The Dimension Wanderer *HIATUS*

Chapter Nine ~counting~

Kellan was scared for Aelia. She had been asleep for hours now, lying in the patch of moss that Kellan had laid her down in. It was a small clearing, with colorful plants and glittering foliage. Kellan's first thought was that he'd stepped into "Sweetland," one of the games his mother often pulled out on Friday nights and forced him, and sometimes his father, to play. It was a game that he had grown out of years ago, but he played it with fake enthusiasm for his mother's sake. It made her smile, and that was what mattered. Sweetland was a magical place that stunned any viewer with its beauty, but there were traps and wild animals lurking on different board spaces that might detain or set your character back from reaching the end. That was how Kellan felt here.

He didn't trust the seemingly innocent environment, all color and sunshine. It was too surreal for his liking. Anything could happen. And when Aelia was laying passed out on the ground, that was a scary thought.

A sigh breached his thoughts, tainted with worry from the past few days. He reviewed the to-do list in his head at a painstakingly slow rate in an effort to subdue his racing heart. Every action he had to take was numbered. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... The counting was useless in actually completing any of the actions that were listed, but it helped Kellan. He saw Bongo waddling toward him and dropped-or tumbled, more likely- out of the low tree branch he had clumsily hauled himself onto.

Item Number One: Find food.

Bongo had promised a paradise, and from Kellan's perspective, a paradise included good food, and lots of it. After getting over the initial shock of "Wow, we're in another world," the group had taken on different responsibilities in order to take care of their needs. Kellan had assigned Bongo the task of finding edibles by a complicated game of charades, and fortunately, the fingered-penguin had seemed to understand. He had wandered off into the trees until Kellan had lost sight of him behind bushes and vines, and just now was returning.

"Hi." Kellan walked over to meet Bongo, and knelt down to the creature's height. "Did you find anything?"

In response, Bongo spread wide his flippers and revealed the bounty of the land. Exactly five berries, two fruits that somewhat resembled peaches(one of which having a suspiciously beak-sized hole in it), and one pebble spilled from Bongo's flippers. Kellan counted, disappointment and worry clawing at his insides, as well as hunger. In his haste to check on Aelia that morning, he had only grabbed a banana and waltzed out the door, eating half of it and letting the rest go to waste. If only he had that other half now.

"Thanks for trying." Kellan picked up the pebble and turned it around in his fingers. "I don't think we can eat this, Bongo."

Bongo shrugged. For not being able to understand him, the creature was extremely perceptive.

Kellan dropped the pebble and looked at the pitiful pile of food in dismay. "Guess we'll be rationing, then. Thanks, buddy. We'll look again tomorrow." He waved "bye" to Bongo to dismiss him.

The penguin inclined his head and waddled away. Kellan wasn't quite sure where the little creature was going, but hopefully he'd be back soon. Bongo was their only nature guide, and they couldn't afford to lose him if they wanted to survive long in this new world. Communicating with their guide was enough of a struggle. Thankfully, Kellan's top priority of finding clean water happened to be Bongo's as well, and the creature had led them straight to the clearing where they were now, right next to a playfully babbling spring. Bongo had immediately taken a long gulp from it, and as far as Kellan knew, the creature hadn't contracted some awful disease from it yet, so he deemed it safe enough to drink from and had been sipping from it all afternoon. However, Bongo was another species and so technically his digestive system might be able to handle some disease in the water that humans could not, so Kellan kept expecting to be wracked with convulsions and start retching any time now. It was his anxiety at its finest.