𝑨𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒚

Chapter 8: The Golden Prince

The crisp sound of fire had filled the ears of everyone who had surrounded the campfire, gathering the warmth of the heated blaze to survive the shivering night. Coincidentally, ever since Maya has recruited Rosetta and Azuru, the nights have become colder and more difficult to sleep or stay warm. Her companions were eating after a long night; they managed to find some food after they ran out their supplies.
"Weird. Thought we had a stock that would have last us around two months." Maya had through deeply about the mystery; Zatz payed close attention to her, and noticing that she hasn't eaten. He looked worried since her eye only landed onto the fire as she zoned out from reality.
"Maya, are you alright? Your food is going to get cold."

She snap out of her daydream, gazing back to Zatz. Maya took a sharp inhale, staring back at the fire as Zatz shuffled closer to her. He wrapped his arm around Maya, comforting her and asking what was wrong.
"It's just...have you ever noticed that it's becoming a lot more complicated to survive the nights recently." He raised a brow, not knowing what she was talking about. He and the others were utterly oblivious to their surroundings.
"The nights have become colder, to the point it has become unbearable to sleep; there has been little to nothing wood and water, and our supplies have been disappearing!" Her complaining had Zatz concerned; he looked back to the beginning of their quest and have remembered the small details that he had missed.

"I can assure you that it's nothing; perhaps we've been on the road for so long, time might have passed quickly." Maya thought about it. Maybe he's right, it has been about a couple of months that they'd left Teca. She might be over thinking. Suddenly, everyone heard the cries of animals, that lurk in the night and explore the forest to fest on prey while the prey, went out and hide from the predators.

Maya and Zatz turned to Rosetta, who let out a sadden puff as her arms wrapped around her legs and hid her face. Azuru, who was next to her, came closer and placed her hand on her back. "Hey, what's the matter?" Rosetta look back to her with tears that began to fall from her eyes. The lighting of the fire had made her tears glow in Azuru's perspective; which in her option, looked beautiful. The heat on the side of Rosetta's face became unbearable, so her turned as she wiped her tears. She took some time to speak up.

"The sounds of the animals remained of me of the creatures in the Predatory Wetlands." Azuru gave her a confused look, she didn't know why that bothered her so much, but the others knew exactly what she was talking about.
"What do you mean?"
"The animals uses to make normal sounds like this, but after the wizards that came in and mutated them; they made horrifying noises that sounds like they came from the underworld." Azuru's first reaction to her words weren't shock or sadness like the others, it was an awkward look away from Rosetta. The others saw this and wondered why did she made that particular reaction. She let out a deep exhale that caught the attention of Rosetta. Something was up.

"What was that?" Rosetta's entire mood change. Her eyebrows narrowed along with a profound face. To the others, it seems so scary that Rosetta change her mood in seconds; this also scared Azuru as her body leaned backwards, away from Rosetta's intense stare.
"I-uhh-what?" Her stuttering made it seem more obvious that she knew about something. This made Rosetta a lot more curious, but at the same time, a lot more angrier.

"What was that reaction?" Rosetta was starting to get fuming with rage. Azuru seemed uneasy, as if she's trying to avoid a conversation that she didn't wanted to talk about. That probably was the case since she kept trying to distract Rosetta from her response to her mourning over the animals. Chimi had this unsettling feeling, a nasty gut feeling that made her sick and wanted Azuru to spill out what was going on. After about five seconds of pestering, Azure finally gave up, letting out a sigh of defeat.
"Alright, I'll talk." Rosetta was paying attention and so did the others, the pressure was making Azuru really nervous and made her stutter a lot.
"I may not...be involved?" Everyone had shocked; their eyes now widened with curiosity and shock. Rosetta, on the other hand, was erupting with anger. Azuru was wanted to stop talking, but since she agreed to explain to everyone, there was no turning back.
"Okay I know it sounds bad, so let me explain." She continued.