong said to no avail of being heard, as the others weren't listening.
"Can't you just cooperate with one of my ideas without questioning it?" Varian raised his voice.
"If your ideas were any good, I probably wouldn't have as much trouble listening to them." Hugo replied.
"Why do you have to be so difficult?" Varian pulled his hand away from Hugo's and in the process, without thinking, let go of Yong's.
"Thought you had to take me with a pinch of salt." Hugo laughed.
"Which is getting increasingly harder when you keep deciding to be- so..."
"What?"
"Unbearable! I thought we were starting to get along but you keep treating me like I'm your enemy!"
Hugo was quiet. After a while, he spoke up,
"This is stupid. Let's go left like the kid said."
"Fine. Come on, Yong." Varian put his hand out, "Yong?" He felt around in the darkness.
"You lost the kid?"
"Me? If you had gone along with the plan, we wouldn't have lost him!"
"Clearly wasn't a great plan if you lost him."
"I'm- not gonna argue with you about this. Let's go left and hope we find Nuru and Yong." Varian started to walk then stopped and reached out to grab Hugo's arm before continuing.

Meanwhile, Nuru followed the voices and they grew louder. She stopped when they fell silent in an instant, catching her off guard. The Princess stared into the darkness, listening closely for any sound. At that moment she heard something coming towards her quickly. She moved aside as it approached her from behind.
"Ow!" A familiar young voice exclaimed.
"Yong?" Nuru asked, cautiously.
The boy had run straight into the stem of a large mushroom which lit up, others doing the same to reveal the cavern the two were in.
"Yong!" Nuru smiled, running over to the boy, who stood up from the ground beside the mushroom, "I think you just helped solve one of our problems. The mushrooms light up upon impact." Nuru smiled widely.
"They- I mean...yeah, I thought they might." Yong crossed his arms and smiled proudly, causing Nuru to laugh. Her smile didn't last long before she took a look of concern,
"Where're Varian and Hugo?"
"Uh...I dunno. I kinda ran off after you while they were arguing." Yong admitted, slightly less proudly.
"Right...we'd better find them." She sighed, looking around, "You've completed some trials already; are there usually maps around?" She asked hopefully and Yong shook his head.
"I didn't think so." She sighed, looking around them, "There must be some way to navigate these caverns." Nuru looked to the ceiling of the cavern and her eyes widened.